Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elusive Learning - Using Learning Analytics to Support Reflective Sensemaking of Ill-Structured Ethical Problems: A Learner-Managed Dashboard Solution

Since the turn of the 21st century, we have seen a surge of studies on the state of U.S. education addressing issues such as cost, graduation rates, retention, achievement, engagement, and curricular outcomes. There is an expectation that graduates should be able to enter the workplace equipped to take on complex and “messy” or ill-structured problems as part of their professional and everyday life. In the context of online learning, we have identified two key issues that are elusive (hard to capture and make visible): learning with ill-structured problems and the interaction of social and individual learning. We believe that the intersection between learning and analytics has the potential, in the long-term, to minimize the elusiveness of deep learning. A proposed analytics model is described in this article that is meant to capture and also support further development of a learner’s reflective sensemaking.
More Results on Increasing the Persuasiveness of a Low Prestige Communicator: The Effects of the Communicator's Physical Attractiveness and Sex of the Receiver

This experiment examined the relationship between attitude change and the interaction of the physical attractiveness of the communicator with his self-interest and expertness. Two components of communicator credibility which Stone and his associates have investigated are self-interest and expertness (Milbourn & Stone, 19TOI Stone & Chaffee, 1971; and Stone & Eswara, 1969). Self-interest refers to whether the communicator stands to win or lost if the suggestions in the message are implemented. Prestige, a concept related to expertness. has been investigated by Walster, Aronson, and Abrahams (1966) who found in some cases that a low prestige communicator may be more persuasive than a high prestige communicator. In their first experiment, the high prestige communicator was almost equally effective whichever way he argued but the low prestige communicator gained in effectiveness by arguing against his own best interests, indicating an interaction between prestige and self-interest. A second experiment, which used communicators less familiar to the _Ss, found that in contrast to the earlier study each communicator was more effective when he argued against his self-interest. Stone and Eswara (1969) tested these two conflicting results of Walster et al (1966). A main effect of self-interest on attitude change, as predicted by Walster _et ail ~1966), was not found. -
Transform-Invariant Non-Parametric Clustering of Covariance Matrices and its Application to Unsupervised Joint Segmentation and Action Discovery

In this work, we tackle the problem of transform-invariant unsupervised learning in the space of Covariance matrices and applications thereof. We begin by introducing the Spectral Polytope Covariance Matrix (SPCM) Similarity function; a similarity function for Covariance matrices, invariant to any type of transformation. We then derive the SPCM-CRP mixture model, a transform-invariant non-parametric clustering approach for Covariance matrices that leverages the proposed similarity function, spectral embedding and the distance-dependent Chinese Restaurant Process (dd-CRP) (Blei and Frazier, 2011). The scalability and applicability of these two contributions is extensively validated on real-world Covariance matrix datasets from diverse research fields. Finally, we couple the SPCM-CRP mixture model with the Bayesian non-parametric Indian Buffet Process (IBP) - Hidden Markov Model (HMM) (Fox et al., 2009), to jointly segment and discover transform-invariant action primitives from complex sequential data. Resulting in a topic-modeling inspired hierarchical model for unsupervised time-series data analysis which we call ICSC-HMM (IBP Coupled SPCM-CRP Hidden Markov Model). The ICSC-HMM is validated on kinesthetic demonstrations of uni-manual and bi-manual cooking tasks; achieving unsupervised human-level decomposition of complex sequential tasks.
Space-Valence Priming with Subliminal and Supraliminal Words

To date it is unclear whether (1) awareness-independent non-evaluative semantic processes influence affective semantics and whether (2) awareness-independent affective semantics influence non-evaluative semantic processing. In the current study, we investigated these questions with the help of subliminal (masked) primes and visible targets in a space-valence across-category congruence effect. In line with (1), we found that subliminal space prime words influenced valence classification of supraliminal target words (Experiment 1): classifications were faster with a congruent prime (e.g., the prime “up” before the target “happy”) than with an incongruent prime (e.g., the prime “up” before the target “sad”). In contrast to (2), no influence of subliminal valence primes on the classification of supraliminal space targets into up- and down-words was found (Experiment 2). Control conditions showed that standard masked response priming effects were found with both subliminal prime types, and that an across-category congruence effect was also found with supraliminal valence primes and spatial target words. The final Experiment 3 confirmed that the across-category congruence effect indeed reflected priming of target categorization of a relevant meaning category. Together, the data jointly confirmed prediction (1) that awareness-independent non-evaluative semantic priming influences valence judgments.
The Regulation of Public Utilities

an investigation of the expense account. In recent years there has been an awakening on the part of the public; this has had the tendency to relegate the utilit:es to their proper position of servants instead of masters of the people. A new view of the relationship of the utilities to the communities in which they do business is in vogue on the part of the public. And by the same token a new method of meeting the changed conditions is in vogue on the part of the utilities. The utilities are with us. They form an integral part of the mechanism of modern community life. How shall they be so controlled and regulated that the new methods they employ to gain the old ends may be met and checkmated? I shall not attempt a scientific answer. Nor shall I discuss the
Comparing Agile Software Processes Based on the Software Development Project Requirements

