Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning Analytics Platform. Towards an Open Scalable Streaming Solution for Education

Next generation digital learning environments require delivering just-in-time feedback to learners and those who support them. Unlike traditional business intelligence environments, streaming data requires resilient infrastructure that can move data at scale from heterogeneous data sources, process the data quickly for use across several data pipelines, and serve the data to a variety of applications. As a solution to this problem, we have designed and deployed into production the Learning Analytics Platform (LAP), which can ingest data from different education systems using standardized IMS Caliper events. The education events are triggered by student and instructor activity within Caliper instrumented learning systems. Once sent to the LAP, events are transformed and stored in a data store where they can be used for student, educator, and administrator visualizations as well as education driven analytics research. Two McGraw-Hill Education platforms, Connect, used for higher education, and Engrade, for K-12, are currently instrumented to send the LAP event data which in turn feeds visualizations for educational insight. Future plans for the LAP include collection of education event data from a wide variety of proprietary and open source education platforms, computational engines for predictive analytics, and an open API for third-party analytics using LAP data.
Distinct Specific Status of the Korean Brown Frog, Rana amurensis coreana (Amphibia: Ranidae)

Abstract We used morphological and genetic data to assess the taxonomic status of Rana amurensis coreana and R. a. amurensis. Morphological comparisons revealed these two subspecies to be different from each other in size of body, nature of tubercles on dorsal stripe, degree of development in toe webbing, and condition of lateral spots of trunk. They were also different in sequence of mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, with genetic distance as large as those observed among different species of brown frogs. Therefore, Korean populations previously considered a subspecies of R. amurensis should be regarded as a distinct species (=R. coreana).
Calcium-independent Phospholipase A2γ Enhances Activation of the ATF6 Transcription Factor during Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress*

Background: Calcium-independent PLA2γ (iPLA2γ) is a membrane-bound enzyme that localizes at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Results: iPLA2γ amplified activation of the ATF6 pathway of the unfolded protein response, resulting in up-regulation of ER chaperones and cytoprotection. Conclusion: iPLA2γ enhances activation of ATF6. Significance: Modulating iPLA2γ activity may provide opportunities for pharmacological intervention in glomerular diseases associated with ER stress. Injury of visceral glomerular epithelial cells (GECs) causes proteinuria in many glomerular diseases. We reported previously that calcium-independent phospholipase A2γ (iPLA2γ) is cytoprotective against complement-mediated GEC injury. Because iPLA2γ is localized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), this study addressed whether the cytoprotective effect of iPLA2γ involves the ER stress unfolded protein response (UPR). In cultured rat GECs, overexpression of the full-length iPLA2γ, but not a mutant iPLA2γ that fails to associate with the ER, augmented tunicamycin-induced activation of activating transcription factor-6 (ATF6) and induction of the ER chaperones, glucose-regulated protein 94 (GRP94) and glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78). Augmented responses were inhibited by the iPLA2γ inhibitor, (R)-bromoenol lactone, but not by the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin. Tunicamycin-induced cytotoxicity was reduced in GECs expressing iPLA2γ, and the cytoprotection was reversed by dominant-negative ATF6. GECs from iPLA2γ knock-out mice showed blunted ATF6 activation and chaperone up-regulation in response to tunicamycin. Unlike ATF6, the two other UPR pathways, i.e. inositol-requiring enzyme 1α and protein kinase RNA-like ER kinase pathways, were not affected by iPLA2γ. Thus, in GECs, iPLA2γ amplified activation of the ATF6 pathway of the UPR, resulting in up-regulation of ER chaperones and cytoprotection. These effects were dependent on iPLA2γ catalytic activity and association with the ER but not on prostanoids. Modulating iPLA2γ activity may provide opportunities for pharmacological intervention in glomerular diseases associated with ER stress.
Integrating Universal Behavioral Screening Within Program-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Universal behavioral screening is a major part of positive behavioral support and response to intervention systems. Program-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) focuses on establishing social, emotional, and behavioral competence through promotion of a small set of behavioral expectations that are agreed upon, taught, and reinforced by all teachers across all settings. This study explored the validity of a novel approach to universal screening in program-wide PBIS whereby a “brief” screening tool for determining behavioral risk was developed using child adherence to program-wide behavioral expectations. Sixty-five children in a Head Start center were screened using an expectation-based screening procedure developed from the program-wide expectations. Two standardized emotional and behavioral rating scales were then administered as criterions. Results revealed convergent associations between the extent of children’s adherence to program-wide expectations and the standardized criterion instruments in risk areas associated with hyperactivity, conduct, and externalizing problems. Classification accuracy analyses provided preliminary support for predicting several domains of behavioral risk.
Enhancing the Focusing Properties of a Prototype Non-Invasive Brain Hyperthermia System: a Simulation Study

