Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What's School Got to Do with It? Cautionary Tales about Correlations between Student Computer Use and Academic Achievement.

This paper explores questions about whether there is a positive or negative relationship between student computer use and achievement, and whether results vary by the amount of school or home computer use. We find that generally there is an inverse relationship between in-school computer use and student achievement. However, there is a positive overall relationship between student achievement and computer proficiency, i.e., reported capability with a variety of software. Importantly, the student software capability is related to use both at school and at home. Because of the differing interpretations that are possible and the importance of the topic, caution is urged. Researchers and policy makers must think carefully when interpreting correlational results between achievement and student technology use measures, regardless of whether the direction of the proposed relationship is positive or negative. PURPOSE In today’s climate of educational accountability, considerable attention is focused on students’ academic achievement and the school environment necessary to develop and support achievement. An up-to-date technological infrastructure is generally considered a key part of an effective school environment. Special attention has been focused on the “digital divide” separating disadvantaged urban and rural students from more advantaged suburban students. Government funding has been focused on urban and rural schools in order to infuse technology in these schools and provide disadvantaged students with technological opportunities equal to those found in suburban schools. Such an approach assumes that it is computer use at school that is associated with academic achievement. Our analyses have led us to question, however, whether this is indeed the case. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between student computer use at school, computer use at home, and academic achievement. A few studies have indicated that there are achievement advantages for computer using students, particularly those who have access to home computing opportunities. For example, Green (1998) reported greater achievement gains in language arts, reading and mathematics among 8 th and 11 th grade students who were more competent and frequent computer users. Most studies, however, have not distinguished the separate relationship home and school computer use may have with academic achievement. An exception is Weglinsky (1998), who found that home computer use was positively related to academic achievement, while an emphasis on in-school use was negatively related to academic achievement. This last finding, in conjunction with other research (Becker & Ravitz, 1998; Becker, Ravitz & Wong, 1999) suggests that there may be a “pedagogical divide”
Understanding energy with a social embodied learning activity

We provide evidence that a learning activity called Energy Theater engages learners with deep conceptual issues in the learning of energy, including disambiguating matter flow and energy flow and theorizing mechanisms for energy transformation. We conduct detailed analysis to build plausible causal links between specific features of Energy Theater and the conceptual engagement that we observe. Disambiguation of matter and energy appears to be promoted especially by the material structure of the Energy Theater environment, in which energy is represented by participants, while objects are represented by areas demarcated by loops of rope. Theorizing mechanisms of energy transformation is promoted especially by Energy Theater's embodied action, which necessitates modeling the time ordering of energy transformations.
Propranolol for infantile haemangiomas: insights into the molecular mechanisms of action

Infantile haemangiomas (IH) are the most common benign tumours of infancy. Although most IH are innocuous and 85–90% regress spontaneously, some may become life‐ or function‐threatening and require immediate treatment. Previous standard therapeutic options include physical measures (laser surgery, cryosurgery) and systemic corticosteroids, in severe cases also vincristine, α‐interferon or cyclophosphamide, all bearing the risk of serious side‐effects. Oral propranolol is a very recent therapeutic option for complicated IH with impressive efficacy and generally good tolerance. The effects of propranolol on IH were discovered by chance, and very little is known about its mechanisms of action in IH. Here we present a summary of current knowledge of how propranolol interferes with endothelial cells, vascular tone, angiogenesis and apoptosis. Early, intermediate and long‐term effects of propranolol on IH can be attributed to three different pharmacological targets. Early effects (brightening of the haemangioma surface within 1–3 days after start of therapy) are attributable to vasoconstriction due to decreased release of nitric oxide. Intermediate effects are due to the blocking of proangiogenic signals (vascular endothelial growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, matrix metalloproteinase 2/9) and result in growth arrest. Long‐term effects of propranolol are characterized by induction of apoptosis in proliferating endothelial cells, and result in tumour regression.
Structure of a Baculovirus Sulfhydryl Oxidase, a Highly Divergent Member of the Erv Flavoenzyme Family

ABSTRACT Genomes of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) encode enzymes that catalyze the formation of disulfide bonds between cysteine amino acid residues in proteins, a function essential for the proper assembly and propagation of NCLDV virions. Recently, a catalyst of disulfide formation was identified in baculoviruses, a group of large double-stranded DNA viruses considered phylogenetically distinct from NCLDVs. The NCLDV and baculovirus disulfide catalysts are flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-binding sulfhydryl oxidases related to the cellular Erv enzyme family, but the baculovirus enzyme, the product of the Ac92 gene in Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), is highly divergent at the amino acid sequence level. The crystal structure of the Ac92 protein presented here shows a configuration of the active-site cysteine residues and bound cofactor similar to that observed in other Erv sulfhydryl oxidases. However, Ac92 has a complex quaternary structural arrangement not previously seen in cellular or viral enzymes of this family. This novel assembly comprises a dimer of pseudodimers with a striking 40-degree kink in the interface helix between subunits. The diversification of the Erv sulfhydryl oxidase enzymes in large double-stranded DNA viruses exemplifies the extreme degree to which these viruses can push the boundaries of protein family folds.
Technology and Equity in Schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide

This qualitative study compared the availability of, access to, and use of new technologies in a group of low– and high–socioeconomic status (SES) California high schools. Although student-computer ratios in the schools were similar, the social contexts of computer use differed, with low-SES schools affected by uneven human support networks, irregular home access to computers by students, and pressure to raise school test scores while addressing the needs of large numbers of English learners. These differences were expressed within three main patterns of technology access and use, labeled performativity, workability, and complexity, each of which shaped schools’ efforts to deploy new technologies for academic preparation.
Impulsivity as a predictor of treatment outcome in substance use disorders: review and synthesis.

ISSUES Impulsivity is a widely studied personality trait and research construct that has been implicated as a risk factor for substance use, including initiating and continuing use. However, relatively few studies have examined impulsivity as a predictor of treatment outcome. Because impulsivity has been operationalised in many different ways, cross-comparisons of empirical studies have been difficult. APPROACH The PubMed database was searched in September 2013. Reference lists of papers retrieved from this search were also manually scanned for additional resources. Studies were included if they presented data that assessed impulsivity as a predictor of treatment outcomes. KEY FINDINGS The body of literature reviewed in this paper suggests that higher pretreatment impulsivity, regardless of how it is measured, usually is associated with poorer treatment outcomes. Recent data indicate that some psychosocial and pharmacological treatments may directly impact impulsivity and thus represent an interesting avenue for further research. CONCLUSIONS Impulsivity appears to be a key predictor of substance use treatment outcomes and warrants more attention in the improvement of treatment outcomes. Suggestions for future research on the role of impulsivity in substance use treatment are provided.
An Empirical Study of the Relationships among End-User Information Systems Acceptance, Training, and Effectiveness

Abstract:With the advent of powerful microcomputers and software, end-user computing has become an important competitive weapon for organizations. However, little is known about what factors should be considered in designing end-user training programs. This empirical study investigates the factors that are essential for successful end-user training. The study results indicate both the importance of end-user information system (IS) acceptance and the strong relationships among end-user IS acceptance, end-user IS satisfaction, and end-user job satisfaction.
Stable homology of automorphism groups of free groups and functor homology (II)

In the following statement, gr denotes the category of free groups of finite rank, VecQ the category of Q-vector spaces, a : gr→ VecQ the composition of abelianisation and rationalisation (a(G) = Gab ⊗ Q) and Λ the j-th exterior power. As usual, Fr is a free group of rank r; gr-Mod is the category of functors from gr to VecQ. Theorem 1. Let F : gr → VecQ be a polynomial functor of degree d and n, r non-negative integers such that r ≥ 2(n + d) + 3. Then there is a natural isomorphism
Fluoride excess and periostitis in transplant patients receiving long-term voriconazole therapy.

BACKGROUND We describe a heart transplant patient with painful periostitis and exostoses who was receiving long-term therapy with voriconazole, which is a fluoride-containing medication. Elevated plasma and bone fluoride levels were identified. Discontinuation of voriconazole therapy led to improvement in pain and reduced fluoride and alkaline phosphatase levels. METHODS To determine whether voriconazole is a cause of fluoride excess, we measured plasma fluoride levels in 10 adult post-transplant patients who had received voriconazole for at least 6 months and 10 post-transplant patients who did not receive voriconazole. To assess the effect of renal insufficiency on fluoride levels in subjects receiving voriconazole, half were recruited on the basis of a serum creatinine level of ≥1.4 mg/dL on their most recent measurement, whereas the other 5 subjects receiving voriconazole had serum creatinine levels <1.4 mg/dL. All control subjects had serum creatinine levels of ≥1.4 mg/dL. Patients were excluded from the study if they received a fluorinated pharmaceutical other than voriconazole. RESULTS All subjects who received voriconazole had elevated plasma fluoride levels, and no subjects in the control group had elevated levels (14.32 μmol/L ± 6.41 vs 2.54 ± 0.67 μmol/L; P<.001). Renal function was not predictive of fluoride levels. Plasma fluoride levels remained significantly higher in the voriconazole group after adjusting for calcineurin inhibitor levels and doses. Half of the voriconazole group subjects had evidence of periostitis, including exostoses in 2 patients. Discontinuation of voriconazole therapy in patients with periostitis resulted in improvement of pain and a reduction in alkaline phosphatase and fluoride levels. CONCLUSIONS Voriconazole is associated with painful periostitis, exostoses, and fluoride excess in post-transplant patients with long-term voriconazole use.
Volunteerism and Social Capital in Metropolitan Perth: A Preliminary Assessment

