Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Working Paper : Empirical Performance of Covariates in Education Observational Studies

Acknowledgements: The work reported herein was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education1s Institute of Education Sciences (contract ED IES 12 C 0084). However, the views expressed are the authors and do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences or the U.S. Department of Education. This paper summarizes results from 12 empirical evaluations of observational methods in education contexts. We look at the performance of three common covariate-types in education observational studies where the outcome is a standardized reading or math test. The covariate-types are: pretest measures on the outcome, local geographic matching, and rich covariate sets with a strong theory of treatment selection. Overall, the review demonstrates that although the pretest often reduces bias in observational studies, it does not always eliminate it. Its performance depends on the pretest’s correlation with treatment selection and the outcome, and whether pre-intervention trends are present. We also find that although local comparisons are prioritized for matching, its performance depends on whether comparable no-treatment cases are available. Otherwise, local comparisons may produce badly biased results. In cases where researchers have a strong theory of selection and rich covariate sets, observational methods perform well, but additional replication studies are needed. Finally, observational methods that rely on demographic covariates without a theory of selection rarely produce unbiased treatment effects. The paper concludes by offering education researchers empirically-based guidance on covariate selection in observational studies. EdPolicyWorks
Benjamin's Speculative Cultural History

Comme un nouvel avatar du conflit existant entre dogmatisme rationaliste et historicisme empirique, l'A. tente de montrer le decalage existant entre la multiplicite des sources de signification et l'experience. C'est la la source du nihilisme moderne, la fin de l'autorite fondee sur l'experience. Ce theme favori de Walter Benjamin en fonde aussi l'exigence methodologique : il s'agit d'experimenter la fin de l'experience. L'A. analyse une approche de la thematique messianique presente dans la philosophie transcendentale et speculative de W. Benjamin
Qualitative GIS: An Open Framework Using SpatiaLite and Open Source GIS

Qualitative GIS is a relatively new methodological approach for analyzing and visualizing qualitative data within a geographic context. Qualitative data can take many forms, including interviews, documents, photographs, and audio and video clips. Content analysis for example, is an effective qualitative method for analyzing text‐based data. We argue that basic concepts, (i.e. how to store data, data requirements, visualization techniques, and modes of analysis) within qualitative GIS have not been adequately defined, rendering difficult the replication of work performed and hindering the development of incremental knowledge in the field. Database management systems provide a means for storing, managing, and analyzing qualitative GIS data. A standardized and well‐designed open source database system provides a mechanism for qualitative GIS projects, ensuring consistency and project replication. Qualitative GIS data stored in a database allows for additional visualization options, such as geographic word clouds. To demonstrate the concepts we performed content analysis on Master Transportation Plans from Calgary and Montreal using SpatiaLite, an open source database system. We developed Structured Query Language (SQL) queries to generate and populate groups and theme tables within the SpatiaLite database. We present our database design and queries in the hopes that they will help others conducting qualitative GIS research.
An efficient Hough transform for multi-instance object recognition and pose estimation

Generalized Hough transform, when applied to object detection, recognition and pose estimation, can be susceptible to spurious voting depending on the Hough space to be used and hypotheses to be voted. This often necessitates additional computational steps like non-maxima suppression and geometric consistency checks, which can be costly and prevent voting based methods from being precise and scalable for large numbers of target classes and crowded scenes. In this paper, we propose an efficient and refined Hough transform for simultaneous detection, recognition and exact pose estimation, which can efficiently accommodate up to multiple tens of co-visible query instances and multiple thousands of visually similar classes. Specifically, we match SURF features from a given query image to a database of model features with known poses, and in contrast to existing techniques, for each matched pair, we analytically compute a concise set of 6 degrees-of-freedom pose hypotheses, for which the geometric relationship of the correspondence remains invariant. We also introduce an indirect but equivalent representation for those correspondence-specific poses, termed as feature aligning affine transformations, which results in a Hough voting scheme as cheap and refined as line drawing in raster grids. Owing to minimized voting redundancy, we can obtain a very sparse and stable Hough image, which can be readily used to read off instances and poses without dedicated steps of non-maxima suppression and geometric verification. Experimented on an extensive Grocery Products dataset, our method significantly outperforms the sate-of-the-art with near real time overall cost.
A Novel Role of Cytosolic Protein Synthesis Inhibition in Aminoglycoside Ototoxicity

