Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Low Inference Teacher Clarity Inhibitors on Student Achievement

Most research on the effects of teacher behaviors on student learning has been correlational in design. The findings may suggest that the presence or absence of a particular teaching behavior causes students to learn more, but other interpretations are possible. An experimental design is necessary to establish cause-and-effect between an independent variable (e.g., teacher behavior) and a dependent variable (e.g., a measure of student achievement). Another problem of previous research is that high rather than low inference measures of teacher behavior have been used. The specific, observable teacher behaviors (i.e., low inference measures) that underlie high inference measures are often unclear. Therefore, the results of studies using high inference measures are difficult to interpret and to replicate. This article’s purpose is to respond to the demand for greater specification of teacher behavior variables and the use of experimental designs to study their effects on student achievement. In particular, the article describes a study of the effects of teacher clarity (using low inference definitions) on student achievement. Teacher clarity is an important and potentially powerful variable as documented by the correlational studies reported by Rosenshine and Furst (1971) and Good and Grouws (1977). Rosenshine (1971) and Bush, Kennedy, and Cruickshank (1977) have stressed the need for experimental, low inference studies of the effects of teacher clarity on student achievement. Low inference indicators of teacher clarity have been identified in the correlational research of Bush et al., Hiller, Fisher, and Kaess (1969), and Smith (1977). Dunkin and Biddle (1974) identified vagueness terms as a low inference variable deserving of additional research. Vagueness terms are words or phrases indicating approximation, ambiguity, or lack of assurance. Hiller et al. formulated nine categories of vagueness to classify over 200 different terms.
Cellular Mechanisms of Temporal Sensitivity in Visual Cortex Neurons

The ability of cortical neurons to accurately encode the temporal pattern of their inputs has important consequences for cortical function and perceptual acuity. Here we identify cellular mechanisms underlying the sensitivity of cortical neurons to the timing of sensory-evoked synaptic inputs. We find that temporally coincident inputs to layer 4 neurons in primary visual cortex evoke an increase in spike precision and supralinear spike summation. Underlying this nonlinear summation are changes in the evoked excitatory conductance and the associated membrane potential response, and a lengthening of the window between excitation and inhibition. Furthermore, fast-spiking inhibitory interneurons in layer 4 exhibit a shorter window of temporal sensitivity compared with excitatory neurons. In contrast to the enhanced response to synchronous inputs by layer 4 neurons, sensory input integration in downstream cortical layers is more linear and less sensitive to timing. Neurons in the input layer of cortex are thus uniquely optimized to detect and encode synchronous sensory-evoked inputs.
How is the internship going anyways? An action research approach to understanding the triad relationship between interns, mentors, and field advisors

This article describes a research project that looks at the relationship between mentors, interns, and field advisors on a theological internship programme by way of the theory and practice relationship as it relates to the university and field context. The work of Hans Georg Gadamer is used as a framework for understanding the interviews using action research to examine and improve the researcher’s own practices in the mentor and intern relationship. Three themes emerged: emotional uncertainty of mentors and interns as it is connected with the field advisor; the role of the field advisor as reflective friend; and the field advisor as insider/outsider role. The article concludes with recommendations for field advising and the curriculum.
Fair Queuing Memory Systems

We propose and evaluate a multi-thread memory scheduler that targets high performance CMPs. The proposed memory scheduler is based on concepts originally developed for network fair queuing scheduling algorithms. The memory scheduler is fair and provides quality of service (QoS) while improving system performance. On a four processor CMP running workloads containing a mix of applications with a range of memory bandwidth demands, the proposed memory scheduler provides QoS to all of the threads in all of the workloads, improves system performance by an average of 14% (41% in the best case), and reduces the variance in the threads' target memory bandwidth utilization from . 2 to . 0058
A Morpheme-based Method to Chinese Sentence-Level Sentiment Classification

Sentiment classification is a fundamental task in opinion mining. However, most existing systems require a sentiment lexicon to guide sentiment classification, which inevitably suffer from the problem of unknown words. In this paper, we present a morpheme-based fine-to-coarse strategy for Chinese sentence-level sentiment classification. To approach this, we first employ morphological productivity to extract sentiment morphemes from a sentiment dictionary and to calculate their polarity intensity at the same time. Then, we apply the acquired morpheme-level sentiment information to predict the semantic orientation of sentiment words and phrases within an opinionated sentence. Finally, we determine sentence-level semantic orientation by combining all the sentiment phrases and their relevant polarity scores. The experimental results on NTCIR-6 OAPT data set show our system can achieve state-of-the-art performance.
The Effect of Focus Cues on Separation of Information Layers

