Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Creating Zones of Possibility for Struggling Readers: A Study of One Fourth Grader's Shifting Roles in Literature Discussions

This is an inductive case study of a European-American fourth-grade girl who struggled with print-based aspects of literacy. The study highlights her multiple levels of competency as she participated over time in a heterogeneous literature discussion group that read and responded to three culturally diverse novels. Data include 27 audio-taped literature discussions, observational field notes, audio-taped interviews and presentations, and written artifacts. Grounded in social constructivist theory, this research documents one reader's non-linear movement from a literacy club outsider to shifting positions as a less-capable member in need of support, a capable peer operating solidly within her zone of proximal development, and a more capable peer working at her actual development level. She supported others' understandings by challenging group members to understand characters' situations, voicing non-stereotypic or antiracist thinking, and connecting self and others to the emotional power of prose. Questioning deficit models of reading and static labels for achievement, this study provides evidence of the contextual nature of displays of literacy competence. Implications focus on the conditions of the learning environment that supported an inclusion model of literature-based reading pedagogy.
Oxidative Burst-Dependent NETosis Is Implicated in the Resolution of Necrosis-Associated Sterile Inflammation

Necrosis is associated with a profound inflammatory response. The regulation of necrosis-associated inflammation, particularly the mechanisms responsible for resolution of inflammation is incompletely characterized. Nanoparticles are known to induce plasma membrane damage and necrosis followed by sterile inflammation. We observed that injection of metabolically inert nanodiamonds resulted in paw edema in WT and Ncf1** mice. However, while inflammation quickly resolved in WT mice, it persisted over several weeks in Ncf1** mice indicating failure of resolution of inflammation. Mechanistically, NOX2-dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and formation of neutrophil extracellular traps were essential for the resolution of necrosis-induced inflammation: hence, by evaluating the fate of the particles at the site of inflammation, we observed that Ncf1** mice deficient in NADPH-dependent ROS failed to generate granulation tissue therefore being unable to trap the nanodiamonds. These data suggest that NOX2-dependent NETosis is crucial for preventing the chronification of the inflammatory response to tissue necrosis by forming NETosis-dependent barriers between the necrotic and healthy surrounding tissue.
AMPA receptor and GEF-H1/Lfc complex regulates dendritic spine development through RhoA signaling cascade

AMPA receptors (AMPA-R) are major mediators of synaptic transmission and plasticity in the developing and adult central nervous system. Activity-dependent structural plasticity mediated by dynamic changes in the morphology of spines and dendrites is also essential for the formation and tuning of neuronal circuits. RhoA and Rac1 are known to play important roles in the regulation of spine and dendrite development in response to neuronal activity. These Rho GTPases are activated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). In this study, we identified GEF-H1/Lfc as a component of the AMPA-R complex in the brain. GEF-H1 is enriched in the postsynaptic density and is colocalized with GluR1 at spines. GEF-H1 activity negatively regulates spine density and length through a RhoA signaling cascade. In addition, AMPA-R-dependent changes in spine development are eliminated by down-regulation of GEF-H1. Altogether, these results strongly suggest that GEF-H1 is an important mediator of AMPA-R activity-dependent structural plasticity in neurons.
Mean-field control and Riccati equations

We present a control approach for large systems of interacting agents based on the Riccati equation. If the agent dynamics enjoys a strong symmetry the arising high dimensional Riccati equation is simplified and the resulting coupled system allows for a formal mean--field limit. The steady--states of the kinetic equation of Boltzmann and Fokker Planck type can be studied analytically. In case of linear dynamics and quadratic objective function the presented approach is optimal and is compared to the model predictive control approach introduced in [2].
Advanced Framework for Dynamic Allocation of Resources for Optimal Data Processing in the Cloud

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas) is one of the emerging services provided by the Cloud Companies. Today there are so many frameworks for parallel data processing to provide Infrastructureas-a-Service. Some of these framwork use static, homogeneous resource allocation technique, which can’t satisfy dynamic nature of cloud computing. Some of the new frameworks like Nephele overcome these drawbacks by using Dynamic resource allocation but still contain some setbacks like Resource under utilization. Nephele doesn’t de allocate the Virtual Machine-(VM) which contains some intermediate results even it completed its execution to provide those results to other Virtual machines. Our new framework introduces Alternative Virtual Machine (AVM) to store intermediate results so wastage of resources can be reduced.
A memetic hybrid method for the Molecular Distance Geometry Problem with incomplete information

