Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Online Learning Resources in the Development of Learning Environments at the Intersection of Formal and Informal Learning: The Student as Autonomous Designer

Learning resources that are used in the education of university students are often available online. The nature of new technologies causes an interweaving of formal and informal learning, with the result that a more active role is expected from students with regard to the use of ICT for their learning. The variety of online learning resources (learning content and learning tools) facilitates informed use and enables students to create the learning environment that is most appropriate for their personal learning needs and preferences. In contemporary society, the creation of an inclusive learning environment supported by ICT is pervasive. The model of Universal Design for Learning is becoming increasingly significant in responding to the need for inclusive learning environments. In this article, we categorize different online learning activities into the principles of Universal Design for Learning. This study examines ICT use among university students (N = 138), comparing student teachers with students in other study programs. The findings indicate that among all students, activities with lower demands for engagement are most common. Some differences were observed between student teachers and students from other programs. Student teachers were more likely than their peers toperform certain activities aimed at meeting diverse learner needs, but the percentage of students performing more advanced activities was higher for students in other study programs than for student teachers. The categorization of activities revealed that student teachers are less likely to undertake activities that involve interaction with others. Among the sampleof student teachers, we found that personal innovativeness is correlated with diversity of activities in only one category. The results show that student teachers should be encouraged to perform more advanced activities, especially activities involving interaction with others, collaborative learning and use of ICT to plan and organize their own learning processes.
Drivers of Change in Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management Education: An Australian Perspective

In an increasingly pressured academic environment, too little time is given to understanding the factors that shape tourism, hospitality, and event management education curricula. In responding to this rapidly changing environment there is a risk that one can become reactive rather than strategic and forward thinking. This article identifies major political, philosophical, and managerial influences on the Australian curriculum space. The implications of these influences are discussed with reference to developments in other parts of the world. The conclusion highlights a number of changes and challenges that will need to be contemplated by tourism, hospitality, and event management education management educators but also identifies a clear role for cross-institutional planning and leadership.
Encoding Predictive Reward Value in Human Amygdala and Orbitofrontal Cortex

Adaptive behavior is optimized in organisms that maintain flexible representations of the value of sensory-predictive cues. To identify central representations of predictive reward value in humans, we used reinforcer devaluation while measuring neural activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging. We presented two arbitrary visual stimuli, both before and after olfactory devaluation, in a paradigm of appetitive conditioning. In amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, responses evoked by a predictive target stimulus were decreased after devaluation, whereas responses to the nondevalued stimulus were maintained. Thus, differential activity in amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex encodes the current value of reward representations accessible to predictive cues.
Impulsiveness mediates the association between GABRA2 SNPs and lifetime alcohol problems

Genetic variants in GABRA2 have previously been shown to be associated with alcohol measures, electroencephalography (EEG) β waves and impulsiveness‐related traits. Impulsiveness is a behavioral risk factor for alcohol and other substance abuse. Here, we tested association between 11 variants in GABRA2 with NEO‐impulsiveness and problem drinking. Our sample of 295 unrelated adult subjects was from a community of families with at least one male with DSM‐IV alcohol use diagnosis, and from a socioeconomically comparable control group. Ten GABRA2 SNPs (single‐nucleotide polymorphisms) were associated with the NEO‐impulsiveness (P < 0.03). The alleles associated with higher impulsiveness correspond to the minor alleles identified in previous alcohol dependence studies. All ten SNPs are in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with each other and represent one effect on impulsiveness. Four SNPs and the corresponding haplotype from intron 3 to intron 4 were also associated with Lifetime Alcohol Problems Score (LAPS, P < 0.03) (not corrected for multiple testing). Impulsiveness partially mediates (22.6% average) this relation between GABRA2 and LAPS. Our results suggest that GABRA2 variation in the region between introns 3 and 4 is associated with impulsiveness and this effect partially influences the development of alcohol problems, but a direct effect of GABRA2 on problem drinking remains. A potential functional SNP rs279827, located next to a splice site, is located in the most significant region for both impulsiveness and LAPS. The high degree of LD among nine of these SNPs and the conditional analyses we have performed suggest that all variants represent one signal.
Colonoscopic perforation: A report from World Gastroenterology Organization endoscopy training center in Thailand.