Numerous definitions of social capital exist. The Oxford (English) Dictionary defines social capital as ‘the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively’. In his seminal book, Bowling Alone, the US academic Robert Putnam (1995) used the image of the lonely bowler to encapsulate the increasing trend for individual rather than collective participation. Putnam (1995) defined social capital as the features of social organisations that improve coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.
Business curriculum and assessment reform in Hong Kong schools: a critical review from a competence‐based perspective

From September 2009 onwards, a new business curriculum which focuses on three key business disciplines, namely management, accounting and finance, has been implemented in Hong Kong senior secondary schools. A new assessment guide has been also proposed in light of the new curriculum. Such business curriculum and assessment reform move in the direction of preparing pupils to be more adaptive to the fast‐changing business society; an innovative school‐based pedagogical design will definitely be needed. This paper examines and analyzes the nature of the existing Hong Kong business curriculum and assessment reform from a competence‐based perspective, discusses the critical issues in the areas of curriculum design, assessment practices, teaching approaches and teacher development, and suggests innovations in these areas for enhancing pupil competence development in the context of Hong Kong senior secondary education.
25 Gbps mobile visible light communication system employing fast adaptation techniques

Visible light communication (VLC) systems have typically operated at data rates below 20 Gbps and operation at this data rate was shown to be feasible by using laser diodes (LDs), beam steering, imaging receivers and delay adaptation techniques. However, an increase in the computational cost is incurred. In this paper, we introduce fast computer generated holograms (FCGHs) to speed up the adaptation process. The new, fast and efficient fully adaptive VLC system can improve the receiver signal to noise ratio (SNR) and reduce the required time to estimate the position of the VLC receiver. In addition, an imaging receiver and a delay adaptation technique are used to reduce the effect of inter symbol interference (ISI) and multipath dispersion. Significant enhancements in the SNR, with VLC channel bandwidths of more than 36 GHz are obtained resulting in a compact impulse response and a VLC system that is able to achieve higher data rates (25 Gbps) with full mobility in the considered indoor environment.
A 3D Lattice Modelling Study of Drying Shrinkage Damage in Concrete Repair Systems

Differential shrinkage between repair material and concrete substrate is considered to be the main cause of premature failure of repair systems. The magnitude of induced stresses depends on many factors, for example the degree of restraint, moisture gradients caused by curing and drying conditions, type of repair material, etc. Numerical simulations combined with experimental observations can be of great use when determining the influence of these parameters on the performance of repair systems. In this work, a lattice type model was used to simulate first the moisture transport inside a repair system and then the resulting damage as a function of time. 3D simulations were performed, and damage patterns were qualitatively verified with experimental results and cracking tendencies in different brittle and ductile materials. The influence of substrate surface preparation, bond strength between the two materials, and thickness of the repair material were investigated. Benefits of using a specially tailored fibre reinforced material, namely strain hardening cementitious composite (SHCC), for controlling the damage development due to drying shrinkage in concrete repairs was also examined.
Cache-oblivious shortest paths in graphs using buffer heap

We present the <i>Buffer Heap</i> (<i>BH</i>), a cache-oblivious priority queue that supports <i>Delete-Min</i>, <i>Delete</i>, and <i>Decrease-Key</i> operations in <i>O</i>(1over<i>B</i> log<inf>2</inf> <i>N</i>over<i>B</i>) amortized block transfers from external memory, where <i>B</i> is the (unknown) block-size and <i>N</i> is the maximum number of elements in the queue. As is common in cache-oblivious algorithms, we assume a 'tall cache' (i.e., <i>M</i> = Ω(<i>B</i><sup>1 + ε</sup>), where <i>M</i> is the size of the main memory). We also assume the Decrease-Key operation only verifies that the element does not exist in the priority queue with a smaller key value, hence it also supports the insert operation in the same amortized bound. The amortized time bound for each operation is <i>O</i>(log <i>N</i>). We also present a <i>Cache-Oblivious Tournament Tree (COTT)</i>, which is simpler than the Buffer Heap, but has weaker bounds.Using the Buffer Heap we present cache-oblivious algorithms for undirected and directed single-source shortest path (SSSP) problems for graphs with non-negative edge-weights. On a graph with <i>V</i> vertices and <i>E</i> edges, our algorithm for the undirected case performs <i>O</i>(<i>V</i> + <i>E</i>over<i>B</i> log<inf>2</inf> <i>V</i>over<i>B</i>) block transfers and for the directed case performs <i>O</i>((<i>V</i> + <i>E</i>over<i>B</i>) . log<inf>2</inf> <i>V</i>over<i>B</i>) block transfers. The running time of both algorithms is <i>O</i>((<i>V</i> + <i>E</i>). log <i>V</i>). For both priority queues with <i>Decrease-Key</i> operation, and for shortest path problems on general graphs, our results appear to give the first non-trivial cache-oblivious bounds.
A new technique to determine vertical dimension of occlusion from anthropometric measurement of interpupillary distance

