Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alternative Determination of the Intrinsic Cut-Off Frequency Applied to a Degraded MOSFET

The cut-off frequency of a microwave MOSFET is obtained by fitting experimental data with a non-linear regression method. Using this approach, the overestimation of this parameter is avoided even when the effect of the gate-to-drain capacitance is considerable, such as in the case of MOSFETs degraded by hot carrier injection. In order to demonstrate this, the proposal is applied to a MOSFET gradually degraded by hot carriers, showing improved accuracy when comparing the results with those obtained using the classical forward extrapolation of the magnitude of the current gain.
Preliminary Report of III&CYUT for NTCIR-11 MedNLP-2

We construct a supervised learning system to participate MedNLP2 task in NTCIR-11 that find the keyword out correctly at right position and normalize to identify unique id in ICD10 [4]. In our system, We pick part-of-speech tagging (POS) [1] as feature to train machine learning models based on Conditional Random Fields (CRF) [3] for named entities extraction, then construct a hierarchical classifier to determine ICD code of the terms.
The Role of Δ1-Pyrroline-5-Carboxylate Dehydrogenase in Proline Degradationw⃞

In response to stress, plants accumulate Pro, requiring degradation after release from adverse conditions. Δ1-Pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5CDH), the second enzyme for Pro degradation, is encoded by a single gene expressed ubiquitously. To study the physiological function of P5CDH, T-DNA insertion mutants in AtP5CDH were isolated and characterized. Although Pro degradation was undetectable in p5cdh mutants, neither increased Pro levels nor an altered growth phenotype were observed under normal conditions. Thus AtP5CDH is essential for Pro degradation but not required for vegetative plant growth. External Pro application caused programmed cell death, with callose deposition, reactive oxygen species production, and DNA laddering, involving a salicylic acid signal transduction pathway. p5cdh mutants were hypersensitive toward Pro and other molecules producing P5C, such as Arg and Orn. Pro levels were the same in the wild type and mutants, but P5C was detectable only in p5cdh mutants, indicating that P5C accumulation may be the cause for Pro hypersensitivity. Accordingly, overexpression of AtP5CDH resulted in decreased sensitivity to externally supplied Pro. Thus, Pro and P5C/Glu semialdehyde may serve as a link between stress responses and cell death.
Editors' Choice: The Efficacy of Service-Learning for Community College ESL Students

Service-learning is gaining momentum in secondary and higher educational settings; however, it has only been used sporadically, if at all, in programs designed to increase proficiency in English among English as a Second Language (ESL) community college-level learners. Based on a teaching and learning experience that infused a service-learning project into a community college ESL course curriculum, Elwell and Bean explain Elwell's facilitation of the service-learning component for ESL students in an intermediate-level reading class. The authors also discuss the tangible benefits that the ESL students reaped as a result of participating in the service-learning project.
Fast and lossless graph division method for layout decomposition using SPQR-tree

Double patterning lithography is the most likely solution for 32nm and below process nodes due to its cost effectiveness. To enable this technique, layout decomposition is applied to split a layout into two non-conflicting patterns. Nevertheless, this problem is NP-hard in general, especially for layouts with random logic. Thus, high quality results are hard to be achieved in reasonable time. Previously, several graph partitioning techniques have been presented in order to speed up the process, with the tradeoff of the quality of results (QoR). We propose a graph division method that does not have this deficiency. First, we start with a conflict graph derived from a layout. Based on a data structure named SPQR-tree, the graph is divided into its triconnected components in linear time. The solutions of these components are then combined in a way that no QoR is lost. Thus, we call this method a ”lossless” method. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve 5X speedup without sacrificing any QoR.
The design of carrying water intelligent robot based on C8051F410