Our eyes use multiple cues to perceive depth. Current 3D displays do not support all depth cues humans can perceive. While they support binocular disparity and convergence, no commercially available 3D display supports focus cues. To use them requires accommodation, i.e. stretching the eye lens when focusing on an individual distance. Previous work proposed multilayer and light field displays that require the eye to accommodate. Such displays enable the user to focus on different depths and blur out content that is out of focus. Thereby, they might ease the separation of content displayed on different depth layers. In this paper we investigate the effect of focus cues by comparing 3D shutter glasses with a multilayer display. We show that recognizing content displayed on a multilayer display takes less time and results in fewer errors compared to shutter glasses. We further show that separating overlapping content on multilayer displays again takes less time, results in fewer errors, and is less demanding. Hence, we argue that multilayer displays are superior to standard 3D displays if layered 3D content is displayed, and they have the potential to extend the design space of standard GUI.
Linearity-Generating Processes, Unspanned Stochastic Volatility, and Interest-Rate Option Pricing

We propose to use the linearity-generating framework to accommodate the evidence of unspanned stochastic volatility: Variations in implied volatilities on interest-rate options such as caps and swaptions are independent of the variations on the interest rate term structure. Under this framework, bond valuation depends only on the transition dynamics of interest-rate factors, but not on their volatilities. Thus, interest-rate volatility is truly unspanned. Furthermore, this framework allows tractable pricing of options on any bond portfolios, including both caps and swaptions. This feat is not possible under existing exponential-affine or quadratic frameworks. Finally, the framework allows sequential estimation of the interest-rate term structure and the interest-rate option implied volatility surface, thus facilitating joint empirical analysis. Within this framework, we perform specification analysis on interest-rate factor transition dynamics and its relation to the interest-rate term structure; we also analyze the interest-rate volatility dynamics and its impact on interest-rate option pricing. We estimate several specifications for the transition dynamics to ten years worth of U.S. dollar LIBOR and swap rates across 15 maturities. We also estimate several interest-rate volatility dynamics specifications using ten years of swaption implied volatilities across a matrix of ten option maturities and seven swap tenors. The estimation results show that the volatility dynamics dictate the option implied volatility variation along the option maturity dimension, whereas the interest-rate transition dynamics dictate the implied volatility variation along the underlying swap maturity dimension.
Who should study music education? A vocational personality approach

The main purpose of the current study was to examine the utility and usefulness of Holland's Theory of Personalities in Work Environments to understand the match between personality and the desire for music education. The participants included 99 pre-service music teachers in Turkey. The findings revealed that the pre-service music teachers were, foremost, artistic. To a lesser degree, they were social and conventional. In addition, significant relationships existed between personality types and satisfaction with studying in the department of music education. Based on these findings, it seems that Holland's Theory provides a useful framework for understanding music pre-service teachers' satisfaction with studying music education. Future researchers may use this theory with practicing music teachers to examine its explanatory and predictive power in the workplace.
Two-Fold Pricing to Guarantee Individual Profits and Maximum Social Welfare in Wireless Access Networks

In a multi-hop wireless access network where each node is an independent self-interested commercial entity, pricing is helpful not only to encourage collaboration but also to utilize the network resources efficiently. In this paper, we propose a market-based model with two-fold pricing (TFP) for wireless access networks. In our model, the relay-pricing is used to encourage nodes to forward each other's packets. That is, each node is paid off for the relay service it provides. We also consider interference- pricing to leverage optimal resource allocation. We prove that TFP guarantees positive profit for each individual wireless node for a wide range of pricing functions. The profit increases as the node forwards more packets. Thus, the cooperative nodes are well rewarded. We then determine the relay and the interference pricing functions such that the network social welfare and the aggregate network utility are maximized. Simulation results show that, compared to a recently proposed single-fold pricing (SFP) model where only the relay prices are considered, our proposed TFP scheme significantly increases the total network profit and the network throughput. TFP also leads to more fair revenue sharing and profit distribution among the wireless relay nodes.
Adolescents' preferences for organ allocation: The role of empathy and altruism in allocation judgments