The definition of computational methodologies for the inference of molecular structural information plays a relevant role in disciplines as drug discovery and metabolic engineering, since the functionality of a biochemical molecule is determined by its three-dimensional structure. In this work, we present an automatic methodology to solve the Molecular Distance Geometry Problem, that is, to determine the best three-dimensional shape that satisfies a given set of target inter-atomic distances. In particular, our method is designed to cope with incomplete distance information derived from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance measurements. To tackle this problem, that is known to be NP-hard, we present a memetic method that combines two soft-computing algorithms - Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithms - with a local search approach, to improve the effectiveness of the crossover mechanism. We show the validity of our method on a set of reference molecules with a length ranging from 402 to 1003 atoms.
Cross-Cultural Differences in Test Perceptions

This study examines differential levels of test anxiety, perceived test threat, and performance for females in Kuwait and the United States. The results demonstrated that Kuwaiti females reported higher levels of affective test anxiety, whereas females from the United States characterized tests as more threatening. These differences arose in conjunction with self-reported deficiencies in study skills. The interpretation of results points to cultural variations in views of education as competitive and attributional orientations for test performance.
Prostate‐specific antigen screening: A critical review of current research and guidelines

Purpose Screening for prostate cancer (adenocarcinoma of the prostate), using the prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) test is controversial among health professionals and organizations who publish screening guideline recommendations for healthcare professionals. Controversy stems from conflicting research studies regarding the efficacy of PSA screening with regard to improved survival rates. This article serves as a critical review of the current guidelines and research to determine which screening practices may be most beneficial to utilize with patients. Data sources Literature review of evidence for and against using the PSA test as a screening tool published from 2007 to 2012. Conclusions Some earlier evidence is currently used to support the guideline recommendations published by professional organizations that recommend against routine screening of asymptomatic men. However, the majority of the latest research demonstrates consistent results showing a reduction in mortality associated with PSA screening. Implications for practice Initiating screening at age 40, to obtain a baseline value, is recommended for primary care providers and is supported by the most recent evidence.
A cybernetic communication model for advertising

Taking as its starting point Barbara B. Stern's (1994) `A Revised Communication Model for Advertising', the article argues for the application of first-order and second-order cybernetic principles to the construction of a more multidimensional and realistic model that is able to address well-documented tensions and problems in the advertising system and provide a fresh perspective on issues connected with interactive advertising and the creative component in advertising communication. The article culminates in a radical second-order cybernetic model of advertising communication that is founded upon the relationship between various observing frames and the stabilized eigenforms (constructions of the self and others produced by an observer) that are generated in the communication process.
Groundnut improvement: use of genetic and genomic tools

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), a self-pollinated legume is an important crop cultivated in 24 million ha world over for extraction of edible oil and food uses. The kernels are rich in oil (48–50%) and protein (25–28%), and are source of several vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, biologically active polyphenols, flavonoids, and isoflavones. Improved varieties of groundnut with high yield potential were developed and released for cultivation world over. The improved varieties belong to different maturity durations and possess resistance to diseases, tolerance to drought, enhanced oil content, and improved quality traits for food uses. Conventional breeding procedures along with the tools for phenotyping were largely used in groundnut improvement programs. Mutations were used to induce variability and wide hybridization was attempted to tap variability from wild species. Low genetic variability has been a bottleneck for groundnut improvement. The vast potential of wild species, reservoir of new alleles remains under-utilized. Development of linkage maps of groundnut during the last decade was followed by identification of markers and quantitative trait loci for the target traits. Consequently, the last decade has witnessed the deployment of molecular breeding approaches to complement the ongoing groundnut improvement programs in USA, China, India, and Japan. The other potential advantages of molecular breeding are the feasibility to target multiple traits for improvement and provide tools to tap new alleles from wild species. The first groundnut variety developed through marker-assisted back-crossing is a root-knot nematode-resistant variety, NemaTAM in USA. The uptake of molecular breeding approaches in groundnut improvement programs by NARS partners in India and many African countries is slow or needs to be initiated in part due to inadequate infrastructure, high genotyping costs, and human capacities. Availability of draft genome sequence for diploid (AA and BB) and tetraploid, AABB genome species of Arachis in coming years is expected to bring low-cost genotyping to the groundnut community that will facilitate use of modern genetics and breeding approaches such as genome-wide association studies for trait mapping and genomic selection for crop improvement.
Significance of Periprocedural Myonecrosis on Outcomes After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: An Analysis of Preintervention and Postintervention Troponin T Levels in 5487 Patients

