Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘Who can support me?’: Studying teacher leadership in a Hong Kong primary school

Teacher leadership is one of the essential factors in curriculum implementation. Curriculum development is never an easy task for teachers. Several studies have indicated that teacher leadership has led to school improvement and fostered student achievement and engagement in learning. However, most studies have focused on examining teacher leadership in Western contexts; rarely have studies been conducted to explore how teacher leadership takes place in an ‘East meets West’ context. The aims of the mixed-method study are the following: (a) to investigate teachers’ perceptions and experiences of teacher leadership, and (b) to explore how teachers act out teacher leadership in a peer network. This study used the case of a local primary school. Data collection methods included teacher surveys, individual interviews with teachers, and field notes from a one-day teacher shadowing. The data indicated that teachers were more oriented towards student learning, but insufficient space was available for enacting teacher leadership in terms of teacher collaboration, shared leadership and reflective practice. Thus, implications for teacher leadership development are discussed.
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF MEANINGFUL HYBRID E-TRAINING MODEL FOR COMPUTER EDUCATION

Meaningful hybrid e-training experience provides a coherent purpose for strategic educational change through lifelong education and the creation of a knowledge society. A close examination of new hybrid e-training programs however, has indicated a critical gap between rapidly developing technology and sound pedagogical models to determine program quality. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop, generate, test and validate a 2 stage model for a new meaningful hybrid e-training program. The early framework of the model guided development of a questionnaire to measure meaningfulness of a hybrid e-training. Data collected from 213 ICT trainers were tested with confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 7.0 to obtain three best-fit measurement models from the three latent variables. Overall reliability analyses using Cronbach’s Alpha, items and persons reliability using the Rasch Model and content validation by experts suggested that the questionnaire is reliable and valid to measure a meaningful hybrid e-training program. Subsequently, the structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses. The results showed that there is a positive strong relationship between hybrid e-training and meaningful e-training; a positive weak relationship between learning style preference and hybrid e-training and a negative relationship between learning style preference and meaningful learning. In brief the study showed a substantial effect of hybrid e-training towards achieving meaningful learning. As such, future training regarding the use of hybrid e-training should include all five components of a meaningful hybrid e-training instead of merely focusing on content. With results showing weak relationship between learning style and hybrid etraining and negative relationship between learning style and meaningful e-training, instructional media designers and developers should now focus on integrating all five etraining components to ensure meaningful learning. It would be interesting to further investigate as to whether or not learning style is a mediating or a moderating factor towards achieving meaningful learning via the use of hybrid e-training programs as modeled in the final results.
Video Fill in the Blank with Merging LSTMs

Given a video and its incomplete textural description with missing words, the Video-Fill-in-the-Blank (ViFitB) task is to automatically find the missing word. The contextual information of the sentences are important to infer the missing words; the visual cues are even more crucial to get a more accurate inference. In this paper, we presents a new method which intuitively takes advantage of the structure of the sentences and employs merging LSTMs (to merge two LSTMs) to tackle the problem with embedded textural and visual cues. In the experiments, we have demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed method on the challenging "Movie Fill-in-the-Blank" dataset.
The Polycomb‐group gene, extra sex combs, encodes a nuclear member of the WD‐40 repeat family.

We have delimited the extra sex combs (esc) gene to < 4 kb that include a single transcript and are able to rescue both the maternal and zygotic esc phenotypes. Several mutations have been identified within the esc transcript. In agreement with earlier genetic studies, esc is expressed maternally and its product is most abundant during the early embryonic stages. It encodes a protein of the WD‐40 repeat family, which localizes predominantly to the nucleus. During germ band extension, it is expressed in a stereotypic pattern of neuroblasts. We propose a model in which Esc is recruited by gap proteins both to act as a corepressor that competes with the TAFII80 coactivator to block transcription and also to mediate the transition to permanent repression by Polycomb‐group proteins.
Do Other Components of Bedding Dust Affect Sensitisation to House Dust Mites?

