Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical and psychosocial aspects of the learning environment in information technology rich classrooms

This paper reports on a study of environments in emerging Internet classrooms. At issue for this study is to what extent these ‘technological classrooms’ are providing a positive learning environment for students. To investigate this issue, this study involved an evaluation of the physical and psychosocial environments in computerized school settings through a combination of questionnaires and inventories that were later cross-referenced to case studies on a subset of these classrooms. Data were obtained from a series of physical evaluations of 43 settings in 24 school locations in British Columbia, Canada and Western Australia. Evaluations consisted of detailed inventories of the physical environment using the Computerised Classroom Environment Inventory (CCEI): an instrument developed specifically for this study. Data on psychosocial aspects of the environment were obtained with the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire administered to 1404 high school students making routine use of these computerized classrooms. Potential deficiencies in the physical environment of these locations included problems with individual workspaces, lighting and air quality, whereas deficiencies in the psychosocial environment were confined to the dimension of Autonomy. Further analysis of these classroom environment data indicated that student Autonomy and Task orientation were independently associated with students' Satisfaction with learning and that many physical (e.g. lighting and workspace dimensions) and psychosocial factors (e.g. students' perceptions of Co-operation and Collaboration) were also associated. The results provide a descriptive account of the learning environment in ‘technology-rich’ classrooms and, further, indicate that ergonomic guidelines used in the implementation of IT in classrooms may have a positive influence on the learning environment.
Predictive information and Bayesian surprise in exchangeable random processes

In this report we examine the connection between Itti and Baldi’s ‘Bayesian suprise’ [1] and instantaneous predictive information [2], and show that the two are identical in certain classes of exchangeable random sequences. We also examine how these relationships can be used to compute the instantaneous predictive information in a Markov chain where the transition matrix is unknown. Samples from such a process are not exchangable, but nonetheless useable results can be obtained. Predictive information and Bayesian surprise in exchangeable random processes Samer Abdallah (samer.abdallah@elec.qmul.ac.uk) Mark Plumbley (mark.plumbley@elec.qmul.ac.uk) 31st October, 2010 Abstract In this report we examine the connection between Itti and Baldi’s ‘Bayesian suprise’ [1] and instantaneous predictive information [2], and show that the two are identical in certain classes of exchangeable random sequences. We also examine how these relationships can be used to approximate the instantaneous predictive information in a Markov chain where the transition matrix is unknown even though samples from such a process are not exchangable, showing that the Bayesian surprise remains as one of two components of the instantaneous predictive information.In this report we examine the connection between Itti and Baldi’s ‘Bayesian suprise’ [1] and instantaneous predictive information [2], and show that the two are identical in certain classes of exchangeable random sequences. We also examine how these relationships can be used to approximate the instantaneous predictive information in a Markov chain where the transition matrix is unknown even though samples from such a process are not exchangable, showing that the Bayesian surprise remains as one of two components of the instantaneous predictive information.
Intracellular Cleavage of Amyloid β by a Viral Protease NIa Prevents Amyloid β-Mediated Cytotoxicity

Nuclear inclusion a (NIa) of turnip mosaic virus is a cytosolic protease that cleaves amyloid β (Aβ) when heterologously overexpressed. Lentivirus-mediated expression of NIa in the brains of APP(sw)/PS1 mice significantly reduces cerebral Aβ levels and plaque depositions, and improves behavioral deficits. Here, the effects of NIa and neprilysin (NEP), a well-known Aβ-cleaving protease, on oligomeric Aβ-induced cell death were evaluated. NIa cleaved monomeric and oligomeric Aβ at a similar rate, whereas NEP only cleaved monomeric Aβ. Oligomeric Aβ-induced cytotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction were significantly ameliorated by NIa, but not by NEP. Endocytosed fluorescently-labeled Aβ localized to mitochondria, and this was significantly reduced by NIa, but not by NEP. These data suggest that NIa may exerts its protective roles by degrading Aβ and thus preventing mitochondrial deposition of Aβ.
Automatic extraction of the main terminology used in empirical software engineering through text mining techniques

The need for an explicit common terminology within Empirical Software Engineering (an ESE-Glossary of terms) was highlighted in the ISERN 2007 meeting [2]. The goal was to define a glossary of terms related to ESE based on an initial glossary published in http://lens-ese.cos. ufrj.br/wikiese. This initial glossary was built manually, based on expert knowledge. However, owing to the dynamic nature of the research works in ESE, this glossary must be dynamically updated with information extracted from the relevant documents in the research domain. Automation is, therefore, mandatory. We propose a text mining technique for the automatic extraction of the most relevant terms used in ESE documents. Our technique also provides the relationships between terms, with the degree of affinity between them. Our approach could, therefore, be useful in the improvement of the initial glossary of terms and in discovering relationships between terms.
Millimeter-Wave Modulated-Signal and Error-Vector-Magnitude Measurement With Uncertainty

