Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spiritual design elements as emotional therapy for malay muslim elderly with Alzheimer’s disease using therapeutic robot

The world’s population of people aging over 60 years will double from 11% to 22% between the year 2000 and 2050. Malaysia is expected to become an aging nation by 2030 in which 15% of the population is aged 60 years and above which entails a rise in the number of elderlies in the nation. In addition to that, results obtained from a preliminary study concluded that the early stages of the Alzheimer’s disease effects elderlies’ memory in terms of performing tasks in their daily lives which needs assistance and support from family members or caregivers. This paper is focused on identifying the spiritual emotion words for the Kansei Spiritual Therapeutic Robot Interaction (KS-TRI), determining spiritual design elements for the Kansei Spiritual Therapeutic Robot Interaction (KS-TRI) as well as proposing a design guide for spiritual practices in the Kansei Spiritual Therapeutic Robot Interaction (KS-TRI). The methodology used for this research is a qualitative method using the KJ method for objective 1 and an interview with spiritual and elderly experts is deployed for objective 2 whereas for objective 3, an in-depth user study is conducted with elderlies that suffers early stages of the Alzheimer’s disease. The finding revealed that utilizing the therapeutic robot which is embedded with spiritual design elements of spiritual practices is able to derive positive effects as well as enhance spiritual emotions towards elderlies. This research is significant for elderlies suffering from early stages of the Alzheimer’s disease where they benefit the technology in terms of performing spiritual practices.
An efficient load balance data collection scheme in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are used in a wide range of applications. In WSNs, sensor nodes transmit the data to sink via one-hop or multi-hop. The sensor nodes near the static sink are overloaded than others. By mobile sink, we can improve the network performance and then balance the energy consumption. It is important to use the mobile sink balancing the loading among sensor nodes and helping the adjusting of network lifetime. A set of sensor nodes are selected as rendezvous points (RPs), and non-RP nodes forward their data to RPs. In this paper, we present an efficient load balance data collection scheme to choose the RPs plain the path of mobile sink to visit all this RPs. The LBDC algorithm prolongs the lifetime of sensor network and balances each RP's amount of children. Our simulation results show that our scheme can increase the network lifetime.
Heads, Shoulders, Elbows, Knees, and Toes: Modular Gdf5 Enhancers Control Different Joints in the Vertebrate Skeleton

Synovial joints are crucial for support and locomotion in vertebrates, and are the frequent site of serious skeletal defects and degenerative diseases in humans. Growth and differentiation factor 5 (Gdf5) is one of the earliest markers of joint formation, is required for normal joint development in both mice and humans, and has been genetically linked to risk of common osteoarthritis in Eurasian populations. Here, we systematically survey the mouse Gdf5 gene for regulatory elements controlling expression in synovial joints. We identify separate regions of the locus that control expression in axial tissues, in proximal versus distal joints in the limbs, and in remarkably specific sub-sets of composite joints like the elbow. Predicted transcription factor binding sites within Gdf5 regulatory enhancers are required for expression in particular joints. The multiple enhancers that control Gdf5 expression in different joints are distributed over a hundred kilobases of DNA, including regions both upstream and downstream of Gdf5 coding exons. Functional rescue tests in mice confirm that the large flanking regions are required to restore normal joint formation and patterning. Orthologs of these enhancers are located throughout the large genomic region previously associated with common osteoarthritis risk in humans. The large array of modular enhancers for Gdf5 provide a new foundation for studying the spatial specificity of joint patterning in vertebrates, as well as new candidates for regulatory regions that may also influence osteoarthritis risk in human populations.
Sustainable management of usability information

Information from usability engineering activities can be useful in different contexts beyond the scope of a specific development project. This dissertation project aims at developing a model of usability information in order to support corresponding information needs of usability engineers in organizations with a usability information system. Results of interviews with usability professionals are presented, indicating that usability related information is already put to use in practice and that access to this information can be improved.
Mongolian Named Entity Recognition with Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Networks

Traditional approaches to Named Entity Recognition almost heavily rely on feature engineering. In this paper, we introduce a kind of bidirectional recurrent neural network with long short memory (BLSTM) to capture bidirectional and long dependencies in a sentence without any feature set. Our model combines BLSTM network with Conditional Random Field (CRF) layer to jointly decode the best output. Additionally, this model inputs the concatenation of Mongolian morpheme and character representation. Experimental results show that the bidirectional recurrent neural networks significantly outperform traditional CRF model using manual features.
Strengthening professionalism through cooperative learning

