Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Narrating and Teaching the Nation: History, Identity and the Politics of Education in the Great Lakes Region of Africa

Evidence from around the world has shown the power of narratives in shaping collective identities and memories, as well as in legitimising present status-quos and future actions − including violence and peace. As effective vehicles for anchoring dominant narratives and discourses in society, education systems have typically functioned as key ideological instruments which have time and again been exploited to mould the identity, views and values of the nation’s new generation. Drawing on three cases from Central Africa, namely Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this thesis aims to complement existing studies on the politics of history, identity and education in contested societies. For each case-study, this research examines the evolution of official discourses from the colonial time until today, and the extent to which these have been institutionalised in curricula and textbooks and in educational policies and practices in an effort to legitimise and consolidate given socio-political systems. Upon demonstrating the strong political grip on narrative construction and propagation, and the relentless ideological mobilisation of history, identity and formal education, the thesis assesses the promises and challenges of re-writing and of teaching and learning the controversial and sensitive history of the nation in the context of delicate political transitions from war, dictatorship and mass violence to sustainable peace and democracy. Guided by a desire to give a voice to young people in the region, the study enriches its inquiry with an analysis of narratives that were collected in the field between 2008 and 2011 among 2,500 secondary school students. Based on an extensive qualitative survey, the study explores young people’s representations of the nation and of its history and destiny, as well as their views on the state of history education in their country. Ultimately, the research points to an urgency to reform education, and in particular history teaching, with an eye to better responding to the needs of the region’s youth and of society as a whole.
The Bayesian aerosol release detector: An algorithm for detecting and characterizing outbreaks caused by an atmospheric release of Bacillus anthracis

Early detection and characterization of outdoor aerosol releases of Bacillus anthracis is an important problem. As health departments and other government agencies address this problem with newer methods of surveillance such as environmental surveillance through the BioWatch program and enhanced medical surveillance, they increasingly have newer types of surveillance data available. However, existing methods for the statistical analysis of surveillance data do not account for recent meteorological conditions, as human analysts did in the case of the Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak of 1979 to determine whether the locations of victims were consistent with meteorological conditions in the week preceding their onset of illness.
Social Marketing Perspectives on Barriers to and Enablers of Effective Sustainability Communication

Purpose of the paper : The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges facing those communicating the potential impact of sustainability on individuals and social groups, using widely accepted behaviour change theories to illustrate major factors that influence behaviour change decisions and supplement this with a review of literature that discusses other factors that should also be considered in developing communication strategies. Methodology : This is a conceptual paper that uses social marketing principles to highlight the challenges involved in the effective communication of sustainability and related issues. Findings : We highlight the complexity of factors impacting on individuals’ attitudes, beliefs and actual behaviour adaptation and suggest that current communication strategies could be significantly improved through greater understanding of adaptation decisions and the key barriers to, and enablers, of sustained positive behaviour change. We highlight current deficiencies relating to both individual and community behaviour change and develop a research agenda that may assist in addressing current gaps in knowledge. We then discuss several major issues in relation to community-based sustainability issues. The paper concludes with recommendations for transdisciplinary research to focus on improvements to message clarity and communication as well as on an understanding of the way messages are accessed and synthesised. Limitations : This is a conceptual paper: cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary research is needed to determine how the discussed factors vary across contexts. Implications : An increased understanding of the factors influencing effective communication will benefit policy makers and those involved in the communication of sustainability-related issues. Originality of the paper : The value of this paper is that it takes a trans-disciplinary approach to issues normally discussed only within individual disciplinary areas.
Metagenomic and Metatranscriptomic Analysis of Microbial Community Structure and Gene Expression of Activated Sludge

The present study applied both metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches to characterize microbial structure and gene expression of an activated sludge community from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Hong Kong. DNA and cDNA were sequenced by Illumina Hi-seq2000 at a depth of 2.4 Gbp. Taxonomic analysis by MG-RAST showed bacteria were dominant in both DNA and cDNA datasets. The taxonomic profile obtained by BLAST against SILVA SSUref database and annotation by MEGAN showed that activated sludge was dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Verrucomicrobia phyla in both DNA and cDNA datasets. Global gene expression annotation based on KEGG metabolism pathway displayed slight disagreement between the DNA and cDNA datasets. Further gene expression annotation focusing on nitrogen removal revealed that denitrification-related genes sequences dominated in both DNA and cDNA datasets, while nitrifying genes were also expressed in relative high levels. Specially, ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine oxidase demonstrated the high cDNA/DNA ratios in the present study, indicating strong nitrification activity. Enzyme subunits gene sequences annotation discovered that subunits of ammonia monooxygenase (amoA, amoB, amoC) and hydroxylamine oxygenase had higher expression levels compared with subunits of the other enzymes genes. Taxonomic profiles of selected enzymes (ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine oxygenase) showed that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria present mainly belonged to Nitrosomonas and Nitrosospira species and no ammonia-oxidizing Archaea sequences were detected in both DNA and cDNA datasets.
Analysis of two protocols using EPC Gen-2 tags for safe inpatient medication