Aim of this study is the improvement of the focusing properties of a prototype system for deep brain hyperthermia able to provide also passive measurements of temperature distributions inside the human body and especially the brain. One of the main modules of the system which ensures the necessary beamforming and focusing on the body and brain cortex areas of interest is the symmetrical axis ellipsoidal conductive wall cavity. The proposed system operates in a total non-invasive contactless passive manner and is designed to provide hyperthermia treatment and temperature monitoring. Extensive simulations to compute electric field distributions and SAR values at several frequencies inside the human head model and inside the whole ellipsoidal reflector were carried out. One of the main problems that have to be tackled in order to achieve the desired depth and focusing resolution is to reduce back scattering while improving penetration. With this view, the FEM simulations using a commercial tool aimed at improving the system's focusing properties following various approaches. In order to enhance the matching conditions on the air-head interface, layers made of metamaterials (left handed materials) and dielectric materials were placed around the human head model. The results show that the use of a metamaterial layer in conjunction with a layer of lossless dielectric material generates the largest improvement. Measurements using phantoms with the proposed focusing improvement techniques in future studies will complement the present research and reveal the potential practical value of the system.
Aging is associated with reduced liver regeneration and diminished thymidine kinase mRNA content and enzyme activity in the rat.

We studied the effect of aging on rat liver regeneration. We compared the time course of total hepatic mass, DNA and RNA accumulation, and thymidine kinase (TK) messenger RNA (mRNA) content and enzyme activity, after two-thirds partial hepatectomy in 6-week-old (young adult) and 1-year-old rats. Whereas 6-week-old rats had completely regenerated all liver mass, DNA, and RNA by 7 days, the regenerating 1-year-old rat livers at 7 days contained only 60% to 70% of the mass, DNA, and RNA in the normal 1-year-old rat liver. However, rates of tissue regeneration during this time were very similar in both ages. At 28 days the weight and RNA content of the 1-year-old rat livers were 93% of normal, but total DNA was still reduced, at 78% of normal. In the younger rats TK mRNA content and enzyme activity increased substantially after partial hepatectomy and were observed to peak at 24 hours. In the 1-year-old rats TK mRNA was less abundant in normal liver and the peak level observed was lower and delayed until 48 hours. Nonetheless, the incremental increase from baseline to peak was greater in the 1-year-old than in the 6-week-old rats. In contrast to the mRNA, TK activity peaked at 24 hours, but at substantially lower levels than in the 6-week-old rats. Rates of disappearance of TK mRNA and enzyme activity after peak levels were not significantly different by age. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
External barium block of Shaker potassium channels: evidence for two binding sites