Abstract This article focuses on the processes that come into play as part of a school development project and how these processes contribute to strengthening teacher professionalism. Through processes of consciousness raising and the development of learning cultures where tacit knowledge becomes explicit and shared, and new practices are tested out and discussed, teacher professionalism is developed further. The study shows that this kind of school development work gives the teachers ownership of the development process and strengthens their consciousness about their own teaching as well as develops the learning cultures at the school. Thus, this development becomes an important way in which to reinforce the teachers’ professional knowledge, responsibility and autonomy.
Evaluation of the Effect of Upper Complete Denture on Gustatory and Olfactory Senses

Background and aims The majority of complete denture wearers are old. Clinical experience suggests that complete denture wearers have various disorders in their gustatory and olfactory senses due to disturbance of airways between the oral and nasal cavities caused by upper complete denture. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of upper complete denture on gustatory and olfactory senses in denture wearers. Materials and methods In this study, gustatory and olfactory senses in 30 patients (15 men and 15 women with a mean age of 52.93 ± 12.97 years) were evaluated three times: before complete denture insertion, three days after insertion and 1 month after that. Sucrose, citric acid, NaCl solution and distilled water (in two samples) were used to evaluate gustatory evalu-ation while mint- and cinnamon-flavored chewing gums were used for olfactory evaluation. Means and standard deviations were calculated and then compared between the different time intervals. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results The mean taste identification time was 5.23 ± 3.52 seconds before denture insertion, which decreased three days after insertion of denture and 1 month after use; however, these changes were not significant (P = 0.149). The mean time of flavor recognition increased after three days of insertion compared to the period before denture wear but decreased after 1 month; however, these changes were not significant (P = 0.792). In addition, the results revealed no significant differences in mean error in identification of taste and smell before and after denture insertion (P = 0.294). Conclusion Denture wearing does not influence gustatory and olfactory senses.
Sonar-Based Real-World Mapping and Navigation

A sonar-based mapping and navigation system developed for an autonomous mobile robot operating in unknown and unstructured environments is described. The system uses sonar range data to build a multileveled description of the robot’s surroundings. Sonar readings are interpreted using probability profiles to determine empty and occupied areas. Range measurements from multiple points of view are integrated into a sensor-level sonar map, using a robust method that combines the sensor information in such a way as to cope with uncertainties and errors in the data. The resulting two-dimensional maps are used for path planning and navigation. From these sonar maps, multiple representations are developed for various kinds of problem-solving activities. Several dimensions of representation are defined: the abstraction axis, the geographical axis, and the resolution axis. The sonar mapping procedures have been implemented as part of an autonomous mobile robot navigation system called Dolphin. The major modules of this system are described and related to the various mapping representations used. Results from actual runs are presented, and further research is mentioned. The system is also situated within the wider context of developing an advanced software architecture for autonomous mobile robots.
Autonomous fault diagnosis: state of the art and aeronautical benchmark

This paper briefly reviews the state of the art in Fault detection and Isolation (FDI), and describes a test-case for in-flight fault diagnosis. The main concepts are recalled, the links between the approaches are indicated and the most promising methods are highlighted. The nonlinear models of the system, its sensors and actuators are described in the second part of the article, along with fault scenarios. Constraints restrict the approaches that are applicable on the test-case and suggest quantitative indices that can be used to evaluate fault diagnosis strategies in an aeronautical context.
Towards a Practical, Verified Kernel

In the paper we examine one of the issues in designing, specifying, implementing and formally verifying a small operating system kernel -- how to provide a productive and iterative developmentmethodology for both operating system developers and formal methods practitioners. We espouse the use of functional programming languages as a medium for prototyping that is readily amenable to formalisation with a low barrier to entry for kernel developers, and report early experience in the process of designing and building seL4: a new, practical, and formally verified microkernel.
Backbone Language Modeling for Constrained Sentence Generation

Recent language models, especially those based on recurrent neural networks (RNNs), make it possible to generate natural language from a learned probability. Language generation has wide applications including machine translation, summarization, question answering, conversation systems, etc. Existing methods typically learn a joint probability of words conditioned on additional information, which is (either statically or dynamically) fed to RNN’s hidden layer. In many applications, we are likely to impose hard constraints on the generated texts, i.e., a particular word must appear in the sentence. Unfortunately, existing methods could not solve this problem. In this paper, we propose a backbone language model (backbone LM) for constrained language generation. Provided a specific word, our model generates previous words and future words simultaneously. In this way, the given word could appear at any position in the sentence. Experimental results show that the generated texts are coherent and fluent.
Phases in Collaboration: Using Schwab’s Deliberation to Respond to Change in Teacher Education