We provide techniques to generate and characterize precision wideband millimeter-wave modulated signals. We use predistortion to obtain a significant improvement in signal quality and an associated reduction in the error vector magnitude (EVM) of the signals generated by an arbitrary-waveform-generator-based source. We adapt a recently developed microwave uncertainty framework to the problem and use it to estimate the uncertainties in the modulated-signal measurements. Models of uncertainties related to all calibration and measurement procedures within the traceability path are included in a sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulations that maintain correlations between time- and frequency-domain errors. We demonstrate EVM values of approximately 1.6% ± 0.5% for a 1-GSymbol/s 64-state quadrature-amplitude-modulated signal at 44 GHz.
A nonadditive multiattribute evaluation model using Kansei data

This study deals with evaluation of products according to the Kansei, which is an individual subjective impression reflecting the aesthetic appeal of products. To do so, after introducing a probabilistic approach to generating Kansei profiles involving fuzzy uncertainty and underlying semantic overlapping, we have proposed a two-phase nonadditive multiattribute Kansei evaluation model based on probabilistic Kansei profiles. First, a target-oriented Kansei evaluation function is proposed to induce nonlinear Kansei satisfaction utility according to a consumer's personal Kansei preference, which provides a good description of the consumer's preference. Second, after formulating a general multiattribute target-oriented (MATO) Kansei evaluation function, a nonadditive MATO Kansei evaluation function is proposed based on an analogy between the general MATO Kansei evaluation function and the Choquet integral. The main advantages of our model are its abilities to deal with good description of personalized Kansei preferences as well as mutual dependence among multiple Kansei preferences.
An improved medium access control scheme for multimedia wireless local area networks

The IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol allocates multiple Access Categories (ACs) with different priorities, inter-frame spaces, and contention window sizes in order to support differentiated Quality-of-Service (QoS) in multimedia Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). This paper presents an improved Medium Access Control (MAC) scheme to enhance the QoS of WLANs based on the idea of using the different increasing functions for each AC to enlarge the size of contention window in the case of transmission collision. The performance of this improved scheme in the presence of wireless multimedia applications is extensively investigated and compared with the original EDCA using the well-known network simulator NS-2. The results reveal that this scheme is able to achieve higher throughput and medium utilization as well as lower access delay than the EDCA protocol. Moreover, it provides a good prioritization level between multiple ACs.
Two proposals for causal grammars

In the previous chapter (Tenenbaum, Griffiths, & Niyogi, this volume), we introduced a framework for thinking about the structure, function, and acquisition of intuitive theories inspired by an analogy to the research program of generative grammar in linguistics. We argued that a principal function for intuitive theories, just as for grammars for natural languages, is to generate a constrained space of hypotheses that people consider in carrying out a class of cognitively central and otherwise severely underconstrained inductive inference tasks. Linguistic grammars generate a hypothesis space of syntactic structures considered in sentence comprehension; intuitive theories generate a hypothesis space of causal network structures considered in causal induction. Both linguistic grammars and intuitive causal theories must also be reliably learnable from primary data available to people. In our view, these functional characteristics of intuitive theories should strongly constrain the content and form of the knowledge they represent, leading to representations somewhat like those used in generative grammars for language. However, until now we have not presented any specific proposals for formalizing the knowledge content or representational form of “causal grammars. ” That is our goal here. Just as linguistic grammars encode the principles that implicitly underlie all grammatical utterances in a language, so do causal grammars express knowledge more abstract than any one causal network in a domain. Consequently, existing approaches for representing causal knowledge based on Bayesian networks defined over observable events, properties or variables, are not sufficient to characterize causal grammars. Causal grammars are in some sense analogous to the “framework theories” for core domains that have been studied in cognitive development (Wellman & Gelman, 1992): the domain-specific concepts and principles that allow learners to construct appropriate causal networks for reasoning about
A graphical web revisitation tool

