Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of multiple choice tests in law

The paper evaluates the success in using multiple choice tests (MCT) to support student learning on the law degree at the University of Westminster. Law is a subject which does not encourage the use of MCTs as a type of summative assessment as it is difficult to set up questions that test the application of the law. However, MCTs are very useful for testing knowledge on a formative basis. The numbers entering higher education in the UK have grown dramatically over the last few years. The numbers of students studying the law of contract, a foundation subject, have grown from a cohort of about 200 students in 2000/2001 to a cohort of 450 students in 2005/2006. The summative assessment regime has remained constant in that it is composed of an essay worth 30% of the final mark and a closed book examination worth 70%. It has been noted that students were failing in the exam usually because although they absorbed the basic rules of law, they had not learnt or understood enough basic case law. Formative assessment has been embedded in the module to endeavour to remedy the fall in pass rates. In addition to a ‘mock exam’, a formative test was introduced midway through the first semester (the midsessional) in order to identify those students whose understanding of the topic was questionable. Initially this was taken as a paper MCT, but with the introduction of the Blackboard learning system, the test was moved to an on line format. This was done to ease the marking burden on staff and also to ensure that tutorial time was not lost. The informal feedback on the midsessional tests suggested that the students wanted further tests to use in their revision. In 2005 three more short MCTs were introduced on popular exam topics. There was a correlation between those students who attempted the tests and those students who were successful in the exam. The average mark obtained on the module improved by over 2% and the numbers of failures decreased. The tests were repeated again in 2006 and the data was analysed to ascertain whether the pass rates were being affected by the use of the tests. All students were emailed a short questionnaire regarding their use of the tests. The feedback from those questionnaires was analysed and some conclusions drawn as to the future role that MCTs will have on the module.
IS Knowledge and Skills Sought by Employers: A Content Analysis of Australian IS Early Career Online Job Advertisements

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the knowledge, skills and competencies demanded of early career information systems (IS) graduates in Australia. Online job advertisements from 2006 were collected and investigated using content analysis software to determine the frequencies and patterns of occurrence of specific requirements. This analysis reveals a dominant cluster of core IS knowledge and competency skills that revolves around IS Development as the most frequently required category of knowledge (78% of ads) and is strongly associated with: Business Analysis, Systems Analysis; Management; Operations, Maintenance & Support; Communication Skills; Personal Characteristics; Computer Languages; Data & Information Management; Internet, Intranet, Web Applications; and Software Packages. Identification of the core cluster of IS knowledge and skills - in demand across a wide variety of jobs - is important to better understand employers' needs for and expectations from IS graduates and the implications for education programs. Much less prevalent is the second cluster that includes knowledge and skills at a more technical side of IS (Architecture and Infrastructure, Operating Systems, Networks, and Security). Issues raised include the nature of entry level positions and their role in the preparation of their incumbents for future more senior positions. The findings add an Australian perspective to the literature on information systems job ads and should be of value to educators, employers, as well as current and future IS professionals.
The Dynamic Effect of Micro-Structural Shocks on Private Investment Behavior

This paper estimates the dynamic effect of three micro-structural shocks, namely, investment-specific technology, markup and technology shocks to key components of the Iranian economy: private investment behaviour. The identification strategy positions the structural shocks to private investment behaviour in the Dynamics Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) framework with a three-accuracy test estimation: The Brooks and Gelman test, the Metropolis-Hastings jumping distribution acceptance ratio, and the distribution of the deep posteriors parameters are asymptotically normal. The quarter economic data of Iran economy from July 1988 until March 2015 is applied. The findings illustrate that the structural shocks about technology have a similar impact and cause a growth in private investment, and the only difference is, in investment-specific technology shock due to a temporary decrease in the capital expenses installation (Tobin's Q), an investment boom is driven. In contrast, the price markup shock due to inflation causes a decline in all investment indices.
Contaminated Chi-square Modeling and Its Application in Microarray Data Analysis

OF DISSERTATION Contaminated Chi-square Modeling and Its Application in Microarray Data Analysis Mixture modeling has numerous applications. One particular interest is microarray data analysis. My dissertation research is focused on the Contaminated Chi-Square (CCS) Modeling and its application in microarray. A moment-based method and two likelihood-based methods including Modified Likelihood Ratio Test (MLRT) and Expectation-Maximization (EM) Test are developed for testing the omnibus null hypothesis of no contamination of a central chi-square distribution by a non-central Chi-Square distribution. When the omnibus null hypothesis is rejected, we further developed the moment-based test and the EM test for testing an extra component to the Contaminated Chi-Square (CCS+EC) Model. The moment-based approach is easy and there is no need for re-sampling or random field theory to obtain critical values. When the statistical models are complicated such as large mixtures of dimensional distributions, MLRT and EM test may have better power than moment based approaches, and the MLRT and EM tests developed herein enjoy an elegant asymptotic theory.
Large-scale assessment of human mobility during COVID-19 outbreak