Bedding dust is a mixture of many components, of which the house dust mite (HDM) allergen, Der p 1, is the most allergenic. There has been little work to investigate the effect of other bedding dust components on HDM sensitisation. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of endotoxin in bedding dust on the allergic response in HDM-sensitised individuals. Twenty-nine house dust mite-sensitised adults were skin prick and allergen patch tested against a sterile solution of their own bedding dust and against a solution containing the same concentration of Der p 1 as the bedding solution for comparison. There was no significant difference in wheal size between the diluted house dust mite solution and the bedding dust in spite of their high levels of endotoxin. Symptomatic subjects had larger, but not statistically significant, responses to commercial house dust mite solution than asymptomatic subjects. Allergen patch test responses were negative in 22/29 of subjects using either bedding dust solutions or comparable diluted house dust mite solutions. An individual's own bedding dust does not appear to contain factors that enhance skin prick test or atopy patch test responses to house dust mites.
Equivalent Responses to Lexical and Nonlexical Visual Stimuli in Occipital Cortex: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Stimulus-related changes in cerebral blood oxygenation were measured using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging sequentially covering visual occipital areas in contiguous sections. During dynamic imaging, healthy subjects silently viewed pseudowords, single false fonts, or length-matched strings of the same false fonts. The paradigm consisted of a sixfold alternation of an activation and a control task. With pseudowords as activation vs single false fonts as control, responses were seen mainly in medial occipital cortex. These responses disappeared when pseudowords were alternated with false font strings as the control and reappeared when false font strings instead of pseudowords served as activation and were alternated with single false fonts. The string-length contrast alone, therefore, is sufficient to account for the activation pattern observed in medial visual cortex when word-like stimuli are contrasted with single characters.
Intraocular pressure in patients with uveitis treated with fluocinolone acetonide implants.

OBJECTIVE To report the incidence and management of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with uveitis treated with the fluocinolone acetonide (FA) intravitreal implant. DESIGN Pooled data from 3 multicenter, double-masked, randomized, controlled, phase 2b/3 clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of the 0.59-mg or 2.1-mg FA intravitreal implant or standard therapy were analyzed. RESULTS During the 3-year follow-up, 71.0% of implanted eyes had an IOP increase of 10 mm Hg or more than baseline and 55.1%, 24.7%, and 6.2% of eyes reached an IOP of 30 mm Hg or more, 40 mm Hg or more, and 50 mm Hg or more, respectively. Topical IOP-lowering medication was administered in 74.8% of implanted eyes, and IOP-lowering surgeries, most of which were trabeculectomies (76.2%), were performed on 36.6% of implanted eyes. Intraocular pressure-lowering surgeries were considered a success (postoperative IOP of 6-21 mm Hg with or without additional IOP-lowering medication) in 85.1% of eyes at 1 year. The rate of hypotony (IOP </= 5 mm Hg) following IOP-lowering surgery (42.5%) was not different from that of implanted eyes not subjected to surgery (35.4%) (P = .09). CONCLUSION Elevated IOP is a significant complication with the FA intravitreal implant but may be controlled with medication and surgery.
Investing, personality and social preferences : essays on the psycho-graphics of US individual investors

In this chapter I examine whether social preferences can explain three measures of engagement in socially responsible investment (SRI): interest in SRI; history of SRI investment; and the proportion currently invested in SRI. I undertook a survey of US investors and find that investors with stronger social preferences are more interested in SRI than are those with weaker social preferences. Further, investors with stronger social preferences are more likely to have invested in SRI. I do not, however, obtain any association between their social preferences and the share of total portfolio invested in SRI. These results are consistent with a ‘warm glow’ interpretation of investor motivations to hold SRI.
Ontology-driven visualization of architectural design decisions

There is a gradual increase of interest to use ontologies to capture architectural knowledge, in particular architectural design decisions. While ontologies seem a viable approach to codification, the application of such codified knowledge to everyday practice may be non-trivial. In particular, browsing and searching an architectural knowledge repository for effective reuse can be cumbersome. In this paper, we present how ontology-driven visualization of architectural design decisions can be used to assist software product audits, in which independent auditors perform an assessment of a product's quality. Our visualization combines the simplicity of tabular information representation with the power of on-the-fly ontological inference of decision attributes typically used by auditors. In this way, we are able to support the auditors in effectively reusing their know-how, and to actively assist the core aspects of their decision making process, namely trade-off analysis, impact analysis, and if-then scenarios. We demonstrate our visualization with examples from a real-world application.
Cluster-based Forwarding in Delay Tolerant Public Transport Networks

Packet forwarding in Public Transport Networks is particularly challenging due to the high mobility, rapidly changing topology and intermittent connectivity observed in these networks. Though clustering of nodes can aid forwarding decision in these delay tolerant networks (DTNs), the clustering process is extremely costly in a large network. In this paper, we introduce a generic efficient clustering method which is suitable for grouping the nodes of large networks. We also demonstrated how encounter frequencies of public transport networks can be fed to that clustering algorithm in order to build clusters of nodes. And finally, our large scale extensive simulation study on real bus traces shows the efficacy of clustering in packet forwarding.
Thermomechanical local stress in assembled GaN LEDs investigated by Raman optical spectroscopy