Revisiting web pages is common when using web browsers. Commercial browsers provide some revisitation tools for users, for example, back and forward buttons, bookmarks and history lists. However, these tools still have some limitations. In this paper, we presented the design and implementation of a novel thumbnail-based web revisitation tool (TRT). TRT employs enhanced thumbnail and treemaps for improving user experience. Comparing to the other graphical revisitation tools, TRT has three new features. First, TRT display thumbnails and titles in a panel, not a list box. Second, logo-enhanced thumbnails are used as an option by the user. Third, treemaps visualization method is used to change the layout of the panel.
An Ultra-low Power Multi-mode LDPC Decoder Chip for Mobile WiMAX System

This paper presents an ultra-low power multi-mode decoder design for Quasi-Cyclic LDPC codes for Mobile WiMAX system. Based on proposed overlapped decoding mechanism, the decoding latency can be reduced to 68.75% of non-overlapped method, and the hardware utilization ratio can be enhanced from 50% to 75%. The new early termination strategy can dynamically adjust iteration number when dealing with communication channels of different SNR values. In addition, we propose an Efficient Checkerboard Layout Scheme (ECLS) to reduce routing complexity in chip implementation. The multi-mode LDPC decoder design is implemented and fabricated in TSMC 0.13um CMOS technology. The core size is 4.45mm and the die area only occupies 8.29mm. The operating frequency is maximally measured 83.3MHz with only power consumption of 52mW.
Within a decade , P 2 P

P EE R-TO-PEER (P2P) C OMPU TING has attracted significant interest in recent years, originally sparked by the release of three influential systems in 1999: the Napster music-sharing system, the Freenet anonymous data store, and the SETI@home volunteerbased scientific computing projects. Napster, for instance, allowed its users to download music directly from each other’s computers via the Internet. Because the bandwidth-intensive music downloads occurred directly between users’ computers, Napster avoided significant operating costs and was able to offer its service to millions of users for free. Though unresolved legal issues ultimately sealed Napster’s fate, the idea of cooperative resource sharing among peers found its way into many other applications. More than a decade later, P2P technology has gone far beyond music sharing, anonymous data storage, or scientific computing; it now enjoys significant research attention and increasingly widespread use in open software communities and industry alike. Scientists, companies, and open-software organizations use BitTorrent to distribute bulk data such as software updates, data sets, and media files to many nodes;5 commercial P2P software allows enterprises to distribute news and events to their employees and customers;29 millions of people use Skype to make video and phone calls;1 and hundreds of TV channels are available using live streaming applications such as PPLive,17 CoolStreaming,38 and the BBC’s iPlayer.4 The term P2P has been defined in different ways, so we should clarify what exactly we mean by a P2P system. For the purposes of this article, a P2P system is a distributed system with the following properties: High degree of decentralization. The peers implement both client and server functionality and most of the system’s state and tasks are dynamically allocated among the peers. There are few if any dedicated nodes with centralized state. As a result, the bulk of the computation, bandwidth, and storage needed to operate the system are contributed by participating nodes. Self-organization. Once a node is introduced into the system (typically by providing it with the IP address of a participating node and any necessary Peer-to-Peer Systems DOI:10.1145/1831407.1831427
Power controlled routing in wireless multihop communication for higher end-to-end bandwidth

This paper shows that the maximal end-to-end bandwidth in a wireless multihop transmission is 1/2 of bandwidth of communication links and is 1/3 if there are no transmission power control. Then, we propose a method for extension of end-to-end bandwidth by successive reduction of wireless signal transmission power along a multihop message transmission route. Our proposed protocol designed based on AODV achieves 60% wider bandwidth with small reduction of connectivity in simulation
Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?

Previous investigations have assumed that embryos lack the capacity of physiological thermoregulation until they are large enough for their own metabolic heat production to influence nest temperatures. Contrary to intuition, reptile embryos may be capable of physiological thermoregulation. In our experiments, egg-sized objects (dead or infertile eggs, water-filled balloons, glass jars) cooled down more rapidly than they heated up, whereas live snake eggs heated more rapidly than they cooled. In a nest with diel thermal fluctuations, that hysteresis could increase the embryo’s effective incubation temperature. The mechanisms for controlling rates of thermal exchange are unclear, but may involve facultative adjustment of blood flow. Heart rates of snake embryos were higher during cooling than during heating, the opposite pattern to that seen in adult reptiles. Our data challenge the view of reptile eggs as thermally passive, and suggest that embryos of reptile species with large eggs can influence their own rates of heating and cooling.
Environmental benefits of genetically modified crops: Global and European perspectives on their ability to reduce pesticide use

