Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Rice Gene Homologous to Arabidopsis AGD2-LIKE DEFENSE1 Participates in Disease Resistance Response against Infection with Magnaporthe oryzae

ALD1 (ABERRANT GROWTH AND DEATH2 [AGD2]-LIKE DEFENSE1) is one of the key defense regulators in Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana. In these model plants, ALD1 is responsible for triggering basal defense response and systemic resistance against bacterial infection. As well ALD1 is involved in the production of pipecolic acid and an unidentified compound(s) for systemic resistance and priming syndrome, respectively. These previous studies proposed that ALD1 is a potential candidate for developing genetically modified (GM) plants that may be resistant to pathogen infection. Here we introduce a role of ALD1-LIKE gene of Oryza sativa, named as OsALD1, during plant immunity. OsALD1 mRNA was strongly transcribed in the infected leaves of rice plants by Magnaporthe oryzae, the rice blast fungus. OsALD1 proteins predominantly localized at the chloroplast in the plant cells. GM rice plants over-expressing OsALD1 were resistant to the fungal infection. The stable expression of OsALD1 also triggered strong mRNA expression of PATHOGENESIS-RELATED PROTEIN1 genes in the leaves of rice plants during infection. Taken together, we conclude that OsALD1 plays a role in disease resistance response of rice against the infection with rice blast fungus.
Investigating engagement in a blended learning course

Abstract Proponents of a blended course paint an ideal picture of participants leisurely learning and reflecting on how they can apply their new knowledge. The reality is of course much more complex, especially in the lives of working adults. This study sought to understand the complexity better through analysing the experience of 123 participants enrolled in the 9-h in-service blended course. In particular, it investigated participants' engagement by examining their experience as they interacted with elements of the blended environment. The mixed methods approach was employed with quantitative data from the course analytics and responses from the 34 participants who returned the evaluation questionnaire at the end of the course. This was complemented with one-to-one interviews with 10 participants. The findings suggest that designers of blended professional development courses should bear in mind the characteristics of both the learner and the online platform to achieve greater cognitive, behavioural and social engagement.
Transitional practice: Teachers and children in-between classrooms in one early childhood centre

Transitions from one classroom to the next as children reach a certain age or achieve certain milestones seem inevitable; however, this taken-for-granted practice in early childhood centers has not been looked at closely in research. This article considers what happens when we look more in depth at these day-to-day experiences of teachers and children, examining teachers’ experiences and perspectives during children’s transitions to new classrooms within an early childhood center. Framed within a postdevelopmental perspective on teacher research, thematic narrative analysis of teachers’ journals and field notes generated connecting themes regarding teachers’ personal experiences during classroom transitions and their perceptions of the children’s transition processes. Findings reveal much complexity around the transition process, specifically in regard to the teachers’ emotional involvement and their perceptions of children’s shifting identities, opening spaces for new perspectives on children’s transitions between classrooms. Implications for practice and further research are also considered.
Learning Nature of Science Concepts through Online Peer Review of Student Research Reports 1

Through structured science experiments followed by online peer review of their research reports, undergraduates can experience science as a collaborative process of investigation rather than a static collection of facts. In 2001, over 400 students from 11 colleges and universities participated in a pilot study of double-blind online peer review, and the study has been continued on a smaller scale since then. Results to date indicate that multiuniversity peer review of research results provides potential for student learning that reaches beyond what is possible within individual classrooms. Students reported gaining analytical skills and key understandings about the nature of science. According to participating faculty, students gained critical thinking and analysis skills and important understandings about the nature of scientific research. The significance of careful writing, data analysis, statistics, presentation, and review all were cited as aspects of science that students had learned through this peer review experience. In addition to reporting projectwide findings from the pilot study, this paper reports some results of two smaller-N “substudies. ” The first used interviews and other data sources to examine the impacts of the experiment/peer review process on students’ understandings of the sociological nature of science, and revealed that although conventionally defined “nature of science” views appear largely unaffected, the experience greatly influences students’ views of how scientific knowledge is established. The second sub-study used content analysis to explore the effects of the “quality” of peer reviews on students’ writing, and suggests which aspects of the peer review process stimulate substantive changes in studentauthored research. Much remains to be learned about how these types of experiences can best be extended to a broader audience of undergraduates, meeting the needs of students from heterogeneous backgrounds and ability levels while keeping the experimental design process flexible and open-ended.
Optimization of sensitivity and noise in piezoresistive cantilevers