The number of people suffering due to wrong medication is increasing. A hospital-wide ubiquitous system can prevent inpatient medication errors. A correctly designed system guarantees the correct medicine and dosage administration, at the correct time. Such a system also helps tracing the location, time of errors and generates fast alarms to prevent harm to patients. Two proposals using UHF passive radio frequency identification tags have been made. But the proposed schemes give away critical patient information, raising privacy and intentional harm concerns. This work studies the proposals and demonstrates a new full-disclosure attack, on both. In addition, the weaknesses of protocols using the PRNG and CRC functions as encryption algorithms are studied. A conclusion is drawn about the suitability of grouping proofs and other protocols using the EPC Global Class-1 Generation-2 tags, in patient medication.
The Jack-Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story

Vivid, authentic, this is the autobiography of a delinquent his experiences, influences, attitudes, and values. The "Jack-Roller" helped to establish the life-history or "own story" as an important instrument of sociological research. The book remains as relevant today to the study and treatment of juvenile delinquency and maladjustment as it was when originally published in 1930. "
Efficacy and safety of edoxaban for treatment of venous thromboembolism: a subanalysis of East Asian patients in the Hokusai‐VTE trial

Direct oral anticoagulants have been evaluated for their efficacy and safety in the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which comprises deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. The randomized, double‐blind Hokusai‐VTE trial demonstrated that 60 mg of edoxaban once daily following initial heparin treatment is non‐inferior to heparin overlapped with and followed by warfarin for the treatment of VTE, and is associated with significantly fewer bleeding events.
Inhibition of connective tissue growth factor by small interfering ribonucleic acid prevents increase in extracellular matrix molecules in a rodent model of diabetic retinopathy

Purpose Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is a profibrotic factor that induces extracellular matrix (ECM) production and angiogenesis, two processes involved in diabetic retinopathy (DR). In this study, we examined whether insulin therapy or a CTGF-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) administered to diabetic rats decreased the levels of CTGF and of selected putative downstream genes in the retina. Methods Rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes were used. Animals received either no treatment for 12 weeks or were administered constant insulin therapy. MRNA and protein levels of CTGF and select ECM genes were determined using real-time PCR and western blotting of the retina. Localization of CTGF in the retina was visualized using immunohistochemistry. A group of diabetic rats received intravitreal injection of CTGF siRNA, and the retinas were examined three days later. Results CTGF mRNA and protein significantly increased in the retinas of diabetic rats. Immunohistochemistry indicated that retinal Müller cells of diabetic rats expressed CTGF. Hyperglycemia upregulated mRNA levels of fibronectin, laminin β1, collagen IVα3, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and this increase was prevented by insulin therapy. Treatment of diabetic rats with CTGF siRNA decreased laminin β1, collagen IVα3 mRNA, and CTGF mRNA and protein but did not affect fibronectin or vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA levels. Conclusions These results indicate that CTGF and ECM genes can be regulated using insulin. Importantly, these results also suggest that CTGF regulates changes in ECM molecules in DR.
DEVICE-LAYER OVENIZATION OF FUSED SILICA MICROMECHANICAL RESONATORS FOR TEMPERATURE-STABLE OPERATION

In this paper, we report on temperature-stable operation of multiple MEMS silica resonators on an ovenized fused silica device-layer. Temperature servo-control circuits are implemented for compensating the resonator frequency drift using an on-chip RTD-based temperature sensor. A wide linear range analog controller has been implemented to reduce the effective TCF of fused silica resonator by an order of magnitude. Digital calibration method is further proposed and characterized to mitigate the offset errors induced from the non-ideal temperature sensing. Calibration reduces the resonator frequency drift to within 5 ppm across 105 °C of external temperature change. The power consumption of the ovenized device-layer is lower than 16.2 mW.
The punishment response