Summary The Green Revolution, which brought together improved varieties, increased use of fertiliser, irrigation and synthetic pesticides, is credited with helping to feed the current global population of 6 billion. While this paper recognises the ability of pesticides to reduce crop losses, it also discusses their potential negative effects on public health, with particular emphasis in developing countries, and the environment. The response of the agricultural industry in bringing forward new technology such as reduced application rates of targeted pesticides with lower toxicity and persistency is noted. However, with increasing world population, a slowing of the rate of crop improvement through conventional breeding and a declining area of land available for food production there is a need for new technologies to produce more food of improved nutritional value in an environmentally acceptable and sustainable manner. Whilst the authors recognise that the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops is controversial, the benefits of these crops, including their effect on pesticide use is only now beginning to be documented. Published data are used to estimate what effect GM crops have had on pesticide use first on a global basis, and then to predict what effect they would have if widely grown in the European Union (EU). On a global basis GM technology has reduced pesticide use, with the size of the reduction varying between crops and the introduced trait. It is estimated that the use of GM soybean, oil seed rape, cotton and maize varieties modified for herbicide tolerance and insect protected GM varieties of cotton reduced pesticide use by a total of 22.3 million kg of formulated product in the year 2000. Estimates indicate that if 50% of the maize, oil seed rape, sugar beet, and cotton grown in the EU were GM varieties, pesticide used in the EU/annum would decrease by 14.5 million kg of formulated product (4.4 million kg active ingredient). In addition there would be a reduction of 7.5 million ha sprayed which would save 20.5 million litres of diesel and result in a reduction of approximately 73,000 t of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. The paper also points to areas where GM technology may make further marked reductions in global pesticide use.
Traffic Sign Recognition using Blob Analysis and Template Matching

A simple, easy to implement algorithm for traffic sign detection based on thresholding, blob detection and template matching has been discussed in this paper. A small portion of theoretical background is also presented about each of the processes used. The result of each process is shown step by step for a sample test image and is discussed in the results section along with the final results. The further enhancements that can be implemented are also presented. The results obtained showed an accuracy greater than 88% when tested with a pool of images specifically containing extreme cases such as low resolution images, skewed images, etc.
N.b.: A graphical user interface for annotating spoken dialogue

Corpora of transcribed and annotated dialogues are very useful for developing and evaluating the coverage of algorithms for discourse generation and interpretation and dialogue modelling. On the other hand, there is no agreement on the choice of units and conventions for annotating discourse constituents, and the annotation process can be difficult and prone to inconsistencies. This paper presents N.b., a graphical user interface for annotating the discourse structure of spoken dialogue. Different annotation instructions and different theories about discourse interpretation and generation can be easily incorporated in the annotation process without the need of changing the graphical user interface. The instructions and the annotated text are displayed in a clear-cut way, and typing is reduced to a minimum. We describe how to use N.b. for annotating embedded discourse segments and the system’s end-to-end performance in a transcribed dialogue.
Formula partitioning revisited

Dividing a Boolean formula into smaller independent sub-formulae can be a useful technique for accelerating the solution of Boolean problems, including SAT and #SAT. Nevertheless, and despite promising early results, formula partitioning is hardly used in state-of-the-art solvers. In this paper, we show that this is rooted in a lack of consistency of the usefulness of formula partitioning techniques. In particular, we evaluate two existing and a novel partitioning model, coupled with two existing and two novel partitioning algorithms, on a wide range of benchmark instances. Our results show that there is no one-size-fits-all solution: for different formula types, different partitioning models and algorithms are the most suitable. While these results might seem negative, they help to improve our understanding about formula partitioning; moreover, the findings also give guidance as to which method to use for what kinds of formulae.
Caring for Parents and Employment Status of European Mid-Life Women

In this paper we estimate the causal effect of providing “intensive” informal care to elderly parents on labour market participation decisions for European women who are themselves approaching retirement. In particular, we consider the frequency or intensity of this help and we focus on informal care provided in a daily or weekly basis. We use two different but comparable samples drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) that provide complementary detailed information about daughters and parents. We obtain evidence about this question for two groups of European countries that strongly differ in terms of informal caregiving intensity within the immediate family and the use of formal care: the northern countries (Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands), and the southern countries (Spain, Italy and Greece). The results show that the estimated effect of providing “intensive” informal care to elderly parents on the probability of labour participation is negative and large for both groups of countries. Furthermore, a substantially stronger effect is found when the “intensive” caregiving variable is treated as endogenous in the labour participation equation. This shows that the potential opportunity costs in terms of (reduced) employment associated with the provision of informal care by women are seriously underestimated under the exogeneity assumption of the caregiving regressor.