In this article, the sensitivity and the noise of piezoresistive cantilevers were systematically investigated with respect to the piezoresistor geometry, the piezoresistive materials, the doping dose, the annealing temperature, and the operating biased voltage. With the noise optimization results, dimension optimized array cantilevers were designed and fabricated by using single-crystal silicon, low-pressure chemical-vapor deposition (LPCVD) amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon as piezoresistive layers. Measurement results have shown that the smallest Hooge factor (α) was 3.2×10−6, the biggest gauge factors was 95, and the minimum detectable deflection (MDD) at 6 V and 200 Hz-measurement bandwidth was 0.3 nm for a single-crystal silicon cantilever. Of the two LPCVD silicon piezoresistive cantilevers, amorphous silicon piezoresistors had relatively lower 1/f noise. The MDD for a LPCVD silicon cantilever at a 200 Hz-measurement bandwidth was 0.4 nm. For all kinds of piezoresistive cantilevers, the.
Multiscale vector volumes

We introduce multiscale vector volumes, a compact vector representation for volumetric objects with complex internal structures spanning a wide range of scales. With our representation, an object is decomposed into components and each component is modeled as an SDF tree, a novel data structure that uses multiple signed distance functions (SDFs) to further decompose the volumetric component into regions. Multiple signed distance functions collectively can represent non-manifold surfaces and deliver a powerful vector representation for complex volumetric features. We use multiscale embedding to combine object components at different scales into one complex volumetric object. As a result, regions with dramatically different scales and complexities can co-exist in an object. To facilitate volumetric object authoring and editing, we have also developed a scripting language and a GUI prototype. With the help of a recursively defined spatial indexing structure, our vector representation supports fast random access, and arbitrary cross sections of complex volumetric objects can be visualized in real time.
Detection of the spatial accuracy of a magnetic resonance and surgical computed tomography scanner in the region of surgical interest

Abstract. In image-guided surgeries (IGSs) and radiology, images are the main source of information. As image data provide the differentiation between normal and abnormal tissues in the human, the images need to be reliable and they need to provide accurate spatial representation of the patient. This research concentrates on the accuracy assessment of IGS devices in general and then specifically on the spatial accuracy of a common magnetic resonance (MR) imager and a mobile three-dimensional surgical computed tomography (CT) scanner. The accuracy assessment tool had been designed to be universal and to enable its use in the hospital setting. In this study, it was used in detecting the spatial accuracy of a commercial surgical CT scanner, the O-arm, and a 1.5-T MR imager. The results show the tendency of magnetic resonance imaging to produce slight decreases in spatial accuracy toward the fringes of the images from the isocenter. Furthermore, the results indicate that the accuracy of both scanners was within pixel size and thus highly accurate in the region of surgical interest of this study.
Does Backing Up Behavior Explain the Efficacy—Performance Relationship in Teams?

Although the relationship between collective efficacy beliefs and team performance has been well-documented, few studies have explored the causal mechanisms that might explain these effects. In the current study, the authors explore the role of backing up behavior, a specific form of teamwork behavior, in explaining why high efficacy beliefs lead to high levels of team performance. Participants were 416 undergraduate business students who were organized into 104 four-person teams. The teams worked on an interdependent, computerized, decision-making task. Results of the study revealed that collective efficacy beliefs were positively related to team performance and that backing up behaviors largely mediated these effects. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Paraprofessionals in early childhood classrooms: an examination of duties and expectations

Millions of dollars are expended, in the USA and elsewhere, to provide paraprofessionals or ‘teaching assistants’ for regular early childhood classrooms. However, little consistent information exists related to best practice in the use of paraprofessionals in these early childhood settings. This article describes a study employing the use of 159 teacher and 161 paraprofessional surveys and classroom observations in 23 randomly selected kindergarten and four-year-old classrooms. Paraprofessionals delivered large amounts of group instruction and frequently managed student behavior. Furthermore, it was found that a lack of understanding of specific duties and expectations related to the roles of paraprofessionals was characteristic of both teachers and the paraprofessionals themselves.
Combined AOA/TOA UWB localization

In this paper we present a combined angle-of-arrival and time-of-arrival localization scheme, based on two-way range estimation as defined in IEEE 802.15. 4a and additional angle estimation, using two closely spaced receiving antennas. Practical measurement results are presented, showing the potential of combined AOA/TOA localization.
Turnover‐Induced Forgetting and its Impact on Productivity

In this paper we investigate organizational forgetting, the notion that a firm's knowledge does not persist over time, exploring knowledge depreciation caused by changes in human capital. We first conduct an in‐depth exploratory case study to identify organizational forgetting. The empirical evidence suggests that organizational forgetting occurs when abrupt personnel turnover takes place. The data reveal a forgetting pattern that is entirely episodic in nature. Thereupon we conduct a confirmatory piece, using multiple regression models, to measure the impact of organizational forgetting on overall productivity. We find that, as a result of repeated forgetting processes, productivity falls in spite of continued output accumulation because of changes in the characteristics of the resource where experience resides.
Learning Sequence of Views of Three-Dimensional Objects: The Effect of Temporal Coherence on Object Memory