Punishment occupies a central place in our lives and attitudes. We suffer a profound ambivalence about its moral consequences. Persons who have been punished or are liable to be punished have long objected to the legitimacy of punishment. We are all objects of punishment, yet we are also its users. Our ambivalence is so profound that not only do we punish others, but we punish ourselves as well. We view those who submit too willingly to punishment as "obedient" verging on the groveling coward, and we view those who resist punishment as "disobedient," rebels. In "The Punishment Response", Graeme Newman describes the uses of punishment and how these uses change over time.Some argue that punishment promotes discrimination and divisiveness in society. Others claim that it is through punishment that order and legitimacy are upheld. It is important that punishment is understood as neither one nor the other; it is both. This point, simple though it seems, has never really been addressed. This is why Newman claims we wax and wane in our uses of punishment; why punishing institutions are clogged by bureaucracy; why the death penalty comes and goes like the tide.Graeme Newman emphasizes that punishment is a cultural process and also a mechanism of particular institutions, of which criminal law is but one. Because academic discussions of punishment have been confined to legalistic preoccupations, much of the policy and justification of punishment have been based on discussions of extreme cases. The use of punishment in the sphere of crime is an extreme unto itself, since crime is a minor aspect of daily life. The uses of punishment, and the moral justifications for punishment within the family and school have rarely been considered, certainly not to the exhaustive extent that criminal law has been in this outstanding work.
The mGluR5 Antagonist 6-Methyl-2-(phenylethynyl)pyridine Decreases Ethanol Consumption via a Protein Kinase Cϵ-Dependent Mechanism

Glutamatergic neurotransmission plays a critical role in addictive behaviors, and recent evidence indicates that genetic or pharmacological inactivation of the type 5 metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR5) reduces the self-administration of cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol. Because mGluR5 is coupled to activation of protein kinase C (PKC), and targeted deletion of the epsilon isoform (PKCϵ) in mice reduces ethanol self-administration, we investigated whether there is a functional link between mGluR5 and PKCϵ. Here, we show that acute administration of the mGluR5 agonist (R,S)-2-chloro-5-hydroxyphenylglycine to mice increases phosphorylation of PKCϵ in its activation loop (T566) as well as in its C-terminal region (S729). Increases in phospho-PKCϵ are dependent not only on mGluR5 stimulation but also on phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K). In addition, the selective mGluR5 antagonist 6-methyl-2-(phenylethynyl)pyridine (MPEP) reduced basal levels of phosphorylation of PKCϵ at S729. We also show that MPEP dose dependently reduced ethanol consumption in wild-type but not in PKCϵ-null mice, suggesting that PKCϵ is an important signaling target for modulation of ethanol consumption by mGluR5 antagonists. Radioligand binding experiments using [3H]MPEP revealed that these genotypic differences in response to MPEP were not a result of altered mGluR5 levels or binding in PKCϵ-null mice. Our data indicate that mGluR5 is coupled to PKCϵ via a PI3K-dependent pathway and that PKCϵ is required for the ability of the mGluR5 antagonist MPEP to reduce ethanol consumption.
Multi-originator data dissemination in VANETs

In the framework of the Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks we propose HBEB (Hybrid Based Election Backbone), a distributed algorithm designed to form multiple backbones of vehicles in charge of propagating data in the VANETs in a fast and efficient way. Differently from other clustering approaches we leverage the ETSI Geonetworking recent standard to form and disseminate data in the backbones. We show that the formation of these backbones is quite easy to be implemented while their use enhances the dissemination performance in an urban scenario.
A simple method for designing high-quality prototype filters for M-band pseudo QMF banks

Discusses a new method for designing the prototype filters necessary to implement M-band pseudo QMF banks. This method does not rely on the traditional nonlinear optimization used in past work but rather optimizes a single parameter on a convex error surface, consistently delivering the best equiripple filter possible while minimizing the overlapped passband distortion. A very simple algorithm for designing lowpass prototype filters suitable for use in pseudo QMF banks is described. To illustrate the applicability of this algorithm, two different filters are designed, both for such applications as wideband audio coding that require high quality reconstructed signals. >
Aerodynamic measures of glottal function: what extra can they tell us and how do they guide management?

