Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text in multimedia learning

Research on metacognition has consistently demonstrated that learners fail to endorse instructional designs that produce benefits to memory, and often prefer designs that actually impair comprehension. Unlike previous studies in which learners were only exposed to a single multimedia design, the current study used a within–subjects approach to examine whether exposure to both redundant text and non-redundant text multimedia presentations improved learners' metacognitive judgments about presentation styles that promote better understanding. A redundant text multimedia presentation containing narration paired with verbatim on–screen text (Redundant) was contrasted with two non-redundant text multimedia presentations: (1) narration paired with images and minimal text (Complementary) or (2) narration paired with minimal text (Sparse). Learners watched presentation pairs of either Redundant + Complementary, or Redundant + Sparse. Results demonstrate that Complementary and Sparse presentations produced highest overall performance on the final comprehension assessment, but the Redundant presentation produced highest perceived understanding and engagement ratings. These findings suggest that learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text, even after direct exposure to a non-redundant, effective presentation.
TCP : Error Handling with Explicit Notification Schemes

Wireless networks widely used in Internet nowadays have high error rates. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) originally designed for wired links needs for improving its performance over wireless links. In other words congestion avoidance approach is not sufficient when packet losses in the wireless networks occur due to corruption. In this paper I describe the schemes namely Explicit Loss Notification Schemes (ELN schemes) or Explicit Transport Error Notification Schemes (ETEN schemes) that allow the transport protocol to distinguish between a loss due to congestion and a loss due to corruption in the wireless networks, yielding performance benefits.
Application of photoemission microscopy (PEM) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) navigation system in localization of high side power switch open contact failure

Photoemission microscopy (PEM) combined with Computer Aided Design (CAD) navigation system are very effective methods for fault localization on complex integrated circuit (IC) consisting of digital, analog and power devices elements. In this paper, both of these methods are applied in analyzing a high side power switch diagnostic function failure.
Not All Identity Style Items Refer to Identity: Does It Matter?

Identity styles describe the ways in which adolescents approach identity issues. The Identity Style Inventory-3 (ISI-3) has been extensively used to measure these styles. Some of the items on the ISI-3 refer specifically to domains in which identity decisions are made whereas other items do not. This study reports findings regarding whether these two types of items yield different conclusions in terms of the identity style correlates. Three sets of correlates are considered: personality, psychological well-being, and commitment. A battery consisting of the Five Factor Personality Inventory, the Psychological Well-Being scales, and the ISI-3 was administered to 236 Hellene students. The results of a series of z-tests reveal that the two types of items are differentially correlated for the normative and the diffuse/avoidant identity styles. The conclusion is that this problem with the ISI may be ameliorated if all its items are made pertinent to identity issues.
Evaluating side effects of nanoparticle‐mediated siRNA delivery to mesenchymal stem cells using next generation sequencing and enrichment analysis

Abstract RNA interference has immense potential to modulate cell functions. However, effective delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) while avoiding deleterious side effects has proven challenging. This study investigates both intended and unintended effects of diblock copolymer nanoparticle (NP) delivery of siRNA delivery to human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). Specifically, siRNA delivery was investigated at a range of NP‐siRNA:hMSC ratios with a focus on the effects of NP‐siRNA treatment on hMSC functions. Additionally, next generation RNA sequencing (RNAseq) was used with enrichment analysis to observe side effects in hMSC gene expression. Results show NP‐siRNA delivery is negatively correlated with hMSC density. However, higher NP‐siRNA:hMSC ratios increased cytotoxicity and decreased metabolic activity. hMSC proliferation was largely unaffected by NP‐siRNA treatment, except for a threefold reduction in hMSCs seeded at 4,000 cells/cm2. Flow cytometry reveals that apoptosis is a function of NP‐siRNA treatment time and seeding density; ∼14% of the treated hMSCs seeded at 8,000 cells/cm2 were annexin V+‐siRNA+ 24 hr after treatment, while 11% of the treated population was annexin V+‐siRNA−. RNAseq shows that NP‐siRNA treatment results in transcriptomic changes in hMSCs, while pathway analysis shows upregulation of apoptosis signaling and downregulation of metabolism, cell cycle, and DNA replication pathways, as corroborated by apoptosis, metabolism, and proliferation assays. Additionally, multiple innate immune signaling pathways such as toll‐like receptor, RIG‐I‐like receptor, and nuclear factor‐κB signaling pathways are upregulated. Furthermore, and consistent with traditional siRNA immune activation, cytokine–cytokine receptor signaling was also upregulated. Overall, this study provides insight into NP‐siRNA:hMSC ratios that are favorable for siRNA delivery. Moreover, NP‐siRNA delivery results in side effects across the hMSC transcriptome that suggest activation of the innate immunity that could alter MSC functions associated with their therapeutic potential.
The Nuclear Kinase Mitogen- and Stress-Activated Protein Kinase 1 Regulates Hippocampal Chromatin Remodeling in Memory Formation

