Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How do we model learning at scale ?

Despite a surge of empirical work on student participation in online learning environments, the causal links between the learning-related factors and processes with the desired learning outcomes remain unexplored. This study presents a systematic literature review of approaches to model learning in Massive Open Online Courses offering an analysis of learning related constructs used in the prediction and measurement of student engagement and learning outcome. Based on our literature review, we identify current gaps in the research, including a lack of solid frameworks to explain learning in open online setting. Finally, we put forward a novel framework suitable for open online contexts based on a well-established model of student engagement. Our model is intended to guide future work studying the association between contextual factors (i.e., demographic, classroom, and individual needs), student engagement (i.e., academic, behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement metrics) and learning outcomes (i.e., academic, social, and affective). The proposed model affords further inter-study comparisons as well as comparative studies with more traditional education models.
Will Macroprudential Policy Counteract Monetary Policy's Effects on Financial Stability?

How does monetary policy impact upon macroprudential regulation? This paper models monetary policy's transmission to bank risk taking, and its interaction with a regulator's optimization problem. The regulator uses its macroprudential tool, a leverage ratio, to maintain financial stability, while taking account of the impact on credit provision. A change in the monetary policy rate tilts the regulator's entire trade-off. We show that the regulator allows interest rate changes to partly "pass through" to bank soundness by not neutralizing the risk-taking channel of monetary policy. Thus, monetary policy affects financial stability, even in the presence of macroprudential regulation.
The relationship between TIMSS mathematics achievements, grades, and national test scores

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) mathematics achievement and the two school achievement measures of grades and national test results in Sweden. A further aim was to examine the association of TIMSS mathematics achievement with different subgroups of students. The results show that there is a strong positive relationship between TIMSS mathematics achievement and national tests and obtained grades from both grade 6 and grade 9. Students from more educated homes performed better overall on TIMSS than those from less-educated homes, and the relationships between TIMSS and the school achievement measures were stronger for students from more educated home backgrounds. The school context and the students’ background had an impact on the students’ TIMSS result. The results have implications for how one should view the results from TIMSS as a measure of student mathematics achievement and thus how TIMSS results can be used in a national context.
Stone architecture and the development of power in the Zimbabwe tradition AD 1270 – 1830

Within the Zimbabwe Culture, stone architecture was not a mere reflection of the existing power of élites; rather, the process of creating architecture was also one of creating élite power. Creating architecture involved manipulation of the ‘natural’ environment, the elements of which were extended or appropriated to constitute the built environment. There is a clear relationship between architecture and ‘natural’ power, which provided links with the ancestral world. Thus, the construction of monumental architecture in the Zimbabwe Culture was a process of constructing social and political power through the manipulation of ideology, including the appropriation of ‘nature’. The Great Zimbabwe and Khami architectural styles express two distinct architectural forms with two distinct conceptual relationships to nature. Great Zimbabwe (AD 1290–1550) period architecture was apparently an extension of the natural environment, while Khami (AD 1400–1800) architecture arrogated elements of nature wholly transforming them into monumental built environments. Understanding these ideological differences is critical to understanding the dynamics of ancient states on the Zimbabwe Plateau.
Numerical Study on Evolution and Characteristics of Mixed-Sized Windblown Sand Flux

In this paper, on the basis of the splash function of stochastic collisions with the sand grain size considered, the numerical method is employed to study the evolution of mixed-sized windblown sand flux. The evolution of the grain number flux and the streamwise sand transport, the profiles of the mass flux and the wind velocity, the influences of the friction velocity and of the size distribution of sand grains on the streamwise sand transport are all discussed in detail. It is shown that the time needed for the mixed-sized windblown sand flux to reach the steady state(duration time for short) is much shorter than that for the single-sized sand flux; as the friction velocity increases, the duration time and the time needed for the initial stage of the wind effect (the period when the grain number flux per unit area and the streamwise sand transport increase very little with the passing of time, initial entrainment time for short) decrease, while the streamwise sand transport increases; as the diameter of volume average of the bed sand grains increases, both the streamwise sand transport and the duration time decrease.
Evaluation of survival rate in patients with laryngeal cancer