External barium ions inhibit K+ currents of Xenopus oocytes expressing ShH4 delta 6-46, the non-inactivating deletion of the Shaker K+ channel. At the macroscopic level, Ba2+ block comprises both a fast and a slow component. The fast component is less sensitive to Ba2+ (apparent dissociation constant at 0 mV, K(0), approximately 19.1 mM) than the slow component and is also less voltage dependent (apparent electrical distance, delta, approximately 0.14). The slow component (K(0), approximately 9.4 mM, delta approximately 0.25) is relieved by outward K+ current, which suggests that the corresponding binding site resides within the channel conduction pathway. At the single channel level, the fast component of block is evidenced as an apparent reduction in amplitude, suggesting an extremely rapid blocking and unblocking reaction. In contrast, the slow component appears to be associated with long blocked times that are present from the beginning of a depolarizing command. Installation of the slow component is much slower than a diffusion limited process; for example, the blocking time constant (tau) produced by 2 mM Ba2+ is approximately 159 s (holding potential, HP = -90 mV). However, the blocking rate of this slow component is not a linear function of external Ba2+ and tends to saturate at higher concentrations. This is inconsistent with a simple bi-molecular blocking reaction. These features of external Ba2+ block can be accounted for by a simple model of two sequential Ba2+ binding sites, where the deeper of the two sites produces the slow component of block.
Unsupervised Chinese Verb Metaphor Recognition Based on Selectional Preferences

Metaphors are pervasive in human language and developing methods to recognize and deal with metaphors is an indispensable task in Natural Language Processing (NLP). This paper proposes an unsupervised method to recognize metaphors from real texts. Firstly, source domain candidates are determined based on automatically acquired selectional preferences. And then metaphors are recognized with the source domain knowledge. Experiment results show that this unsupervised method outperforms the baseline by a great improvement. In addition, the source domain knowledge can also be used for metaphor comprehension.
Evaluation of Attention Process Training and Brain Injury Education in Persons with Acquired Brain Injury

Fourteen patients with stable acquired brain injuries exhibiting attention and working memory deficits were given 10 weeks of attention process training (APT) and 10 weeks of brain injury education in a cross-over design. Structured interviews and neuropsychological tests were used prior to rehabilitation and after both treatments to determine the influence of the interventions on tasks of daily life and performance on attentional networks involving vigilance, orienting, and executive function. The overall results showed that most patients made improvements. Some of these gains were due to practice from repetitive administration of the tests. In addition, the type of intervention also influenced the results. The brain injury education seemed to be most effective in improving self-reports of psychosocial function. APT influenced self-reports of cognitive function and had a stronger influence on performance of executive attention tasks than was found with the brain injury education therapy. Vigilance and orienting networks showed little specific improvement due to therapy. However, vigilance level influenced the improvement with therapy on some tests of executive attention. We consider the implications of these results for future studies of the locus of attentional improvement and for the design of improved interventions.
Active metabolite of GLP-1 mediates myocardial glucose uptake and improves left ventricular performance in conscious dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy.

We have shown previously that the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-(7-36) amide increases myocardial glucose uptake and improves left ventricular (LV) and systemic hemodynamics in both conscious dogs with pacing-induced dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and humans with LV systolic dysfunction after acute myocardial infarction. However, GLP-1-(7-36) is rapidly degraded in the plasma to GLP-1-(9-36) by dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP IV), raising the issue of which peptide is the active moiety. By way of methodology, we compared the efficacy of a 48-h continuous intravenous infusion of GLP-1-(7-36) (1.5 pmol.kg(-1). min(-1)) to GLP-1-(9-36) (1.5 pmol.kg(-1). min(-1)) in 28 conscious, chronically instrumented dogs with pacing-induced DCM by measuring LV function and transmyocardial substrate uptake under basal and insulin-stimulated conditions using hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps. As a result, dogs with DCM demonstrated myocardial insulin resistance under basal and insulin-stimulated conditions. Both GLP-1-(7-36) and GLP-1-(9-36) significantly reduced (P < 0.01) LV end-diastolic pressure [GLP-1-(7-36), 28 +/- 1 to 15 +/- 2 mmHg; GLP-1-(9-36), 29 +/- 2 to 16 +/- 1 mmHg] and significantly increased (P < 0.01) the first derivative of LV pressure [GLP-1-(7-36), 1,315 +/- 81 to 2,195 +/- 102 mmHg/s; GLP-1-(9-36), 1,336 +/- 77 to 2,208 +/- 68 mmHg] and cardiac output [GLP-1-(7-36), 1.5 +/- 0.1 to 1.9 +/- 0.1 l/min; GLP-1-(9-36), 2.0 +/- 0.1 to 2.4 +/- 0.05 l/min], whereas an equivolume infusion of saline had no effect. Both peptides increased myocardial glucose uptake but without a significant increase in plasma insulin. During the GLP-1-(9-36) infusion, negligible active (NH2-terminal) peptide was measured in the plasma. In conclusion, in DCM, GLP-1-(9-36) mimics the effects of GLP-1-(7-36) in stimulating myocardial glucose uptake and improving LV and systemic hemodynamics through insulinomimetic as opposed to insulinotropic effects. These data suggest that GLP-1-(9-36) amide is an active peptide.
Inferring a Gaussian distribution