Background: A number of techniques are being practiced for the evaluation of VDO, but none of them is scientifically more accurate than other. Each method advocated has its own limitations. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to find correlation between vertical dimension of occlusion (VDO) and interpupillary distance (IPD). Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 dentate subjects comprising of 200 males and 200 females. Anthropometric measurement of VDO was recorded clinically using modified digital vernier caliper. Also, a standardized digital photograph of face was generated from the frontal aspect using a digital camera for the measurement of IPD in millimeters. Correlation between VDO and IPD was studied using Spearman’s coefficient. For the execution of regression command and preparation of prediction equations to estimate VDO, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software Version 11.5 was used. Results: VDO and IPD was more in males compared to females. VDO was significantly and positively correlated with IPD only in males whereas females showed a weak correlation. Hence, regression equation was derived only for males. VDO estimation using regression equation for IPD had a standard error of ± 3.94 in males. Conclusions: Since the variations between VDO and IPD are within the range of 2-4 mm, VDO prediction through this method is reliable and reproducible for male patients. Also, the method is simple, economic, and non invasive; hence it could be recommended for everyday practice to determine vertical dimension of occlusion in case of male patients. Key words:Anthropometry, interpupillary distance, jaw relation, vertical dimension of occlusion.
PIM kinase isoform specific regulation of MIG6 expression and EGFR signaling in prostate cancer cells

The PIM family of oncogenic serine/threonine kinases regulates tumour cell proliferation. To identify proliferative signaling pathways that are regulated by PIM kinases we analyzed gene expression differences in DU-145 and PC3 prostate cancer derived cells induced by treatment with the recently developed highly selective PIM kinase inhibitor M-110. This identified 97 genes the expression of which is affected by M-110 in both cell lines. We then focused on the M-110 induced up regulation of the MIG6 gene that encodes a negative regulator of EGFR signaling. Here we show that M-110 and the structurally unrelated PIM kinase inhibitor SGI-1776 up regulate MIG6 in DU-145 and PC3 cells. Knockdown of PIM-1 but not of PIM-2 or PIM-3 also up regulates MIG6 expression, which identifies MIG6 as a PIM-1 regulated gene. In agreement with the role of MIG6 protein as a negative regulator of EGFR signaling we found that M-110 treatment inhibits EGF induced EGFR activation and the activation of the downstream ERK MAPkinase pathway. The biological significance of these findings are demonstrated by the fact that co-treatment of DU-145 or PC3 cells with the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor Gefitinib and M-110 or SGI-1776 has synergistic inhibitory effects on cell proliferation. These experiments define a novel biological function of PIM-1 as a co-regulator of EGFR signaling and suggest that PIM inhibitors may be used in combination therapies to increase the efficacy of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
A Multi Agent-Based Framework for Simulating Household PHEV Distribution and Electric Distribution Network Impact

The variation of household attributes such as income, travel distance, age, household member, and education for different residential areas may generate different market penetration rates for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Residential areas with higher PHEV ownership could increase peak electric demand locally and require utilities to upgrade the electric distribution infrastructure even though the capacity of the regional power grid is under-utilized. Estimating the future PHEV ownership distribution at the residential household level can help us understand the impact of PHEV fleet on power line congestion, transformer overload and other unforeseen problems at the local residential distribution network level. It can also help utilities manage the timing of recharging demand to maximize load factors and utilization of existing distribution resources. This paper presents a multi agent-based simulation framework for 1) modeling spatial distribution of PHEV ownership at local residential household level; 2) discovering “PHEV hot zones” where PHEV ownership may quickly increase in the near future; and 3) estimating the impacts of the increasing PHEV ownership on the local electric distribution network with different charging strategies. In this paper, the authors use Knox County, Tennessee as a case study to show the simulation results of the agent-based model (ABM) framework. However, the framework can be easily applied to other local areas in the United States.
Pseudo-cereals as a functional ingredient: effects on bread nutritional and physiological properties- Review

Wheat bread represents the main source of carbohydrate, minerals and vitamins for most of the people. However, white breads are considered to be nutritionally poor, as the wheat proteins are deficient in essential amino acids such as lysine, tryptophan, and threonine. Pseudo- cereal can be classified as cereals, oil seeds, legumes and edible nuts. The main functional components of pseudo-cereal are dietary fibre, protein, vitamins, minerals polyunsaturated fatty acids and other phytochemicals.Therefore, aim of this study was to determine the effects of adding different of pseudo-cereals on the physicochemical, nutritional and physiological properties of bread.