Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acquiring Conceptual Expertise from Modeling : Th e Case of Elementary Physics

In many domains, the real world is modeled with systems of equations. Such a model uses variables to represent domain properties and equations to represent applications of domain principles. Given a set of true domain relationships expressed as equations, one can deduce new equations from them using only the rules of mathematics, and the new equations will also be true domain relationships. Th e latter step, wherein mathematical implications are derived from the initial model, can oft en be done mechanically, for example, by mathematical symbol manipulation programs, spreadsheets, calculators, etc. Given a real world situation that is amenable to such analysis, experts and novices understand them quite diff erently. Whereas novices must go through the whole modeling process by writing equations on paper and solving them, experts can generate many conclusions about the same situations without having to commit anything to paper. For the expert, many domain relationships are just “obvious” or can be easily inferred “by inspection. ” Th ere are limits to the experts’ abilities. Although experts usually cannot mentally infer quantitative relationship, such as the exact numerical value for an energy or a velocity, they can infer qualitative relationships, such as whether a quantity is zero, increasing or greater than some other quantity. Th us, it is oft en said that expertise in such domains is characterized by a conceptual or qualitative understanding of real world situations (VanLehn, 1996 ). It is sometimes said that they have developed domain-specifi c intuitions (Simon & Simon, 1978 ). Th is ability of the experts is called conceptual expertise , and it is the focus of this chapter. Interest in conceptual expertise has increased in recent years with the discovery that in some surprisingly simple situations, novices have intuitions that confl ict with the experts’ intuitions (McCloskey, Caramazza, & Green, 1980 ). For instance, suppose a bowling ball and a golf ball are dropped from 2 meters above the Earth’s surface. An expert will know immediately that the two balls strike the earth at exactly the same time, whereas novices usually say that the balls land at slightly diff erent times. Novice intuitions about such situations 16
Classification of movement data concerning user's activity recognition via mobile phones

Smartphones are becoming a powerful platform for event recognition due to the number of sensors they are equipped with. This provides an opportunity to apply data mining techniques on movement data in order to recognize people's daily activities without changing their routine. In this paper, we present a methodology for collecting and analysing user activity information with a smartphone application. This information can be further exploited in various applications ranging from m-health (e.g. fitness application) and transportation (e.g. user driving habits detection) to m-commerce (e.g. shopping recommendations). In order to demonstrate this methodology, we have developed GPSTracker a prototype application for Android phones, which collects position, speed, altitude and time information and performs real-time classification of user's movement. The processed information is collected in a private user folder, on a cloud storage service, and can be further processed in order to extract aggregate user habits, or in order to detect user activity over time and provide recommendations. We also provide a visualisation of user trajectories, as recorded and classified by GPSTracker application. We exploited all the possible sensors of the smartphone and employed additional geo-location data from public transportation services. Finally, we tested several movement classification algorithms and trajectory pattern analysis techniques in order to improve the performance of our activity recognition process.
Physical activity and clinical and functional status in COPD.

BACKGROUND The mechanisms underlying the benefits of regular physical activity in the evolution of COPD have not been established. Our objective was to assess the relationship between regular physical activity and the clinical and functional characteristics of COPD. METHODS Three hundred forty-one patients were hospitalized for the first time because of a COPD exacerbation in nine teaching hospitals in Spain. COPD diagnosis was confirmed by spirometry under stable conditions. Physical activity before the first COPD hospitalization was measured using the Yale questionnaire. The following outcome variables were studied under stable conditions: dyspnea, nutritional status, complete lung function tests, respiratory and peripheral muscle strength, bronchial colonization, and systemic inflammation. RESULTS The mean age was 68 years (SD, 9 years), 93% were men, 43% were current smokers, and the mean postbronchodilator FEV(1) was 52% predicted (SD, 16% predicted). Multivariate linear regression models were built separately for each outcome variable and adjusted for potential confounders (including remaining outcomes if appropriate). When patients with the lowest quartile of physical activity were compared to patients in the other quartiles, physical activity was associated with significantly higher diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (Dlco) [change in the second, third, and fourth quartiles of physical activity, compared with first quartile (+ 6%, + 6%, and + 9% predicted, respectively; p = 0.012 [for trend])], expiratory muscle strength (maximal expiratory pressure [Pemax]) [+ 7%, + 5%, and + 9% predicted, respectively; p = 0.081], 6-min walking distance (6MWD) [+ 40, + 41, and + 45 m, respectively; p = 0.006 (for trend)], and maximal oxygen uptake (Vo(2)peak) [+ 55, + 185, and + 81 mL/min, respectively; p = 0.110 (for trend)]. Similarly, physical activity reduced the risk of having high levels of circulating tumor necrosis factor alpha (odds ratio, 0.78, 0.61, and 0.36, respectively; p = 0.011) and C-reactive protein (0.70, 0.51, and 0.52, respectively; p = 0.036) in multivariate logistic regression. CONCLUSIONS More physically active COPD patients show better functional status in terms of Dlco, Pemax, 6MWD, Vo(2)peak, and systemic inflammation.
The political is personal: reflections on facilitating action research in gender issues in science education

