Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School-Level Conditions Affecting the Effectiveness of Instruction.

ABSTRACT In this article, the current status of school level factors, as they appear in research reviews and in school effectiveness models is criticised both from a theoretical and from an empirical perspective. School level factors are often related to student achievement without taking into account the classroom level, where teaching and learning primarily take place. As a theoretical alternative, an overview of school level factors that enhance the quality of instruction, time for learning and opportunity to learn at the classroom level is provided. These factors are supposed to contribute to the explanation of differences in student achievement. Some empirical support for these ideas is found in educational research studies that have made use of three‐level analyses.
Prediction of the content popularity in the 5G network: Auto-regressive, moving-average and exponential smoothing approaches

Today's mobile users want faster data and more reliable services. The next generation of wireless networks 5G promises to deal with this, and more. In this context, to enable ultra-short response times, fast relocation of service instances between edge nodes and reduce migration time its required to cope with user mobility to guarantee the (QoE). In this new paradigm called 5G cellular systems, the technique of content caching in small base stations (SBS) is considered to be a suitable approach to improve the efficiency and to alleviate the backhaul burden and reduce user perceived latency in wireless content delivery. Proactively serving predictable user demands, via caching at base stations (BS) and users' devices is crucial due to storage limitations, but it requires knowledge about the content popularity distribution, which is often not available in advance. Moreover, local content popularity is subject to fluctuations since mobile users with different interests connect to the caching entity over time. In this paper we focus on the prediction of popularity evolution of video contents. Based on the observation of past solicitations of individual video contents. The popularity prediction in this proactive approach relies on AR (Auto-Regressive), MA (Moving-Average) and Exponential smoothing techniques to complete a proposal caching Algorithm to manage cache decisions.
Words are not enough: empowering people with aphasia in the design process

This paper explores the issue of empowering participants in design when they do not have the language skills integral to many design methods. We describe the challenges, solutions reached and lessons learned whilst employing a participatory design (PD) approach in the development of a prototype computer therapy tool for people with aphasia, a communication disorder. Our approach was workshop based. During a series of participatory workshop sessions, five people with aphasia, employed as consultants, took part in game-playing activities followed by hands-on interaction with a series of iterative prototypes. The challenges we faced arose primarily from the consultants' difficulties with the production and comprehension of language, both textual and verbal, and with the retention of information. The strategies and techniques we devised to cope with these challenges evolved over the course of the workshop sessions. We discuss these and how to involve and empower users with cognitive impairments, in the context of a broadening scope of PD practices.
The Challenge of Creating Dialogical Space for Both Partners in Couple Therapy

Dialogue in marital and family therapy (MFT) is by definition a multi-actor dialogue. This raises important challenges for therapists since the conversation is often tension filled and can have dramatic real life consequences for family members. In this paper I focus on the challenges presented in working with couples. In the first part of the paper I develop a theoretical frame, which relies on the MFT literature on the therapeutic relationship as well as on the discussion in the field around the therapeutic relationship and the concept of not knowing. I question the therapeutic effectiveness of the therapist’s egalitarian intentions and the idealistic view of the naturally healing dialogue implicit in not knowing. I especially highlight the validity of some of the concepts of Mikhail Bakhtin (e.g., addressivity, responsivity) to address the specific complexities of the MFT encounter. Then I present a case study, which is limited to a microanalysis of the first minutes of a first session of a marital therapy. In the third part of the paper I discuss what I have learned from the case study against the background of some of the central ideas developed in the first part. This leads to the conclusion that the marital and family therapist cannot escape the uncomfortable position of being responsible to find ways to actively contribute to a helpful dialogue with clients; a dialogue that is not a natural given, but rather a project that needs the therapist’s constant consideration and care.
Psychological Reactions to Crime News Portrayals of Black Criminals: Understanding the Moderating Roles of Prior News Viewing and Stereotype Endorsement

An experiment examined the extent to which viewers’ death penalty application, perceptions of crime danger, and culpability assessments could be influenced by exposure to a majority of Black suspects in the news or having the race of suspects go unidentified in a newscast. The current study also investigated the extent to which prior news viewing and African American stereotype endorsement might moderate the effects of this racialized crime news exposure. After exposure to a majority of Black suspects or unidentified suspects in a newscast, African American stereotype endorsers were more likely than stereotype rejecters to support the death penalty. Furthermore, heavy television news viewers exposed to a majority of Black suspects were more likely than light news viewers to perceive the world as dangerous and view a race-unidentified suspect as culpable for his offense. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed in light of social cognition theories of priming, cognitive accessibility, stereotype activation and application.
How Does Workplace Fun Impact Employee Perceptions of Customer Service Quality?