at the Center of Cancer Office of the Iran Ministry of Health in Tehran between 2005-2009 were examined. From 513 cases, 279 that their follow-up was possible by phone or postal address were included in the study. Data collection were performed from questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 20. The Kaplan Meier survival curves were utilized and, moreover, the corresponding influential factors were examined by using the Cox regression test. Results: The mean age of patients were 61.1 years (SD=10.54). The gender of 92.1% of patients were male. The most widely used method for the treatment was a combination of three methods of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. The overall five-year survival rate was 75.7% (SD=0.03). The gender, histological differentiation, and professional delay did not exhibit a statistical correlation with the survival rate (P=0.38, 0.14, 0.52), whereas the age and patient delay had a statistically significant relation with the survival rate (P=0.03, 0.07). Conclusion: The survival rate was lower in older patients. Patient and professional delays were high, which need more attention for improving the quality of life.
Polymorphism in the RD 1 locus and its effect on downstream genes among South Indian clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

RD1, the region of difference between the virulent strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG, is the most explored region in terms of mycobacterial virulence and vaccine design. This study found a polymorphic intergenic region between two genes, Rv3870 and Rv3871, in the RD1 region. Sequence analysis revealed a 53 bp repeat element that created a polymorphism among the clinical isolates, reported previously as the mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit (MIRU) 39 locus. The discriminatory power of this locus was found to be high for EAI strains, as indicated by a Hunter–Gaston diversity index value of 0.58, and low for Beijing (0.26) and CAS (0.29) strains. The presence and variability of MIRU 39 in the intergenic region led us to investigate the functional role of the repeat element by measuring the transcription levels of the downstream genes Rv3871 and Rv3874 by quantitative RT-PCR among the different clades of clinical strains. Higher transcription levels of Rv3871 were observed in strains with four copies of the repeat element in the upstream region, whereas the transcription level of Rv3874 was higher in strains with six copies of the repeat element. These data suggest that changes in transcription levels resulting from insertion of different copy numbers of the repeat element may affect regulation of gene expression in M. tuberculosis.
Learning the Variance of the Reward-To-Go

In Markov decision processes (MDPs), the variance of the reward-to-go is a natural measure of uncertainty about the long term performance of a policy, and is important in domains such as finance, resource allocation, and process control. Currently however, there is no tractable procedure for calculating it in large scale MDPs. This is in contrast to the case of the expected reward-to-go, also known as the value function, for which effective simulation-based algorithms are known, and have been used successfully in various domains. In this paper we extend temporal difference (TD) learning algorithms to estimating the variance of the reward-to-go for a fixed policy. We propose variants of both TD(0) and LSTD(λ) with linear function approximation, prove their convergence, and demonstrate their utility in an option pricing problem. Our results show a dramatic improvement in terms of sample efficiency over standard Monte-Carlo methods, which are currently the state-of-the-art.
What Causes Inflation in a Post Communist Economy? Evidence from Ethiopia

This paper examines the determinants of inflation for a post communist economy, in the long run as well as in the short run, using time series evidence from Ethiopia and applying the Johnson co integration and Error Correction Mechanisms. A vivid observation of the results shows that the short run determinants of inflation are broad money supply, growth of domestic gross product, real interest rate, budget deficit, Exchange rate, inflation expectation and world price movements. The result of the long run model after co integration is proved using the residual based ducky fuller test and the Johnson co integration tests revealed that broad money supply, government budget deficit, exchange rate and inflation expectation are found to be the major determinants of inflation. The result shows that domestic gross product growth rate has no effect on inflation. To curb inflation, therefore, policy makers need to implement prudential fiscal and monetary policy tools. Inflation expectations need to be tackled by way of transparent and well informed government policies to change consumer perception. Concerning this, it is important to consider targeting monetary and fiscal policy variables and appropriately implanting the set targets.
3 Are Good Intentions Leading to Good Outcomes ? Continuities in Social , Economic and Hydro-political Trajectories in the Olifants River Basin , South Africa

Beginning in the early 19th century, land and water resources in South Africa’s Olifants basin were systematically mobilized to benefit commercial agriculture, mines and industries owned by a tiny minority of the population. During the 20th century, the majority African population was increasingly confined to small areas of the basin having little agricultural potential or access to water. This resulted in dramatic contrasts between the wealthy minority and the extremely poor majority. Since the early 1990s, under the new democratic regime, South Africa’s constitution, with its basic rights guarantees, including access to water, and its world-famous Water Act, intended both to reverse the wrongs of the past and to conserve scarce water resources for future generations, have raised high expectations. The Water Act is being implemented by politicians and professionals whose good intentions cannot be questioned. However, to date, access to water remains highly inequitable in the Olifants basin, and socio-economic well-being is improving very slowly. Setting the Physical Scene
Emotional intelligence in the workplace: exploring its effects on occupational stress and health outcomes in human service workers.