Abstract Action research is emerging as a promising means of promoting individual and societal change in the context of university programmes in teacher education. However, significant gaps exist in the literature regarding the use of action research groups for the education of science teachers. Therefore, an action research group, dealing with gender issues in science education, was established within the context of a graduate course in action research at OISE/UT. The group met 14 times from September of 1992 until May 1993, and consisted of the author and five other science teachers from the Toronto area. Two of us were in the primary panel, two in the intermediate panel and two in the tertiary panel. Five teachers are female and one male. The experiences of the group form the basis of this study. A methodology of participant observation supported by interviews, classroom visits, journals, group feedback and participant portfolios provided a means of examining our experiences from the perspectives of the participants in the group. This case study examines the development of the author as a participant, researcher and facilitator of action research through a critical examination of group dynamics and power issues arising within the action research group. The results of this study confirm that facilitators should undertake their own action research within the context of their groups in order to examine their own taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching and learning. Through such reflections, we will continue to problematise the social and political aspects of science education, and make explicit how the political is personal for each of us as science educators.
Keychain-Based Signatures for Securing BGP

As a major component of Internet routing infrastructure, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is vulnerable to malicious attacks. While Secure BGP (S-BGP) provides a comprehensive framework to secure BGP, its high computational cost and low incremental deployment benefits seriously impede its wide usage in practice. Using a lightweight symmetric signature scheme, SPV is much faster than S-BGP. However, the speed boost comes at the price of prohibitively large signatures. Aggregated path authentication reduces the overhead of securing BGP in terms of both time and space, but the speed improvement is still limited by public key computation. In this paper, we propose a keychain-based signature scheme called KC-x. It has low CPU and memory overheads and provides strong incentive for incremental deployment on the Internet. As a generic framework, KC-x has the flexibility of using different signature algorithms, which can even co-exist in a hybrid deployment. We investigate two implementations of KC-x: KC-RSA based on RSA and KC-MT based on Merkle hash tree. Using real BGP workloads, our experimental results show that KC-RSA is as efficient as SAS-V (the most efficient software approach for aggregated path authentication), and KC-MT is even three times faster than SPV with 40% smaller signatures. Through the hybrid deployment of KC-MT and KC-RSA, KC-x can achieve both small signature and high processing rate for BGP speakers.
The Role of Manganese Superoxide Dismutase in Inflammation Defense

Antioxidant enzymes maintain cellular redox homeostasis. Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), an enzyme located in mitochondria, is the key enzyme that protects the energy-generating mitochondria from oxidative damage. Levels of MnSOD are reduced in many diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and psoriasis. Overexpression of MnSOD in tumor cells can significantly attenuate the malignant phenotype. Past studies have reported that this enzyme has the potential to be used as an anti-inflammatory agent because of its superoxide anion scavenging ability. Superoxide anions have a proinflammatory role in many diseases. Treatment of a rat model of lung pleurisy with the MnSOD mimetic MnTBAP suppressed the inflammatory response in a dose-dependent manner. In this paper, the mechanisms underlying the suppressive effects of MnSOD in inflammatory diseases are studied, and the potential applications of this enzyme and its mimetics as anti-inflammatory agents are discussed.
Design and Implementation of Flexible Deformable Special Flying Robot

Aiming at the problem that the rigid structure of rotorcraft can not meet the requirements of flying in narrow space, a deformable flying robot with rigid and flexible structure is proposed and analyzed and verified by experiments. The test results show that the flying robot can effectively achieve normal flight under the condition of reduced flight radius, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the flexible deformable special flying robot to cross the narrow space.
Vesicle Dynamics during Plant Cell Cytokinesis Reveals Distinct Developmental Phases1[OPEN]