How humans recognize objects remains a contentious issue in current research on high-level vision. Here, I test the proposal by Wallis and Bülthoff (1999 Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3 22–31) suggesting that object representations can be learned through temporal association of multiple views of the same object. Participants first studied image sequences of novel, three-dimensional objects in a study block. On each trial, the images were from either an orderly sequence of depth-rotated views of the same object (SS), a scrambled sequence of those views (SR), or a sequence of different objects (RR). Recognition memory was assessed in a following test block. A within-object advantage was consistently observed—greater accuracy in the SR than the RR condition in all four experiments, greater accuracy in the SS than the RR condition in two experiments. Furthermore, spatiotemporal coherence did not produce better recognition than temporal coherence alone (similar or less accuracy in the SS compared to the SR condition). These results suggest that the visual system can use temporal regularity to build invariant object representations, via the temporal-association mechanism.
Emergency Management System for Major Traffic Accidents Based on New Model and Algorithms

Scientific and effective emergency evacuation traffic management plays an important part in improving event reaction ability of urban traffic system, saving rescue time and reducing property losses. A new approach for real-time traffic management under emergency evacuation is proposed in this paper. Distinct from the well-studied evacuation planning, real-time traffic management for evacuation aims at dynamically controlling traffic flow under evacuation in such a way that certain system objective like minimization of evacuation time could be achieved. We take into account the idea of feedback in the executing process based on the real-time information obtained from sensors and other surveillance technologies. Updating the evacuation plans is essential and brings the following two advantages: firstly, it prevents congestion, by creating new evacuation routes and thus avoiding the already crowded areas; and secondly, it decreases congestion by directing traffic on currently congested routes to disperse on alternative routes. A numerical example is given to illustrate that the proposed approach can be effectively carried out in emergency evacuation.
Stereo by Two-Level Dynamic Programming

This paper presents a stereo algorithm using dynamic programming technique. The stereo matching problem, that is, obtaining a correspondence between right and left images, can be cast as a search problem. When a pair of stereo images is rectified, pairs of corresponding points can be searched for within the same scanlines. We call this search intra-scanline search. This intra-scanline search can be treated as the problem of finding a matching path on a two dimensional (2D) search plane whose axes are the right and left scanlines. Vertically connected edges in the images provide consistency constraints across the 2D search planes. Inter-scanline search in a three-dimensional (3D) search space, which is a stack of the 2D search planes, is needed to utilize this constraint. Our stereo matching algorithm uses edge-delimited intervals as elements to be matched, and employs the above mentioned two searches: one is inter-scanline search for possible correspondences of connected edges in right and left images and the other is intra-scanline search for correspondences of edge-delimited intervals on each scanline pair. Dynamic programming is used for both searches which proceed simultaneously in two levels: the former supplies the consistency constraints to the latter while the latter supplies the matching score to the former. An interval-based similarity metric is used to compute the score.
Brain Adaptations in Normal Aging Evaluated with Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Introduction Human brain aging is a complicated process, involving changes in cognition, anatomy and physiology. Older adults often have more difficulty with attention, executive function and memory compared to young adults. One possible cause of these difficulties is the alteration of neural fiber connectivity. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) (1, 2), through the derived parameters such as fractional anisotropy (FA), can directly assess the white matter fiber tracts which possibly degenerate with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (3) and probably to some degree with normal aging. In this study comparing FA of young and older adult brains, we found altered FA with aging, at regions such as the genu of the corpus callosum, the putamen and the insula.
Antithrombin Cambridge II (Ala384Ser): Clinical, Functional and Haplotype Analysis of 18 Families

Summary Thirty-one individuals from 18 unrelated families with antithrombin deficiency have been identified as having a single point mutation within codon 384 (13268 GCA→TCA) resulting in an alanine to serine substitution. Six families (11 individuals) were identified by the screening of individuals with thromboembolic disease or with a family history of thromboembolic disease, whilst the remaining 12 families (20 individuals) were identified by screening of asymptomatic blood donors. Four individuals had a history of venous thrombotic disease, a further 2 gave a history of superficial thrombophlebitis but the remaining 25 individuals were asymptomatic. Affected individuals demonstrated normal immunological levels of antithrombin but a decrease in anti-IIa activity in the presence of heparin. Haplotype analysis was used to examine the possibility of a founder effect to explain the high frequency of this non-CpG mutation. 29/31 individuals showed a single common “core” haplotype, the only variation existing in the number of copies of an (ATT)n repeat polymorphism – 13, 14, 15 or 17. The results suggest that at most there are four independent origins for this mutation.
Usability and Security Perceptions of Implicit Authentication: Convenient, Secure, Sometimes Annoying