OBJECTIVES Emotional intelligence, an essential factor responsible for determining success in life and psychological well-being, seems to play an important role in shaping the interaction between individuals and their work environment. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived stress in the workplace and health-related consequences in human service workers. MATERIALS AND METHODS A sample of 330 participants (42.4% of men and 57.6% of women), representing various human service professions (physicians, nurses, teachers, probation officers and managers) was eligible for the study. The mean age of the participants was 38.4 years (SD = 8.45), and the employment period was 8.3 years (SD = 6.13). Three methods were used in the study: The Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire--INTE with Polish modification, the Subjective Work Evaluation Questionnaire developed in Poland, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) with Polish modification. RESULTS The results confirmed an essential, but not very strong, role of emotional intelligence in perceiving occupational stress and preventing employees of human services from negative health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS The ability to effectively deal with emotions and emotional information in the workplace assists employees in coping with occupational stress therefore, it should be developed in stress managing trainings.
Cross-Sectional Associations Between Measures of Sleep andMarkers of GlucoseMetabolism Among Subjects With andWithout Diabetes The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Sleep Study

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—This was an ancillary study to the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. Habitual sleep duration and fragmentation were estimated from 6 days of wrist actigraphy collected in 2003–2005. Insomnia was defined as self-reported difficulty falling asleep or waking up in the night three or more times per week plus average sleep efficiency of ,80% based on actigraphy. Fasting blood samples to measure glucose and insulin were collected after the sleep measures during the CARDIA clinical examination in 2005–2006. Insulin resistance was estimated using the homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) method. Analyses were cross-sectional and stratified by the presence of diabetes.
THE EFFECTS OF THE TRANSPORTATION COSTS IN R&D TECHNOLOGY SECTOR ON THE ENDOGENOUS GRWOTH

The paper centers on investigating theoretically how the transportation costs of R&D technology, none of the transportation costs in final goods and intermediate inputs, affect the long-run endogenous economic growth. The basic ideas adopted in this paper are different from well-known models in the sense that the prices of R&D technology are influenced by the transportation cost in R&D technology sector and the accumulated profit of the intermediate inputs over time is equal to the price of R&D technology, and thus the transportation costs indirectly influence the endogenous growth. That is, the larger are only the transportation costs of R&D technology, the higher is the price of R&D technology and the slower is endogenous economic growth.
Extrapolation of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Thyroid Axis Perturbations and Associated Toxicity in Rodents to Humans: Case Study with Perchlorate

Functional aspects of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Thyroid (HPT) axis in rats and humans are compared, exposing why extrapolation of toxicant-induced perturbations in the rat HPT axis to the human HPT axis cannot be accomplished using default risk assessment methodology. Computational tools, such as biologically based dose response models for the HPT axis, are recommended to perform complex animal to human extrapolations involving the HPT axis. Experimental and computational evidence are presented that suggest perchlorate acts directly on the thyroid gland in rats. The apparent escape from perchlorate-induced inhibition of thyroidal uptake of radioactive iodide in humans is discussed along with “rebound” or increased thyroidal uptake of radioactive iodide observed after discontinued clinical treatment with perchlorate.
Chemical composition of the methanolic leaf and stem bark extracts of Senna siamea Lam

The study was conducted to evaluate some chemical constituents of the leaf and stem bark of Senna siamea. Standard methods were used in all the analysis. Preliminary phytochemical screening indicated the presence of flavonoids, tannins, polyphenols, anthraquinones, saponins, and glycosides. Quantitative study of some phytoconstituents showed a significant difference of (p < 0.05) between the leaf contents and that of the stem bark with the exception of tannins. The results of elemental analysis revealed that the levels of potassium (K), sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg) and manganese (Mn) differed significantly (p < 0.05) when leaf contents were compared with that of the stem bark, while nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) contents were not statistically (p < 0.05) different. This result indicated that S. siamea has great potentials as it contains active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Measurement of national intellectual capital: application to EU countries

