Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive master’s dissertation supervision: a longitudinal case study

ABSTRACT Drawing on supervisor and supervisee interviews, analysis of supervisor feedback on the supervisee’s draft chapters, and departmental supervisory guidelines, this study focuses on the roles a master’s dissertation supervisor plays during the course of supervision. These roles are discussed referring to models of supervisory pedagogy, the teaching, partnership, apprenticeship, contractual, pastoral, and non-interfering models. Supervisee and supervisor agreed that the supervisor aligned with different roles at different times for different purposes, showing this was a case of adaptive supervision. Nonetheless, the supervisor’s feedback indicated supervision was more directive than his interview data suggested, illustrating the need to collect data from multiple sources to capture the complexities of the supervisory dynamic. We conclude that the dangers of departments attempting to formulate homogenized supervisory practices are highlighted by our case.
Siamese Instance Search for Tracking-Supplementary Material

To learn the matching function that operates on pairs of data, we use a Siamese architecture with two branches [1, 2]. The Siamese network processes the two inputs separately through individual networks that take the form of a convolutional neural network. For individual branches, we investigate two different network architectures, a small one adapted from AlexNet [5] (Figure 1a) and a very deep one inspired by VGGNet [7] (Figure 1b).
A Novel Ball on Beam Stabilizing Platform with Inertial Sensors

This research paper presents a novel controller design for one degree of freedom (1-DoF) stabilizing platform using inertial sensors. The plant is a ball on a pivoted beam. Multi-loop controller design technique has been used. System dynamics is observable but uncontrollable. The uncontrollable polynomial of the system is not Hurwitz hence system is not stabilizable. Hybrid compensator design strategy is implemented by partitioning the system dynamics into two parts: controllable subsystem and uncontrollable subsystem. Controllable part is compensated by partial pole assignment in the inner loop. Prediction observer is designed for unmeasured states in the inner loop. Rapid control prototyping technique is used for compensator design for the outer loop containing the controlled inner loop and uncountable part of the system. Real-time system responses are monitored using MATLAB/Simulink that show promising performance of the hybrid compensation technique for reference tracking and robustness against model inaccuracies.
Gender Role Attitudes and Women’s Labor Market Participation: Opting-Out and the Persistent Appeal of Housewifery

Using data from the 1972-2006 General Social Surveys (GSS) and an economic identity theory framework, this paper studies the impact of gender role attitudes as factors modulating the impact of economic fundamentals, such as education and income, on the evolution of female labor force participation (FLP) in the United States. The analysis accounts for nonlinear time-period, life-cycle, and cohort effects, as well as a host of background variables, and uses a plausible instrumental variable strategy to correct for potential endogeneity problems associated with cognitive dissonance. Traditional gender role attitudes, whose secular decline bottomed out in the mid-1990s when the AIDS crisis peaked, are found to be the missing gender-specific factors that explain the differences in the concavity of time trends in male and female labor force participation, that remain after accounting for the usual factors. The analysis also shows that the “opting-out” phenomena is not driven by the experience of college-educated women.
Functional Dissection of HOXD Cluster Genes in Regulation of Neuroblastoma Cell Proliferation and Differentiation