Abstract The literature suggests that radical changes to teacher education are common but rarely well-planned or resourced. Such changes can be detrimental to the quality of learning and it is challenging for educators to know how to respond. Joseph Schwab argued that for balanced curriculum development to occur, deliberation must take place with the four commonplaces (teachers, learners, subject matter and milieu). In this study, three teacher educators in a research intensive university in New Zealand were forced to combine three distinct courses (Health, Outdoor and Physical Education) into one course. Concerned that student learning would be compromised, we embarked on a series of deliberations informed by Schwab’s ideas. The deliberations involved meeting regularly over six months, inviting representatives from the commonplaces (program leaders, pedagogical specialists, pre-service teachers and teachers) into our deliberations and reflecting on the process. Analysis revealed that our deliberations could be characterized by phases: (1) creating the necessary conditions, (2) the problem emerges, (3) the solution emerges, (4) evaluation and (5) beyond deliberation. These phases of deliberation were distinguished by different concerns and timeframes and roughly reflected the stages of deliberation identified by Schwab. Convergence and divergence from Schwab’s stages are discussed. While much of Schwab’s work on deliberation remains relevant today, we recommend the addition of an initial phase focused on establishing a collaborative basis at the beginning of the process. We found this phase not only generated respect and care amongst the collaborators, but also helped frame the problem and enabled new solutions to emerge.
Optimal channel reuse in cellular radio systems with multiple correlated log-normal interferers

The probability of co-channel interference (PCI) due to multiple correlated log-normal signals is calculated for cellular radio systems operating in Rayleigh fading and lognormal shadowing environment. The effects on the PCI of the correlation between the signals, the standard deviation due to shadowing, the number of interferers, the co-channel protection ratio, and the traffic load is investigated. The results are used for analyzing the optimal channel reuse, the cluster size, and the spectrum efficiency in terms of these parameters. >
PCR performance of the B-type DNA polymerase from the thermophilic euryarchaeon Thermococcus aggregans improved by mutations in the Y-GG/A motif.

The effect of mutations in the highly conserved Y-GG/A motif of B-type DNA polymerases was studied in the DNA polymerase from the hyperthermophilic euryarchaeon Thermococcus aggregans. This motif plays a critical role in the balance between the synthesis and degradation of the DNA chain. Five different mutations of the tyrosine at position 387 (Tyr387-->Phe, Tyr387-->Trp, Tyr387-->His, Tyr387-->Asn and Tyr387-->Ser) revealed that an aromatic ring system is crucial for the synthetic activity of the enzyme. Amino acids at this position lacking the ring system (Ser and Asn) led to a significant decrease in polymerase activity and to enhanced exonuclease activity, which resulted in improved enzyme fidelity. Exchange of tyrosine to phenylalanine, tryptophan or histidine led to phenotypes with wild-type-like fidelity but enhanced PCR performance that could be related to a higher velocity of polymerisation. With the help of a modelled structure of T.aggregans DNA polymerase, the biochemical data were interpreted proposing that the conformation of the flexible loop containing the Y-GG/A motif is an important factor for the equilibrium between DNA polymerisation and exonucleolysis.
Application of Project-Based Learning in Students' Engagement in Malaysian Studies and English Language

Earlier researchers have shown that project-based learning generally has a positive impact on the learning experience. However, there are no in-depth studies to explore the impact of project-based learning on student engagement in Malaysian Studies and English language. This is an exploratory study that looks at the application of project-based learning on student engagement in learning these particular subjects at Taylor’s College, School of Hospitality and Tourism. The study is based on the implementation of a project assigned to students as part of their assessment in the mentioned subjects. Students were assigned the project in the beginning of the term as part of their continuous assessment. They were required to discuss, plan and look for the information and later organise the information collected to be submitted as a video or folio project. The main objectives of this study are to determine the effect of project-based learning on the students’ engagement in the two subjects, and to improve the teaching and learning experience. The two pertinent research questions for this study are: (1) How does project-based learning affect the engagement of students in their learning process? (2) How can a teacher use projects to maximise a student’s engagement in learning? Data was collected from focus groups, interviews and classroom observations. The findings demonstrate that project-based learning can improve student engagement in subjects such as Malaysian Studies and English language but collaborative learning which is one of the aspects of student engagement is the most challenging part for instructors and students. Based on the findings from this study, suggestions for improvement in the application of project- based learning are also presented.
Autophagy , Prion Infection and their Mutual Interactions 87 Autophagy , Prion Infection and their Mutual Interactions