The aim of the article is to present both an alternative approach to measurement of intellectual capital of a country (IC) and a calculation of IC index. In order to achieve it, at first a definition of IC was adopted and a conceptual model of IC was worked out. Then, a method of operationalisation of conceptual model was elaborated, which comprised: 1. method of transforming the theoretical concept and relations into more concise ones that enabled the measurement sensu stricto, 2. selection of indicators of each component of IC, 3. adoption of appropriate method of aggregation of indicators. Finally the measurement of each component of IC and IC itself for UE countries was executed. Proposed method of IC measurement can be regarded as the extension of the proposals of Bontis (Bontis, 2004) and Andriessen and Stam (Andriessen, Stam, 2004). Thanks to the application of different approach to data aggregation the subjective decision concerning weights imposed on IC indicators made by Bontis was confirmed. Different factor loadings and resulting from them factor scores for each measurement model of components of IC and IC itself proved the indicators are not of the same importance. Although it could be useful and interesting to compare their relative importance, unfortunately it was impossible to conduct due to the lack of entire comparability of the indicators used. Strong correlation between IC index and GDP per capita indicated that there was a significant level of information carried by the IC index. First of all, it should be pointed out that IC probably explains significant part of the difference in the level of development of various countries. Secondly, it does not carry the full information about the value of the GDP in economy, so it possibly carries also information about the future development of a country.
An approximate form of the Rayleigh reflection loss and its phase: application to reverberation calculation.

A useful approximation to the Rayleigh reflection coefficient for two half-spaces composed of water over sediment is derived. This exhibits dependence on angle that may deviate considerably from linear in the interval between grazing and critical. It shows that the non-linearity can be expressed as a separate function that multiplies the linear loss coefficient. This non-linearity term depends only on sediment density and does not depend on sediment sound speed or volume absorption. The non-linearity term tends to unity, i.e., the reflection loss becomes effectively linear, when the density ratio is about 1.27. The reflection phase in the same approximation leads to the well-known "effective depth" and "lateral shift. " A class of closed-form reverberation (and signal-to-reverberation) expressions has already been developed [C. H. Harrison, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114, 2744-2756 (2003); C. H. Harrison, J. Comput. Acoust. 13, 317-340 (2005); C. H. Harrison, IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. 30, 660-675 (2005)]. The findings of this paper enable one to convert these reverberation expressions from simple linear loss to more general reflecting environments. Correction curves are calculated in terms of sediment density. These curves are applied to a test case taken from a recent ONR-funded Reverberation Workshop.
RPI BLENDER TAC-KBP2016 System Description

We used Stanford Corenlp toolkit (Manning et al., 2014b) for English name tagging. To extract name mentions from Chinese and Spanish documents, we use bi-directional LSTMs (Long Short Term Memory) networks which can leverage long distance features. The input of the networks are pretrained word embeddings and randomly generalized character embeddings. Both word embedding and character embeddings are updated during the training. We used Chinese Wikipedia to pre-train Chinese embeddings, and used the monolingual corpora listed at: http://128.2. 220.95/multilingual/ to train Spanish embeddings. The name tagging training corpora we used include: 1) Chinese OntoNotes 5.0 and EDL2015 Chinese training set, 2) Spanish CoNLL2012 data set and EDL2015 Spanish training set. The Development and test sets of both languages are the EDL 2015 evaluation set. We also applied pre-processing on the training set: 1) removing XML tags, 2) re-segmentating and re-tokenizing, 3) correct name entity tag mistakes that caused by different entity type definition from different sources. For the third preprocessing method aforementioned, we used our entity linking module to correct incorrect tags. For example, in CoNLL training data, “Eurooa” in “Las 4 veces que me he hecho agredir en Eurooa han sido por negros! ” is tagged as LOC, since our linking module returns “GPE” for “Eurooa”, we changed “LOC” to “GPE” in the training data. We also acquired and exploited non-traditional language-specific resources, and incorporate them into a novel neural network framework. Finally, we apply a cross-lingual knowledge transfer approach we recently developed (Lu et al., 2016) to discover comparable documents in English with rich semantic resources (e.g., Abstract Meaning Representation), and project Entity Discovery and Linking results from English documents back to Chinese and Spanish. We also learned entity priors from a multi-lingual knowledge base.