AIM To determine the incidence of colonoscopic perforation (CP), and evaluate clinical findings, management and outcomes of patients with CP from the World Gastroenterology Organization (WGO) Endoscopy Training Center in Thailand. METHODS All colonoscopies and sigmoidoscopies performed between 1999 and 2007 in the Endoscopic unit, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok were reviewed. Incidence of CP, patients' characteristics, endoscopic information, intra-operative findings, management and outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS A total of 17357 endoscopic procedures of the colon (13699 colonoscopies and 3658 flexible sigmoidoscopies) were performed in Siriraj hospital over a 9-year period. Fifteen patients (0.09%) had CP: 14 from colonoscopy and 1 from sigmoidoscopy. The most common site of perforation was in the sigmoid colon (80%), followed by the transverse colon (13%). Perforations were caused by direct trauma from either the shaft or the tip of the endoscope (n = 12, 80%) and endoscopic polypectomy (n = 3, 20%). All patients with CP underwent surgical management: primary repair (27%) and bowel resection (73%). The mortality rate was 13% and postoperative complication rate was 53%. CONCLUSION CP is a rare but serious complication following colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy, with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Incidence of CP was 0.09%. Surgery is still the mainstay of CP management.
Norm-Controllability of Nonlinear Systems

In this paper, we introduce and study the notion of norm-controllability for nonlinear systems. This property captures the responsiveness of a system with respect to applied inputs, which is quantified via the norm of an output. As a main contribution, we obtain several Lyapunov-like sufficient conditions for norm-controllability, some of which are based on higher-order derivatives of a Lyapunov-like function. Various aspects of the proposed concept and the sufficient conditions are illustrated by several examples, including a chemical reactor application. Furthermore, for the special case of linear systems, we establish connections between norm-controllability and standard controllability.
Personalized document clustering with dual supervision

The potential for semi-supervised techniques to produce personalized clusters has not been explored. This is due to the fact that semi-supervised clustering algorithms used to be evaluated using oracles based on underlying class labels. Although using oracles allows clustering algorithms to be evaluated quickly and without labor intensive labeling, it has the key disadvantage that oracles always give the same answer for an assignment of a document or a feature. However, different human users might give different assignments of the same document and/or feature because of different but equally valid points of view. In this paper, we conduct a user study in which we ask participants (users) to group the same document collection into clusters according to their own understanding, which are then used to evaluate semi-supervised clustering algorithms for user personalization. Through our user study, we observe that different users have their own personalized organizations of the same collection and a user's organization changes over time. Therefore, we propose that document clustering algorithms should be able to incorporate user input and produce personalized clusters based on the user input. We also confirm that semi-supervised algorithms with noisy user input can still produce better organizations matching user's expectation (personalization) than traditional unsupervised ones. Finally, we demonstrate that labeling keywords for clusters at the same time as labeling documents can improve clustering performance further compared to labeling only documents with respect to user personalization.
Envisioning Dependency: Changing Media Depictions of Welfare in the 20th Century

Welfare dependency, or the idea that welfare makes the poor “dependent” on the government and incapable of providing for themselves, has dominated discussions about welfare for decades. Our research documents how media depictions of dependency have changed over time. We examine representations of welfare in popular culture by analyzing randomly sampled magazine articles over eight periods from 1929 through 1996. Despite the dominance of dependency depictions, we find that media discourse about welfare also provides significant support for welfare. We analyze how different factors, including racialized and gendered images of welfare recipients, relate to depictions of dependency. We find that concerns about men’s dependency have decreased over the twentieth century, while concerns about women’s dependency have increased exponentially, in part due to increases in unmarried and teen motherhood. In addition, we find that media representations of recipients as African American minorities are associated with the use of dependency rhetoric. Politicians and pundits have branded welfare recipients as irresponsible and unwilling to engage in work unless forced by welfare reform. In the United States, welfare reform has replaced the entitlement program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), emphasizing time limits and work requirements
Adeno-associated viral vector-mediated gene transfer results in long-term enzymatic and functional correction in multiple organs of Fabry mice