Retinoic acid (RA) can induce growth arrest and neuronal differentiation of neuroblastoma cells and has been used in clinic for treatment of neuroblastoma. It has been reported that RA induces the expression of several HOXD genes in human neuroblastoma cell lines, but their roles in RA action are largely unknown. The HOXD cluster contains nine genes (HOXD1, HOXD3, HOXD4, and HOXD8-13) that are positioned sequentially from 3′ to 5′, with HOXD1 at the 3′ end and HOXD13 the 5′ end. Here we show that all HOXD genes are induced by RA in the human neuroblastoma BE(2)-C cells, with the genes located at the 3′ end being activated generally earlier than those positioned more 5′ within the cluster. Individual induction of HOXD8, HOXD9, HOXD10 or HOXD12 is sufficient to induce both growth arrest and neuronal differentiation, which is associated with downregulation of cell cycle-promoting genes and upregulation of neuronal differentiation genes. However, induction of other HOXD genes either has no effect (HOXD1) or has partial effects (HOXD3, HOXD4, HOXD11 and HOXD13) on BE(2)-C cell proliferation or differentiation. We further show that knockdown of HOXD8 expression, but not that of HOXD9 expression, significantly inhibits the differentiation-inducing activity of RA. HOXD8 directly activates the transcription of HOXC9, a key effector of RA action in neuroblastoma cells. These findings highlight the distinct functions of HOXD genes in RA induction of neuroblastoma cell differentiation.
ELLIPTICAL CONFIGURATION DISTRIBUTION

The noncentral configuration density under an elliptical model is derived; it generalizes and corrects the Gaussian configuration and some Pearson results. Then by using partition theory a number of explicit configuration densities are obtained; i.e. configuration densities associated with the matrix variate symmetric Kotz type distributions (it includes normal), the matrix variate Pearson type VII distributions (it includes t and Cauchy distributions), the matrix variate symmetric Bessel distribution (it includes Laplace distribution) and the matrix variate symmetric logistic distribution.
Subcellular redistribution of components of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway during lens differentiation and maturation.

PURPOSE To determine the subcellular distribution of components of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) in lens epithelium and differentiating fibers and to evaluate potential roles of the UPP in eliminating nuclei and other organelles during maturation of lens fibers. METHODS Adult bovine lens cryosections were stained for immunofluorescence and analyzed by confocal microscopy. The specificities of the antibodies used in this study were determined by Western blot. results Cryosections of bovine lenses show that E1 and Ubc1 were present in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus in epithelial cells, whereas Ubc3 and ubiquitin conjugates were mostly confined to the nucleus, and Ubc4/5 was preferentially localized in clusters in the vicinity of the nuclear membrane. The 19S and 20S proteasome complexes were preferentially localized in the cytoplasm. When the epithelial cells differentiated into fiber cells at the transition zone, all components of the UPP were primarily present in the nucleus, with the exception of Ubc4/5, which was associated with the nuclear membrane. conclusions The results show that during lens fiber differentiation and maturation, components of the UPP are redistributed at subcellular levels. Subcellular localization of an enzyme indicates where the reaction takes place. The primary nuclear localization of the UPP components in the differentiating fibers supports the hypothesis that the UPP may play a role in elimination of nuclei and other organelles during differentiation and maturation of lens fibers.
A Novel Fully Electronic Active Real-Time Imager Based on a Planar Multistatic Sparse Array

The interest in active millimeter-wave and microwave imaging systems is increasing due to their utilization in security, medical, and industrial applications. Imaging systems using monostatic arrays suffer from the high number of antenna positions, making a fully electronic solution very costly and impractical. Multistatic arrays, however, offer the chance for high reduction factors in the number of antennas, and then allow for fully electronic solutions. Here, a new array architecture is presented, which is suitable for real-time operation and is capable of delivering high image quality in means of resolution and dynamic range. Various technological solutions were developed for the imaging purpose, which are introduced in detail. An example array for operation from 72 to 80 GHz is demonstrated. The imaging system hardware is introduced, along with several imaging results of humans with concealed objects.
Where Is Thailand in the Development of E-Commerce?