This study examined the link between workplace fun, employee satisfaction, and perceptions of customer service quality. Our results showed that employees who experienced fun in the workplace had greater satisfaction with their job and that the relationship between workplace fun and job satisfaction was greater for those who placed a high value on workplace fun. Additionally, we found that satisfied employees believed that their organization provided customer service that was reliable, responsive, and empathetic, and that employees were knowledgeable and able to instill confidence in customers. Implications of our findings for service organizations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
Telomerase activity in B and T lymphocytes of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Objective: To evaluate telomerase activity as a marker of lymphocyte proliferation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: CD19+, CD4+, and CD8+ lymphocytes were isolated from the peripheral blood of nine patients with SLE and nine healthy controls by means of magnetic bead-coupled antibodies and tested for telomerase activity with the TRAP assay. Results: Telomerase activity was significantly increased in CD19+ B cells from patients with SLE. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from lupus patients displayed increased mean telomerase activity, although the difference from normal controls did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: Increased telomerase activity in the B and the T cell lineage might indicate activation and proliferation of these lymphocytes.
A New Approach for Modeling of Hysteresis in 2-D Time-Transient Analysis of Eddy Current Using FEM

Eddy current is the origin of resistive loss in magnetic cores. In conventional method of eddy loss calculation, flux density is assumed to be distributed uniformly. However, the eddy-current forces the magnetic flux to flow through the skin of magnetic core, the effect that is called flux skin effect. For wave forms other than the sinusoidal form or for non-linear relationship between H and B, there is not analytical solution for the field equations. In such cases, magnetic field and the eddy-current equations must be solved by numerical methods such as finite-element method. Moreover, numerical modeling is helpful in estimating the eddy-current patterns that are used in non-destructive tests to detect the presence of any possible cracks. In order to achieve the flux distribution in the presence of the eddy current, the diffusion equation should be solved. This paper presents a new approach for finite-element analysis of 2-D diffusion equation. The solution is in time-domain, and the hysteresis behavior of ferromagnetic material is included in it. Analysis results show that skin effect has considerable influence on the eddy and hysteresis losses. Presented method has the capability of eddy-current analysis for any shape of cores, including hysteresis behavior.
Clinical Measures of Heparin’s Effect and Thrombin Inhibitor Levels in Pediatric Patients with Congenital Heart Disease

In this investigation, we examined the relationship among three thrombin inhibitors, antithrombin III (ATIII), heparin cofactor II (HCII), and &agr;-2-macroglobulin (&agr;2M), and several clinical tests of heparin’s effect in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass. One hundred eighteen children were stratified into six age groups: <1 mo, 1–3 mo, 3–6 mo, 6–12 mo, 12–24 mo, and >10 yr. Baseline ATIII, HCII, and &agr;2M values were measured. Baseline celite- and kaolin-activated clotting times (ACT) were also measured and repeated 3 min after a standard heparin dose of 400 U/kg. Differences in ACT values before and after heparin administration and a heparin dose–response relationship were calculated for each patient. Kaolin-activated ACT tests showed less variation after heparin administration than celite-activated tests. In contrast to what has been demonstrated in adults, ATIII showed no positive correlation with the clinical tests of heparin’s effect nor did the other thrombin inhibitors. Additionally, patients <1 mo old had unexpectedly low levels of &agr;2M accompanying their expected low levels of ATIII and HCII. Our findings raise concerns about the ability of heparin to adequately anticoagulate these neonates during cardiopulmonary bypass and, consequently, challenge the accuracy of ACT prolongation to truly reflect the extent of their anticoagulation.
What can we learn from senior leader narratives? The strutting and fretting of becoming a leader

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore subjective life histories and leadership journeys of senior leaders, drawing upon elements of an authentic leadership framework (life trigger events, values and emotions). The paper surfaces partial life histories and the often unheard of individual experiences of becoming a leader, offering stories to others as a media for learning and extending authentic leadership theory.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon a qualitative empirical study engaging 22 UK senior leaders in semi‐structured interviews, involving a life‐history approach to generate subjective narratives of how individuals establish and sustain leadership.Findings – The empirical data highlights that elements of authentic leadership theory resonate in practice. Senior leaders' life histories and in particular negative trigger events are significant to their approach as leaders. The values of honesty and integrity were important to the leaders, with some able to sustain their value.
Performance of autonomous dynamic channel assignment and power control for TDMA/FDMA wireless access

We combine autonomous algorithms for dynamic channel assignment (DCA) and power control in a TDMA/FDMA wireless system as a medium access control (MAC) protocol. The DCA algorithm determines paired radio channels that experience the least interference and are least likely to cause interference. The power control algorithm uses local estimations of signal to interference ratio (SIR) at a receiver to iteratively command power adjustment on the desired transmitter. A common control frequency, which is frame-synchronized among base stations, provides all necessary information for DCA without blind slots. Computer simulations are used to evaluate system performance. Results from computer simulations demonstrate good spectrum efficiency and robustness. Although studied under a specific set of parameters, this type of MAC protocols can be applied in different wireless communications environments. <<ETX>>
Script writing in the mathematics classroom: imaginary conversations on the structure of numbers