A common question in statistical modeling is “which out of a continuum of models are likely to have generated this data? ” For the Gaussian class of models, this question can be answered completely and exactly. This paper derives the exact posterior distribution over the mean and variance of the generating distribution, i.e. p(m, V|X), as well as the marginals p(m|X) and p(V|X). It also derives p(X|Gaussian), the probability that the data came from any Gaussian whatsoever. From this we can get the posterior predictive density p(x|X), which has the most practical importance. The analysis is done for noninformative priors and for arbitrary conjugate priors. The presentation borrows from MacKay (1995). The paper concludes with a simulated classification experiment demonstrating the advantage of the Bayesian method over maximumlikelihood and unbiased estimation.
Small GTP-Binding Protein Ral Is Involved in cAMP-Mediated Release of von Willebrand Factor From Endothelial Cells

Objective—von Willebrand factor (vWF) is synthesized by endothelial cells and stored in specialized vesicles called Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs). Recently, we have shown that the small GTP-binding protein Ral is involved in thrombin-induced exocytosis of WPBs. In addition to Ca2+-elevating secretagogues such as histamine and thrombin, release of WPB is also observed after administration of cAMP-raising substances such as epinephrine and vasopressin. In the present study, we investigated whether Ral is also involved in cAMP-mediated vWF release. Methods and Results—Activation of Ral was observed 15 to 20 minutes after stimulation of endothelial cells with epinephrine, forskolin, or dibutyryl-cAMP. A cell-permeable peptide comprising the carboxy-terminal part of the Ral protein reduced both thrombin-induced and epinephrine-induced vWF secretion supporting a crucial role for Ral in this process. Furthermore, inhibition of protein kinase A by H-89 resulted in a marked reduction of vWF release and greatly diminished levels of GTP-Ral on stimulation with epinephrine. Activation of Ral was independent of the activation of Epac, a cAMP-regulated exchange factor for the small GTPases Rap1 and Rap2. Conclusions—These results suggest that protein kinase A-dependent activation of Ral regulates cAMP-mediated exocytosis of WPB in endothelial cells.
Reducing Ongoing Product Design Decision-Making Bias

The objective of this exploratory study is to add to our understanding of ongoing product design decision-making to reduce eventual decision-making bias. Six research questions are formulated with the aim to establish if and how functional membership and informal patterns of communication within an organization influence whether and why employees are willing to engage in product design modifications. We selected as a field site for our study an industrial company that had an internal research and product development operations and where the employees were located on the same site. A three-step approach within the manufacturing case company was designed: (1) In-depth interviews were carried out with managers and employees; (2) a survey questionnaire was sent out to all employees involved with a specific product that is subject to potential design modifications; and (3) a post hoc group feedback session was organized to further discuss our findings with the management. First, analysis of the nine in-depth interviews establishes a taxonomy of product design decisions involving four types of criteria; product-related, service-related, market-related, and feasibility-related criteria explain why employees would engage or not in product design modifications. Second, it is demonstrated that functional membership has a significant influence on the concern for these decision-making criteria as well as on the decision to proceed or not with product design modifications. In other words, functional membership influences whether and why employees are more or less willing to make product design modifications. In this manufacturing company, a global industrial player, the differences in concern appear especially for service- and market-related criteria and pertain particularly to the research and development (R&D) and service function. Overall, even though the perceived performance of the specific product under study did not differ significantly among the different departments, it is observed that R&D employees were significantly less in favor of proceeding with product design modifications than other employees were. Third, using UCINET VI software, we provide some explanations for this finding. It is shown that informal patterns of communication (i.e., employee degree centrality) operate a situational opportunity to make modifications to an existing product and a cognitive opportunity influencing the decision to modify product design following an inverted U-shaped function. Ultimately, we derive practical guidelines for an ideal product–team composition to reduce product design decision-making bias.
Genome-Wide Identification of a Methylation Gene Panel as a Prognostic Biomarker in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