The system is the carrying water intelligent robot based on C8051F410. A C8051F410 MCU is adopted as the main controller to control the motor driver module L293, the motion control module, LCD, automatic water storage module and automatic alarm module. The black and white line are detected through the infrared photoelectric sensor module ST178H. The robot goes forward along the black line and transports water from A to C through B. It doubles back. The system is charactered with the sound-light alarm. When the water is overflowing in the water storage device on the robot, the buzzer can warn automatically. At the same time, the LED lights. In the process of the robot carrying water, LCD may display the carried water weight and the wasted time.
BHAR: a bidirectional hierarchy-based anycast routing protocol for wireless sensor networks

This paper presents a bidirectional hierarchy-based anycast routing (BHAR) protocol to facilitate data collection in multi-hop wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In contrast to existing HAR mechanisms (Thepvilojanapong et al., 2005), the proposed BHAR is able to prolong network lifetime as it constructs hierarchical trees and repairs routes faster. BHAR is unique in letting sinks and sources initialise the construction of a hierarchical tree. Whenever a node knows its own parent and neighbour nodes, it can join a tree, exchange/refresh the routing table, and perform route repair without the aid of geographical information or being controlled remotely. As simulation results have demonstrated, such a design makes BHAR a faster and better protocol in constructing trees and repairing routes than HAR.
An Affix Removal Stemmer for Natural Language Text in Nepali

Stemming is the prerequisite step in Text Mining, Spelling Checker applications as well as a basic requirement for Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. Also it is very important in most of the Information Retrieval (IR) systems . This paper describes an affix stripping technique for finding out the stems from context free text in Nepali Language using lexical lookup based and rule based approach. It starts by introducing different types of lexicon, the basic unit of Nepali stemmer and few rules to identify the word in the lexicon. These rules and lexicons are applied in the design and implementation of an extensible architecture of a stemmer system for Nepali text. Finally designed stemmer performance is evaluated over different domains of 1,800 words. These domains include news on Economics, Health & Political in Nepali language, which are based on Devanagari Script. The overall accuracy of the designed system is 90.48%. Due to the absence of extensive linguistic resources, this technique shows improvement in the performance over simple rule based system.
Affective Factors Influencing Plurilingual Students’ Acquisition of Catalan in a Catalan–Spanish Bilingual Context

This study explored the affective factors influencing students’ learning of Catalan across different year levels in a multilingual school community in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). Questionnaires were distributed to 176 students, from 12 to 17 years of age, registered in a public secondary school, the majority of whom were not born in Catalonia. This study is unique for two reasons. First, many of the students were simultaneously learning 2 official languages—Catalan and Spanish—both inside and outside the classroom, plus 1 foreign language, English. Second, the instrument used to assess the affective variables made use of scales from 2 different models, by Dornyei (2001) and Gardner (1985). There were 4 major results. First, it was found that the students used Catalan very infrequently in comparison to Spanish even though Catalan is an official language and is the language of the school. Second, the students’ country of origin had relatively little influence on most of the affective measures. Third, attitudes and motivation decreased and language anxiety increased as year level increased. Finally, the constructs assessed by the scales in the 2 models (i.e., Dornyei, 2001; Gardner, 1985) are largely factorially distinct, tapping different affective dimensions.
Simultaneous Tensor Completion and Denoising by Noise Inequality Constrained Convex Optimization

Convex optimization, rather than a non-convex approach, still play important roles in many computer science applications because of its exactness and efficiency. In this paper, we consider a tensor completion problem with noise based on the convex optimization. When we assume noisy entries, the optimization problem is usually considered as the “regularization” problem, which simultaneously minimizes penalty and error terms with some tradeoff parameters. However, the good value of the tradeoff is not easily determined because of the differences between the two units and the dependency on data. From the perspective of trade-off tuning, the noisy tensor completion problem with the “noise inequality constraint” is preferred than the “regularization,” because the good noise threshold can be easily bound with noise standard deviation. In this paper, we attempt to solve convex tensor completion problems by using two types of noise inequality constraints: Gaussian and Laplace distributions. To solve the inequality constrained convex optimization in a direct way, we derived the proximal mappings for noise inequalities that are analytically computable with low computational complexity. The optimization algorithm is developed based on the primal-dual splitting framework, and a new step-size adaptation method is proposed to accelerate the optimization. The extensive experiments are conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method for retrieval of visual data, such as color images, movies, and 3D-volumetric data.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Amentotaxus argotaenia (Taxaceae)

