Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Coaching for an Intelligent Learning Environment

Several barriers hinder the widespread application of AI-based educational software. School and student machines are often underpowered, keeping software and case libraries updated can be difficult, and customization typically requires AI expertise. The widespread growth of Internet access, combined with appropriate AI technologies, enables the creation of distributed coaches that can help overcome these barriers. We describe a distributed coaching system for a deployed intelligent learning environment in engineering thermodynamics. Part of the coach resides on the student's computer, with the rest residing in a server accessed via email. The on-board coach handles common kinds of contradictions in student's assumptions and makes suggestions about parameter values based on its understanding of the teleology of the student's design, derived via Bayesian reasoning. The email coach provides additional analysis help and uses analogy for design coaching, providing step-by-step advice on how principles in a web-based library can be applied to a student's particular design. The distributed coach is currently undergoing field testing.
Evaluation of Apoptotic Markers in HEI-OC1 Cells Treated with Gentamicin with and without the Mitochondria-Targeted Antioxidant Mitoquinone

Hypothesis Mitoquinone (MitoQ) attenuates aminoglycoside (AG)-induced upregulation of the proapoptotic molecules Bak and harakiri (Hrk) and decreases the percentage of apoptotic House Ear Institute Organ of Corti 1 (HEI-OC1) cells. Background The primary mechanism of AG ototoxicity is the formation of reactive oxygen species, which leads to hair cell death via apoptotic and nonapoptotic pathways. Antioxidants have been shown to protect against AG ototoxicity. Mitoquinone is a mitochondria-targeted derivative of the antioxidant ubiquinone. Thus, MitoQ may be more effective in preventing AG ototoxicity compared with untargeted antioxidants. Methods Ribonucleic acid from untreated HEI-OC1 cells and cells exposed to gentamicin with and without preincubation with MitoQ, idebenone (IDB, an untargeted ubiquinone), or decylTPP (positive control) were used to assess gene expression of Bak and Hrk using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Protein expression of Bak and Hrk was determined by Western blotting. Annexin V assay using flow cytometry was performed to assess the percentage of apoptotic HEI-OC1 cells treated with gentamicin with and without preincubation with MitoQ, decylTPP, or IDB. Results Preincubation of HEI-OC1 cells with MitoQ significantly decreased the gentamicin-induced upregulation of Bak gene (p = 0.03) but not preincubation with IDB (p = 0.87). Harakiri levels were very low that relative quantification could not be carried out. Protein levels of Bak and Hrk were not different between treatments. Annexin V assay showed that gentamicin increased the percentage of apoptotic cells (p < 0.05) compared with control. However, the percentages of apoptotic cells in gentamicin-treated and cells pretreated with the antioxidants MitoQ or IDB were not different. Conclusion Mitoquinone attenuated the gentamicin-induced upregulation of the Bak gene but not its product, the proapoptotic molecule Bak, and MitoQ did not significantly decrease the gentamicin-induced cell apoptosis in vitro. Further in vivo studies are needed to assess the clinical significance of these findings.
Characterization and cloning of a novel glycoprotein expressed by stromal cells in T-dependent areas of peripheral lymphoid tissues

A novel glycoprotein (gp) expressed by stromal cells of peripheral lymphoid tissue has been characterized immunohistochemically, biochemically, and at the molecular level. This molecule, gp38, was identified with a monoclonal antibody (mAb) (clone 8.1.1) previously shown to react with a subpopulation of thymic epithelium. This mAb generated a reticular labeling pattern in medullary and paracortical areas of lymph nodes and in splenic white pulp. At the ultrastructural level, labeling by the 8.1. 1 mAb was restricted to fibroblastic reticular stromal cells. Serial sections of lymph node and spleen labeled with anti-CD3, anti-B220, and 8.1. 1 mAbs clearly showed that the 8.1. 1+ cells were associated with T cell-dependent areas. In severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) or Nu/Nu mice, splenic white pulp also exhibited reticular labeling with the 8.1. 1 mAb in the absence of detectable numbers of T cells, indicating that the appearance of 8.1. 1- reactive stromal cells in discrete areas of peripheral lymphoid tissue was T cell independent. The cDNA encoding this stromal cell molecule was cloned by direct expression in COS cells and found to encode a 172 amino acid sequence with the typical features of a type I integral membrane protein. COS cells transfected with the gp38 clone direct the expression of an approximately 38-kD protein that reacts with the 8.1. 1 mAb but not with isotype-matched controls. Comparison of the predicted amino acid sequence of 8.1. 1 mAb but not with isotype-matched controls. Comparison of the predicted amino acid sequence of 8.1. 1 with proteins in the National Biomedical Research Foundation (NBRF) data base showed that gp38 is very closely related to the early response protein OTS-8 obtained from a cDNA library of tumor promoting agent (TPA)-induced murine osteoblastic cell line, MC3T3-E1.
Time-Sharing Policies for Controlled Markov Chains

