Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Formative Evaluation in the Development of Learner-centered Materials

In this article we report on an 8-year process that included three successive iterations of the following cycle: (a) development of instructional technology, (b) formative evaluation, and (c) modification of the technology. From the first formative evaluation to the last, our students told us that they found heavily contextualized language difficult to learn and frequently requested more decontextualized language for textbook presentations and for practice. With the aid of formative evaluation data (e.g., performance data based on think aloud protocols, attitudinal data, retrospective interviews, and course surveys), we tried to strike a balance between what students said they wanted (i.e., more decontextualized language input and practice) and what we as language teachers and curriculum developers believed that they needed (i.e., more contextualized language input and practice). Three theoretical constructs proved particularly relevant in helping us interpret the data: activity theory (Lantolf & Appel, 1994; Lantolf, 2000); the naïve lexical hypothesis (Bland, Noblitt, Armington, & Gay, 1990); and the lexical approach (Lewis, 1993), also known as the lexical syllabus (Willis, 1990). We argue that when formative evaluation becomes a central part of the development of instructional technology, the results are a more learner-centered curriculum with more user-friendly technology.
THE ADENOMATOUS POLYPOSIS COLI TUMOR SUPPRESSOR GENE SUPPRESSES DEOXYCHOLIC ACID INDUCTION OF THE CHEMOTACTIC CYTOKINE CXCL8 IN HUMAN COLORECTAL CANCER

12 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND . 13 Cancer Statistics . 13 Environmental Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer . 13 Genetic Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer . 16 Inflammation and Cancer . 19 Inflammatory Bowel Disease . 19 Metabolic Syndrome . 20 Inflammatory Molecules-Chemotactic Cytokines . 20 Inflammatory Molecules-CXCL8 . 23 Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). 23 Statement of the Problem . 25 Hypothesis . 25 Specific Aims . 25 CHAPTER 2: MATERIALS AND METHODS . 26 Materials . 26 Methods . 27 Cell Cultures . 27 Cell Culture Treatments . 30 RNA Isolation 30 Reverse Transcription and Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) . 30 Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Extraction . 33 RIPA Lysis and TCA Precipitation 33 Western Analysis of Protein Expression 34 Plasmids . 37 Transient Transfection of Luciferase Reporter Constructs . 39 Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) 39 Invasion Assays . 40 Statistical Analysis . 41 Immunohistochemistry (IHC) 41
Manual of Office-Based Anesthesia Procedures

The manual offers guidance on how to set up and maintain a safe office-based anesthesia practice in line with standards of the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the American Medical Association. The book covers all procedures commonly performed in an office setting, including cosmetic surgery, dentistry, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, gastrointestinal endoscopy, and post-bariatric surgery.
A SYNDROME OF INFANTILISM, CONGENITAL WEBBED NECK, AND CUBITUS VALGUS1

The triad, infantilism, webbing of the skin of the neck, and deformity of the elbow (cubitus valgus), occurring in the same individual is unusual, and, to my knowledge, has not been previously reported. It is sufficiently interesting to warrant this report, although the individual signs are perhaps not uncommon. Short neck, due to absence of the cervical spine, was first described by Klippel and Feil (1) in 1912. Only about 40 such cases have been reported to date, and these mostly in the French and German literature. A similar condition (pseudo-Klippel-Feil syndrome) (2) has been reported, in which there was a numerical variation in, and more or less complete fusion of, the cervical vertebrae. Webbing of the neck was first described by Kobylinski (3) in 1882, and its relation to congenital short neck was suggested by Darchter (4) in 1922.
Distributed optimization for cognitive radio networks using game theory

The focus of this thesis is to establish a game theoretic framework for cognitive radio (CR) wireless networks in which each user could adapt the parameters and operations according to the dynamic environment and its past experience to achieve optimal performance of itself as well as the equilibrium point of the whole network. By combining recent results in information theory, wireless network, control theory, and artificial intelligence, we establish a series of distributed learning algorithms for each user to improve its performance without causing adverse effects on others. We first introduce a simple distributed power control algorithm for the spatial spectrum sharing based multi-user CR network. In this network, maximizing the performance of the unlicensed users, called secondary users (SU), without violating the power constraints imposed by the licensed users, called primary users (PU), is a very important task. It is proved that, by using the proposed algorithm, each SU could iteratively improve its performance to approach a Nash equilibrium (NE). In addition, our setting does not require each SU to know the global channel state information as well as communicate with other SUs. It is proved that the proposed algorithm approaches to a ε-NE at a rate of Tε = O ( exp ( 1 ε )) . To further improve the convergence speed, we also propose a sub-optimal algorithm which could approach a neighborhood of a NE at a speed of Tε′ log Tε′ = O ( 1 ε′ ) . We next investigate the performance of a general multi-user CR network when
SLAM with MTT: Theory and Initial Results