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) cascade has been established as a potent regulator of gene transcription in long-term memory formation, but the precise mechanisms of this regulation are poorly understood. ERK does not directly affect many of its nuclear targets, but rather must act through intermediary kinases. In this study, we investigated the role of mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 (MSK1), a nuclear kinase downstream of ERK, in chromatin remodeling during hippocampus-dependent memory formation. Mice lacking MSK1 show impaired Pavlovian fear conditioning and spatial learning, as well as a deficiency in histone phosphorylation and acetylation in the hippocampus after fear training. In addition, hippocampal slices from MSK1 knock-out mice exhibit a deficiency in both histone phosphorylation and acetylation after activation of the ERK pathway in vitro. In vivo injections of a histone deacetylase inhibitor, sodium butyrate, fail to alleviate the fear conditioning deficit in MSK1 knock-out mice. Finally, MSK1 knock-out mice demonstrate a deficiency in cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation after fear training, which persists after sodium butyrate injection. This suggests that CREB phosphorylation and histone acetylation represent parallel targets of MSK1 function. Our study identifies MSK1 as an important regulator of chromatin remodeling in long-term memory.
Evaluation of the SA-E System for Analysis of Students’ Real-Time Feedback

Students' real-time feedback is acknowledged as an important source of information for teachers/lecturers to improve their teaching and address issues students may have, such as going deeper in some of the materials covered or providing more examples to understand an abstract concept. Previous applications collecting real-time feedback from students through clickers and mobiles typically collect limited information with pre-defined questions, while more recent applications using social media collect such a large volume of information that a lecturer cannot manually process it in real time. We developed the SA-E system for analysing students' real-time feedback provided via social media, and, in this paper, we present the evaluation of this system in real settings with lecturers and students. The results show that lecturers are highly satisfied with the proposed system. In contrast, although the participation of students in providing feedback was high, the students' opinions of the system were between neutral and dislike.
Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Accelerates Human Sleep Homeostasis

The sleeping brain exhibits characteristic slow-wave activity which decays over the course of the night. This decay is thought to result from homeostatic synaptic downscaling. Transcranial electrical stimulation can entrain slow-wave oscillations (SWO) in the human electro-encephalogram (EEG). A computational model of the underlying mechanism predicts that firing rates are predominantly increased during stimulation. Assuming that synaptic homeostasis is driven by average firing rates, we expected an acceleration of synaptic downscaling during stimulation, which is compensated by a reduced drive after stimulation. We show that 25 minutes of transcranial electrical stimulation, as predicted, reduced the decay of SWO in the remainder of the night. Anatomically accurate simulations of the field intensities on human cortex precisely matched the effect size in different EEG electrodes. Together these results suggest a mechanistic link between electrical stimulation and accelerated synaptic homeostasis in human sleep.
Generating Efficient Execution Plans for Vertically Partitioned XML Databases

Experience with relational systems has shown that distribution is an effective way of improving the scalability of query evaluation. In this paper, we show how distributed query evaluation can be performed in a vertically partitioned XML database system. We propose a novel technique for constructing distributed execution plans that is independent of local query evaluation strategies. We then present a number of optimizations that allow us to further improve the performance of distributed query execution. Finally, we present a response time-based cost model that allows us to pick the best execution plan for a given query and database instance. Based on an implementation of our techniques within a native XML database system, we verify that our execution plans take advantage of the parallelism in a distributed system and that our cost model is effective at identifying the most advantageous plans.
Multiple sequence alignment using a GLOCSA guided genetic algorithm

This paper introduces GLOCSA as a new scoring function to rate multiple sequence alignments. It is intended to be simple, considering the whole alignment at once and reflecting the parsimony of an alignment. Then, a GLOCSA Guided Genetic Algorithm is proposed in order to refine alignments previously generated by MUSCLE. The results so far are depicted in this paper.
Approximation Algorithms for Reducing the Spectral Radius to Control Epidemic Spread

The largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of a network (referred to as the spectral radius) is an important metric in its own right. Further, for several models of epidemic spread on networks (e.g., the `flu-like' SIS model), it has been shown that an epidemic dies out quickly if the spectral radius of the graph is below a certain threshold that depends on the model parameters. This motivates a strategy to control epidemic spread by reducing the spectral radius of the underlying network. In this paper, we develop a suite of provable approximation algorithms for reducing the spectral radius by removing the minimum cost set of edges (modeling quarantining) or nodes (modeling vaccinations), with different time and quality tradeoffs. Our main algorithm, \textsc{GreedyWalk}, is based on the idea of hitting closed walks of a given length, and gives an $O(\log^2{n})$-approximation, where $n$ denotes the number of nodes; it also performs much better in practice compared to all prior heuristics proposed for this problem. We further present a novel sparsification method to improve its running time. In addition, we give a new primal-dual based algorithm with an even better approximation guarantee ($O(\log n)$), albeit with slower running time. We also give lower bounds on the worst-case performance of some of the popular heuristics. Finally we demonstrate the applicability of our algorithms and the properties of our solutions via extensive experiments on multiple synthetic and real networks.
Reconfigurable energy efficient near threshold cache architectures

Battery life is an important concern for modern embedded processors. Supply voltage scaling techniques can provide an order of magnitude reduction in energy. Current commercial memory technologies have been limited in the degree of supply voltage scaling that can be performed if they are to meet yield and reliability constraints. This has limited designers from exploring the near threshold operating regions for embedded processors. Summarizing prior work we show how proper sizing of memory cells can guarantee that the memory cell reliability in the near threshold supply voltage region matches that of a standard memory cell. However, this robustness comes with a significant area cost. We show how to employ these cells to build cache architectures that greatly reduce energy consumption. We propose an embedded processor based on these new cache architectures that operates in a low power mode, with minimal impact on full performance runtime. The proposed cache uses near threshold tolerant cache ways to reduce access energy combined with traditional cache ways to maintain performance. The access policy of the cache ways is then dynamically reconfigured to obtain energy efficient performance while minimally impacting the high performance mode runtime. Using near threshold cache architectures we show an energy reduction of 53% over a traditional filter cache. For the MIBench embedded benchmarks we show on average an 86% (7.3times) reduction in energy while in low power (10 MHz) mode with only an average 2% increase in runtime in high performance (400 MHz) mode. And for SpecInt applications we show a 77% (4.4times) reduction in energy in low power mode with only an average 4.8% increase in runtime for high performance mode. In addition we show that these trends hold from 130 nm to 45 nm technology nodes.
Nanodome coins for intracellular surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy offers a tremendous potential for intracellular sensing, because it combines fingerprint specificity with sensitive signals. However, the colloidal gold nanoparticles used for this purpose lead to strong spatiotemporal variations in intracellular SERS experiments. This unpredictable behaviour, which complicates reproducible measurements, strongly contrasts to the advances made in the last decades on the fabrication of controllable and robust plasmonic substrates with high enhancement factors. Here, we propose an alternative approach to intracellular SERS by developing planar, nanostructured microcoins which enable to use top-down fabricated substrates for intracellular applications. We develop a nanosphere-lithography based technique for the fabrication of gold-nanotriangle and -nanodome structured silicon-nitride micron-sized chips (micro-coins). These microcoins can be lifted off form their substrate and are subsequently incorporated into fibroblast- and HeLa cells. In a model experiment, the SERS sensors are used for the label-free detection of extraneous molecules in live cells. The use of reproducible SERS substrates for intracellular sensing is expected to be an important step towards reproducible and quantitative live-cell, label-free measurements.
Data Dissemination in Opportunistic Networks

Opportunistic networks represent one of the most interesting evolution of traditional Mobile Ad Hoc NETworks (MANET). The typical MANET scenario comprises mobile users with their wireless-enabled mobile devices that cooperate in an ad hoc fashion to support communication without relying on any pre-existing networking infrastructure. Specifically, in MANETs the nodes of the network become active entities, and substitute to routers, switches, etc., in forwarding messages. Thus, messages are delivered following a multi-hop path over the nodes of the MANET itself. Despite the huge research activity that they have generated, MANETs were far from being widely adopted. The main drawback of MANETs was their lack of realism in research approach [17]. From a practical standpoint, real small-scale implementations have been long disregarded, and real users have not been involved in the MANET evaluation. From a research standpoint, MANET results were mined by excessively
Estimation of motion from a sequence of images using spherical projective geometry