We propose a class of nonstationary policies called policy time sharing PTS, which possesses several desirable properties for problems where the criteria are of the average-cost type; an optimal policy exists within this class, the computation of optimal policies is straightforward, and the implementation of this policy is easy. While in the finite state case stationary policies are also known to share these properties, the new policies are much more flexible, in the sense that they can be applied to solve adaptive problems, and they suggest new ways to incorporate the particular structure of the problem at-hand into the derivation of optimal policies. In addition, they provide insight into the pathwise-structure of controlled Markov chains. To use PTS policies one alternates between the use of several stationary deterministic policies, switching when reaching some predetermined state. In some countable state cases optimal solutions of the PTS type are available and easy to compute, whereas optimal stationary policies are not available. Examples that illustrate the last point and the usefulness of the new approach are discussed, involving constrained optimization problems with countable state space or compact action space.
Molecular responses of human dermal fibroblasts to dual cues: contact guidance and mechanical load.

Fibroblast contraction in wound healing involves the interaction of several cell types, cytokines, and extracellular matrix molecules. We have previously developed fibroblast alignment models using precise uniaxial mechanical loads in 3D culture and using contact guidance on fibronectin strands. Our aim here was to use contact guidance to place fibroblasts in their potentially most sensitive configuration, i.e., perpendicular to the axis of loading, to present cells with conflicting guidance cues. Gene expression at the mRNA level of cells recovered from different zones of the 3D collagen gel (with distinct orientation) was determined by quantitative RT-PCR for the matrix proteases MMP1, 2, and 3, and inhibitors TIMP1 and 2. Our results show a 2-, 4-, and 3-fold increase in MMP1, 2, and 3, respectively, in the non-aligned strain zone, relative to the aligned strain zone. These results suggest that cells unable to align to applied loads remodel their matrix far more rapidly than orientated cells. Where fibroblasts were held in an alignment perpendicular to the applied load by contact guidance, the fall in MMP mRNA expression was largely abolished, indicating that these cells remained in a mechano-activated state. The protease inhibitors TIMP1 and 2 were poorly mechano-responsive, further suggesting that changes in MMP expression result in functional matrix remodelling. These results indicate how mechanical loading in tissues may influence matrix remodelling, particularly under conflicting guidance cues.
Rethinking Collaborative Filtering: A Practical Perspective on State-of-the-art Research Based on Real World Insights

A decade has passed since the seminal Netflix Prize competition and Collaborative Filtering (CF) models are still at the forefront of Recommender System research. Significant progress has been achieved over this time, yet key aspects of the basic problem formulation have not been seriously challenged. Most state-of-the-art models still assume a supervised model in which the ultimate goal is to predict future user-item interactions based on the generalization of historical data. We wish to initiate a discussion on some key assumptions behind much of the mainstream research: What is the difference between predicting future user actions and optimizing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? Does a trade-off between accuracy and diversity really exist? Is supervised CF based on historical data still relevant in the age of modern reinforcement learning models such as contextual bandits? What evaluation metrics can be used prior to online experimentations and what are their limitations? Our main thesis is that at the core of all these issues lies a gap between most Collaborative Filtering models and the true objective of industry systems.
A putative RA-like region in the brain of the scale-backed antbird, Willisornis poecilinotus (Furnariides, Suboscines, Passeriformes, Thamnophilidae)

The memorization and production of song in songbirds share important parallels with the process of speech acquisition in humans. In songbirds, these processes are dependent on a group of specialized telencephalic nuclei known as the song system: HVC (used as a proper name), RA (robust nucleus of arcopallium), LMAN (lateral magnocellular nucleus of the nidopallium) and striatal Area X. A recent study suggested that the arcopallium of the Sayornis phoebe, a non vocal learner suboscine species, contains a nucleus with some properties similar to those of songbird RA, suggesting that the song system may have been present in the last common ancestor of these groups. Here we report morphological and gene expression evidence that a region with some properties similar to RA is present in another suboscine, the Amazonian endemic Willisornis poecilinotus. Specifically, a discrete domain with a distinct Nissl staining pattern and that expresses the RA marker RGS4 was found in the arcopallium where the oscine RA is localized. Our findings, combined with the previous report on the S. phoebe, suggest that an arcopallial region with some RA-like properties was present in the ancestor of both Suboscines infraorders Tyranni and Furnarii, and is possibly an ancestral feature of Passeriformes.
Approximation Algorithms for Disjoint Paths and Related Routing and Packing Problems