Implicit authentication (IA) uses behavioural biometrics to provide continuous authentication on smartphones. IA has been advocated as more usable when compared to traditional explicit authentication schemes, albeit with some security limitations. Consequently researchers have proposed that IA provides a middle-ground for people who do not use traditional authentication due to its usability limitations or as a second line of defence for users who already use authentication. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence that establishes the usability superiority of IA and its security perceptions. We report on the first extensive two-part study (n = 37) consisting of a controlled lab experiment and a field study to gain insights into usability and security perceptions of IA. Our findings indicate that 91% of participants found IA to be convenient (26% more than the explicit authentication schemes tested) and 81% perceived the provided level of protection to be satisfactory. While this is encouraging, false rejects with IA were a source of annoyance for 35% of the participants and false accepts and detection delay were prime security concerns for 27% and 22% of the participants, respectively. We point out these and other barriers to the adoption of IA and suggest directions to overcome them.
Can Prosody Aid the Automatic Processing of Multi-Party Meetings? Evidence from Predicting Punctuation, Disfluencies, and Overlapping Speech

We investigate whether probabilistic modeling of prosody can aid various automatic labeling tasks essential for processing of multi-party meetings. Task 1, automatic punctuation, seeks to classify sentence boundaries and disfluencies. Task 2, jumpin points, predicts locations within foreground speech at which background speakers start talking; Task 3, jump-in words, examines characteristics of the speech they use to do so. Data are from the ICSI Meeting Recorder corpus. To infer inherent cues, analyses are based on close-talking microphone signals and recognizer forced alignments. As a generous baseline for word-level cues, we compare prosodic models to those of a language model given the true words. Results for Task 1 show prosody reduces classification error by 10% relative over the cheating language model; furthermore when this task is run in “online” mode the prosodic model degrades less than does the language model. For Task 2, the language model provides no information, while the prosodic model reduces entropy by 13% over chance. For Task 3, a prosodic model reduces entropy by 25% over chance. Analyses also show interesting prosodic patterns, which differ over tasks. Task 1 uses cues similar to those for Switchboard (but not Broadcast News) data. Task 2 predicts jump-in points that look prosodically like sentence boundaries but that are not actually such boundaries. And Task 3 shows that speakers “raise” their voice when starting during another’s talk, compared to starting during silence. These results provide evidence that prosodic modeling can be of use for the automatic processing of meetings. Further results and implications for future automatic meeting processing systems are discussed.
Accountability as a Foundation for Requirements in Sociotechnical Systems

We understand sociotechnical systems (STSs) as uniting social and technical tiers to provide abstractions for capturing how autonomous principals interact with each other. Accountability is a foundational concept in STSs and an essential component of achieving ethical outcomes. In simple terms, accountability involves identifying who can call whom to account and who must provide an accounting of what and when. Although accountability is essential in any application involving autonomous parties, established methods do not support it. We formulate an accountability requirement as one where one principal is accountable to another regarding some conditional expectation. Our metamodel for STSs captures accountability requirements as relational constructs inspired from legal concepts, such as commitments, authorization, and prohibition. We apply our metamodel to a healthcare process and show how it helps address the problems of ineffective interaction identified in the original case study.
Improved kalman filter-based speech enhancement

In this paper, a Kalman filter-based speech enhancement algorithm with some improvements of previous work is presented. A new technique based on spectral subtraction is used for separation speech and noise characteristics from noisy speech and for the computation of speech and noise autoregressive (AR) parameters. In order to obtain a Kalman filter output with high audible quality, a perceptual post-filter is placed at the output of the Kalman filter to smooth the enhanced speech spectra. Experiments indicate that this newly proposed method works well.
Systems for tracking minimally invasive surgical instruments

Minimally invasive surgery (e.g. laparoscopy) requires special surgical skills, which should be objectively assessed. Several studies have shown that motion analysis is a valuable assessment tool of basic surgical skills in laparoscopy. However, to use motion analysis as the assessment tool, it is necessary to track and record the motions of laparoscopic instruments. This article describes the state of the art in research on tracking systems for laparoscopy. It gives an overview on existing systems, on how these systems work, their advantages, and their shortcomings. Although various approaches have been used, none of the tracking systems to date comes out as clearly superior. A great number of systems can be used in training environment only, most systems do not allow the use of real laparoscopic instruments, and only a small number of systems provide force feedback.