Social distancing is an important measure to prevent the collapse of public health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some countries have managed to impose a strong control for social distancing, countries like Brazil largely depend on the population’s cooperation. Therefore, it is very necessary to monitor human mobility to detect whether social distancing policies are being implemented and to adjust them in places where the population is not adhering to these. By using cell phone data of millions of people, we were able to assess the population mobility in Brazil’s biggest city, São Paulo. Our analysis revealed the reduction in the circulation of people in most neighborhoods after social distancing policies began. We also showed the dispersion of people by tracking the visits of people to the GRU airport and the visit locations of the same people after they left the airport. Over the course of a few days, it was possible to detect over 70,000 visits across Brazil, with distances greater than 2,000 km from the GRU airport. We hope that data when collected in real time can be useful to stem the progress of the COVID-19 epidemic, or at least to help “flatten the curve”.
Essays on operational productivity and customer satisfaction in offshore software projects

In recent times, both academia and practitioners have increasingly focused on the importance of offshore outsourcing. Analysts estimate that the offshore component of IT services is expected to rise to $70 billion by 2007. Despite this increase, the popular press has cited dissatisfaction among firms that have outsourced software projects to offshore locations. Primary reasons cited for the customer dissatisfaction with outsourcing include the increased complexity of managing the relationship, reduced productivity and reduced operational effectiveness. This issue has not received much academic attention. This dissertation attempts to address this gap in the academic literature by studying the problem from two different perspectives of a software supply chain. The first perspective is effectiveness–where the focus is on managing the internal processes to have a positive impact on customers. This is important, because a satisfied customer is key to a successful and profitable organization. Accordingly, in Chapter 2 of this dissertation, we study the determinants of project performance and customer satisfaction in outsourced offshore software projects. The second perspective is the internal efficiency–where focus is on increasing the efficiency of processes and people; thus, leading to increase in productivity. Clearly these two perspectives are intertwined. An understanding of factors affecting productivity of individuals will enable the managers to set appropriate goals for team members, improve delivery performance, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction. Chapters 3 and 4 of this dissertation investigate productivity improvement using software maintenance as a context. In Chapter 3, we investigate the role of both individual-level factors, such as overall experience, task variety, and newness of task handled, and team-level factors such as team size, new team member entry, and team member exit, on individual productivity. Next, in Chapter 4, we investigate how productivity can be improved by better allocation of individual’s effort to tasks that have the following property: the longer it takes to resolve the task, the less is the likelihood that the task will be completed successfully.
Clinical Features and Survival Outcome of Patients with Malignant Transformation Arising in Mature Cystic Teratoma: A 20-Year Experience at Multicenter Institution and Literature Review on 342 Cases

Background: To analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis in malignant transformation of mature cystic teratoma (MT-MCT). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 23 patients (cohort 3) diagnosed with MT-MCT from the medical center (Tongji Hospital and Hubei cancer hospital), between January 1990 to June 2020. Cohort 2 was obtained from the PubMed, CNKI, Web of Science, and MEDLINE database, between January 1990 to June 2020. Cohort 3 was based on the surveillance, epidemiology, and results registry (SEER) database, between January 1975 and December 2016. Results: Among 3865 cases diagnosed with mature cystic teratoma, the incidence of MT-MCT is 23 (0.59%). The mean age of 23 patients was 50.6 years (median 49.0, range 24 to71 years). Patients mainly had abdominal pain (21.7%) or complained about an abdominal mass (30.4%). The mean tumor size was 11.6 cm (median 11.9, range 5.2 to 14.8 cm). According to the FIGO stage, eight patients were in stage I (34.8%), two cases were in stage II (8.6%), III (47.8%), and IV (8.7%), respectively. Most patients were diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma (91.3%). Most patients received total hysterectomy, salpingo-oophorectomy, and omentectomy. Five patients (21.7%) received lymphadenectomy. Platinum-based chemotherapy and radiotherapy were selectively used for patients after surgical resection. The mean of disease-free survival was 27.3 months (median 22.0, range 3.0 to 67.0 months). According to the published data analysis of 342 cases, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 53.2%, 33.1%, and 23.2%, respectively. The young patients (＜55 years) showed better prognosis. Conclusion: MT-MCT has an aggressive clinical course, with poor long-term prognosis. The high incidence in postmenopausal women should not be ignored. The effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy after surgery is needed to elucidate in the future.
A Building Information Model (BIM) Based Lifecycle Assessment of a University Hospital Building Built to Passive House Standards