Cell plate formation in dividing plant cells follows a highly consistent pattern involving precisely choreographed vesicle motion and functionally distinct stages. Cell division in plant cells requires the deposition of a new cell wall between the two daughter cells. The assembly of this plate requires the coordinated movement of cargo vesicles whose size is below the diffraction-limited resolution of the optical microscope. We combined high spatial and temporal resolution confocal laser scanning microscopy with advanced image-processing tools and fluorescence fluctuation methods and distinguished three distinct phases during cell plate expansion in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) ‘Bright Yellow-2’ cells: massive delivery of preexisting vesicles to a disk-shaped region at the equatorial plane precedes a primary rapid expansion phase followed by a secondary, slow expansion phase during which the extremity of the circular plate seeks contact with the mother wall and brings about the separation of the two portions of cytoplasm. Different effects of pharmacological inhibition emphasize the distinct nature of the assembly and expansion mechanisms characterizing these phases.
Hypertonic mannitol loading of NF-kappaB transcription factor decoys in human brain microvascular endothelial cells blocks upregulation of ICAM-1.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE An acute inflammatory response exacerbates tissue injury during acute ischemic stroke. The transcription factor nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB plays a key role in endothelial cell activation and the inflammatory response. Targeted genetic disruption of NF-kappaB activation in cerebral endothelial cells may be protective in stroke. We determined whether a NF-kappaB transcription factor decoy (TFD) could block intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 upregulation, an indicator of endothelial cell activation. METHODS We modeled ischemia-reperfusion in vitro by exposing cultured human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and conditions of hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R). Mannitol was used to load phosphothiorated oligonucleotides containing 3 copies of the kappaB binding sequences (TFDs) into cultured HBMEC. An NF-kappaB TFD, a mutated NF-kappaB TFD, and a scrambled TFD were studied for their effect on ICAM-1 mRNA levels and surface ICAM-1 by ELISA. RESULTS Hyperosmolar loading with mannitol permitted rapid transfection of TFD into endothelial cell nuclei. The NF-kappaB TFD but not the mutated or scrambled TFD competed with a kappaB sequence for binding to nuclear extracts from HBMEC exposed to TNF-alpha. The NF-kappaB TFD blocked the TNF-alpha-induced and H/R-induced increase in ICAM-1 mRNA levels and the upregulation of surface ICAM-1. CONCLUSIONS Mannitol delivers phosphothiorated oligonucleotides into cultured HBMEC. An NF-kappaB decoy blocks both TNF-alpha-induced and H/R-induced ICAM-1 upregulation in HBMEC. Targeted genetic disruption of endothelial NF-kappaB activation may be of benefit in acute ischemic stroke.
A multi-site resting state fMRI study on the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations in schizophrenia

Background: This multi-site study compares resting state fMRI amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) between patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and healthy controls (HC). Methods: Eyes-closed resting fMRI scans (5:38 min; n = 306, 146 SZ) were collected from 6 Siemens 3T scanners and one GE 3T scanner. Imaging data were pre-processed using an SPM pipeline. Power in the low frequency band (0.01–0.08 Hz) was calculated both for the original pre-processed data as well as for the pre-processed data after regressing out the six rigid-body motion parameters, mean white matter (WM) and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) signals. Both original and regressed ALFF and fALFF measures were modeled with site, diagnosis, age, and diagnosis × age interactions. Results: Regressing out motion and non-gray matter signals significantly decreased fALFF throughout the brain as well as ALFF in the cortical edge, but significantly increased ALFF in subcortical regions. Regression had little effect on site, age, and diagnosis effects on ALFF, other than to reduce diagnosis effects in subcortical regions. There were significant effects of site across the brain in all the analyses, largely due to vendor differences. HC showed greater ALFF in the occipital, posterior parietal, and superior temporal lobe, while SZ showed smaller clusters of greater ALFF in the frontal and temporal/insular regions as well as in the caudate, putamen, and hippocampus. HC showed greater fALFF compared with SZ in all regions, though subcortical differences were only significant for original fALFF. Conclusions: SZ show greater eyes-closed resting state low frequency power in frontal cortex, and less power in posterior lobes than do HC; fALFF, however, is lower in SZ than HC throughout the cortex. These effects are robust to multi-site variability. Regressing out physiological noise signals significantly affects both total and fALFF measures, but does not affect the pattern of case/control differences.
Robust RLS via the nonconvex sparsity prompting penalties of outlier components

Recursive least square (RLS) is a ubiquitous adaptive filtering algorithm used in general adaptive signal processing applications. However, it is well known that RLS is sensitive to outlier contaminated in measurements. Traditional robust RLS has difficulties to cope with correlated ambient noise. To provide robustness in such cases, a robust RLS via outlier pursuit (RRLSvOP) framework is proposed with outlier's sparsity control via possibly nonconvex penalties, such as the minimax concave penalty (MCP). Because of the nonconvexity of the proposed model, more advanced numerical procedures with convergence guarantees, such as multi-stage convex relaxation (MSCR), coordinate descent (CD), proximal gradient (PG) and PG with homotopy (PGH), are adapted in the online update stage, while the initialization stage is solved via MSCR strategy. Simulations demonstrate improved robustness of the model using nonconvex penalties via these procedures in comparison with that using ℓ1 penalty.
Blind Synthesis Attack on SVD Based Watermarking Techniques