Abstract The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Amentotaxus argotaenia was determined in this study. The genome is 136 657 bp in length and lacks one inverted repeat region. The overall GC content of the genome is 35.85% (protein-coding genes, 36.90%; tRNA genes, 53.31%; rRNA genes, 52.99%; introns, 36.10%; intergenic spacers, 31.03%). The A. argotaenia chloroplast genome contains 118 unique genes, including 83 protein-coding genes, 31 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. Ten protein-coding genes and six tRNA genes have one intron, while ycf3 contains two. The coding regions occupy 60.27% of the genome length and the gene density is estimated to be 0.88 genes/kb. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis suggested that Amentotaxus is sister to Taxus within the Taxaceae family.
Salt-resistant blood pressure and salt-sensitive renal autoregulation in chronic streptozotocin diabetes.

Hyperfiltration occurs in early type 1 diabetes mellitus in both rats and humans. It results from afferent vasodilation and thus may impair stabilization of glomerular capillary pressure by autoregulation. It is inversely related to dietary salt intake, the "salt paradox. " Restoration of normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) involves increased preglomerular resistance, probably mediated by tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF). To begin to test whether the salt paradox has pathogenic significance, we compared intact vs. diabetic (streptozotocin) Long-Evans rats with normal and increased salt intake, 1 and approximately 3% by weight of food eaten, respectively. Weekly 24-h blood pressure records were acquired by telemetry before and during diabetes. Blood glucose was maintained at approximately 20 mmol/l by insulin implants. GFR was significantly elevated only in diabetic rats on normal salt intake, confirming diabetic hyperfiltration and the salt paradox. Renal blood flow dynamics show strong contributions to autoregulation by both TGF and the myogenic mechanism and were not impaired by diabetes or by increased salt intake. Separately, systolic pressure was not elevated in diabetic rats at any time during 12 wk with normal or high salt intake. Autoregulation was effective in all groups, and the diabetic-normal salt group showed significantly improved autoregulation at low perfusion pressures. Histological examination revealed very minor glomerulosclerosis and modest mesangial expansion, although neither was diagnostic of diabetes. Periodic acid-Schiff-positive droplets found in distal tubules and collecting duct segments were diagnostic of diabetic kidneys. Biologically significant effects attributable to increased salt intake were abrogation of hyperfiltration and of the left shift in autoregulation in diabetic rats.
Professional cultures and rates of bullying

Preventing and reducing bullying requires long-term and systematic school-wide actions. Researchers on bullying have given little attention to the school organization and its influence on the ability to implement the necessary actions to prevent and stop bullying. This study examines the relationship between aspects of a school’s professional culture and rates of bullying. From a sample of 18,767 students and 1,932 teachers in 85 primary, secondary, and combined schools, subgroups of schools with high (11 schools) and low (10 schools) rates of bullying were identified. Schools with high and low rates differed significantly on all organizational factors; teachers in schools with high rates of bullying reported weaker leadership, teacher affiliation, and collaborative activity than teachers at schools with low rates of bullying. Teacher authority had a mediating role between aspects of the professional culture and rates of bullying. Implications for practice are also discussed.
Altered Neonatal Development and Endocrine Function in Alligator mississippiensis Associated with a Contaminated Environment1