Agile software development principles and methodologies have gained a lot of popularity in recent years. Unlike traditional software processes, agile processes advocate flexible practices that allow coping with changing requirements. Recently, several agile processes have been proposed, which differ in a variety of ways. In this paper, we analyze the characteristics of many agile processes and classify them based on key requirements for a software development project. The objective is to help project managers and software engineers select an agile process that is most suitable to the requirements of their software projects.
The beliefs about medicines questionnaire: The development and evaluation of a new method for assessing the cognitive representation of medication

Abstract This paper presents a novel method for assessing cognitive representations of medication: the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ). The BMQ comprises two sections: the BMQ-Specific which assesses representations of medication prescribed for personal use and the BMQ-General which assesses beliefs about medicines in general. The pool of test items was derived from themes identified in published studies and from interviews with chronically ill patients. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the test items resulted in a logically coherent, 18 item, 4-factor structure which was stable across various illness groups. The BMQ-Specific comprises two 5-item factors assessing beliefs about the necessity of prescribed medication (Specific-Necessity) and concerns about prescribed medication based on beliefs about the danger of dependence and long-term toxicity and the disruptive effects of medication (Specific-Concerns). The BMQ-General comprises two 4-item factors assessing beliefs that medicines are .
A NEW FEATURE EXTRCTION MOTIVATED BY HUMAN EAR

A female coupler for engagement with a male coupler which has a spring loaded check valve, the female coupler includes a main poppet valve biased to a normally closed position and movable by the check valve in the male coupler to a fully opened position, a piston responsive to fluid pressure in the female coupler to force the main poppet valve to an intermediate position and open the male coupler check valve, a flow check prevention valve for normally maintaining a predetermined pressure of the fluid acting on the piston, and a second poppet valve to relieve the fluid acting on the piston.
Recessive Mutations in SPTBN2 Implicate β-III Spectrin in Both Cognitive and Motor Development

β-III spectrin is present in the brain and is known to be important in the function of the cerebellum. Heterozygous mutations in SPTBN2, the gene encoding β-III spectrin, cause Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 5 (SCA5), an adult-onset, slowly progressive, autosomal-dominant pure cerebellar ataxia. SCA5 is sometimes known as “Lincoln ataxia,” because the largest known family is descended from relatives of the United States President Abraham Lincoln. Using targeted capture and next-generation sequencing, we identified a homozygous stop codon in SPTBN2 in a consanguineous family in which childhood developmental ataxia co-segregates with cognitive impairment. The cognitive impairment could result from mutations in a second gene, but further analysis using whole-genome sequencing combined with SNP array analysis did not reveal any evidence of other mutations. We also examined a mouse knockout of β-III spectrin in which ataxia and progressive degeneration of cerebellar Purkinje cells has been previously reported and found morphological abnormalities in neurons from prefrontal cortex and deficits in object recognition tasks, consistent with the human cognitive phenotype. These data provide the first evidence that β-III spectrin plays an important role in cortical brain development and cognition, in addition to its function in the cerebellum; and we conclude that cognitive impairment is an integral part of this novel recessive ataxic syndrome, Spectrin-associated Autosomal Recessive Cerebellar Ataxia type 1 (SPARCA1). In addition, the identification of SPARCA1 and normal heterozygous carriers of the stop codon in SPTBN2 provides insights into the mechanism of molecular dominance in SCA5 and demonstrates that the cell-specific repertoire of spectrin subunits underlies a novel group of disorders, the neuronal spectrinopathies, which includes SCA5, SPARCA1, and a form of West syndrome.
Enforcement of Hong Kong Sar Court Judgments in the People's Republic of China

On 1 July 1997 Hong Kong entered a new era when it was transformed from a British colony into a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The impact of the handover of Hong Kong cannot be overstated but, for the time being perhaps, may lie more in the sphere of ideology than in institutions.
ICTNET at Entity Track TREC 2010

Abstract : This paper gives an overview of our work for related entity finding which is proposed in TREC 2010 Entity Track. The goal of the Entity Track is to find the entities relevant to a given query from the web corpus. In this paper, we propose a bipartite graph reinforcement model for entity ranking. As is well known, the entities on the web are embedded not only in the natural language text, but also in the tables and lists. Given a query, both the candidate entities and relevant tables/lists are extracted from web documents. Then the candidate entities extracted from unstructured text are ranked based on a probabilistic model. But the result contains a lot of noise. If some candidate entities are in a relevant table/list, they are more relevant to the given query. And Vice versa, if a table/list contains several candidate entities, it is also more relevant to the query. Based on the above intuition, we construct a bipartite graph and then perform a reinforcement algorithm to re-rank the candidate entities.
Cocaine self‐administration alters the morphology of dendrites and dendritic spines in the nucleus accumbens and neocortex