To make a robot to work for and with human, the ability to simultaneously localize itself, accurately map its surroundings, and safely detect and track moving objects around it is a key prerequisite for a truly autonomous robot. In this paper, we explore the theoretical framework of this problem, i.e. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) with Multiple Target Tracking (MTT), and propose to employ Sequential Monte Carlo Methods (SMCM) as robust and computationally efficient algorithm. After mathematically formulating the problem, we apply a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter to solve SLAM which is partitioned into robot pose and feature location estimations and a conditioned particle filter to solve MTT which is partitioned into robot pose and moving object state estimations, both filters conditioned on robot pose. In detail, we propose Sampling Importance Resampling (SIR) method to estimate robot pose, Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate feature location, and Hybrid Independent/Coupled Sample-based Joint Probability Data Association Filter (Hyb-SJPDAF) to solve tracking and data association problem. We present some preliminary experimental results to demonstrate the capabilities of our approach. Key words—Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), Multiple Target Tracking (MTT), Sequential Monte Carlo Method (SMCM), Sampling Importance Resampling (SIR), Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), Joint Probability Data Association (JPDA)
Cost-performance analysis of FPGA, VLSI and WSI implementations of a RAM-based neural network

The paper analyses the hardware implementation of a probabilistic RAM based neural network architecture, named HyperNet in terms of system training speed, size, and component cost. All the systems presented include on-board reinforcement training logic and the necessary control and interface circuitry. Circuit area, gate count, and speed figures are extrapolated from a 10,240 neuron custom VLSI based system constructed at the University of Hertfordshire in 1993. Varying degrees of parallelism, and three implementation technologies are considered. A palm-sized system with a single Xilinx 4025 FPGA serial processor can deliver approximately 800 times the performance of a Sun SPARCstation 10 at a cost of less than #1000. A double Eurocard sized custom VLSI based fully parallel system costs of the order of #10K and offers over five orders of magnitude training speed improvement over a Sun SPARCstation 10.
A Multi-Institutional Assessment of the Use of POGIL in Organic Chemistry

Assessments of POGIL instruction in organic chemistry at seven institutions indicate that POGIL reduces attrition without lowering standards, improves student learning, and promotes the development of key process skills such as critical thinking, teamwork and self-assessment. In both POGIL and lecture sections, common exams including the ACS Organic Exam were used as a basis for comparing student learning, and the Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG) survey was used as a measure of growth in process skills. Over 1000 surveys collected from seven institutions indicate that fewer than 8% of POGIL students are negative about the method. The similarities of the findings across the different settings provide general evidence for the effectiveness of POGIL.
The Effect of Different Orthodontic Force on MMP 9 Expression in a Rat Diabetic Model

Orthodontic forces produce alveolar bone and periodontal ligament remodeling that cause tooth movement. Diabetes can increase tissue damage and, therefore, contributes to the process of orthodontic tooth movement. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of differently orthodontic forces on the expression of MMP nine in rat diabetic model. Twenty four male Wistar rats were divided into three groups of control and three groups of treatment streptozotocin-induced diabetes with stratified doses. Application of orthodontic appliance was performed with different forces (10, 20 and 30 grF). Orthodontic appliance was performed on both upper incisors. Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis was used to observe the expression of MMP 9 and HE (Hematoxylen Eosin) staining to observe the number of fibroblasts. Statistical analysis was carried out using t-test and Spearman correlation analysis to determine the difference of MMP nine expression and number of fibroblasts between groups, and determine the correlation of both. The results showed an increased expression of MMP 9 and decreased of fibroblasts number in diabetic rats, along with increasing magnitude of orthodontic forces. The different orthodontic forces given to diabetic rats affect the expression of MMP 9 and the number of fibroblasts, in which the expression of MMP 9 increased along with the increase of orthodontic forces, both at pressure and tension sides.
Can't Get Enough of Myself: The Return of Narcissus in Autoerotic Female Poses in Advertisements

Stefan Thomas is Research Associate at the Chair of Marketing at University of Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 16, 86159 Augsburg, Germany, Phone: +49/821 598 4048, E-mail: stefan.thomas@ wiwi.uni-augsburg.de. Heribert Gierl is Professor of Marketing at University of Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 16, 86159 Augsburg, Germany, Phone: +49/821 598 4052, E-mail: heribert.gierl@wiwi. uni-augsburg.de. *Corresponding author Can’t Get Enough of Myself: The Return of Narcissus in Autoerotic Female Poses in Advertisements
STUDIES ON SOUTH AMERICAN YELLOW FEVER