Integrated circuits constitute a complex mosaic, where materials with different characteristics, grown or deposited in different ways and at different temperatures, are linked together in various geometries. It is well known that during and after processing of these devices, mechanical stresses develop in the layers. These stresses may be due to thermal steps, intrinsic stresses, which are inherent in the formation process of the film, or due to the geometry of the material. For example, high stresses are present in the substrate at film edges. The presence of local residual stress has an important effect on the electrical properties of electronic devices, in particular on the reliability and the lifetime of the semiconductor components. The present work focuses on the optical investigation of the thermomechanical stress of semiconductor materials used to realize new LED modules for front lighting application. Blue LEDs, based on gallium nitride (GaN) on sapphire, are bonded to a silicon carrier using gold silicon. Afterwards the sapphire is removed. The GaN on silicon devices are soldered by eutectic AuSn soldered on copper substrates, with different thicknesses. In the solder process different AuSn solder layer are achieved by varying the bond force. Raman spectroscopy is used to investigate the influence of the assembly process and assembly material on the local stress in the semiconductor. By that the physical, mechanical and chemical properties of the interconnect material can be analyzed. A model is developed to simulate the thermomechanical stress in the GaN LED assemblies. The Raman results validate the computational model. The phenomena are evaluated at room temperature, at -50°C and at 180°C.
Epigenetic Control of Macrophage Polarisation and Soluble Mediator Gene Expression during Inflammation

Macrophages function as sentinel cells, which constantly monitor the host environment for infection or injury. Macrophages have been shown to exhibit a spectrum of activated phenotypes, which can often be categorised under the M1/M2 paradigm. M1 macrophages secrete proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6, IL-12, CCL4, and CXCL10, and induce phagocytosis and oxidative dependent killing mechanisms. In contrast, M2 macrophages support wound healing and resolution of inflammation. In the past decade, interest has grown in understanding the mechanisms involved in regulating macrophage activation. In particular, epigenetic control of M1 or M2 activation states has been shown to rely on posttranslational modifications of histone proteins adjacent to inflammatory-related genes. Changes in methylation and acetylation of histones by methyltransferases, demethylases, acetyltransferases, and deacetylases can all impact how macrophage phenotypes are generated. In this review, we summarise the latest advances in the field of epigenetic regulation of macrophage polarisation to M1 or M2 states, with particular focus on the cytokine and chemokine profiles associated with these phenotypes.
Mobile Geometric Graphs, and Detection and Communication Problems in Mobile Wireless Networks

Static wireless networks are by now quite well understood mathematically through the random geometric graph model. By contrast, there are relatively few rigorous results on the practically important case of mobile networks, in which the nodes move over time; moreover, these results often make unrealistic assumptions about node mobility such as the ability to make very large jumps. In this paper we consider a realistic model for mobile wireless networks which we call mobile geometric graphs, and which is a natural extension of the random geometric graph model. We study two fundamental questions in this model: detection (the time until a given "target" point - which may be either fixed or moving - is detected by the network), and percolation (the time until a given node is able to communicate with the giant component of the network). For detection, we show that the probability that the detection time exceeds t is \exp(-\Theta(t/\log t)) in two dimensions, and \exp(-\Theta(t)) in three or more dimensions, under reasonable assumptions about the motion of the target. For percolation, we show that the probability that the percolation time exceeds t is \exp(-\Omega(t^\frac{d}{d+2})) in all dimensions d\geq 2. We also give a sample application of this result by showing that the time required to broadcast a message through a mobile network with n nodes above the threshold density for existence of a giant component is O(\log^{1+2/d} n) with high probability.
Language to Logical Form with Neural Attention

Semantic parsing aims at mapping natural language to machine interpretable meaning representations. Traditional approaches rely on high-quality lexicons, manually-built templates, and linguistic features which are either domain- or representation-specific. In this paper we present a general method based on an attention-enhanced encoder-decoder model. We encode input utterances into vector representations, and generate their logical forms by conditioning the output sequences or trees on the encoding vectors. Experimental results on four datasets show that our approach performs competitively without using hand-engineered features and is easy to adapt across domains and meaning representations.
Outcomes in HIV-infected adults with tuberculosis at clinics with and without co-located HIV clinics in Botswana.

SETTING Gaborone, Botswana. OBJECTIVE To determine if starting anti-tuberculosis treatment at clinics in Gaborone without co-located human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinics would delay time to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) initiation and be associated with lower survival compared to starting anti-tuberculosis treatment at clinics with on-site HIV clinics. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. Subjects were HAART-naïve, aged ≥ 21 years with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), HIV and CD4 counts ≤ 250 cells/mm(3) initiating anti-tuberculosis treatment between 2005 and 2010. Survival at completion of anti-tuberculosis treatment or at 6 months post-treatment initiation and time to HAART after anti-tuberculosis treatment initiation were compared by clinic type. RESULTS Respectively 259 and 80 patients from clinics without and with on-site HIV facilities qualified for the study. Age, sex, CD4, baseline sputum smears and loss to follow-up rate were similar by clinic type. Mortality did not differ between clinics without or with on-site HIV clinics (20/250, 8.0% vs. 8/79, 10.1%, relative risk 0.79, 95%CI 0.36-1.72), nor did median time to HAART initiation (respectively 63 and 66 days, P = 0.53). CONCLUSION In urban areas where TB and HIV programs are separate, geographic co-location alone without further integration may not reduce mortality or time to HAART initiation among co-infected patients.
Customer value‐based pricing strategies: why companies resist