This thesis undertook a whole building lifecycle assessment of a university hospital building in Trondheim, Norway designed to passive house standards. The delivered energy for electricity and heating was estimated to be 122 kWh/m2. Impacts outside the energy used during the operational phase of the building were significant including 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 41% of terrestrial acidification and 43% of particulate matter formation. Normalized to the number of staff, the building emits roughly 0.75 tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year over the 50 year life of the building.
Value creation in private healthcare providers: an analysis considering the regulations of supplementary health agency (ANS)

Este artigo apresenta os resultados de um estudo que teve como objetivo analisar as variáveis que influenciaram a criação de valor nas operadoras de planos de saúde (OPS) brasileiras, sob perspectiva da regulação da Agência de Saúde Suplementar (ANS), no período de 2010 a 2016. A amostra empregada foi composta por OPS médico-hospitalares cujos dados estavam disponíveis publicamente no site da ANS. A análise dos dados empregou as seguintes técnicas: análise de conteúdo, estatística descritiva e análise de regressão com dados em painel. Com relação às decisões de investimento, com foco na criação de valor, constatou-se que as OPS usualmente criaram mais valor do que destruíram (exceto no caso das organizações da modalidade Filantropia). Pode-se concluir que as regras da ANS afetaram as diferentes modalidades de operadoras de várias formas, no que diz respeito à criação de valor. Quase todas as variáveis regulatórias foram significantes em diferentes contextos e variaram dependendo da modalidade de OPS. Isso demonstra a relevância de se considerar as especificidades de cada uma delas nas análises. A discussão apresentada pode subsidiar decisões de reguladores e gestores das organizações, devido à constatação de que a regulação da ANS sobre as OPS influencia na criação ou destruição de valor nas mesmas. Pode-se dizer que a regulação pode desenvolver um oligopólio neste setor e/ou criar oportunidades de criação de valor para as organizações.
Performance of Wireless Networks Subject to Constraints and Failures

Recent years have seen a proliferation in the use of wireless multi-hop networks in diverse scenarios ranging from community mesh networks to wireless sensor networks. As wireless networks find application in such wide-ranging arenas and are deployed at large scale, they will increasingly need to operate in the presence of heterogeneous, and often constrained, hardware capabilities. Furthermore, fault-tolerant communication algorithms will be required to provide the building blocks for reliable operation in the face of failure and/or disruption. In this dissertation, we have investigated performance and fault-tolerance issues in networks of such wireless devices. We have studied two specific problem domains, viz., throughput performance in multi-channel wireless networks where devices have heterogeneous and constrained channel switching capabilities, and feasibility of fault-tolerant broadcast in single channel wireless networks where devices can exhibit Byzantine or crash-stop failure.
New England English

For nearly 400 years, New England has held an important place in the development of American English, and “New England accents” are very well known in popular imagination. But since the 1930s, no large-scale academic book project has focused specifically on New England English. While other research projects have studied dialect features in various regions of New England, this is the first large-scale scholarly project to focus solely on New England English since the Linguistic Atlas of New England. This book presents new research covering all six New England states, with detailed geographic, phonetic, and statistical analysis of data collected from over 1,600 New Englanders. The book covers the past, present, and future of New England dialect features, analyzing them with dialect maps and statistical modeling in terms of age, gender, social class, ethnicity, and other factors. The book reports on a recent large-scale data collection project that included 367 field interviews, 626 audio-recorded interviews, and 634 online written questionnaires. Using computational methods, the project processed over 200,000 individual vowels in audio recordings to examine changes in New England speech. The researchers also manually examined 30,000 instances of /r/ to investigate “r-dropping” in words like “park” and so on. The book also reviews other recent research in the area. Using acoustic phonetics, computational processing, detailed statistical analyses, dialect maps, and graphical illustrations, the book systematically documents all of the major traditional New England dialect features, other regional features, and their current usage across New England.
Prognostic Significance of Ki-67 and p53 Immunoexpression in Breast Carcinoma Patients with Positive Axillary Lymph Nodes