Ototoxicity is a main dose-limiting factor in the clinical application of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Despite longstanding research efforts, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying aminoglycoside ototoxicity remains limited. Here we report the discovery of a novel stress pathway that contributes to aminoglycoside-induced hair cell degeneration. Modifying the previously developed bioorthogonal noncanonical amino acid tagging method, we used click chemistry to study the role of protein synthesis activity in aminoglycoside-induced hair cell stress. We demonstrate that aminoglycosides inhibit protein synthesis in hair cells and activate a signaling pathway similar to ribotoxic stress response, contributing to hair cell degeneration. The ability of a particular aminoglycoside to inhibit protein synthesis and to activate the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway correlated well with its ototoxic potential. Finally, we report that a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug known to inhibit ribotoxic stress response also prevents JNK activation and improves hair cell survival, opening up novel strategies to prevent and treat aminoglycoside ototoxicity.
A Phase I study to characterize the multiple-dose pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety of new enteric-coated triflusal formulations in healthy male volunteers

Objectives: An enteric-coated formulation of triflusal (triflusal EC), an antiplatelet agent, was developed to reduce the high incidence of gastrointestinal adverse events (AEs). The aim of this study is to compare the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety of triflusal EC with triflusal in healthy Korean male subjects to determine bioequivalence and non-inferiority for the purposes of marketing approval. Methods: A randomized, open-label, two-period, crossover study was conducted in 38 subjects. Either triflusal EC or triflusal was administered orally as a single 900 mg loading dose (day 1) followed by eight 600 mg/day maintenance doses on days 2 – 9, with a 13-day washout period. The plasma concentrations of 2-hydroxy-4-trifluoromethyl benzoic acid (HTB), the predominant active metabolite of triflusal, were assessed after administration of the loading dose, using HPLC/MS/MS. The platelet aggregation response to arachidonic acid was determined using turbidimetric aggregometry. Results: The 90% CIs, for the geometric mean ratios of the log-transformed AUCτ and Cmax of HTB were seen to be within the predetermined range of 0.8 – 1.25. Triflusal EC was also shown to be non-inferior in its anti-aggregatory effect. No serious AEs were reported during this study. Conclusions: The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of the two triflusal formulations met the requirements for bioequivalence and non-inferiority, respectively. Both formulations were well tolerated.
Estimation of Toothpaste Fluoride In take in Preschoo l Ch i ldren

children aged 2 to 6 years (n=87) treated at a hospital of a medium-sized city (Campina Grande, PB) in the Northeastern region of Brazil. Data regarding sociodemographic characteristics of families and children’s toothbrushing were collected from questionnairebased interviews with parents/guardians, and the amount of fluoride used during toothbrushing was estimated using a precision scale for assessment of the risk of dental fluorosis, considering a cutoff value of 0.07 mgF/kg body weight/day. Fluoride content in the toothpastes was analyzed using a specific fluoride electrode. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using the chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests (a=0.05). Considering the use of the dentifrice, the risk of fluorosis in the children was 19.5%. There was significant association (p<0.05) between the risk of fluorosis, brushing frequency, type of dentifrice and who performed the child’s oral hygiene. It was concluded that a high percentage of children in the studied sample used toothpaste inappropriately and were at risk of developing dental fluorosis. Estimation of Toothpaste Fluoride In take in Preschoo l Ch i ldren
MEASURING THE GEOMETRY OF THE UNIVERSE FROM WEAK GRAVITATIONAL LENSING BEHIND GALAXY GROUPS IN THE HST COSMOS SURVEY

