Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Education and the growth of knowledge : perspectives from social and virtue epistemology

Notes on Contributors vii Introduction Education, Social Epistemology and Virtue Epistemology Ben Kotzee 1 1 Epistemic Dependence in Testimonial Belief, in the Classroom and Beyond Sanford Goldberg 14 2 Learning from Others David Bakhurst 36 3 Anscombe s Teachers Jeremy Wanderer 55 4 Can Inferentialism Contribute to Social Epistemology? Jan Derry 76 5 Epistemic Virtue and the Epistemology of Education Duncan Pritchard 92 6 Educating for Intellectual Virtues: From Theory to Practice Jason Baehr 106 7 Detecting Epistemic Vice in Higher Education Policy: Epistemic Insensibility in the Seven Solutions and the REF Heather Battaly 124 8 Three Different Conceptions of Know-How and Their Relevance to Professional and Vocational Education Christopher Winch 145 9 The Epistemic Value of Diversity Emily Robertson 166 Index 179
The Decoy Effect for Passwords – A First Exploration

This paper reports on an online survey eliciting effects of a decoy choice architecture for passwords. The survey measured preference for a given set of passwords and was conducted as a pre-study to a more interactive online-study to give us a feeling about the constraints of decoy passwords. The survey revealed that in some scenarios it is possible to influence the preference for a target password by introducing an unfavorable decoy password. However, the preference for our target password was generally high, which leads us to believe that the choice architecture needs to be evolved further.
Do Multipurpose Solutions Damage Porcine Corneal Epithelial Cells?

Purpose. To determine and compare the cytotoxic effects on porcine corneal epithelial cells of commercially available multipurpose solutions (MPS) using fluorescein staining and flow cytometry (FCM). Methods. Effects of exposure time of 10 s to 10 min of MPS containing polyquaternium-1 (MPS-A), polyaminopropyl biguanide (MPS-B), and polyhexanide (MPS-C), on porcine corneal epithelial cells were determined. Cell viability and membrane integrity were assessed by Annexin V-FITC/7-AAD staining and FCM. In further trials, whole corneas were immersed in MPS and control (buffered saline), and corneal fluorescein staining assessed before FCM analysis. Results. Significantly higher percentages of 7-AAD-stained cells (early necrosis) were observed at all exposure times for MPS-A than for other solutions and control (p < 0.05). Exposure time in MPS-A and 7-AAD-stained cell proportions showed significant correlation (r = 0.9957; p < 0.0001). Significantly more cells dual-stained with Annexin V-FITC/7-AAD (late necrosis) after 5 min MPS-A exposure (11.8 ± 1.1%), compared with 1.2 ± 0.9% (MPS-B), 0.9 ± 0.5% (MPS-C), and 1.8 ± 0.2% (control). However, only 10 min exposure resulted in significant increases in fluorescein grades (p < 0.001), with median grade 0.75 for MPS-A, and 0.50 for the other MPS. Conclusions. MPS exposure, especially MPS-A, affected the viability and integrity of porcine corneal epithelial cells. Furthermore, our results confirmed that fluorescein staining correlates poorly with cytotoxicity. As fluorescein staining lacks sensitivity to determine cytotoxic effects of ophthalmic solutions, more objective and sensitive assessment methods such as differential staining and FCM should be developed.
AQP1 Is Not Only a Water Channel: It Contributes to Cell Migration through Lin7/Beta-Catenin

Background AQP1 belongs to aquaporins family, water-specific, membrane-channel proteins expressed in diverse tissues. Recent papers showed that during angiogenesis, AQP1 is expressed preferentially by microvessels, favoring angiogenesis via the increase of permeability In particular, in AQP1 null mice, endothelial cell migration is impaired without altering their proliferation or adhesion. Therefore, AQP1 has been proposed as a novel promoter of tumor angiogenesis. Methods/Findings Using targeted silencing of AQP1 gene expression, an impairment in the organization of F-actin and a reduced migration capacity was demonstrated in human endothelial and melanoma cell lines. Interestingly, we showed, for the first time, that AQP1 co-immunoprecipitated with Lin-7. Lin7-GFP experiments confirmed co-immunoprecipitation. In addition, the knock down of AQP1 decreased the level of expression of Lin-7 and β-catenin and the inhibition of proteasome contrasted partially such a decrease. Conclusions/Significance All together, our findings show that AQP1 plays a role inside the cells through Lin-7/β-catenin interaction. Such a role of AQP1 is the same in human melanoma and endothelial cells, suggesting that AQP1 plays a global physiological role. A model is presented.
Bounded Policy Iteration for Decentralized POMDPs