Script writing by learners has been used as a valuable pedagogical strategy and a research tool in several contexts. We adopted this strategy in the context of a mathematics course for prospective teachers. Participants were presented with opposing viewpoints with respect to a mathematical claim, and were asked to write a dialogue in which the characters attempted to convince each other of their point of view. They had to imagine and articulate fictional characters' reasoning, as well as design a potential pedagogical intervention. We outline what script writing revealed about the participants' understanding of the structure of natural and rational numbers and of mathematical argumentation, and discuss the affordances of this methodological tool in teacher education.
Towards a consistent classification scheme for geochemical environments, or, why we wish the term ‘suboxic’ would go away

It is our opinion that the nomenclature used to define geochemical environments is inconsistent and confusing, and in particular the use and meaning of the term ‘suboxic’, which is widely applied in the geochemical and ecological literature. Our purpose here is to review the redox zonation of natural systems and the nomenclature used to designate this. Finally, we will outline what we feel is a straightforward and non‐contradictory scheme for classifying metabolic zones and geochemical environments.
Endothelin‐1 is a transcriptional target of p53 in epidermal keratinocytes and regulates ultraviolet‐induced melanocyte homeostasis

Keratinocytes contribute to melanocyte activity by influencing their microenvironment, in part, through secretion of paracrine factors. Here, we discovered that p53 directly regulates Edn1 expression in epidermal keratinocytes and controls UV‐induced melanocyte homeostasis. Selective ablation of endothelin‐1 (EDN1) in murine epidermis (EDN1ep−/−) does not alter melanocyte homeostasis in newborn skin but decreases dermal melanocytes in adult skin. Results showed that keratinocytic EDN1 in a non‐cell autonomous manner controls melanocyte proliferation, migration, DNA damage, and apoptosis after ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation. Expression of other keratinocyte‐derived paracrine factors did not compensate for the loss of EDN1. Topical treatment with EDN1 receptor (EDNRB) antagonist BQ788 abrogated UV‐induced melanocyte activation and recapitulated the phenotype seen in EDN1ep−/− mice. Altogether, the present studies establish an essential role of EDN1 in epidermal keratinocytes to mediate UV‐induced melanocyte homeostasis in vivo.
Repression of liver-specific hepatitis B virus enhancer 2 activity by adenovirus E1A proteins

Two regions of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome have been shown to display properties of a transcriptional enhancer. Enhancer 1 is active in most hepatoma lines examined as well as in some non-hepatocyte-derived cell lines. In contrast, enhancer 2 activity is strictly liver specific. In this study, we show that adenovirus E1A expression in the highly differentiated human hepatoma line Huh6 strongly inhibits HBV enhancer 2-stimulated transcription while having no effect on HBV enhancer 1 activity. A sequence motif in HBV enhancer 2 which is essential for its enhancer function is the target for E1A-mediated repression. The repression of HBV enhancer 2 activity is mediated through the N-terminal region of the E1A proteins known to bind a 300-kDa cellular protein. Our results suggest that HBV enhancer function may be modulated by a cellular mechanism similar to E1A-mediated transcriptional repression.
Performance on the Portable Rod and Frame Test Predicts Variation in Learning the Kayak Roll

Expert performers in sports that include a high proportion of closed skills have often been found to score relatively high in field independence tests; a field-independent cognitive style may be advantageous for learning and performance of closed skills. The relationship between field dependence-independence (measured on a Portable Rod and Frame Test) and the acquisition of a kayak skill was examined. Undergraduates (6 men, 11 women; M age = 21.6 yr., SD = 3.2) who had no previous kayaking experience participated. Participants completed a structured teaching session (2 hr.) designed to develop three key subskills necessary for the kayak roll. Number of trials taken to consistently perform the underwater orientation and paddle movement subskills and duration of practice taken to develop the upper/lower body separation subskill as well as participants' ability to complete the roll were assessed. Field independence was associated with better performance of subskills and skill acquisition tests. Learners with greater field independence may have an advantage when acquiring sport skills that require cognitive restructuring and a strong reliance on kinesthetic and proprioceptive feedback.
Automatic Extraction of ICD-O-3 Primary Sites from Cancer Pathology Reports