Yellow fever virus from M. rhesus has been inoculated into a South American monkey (Cebus macrocephalus) by blood injection and by bites of infected mosquitoes. The Cebus does not develop the clinical or pathological signs of yellow fever. Nevertheless, the virus persists in the Cebus for a time as shown by the typical symptoms and lesions which develop when the susceptible M. rhesus is inoculated from a Cebus by direct transfer of blood or by mosquito (A. aegypti) transmission.
Four Geometrical Problems from the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus

Six years ago one of the writers, then engaged on the publication of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, was allowed by the Russian authorities to have photographs of the somewhat similar but rather earlier papyrus formerly in the possession of Professor W. Golenishchef, and now preserved in the Moscow Museum. At a later date M. Romanof, Director of the Moscow Museum, very kindly supplied the other writer with a similar set of photographs, at the instance of M. V. Vikentief, of the Egyptian University. As the papyrus in question was to be published by Professor Struve it was understood that its contents, although available for study and comparison, were not to be made public by others, and this condition has been strictly observed. One problem, however, involving the correct determination of the volume of a truncated pyramid, had already been published by Turaief in Ancient Egypt, 1917, 100-2, and was therefore exempt from the embargo. In 1925, moreover, Zinzerling published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences an article based on a paper read to the Academy several years previously by Turaief; it contained an exposition of the principles of Egyptian geometry, together with transcriptions of four new problems from the Moscow papyrus. The transcriptions, stated to be by Turaief, are both inaccurate and incomplete, and it is probable that their author, had he lived, would never have given them to the world in their present form. Three of the new problems are geometrical; the fourth is concerned with measures of capacity.
AK-means: an automatic clustering algorithm based on K-means

In data mining, K-means is a simple and fast algorithm for solving clustering problems, but it requires that the user provides in advance the exact number of clusters (k), which is often not obvious. Thus, this paper intends to overcome this problem by proposing a parameter-free algorithm for automatic clustering. It is based on successive adequate restarting of K-means algorithm. Experiments conducted on several standard data sets demonstrate that the proposed approach is effective and outperforms the related well known algorithm G-means, in terms of clustering accuracy and estimation of the correct number of clusters.
Can Smartphone Apps Increase Physical Activity? Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Smartphone apps are a promising tool for delivering accessible and appealing physical activity interventions. Given the large growth of research in this field, there are now enough studies using the “gold standard” of experimental design—the randomized controlled trial design—and employing objective measurements of physical activity, to support a meta-analysis of these scientifically rigorous studies. Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effectiveness of smartphone apps for increasing objectively measured physical activity in adults. Methods A total of 7 electronic databases (EMBASE, EmCare, MEDLINE, Scopus, Sport Discus, The Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) were searched from 2007 to January 2018. Following the Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome and Study Design format, studies were eligible if they were randomized controlled trials involving adults, used a smartphone app as the primary or sole component of the physical activity intervention, used a no- or minimal-intervention control condition, and measured objective physical activity either in the form of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity minutes or steps. Study quality was assessed using a 25-item tool based on the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials checklist. A meta-analysis of study effects was conducted using a random effects model approach. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine whether intervention effectiveness differed on the basis of intervention length, target behavior (physical activity alone vs physical activity in combination with other health behaviors), or target population (general adult population vs specific health populations). Results Following removal of duplicates, a total of 6170 studies were identified from the original database searches. Of these, 9 studies, involving a total of 1740 participants, met eligibility criteria. Of these, 6 studies could be included in a meta-analysis of the effects of physical activity apps on steps per day. In comparison with the control conditions, smartphone apps produced a nonsignificant (P=.19) increase in participants’ average steps per day, with a mean difference of 476.75 steps per day (95% CI −229.57 to 1183.07) between groups. Sensitivity analyses suggested that physical activity programs with a duration of less than 3 months were more effective than apps evaluated across more than 3 months (P=.01), and that physical activity apps that targeted physical activity in isolation were more effective than apps that targeted physical activity in combination with diet (P=.04). Physical activity app effectiveness did not appear to differ on the basis of target population. Conclusions This meta-analysis provides modest evidence supporting the effectiveness of smartphone apps to increase physical activity. To date, apps have been most effective in the short term (eg, up to 3 months). Future research is needed to understand the time course of intervention effects and to investigate strategies to sustain intervention effects over time.
Effects of Hardiness and Years of Military Service on Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in U.S. Army Medics

We examined the effects of hardiness on symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in postdeployed U.S. Army medics (N = 322). Medics endure a high level of work-related stress on and off the battlefield. Hardiness correlated negatively with reports of PTS symptoms and moderated the cumulative effects of years of military service on PTS symptoms. After controlling for socially desirable responding, PTS symptoms increased with years of military service for those with low levels of hardiness and decreased with years of military service for those with very high levels of hardiness. The military’s current resiliency training programs would likely benefit from incorporating hardiness measures and principles into its curriculum.
Multiwavelength survivable ring network architectures