Motion is an important cue for many applications. Here we propose a solution for estimating motion from a sequence of images using three algorithms, namely, batch, recursive and bootstrap methods. The motion derived using spherical projection relates the image motion to the object motion. This equation is reformulated into a dynamical space state model, for which a Kalman filter can be easily applied to yield the estimate of depth. We also propose a new approach for establishing correspondences using local planar invariants and hierarchical groupings. The proposed algorithm provides a simple yet robust method having lower time complexity and less ambiguity in matching than its predecessors.
Lactate dehydrogenase in hypothermia‐treated newborn infants with hypoxic‐ischaemic encephalopathy

Aims: We investigated whether plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) predicts outcome in hypothermia (HT)‐treated term infants with moderate/severe hypoxic‐ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) and additionally whether LDH differs between infants with evidence for acute and nonacute perinatal insults and postnatal collapse (PNC).
trans-Tetraaquabis[2-(4-chlorophenoxy)acetato-κO 1]nickel(II)

In the title compound, [Ni(C8H6ClO3)2(H2O)4], the NiII ion is located on a crystallographic inversion centre and is octahedrally coordinated by two 2-(4-chlorophenoxy)acetate ligands in axial positions and by four water molecules in the equatorial plane. The acetate ligands are bound to the NiII ion in a monodentate manner through a carboxylate O atom. In the crystal, O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the molecules, forming a two-dimensional supramolecular network lying parallel to the ab plane.
Meta-analysis of correlation coefficients: a Monte Carlo comparison of fixed- and random-effects methods.

The efficacy of the Hedges and colleagues, Rosenthal-Rubin, and Hunter-Schmidt methods for combining correlation coefficients was tested for cases in which population effect sizes were both fixed and variable. After a brief tutorial on these meta-analytic methods, the author presents two Monte Carlo simulations that compare these methods for cases in which the number of studies in the meta-analysis and the average sample size of studies were varied. In the fixed case the methods produced comparable estimates of the average effect size; however, the Hunter-Schmidt method failed to control the Type I error rate for the associated significance tests. In the variable case, for both the Hedges and colleagues and Hunter-Schmidt methods, Type I error rates were not controlled for meta-analyses including 15 or fewer studies and the probability of detecting small effects was less than . 3. Some practical recommendations are made about the use of meta-analysis.
MethPrimer: designing primers for methylation PCRs

MOTIVATION DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism of gene regulation. Bisulfite- conversion-based PCR methods, such as bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) and methylation specific PCR (MSP), remain the most commonly used techniques for methylation mapping. Existing primer design programs developed for standard PCR cannot handle primer design for bisulfite-conversion-based PCRs due to changes in DNA sequence context caused by bisulfite treatment and many special constraints both on the primers and the region to be amplified for such experiments. Therefore, the present study was designed to develop a program for such applications. RESULTS MethPrimer, based on Primer 3, is a program for designing PCR primers for methylation mapping. It first takes a DNA sequence as its input and searches the sequence for potential CpG islands. Primers are then picked around the predicted CpG islands or around regions specified by users. MethPrimer can design primers for BSP and MSP. Results of primer selection are delivered through a web browser in text and in graphic view.
Elements of Adult Learning in Teacher Professional Development

This article examines the concept and philosophy of andragogy (the art and science of teaching adults) and the ways that adults'self-image, experiences, and readiness to learn differentiate adult education from pedagogy (the instruction of children). By creating an enviroment for adult learning and engaging the school staff in mutual planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of professional development learning experiences, school leaders can improve the process of school-based teacher professional development.
Use of Seasonal Influenza Vaccination and Its Associated Factors among Elderly People with Disabilities in Taiwan: A Population-Based Study

Background Influenza immunization among elderly people with disabilities is a critical public health concern; however, few studies have examined the factors associated with vaccination rates in non-Western societies. Methods By linking the National Disability Registration System and health service claims dataset from the National Health Insurance program, this population-based study investigated the seasonal influenza vaccination rate among elderly people with disabilities in Taiwan (N = 283,172) in 2008. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to adjust for covariates. Results Nationally, only 32.7% of Taiwanese elderly people with disabilities received influenza vaccination. The strongest predictor for getting vaccinated among older Taiwanese people with disabilities was their experience of receiving an influenza vaccination in the previous year (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 6.80, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.67–6.93). Frequent OPD use (AOR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.81–1.89) and undergoing health examinations in the previous year (AOR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.62–1.69) also showed a moderate and significant association with receiving an influenza vaccination. Conclusions Although free influenza vaccination has been provided in Taiwan since 2001, influenza immunization rates among elderly people with disabilities remain low. Policy initiatives are required to address the identified factors for improving influenza immunization rates among elderly people with disabilities.