Gravitational lensing can provide pure geometric tests of the structure of spacetime, for instance by determining empirically the angular diameter distance–redshift relation. This geometric test has been demonstrated several times using massive clusters which produce a large lensing signal. In this case, matter at a single redshift dominates the lensing signal, so the analysis is straightforward. It is less clear how weaker signals from multiple sources at different redshifts can be stacked to demonstrate the geometric dependence. We introduce a simple measure of relative shear which for flat cosmologies separates the effect of lens and source positions into multiplicative terms, allowing signals from many different source–lens pairs to be combined. Applying this technique to a sample of groups and low-mass clusters in the COSMOS survey, we detect a clear variation of shear with distance behind the lens. This represents the first detection of the geometric effect using weak lensing by multiple, low-mass groups. The variation of distance with redshift is measured with sufficient precision to constrain the equation of state of the universe under the assumption of flatness, equivalent to a detection of a dark energy component ΩX at greater than 99% confidence for an equation-of-state parameter −2.5 ⩽ w ⩽ −0.1. For the case w = −1, we find a value for the cosmological constant density parameter ΩΛ = 0.85+0.044−0.19 (68% CL) and detect cosmic acceleration (q0 < 0) at the 98% CL. We consider the systematic uncertainties associated with this technique and discuss the prospects for applying it in forthcoming weak-lensing surveys.
The Task-based Teaching of Writing to Big Classes in Chinese EFL Setting

This paper explores how to teach English writing to big classes in China from the task-based perspective. Based on a comparison between the traditional 3Ps approach and the tasked-based approach, the paper proposes a practical linear procedure as to how to teach English writing in the task-based classroom to big classes. An empirical study is conducted in the form of questionnaires to test the effectiveness of this task-based procedure to foreign language writing in the Chinese EFL setting. Results show that the task-based approach is effective to teach big classes English writing, as it deepens students’ understanding of the task-based approach and enhances various aspects of writing. However, there are several factors calling for future attention, such as teachers’ roles, monitoring and evaluation in the practice of task-based instruction. It is hoped that this proposed procedure of task-based approach can serve as an inspiration for other foreign language teachers and stimulate more studies in task-based learning and teaching.
Cross-domain Text Classification through Iterative Refining of Target Categories Representations

Cross-domain text classification deals with predicting topic labels for documents in a target domain by leveraging knowledge from pre-labeled documents in a source domain, with different terms or different distributions thereof. Methods exist to address this problem by re-weighting documents from the source domain to transfer them to the target one or by finding a common feature space for documents of both domains; they often require the combination of complex techniques, leading to a number of parameters which must be tuned for each dataset to yield optimal performances. We present a simpler method based on creating explicit representations of topic categories, which can be compared for similarity to the ones of documents. Categories representations are initially built from relevant source documents, then are iteratively refined by considering the most similar target documents, with relatedness being measured by a simple regression model based on cosine similarity, built once at the begin. This expectedly leads to obtain accurate representations for categories in the target domain, used to classify documents therein. Experiments on common benchmark text collections show that this approach obtains results better or comparable to other methods, obtained with fixed empirical values for its few parameters.
The influence of motivation and attentional style on affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes of an exercise class

Exercise classes are a popular form of physical activity. A greater understanding of the individual difference factors that might influence the outcomes of such classes could help to minimize the high dropout rates associated with exercise. The study explored the effects of dominant attentional style and degree of self‐determination on affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes following structured exercise classes. Data from 417 female participants revealed that those with a dominant attentional style for association (Associators) reported significantly (P < 0.05) more positive affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes than did Dissociators, and were more self‐determined. Highly self‐determined individuals reported the most positive outcomes. Almost 29% of the variance in participants' affective valence could be explained by Dissociators' behavioral regulations. Results lend support to the notion that attentional style is associated with motivation. The combination of attentional style and degree of self‐determination appear to be noteworthy individual difference factors that influence responses to exercise classes and could thus have a bearing on long‐term exercise adherence.
Smad2 and 3 Mediate Transforming Growth Factor-β1-Induced Inhibition of Chondrocyte Maturation* *The work was supported by National Health Services Grant AR-38945 (to R.J.O.) and an Orthopaedic Research Education Foundation Award (to C.M.F.).

Transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b) is a multifunctional regulator of a variety of cellular functions, including proliferation, differentiation, matrix synthesis, and apoptosis. In growth plate chondrocytes, TGF-b slows the rate of maturation. Because the current paradigm of TGF-b signaling involves Smad proteins as downstream regulators of target genes, we have characterized their role as mediators of TGF-b effects on chondrocyte maturation. Both Smad2 and 3 translocated to the nucleus upon TGF-b1 signaling, but not upon BMP-2 signaling. Cotransfection experiments using the TGF-b responsive and Smad3 sensitive p3TP-Lux luciferase reporter demonstrated that wild-type Smad3 potentiated, whereas dominant negative Smad3 inhibited TGF-b1 induced luciferase activity. To confirm the role of Smad2 and 3 as essential mediators of TGF-b1 effects on chondrocyte maturation, we overexpressed both wild-type and dominant negative Smad2 and 3 in virally infected chondrocyte cultures. Overexpression of both wildtype Smad2 and 3 potentiated the inhibitory effect of TGF-b on chondrocyte maturation, as determined by colx and alkaline phosphatase activity, whereas dominant negative Smad2 and 3 blocked these effects. Wild-type and dominant negative forms of Smad3 had more pronounced effects than Smad2. Our results define Smad2 and 3 as key mediators of the inhibitory effect of TGF-b1 signaling on chondrocyte maturation. (Endocrinology 141: 4728 ‐ 4735, 2000)
Pyrazinamidase activity as a phenotypic marker for several Aeromonas spp. isolated from clinical specimens

Negative pyrazinamidase activity was significantly associated with Aeromonas sobria, and positive pyrazinamidase activity was associated with A. hydrophila and A. caviae (chi 2, P less than 0.0001). The absence of pyrazinamidase activity may be a potentially significant phenotypic marker for A. sobria.
Investigating changes in resting-state connectivity from functional MRI data in patients with HIV associated neurocognitive disorder using MCA and machine learning

Infection of the brain by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes irreversible damage to the synaptic connections resulting in cognitive impairment. Patients with HIV infection, showing signs of impairment in multiple cognitive domains, as assessed by neuropsychological testing, are said to exhibit symptoms of HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND). In this study, we use resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) data to distinguish between healthy subjects and subjects with symptoms of HAND. To this end, we first establish a measure of interaction between pairs of regional time-series by quantifying their non-linear functional connectivity using Mutual Connectivity Analysis (MCA). Subsequently, we use a classifier to distinguish patterns of interaction between healthy and diseased individuals. Our results, quantified as the mean Area under the ROC curve (AUC) over 75 iterations, indicate that, using fMRI data, we can discriminate between the two cohorts well (AUC > 0.8). Specifically, we find that MCA (mean AUC = 0.89) based connectivity features perform significantly better (p < 0.05) when compared to cross-correlation (mean AUC = 0.82) at the classification task. A higher AUC using our approach suggests that such a nonlinear approach is better able to capture connectivity changes between brain regions and has potential for the development of novel neuro-imaging biomarkers.
Imprecisión e incertidumbre en el modelo multidimensional: aplicación a la minería de datos