Singular value decomposition (SVD) is robust and reliable orthogonal matrix decomposition. Due to its conceptual and stability properties, it is becoming more and more popular in signal processing area especially in watermarking. Many watermarking and data hiding researches has struck the use of singular values in casting hidden information into the hosted image. This paper introduces a counterfeiting attack for the existed SVD based watermarking techniques that embed the watermark information into the singular values of the hosted image. This paper emphasizes the weakness of this class of techniques due to the vulnerability of singular values to a wide class of image processing operations as well as intentional attacks.
Distributed service-oriented architecture for information extraction system "Semanta"

Our objective is to provide a flexible, scalable, distributed architecture that assures a high performance for information extraction (IE) systems working in Internet. The architecture is based on both the general paradigm of the service-oriented architecture, client-server approach and strong separation of concerns between storage and processing components. An experimental IE system, named Semanta, utilising the proposed architecture is also presented. In the following document, we describe five main Semanta services, which are Web user interface (WebUI), Web crawler service (WCS), parsing service (PS), IE service and manager
Antiseptics and Disinfectants: Activity, Action, and Resistance

SUMMARY Antiseptics and disinfectants are extensively used in hospitals and other health care settings for a variety of topical and hard-surface applications. A wide variety of active chemical agents (biocides) are found in these products, many of which have been used for hundreds of years, including alcohols, phenols, iodine, and chlorine. Most of these active agents demonstrate broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity; however, little is known about the mode of action of these agents in comparison to antibiotics. This review considers what is known about the mode of action and spectrum of activity of antiseptics and disinfectants. The widespread use of these products has prompted some speculation on the development of microbial resistance, in particular whether antibiotic resistance is induced by antiseptics or disinfectants. Known mechanisms of microbial resistance (both intrinsic and acquired) to biocides are reviewed, with emphasis on the clinical implications of these reports.
The ATP-binding cassette transporter 1 mediates lipid efflux from Sertoli cells and influences male fertility Published, JLR Papers in Press, March 16, 2004. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M400007-JLR200

The liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor (LXR/RXR)-regulated gene ABCA1 effluxes cellular cholesterol and phospholipid to apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), which is the rate-limiting step in high-density lipoprotein synthesis. The RXR pathway plays a critical role in testicular lipid trafficking, and RXRβ-deficient male mice are sterile and accumulate lipids in Sertoli cells. Here, we demonstrate that ABCA1 mRNA and protein are abundant in Sertoli cells, whereas germ cells express little ABCA1. LXR/RXR agonists stimulate ABCA1 expression in cultured Sertoli MSC1 and Leydig TM3 cell lines. However, Sertoli TM4 cells lack ABCA1, and TM4 cells or primary Sertoli cells cultured from ABCA1−/− mice both fail to efflux cholesterol to apoA1. Expression of exogenous ABCA1 restores apoA1-dependent cholesterol efflux in Sertoli TM4 cells. In vivo, ABCA1-deficient mice exhibit lipid accumulation in Sertoli cells and depletion of normal lipid droplets from Leydig cells by 2 months of age. By 6 months of age, intratesticular testosterone levels and sperm counts are significantly reduced in ABCA1−/− mice compared with wild-type (WT) controls. Finally, a 21% decrease (P = 0.01) in fertility was observed between ABCA1−/− males compared with WT controls across their reproductive lifespans. These results show that ABCA1 plays an important role in lipid transport in Sertoli cells and influences male fertility.
Short-time effects of laser needle stimulation on the peripheral microcirculation assessed by laser Doppler spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to evaluate immediate effects of a standardized laser needle stimulation over a defined acupuncture point on the microvascular blood flow and muscle oxygenation in the human forearm. BACKGROUND DATA Recently, it has been shown that laser stimulation improves tissue perfusion. This is relevant since adequate blood supply is an important factor in the treatment of pain syndromes. METHODS The study was designed as a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Thirty-three healthy non-smoking males were randomly assigned to a control group (n = 15) with no laser irradiation and to an intervention group (n = 18) for which laser needle irradiation was performed on the right forearm at acupuncture point Pe6. Non-invasive blood flow measurements (laser Doppler spectroscopy [LDS]) were performed before, during, and after intervention. Additionally, the dynamic changes in muscle oxygenation of the m. flexor carpi ulnaris were investigated using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). RESULTS Repeated measures MANOVA demonstrated a statistically significant interaction between time and group (p = 0.034, effect size = 0.39), indicating that peripheral blood flow was influenced by laser needle application. In contrast, tissue oxygenation was not affected by the experimental treatment. CONCLUSION It has been demonstrated that laser needle stimulation may improve peripheral microcirculation under standardized conditions, whereas tissue oxygenation remained unchanged. Further research is required to determine the influence of various parameter settings and irradiation treatments on the peripheral microcirculation. Moreover, different acupuncture points should be investigated in order to appraise the clinical effectiveness of laserneedle stimulation.