We studied the influence of cocaine use on the structure of neurons in brain regions that contribute to its rewarding effects by allowing rats to self‐administer cocaine (0.33 mg/infusion) for 1 h a day for 1 month. Control animals were left undisturbed or allowed to work for food for the same period of time. After an additional 1 month drug‐free period the brains were processed for Golgi‐Cox staining. In rats that self‐administered cocaine, but not rats that worked for food, there was a significant increase in dendritic branching and in the density of dendritic spines on medium spiny neurons in the shell of the nucleus accumbens and on pyramidal cells in the prefrontal and parietal (but not occipital) cortex. There was also a 2.6‐fold increase in the incidence of spines with multiple heads (branched spines) on medium spiny neurons. Finally, in the prefrontal cortex some of the apical dendrites of pyramidal cells appeared misshaped, having large bulbous structures on their terminal tips. We speculate that cocaine self‐administration experience alters patterns of synaptic connectivity within limbocortical circuitry that is thought to contribute to cocaine's incentive motivational effects and may have neuropathological effects in frontal areas involved in decision making and judgment. Together, these two classes of drug‐induced neuroadaptations may contribute to the development of addiction. Synapse 39:257–266, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Can interference alignment impact network utility maximization?

This paper examines whether interference alignment (IA) can be leveraged to improve network utility in a multiuser multi-antenna wireless cellular network. Optimality of IA from a DoF standpoint has the potential to aid conventional network optimization algorithms that typically can only find locally optimal solutions. This paper investigates the usefulness of IA for interference coordination and utility maximization by proposing a two-stage optimization framework for a G-cell multi-antenna network with K users/cell, and with full channel state information (CSI) available at all base-stations. The first stage of the proposed framework focuses exclusively on nulling interference from a set of dominant interferers using IA, while the second stage optimizes the transmit and receive beamformers iteratively to maximize a network-wide utility using the IA solution as the initial point. The number of dominant interferers to be nulled in the first stage is guided by a set of new feasibility results for partial IA. This paper focuses on maximizing the specific network utility of minimum rate over all users in the network. Through simulations on two different topologies of cluster of BSs either in isolation or in the presence of other non- cooperating BSs, the proposed framework with IA initialization is observed to outperform straightforward optimization on an isolated cluster of BSs. But, IA loses its impact when there is significant out-of-cluster interference. Thus, in a large-scale dense cellular deployment, the benefit of IA is likely to be limited, even with centralized network optimization and full CSI.
A fast and frugal method for team-task allocation in a multi-robot transportation system

In this paper we present two task-allocation strategies for a multi-robot transportation system. The first strategy is based on a centralized planner that uses domain knowledge to solve the assignment problem in linear time. In contrast in the second strategy, individual robots make rule-based allocation decisions using only locally obtainable information and single value communication. Both methods are tested and analysed in simulation experiments. We show that the rule-based method performs well but the lack of information has to be paid for with increased energy consumption.
The Convention Experience: Between Rhetoric and Participation

Abstract This article investigates the participation of interest groups in the EU's Constituional Convention and their contribution to the debate on participatory democracy and EU governance. I argue that the constitutional moment prompted interest groups to define their priorities beyond focused policy issues to include wider principles of governance. While the Convention process was more inclusive that any previous treaty reform procedure, its institutional set up was a constraint to improving citizen participation either directly or via interest groups. The Convention reproduced a model of closed elitist politics which did not communicate sufficiently with the citizens, while the role of interest groups was restricted by a Convention designed as a drafting phase in preparation for the real decisive phase during the IGC. Despite the impact of specific domestic contexts, the ‘no’ votes in France and the Netherlands proved that civil society and participation were rhetorical devices deployed during the Co.
An integrated approach to resource pool management: Policies, efficiency and quality metrics