La utilizacion de la tecnologia OLAP en nuevos campos de conocimiento y el uso de fuentes de datos no estructuradas han hecho que surjan nuevos requerimientos sobre los modelos a utilizar en la definicion de los datacubos, Se hace necesaria la utilizacion de estructuras flexibles que permitan modelar y trabajar sobre la imprecision resultante de la integracion. Una fuente interesante de la informacion serian los datos proporcionados por expertos para enriquecer los analisis. Normalmente esta informacion vendra dada de forma vaga. En estos sistemas tambien se suelen integrar tecnicas de mineria de datos para enriquecer las posibilidades de obtencion de informacion de cara al usuario. Estas tecnicas deberan ser capaces tambien de trabajar sobre la imprecision de estos datos. Lo que proponemos en esta tesis es, por un lado, un modelo multidimensional el cual mediante la utilizacion de la logica difusa permite la representacion y manejo de informacion imprecisa. Para ello permite tanto de definicion de hechos difusos como la utilizacion de jerarquias difusas para relacionar los conceptos considerados. De esta manera se pueden representar conceptos mas cercanos al usuario. Pero es posible que la imprecision no solo surja al definir los conceptos sino tambien las relaciones entre ellos. Para ayudar en estos casos, el modelo permite definir las relaciones jerarquicas mediante la utilizacion de etiquetas linguisticas, permitiendo al experto proporcionarlas mediante el uso de expresiones linguisticas. Este modelo se ha dotado de las operaciones habituales sobre datacubos. Para aislar al usuario de la complejidad anadida, la estructura propuesta se ha envuelto mediante la utilizacion de operadores de resumen difuso, de tal manera que el usuario accede a la informacion de una manera mas intuitiva. Para demostrar su aplicacion se han construido tres datacubos sobre datos reales tomados de intervenciones quir
Secrecy performance of MIMO wiretap channels with Nakagami-m antenna correlation

Secrecy performance based on TAS/MRC scheme with Nakagami-m antenna correlation was investigated in MIMO wiretap channels. New closed-form expressions of the exact secrecy outage probability and the probability of positive secrecy were presented. For further insights, the asymptotic secrecy outage probability in the high SNR region was also derived. It is confirmed that antenna correlation has no effects on diversity order. Most importantly, we concluded that higher antenna correlation at receiver offers more beneficial effects on secrecy performance when average SNR of the main channel is at low level, but it imposes more detrimental effects when average SNR of the main channel is at medium and high level. Finally, we provide Monte Carlo simulations to verify the analytical results.
Infection and Cellular Defense Dynamics in a Novel 17β-Estradiol Murine Model of Chronic Human Group B Streptococcus Genital Tract Colonization Reveal a Role for Hemolysin in Persistence and Neutrophil Accumulation

Genital tract carriage of group B streptococcus (GBS) is prevalent among adult women; however, the dynamics of chronic GBS genital tract carriage, including how GBS persists in this immunologically active host niche long term, are not well defined. To our knowledge, in this study, we report the first animal model of chronic GBS genital tract colonization using female mice synchronized into estrus by delivery of 17β-estradiol prior to intravaginal challenge with wild-type GBS 874391. Cervicovaginal swabs, which were used to measure bacterial persistence, showed that GBS colonized the vaginal mucosa of mice at high numbers (106–107 CFU/swab) for at least 90 d. Cellular and histological analyses showed that chronic GBS colonization of the murine genital tract caused significant lymphocyte and PMN cell infiltrates, which were localized to the vaginal mucosal surface. Long-term colonization was independent of regular hormone cycling. Immunological analyses of 23 soluble proteins related to chemotaxis and inflammation showed that the host response to GBS in the genital tract comprised markers of innate immune activation including cytokines such as GM-CSF and TNF-α. A nonhemolytic isogenic mutant of GBS 874391, Δcyle9, was impaired for colonization and was associated with amplified local PMN responses. Induction of DNA neutrophil extracellular traps, which was observed in GBS-infected human PMNs in vitro in a hemolysin-dependent manner, appeared to be part of this response. Overall, this study defines key infection dynamics in a novel murine model of chronic GBS genital tract colonization and establishes previously unknown cellular and soluble defense responses to GBS in the female genital tract.