A new architecture for implementing unidirectional and bidirectional self-healing interoffice ring networks using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology for growth is proposed. The working ring uses all-optical drop-and-add multiplexers at each office and the protection path uses optical amplifiers and optical switches. The use of WDM technology, combined with all-optical drop-and-add multiplexers, accommodates growth to a network capacity of more than 1 Tb/s. <<ETX>>
Position-Constrained Stochastic Inference for Cooperative Indoor Localization

We address the problem of distributed cooperative localization in wireless networks, i.e., nodes without prior position knowledge (agents) wish to determine their own positions. In non-cooperative approaches, positioning is only based on information from reference nodes with known positions (anchors). However, in cooperative positioning, information from other agents is considered as well. Cooperative positioning requires encoding of the uncertainties of agents’ positions. To cope with that demand, we consider stochastic inference for localization, which inherently takes the position uncertainties of agents into consideration. Generally, stochastic inference comes at the expense of high costs in terms of computation and information exchange. To relax the requirements of inference algorithms, we propose the framework of position-constrained stochastic inference, in which we first confine the positions of nodes to constrained regions. These regions assist inference algorithms to concentrate on the important areas of the sample space rather than the entire sample space. In contrast to many state-of-the-art approaches, our approach does not require prior knowledge on the positions of agents. We show through simulations that increased localization accuracy, reduced computational complexity, and quicker convergence can be achieved when compared to state-of-the-art non-constrained inference algorithms.
Invited Article: Scalable high-sensitivity optomechanical magnetometers on a chip

The dual-resonant enhancement of mechanical and optical response in cavity optomechanical magnetometers enables precision sensing of magnetic fields. In previous working prototypes of such magnetometers, a cavity optomechanical system is functionalized by manually epoxy-bonding a grain of magnetostrictive material. While this approach allows proof-of-principle demonstrations, practical applications require more scalable and reproducible fabrication pathways. In this work, we developed a multiple-step method to scalably fabricate optomechanical magnetometers on a silicon chip, with reproducible performance across different devices. The key step is to develop a process to sputter coat a magnetostrictive film onto high quality toroidal microresonators, without degradation of the optical quality factor. A peak sensitivity of 585 pT/root Hz is achieved, which is comparable with previously reported results using epoxy-bonding. Furthermore, we demonstrate that thermally annealing the sputtered film can improve the magnetometer sensitivity by a factor of 6.3.
Validity and generalization in future case study evaluations

Validity and generalization continue to be challenging aspects in designing and conducting case study evaluations, especially when the number of cases being studied is highly limited (even limited to a single case). To address the challenge, this article highlights current knowledge regarding the use of: (1) rival explanations, triangulation, and logic models in strengthening validity, and (2) analytic generalization and the role of theory in seeking to generalize from case studies. To ground the discussion, the article cites specific practices and examples from the existing literature as well as from the six preceding articles assembled in this special issue. Throughout, the article emphasizes that current knowledge may still be regarded as being at its early stage of development, still leaving room for more learning. The article concludes by pointing to three topics worthy of future methodological inquiry, including: (1) examining the connection between the way that initial evaluation questions are posed and the selection of the appropriate evaluation method in an ensuing evaluation, (2) the importance of operationally defining the ‘complexity’ of an intervention, and (3) raising awareness about case study evaluation methods more generally.
Study of Electrocardiographic Changes Associated with Acute Poisoning in Tanta Poison Center

Poisoning or intoxication is the occurrence of harmful effects resulting from exposure to a foreign substance. According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 1 million of the 110 million annual emergency department (ED) visits are related to poisoning and other toxic effects. Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a noninvasive, relatively inexpensive diagnostic test that provides important information regarding not only the heart, but also non-cardiac events impacting the cardiac system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the electrocardiographic changes conducted on 282 cases of acute poisoning admitted to Tanta Poison Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta Emergency University Hospital during the period from the start of July 2009 to the end of June 2010. In order to fulfill this aim, each patient was subjected to history taking, complete physical examination, laboratory investigations and ECG analysis. This study found that poisons associated with ECG changes account for 58.5 % of patients included in this study. Furthermore, 36.17% of patients are mainly in the middle age group between 20 and 30 years. Organophosphorus compounds (34.4%) were responsible for most cases of intoxication of ECG changes. Sinus tachycardia (73.94%) was the commonest ECG change among them. Followed by prolonged QT corrected for heart rate (QTc) interval (21.82 %) and sinus bradycardia (11.51 %).