Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Responding to the challenges of student-staff partnership: the reflections of participants at an international summer institute

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the growing scholarly literature about students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education by describing an initiative designed to support partnership and a study investigating international staff and student perspectives. The initiative – an international summer institute – is a four-day, professional development experience that brought together students and staff from seven countries to learn about partnership and develop specific partnership projects. Participants in the institute were invited to contribute to a qualitative study exploring their experiences of students as partners work and their perceptions of the institute’s capacity to support it. Given that much existing research on this topic tends to be celebratory, we focus here on the challenges participants ascribed to student-staff partnership, and on the features of the summer institute they thought particularly useful in helping them to navigate these difficulties. Looking beyond the summer institute, we consider the implications of these findings for those looking to support partnership more broadly.
Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation

There will be winners and losers as climate change alters the habitats of polar organisms. For an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony on Beaufort Island (Beaufort), part of a cluster of colonies in the southern Ross Sea, we report a recent population increase in response to increased nesting habitat as glaciers have receded. Emigration rates of birds banded as chicks on Beaufort to colonies on nearby Ross Island decreased after 2005 as available habitat on Beaufort increased, leading to altered dynamics of the metapopulation. Using aerial photography beginning in 1958 and modern satellite imagery, we measured change in area of available nesting habitat and population size of the Beaufort colony. Population size varied with available habitat, and both increased rapidly since the 1990s. In accord with glacial retreat, summer temperatures at nearby McMurdo Station increased by ∼0.50°C per decade since the mid-1980s. Although the Ross Sea is likely to be the last ocean with an intact ecosystem, the recent retreat of ice fields at Beaufort that resulted in increased breeding habitat exemplifies a process that has been underway in the Ross Sea during the entire Holocene. Furthermore, our results are in line with predictions that major ice shelves and glaciers will retreat rapidly elsewhere in the Antarctic, potentially leading to increased breeding habitat for Adélie penguins. Results further indicated that satellite imagery may be used to estimate large changes in Adélie penguin populations, facilitating our understanding of metapopulation dynamics and environmental factors that influence regional populations.
The Income Determination Process of Public Sector Employees in Israel : Individual , Organizational and Labor Market Effects

The present paper investigates the origins of variations in public sector wages using an interdisciplinary approach drawing from stratification and organizational theory. It is suggested here that organizational antecedents (resources and outputs) and labor market distinctions (periphery, semi-urbanized and urbanized localities) produce variations in individual level earnings controlling for various individual predictors. The results show that local labor markets affect wages in two complementary ways. First, by translating organizational level characteristics into differential returns to human capital characteristics according to the size of locality. Second, by applying institutionalized forms of discrimination based on ethnic considerations, into lower levels of organizational level resources which further, albeit, indirectly, produce variations in wages. The results enable the rejection of previous assumptions in regard to homogeneous determination of wages in public sector employment, based on universal criteria of attainments. They rather point to the existence of intra-sector variations along a geographic/ethnic effect and a general/gender effect cross-cutting the ethnic effect. These result in a gender and ethnic effect on individual wages. The gender effect is highest and prominent to both the Jewish and Arab localities whereas the ethnic effect is lowest and restricted to the semi-urbanized areas.
Defective tumor necrosis factor release from Crohn's disease macrophages in response to toll-like receptor activation: Relationship to phenotype and genome-wide association susceptibility loci

Background: Recent work provides evidence of a failure of acute inflammation in Crohn's disease (CD), and suggests that the primary defect operates at the level of the macrophage and cytokine release. Here we extend the characterization of the innate immune defect in CD by investigating the macrophage response to Toll‐like receptor (TLR) agonists and assess potential links between genome‐wide association study (GWAS) susceptibility loci, disease phenotype, and therapeutic regimens on tumor necrosis factor &agr; (TNF) release. Methods: Peripheral blood‐derived macrophages were cultured from control subjects and patients with CD, stimulated with TLR ligands, and the release of TNF measured. Genomic DNA was purified from blood and genotyped for 34 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified as being associated with CD by GWAS. Results: All stimuli resulted in a reduction (32%–48%) in TNF release from macrophages derived from CD patients (n = 28–101) compared to those from healthy control (HC) subjects. All phenotypes demonstrated impaired TNF release, with the greatest defect in patients with colonic disease. There was no detectable relationship between the level of TNF released and the presence of GWAS susceptibility loci in CD patients. Reduced TNF levels were not influenced by age, gender, or use of aminosalicylate (5‐ASA) medication. Conclusions: This study supports the hypothesis of defective proinflammatory cytokine secretion and an innate immunodeficiency in CD. Abnormal TNF secretion is evident downstream of multiple TLRs, affects all disease phenotypes, and is unrelated to 34 polymorphisms associated with CD by GWAS. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2012;)
FPGA implementation of camera tamper detection in real-time