Abstract Reduced reproductive success, altered reproductive tract development, and differences in circulating hormones have been documented in American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) from Lake Apopka, FL, compared to less contaminated sites, such as the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, FL. Comparative studies among alligators of varying size and age suggest that in ovo contaminant-induced alterations of endocrine function are further modified during postembryonic development and/or through environmental exposure. In the present study, we examined developmental and endocrine-related indices in neonatal (age, <1 mo) alligators from Lake Apopka in comparison to those of a reference population (Lake Woodruff), thereby limiting contaminant exposure to that derived via maternal contribution. We compared several reproductive and developmental parameters, including hatching success, primary sex determination, and somatic indices. Furthermore, we examined circulating testosterone concentrations and aromatase activity in an effort to establish relative gonadal endocrine function shortly after hatching. Finally, we compared phallus size among males and oviduct epithelial cell height (ECH) among females (androgen- and estrogen-dependent tissues, respectively). Significant differences between populations were noted for body size and spleen somatic index. Neonatal alligators from Lake Apopka exhibited higher plasma testosterone, but no differences were detected in gonadal aromatase activity compared to Lake Woodruff. Phallus tip length and cuff diameter were smaller in males from Lake Apopka, whereas no differences were noted in oviduct ECH. Our data establish basic indices of development and endocrine function in neonatal alligators before environmental exposure to contaminants. These results should begin to help separate developmental abnormalities resulting from in ovo exposure, presumably of maternal origin, from physiological alterations induced through environmental exposure to contaminants.
Fluid Flow Induction of Cyclo‐Oxygenase 2 Gene Expression in Osteoblasts Is Dependent on an Extracellular Signal‐Regulated Kinase Signaling Pathway

Mechanical loading of bone may be transmitted to osteocytes and osteoblasts via shear stresses at cell surfaces generated by the flow of interstitial fluid. The stimulated production of prostaglandins, which mediates some effects of mechanical loading on bone, is dependent on inducible cyclo‐oxygenase 2 (COX‐2) in bone cells. We examined the fluid shear stress (FSS) induction of COX‐2 gene expression in immortalized MC3T3‐E1 osteoblastic cells stably transfected with −371/+70 base pairs (bp) of the COX‐2 5′‐flanking DNA (Pluc371) and in primary osteoblasts (POBs) from calvaria of mice transgenic for Pluc371. Cells were plated on collagen‐coated glass slides and subjected to steady laminar FSS in a parallel plate flow chamber. FSS, from 0.14 to10 dynes/cm2, induced COX‐2 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein. FSS (10 dynes/cm2) induced COX‐2 mRNA within 30 minutes, with peak effects at 4 h in MC3T3‐E1 cells and at ≥8 h in POBs. An inhibitor of new protein synthesis puromycin blocked the peak induction of COX‐2 mRNA by FSS. COX‐2 promoter activity, measured as luciferase activity, correlated with COX‐2 mRNA expression in both MC3T3‐E1 and POB cells. FSS induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) in MC3T3‐E1 cells, with peak effects at 5 minutes. Inhibiting ERK phosphorylation with the specific inhibitor PD98059 inhibited FSS induction of COX‐2 mRNA by 55‐70% and FSS stimulation of luciferase activity by ≥80% in both MC3T3‐E1 and POB cells. We conclude that FSS transcriptionally induces COX‐2 gene expression in osteoblasts, that the maximum induction requires new protein synthesis, and that induction occurs largely via an ERK signaling pathway.
Understanding and representing spatial information

How we understand and represent the space around us is a vital aspect of how we think and act. The research on which my book was based tried to answer the question about what effect vision has on this process, by reversing the usual focus on vision and considering spatial representation also in the total absence of vision. Studies with congenitally totally blind and with sighted children, together with findings from a variety of other areas, suggest how touch and movement can complement other sources of reference cues. The paper that follows discusses some of the practical implications for spatial representation and spatial imagery without vision.
Oblivious network design