The phenomenal growth of the Internet and e-commerce has changed the landscape of the economy and the way business is conducted. For developing countries like Thailand, e-commerce is the opportunity to improve its trade efficiency and facilitate its integration into the global economy. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Thailand was left with massive debts and high bankruptcy rates. The Thai government has taken an active role in promoting e-commerce in response to the crisis. Thai companies that rushed into the game by copying foreign e-commerce business strategies/models mostly failed. One reason for the fail of e-commerce in Thailand was that strategies/models did not import well across disparate cultures. Nonetheless, Thai businesses are now successfully developing their own e-commerce business strategies that fit the needs of the Thai e-commerce business markets. Among them, Thaigems.com has become the world’s leading online seller of gems and jewelry with a 90% share of the online market for colored gemstones. Most researchers addressing e-commerce strategies investigate companies in developed countries. There are very few conducting research in developing countries like Thailand. This dissertation uses a case study approach to answer the basic research question: What e-commerce strategies are suitable to Thailand?
Age Changes in Articular Cartilage of Rabbits

The appearance under the electron microscope of articular cartilage taken from the distal end of the femur has already been described for rabbits ranging in age from 62 to 74 days (Davies, Barnett, Cochrane, and Palfrey, 1962). It was found convenient to divide the cartilage, the total thickness of which ranged from 150 to 450±, into four zones.
Local Central Limit Theorems, the High Order Correlations of Rejective Sampling, and Applications to Conditional Logistic Likelihood Asymptotics †

Let I1, . , In be independent but not necessarily identically distributed Bernoulli random variables, and let Xn = ∑n j=1 Ij . For ν in a bounded region, a local central limit theorem expansion of PI (Xn = EI Xn + ν) is developed to any given degree. By conditioning, this expansion provides information on the high order correlation structure of dependent, weighted sampling schemes of a population E (a special case of which is simple random sampling) where a set r ⊂ E is sampled with probability proportional to ∏ A∈r xA, where xA are positive weights associated with individuals A ∈ E. These results are used to derive the asymptotic information of the conditional logistic likelihood for unmatched case-control study designs in which sets of controls of the same size are sampled with equal probability. ∗AMS 2000 subject classifications. 62N02, 62D05 60F05. †
Exact Regeneration Codes for Distributed Storage Repair Using Interference Alignment

The high repair cost of (n,k) Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) erasure codes has recently motivated a new class of codes, called Regenerating Codes, that optimally trade off storage cost for repair bandwidth. On one end of this spectrum of Regenerating Codes are Minimum Storage Regenerating (MSR) codes that can match the minimum storage cost of MDS codes while also significantly reducing repair bandwidth. In this paper, we describe Exact-MSR codes which allow for any failed nodes (whether they are systematic or parity nodes ) to be regenerated exactly rather than only functionally or information-equivalently. We show that Exact-MSR codes come with no loss of optimalitywith respect to random-network-coding based MSR codes (matching the cutset-based lower bound on repair bandwidth) for the cases of: (a) k/n � 1/2; and (b) k � 3. Our constructive approach is based on interference alignment techniques, and, unlike the previous class of random-network-coding based approaches, we provide explicit and deterministic coding schemes that require a finite-field size of at most 2(n − k).
Benthic microbial communities of coastal terrestrial and ice shelf Antarctic meltwater ponds

The numerous perennial meltwater ponds distributed throughout Antarctica represent diverse and productive ecosystems central to the ecological functioning of the surrounding ultra oligotrophic environment. The dominant taxa in the pond benthic communities have been well described however, little is known regarding their regional dispersal and local drivers to community structure. The benthic microbial communities of 12 meltwater ponds in the McMurdo Sound of Antarctica were investigated to examine variation between pond microbial communities and their biogeography. Geochemically comparable but geomorphologically distinct ponds were selected from Bratina Island (ice shelf) and Miers Valley (terrestrial) (<40 km between study sites), and community structure within ponds was compared using DNA fingerprinting and pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. More than 85% of total sequence reads were shared between pooled benthic communities at different locations (OTU0.05), which in combination with favorable prevailing winds suggests aeolian regional distribution. Consistent with previous findings Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla representing over 50% of total sequences; however, a large number of other phyla (21) were also detected in this ecosystem. Although dominant Bacteria were ubiquitous between ponds, site and local selection resulted in heterogeneous community structures and with more than 45% of diversity being pond specific. Potassium was identified as the most significant contributing factor to the cosmopolitan community structure and aluminum to the location unique community based on a BEST analysis (Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.632 and 0.806, respectively). These results indicate that the microbial communities in meltwater ponds are easily dispersed regionally and that the local geochemical environment drives the ponds community structure.
Poststructural Democratic Education? Assessing the Potentialities of a Non-Individualistic, Non-Instrumental, “Action”-Oriented Democratic Education