We present a bounded policy iteration algorithm for infinite-horizon decentralized POMDPs. Policies are represented as joint stochastic finite-state controllers, which consist of a local controller for each agent. We also let a joint controller include a correlation device that allows the agents to correlate their behavior without exchanging information during execution, and show that this leads to improved performance. The algorithm uses a fixed amount of memory, and each iteration is guaranteed to produce a controller with value at least as high as the previous one for all possible initial state distributions. For the case of a single agent, the algorithm reduces to Poupart and Boutilier's bounded policy iteration for POMDPs.
The functional organization of the left STS: a large scale meta-analysis of PET and fMRI studies of healthy adults

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) in the left hemisphere is functionally diverse, with sub-areas implicated in both linguistic and non-linguistic functions. However, the number and boundaries of distinct functional regions remain to be determined. Here, we present new evidence, from meta-analysis of a large number of positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, of different functional specificity in the left STS supporting a division of its middle to terminal extent into at least three functional areas. The middle portion of the left STS stem (fmSTS) is highly specialized for speech perception and the processing of language material. The posterior portion of the left STS stem (fpSTS) is highly versatile and involved in multiple functions supporting semantic memory and associative thinking. The fpSTS responds to both language and non-language stimuli but the sensitivity to non-language material is greater. The horizontal portion of the left STS stem and terminal ascending branches (ftSTS) display intermediate functional specificity, with the anterior-dorsal ascending branch (fatSTS) supporting executive functions and motor planning and showing greater sensitivity to language material, and the horizontal stem and posterior-ventral ascending branch (fptSTS) supporting primarily semantic processing and displaying greater sensitivity to non-language material. We suggest that the high functional specificity of the left fmSTS for speech is an important means by which the human brain achieves exquisite affinity and efficiency for native speech perception. In contrast, the extreme multi-functionality of the left fpSTS reflects the role of this area as a cortical hub for semantic processing and the extraction of meaning from multiple sources of information. Finally, in the left ftSTS, further functional differentiation between the dorsal and ventral aspect is warranted.
Distance spectrum analysis of polar codes

The distance spectrum is used to estimate the maximum likelihood (ML) performance of block codes. A practical method which can run on a memory-constrained computer is proposed to calculate the distance spectrum of polar codes. Utilizing the distance spectrum, the frame error rate (FER) and bit error rate (BER) performances of non-systematic polar codes (NSPCs) and systematic polar codes (SPCs) are analyzed. The union bounds as well as the simulation results illustrate that, under ML decoding, SPCs are superior to NSPCs in BER performance while NSPCs and SPCs have the same FER performance.
Socioeconomic Status, Family Environment, and Executive Functions During Middle Childhood

Socioeconomic Status, Family Environment, and Executive Functions During Middle Childhood By Tamiko Bianca Younge A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Health and Medical Sciences in the Graduated Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Douglas P. Jutte, Chair Professor Ronald Dahl Professor Karen Sokal-Gutierrez Spring 2013
Information Tools for Ethical Living : A Research Framework

Information technology helps people in many ways, but it doesn't help them answer important questions like: What do I do with my life? How should I act? How should I treat others? Perhaps IT can help ordinary people create and live a personal moral philosophy. This paper offers a framework for research on this possibility. Ethical choice is viewed as guided imagination, and moral development as improving values, imaginative capacity, and emotional response. Specific suggestions for using IT in moral exploration are provided.
Prototypes, Location, and Associative Networks (PLAN): Towards a Unified Theory of Cognitive Mapping

An integrated representation of large-scale space, or cognitive map, called PLAN, is presented that attempts to address a broader spectrum of issues than has been previously attempted in a single model. Rather than examining woyfinding OS ct process separate from the rest of cognition, one of the fundamental goals of this work is to examine how the wayfinding process is integrated into general cognition. One result of this approach is that the model is “heads-up,” or scene-based, because it takes advantage of the properties of the human visual system and, particularly, the visual system’s split into two pathways. The emphasis on the human location or “where” system is new to cognitive mapping and is part of an attempt to synthesize prototype theory, associative networks and location together in a connectionist system. Not all of PLAN is new, however. Many of its parts have anologues in one or another preexisting theory. What makes PLAN unique is integrating the various components into a coherent whole, and the capacity of this resulting system to speak to o wide range of constraints. Our approach emphasizes adaptiveness: thus, our focus on such issues as ease of use and efficiency of learning. The result is a model that has a stronger relationship both to the environment, and to the ways thot humans interact with it, compared with previous models. The resulting model is examined in some detail and compared to other systems.
The Social Policy Gender Gap among Political Elites: Testing Attitudinal Explanations