Video surveillance systems are becoming very common nowadays. Cameras installed in many places are exposed to sabotage or tampering. This can be done by covering the camera lens, changing the focus of the camera lens or changing the camera position to prevent proper registration of the surveilled area. This paper describes a hardware implementation of a system that can detect these kind of events. The algorithm is based on background modelling, histograms comparison, edges comparison and analysis of the image's average brightness. In was described in a hardware description language in a pipeline manner and implemented in an FPGA device. Real-time processing of a video stream with a resolution of 640×480@60 frames per second was achieved. Tests performed on several sequences demonstrated the usefulness of the presented solution.
The effects of fidelity on navigation in virtual environments

Virtual environments (VEs) offer huge potential for a wide range of applications including the transfer of spatial knowledge from virtual spaces to real world places; beneficial in situations where it would be impractical, too expensive or dangerous, to acquire that knowledge from the real environment. Research has shown that people can acquire near perfect spatial knowledge about real world environments from threedimensional (3D) VEs. However, the rate of learning is substantially slower, and the information less accurate, than that acquired from the real world. It is often assumed that poor navigational ability in VEs is due to the reduced fidelity of the VE system, fidelity is defined as how closely the various components of the VE system resemble those of the real world. This thesis attempts to better understand the effects of, and the relationship between, three aspects of VE fidelity, field of view, visual scene characteristics and the movement interface. Four experimental studies showed that a wide FOV, a high fidelity visual scene, and a simple movement interface, modestly increased participants' ability to navigate effciently in a desktop VE. However, a study that required participants to physically walk around a VE, displayed via a tracked head mounted display (HMD), showed dramatic performance benefits over the use of stationary desktop displays, and a rotationally tracked HMD that required abstract input for translational movement. Proprioceptive and vestibular feedback allowed participants to navigate a VE as efficiently as they did in a real world study. The potential of VEs for spatial applications, such as learning real world spaces, will not be realised without understanding the effects of the VE system on participants' performance and behaviour. The studies reported in this thesis not only provide much needed empirical results that could be of great benefit to VE application designers, but will also be of interest to researchers investigating human navigation.
Matching the electroweak penguins Q7,Q8 and spectral correlators

Exact analytical expressions for the ΔS = 1 coupling Im GE in terms of observable spectral functions are given. This coupling determines the size of the ΔI = 3/2 contribution to e'. We show analytically how the scheme-dependence and scale dependences vanish to all orders in 1/Nc and NLO in αS explicitly both for Q7 and Q8. Numerical results are derived for both Q7 and Q8 from the τ-data and known results on the scalar spectral functions. In particular we study the effect of all higher dimension operators. The coefficients of the leading operators in the OPE of the needed correlators are derived to NLO in αS.
Astrocyte matricellular proteins that control excitatory synaptogenesis are regulated by inflammatory cytokines and correlate with paralysis severity during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

The matricellular proteins, secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) and SPARC-like 1 (SPARCL1), are produced by astrocytes and control excitatory synaptogenesis in the central nervous system. While SPARCL1 directly promotes excitatory synapse formation in vitro and in the developing nervous system in vivo, SPARC specifically antagonizes the synaptogenic actions of SPARCL1. We hypothesized these proteins also help maintain existing excitatory synapses in adult hosts, and that local inflammation in the spinal cord alters their production in a way that dynamically modulates motor synapses and impacts the severity of paralysis during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice. Using a spontaneously remitting EAE model, paralysis severity correlated inversely with both expression of synaptic proteins and the number of synapses in direct contact with the perikarya of motor neurons in spinal gray matter. In both remitting and non-remitting EAE models, paralysis severity also correlated inversely with sparcl1:sparc transcript and SPARCL1:SPARC protein ratios directly in lumbar spinal cord tissue. In vitro, astrocyte production of both SPARCL1 and SPARC was regulated by T cell-derived cytokines, causing dynamic modulation of the SPARCL1:SPARC expression ratio. Taken together, these data support a model whereby proinflammatory cytokines inhibit SPARCL1 and/or augment SPARC expression by astrocytes in spinal gray matter that, in turn, cause either transient or sustained synaptic retraction from lumbar spinal motor neurons thereby regulating hind limb paralysis during EAE. Ongoing studies seek ways to alter this SPARCL1:SPARC expression ratio in favor of synapse reformation/maintenance and thus help to modulate neurologic deficits during times of inflammation. This could identify new astrocyte-targeted therapies for diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Inhibition of Quorum Sensing-Controlled Virulence Factors and Biofilm Formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Culture Extract from Novel Bacterial Species of Paenibacillus Using a Rat Model of Chronic Lung Infection