Fabry disease is a lysosomal storage disorder caused by a deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme α-galactosidase A (α-gal A). This enzyme deficiency leads to impaired catabolism of α-galactosyl-terminal lipids such as globotriaosylceramide (Gb3). Patients develop painful neuropathy and vascular occlusions that progressively lead to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and renal dysfunction and early death. Although enzyme replacement therapy and bone marrow transplantation have shown promise in the murine analog of Fabry disease, gene therapy holds a strong potential for treating this disease in humans. Delivery of the normal α-gal A gene (cDNA) into a depot organ such as liver may be sufficient to elicit corrective circulating levels of the deficient enzyme. To investigate this possibility, a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector encoding human α-gal A (rAAV-AGA) was constructed and injected into the hepatic portal vein of Fabry mice. Two weeks postinjection, α-gal A activity in the livers of rAAV-AGA-injected Fabry mice was 20–35% of that of the normal mice. The transduced animals continued to show higher α-gal A levels in liver and other tissues compared with the untouched Fabry controls as long as 6 months after treatment. In parallel to the elevated enzyme levels, we see significant reductions in Gb3 levels to near normal at 2 and 5 weeks posttreatment. The lower Gb3 levels continued in liver, spleen, and heart, up to 25 weeks with no significant immune response to the virus or α-gal A. Also, no signs of liver toxicity occurred after the rAAV-AGA administration. These findings suggest that an AAV-mediated gene transfer may be useful for the treatment of Fabry disease and possibly other metabolic disorders.
Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring in Individuals with HIV: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Introduction Abnormal diurnal blood pressure (BP) rhythms may contribute to the high cardiovascular disease risk in HIV-positive (HIV+) individuals. To synthesize the current literature on ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) in HIV+ individuals, a systematic literature review and meta-analysis were performed. Methods Medical databases were searched through November 11, 2015 for studies that reported ABPM results in HIV+ individuals. Data were extracted by 2 reviewers and pooled differences between HIV+ and HIV-negative (HIV-) individuals in clinic BP and ABPM measures were calculated using random-effects inverse variance weighted models. Results Of 597 abstracts reviewed, 8 studies with HIV+ cohorts met the inclusion criteria. The 420 HIV+ and 714 HIV- individuals in 7 studies with HIV- comparison groups were pooled for analyses. The pooled absolute nocturnal systolic and diastolic BP declines were 3.16% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.13%, 5.20%) and 2.92% (95% CI: 1.64%, 4.19%) less, respectively, in HIV+ versus HIV- individuals. The pooled odds ratio for non-dipping systolic BP (nocturnal systolic BP decline <10%) in HIV+ versus HIV- individuals was 2.72 (95% CI: 1.92, 3.85). Differences in mean clinic, 24-hour, daytime, or nighttime BP were not statistically significant. I2 and heterogeneity chi-squared statistics indicated the presence of high heterogeneity for all outcomes except percent DBP dipping and non-dipping SBP pattern. Conclusions An abnormal diurnal BP pattern may be more common among HIV+ versus HIV- individuals. However, results were heterogeneous for most BP measures, suggesting more research in this area is needed.
Driving life expectancy of persons aged 70 years and older in the United States.

OBJECTIVES We estimated total life expectancy and driving life expectancy of US drivers aged 70 years and older. METHODS Life table methods were applied to 4699 elderly persons who were driving in 1993 and reassessed in a 1995 survey. RESULTS Drivers aged 70 to 74 years had a driving life expectancy of approximately 11 years. A higher risk of mortality among men as a cause of driving cessation offset a higher risk of driving cessation not related to mortality among women that resulted in similar driving life expectancies. CONCLUSIONS Nationwide, many elderly drivers quit driving each year and must seek alternative sources of transportation. Because of differences in life expectancy, women require more years of support for transportation, on average, than men after age 70.
Influence of Oxygen Concentration on the Performance of Ultra-Thin RF Magnetron Sputter Deposited Indium Tin Oxide Films as a Top Electrode for Photovoltaic Devices

The opportunity for substantial efficiency enhancements of thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar photovoltaic (PV) cells using plasmonic absorbers requires ultra-thin transparent conducting oxide top electrodes with low resistivity and high transmittances in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Fabricating ultra-thin indium tin oxide (ITO) films (sub-50 nm) using conventional methods has presented a number of challenges; however, a novel method involving chemical shaving of thicker (greater than 80 nm) RF sputter deposited high-quality ITO films has been demonstrated. This study investigates the effect of oxygen concentration on the etch rates of RF sputter deposited ITO films to provide a detailed understanding of the interaction of all critical experimental parameters to help create even thinner layers to allow for more finely tune plasmonic resonances. ITO films were deposited on silicon substrates with a 98-nm, thermally grown oxide using RF magnetron sputtering with oxygen concentrations of 0, 0.4 and 1.0 sccm and annealed at 300 °C air ambient. Then the films were etched using a combination of water and hydrochloric and nitric acids for 1, 3, 5 and 8 min at room temperature. In-between each etching process cycle, the films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, 4-point probe (electrical conductivity), and variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry. All the films were polycrystalline in nature and highly oriented along the (222) reflection. Ultra-thin ITO films with record low resistivity values (as low as 5.83 × 10−4 Ω·cm) were obtained and high optical transparency is exhibited in the 300–1000 nm wavelength region for all the ITO films. The etch rate, preferred crystal lattice growth plane, d-spacing and lattice distortion were also observed to be highly dependent on the nature of growth environment for RF sputter deposited ITO films. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the ITO films are discussed with respect to the oxygen ambient nature and etching time in detail to provide guidance for plasmonic enhanced a-Si:H solar PV cell fabrication.
Surface Extraction from Multi-Material Components for Metrology using Dual Energy CT