Given a network and a set of connection requests on it, we consider the maximum edge-disjoint paths and related generalizations and routing problems that arise in assigning paths for these requests. We present improved approximation algorithms and/or integrality gaps for all problems considered; the central theme of this work is the underlying multicommodity flow relaxation. Applications of these techniques to approximating families of packing integer programs are also presented.
Reference velocity selection by a generalized Lloyd method

SUMMARY Downward continuation methods require the selection of one or more references velocities. How many, and which, reference velocities are selected affects performance and image quality. The velocity selection problem can be treated as a quantization problem. Applying a modied version of Lloyd’s algorithm to select the reference velocities results in an optimal description of arbitrary velocity elds. Comparison between Lloyd’s selected velocities and standard selection techniques are shown on a 2-D synthetic
‘Am I a South Asian, really?’ Constructing ‘South Asians’ in Canada and being South Asian in Toronto

In 2006, ‘South Asians’ emerged as the single largest visible minority group in Canada. Studies on their settlement experiences have concluded that ‘South Asians’ are a spatially segregated and economically struggling immigrant group. Juxtaposed to these findings however, there exists another image about ‘South Asians’, particularly in Toronto, where a majority of the newcomers have settled. This image is that of a mass culture, imbued with splashed of color, spice, music, dance, and cinema. The over arching aim of this paper is to unravel the construction of ‘South Asian’ identity in Canada both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, I investigate the historical and relational processes of racialisation of a space (South Asia), to argue that ‘South Asian’ is a racialised and externally imposed identity, and empirically, I attempt to understand how ‘South Asians’ in Toronto may variously internalise and use this identity in their everyday life situations.
Modifiable and intensifier self in Dutch and Sign Language of the Netherlands

In this paper we discuss the properties of adverbial exclusive self and we argue that it is not a uniform category. We propose a division into two categories and support this division with data from Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT — Nederlandse Gebarentaal). In Germanic languages like German, Dutch and English, self 1 can be used to highlight the referent it associates with, and to contrast it with an alternative referent or a group of alternative referents. This is illustrated in the Dutch example of adverbial exclusive self in (1).
'The Money's Good, The Fame's Good, The Girls are Good': The role of playground football in the construction of young boys' masculinity in a junior school

This paper looks at the influential part played by the game of football in the social construction of hegemonic masculine practices among a group of Year 6 boys in an English junior school, which is an area that remains under-researched. Football forms a large part of school life for many children (the majority of whom are boys) and is sated with masculinising associations: this paper argues that football acts as a model for the boys, and they use the game as a way of constructing, negotiating, and performing their masculinity. Football is seen as a key signifier of successful masculinity, and its practices are a major influence on hegemonic masculinities, which are performed and defended in relation to other masculinities and femininities that become subordinated and marginalised. Girls are excluded from the games, along with some of the boys in the subordinated group who become feminised by their lack of skill and competence, and are subjected to homophobic abuse, as the hegemonic group acts within the 'cultural imperative' of heterosexuality. The games of playground football are viewed as a series of ritualised and fantasised performances, and this paper proposes that the body plays an essential role in the formation of masculine identities, with competitive displays of skill and strength. The school policies and organisation of football are also considered, and the power struggles and tensions this causes, not only between pupils, but also between teachers and pupils, and between teacher and teacher.
Mediation: depolarizing responsibilities to facilitate reconciliation

Purpose – Parties' respective share of responsibility in a conflict is a topic that many mediators have difficulty approaching from fear of radicalizing discussions. The present paper aims to propose a strategy to help mediators facilitate parties' acknowledgement of their role in the escalation of a conflict.Design/methodology/approach – The strategy is tested using a quasi‐experimental design using real case mediation in partnership with Commission des normes du travail du Quebec (CNT). Findings – The results indicate that it has a significant impact on the parties' acknowledgement of their share of responsibility, reconciliation and the settlement rate.Research limitations/implications – Although the research design has good external validity, the strategy should be tested in other settings such as family mediation.Practical implications – The results show that the parties' perceptions that they played no role in conflict escalation and that the other is responsible for the whole situation are at the he.
Active (Patient Specific) Immunotherapy of Colon Cancer: A Transition from Preclinical Studies to Successful Clinical Trials