Quorum sensing (QS) is a key regulator of virulence factors and biofilm formation in Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Microorganisms that inhabit soil are of strategic importance in the discovery of compounds with anti-QS properties. The objective of the study was to test the culture extract of a taxonomically novel species of Paenibacillus strain 139SI for its inhibitory effects on the QS-controlled virulence factors and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa both in vitro and in vivo. The Paenibacillus sp. culture extract was used to test its anti-QS effects on the LasA protease, LasB elastase, pyoverdin production, and biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa as well as evaluate its therapeutic effects on lung bacteriology, pathology, hematological profile, and serum antibody responses of experimental animals in a rat model of chronic lung infection. Results showed significant decrease in the activities of QS-controlled LasA protease, LasB elastase pyoverdin, and biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa caused by the culture extract. Moreover, the extract significantly prolonged the survival times of rats and facilitated the clearance of biofilm infections from infected lungs. In conclusion, the antiquorum sensing effects of culture extract from a novel species of Paenibacillus provide new insights to combat biofilm-associated infections.
The efficacy of Fast ForWord Language intervention in school-age children with language impairment: a randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the language and auditory processing outcomes of children assigned to receive the Fast ForWord Language intervention (FFW-L) with the outcomes of children assigned to nonspecific or specific language intervention comparison treatments that did not contain modified speech. METHOD Two hundred sixteen children between the ages of 6 and 9 years with language impairments were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: (a) Fast ForWord Language (FFW-L), (b) academic enrichment (AE), (c) computer-assisted language intervention (CALI), or (d) individualized language intervention (ILI) provided by a speech-language pathologist. All children received 1 hr and 40 min of treatment, 5 days per week, for 6 weeks. Language and auditory processing measures were administered to the children by blinded examiners before treatment, immediately after treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 6 months after treatment. RESULTS The children in all 4 conditions improved significantly on a global language test and a test of backward masking. Children with poor backward masking scores who were randomized to the FFW-L condition did not present greater improvement on the language measures than children with poor backward masking scores who were randomized to the other 3 conditions. Effect sizes, analyses of standard error of measurement, and normalization percentages supported the clinical significance of the improvements on the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (E. Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999). There was a treatment effect for the Blending Words subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (R. K. Wagner, J. K. Torgesen, & C. A. Rashotte, 1999). Participants in the FFW-L and CALI conditions earned higher phonological awareness scores than children in the ILI and AE conditions at the 6-month follow-up testing. CONCLUSION Fast ForWord Language, the intervention that provided modified speech to address a hypothesized underlying auditory processing deficit, was not more effective at improving general language skills or temporal processing skills than a nonspecific comparison treatment (AE) or specific language intervention comparison treatments (CALI and ILI) that did not contain modified speech stimuli. These findings call into question the temporal processing hypothesis of language impairment and the hypothesized benefits of using acoustically modified speech to improve language skills. The finding that children in the 3 treatment conditions and the active comparison condition made clinically relevant gains on measures of language and temporal auditory processing informs our understanding of the variety of intervention activities that can facilitate development.
SPEAR far UV spectral imaging of highly ionized emission from the North Galactic Pole region

Aims. We present far ultraviolet (FUV: 912–1750 A) spectral imaging observations recorded with the SPEAR satellite of the interstellar OVI (1032 A), CIV (1550 A), SiIV (1394 A), SiII* (1533 A) and AlII (1671 A) emission lines originating in a 60 ◦ × 30 ◦ rectangular region lying close to the North Galactic Pole. These data represent the first large area, moderate spatial resolution maps of the distribution of UV spectral-line emission originating the both the highly ionized medium (HIM) and the warm ionized medium (WIM) recorded at high galactic latitudes. Methods. By assessing and removing a local continuum level that underlies these emission line spectra, we have obtained interstellar emission intensity maps for the aforementioned lines constructed in 8 ◦ × 8 ◦ spatial bins on the sky. Results. Our maps of OVI, CIV, SiIV and SiII* line emission show the highest intensity levels being spatially coincident with similarly high levels of soft X-ray emission originating in the edge of the Northern Polar Spur feature. However, the distribution of the low ionization AlII emission does not show this spatial correlation, and suggests that warm-neutral and/or partially ionized gas with a temperature <20 000 K may be quite pervasive at high galactic latitudes. The variation of the emission line intensity ratios as a function of sky position is contrasted with theoretical predictions concerning the physical state of interstellar gas in the galactic halo. The observed line ratios alone unfortunately do not provide us with a clear diagnostic tool to distinguish between the various physical production mechanisms responsible for both high and low ion states. However, our results do favor the hybrid model of Shull & Slavin (1994, ApJ, 427, 784) which incorporates the combined effects of turbulent mixing layers and isobarically cooling supernova remnant gas. For this highly ionized gas, our results are best explained assuming that the observed OVI halo emission is somewhat clumpy in nature, consistent with its production at interfaces between warm (T = 10 3 −10 4 K) and hotter (T = 10 6 K) soft X-ray emitting gas. CIV emission at these interfaces occurs in the intermediate temperature (T = 10 5 K) gas, which seems always present whenever OVI is strongly detected. Alternately, the data are also consistent with CIV emission being ubiquitous throughout the halo with a fairly constant level of emission line intensity (of ∼4000 LU), and our observations mostly reflect the superposition of spatially separate OVI emission originating at the cloud interfaces of random clumps of high latitude gas.
Quasispecies can exist under neutral drift at finite population sizes