This research is a philosophical study into the potentialities of realising a poststructural democratic education through considering the reflections of educators involved in various “democratic” educational programmes. Utilising the conceptual tools of Biesta (2006), as inspired by Arendt (1998), this study explores what it would entail to create a non-individual, non-instrumental, “action”-oriented democratic education. It seeks to do this motivated by a lacuna of research into the question of translating a poststructural educational theory into practice. The findings reveal that the educational programmes that the educators are involved with resemble poststructural ideas in their pedagogy, and most notably in their educational structures, but the guiding philosophy and overall aims of the programmes appear to endorse more moderate visions of democratic education. In taking this idea further, this study suggests that the enactment of poststructural democratic education demands a social context that too is democratic in the poststructural way envisioned. In this way, it can be said that this research exposes the limitations and challenges of the realisation of such a philosophy where the surrounding climate is not in harmony with its ideals, as it would remain disconnected from the very society it seeks to democratically interact with.
Robust watermarking for T-spline surfaces based on nonuniform B-spline wavelets transformation

T-spline surfaces are widely used in entertainment, engineering, science and medicine. Nonuniform B-spline wavelets transformation is introduced into T-spline surfaces watermarking, and a scheme is proposed for embedding watermarks into T-spline surfaces. In watermark embeding stage, firstly, the points are selected from the standard T-spline surfaces. Secondly, the points are decomposited by nonumiform B-spline wavelets transformation, then the watermarks are embedded into its lower resolution coefficients, and then the watermarked points are obtained by the B-spline wavelets reconstruction. Finally, the watermarked T-spline surfaces are obtained by modifing the T-spline control points. In watermark extracting stage, the same points selection and wavelets decomposition processes are performed to both the original surfaces and the watermarked surfaces, then the watermarks are obtained according to the differences of their lower resolution coefficients. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is robust against attacks such as translation, rotation, uniform scaling, noise addition, control points modification, weights modification, local knot insertion and control point removal.
Wavelet contrast-based image inpainting with sparsity-driven initialization

Image inpainting is the task of removing undesired objects or flaws in images. This work advances an exemplar-based global optimization image inpainting algorithm. For that purpose, the inpainting area is iteratively refined through the minimization of a cost function. The minimization outcome depends on the initial values of the inpainting area. We compare three initialization methods with a new sparsity-driven approach. Lastly, we propose the new wavelet contrast costs which increase the inpainting quality. Wavelet contrasts reduce computational complexity in comparison to wavelet histograms while preserving their ability of measuring the density of image texture.
The EGSYS and OESIL risk scores for classification of cardiac etiology of syncope: comparison, revaluation, and clinical implications.

AIMS EGSYS-U, EGSYS-M, and OESIL risk scores for syncope evaluation are introduced, evaluated retrospectively, and their ability to classify cardiac syncopes is compared. The specificity and sensitivity of the scores were analyzed. Guidelines for the practical application of the scoring systems are provided to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions. METHODS Retrospectively, 153 patients with syncope admitted to the Faculty Hospital in Ostrava in the year 2008 were enrolled for scoring with the EGSYS and OESIL risk scores. The computed scores were assessed with respect to the diagnosed etiology of the syncope. RESULTS For each score system, the hypothesis that there is no difference in the score between the cardiac and the non-cardiac group was rejected (all p-values below 0.0001). Strong correlation between the three score systems was shown (Spearman correlation coefficient: r = 0.71 p < 0.0001 for EGSYS-U and OESIL, r = 0.88 p < 0.0001 for EGSYS-U and EGSYS-M, r = 0.60 p < 0.0001 for EGSYS-M and OESIL). Sensitivity and specificity of the scores were computed and compared. CONCLUSIONS All three score systems were found capable of classifying cardiac syncopes, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions and improving syncope risk evaluation. EGSYS-U was recommended for emergency syncope management because it was found to have both high sensitivity and high specificity.
Online conversation mining for author characterization and topic identification