Purpose of reviewThis article will define the major advances in laryngeal aerodynamics research from recent evidence-based literature. Recent findingsRecently published research focuses on new applications of aerodynamic parameters to improve patient diagnosis and outcomes, as well as further elucidating the mechanisms of phonation using computational modeling and excised larynges. SummaryAlthough there is an extensive amount of research on improving the diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders using aerodynamics, the majority of recent literature lacks any conclusive evidence on new methods for use in the clinic; further research in these is needed. The best practices for resonance tube phonation in water and semi-occluded voice therapy are being investigated, as is the exact mechanism by which glottal airflow interacts with vocal folds to produce phonation. It is recommended that clinicians evaluate patients with Parkinson's disease on the basis of airflow declination and lung volume expended per syllable to avoid dependence on an acoustic signal. In addition, advances in modeling laryngeal disorders and structures will contribute to future research into treatments and diagnosis. Now that the groundwork has been laid, it is crucial to begin evaluating such techniques in patient populations.
Magnetic beamforming for wireless power transfer

Magnetic resonant coupling (MRC) is an efficient method for realizing the near-field wireless power transfer (WPT). The use of multiple transmitters (TXs) each with one coil can be applied to enhance the WPT performance by coherently combining the magnetic fields induced by all TX coils in a beam toward the receiver (RX) coil, a technique termed "magnetic beamforming". In this paper, we study the optimal magnetic beamforming design for an MRC-WPT system with multiple TXs and a single RX. We formulate a problem to jointly optimize the currents flowing through different TXs so as to minimize the total power drawn from their voltage sources, subject to the minimum power required by the RX load as well as the practical constraints on the peak voltage and current at all TXs. For the special case of identical TX resistances and without the peak voltage and current constraints, we show that the optimal current at each TX should be proportional to the mutual inductance between its TX coil and the RX coil. In general, the problem is a non-convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP), which is reformulated as a semidefinite programming (SDP) with rank-one constraint. We show that the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) of the reformulated problem is tight and hence the problem is solved optimally. Numerical results show that the optimal magnetic beamforming design significantly enhances the deliverable power as well as the power efficiency over the uncoordinated WPT benchmark with equal current allocation over TXs.
Parallel K-PSO based on MapReduce

K-means is widely used in scientific research and commercial applications because of its simplicity and linearity. However, in faced of ever-growing amount of data and higher demand of cluster analysis today, how to improve the performance of K-means has become challenging and significant. So an improved method called parallel K-PSO which combines Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) with K-means based on MapReduce is proposed in this paper. Firstly, it takes advantage of PSO to improve the global search ability of K-means, and then it makes K-means parallel with MapReduce to enhance its capability of processing massive data. We evaluate the proposed method through experimental results.
Development and preliminary validation of the caregiving behavior system: Association with child attachment classification in the preschool Strange Situation

The Marvin and Britner system for classifying caregiver behavior patterns in the preschool Strange Situation is presented to complement the Cassidy and Marvin (1992) preschool child – parent attachment classification system. Participants were 110 mothers and their preschool children (aged 2 to 4 years) with medical risks (epilepsy or mild cerebral palsy) or no diagnosis (i.e., healthy). As coded by reliable, independent raters, there was a highly significant level of concordance between the 5-category caregiver and child classifications in the preschool Strange Situation across the medical risk levels. In comparison to other caregivers, mothers classified as secure in their caregiving behavior pattern were rated as more sensitive; they also showed greater delight and were more supportive of their children's exploration. Combinations of the ten, 9-point caregiver rating scales were useful in discriminating among the insecure caregiver patterns.
Creating abstract superclasses by refactoring

This paper focuses on object-oriented programming and one kind of structure-improving transformation (refactoring) that is unique to object-oriented programming: finding abstract superclasses. We decompose the operation of finding an abstract superclass into a set of refactoring steps, and provide examples. We discuss techniques that can automate or automatically support these steps. We also consider some of the conditions that must be satisfied to perform a refactoring safely; sometimes to satisfy these conditions other refactorings must first be applied.
Discovering disease-genes by topological features in human protein-protein interaction network

MOTIVATION Mining the hereditary disease-genes from human genome is one of the most important tasks in bioinformatics research. A variety of sequence features and functional similarities between known human hereditary disease-genes and those not known to be involved in disease have been systematically examined and efficient classifiers have been constructed based on the identified common patterns. The availability of human genome-wide protein-protein interactions (PPIs) provides us with new opportunity for discovering hereditary disease-genes by topological features in PPIs network. RESULTS This analysis reveals that the hereditary disease-genes ascertained from OMIM in the literature-curated (LC) PPIs network are characterized by a larger degree, tendency to interact with other disease-genes, more common neighbors and quick communication to each other whereas those properties could not be detected from the network identified from high-throughput yeast two-hybrid mapping approach (EXP) and predicted interactions (PDT) PPIs network. KNN classifier based on those features was created and on average gained overall prediction accuracy of 0.76 in cross-validation test. Then the classifier was applied to 5262 genes on human genome and predicted 178 novel disease-genes. Some of the predictions have been validated by biological experiments.