DNA methylation, the best known epigenetic marker, can be used as a prognostic biomarker in many cancers. We examined DNA methylation status and survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Aberrant DNA-methylated genes in 24 NPC tissues and 24 noncancer nasopharyngitis biopsy tissues (NCNBT) were identified using Illumina 450K BeadChip. Correlations between DNA methylation and clinical outcomes were evaluated using bisulfite pyrosequencing in 454 NPC patients. Genome-wide methylation analysis demonstrated that NPC tissues had distinct DNA methylation patterns compared with NCNBT. Among all significant CpG sites, 2,173 CpG sites with β change ≥ 0.2 (1,880 hypermethylated, 293 hypomethylated) were identified (P < 0.05). A methylation gene panel comprising six hypermethylated genes was constructed with the average Z-score method. Patients in the training cohort with high methylation had poorer disease-free survival [DFS, HR, 2.26; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.28–4.01; P, 0.005] and overall survival (OS, HR, 2.47; 95% CI, 1.30–4.71; P, 0.006) than those with low methylation. There were similar results in the validation (DFS, HR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.17–3.67; P, 0.013; OS, HR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.01–3.31; P, 0.046) and independent cohorts (DFS, HR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.08–3.47; P, 0.026; OS, HR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.10–3.98; P, 0.022). Analysis indicated that the methylation gene panel was an independent prognostic factor. Furthermore, patients with low methylation had a favorable response to concurrent chemotherapy with an improved DFS (P = 0.045) and OS (P = 0.031), whereas patients with high methylation did not benefit from concurrent chemotherapy. The six–hypermethylated gene panel was associated with poor survival in patients with NPC, demonstrating its potential usefulness as a prognostic biomarker to clinicians in NPC management. Mol Cancer Ther; 14(12); 2864–73. ©2015 AACR.
Fast Generation of NURBS Surfaces from Polygonal Mesh Models of Human Anatomy

Visible Productions, Ltd., of Fort Collins, CO, and other companies produce polygon-based, 3-D models of organic structures in humans and animals. There is already a large database of excellent 3-D anatomical models existing that was created at high expense. Figure 1 shows several of the many polygon-based models created by Visible Productions. These models are used primarily for educational uses in schools and in marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. New applications for these models require that they be represented in a compact, mathematically organized format. These models need to be capable of easy deformation to demonstrate complicated biochemical and physiological functions: movement of living tissue, e ects of drugs on tissues/organs, and simulation of anatomical structures interacting with surgical devices and diagnostic instruments. One way to represent organic structures is as a volume of densities. This is a very intuitive representation, but volume models require much storage space. Most applications need only the surface of the structure, so explicitly representing the surface is much more storage-e cient than are volume models. Surface models can also more accurately represent organic structures. Surface models based on polygons are very useful at this time, because many graphics boards contain hardware for accelerating the rendering of polygons. Polygon-based surface models, although much smaller in size than volumebased models, are still very large and hard to manage. Relatively inexpensive software that can convert polygon models into mathematically e cient and compact models in a fast and accurate manner would be of great value to any company that needs to manipulate 3-D models. The ready availability of accurate polygon surface models of anatomical objects would have a great impact in various medical, educational, diagnostic, and clinical applications. As telemedicine becomes more important and the need to transfer anatomical data sets in real time over computer networks becomes more urgent, the requirement that the models be e ciently realized and compactly represented