Purpose – Customer value‐based pricing is increasingly recognised by academics and practitioners as the most effective approach to pricing for companies wishing to achieve increased profitability and sustained success. However, despite this apparent support for the implementation of value‐based pricing, the practical reality is that more than 80 percent of companies continue to price their products and services primarily on the basis of costs and/or competitive price levels. The present study investigates this phenomenon and identifies the main reasons for this gap between aspiration and reality.Design/methodology/approach – A two‐stage empirical approach is employed: first, in a qualitative research, the phenomenon of implementation of value‐based strategies with groups of business executives participating in pricing workshops is explored. The result of this qualitative stage was then used to develop a questionnaire which was tested upon a significantly larger and more stratified population. Finally clus.
Tropical precipitation influencing boreal winter midlatitude blocking

Recent studies using reanalysis data and complex models suggest that the Tropics influence midlatitude blocking. Here, the influence of tropical precipitation anomalies is investigated further using a dry dynamical model driven by specified diabatic heating anomalies. The model uses a quasi‐realistic setup based on idealized orography and an idealized representation of the land‐ocean thermal contrast. Results concerning the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Madden‐Julian Oscillation are mostly consistent with previous studies and emphasize the importance of tropical dynamics for driving the variability of blocking at midlatitudes. It is also shown that a common bias in models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), namely, excessive tropical precipitation, leads to an underestimation of midlatitude blocking in our model, also a common bias in the CMIP5 models. The strongest blocking anomalies associated with the tropical precipitation bias are found over Europe, where the underestimation of blocking in CMIP5 models is also particularly strong.
Efficient termination of vacuolar Rab GTPase signaling requires coordinated action by a GAP and a protein kinase

Rab guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) are pivotal regulators of membrane identity and dynamics, but the in vivo pathways that control Rab signaling are poorly defined. Here, we show that the GTPase-activating protein Gyp7 inactivates the yeast vacuole Rab Ypt7 in vivo. To efficiently terminate Ypt7 signaling, Gyp7 requires downstream assistance from an inhibitory casein kinase I, Yck3. Yck3 mediates phosphorylation of at least two Ypt7 signaling targets: a tether, the Vps-C/homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting (HOPS) subunit Vps41, and a SNARE, Vam3. Phosphorylation of both substrates is opposed by Ypt7-guanosine triphosphate (GTP). We further demonstrate that Ypt7 binds not one but two Vps-C/HOPS subunits: Vps39, a putative Ypt7 nucleotide exchange factor, and Vps41. Gyp7-stimulated GTP hydrolysis on Ypt7 therefore appears to trigger both passive termination of Ypt7 signaling and active kinase-mediated inhibition of Ypt7's downstream targets. We propose that signal propagation through the Ypt7 pathway is controlled by integrated feedback and feed-forward loops. In this model, Yck3 enforces a requirement for the activated Rab in docking and fusion.
Suppression of Plasmodium chabaudi Parasitemia Is Independent of the Action of Reactive Oxygen Intermediates and/or Nitric Oxide

ABSTRACT The killing of blood-stage malaria parasites in vivo has been attributed to reactive intermediates of oxygen (ROI) and of nitrogen (RNI). However, in the case of the latter, this contention is challenged by recent observations that parasitemia was not exacerbated in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) knockout (KO) (NOS2−/− or NOS3−/−) mice or in mice treated with NOS inhibitors. We now report that the time course shows that Plasmodium chabaudi parasitemia in NADPH oxidase KO (p47phox−/−) mice also was not exacerbated, suggesting a minimal role for ROI-mediated killing of blood-stage parasites. It is possible that the production of protective antibodies during malaria may mask the function of ROI and/or RNI. However, parasitemia in B-cell-deficient JH−/− × NOS2−/− or JH−/− × p47phox−/− mice was not exacerbated. In contrast, the magnitude of peak parasitemia was significantly enhanced in p47phox−/− mice treated with the xanthine oxidase inhibitor allopurinol, but the duration of patent parasitemia was not prolonged. Whereas the time course of parasitemia in NOS2−/− × p47phox−/− mice was nearly identical to that seen in normal control mice, allopurinol treatment of these double-KO mice also enhanced the magnitude of peak parasitemia. Thus, ROI generated via the xanthine oxidase pathway contribute to the control of ascending P. chabaudi parasitemia during acute malaria but alone are insufficient to suppress parasitemia to subpatent levels. Together, these results indicate that ROI or RNI can contribute to, but are not essential for, the suppression of parasitemia during blood-stage malaria.