Prion diseases are infectious and fatal neurodegenerative disorders of man and animals which are characterized by spongiform degeneration in the central nervous system. Prion propagation involves the endocytic pathway and endosomal and lysosomal compartments are implicated in trafficking and re-cycling as well as final degradation of prions. Shifting the equilibrium between propagation and lysosomal clearance to the latter impairs cellular prion load. This and earlier findings of autophagic vacuoles in correlation to prion infections both in in vitro and in vivo studies prompted us and others to analyze the role of autophagy in prion infection. Autophagy is a fundamental cellular bulk degradation process for e.g. organelles or cytoplasmic proteins which has many implications for physiology and patho-physiology of cells and whole organisms. In various neurodegenerative disease models mainly protective functions of autophagy were recently described. In this review, we focus on recent findings which correlate autophagy and its manipulations with prion infection scenarios, and discuss perspectives and future directions. The findings summarized here add to the knowledge of the role of autophagy in neurodegeneration and provide interesting new insight into how non-cytosolic aggregated proteins might be subjected to autophagic clearance.
The Council for Research in Music Education

ABSTRACT As viewed through the theoretical frameworks of Lave and Wenger’s situated learning, leisure theory, and quality-of-life theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics, attitudes and perceptions of adult community band musicians (N = 275) in nine randomly selected ensembles in order to glean insights into how music education might facilitate (a) more meaningful connections between school and community, and (b) greater lifespan engagement with participatory music making. The “typical” survey respondent was over 45, physically healthy, white, nonsmoker, nondrinker, churchgoer, well-educated, upper-middle class, married with children, active in the community, studied piano and sung in a choir at some point, learned their instrument in school, enjoyed classical music, and chose to play in the band for both musical and social reasons. Significant differences between those who learned to play their instrument in school and those who did not were minimal. Implications for music educators concerned about the “car-ryover” of school music to music making later in life are discussed. The contrast between the world of school music and actual musical conditions in the world outside is startling. (Gordon, Zanzig, & Tilton, 1933, p. 17)
Nitrogen-Enriched Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey First Data Release

The quasar Q0353-383 has long been known to have extremely strong nitrogen intercombination lines at 1486 and 1750 Å, implying an anomalously high nitrogen abundance of ∼15 times solar. A search for similar nitrogen-rich quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey First Data Release (SDSS DR1) catalog has yielded 20 candidates, including four with nitrogen emission as strong or stronger than that seen in Q0353-383. Our results indicate that only about one in 1700 of quasars have nitrogen abundances similar to Q0353-383, while up to one in 130 may be in the process of extreme nitrogen enrichment.
Perceived impact of physical activity on health and wellness of older adults in Northern British Columbia.

This research rests on earlier research suggesting that there is a definitive connection between physical activity and the health and wellness of older adults. Aspects of this connection were examined through a qualitative research project with a sample of older adults in Prince George, the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada. The research explored the experiences and perspectives of older adults about the impact o f physical activity on their health and wellbeing. Using a purposeful sampling method, data was generated through focus group and in-depth interviews. The data generated was analyzed using thematic analysis. The following eight themes emerged from the data analyzed: (1) Enthusiasm to learn more about and be involved in physical activity, (2) Effects of northern climate on involvement in physical activity, (3) Prominent physical activity, (4) Impact of physical illness, (5) Reason for being involved in physical activity, (6) Reasons for not being involved in physical activity, (7) Physical activity contributes to good health, and (8) Other views on physical activity in the community. The findings of this research are expected to benefit older adults, their families, and Northern Health and its agencies / programs involved in delivering services to older adults in Prince George and neighboring towns.
Findings and implications of the relationship of pre-service educators, their university tutor and in-service teachers regarding professional development in science in the primary school system

ABSTRACT This paper explores the professional needs of pre-service teachers, their university tutor and in-service teachers in terms of their subject and pedagogical content knowledge. It does so through an examination of these professionals’ participation in the learning experiences of children. The context for this participation is the children’s engagement with activity in a local children’s university in the UK. The study adopts a grounded theory methodology incorporating analysis of the open coding of unstructured interview transcripts. The study provides insight into practitioners’ preferred modes of learning with consideration of the effectiveness of formal and non-formal contexts. There is evidence that adoption of a non-formal approach to teacher education can be beneficial if pre-service teachers can learn in the presence of practising teachers and the university tutor. The teachers learn from the practice modelled by the university tutor. The tutor benefits from developing their practice and effecting moderation of the school–university partnership.