The consolidation of multiple servers and their workloads aims to minimize the number of servers needed thereby enabling the efficient use of server and power resources. At the same time, applications participating in consolidation scenarios often have specific quality of service requirements that need to be supported. To evaluate which workloads can be consolidated to which servers we employ a trace-based approach that determines a near optimal workload placement that provides specific qualities of service. However, the chosen workload placement is based on past demands that may not perfectly predict future demands. To further improve efficiency and application quality of service we apply the trace-based technique repeatedly, as a workload placement controller. We integrate the workload placement controller with a reactive controller that observes current behavior to i) migrate workloads off of overloaded servers and ii) free and shut down lightly-loaded servers. To evaluate the effectiveness of the approach, we developed a new host load emulation environment that simulates different management policies in a time effective manner. A case study involving three months of data for 138 SAP applications compares our integrated controller approach with the use of each controller separately. The study considers trade-offs between i) required capacity and power usage, ii) resource access quality of service for CPU and memory resources, and iii) the number of migrations. We consider two typical enterprise environments: blade and server based resource pool infrastructures. The results show that the integrated controller approach outperforms the use of either controller separately for the enterprise application workloads in our study. We show the influence of the blade and server pool infrastructures on the effectiveness of the management policies.
Pleiotropic and Sex-Specific Effects of Cancer GWAS SNPs on Melanoma Risk in the Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study

Background Several regions of the genome show pleiotropic associations with multiple cancers. We sought to evaluate whether 181 single-nucleotide polymorphisms previously associated with various cancers in genome-wide association studies were also associated with melanoma risk. Methods We evaluated 2,131 melanoma cases and 20,353 controls from three studies in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study (EAGLE-BioVU, MEC, WHI) and two collaborating studies (HPFS, NHS). Overall and sex-stratified analyses were performed across studies. Results We observed statistically significant associations with melanoma for two lung cancer SNPs in the TERT-CLPTM1L locus (Bonferroni-corrected p<2.8x10-4), replicating known pleiotropic effects at this locus. In sex-stratified analyses, we also observed a potential male-specific association between prostate cancer risk variant rs12418451 and melanoma risk (OR=1.22, p=8.0x10-4). No other variants in our study were associated with melanoma after multiple comparisons adjustment (p>2.8e-4). Conclusions We provide confirmatory evidence of pleiotropic associations with melanoma for two SNPs previously associated with lung cancer, and provide suggestive evidence for a male-specific association with melanoma for prostate cancer variant rs12418451. This SNP is located near TPCN2, an ion transport gene containing SNPs which have been previously associated with hair pigmentation but not melanoma risk. Previous evidence provides biological plausibility for this association, and suggests a complex interplay between ion transport, pigmentation, and melanoma risk that may vary by sex. If confirmed, these pleiotropic relationships may help elucidate shared molecular pathways between cancers and related phenotypes.
Real-time vehicle detection and tracking using stereo vision and multi-view AdaBoost

We propose a multi-layer, real-time vehicle detection and tracking system using stereo vision, multi-view AdaBoost detectors, and optical flow. By adopting a ground plane estimate extracted from stereo information, we generate a sparse set of hypotheses and apply trained AdaBoost classifiers in addition to fast disparity histogramming, for Hypothesis Verification (HV) purposes. Our tracking system employs one Kalman filter per detected vehicle and motion vectors from optical flow, as a means to increase its robustness. An acceptable detection rate with few false positives is obtained at 25 fps with generic hardware.
Performance Analysis of Downlink Multi-Cell OFDMA Systems Based on Potential Game

This paper investigates the subcarrier allocation problem for a downlink multi-cell multiuser OFDMA network using potential game theory. Each player is considered to be a central base station together with all the mobiles distributed within its coverage area. In such a system, co-channel interferences (CCI), if left uncontrolled, could hinder the transmissions and limit the throughputs of the users, especially those near the cell-edge area. Certain remedies, including power control with pricing, did not seem to solve the problem completely. We specifically address this issue from an interference-minimizing approach, where the utility function adopted is meant to minimize the total CCI among players. Under such formulation, we show that the formulated game can be mathematically described by a potential game. Hence, a Nash equilibrium (NE) will be guaranteed for the proposed game and stable solutions can be achieved via myopic gameplays such as the best/better responses. We propose our iterative algorithm for obtaining the NEs and address several performance issues such as fairness for edge-users and the price of anarchy. Numerical results show the improvement in efficiency and fairness using this approach.
Genome-Wide Expression Profile of Sake Brewing Yeast under Shaking and Static Conditions

To identify the genes responsible for characteristics, that are different as between sake brewing yeasts and laboratory yeast strains, we used a DNA microarray to compare the genome-wide gene expression profiles of a sake yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae K-9 (kyokai 9), and a laboratory yeast, S. cerevisiae X2180-1A, under shaking and static conditions. The genes overexpressed in K-9 more than in X2180-1A were related to C-metabolism, including the HXT, ATP, and COX genes, ergosterol biosynthesis, ERG genes, and thiamine metabolism, THI genes. These genes may contribute to higher growth rates and fermentation ability and the ethanol tolerance of sake yeast. The genes underexpressed in K-9 more than in X2180-1A were CUP1-1 and CUP1-2, PHO genes, which may explain the low copper tolerance and low acid phosphatase activity of sake yeast. These underexpressed genes agree with the features and the alteration of the genome structure of sake yeast.