Distributive justice reasoning in adolescence, regarding the allocation of scarce medical resources, has not been thoroughly studied yet. The present study aimed to explore adolescents' preferences for organ allocation, the ethical principles that form bioethical judgments in adolescence, as well as the role of empathy and altruism in the formation of those judgments. One hundred fifty one adolescents (90 females) aged between 12 and 19 years old participated in the study. Participants were asked to suggest the criteria that should be considered in the construction of transplant waiting lists, to evaluate adults' preferable criteria and to justify their judgments. Results indicate that utilitarianism and egalitarianism were both used to form allocation judgments. Ingroup favouritism was also observed. Age differences in adolescents' preferences were witnessed, but no age effect were found regarding the principles that form participants' judgments. Aspects of empathy and altruism seemed to associate with certain allocation criteria.
“Just Being Mean to Somebody Isn’t a Police Matter”: Police Perspectives on Policing Cyberbullying

Increasing public awareness of cyberbullying, coupled with several highly publicized youth suicides linked to electronic bullying, have led lawmakers and politicians to consider new criminal legislation specifically related to cyberbullying. However, little is known about how the police currently respond to cyberbullying, and it is not clear whether new laws are necessary. In this article, the authors draw upon in-depth interviews with Canadian street patrol officers and school resource officers to explore police perspectives on policing cyberbullying. In contrast to the reactive hard-line approach proposed in much legislation and public discussion, police officers prefer to take a preventative approach by educating youth and raising awareness about the dangers of digital communications. Although there are instances when criminal charges must be laid, these incidents transcend “bullying,” a term that has little legal meaning for police officers.
On derivation of stagewise second-order backpropagation by invariant imbedding for multi-stage neural-network learning

We present a simple, intuitive argument based on "invariant imbedding" in the spirit of dynamic programming to derive a stagewise second-order backpropagation (BP) algorithm. The method evaluates the Hessian matrix of a general objective function efficiently by exploiting the multistage structure embedded in a given neural-network model such as a multilayer perceptron (MLP). In consequence, for instance, our stagewise BP can compute the full Hessian matrix "faster" than the standard method that evaluates the Gauss-Newton Hessian matrix alone by rank updates in nonlinear least squares learning. Through our derivation, we also show how the procedure serves to develop advanced learning algorithms; in particular, we explain how the introduction of "stage costs" leads to alternative systematic implementations of multi-task learning and weight decay.
Optimisation and parallelisation of a 2D MOSFET multi-subband ensemble Monte Carlo simulator

Multi-subband ensemble Monte Carlo simulators (MSB-EMC) are essential in semiconductor device modelling in order to study confinement effects when devices are scaled to gate lengths and silicon thicknesses approaching nanometre dimensions. To consider these effects it is necessary to solve the Schrödinger equation in the confinement direction, which has a high computational cost. In this paper we propose the parallelisation and optimisation of a 2D MSB-EMC simulator. The Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP) application program interface (API) is employed for the parallelisation and the simulations are performed using a multi-core machine. Numerical results show a speed-up of 7.40 when eight cores are used with a parallel efficiency higher than 90%.
Effective Lossless Compression of Sensor Information in Manufacturing Industry

In recent years, many visions for hitherto considered-futuristic computing applications gained momentum. The vision of smart factories is one example for these trends, which all share a common requirement: the prolific dissemination of sensor information. As wireless communication in smart factories needs to cope with harsh environments, the amount of sensor information produced by sources will likely surpass the communication channel's available capacity. This discrepancy calls for efficient communication and filtering protocols, as well as compression mechanisms, as a foundation for dependable applications. We propose such a compression algorithm that is lossless and tailored towards the requirements of the manufacturing industry. Our algorithm employs a two-step stochastic model that uses lossy compression to extract an approximation from the signal and a separate noise model to accommodate the remaining error. Evaluation results validate that our algorithm achieves better compression rates than existing approaches for several types of real world sensor data from the industry.
Dynamic Self-Reconfiguration Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose a new dynamic energy efficient routing scheme for wireless sensor networks. Based on the dynamic reconfiguration approach, the proposed scheme can provide network adaptability while enhancing the network efficiency. In addition, our distributed control paradigm has low complexity, making it practical for real sensor network management. Simulation results indicate the superior performance of our algorithms, while other schemes cannot offer such an attractive performance balance between energy efficiency and QoS provisioning.
MIPS: a database for genomes and protein sequences.

The Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS-GSF, Neuherberg, Germany) continues to provide genome-related information in a systematic way. MIPS supports both national and European sequencing and functional analysis projects, develops and maintains automatically generated and manually annotated genome-specific databases, develops systematic classification schemes for the functional annotation of protein sequences, and provides tools for the comprehensive analysis of protein sequences. This report updates the information on the yeast genome (CYGD), the Neurospora crassa genome (MNCDB), the databases for the comprehensive set of genomes (PEDANT genomes), the database of annotated human EST clusters (HIB), the database of complete cDNAs from the DHGP (German Human Genome Project), as well as the project specific databases for the GABI (Genome Analysis in Plants) and HNB (Helmholtz-Netzwerk Bioinformatik) networks. The Arabidospsis thaliana database (MATDB), the database of mitochondrial proteins (MITOP) and our contribution to the PIR International Protein Sequence Database have been described elsewhere [Schoof et al. (2002) Nucleic Acids Res., 30, 91-93; Scharfe et al. (2000) Nucleic Acids Res., 28, 155-158; Barker et al. (2001) Nucleic Acids Res., 29, 29-32]. All databases described, the protein analysis tools provided and the detailed descriptions of our projects can be accessed through the MIPS World Wide Web server (http://mips.gsf.de).
A complete sensor-based system to navigate through a cluttered environment

This article deals with the autonomous navigation problem of a mobile robot in a cluttered environment. We propose to have a different perspective than the traditional way of splitting the problem into two categories: the map-based ones and the mapless ones. Here we divide navigation systems into six processes: perception, modeling, localization, planning, action and decision. Then we present how those processes are organized into an architecture to perform a navigation. It is shown that this framework embraces any navigation system proposed in the literature and how it allows to create new combination of processes. We then detail our solution to the problem which mainly consists in coupling sensor-based controllers with a topological map. Moreover we present the used tools that we have developed over the last years as well as the ones from the literature. Finally we present experimentation results of a long-range navigation based on the proposed approach where a robot drives through an environement despite of occlusions and possible collisions due to obstacles.
Stress Response Caused by System Response Time when Searching for Information on the Internet

System response time (SRT) is suspected to be a stress-inducing factor when searching for information during human-computer interactions. In this study 26 volunteers, grouped into skilled and unskilled Internet users, completed three tasks of searching for information on the Internet, whereupon they rated their strain. Heart rate, nonspecific skin conductance responses, and skin conductance level after SRTs lasting 2, 10, and 22 s were analyzed. Results showed physiological stress responses of higher heart rates and enhanced electrodermal activity related to SRT duration, independent of expertise. For persons experiencing high strain, a higher overall heart rate and a heart rate of 114 beats per minute were observed for the 22-s condition. As no significant effect of expertise on stress response was found, this indicates that no long-term habituation took place. To avoid stress, short SRTs and/or effective coping mechanisms are recommended. The potential application of this research is the suggestion of using a fast Internet connection to reduce the stress response.
Next generation knowledge extraction from biomedical literature with semantic big data approaches

This thesis describes the concept and implementation of a semantic text mining system for exponentially growing amounts of biomedical literature. To address these points, scalable and efficient knowledge extraction algorithms for massive ontology-based named entity recognition and large-scale graph analysis have been developed. Results show that the presented approach satisfies the requirements and hence lays the foundation for future research on massive literature-extracted knowledge networks.
Morphological interpolation and color images

This paper regards the application of interpolation tools offered by mathematical morphology to color images. The approach presented here uses the lexicographic ordering to compare values of the pixels. These comparisons are performed in a new, transformed color space-the comparative color space, which is essential with respect to the visual importance of color channels for the human perception. By combining the morphological median and the proposed approach to treatment of color images, an efficient and fully automatic method of creation of a color interpolation sequence is obtained. It enables entirely automatic creation of a morphing sequence for some types of images. However, certain classes of images contain sensitive areas. In order to control the behavior of such areas, control points are introduced. Starting from the control points and two initial images, a warped morphological median is created, which is then used instead of a simple morphological median to create a deformation sequence for the mentioned images with sensitive areas.
Research on ATI-CAL for accelerating FBP reconstruction

Accelerating CT reconstruction algorithms with general purpose GPU has attracted plenty of attention in recent years. Many researchers have studied the techniques of implement CT reconstruction algorithms on different GPUs and different code development environment to explore their capability and performance of acceleration. This work is to investigate the performance of stream computing of filtered backprojection (FBP) using an ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card. CUDA and ATI stream computing are two main platforms in the field of high performance computing with general purpose GPU. ATI has released a set of development toolkits including a high-level brook+ based on C/C++ and a low-level Compute Abstraction Layer (CAL). We have investigated the performance of Brook+ in our former work. Here, we study the performance of ATI-CAL in the acceleration of CT reconstruction algorithm, and compare it with other GPGPU techniques.