We investigate the evolutionary dynamics of a finite population of RNA sequences adapting to a neutral fitness landscape. Despite the lack of differential fitness between viable sequences, we observe typical properties of adaptive evolution, such as increase of mean fitness over time and punctuated equilibrium transitions. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding evolution at high mutation rates, and extend the relevance of the quasispecies concept to finite populations and time scales. Our results imply that the quasispecies concept and neutral drift are not complementary concepts, and that the relative importance of each is determined by a combination of population size and mutation rate.
LogUCB: an explore-exploit algorithm for comments recommendation

The highly dynamic nature of online commenting environments makes accurate ratings prediction for new comments challenging. In such a setting, in addition to exploiting comments with high predicted ratings, it is also critical to explore comments with high uncertainty in the predictions. In this paper, we propose a novel upper confidence bound (UCB) algorithm called LOGUCB that balances exploration with exploitation when the average rating of a comment is modeled using logistic regression on its features. At the core of our LOGUCB algorithm lies a novel variance approximation technique for the Bayesian logistic regression model that is used to compute the UCB value for each comment. In experiments with a real-life comments dataset from Yahoo! News, we show that LOGUCB with bag-of-words and topic features outperforms state-of-the-art explore-exploit algorithms.
PeerShark: Detecting Peer-to-Peer Botnets by Tracking Conversations

The decentralized nature of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) botnets makes them difficult to detect. Their distributed nature also exhibits resilience against take-down attempts. Moreover, smarter bots are stealthy in their communication patterns, and elude the standard discovery techniques which look for anomalous network or communication behavior. In this paper, we propose PeerShark, a novel methodology to detect P2P botnet traffic and differentiate it from benign P2P traffic in a network. Instead of the traditional 5-tuple 'flow-based' detection approach, we use a 2-tuple 'conversation-based' approach which is port-oblivious, protocol-oblivious and does not require Deep Packet Inspection. PeerShark could also classify different P2P applications with an accuracy of more than 95%.
Nanorobotic transfer and characterization of graphene flakes

This paper presents a nanorobotic approach facilitating the transfer and characterization of individual graphene flakes that are grown by different fabrication techniques. The approach makes use of a nanorobotic atomic force microscope system that is integrated into a high resolution scanning electron microscope and focused ion beam device. This combination is used to perform both, the nanorobotic transfer and the mechanical characterization of the graphene flake allowing to systematically analyze different sample areas and to optimize the fabrication processes. Furthermore, the nanorobotic system enables the reliable pick-and-place handling and processing of graphene flakes to realize more comprehensive analysis steps or even the prototyping of graphene-based devices.
Redescription of Haemogregarina garnhami (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina) from the blood of Psammophis schokari (Serpentes: Colubridae) as Hepatozoon garnhami n. comb. based on molecular, morphometric and morphologic characters

Hepatozoon garnhami n. comb. was redescribed from Schokari sand snakes (Psammophis schokari) collected from Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia. Gametocytes were found in the peripheral blood of 2 of 15 snakes examined. Based on the similar morphological and morphometric characteristics, the same host and a similar host habitat environment, it can be concluded for the first time that the present species is conspecific with Haemogregarina garnhami previously reported from Psammophis shokariaegyptius. To further characterize this parasite, the partial 18S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced. The sequence analysis also showed that Haemogregarina garnhami should be reassigned into the genus Hepatozoon as Hepatozoon garnhami which has 99.5% (859/863 bp) sequence similarity to Hepatozoon ayorgbor, infecting the erythrocytes of Python regius in Ghana. Phylogenetic analysis showed that H. garnhami formed a mixed clade with Hepatozoon spp. from geckos, snakes and rodents and ophidian Hepatozoon spp. did not form a separated phylogenetic unit. Also, Psammophis schokari-infecting Hepatozoon contained several different genetic lineages. To our knowledge, the present work extends the geographic distribution of H. garnhami and is the first report of Hepatozoon infection in snakes from Saudi Arabia.