Consider the following network design problem: given a network <i>G = (V, E)</i>, source-sink pairs {<i>s</i><inf><i>i</i></inf>, <i>t</i><inf><i>i</i></inf>} arrive and desire to send a unit of flow between themselves. The cost of the routing is this: if edge <i>e</i> carries a total of <i>f</i><inf><i>e</i></inf> flow (from all the terminal pairs), the cost is given by Σ <inf><i>e</i></inf><i>l</i>(<i>f</i><inf><i>e</i></inf>), where <i>l</i> is some concave cost function; the goal is to minimize the total cost incurred. However, we want the routing to be <i>oblivious</i>: when terminal pair {<i>s</i><inf><i>i</i></inf>, <i>t</i><inf><i>i</i></inf>} makes its routing decisions, it does not know the current flow on the edges of the network, nor the identity of the other pairs in the system. Moreover, it does not even know the identity of the function <i>l</i>, merely knowing that <i>l</i> is a concave function of the total flow on the edge. How should it (obliviously) route its one unit of flow? Can we get competitive algorithms for this problem? In this paper, we develop a framework to model <i>oblivious network design</i> problems (of which the above problem is a special case), and give algorithms with poly-logarithmic competitive ratio for problems in this framework (and hence for this problem). Abstractly, given a problem like the one above, the solution is a multicommodity flow producing a "load" on each edge of <i>L</i><inf><i>e</i></inf> = <i>l</i>(<i>f</i><inf>1</inf>(<i>e</i>),<i>f</i><inf>2</inf>(<i>e</i>), . , <i>f</i><inf><i>k</i></inf>(<i>e</i>)), and the total cost is given by an "aggregation function" agg (<i>L</i><inf><i>e</i>1</inf>,.,<i>L</i><inf><i>em</i></inf>) of the loads of all edges. Our goal is to develop oblivious algorithms that approximately minimize the total cost of the routing, knowing the aggregation function agg, but merely knowing that <i>l</i> lies in some class C, and having no other information about the current state of the network. Hence we want algorithms that are simultaneously "function-oblivious" as well as "traffic-oblivious". The aggregation functions we consider are the max and σ objective functions, which correspond to the well-known measures of <i>congestion</i> and <i>total cost</i> of a network; in this paper, we prove the following:• If the aggregation function is Σ, we give an oblivious algorithm with <i>O</i>(log<sup>2</sup> <i>n</i>) competitive ratio whenever the load function <i>l</i> is in the class of <i>monotone sub-additive functions</i>. (Recall that our algorithm is also "function-oblivious"; it works whenever each edge has a load function <i>l</i> in the class.)• For the case when the aggregation function is max, we give an oblivious algorithm with <i>O</i>(log<sup>2</sup> <i>n</i> log log <i>n</i>) competitive ratio, when the load function <i>l</i> is a <i>norm;</i> we also show that such a competitive ratio is not possible for general sub-additive functions.These are the first such general results about oblivious algorithms for network design problems, and we hope the ideas and techniques will lead to more and improved results in this area.
The Concept of Social Construction

The present paper attempts to clarify the social constructionist position by way of an analysis of its central concept, namely `social construction'. (1) Three central theses connected with this concept as used in epistemological debates are identified: (a) The production of knowledge is a creative interpretation process and cannot be adequately framed within a logicistic theory of knowledge. (b) In their experiments scientists actively aspire to produce results that accord with their theories. (c) Knowledge is always grounded in a background of contingent assumptions and local investigative practices. It is argued that none of these theses is incompatible with realism. (2) Thereafter, three central theses connected with the concept of social construction as used in debates concerning the subject matter of psychology are discussed: (a) The subject of psychology is not a natural kind but an artefact. (b) There is a reflexive relationship between psychological discourses and the subject of these discourses. (c) The subject of psychology cannot be adequately analysed in natural scientific terms. It is argued that these insights have important consequences for psychological research, and yet are unintelligible against the background of anti-realist presuppositions.
Do the effects of head start vary by parental preacademic stimulation?

Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 3,185, age = 3-4 years) were used to determine whether 1 year of Head Start differentially benefited children from homes with high, middle, and low levels of parental preacademic stimulation on three academic outcome domains-early math, early literacy, and receptive vocabulary. Results from residualized growth models showed positive impacts of random assignment to Head Start on all three outcomes, and positive associations between parental preacademic stimulation and academic performance. Two moderated effects were also found. Head start boosted early math skills the most for children receiving low parental preacademic stimulation. Effects of Head Start on early literacy skills were largest for children receiving moderate levels of parental preacademic stimulation. Implications for Head Start are discussed.