This paper describes a novel method for creating surface models of multi-material components using dual energy computed tomography (DECT). The application scenario is metrology and dimensional measurement in industrial high resolution 3D X-ray computed tomography (3DCT). Based on the dual source / dual exposure technology this method employs 3DCT scans of a high precision micro-focus and a high energy macro-focus X-ray source. The presented work makes use of the advantages of dual X-ray exposure technology in order to facilitate dimensional measurements of multi-material components with high density material within low density material. We propose a workflow which uses image fusion and local surface extraction techniques: a prefiltering step reduces noise inherent in the data. For image fusion the datasets have to be registered. In the fusion step the benefits of both scans are combined. The structure of the specimen is taken from the low precision, blurry, high energy dataset while the sharp edges are adopted and fused into the resulting image from the high precision, crisp, low energy dataset. In the final step a reliable surface model is extracted from the fused dataset using a local adaptive technique. The major contribution of this paper is the development of a specific workflow for dimensional measurements of multi-material industrial components, which takes two X-ray CT datasets with complementary strengths and weaknesses into account. The performance of the workflow is discussed using a test specimen as well as two real world industrial parts. As result, a significant improvement in overall measurement precision, surface geometry and mean deviation to reference measurement compared to single exposure scans was facilitated.
Ontogeny of lift and drag production in ground birds

SUMMARY The juvenile period is often a crucial interval for selective pressure on locomotor ability. Although flight is central to avian biology, little is known about factors that limit flight performance during development. To improve understanding of flight ontogeny, we used a propeller (revolving wing) model to test how wing shape and feather structure influence aerodynamic performance during development in the precocial chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar, 4 to >100 days post hatching). We spun wings in mid-downstroke posture and measured lift (L) and drag (D) using a force plate upon which the propeller assembly was mounted. Our findings demonstrate a clear relationship between feather morphology and aerodynamic performance. Independent of size and velocity, older wings with stiffer and more asymmetrical feathers, high numbers of barbicels and a high degree of overlap between barbules generate greater L and L:D ratios than younger wings with flexible, relatively symmetrical and less cohesive feathers. The gradual transition from immature feathers and drag-based performance to more mature feathers and lift-based performance appears to coincide with ontogenetic transitions in locomotor capacity. Younger birds engage in behaviors that require little aerodynamic force and that allow D to contribute to weight support, whereas older birds may expand their behavioral repertoire by flapping with higher tip velocities and generating greater L. Incipient wings are, therefore, uniquely but immediately functional and provide flight-incapable juveniles with access to three-dimensional environments and refugia. Such access may have conferred selective advantages to theropods with protowings during the evolution of avian flight.
Noticing and Learning: Relationship Patterns

The goal of this study was to empirically investigate the noticeability of three corrective feedback (CF) techniques (recasts, prompts, and a mixture of the two) and to determine whether such noticing predicts second language (L2) development. Four groups of high-beginner college level francophone ESL learners (n = 99) and their teachers participated. Each teacher was assigned to a treatment condition that fit his CF style, and each provided feedback in response to errors with past tense and questions in the past. While the noticing of CF was assessed through immediate recall, learning was measured with picture description and spot-the-differences tasks. Inferential and qualitative analyses of noticing and learning revealed varied conclusions. Statistically, a minimal relationship between noticing and past tense scores was found. However, qualitatively, noticing appeared to predict gains on both targets for some learners, but did not prove to be a universal prerequisite for learning.
Effects of interferon beta-1b on cognitive performance in patients with a first event suggestive of multiple sclerosis

Background: Cognitive dysfunction occurs at the earliest stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), including the stage of clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Methods: We evaluated the impact of interferon beta-1b (IFNβ-1b) 250 µg on cognitive performance during the CIS stage in the BENEFITstudy. Cognition was assessed by Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test-3” (PASAT-3”) scores. Results: Improvement in PASAT-3” score from baseline to year two was greater for IFNβ-1b treatment than placebo in patients not reaching clinically definite MS (CDMS) by year two. The treatment effect was maintained at year five and was statistically significant. Conclusions: To conclude, early IFNβ-1b treatment had a sustained positive effect on PASAT-3” score over the 5-year BENEFIT study.