Abstract: Scholars of political elite behavior have documented a strong link between gender and social policy focus among politicians. In the electoral, legislative, and governmental arena, female politicians give higher priority to social policy matters. While this gender gap is well-documented, it is less well understood. Using measures of campaign issue emphasis as a dependent variable, this paper tests three attitudinal explanations: issue salience, ideology, and partisanship. Surprisingly, none of these predictors reduces the gender gap in campaign emphasis. These results suggest that there may be little attitudinal basis for the behavioral gender gap in social policy among political elites.
Harbor/Mooring Harbor Defense Concept

Abstract : The long-term goal of this work is an integrated defense system that provides protection of Navy assets, while in port, from the threat posed by covert swimmers. The general concept is to hail, deter, and/or incapacitate the threat by directing a controlled level of low-frequency acoustic energy at the target location. At the system level, the concept requires combining elements of target detection, classification, and tracking, localized fire control to direct acoustic energy using emplaced acoustic sources, and sources capable of delivering energy commensurate with the extant defense requirements.
Targeting the adaptive molecular landscape of castration-resistant prostate cancer

Castration and androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibitors induce profound and sustained responses in advanced prostate cancer. However, the inevitable recurrence is associated with reactivation of the AR and progression to a more aggressive phenotype termed castration‐resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). AR reactivation can occur directly through genomic modification of the AR gene, or indirectly via co‐factor and co‐chaperone deregulation. This mechanistic heterogeneity is further complicated by the stress‐driven induction of a myriad of overlapping cellular survival pathways. In this review, we describe the heterogeneous and evolvable molecular landscape of CRPC and explore recent successes and failures of therapeutic strategies designed to target AR reactivation and adaptive survival pathways. We also discuss exciting areas of burgeoning anti‐tumour research, and their potential to improve the survival and management of patients with CRPC.
Modulation of the Epithelial Sodium Channel (ENaC) by Bacterial Metalloproteases and Protease Inhibitors

The serralysin family of metalloproteases is associated with the virulence of multiple gram-negative human pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens. The serralysin proteases share highly conserved catalytic domains and show evolutionary similarity to the mammalian matrix metalloproteases. Our previous studies demonstrated that alkaline protease (AP) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is capable of activating the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), leading to an increase in sodium absorption in airway epithelia. The serralysin proteases are often co-expressed with endogenous, intracellular or periplasmic inhibitors, which putatively protect the bacterium from unwanted or unregulated protease activities. To evaluate the potential use of these small protein inhibitors in regulating the serralysin induced activation of ENaC, proteases from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens were purified for characterization along with a high affinity inhibitor from Pseudomonas. Both proteases showed activity against in vitro substrates and could be blocked by near stoichiometric concentrations of the inhibitor. In addition, both proteases were capable of activating ENaC when added to the apical surfaces of multiple epithelial cells with similar slow activation kinetics. The high-affinity periplasmic inhibitor from Pseudomonas effectively blocked this activation. These data suggest that multiple metalloproteases are capable of activating ENaC. Further, the endogenous, periplasmic bacterial inhibitors may be useful for modulating the downstream effects of the serralysin virulence factors under physiological conditions.
A Fuzzy-Logic Based Non Cooperative Target Recognition

In this paper, we present the problem of Non Cooperative Target Recognition (NCTR) as a supervised classification problem. After a brief presentation on the radar acquisition system of range profiles and the problem of recognition, we use a Fuzzy-Logic based algorithm to do this classification maximizing the recognition rate while controling the error rate. Unlike classical NCTR algorithms, this new algorithm allows to control error rate under a fixed value and maximize the recognition rate.
Computational scenario-based capability planning

Scenarios are pen-pictures of plausible futures, used for strategic planning. The aim of this investigation is to expand the horizon of scenario-based planning through computational models that are able to aid the analyst in the planning process. The investigation builds upon the advances of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to create a novel, flexible and customizable computational capability-based planning methodology that is practical and theoretically sound. We will show how evolutionary computation, in particular evolutionary multi-objective optimization, can play a central role - both as an optimizer and as a source for innovation.
Conjugative transfer genes in staphylococcal isolates from the United States

Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococcal isolates from various geographic areas in the United States were examined by using a conjugative transfer gene DNA probe in dot-blot hybridization assays. Of 175 S. aureus isolates, 47 (27%) hybridized with the probe, while 24 of 208 (11.5%) coagulase-negative staphylococci hybridized. However, among methicillin-resistant S. aureus 52% (45 of 89) were probe positive while only 2% (2 of 86) of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus were probe positive. In contrast, 12.5% (22 of 176) of methicillin-resistant and 6% (2 of 32) of methicillin-susceptible coagulase-negative staphylococci contained transfer genes. All but one of the staphylococci containing transfer genes were resistant to gentamicin; 91.5% of S. aureus and 65% of coagulase-negative staphylococci containing transfer genes transferred gentamicin resistance to a S. aureus recipient. Of the 12 isolates that hybridized with the probe but did not transfer resistance, 10 (6 coagulase-negative staphylococci and 4 S. aureus) carried both gentamicin resistance and conjugative transfer genes on the same plasmid. Of these 10, 6 contained plasmid target fragments of sizes different from that of the probe, suggesting additions or deletions of DNA essential for transfer, while in 4 no such alterations could be detected. In two coagulase-negative staphylococci the entire transfer region was apparently integrated into the chromosome. Thus, staphylococci carrying conjugative transfer genes are widely disseminated in the United States and are usually found in multiresistant isolates on plasmids that also encode gentamicin resistance.
Measuring Influence for Dependent Voters : A Generalization of the Banzhaf Measure

We construct a new measure of voting power that is a reasonable measure of influence even if the votes are not cast independently. The crucial building blocks of our measure are probabilities of c unterfactuals, such as the probability that the outcome of the vote would have be n yes, had a voter voted yes rather than no as she did in the real world. Th e probabilities of such counterfactuals are calculated on the base of causa l information, following the approach by Balke and Pearl. Opinion leaders who ha ve c usal influence on other people's votes can have significantly more voting p ower under our measure than the latter. We provide several examples in which ou r measure yields intuitively plausible results and show that the measure reduces to Banzhaf voting power in the limiting case of independent and equiprobable v ot s.
Context-based recognition network adaptation for improving on-line ASR in Air Traffic Control

This paper presents an approach for incorporating situational context information into an on-line Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) component of an Air Traffic Control (ATC) assistance system to improve recognition performance. Context information is treated as prior information to reduce the search space for recognition. It is integrated in the ASR pipeline by continually updating the recognition network. This is achieved by automatically adapting the underlying grammar whenever new situational knowledge becomes available. The context-dependent recognition network is then re-created and substituted for recognition based on these context-dependent grammars. As a result, the recognizer's search space is constantly being limited to that subset of hypotheses that are deemed plausible in the current situation. Since recognition and adaptation tasks can be easily performed by two separate parallel processes, on-line capabilities of the system are maintained, and response times do not increase as a result of context integration. Experiments conducted on about two hours of ATC data show a reduction in command error rate by a factor of three when context is used.
A restrictive element 1 (RE‐1) in the VIP gene modulates transcription in neuronal and non‐neuronal cells in collaboration with an upstream tissue specifier element

The vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) gene has been studied extensively as a prototype neuronal gene containing multiple cis‐active elements that confer responsiveness to cell lineage, neurotrophic, and activity‐dependent intrinsic and extrinsic cues. However, reporter genes containing the presumptive complete regulatory region 5′ to the start of transcription do not confer tissue‐specific gene expression in vivo. We therefore sought cis‐regulatory elements downstream of the transcriptional start that might confer additional tissue‐specific and tissue‐restrictive properties to the VIP transcriptional unit. We report here a repressor element, similar to the canonical restrictive element‐1 (RE‐1), located within the first non‐coding exon of the human VIP gene. The ability of this element to regulate VIP reporter gene expression in neuroblastoma and fibroblastic cells was examined. Endogenous VIP expression is high in SH‐EP neuroblastoma cells, low but inducible in SH‐SY5Y cells, and absent in HeLa cells. Endogenous RE‐1 silencer factor (REST) expression was highest in SH‐EP and HeLa cells, and significantly lower in SH‐SY5Y cells. Transient transfection of a VIP reporter gene containing a mutated RE‐1 sequence revealed an RE‐1‐dependent regulation of VIP gene expression in all three cell types, with regulation greatest in cells (SH‐EP, HeLa) with highest levels of REST expression. Serial truncation of the VIP reporter gene further revealed a specific interaction between the RE‐1 and a tissue‐specifier element located 5 kb upstream in the VIP gene. Thus, REST can regulate VIP gene expression in both neuroblastic and non‐neuronal cells, but requires coupling to the upstream tissue specifier element.
The augmented video wall: multi-user AR interaction with public displays

The Augmented Video Wall is a compelling showcase application demonstrating a novel collocated interaction technique for public displays beyond traditional competitive or collaborative multi-user scenarios. By utilizing means of augmented reality on personal mobile devices and applying animated video overlays accurately superimposed upon the public display, we create the illusion of literally private views to a shared public display. Besides this concurrent viewing mode, the demonstrator features a competitive mode and a concurrent mode enhanced with social features to highlight the characteristics of this novel display interaction techniques. During a first preliminary study, the Augmented Video Wall attracted lots of visitors and created highly entertaining experiences for groups.