Background—Myonecrosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been correlated with a worse prognosis, but controversy exists about the clinical significance and potential mechanisms for the association. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative impact of preprocedural and postprocedural cardiac troponin T (cTnT) levels on survival rate after PCI. Methods and Results—We evaluated 5487 patients from the Mayo Clinic registry who required nonemergency PCI, and we examined the relationship between periprocedural cTnT levels, with the 99th percentile cutoff value used for normal (<0.01 ng/mL), and outcomes. The patients were divided into 3 groups: normal preprocedural and postprocedural cTnT levels (no myonecrosis), normal preprocedural but elevated postprocedural cTnT levels (PCI-related myonecrosis), and abnormal preprocedural cTnT. The 30-day death rates were 0.1%, 0.6%, and 2.3%, respectively, in the 3 groups. In a multivariable model, an abnormal pre-PCI cTnT level (hazard ratio 9.66 [2.30–40.57]; P=0.002), and PCI-related myonecrosis (4.71 [1.02–21.83]; P=0.048) were independent predictors of 30-day mortality. Over a median follow-up of 28 months, an abnormal pre-PCI cTnT level (hazard ratio 1.79 [1.35–2.39]; P<0.001) independently predicted death, but the occurrence of PCI-related myonecrosis did not. A postprocedural elevation in creatine kinase MB fraction was not an independent predictor of long-term risk of death (0.912 [0.70–1.19]; P=0.5). Conclusions—A preprocedural cTnT level >0.01 is a powerful independent predictor of prognosis after PCI and is of greater prognostic significance than the postprocedural biomarker levels. PCI-related myonecrosis occurs frequently and predicts short-term but not long-term risk of death.
Efficient low-dose CT artifact mitigation using an artifact-matched prior scan.

PURPOSE Low-dose CT has attracted increasing attention due to growing concerns about radiation exposure in medical scans. However, the frugal use of x-ray radiation inevitably reduces the quality of the CT images, introducing artifacts such as noise and streaks which make the reconstructed images difficult to read in clinical routine. For follow-up CT exams a prior scan is often available. It typically contains the same anatomical structures, just somewhat deformed and not aligned. This work describes a two-step technique that utilizes this prior scan to achieve high-quality low-dose CT imaging, overcoming difficulties arising from noise artifacts and misalignment. We specifically focus on reducing the dose by lowering the number of projections. This gives rise to severe streak artifacts which possibly lower the readability of CT images to a larger extent than the fine-grained noise that results from lowering the mA or kV settings. METHODS A common approach is to apply image filtering to reduce the noise artifacts. These techniques typically utilize pixel neighborhoods in the degraded image to estimate the true value of a pixel at the center of this neighborhood. However, this can lead to poor results when the image is severely contaminated under very low low-dose situations. We propose a method that utilizes the nondegraded, clean prior to determine higher quality pixel statistics to form the pixel estimates, supported by the matching scheme of the non-local means filter. To make this matching reliable, a good registration of prior and low-dose image is required. For this, we employ a state-of-the-art registration method, called SIFT-flow, which can tolerate the high amount of streak noise. But even for properly registered images, using an artifact free prior for the matching yields inferior results. We hence describe a scheme that first constructs a tandem-prior with streak artifacts resembling those in the low-dose image, and then employs this image for the matching, but uses the corresponding high-quality prior to determine the pixel estimates. RESULTS Two experimental studies are carried out, using a head phantom and a human lung with projections gathered via simulation. We assess the quality of the processed reconstruction with various metrics: mathematical and perceptual. We find that the quality that can be obtained with the artifact-matched prior-based scheme significantly exceeds that of all competing schemes. Even though the general prior-based approach is able to eliminate the streak artifacts, only the artifact-matched scheme can restore small detail and feature sharpness. CONCLUSIONS The reduced-projection low-dose image reconstruction algorithm we present outperforms traditional image restoration algorithms when a prior scan is available. Our method is quite efficient and as such it is well suited for fast-paced clinical applications such as image-assisted interventions, orthopedic alignment scans, and follow-ups.
Fast and adaptive browsing state recovery for multimedia consumer electronics devices

Most multimedia consumer electronics (CE) devices, such as smart phones, MP3 players, PMPs, and digital cameras, allow users to search and browse multimedia contents stored in the device. For multimedia CE devices, there are two important requirements: (1) the search results displayed in the browser screen must be restored when the device is turned off and later turned back on, and (2) the search results displayed in the browser screen must be updated dynamically to reflect data changes made by other applications. These two requirements have been handled in rather ad-hoc and inefficient manners until now. In this paper, we propose an efficient and systematic solution to meet the two requirements. The proposed solution enables us to save the current browsing state so that the search results displayed in the browser screen can be restored instantly at a later time. Furthermore, the proposed solution restores the browsing state adaptively to reflect data changes made after saving. Through performance evaluation in a real multimedia CE device, we show that the proposed method provides excellent performance compared to existing methods.
Can imagery training help children who have comprehension problems