The increasing popularity of online-based services (Twitter, Facebook, IRC, Myspace, blogs, just to mention few of them) results in a production of a huge amount of novel documents. These documents present properties that can not be found in standard edited documents. In particular the messages generated during the use of Instant Messages Services (IM) like chat-rooms or Twitter are short, user-generated and "noisy". We are investigating two different but related aspect of the content of these colloquial messages: the topic identification and the author identification tasks. In the first case we would like to answer the question what is the conversation about? while in the second case the question is who are the people involved in the conversation? The combination of these two tasks into a unique model is a novel and interesting research problem that is the main topic of our research.
Potent Inhibition of Alcohol Self-Administration in Alcohol-Preferring Rats by a κ-Opioid Receptor Antagonist

A substituted aryl amide derivative of 6-naltrexamine—17-cyclopropylmethyl-3,14β-dihydroxy-4,5α-epoxy-6β-[(4′-trimethylfluoro)benzamido]morphinan-hydrochloride—(compound 5), previously shown to be a potent κ-opioid receptor antagonist, was used to characterize the physicochemical properties and efficacy to decrease alcohol self-administration in alcohol-preferring rats (P-rats) and binge-like P-rats. Previous studies showed that compounds closely related to compound 5 possessed favorable properties regarding penetration of the blood-brain barrier. Pharmacokinetic studies showed that compound 5 had acceptable bioavailability. In contrast to other κ-receptor antagonists, in particular norbinaltorphimine, compound 5 showed favorable drug-like properties. Based on these findings, further studies were done. Safety studies showed that compound 5 was not hepatotoxic at doses 200-fold greater than an efficacious dose. The effects of compound 5 or naltrexone on the hepatotoxicity of thiobenzamide were investigated. In contrast to naltrexone, which exacerbated thiobenzamide-mediated hepatotoxicity, compound 5 was observed to be hepatoprotective. Based on the physicochemical properties of compound 5, the compound was examined in rat animal models of alcohol self-administration. The inhibition of ethanol self-administration by compound 5 in alcohol-dependent and alcohol-nondependent P-rats trained to self-administer a 10% (w/v) ethanol solution, using operant techniques, showed very potent efficacy (i.e., estimated ED50 values of 4–5 μg/kg). In a binge-like P-rat animal model, inhibition of alcohol self-administration by compound 5 had an estimated ED50 value of 8 μg/kg. The results suggest that compound 5 is a potent drug-like κ-opioid receptor antagonist of utility in alcohol cessation medications development.
Multiphysics and multiscale modelling, data–model fusion and integration of organ physiology in the clinic: ventricular cardiac mechanics

With heart and cardiovascular diseases continually challenging healthcare systems worldwide, translating basic research on cardiac (patho)physiology into clinical care is essential. Exacerbating this already extensive challenge is the complexity of the heart, relying on its hierarchical structure and function to maintain cardiovascular flow. Computational modelling has been proposed and actively pursued as a tool for accelerating research and translation. Allowing exploration of the relationships between physics, multiscale mechanisms and function, computational modelling provides a platform for improving our understanding of the heart. Further integration of experimental and clinical data through data assimilation and parameter estimation techniques is bringing computational models closer to use in routine clinical practice. This article reviews developments in computational cardiac modelling and how their integration with medical imaging data is providing new pathways for translational cardiac modelling.