There are a large number of experimental cancer immunotherapies being tested in clinical trials of advanced disease patients, an underserved patient population. Although there are heralded, isolated responses in some patients, most of these trials have shown minimal clinical benefit on a societal level. The current clinical and basic research is focused on reducing immune suppressive mechanisms that are present in tumors, and include treatment with monoclonal antibodies, ipilimumab and MDX-1106 which block Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Activation-4 (CTLA-4) [1,2], Programmed Death-1 (PD-1) [3] inhibitory molecules on T cells, respectively. In addition to suppression via molecules such as CTLA-4 and PD-1, myeloid lineage cells constitute a network of immune suppressive cells that are present in most cancer patients and which profoundly inhibit the expression of anti-tumor immunity. This network includes myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMS), and dendritic cells (DC). Each of these cell populations has inherent immune suppressive activity, which is enhanced through their interactions with each other [4]. Most of the basic research on suppressor cell development and function originated in mouse models using transplantable tumors and the spleen has been implicated as the seat of this suppressor cell activity [5-8].
Shot Classification of Basketball Videos and its Application in Shooting Position Extraction

In this paper, we propose a system that can automatically segment a basketball video into several clips on the basis of a GOP-based scene change detection method. The length of each clip and the number of dominant color pixels of each frame are used to classify shots into close-up view, medium view, and full court view. Full court view shots are chosen to do advanced analyses such as ball tracking and parameter extracting for the transformation from a 3D real-world court to a 2D image. After that, we map points in the 2D image to the corresponding coordinates in a real-world court by some physical properties of the 3D shooting trajectory, and compute the statistics of all shooting positions. Eventually we can obtain the information about the most possible shooting positions of a professional basketball team, which is useful for opponents to adopt appropriate defense tactics.
Narcissism in Romantic Relationships: A Dyadic Perspective

Previous literature has associated narcissism with interpersonal difficulties. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the impact of narcissism within romantic dyads. The current study extended the literature by examining relations between narcissism and conflict behaviors in both members of a romantic dyad. Participants in the study were 190 college-student couples, who completed questionnaire measures of their narcissism, conflict within their relationship, and a behavioral measure of aggression toward their partners. The results indicated a tendency towards homogamy for narcissism. A person's narcissism was related to their use of aggression and the partner's use of aggression. Several interactions between male and female narcissism were observed. For total NPI scores, the combination of high male and female narcissism was related to greater aggression. Grandiose Exhibitionism was only related to aggressive behavior when partner Grandiose Exhibitionism was lower; when partner Grandiose Exhibi.
Self-reported ageism in students and academic staff—the case of the Social Work Department in Crete, Greece

This study focuses on self-reported ageism among social work students and academic staff in the Social Work Department of Crete, Greece; the 20-item questionnaire Relating to Older People Evaluation (ROPE) was used to measure negative and positive ageist behaviours that respondents engage in during everyday life. Positive ways of relating to old people were reported much more often than the negative ways; no significant differences in mean endorsement scores between academic staff and undergraduate students in either the positive or the negative dimensions were found. Women endorsed positive ageism items more often than men did, but the two genders did not differ in their endorsement of negative ageism items. This association was observed both for the students and academic staff. For students, no relationship between how many years they had spent studying and endorsement score was observed for either the positive or the negative behaviour items. Social work students and academic staff should be aware that positive ageism may turn into paternalism; it is important that social work education prepares students in order to approach clients with a non-prejudiced attitude and to provide them with quality services.
A computational model of skilled use of a graphical user interface

This paper describes a computational model of skilled use of a graphical user interface based on Kintsch's construction-integration theory [4, 8]. The model uses knowledge of a detailed representation of information on the display, a user's goals and expectations, knowledge about the interface, and knowledge about the application domain to compute actions necessary to accomplish the user's current goal. The model provides a well-motivated account of one kind of errors, action slips [14], made by skilled users. We show how information about the intermediate state of a task on the display plays a critical role in skilled performance, i.e., display-based problem solving.
SMT-Based Bounded Model Checking for Real-Time Systems (Short Paper)

SAT-based bounded model checking has a high complexity in dealing with real-time systems. SMT solvers can generalize SAT solving by adding the ability to handle arithmetic and other decidable theories. With this advantage, if we use SMT in bounded model checking for real-time systems instead of SAT, the clocks can be represented as integer or real variables directly and clock constraints can be represented as linear arithmetic expressions. This makes the checking procedure more efficient. We use TCTL to specify the properties of real-time systems.