An experiment is reported that explored whether training in mental imagery would improve text comprehension in 9-year-old children. Two groups of children were compared: good and poor comprehenders. The groups were matched on a test of vocabulary and decoding, but differed on a comprehension test. The results showed that a three-session programme of training in imagery benefited the poor, but not the good, comprehenders, by comparison with a control group who merely answered questions about the same passages. The results are discussed in relation to possible causes of children's comprehension difficulties.
Attenuation correction of multiplexed multi-pinhole microSPECT reconstruction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of including attenuation correction in the reconstruction of in vivo rat cardiac SPECT data. CT and SPECT scans of five rats were acquired with a NanoSPECT/CT system (Bioscan, Washington, DC). The CT data were used to estimate the 99mTc photon attenuation, and the attenuation was modeled in the OS-EM reconstruction loop. For the five rats included in this study, photon attenuation reduced the measured activity in the myocardium by 30±2%. Comparison of the corrected and uncorrected reconstructions showed a mild increase in the measured relative myocardial perfusion in three connected segments in the septal-anterior wall, and a small decrease in three connected segments in the lateral-inferior wall. The overall uniformity of the perfusion, measured as the standard deviation of the relative segment perfusion was not significantly changed (9.1% vs. 8.9%).
Visual data mining using principled projection algorithms and information visualization techniques

We introduce a flexible visual data mining framework which combines advanced projection algorithms from the machine learning domain and visual techniques developed in the information visualization domain. The advantage of such an interface is that the user is directly involved in the data mining process. We integrate principled projection algorithms, such as generative topographic mapping (GTM) and hierarchical GTM (HGTM), with powerful visual techniques, such as magnification factors, directional curvatures, parallel coordinates and billboarding, to provide a visual data mining framework. Results on a real-life chemoinformatics dataset using GTM are promising and have been analytically compared with the results from the traditional projection methods. It is also shown that the HGTM algorithm provides additional value for large datasets. The computational complexity of these algorithms is discussed to demonstrate their suitability for the visual data mining framework.
Functional Ability, Community Reintegration and Participation Restriction Among Community-Dwelling Female Stroke Survivors in Ibadan

Background Stroke is not gender-discriminatory. Yet, the subject of stroke among females has apparently not received significant attention from clinical researchers. The consequences of stroke include functional and psychosocial sequelae which may cause disability, hinder community reintegration and restrict participation. The inter-relationships among functional ability, community reintegration and participation restriction of community-dwelling, female stroke survivors in Ibadan were assessed in this descriptive study. Methods Fifty-two community-dwelling female stroke survivors (mean age = 56.55±9.91 years) were surveyed using consecutive sampling technique. Their functional ability level was measured using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) while London Handicap Scale (LHS) was used to assess their participation restriction. Data were analyzed using Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient (rho) and Mann-Whitney U test at p = 0.05. Results Significantly positive correlations (p< 0.05) were found between functional ability and community reintegration (r = 0.54; p = 0.01) as well as between participation restriction and community reintegration (r = 0.34; p = 0.05). Individuals with left hemiplegia had significantly higher mean rank scores in functional ability (30.41) than those who had right hemiplegia (mean rank scores = 21.94). Conclusion Functional ability which appears to be related to stroke laterality showed positive association with both community reintegration and participation restriction. This suggests that improving the functional ability of the stroke survivors may reduce participation restriction and enhance their reintegration into the community. A similar study which compares male and female stroke survivors in the same community is thus necessary.
LLS: a locality aware location service for mobile ad hoc networks

Coping with mobility and dynamism is one of the biggest challenges in ad hoc networks. An essential requirement for such networks is a service that can establish communication sessions between mobile nodes whose location is unknown. A location service for ad hoc networks is a distributed algorithm that allows any source node s to know the location of any destination node t, simply by knowing t's network identifier.A location service has a locality aware lookup algorithm if the cost of locating destination t from source s is proportional to the cost of the minimal cost path between s and t. A location service has a locality aware publish algorithm if the cost of updating the location service due to a node moving from x to y is proportional to the distance between x and y.In this paper we present LLS, the first location service for the Unit Disk Graph model whose lookup and publish algorithms have worst case locality guarantees and average case locality awareness efficiency for any source destination pair.