Although registry specific requirements exist, cancer registries primarily identify reportable cases using a combination of particular ICD-O-3 topography and morphology codes assigned to cancer case abstracts of which free text pathology reports form a main component. The codes are generally extracted from pathology reports by trained human coders, sometimes with the help of software programs. Here we present results that improve on the state-of-the-art in automatic extraction of 57 generic sites from pathology reports using three representative machine learning algorithms in text classification. We use a dataset of 56,426 reports arising from 35 labs that report to the Kentucky Cancer Registry. Employing unigrams, bigrams, and named entities as features, our methods achieve a class-based micro F-score of 0.9 and macro F-score of 0.72. To our knowledge, this is the best result on extracting ICD-O-3 codes from pathology reports using a large number of possible codes. Given the large dataset we use (compared to other similar efforts) with reports from 35 different labs, we also expect our final models to generalize better when extracting primary sites from previously unseen reports.
Identification of Mycobacterium ulcerans in the Environment from Regions in Southeast Australia in Which It Is Endemic with Sequence Capture-PCR

ABSTRACT We recently described the use of PCR to identify the environmental source of Mycobacterium ulcerans during an outbreak of ulcerative disease that occurred in a localized region of southeast Australia. The PCR used was based on amplification of the M. ulcerans-specific insertion sequence, IS2404. In this study we developed a new test that is a substantial improvement over the original PCR method in terms of sensitivity, reliability, and ease of use. In the new method magnetic bead sequence capture-PCR is used to detect two M. ulcerans sequences (IS2404 and IS2606) and total mycobacterial 16S ribosomal DNA. We used sequence capture-PCR to test water and plant material collected over a 12-month period during 1998 and 1999 from sites near the centers of two distinct foci of M. ulcerans infections. A golf course irrigation system in one area and a small shallow lake in another area repeatedly were PCR positive for M. ulcerans. Nearby sites and sites unrelated to the endemic areas were negative. Based on the PCR data, a most-probable-number method was used to estimate the concentration of M. ulcerans cells in positive samples from both regions. This procedure resulted in average concentrations of 0.5 cell per 100 ml of water and 40 cells per 100 g of detritus. Loss of the PCR signal coincided with a decrease in ulcerative disease in each area. These results provide further evidence that M. ulcerans may be transmitted from a point environmental source and demonstrate the utility of magnetic bead sequence capture-PCR for identification of nonculturable microbial pathogens in the environment.
How to Evaluate Controlled Natural Languages

This paper presents a general framework how controlled natural languages can be evaluated and compared on the basis of user experiments. The subjects are asked to classify given statements (in the language to be tested) as either true or false with respect to a certain situation that is shown in a graphical notation called "ontographs". A first experiment has been conducted that applies this framework to the language Attempto Controlled English (ACE).
Activation of Astrocytes by CNTF Induces Metabolic Plasticity and Increases Resistance to Metabolic Insults

High energy demands of neurons make them vulnerable to adverse effects of energy impairment. Recently, astrocytes were shown to regulate the flux of energy substrates to neurons. In pathological situations, astrocytes are activated but the consequences on brain energy metabolism are still poorly characterized. We found that local lentiviral-mediated gene transfer of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), a cytokine known to activate astrocytes, induced a stable decrease in the glycolytic flux in the rat striatum in vivo as measured by 2-[18F]-2-deoxy-d-glucose autoradiography and micro-positron emission tomography imaging. The activity of the mitochondrial complex IV enzyme cytochrome oxidase was not modified, suggesting maintenance of downstream oxidative steps of energy production. CNTF significantly increased the phosphorylation level of the intracellular energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), supporting a specific reorganization of brain energy pathways. Indeed, we found that different key enzymes/transporters of fatty acids β-oxidation and ketolysis were overexpressed by CNTF-activated astrocytes within the striatum. In primary striatal neuron/astrocyte mixed cultures exposed to CNTF, the AMPK pathway was also activated, and the rate of oxidation of fatty acids and ketone bodies was significantly enhanced. This metabolic plasticity conferred partial glial and neuronal protection against prolonged palmitate exposure and glycolysis inhibition. We conclude that CNTF-activated astrocytes may have a strong protective potential to face severe metabolic insults.
The Gap between Educational Research and Practice: Views of Teachers, School Leaders, Intermediaries and Researchers.

The relation between educational research and practice is a growing point of interest and has produced numerous lively debates. Although many reports and position papers have been published on this topic, little empirical data are available. The aim of this study is to explore the gap between educational research and practice and to assess the views of different key actors. After reviewing the literature, focus group interviews were organised with teachers, school leaders, researchers, and intermediaries. Questionnaire data were obtained from educational research professors in Flanders. Results indicate that the gap between educational research and practice should be approached as a complex and differentiated phenomenon. All participants agreed that more cooperation between researchers and practitioners is necessary. This could be achieved by establishing ‘professional learning communities’ or by promoting a ‘design‐based research’ model.