Introduction: Breast carcinoma is a heterogenous disorder in which the treatment modality should be based on a risk assessment approach and only patients with higher relative risk of recurrence and distant metastasis should be the appropriate candidates for adjuvant therapy. This is where role of prognostic variables like Ki-67 and p53 immunoexpression as biomarkers of proliferative activity of tumor cells becomes important. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of Ki-67 and p53 immunoexpression as prognostic biomarkers in breast carcinoma patients with positive axillary lymph nodes. Material and Methods: A total of 182 breast cancer patients were included in the study, assessed for various clinicopathological characteristics and after receiving the mastectomy/lobectomy specimen, tissue sections about 1cm thick were taken from representative areas, processed in an automated tissue processor (Histokinette) and simultaneously stained for routine hematoxylin and eosin stain along with Ki-67 and p53 immunostains and patients followed up. Results: High Ki-67 and p53 immunoexpression was significantly associated with larger tumor size, higher tumor grade, axillary lymph node metastasis, higher disease stage at presentation, lymphovascular invasion, early recurrence, shortened disease free survival and worse overall survival. Conclusions: Ki-67 and p53 immunoexpression can be used as a surrogate biomarker along with other clinicopathological characteristics in resource constrained facilities for better prediction of prognosis of breast cancer patients with positive axillary lymph nodes.
Radical Trust Works: An Investigation of Digital Visitor Generated Content and Visitor Engagement in Museum Spaces

Visitor generated content projects are becoming increasingly significant in the development and delivery of engaging visitor experiences in museums in the UK, but the rationale behind them and the impact they are having on not only visitor engagement but also museum practice are not always clear. There is a requirement to understand and articulate the impact of digital visitor co-creation in the museum environment and to discuss the challenges of implementing digital innovation projects in museums and the implications this has on institutional change. This thesis presents an investigation into the potential of digital visitor generated content applications in museum spaces to foster visitor engagement. The study emphasises that in order to develop engaging digital visitor generated content applications, museums must radically trust their visitors. As part of this research two digital visitor generated content systems were designed, tested, implemented and evaluated in three museums in the UK; the Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL, the Imperial War Museum, London and the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester. This thesis discusses the process of inception to evaluation of these applications and considers their impact on visitor engagement and goes on to investigate the challenges they bring to implementing digital innovation in a museum environment. Two key issues came out of the research into digital visitor generated content; the importance of radical trust and the fact that post moderation with digital visitor generated content does work. Additionally this thesis identified a number of challenges about the way that digital innovation projects are conducted and how they could be overcome, and finally some recommendations are offered for museums seeking to undertake digital innovation projects in the future.
The Neurosurgical Management of Peroneal Nerve Injury: An Experience of 14 Cases

Objectives: To describe the neurosurgical technical nuances of peroneal nerve injury management and to analyze the outcomes of patients diagnosed with peroneal nerve injury operated on at a single institution. Methods: Fourteen patients, all with electroneuromyography confirmation of peroneal nerve injury, were retrospectively analyzed. The variables analyzed included patient demographic characteristics, etiology of the lesion, preoperative neurological status, location of the lesion, perioperative findings, surgical technique, complications, and neurological status six months postoperatively. Results: Traumatic injury was the most common cause of peroneal nerve injury, accounting for 64.27% of cases. Concerning surgical technique, neurolysis was the preferred technique in most cases. Isolated neurolysis was performed in 50% of the cases, neurolysis combined with graft in 7.14%, and neurolysis combined with ganglion cyst excision in 21.43%. In our study, surgical treatment led to improvement in foot strength, with statistical relevance, in both sexes. Only one complication was observed. Conclusions: Surgical exploration and repair of peroneal nerve injuries achieved good results in this series, with functional improvement of the analyzed patients in both sexes. When appropriate, surgical repair can lead to favorable outcome and early surgery can be a therapeutic strategy in selected cases.
Exploiting Heterogeneous Channel Coherence Intervals for Blind Interference Alignment

We explore 5 Â network communication problems where the possibility of interference alignment, and consequently the total number of degrees of freedom (DoF) with channel uncertainty at the transmitters, Â are unknown. These problems share the common property that in each case the best known outer bounds are essentially robust to channel uncertainty and represent the outcome with interference alignment, but the best inner bounds --- in some cases conjectured to be optimal --- Â predict a total collapse of DoF, thus indicating the infeasibility of interference alignment under channel uncertainty at transmitters. Our main contribution is to introduce the idea of blind interference alignment. Specifically, we show that even with no knowledge of channel coefficient values at the transmitters, the knowledge of the channels' coherence structure can be exploited to achieve interference alignment. In each case, we show that under certain heterogeneous block fading models, i.e., when certain users experience smaller coherence time/bandwidth than others, Â the transmitters are able to align interference without the knowledge of channel coefficient values.
The Relationship Between Head Coaches' Influence and Student Engagement of NCAA DI Women Basketball Players: Implications for Student-Athlete Success

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