Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using the ARCS Motivational Process in Computer-Based Instruction and Distance Education

It is one thing to design for learner motivation in a classroom setting where teachers or facilitators can respond to changes as soon as they sense them. It is a greater challenge to make self-directed learning environments responsive to the motivational requirements of learners. It requires both a systematic motivational design process that provides adequate guidelines and methods of incorporating feasible and effective motivational tactics into the environment, and knowledge of the dynamics of human motivation. The ARCS model of motivational design (Keller, 1987a, 1987b) provides a systematic, seven-step approach (Keller, 1997) to designing motivational tactics into instruction. It incorporates needs assessment based on an analysis of the target audience and existing instructional materials, supports the creation of motivational objectives and measures based on an analysis of the motivational characteristics of the learners, provides guidance for creating and selecting motivational tactics, and follows a process that integrates well with instructional design and development. The analysis of motivational needs and corresponding selection of tactics are based on four dimensions of motivation. These dimensions were derived from a synthesis of research on human motivation and are known as attention (A), relevance (R), confidence (C), and satisfaction (S), or ARCS. Numerous reports and studies have described and confirmed the validity of this model (for example, Means, Jonassen, and Dwyer, 1997; Small and Gluck, 1994; and Visser and Keller, 1990). This model has been applied to various types of learning environments, such as classroom instruction, self-paced print, computer-based instruction
Managing Psychological Depth in Adventure Programmimng

The authors describe a model of psychological depth and present some general principles that will enable adventure practitioners to manage the psychological level in the groups for which they are responsible. These principles call for the leader to pay attention to their language and the language of group participants. In particular, attention should be paid to four main criteria. The first of these criteria is an indication of the way in which the participant is involved in the topic under discussion. The second criterion is derived from paying attention to the nature of relationships that are embedded in the participant's conversation. The third criterion is the level of emotional arousal experienced by the participant; no involvement indicating shallow psychological levels and stronger emotional arousal indicating increasing depth. The fourth criterion for assessing psychological depth is a measure of the normal bounds of confidentiality and privacy with which the subject under discussion would normally be treated.
Data Cleaning by Deep Dictionary Learning

The soundness of training data is important to the performance of a learning model. However in recommender systems, the training data are usually noisy, because of the randomness nature of users’ behaviors and the sparseness of the users’ feedback towards the recommendations. In this work, we would like to propose a noise elimination model to preprocess the training data in recommender systems. We define the noise as the abnormal patterns in the users’ feedback. The proposed deep dictionary learning model tries to find the common patterns through dictionary learning. We define a dictionary through the output layer of a stacked autoencoder, so that the dictionary is represented by a deep structure and the noise in the dictionary is further filtered-out.
Assigning the Correct Word Class to Punjabi Unknown Words using CRF

Part of Speech tagging has a vital role in different fields of natural language processing. It can be defined as the process of assigning a tag or a label to a word according to its morphological or syntactical properties. The objective of this paper is to develop a POS tagger based on hybrid approach which is combination of rule based approach and CRF based approach. In this, the tagset used 36 tags which is proposed by TDIL for Indian languages.
A fuzzy logic approach to reactive navigation of behavior-based mobile robots

In this paper, a novel fuzzy logic control system is developed for reactive navigation of a behavior-based mobile robot in dynamic environments. A combination of multiple sensors is equipped to sense the obstacles near the robot, the target location and the current robot speed. A fuzzy logic system with 48 fuzzy rules is designed, which consists of three behaviors: target seeking, obstacle avoidance and barrier following. The "symmetric indecision" problem is resolved by several mandatory-turn rules, while the "dead cycle" problem is resolved by a state memory strategy. Under the control of the proposed fuzzy logic model, the mobile robot can preferably "see" the environment around, and avoid static and moving obstacles automatically. The robot can generate reasonable trajectories toward the target in various situations without suffering from the "symmetric indecision" and the "dead cycle" problems. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach are demonstrated by simulation studies.
An aspartic acid at amino acid 108 is required to rescue infectious virus after transfection of a poliovirus cDNA containing a CGDD but not SGDD amino acid motif in 3Dpol

The poliovirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (3Dpol) contains a region of homology centered around the amino acid motif YGDD (amino acids 326 to 329), which has been postulated to be involved in the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Previous studies from this laboratory have used oligonucleotide site-directed mutagenesis to substitute the tyrosine amino acid at this motif with other amino acids (S. A. Jablonski and C. D. Morrow, J. Virol. 67:373-381, 1993). The viruses recovered with 3Dpol genes with a methionine mutation also contained a second mutation at amino acid 108 resulting in a glutamic acid-to-aspartic acid change (3D-E-108 to 3D-D-108) in the poliovirus RNA polymerase. On the basis of these results, we suggested that the amino acid at position 108 might interact with the YGDD region of the poliovirus polymerase. To further investigate this possibility, we have constructed a series of constructs in which the poliovirus RNA polymerases contained a mutation at amino acid 108 (3D-E-108 to 3D-D-108) as well as a mutation in which the tyrosine amino acid (3D-Y-326) was substituted with cysteine (3D-C-326) or serine (3D-S-326). The mutant 3Dpol polymerases were expressed in Escherichia coli, and in vitro enzyme activity was analyzed. Enzymes containing the 3D-D-108 mutation with the wild-type amino acid (3D-Y-326) demonstrated in vitro enzyme activity similar to that of the wild-type enzyme containing 3D-E-108. In contrast, enzymes with the 3D-C-326 or 3D-S-326 mutation had less in vitro activity than the wild type. The inclusion of the second mutation at amino acid 3D-D-108 did not significantly affect the in vitro activity of the polymerases containing 3D-C-326 or 3D-S-326 mutation. Transfections of poliovirus cDNAs containing the substitution at amino acid 326 with or without the second mutation at amino acid 108 were performed. Consistent with previous findings, we found that transfection of poliovirus cDNAs containing the 3D-C-326 or 3D-S-326 mutation in 3Dpol did not result in the production of virus. Surprisingly, transfection of the poliovirus cDNAs containing the 3D-D-108/C-326 double mutation, but not the 3D-D-108/S-326 mutation, resulted in the production of virus. The virus obtained from transfection of polio-virus cDNAs containing 3D-D-108/C-326 mutation replicated with kinetics similar to that of the wild-type virus. RNA sequence analysis of the region of the 3Dpol containing the 3D-C-326 mutation revealed that the codon for cysteine (UGC) reverted to the codon for tyrosine (UAC). The results of these studies establish that under the appropriate conditions, poliovirus has the capacity to revert mutations within the YGDD amino acid motif of the poliovirus 3Dpol gene and further strengthen the idea that interaction between amino acid 108 and the YGDD region of 3Dpol is required for viral replication.
Photonic Crystal Cavity-Based Y Splitter for Mechano-Optical Switching

We propose a Y splitter in a two-dimensional photonic crystal with a triangular lattice of air holes suitable for mechano-optical switching. Full switching between the two output ports can be achieved at a certain wavelength owing to the presence of a resonant central cavity with well-chosen symmetry. Experimental results confirm the operation of the device and its potential as an ultracompact mechanical switch.
A Bidirectional Ring Cluster-based Peer to Peer System

File sharing and replication presents a challenging issue due to the unreliability nature of the wide area network. Peer-to-Peer systems are emerging as a new paradigm for structuring large-scale distributed systems. Different architectures of Peer-to-Peer systems, inherent with some advantages and disadvantages, have been proposed for applications such as file sharing, storage management or digital library which benefit from the cooperation between peers. This paper proposes a bidirectional ring cluster-based peer to peer system (BRCPPS) architecture which includes two parts: a bidirectional ring as backbone and some clusters connected to the ring through their cluster head nodes. The ring nodes act as lookup entry for out-cluster query. Bottom tier nodes self-organize into a Gnutella-like cluster and select one high performance node as their cluster head. Each cluster is a relatively smaller Gnutella network. The ring nodes don t act as index server of clusters and contain no files and replicas index of the cluster, but they plays an important role of transmitter for out-cluster query messages among clusters. The bidirectional ring has more reliability and ensures efficient lookup.
Mitigating congestion in wireless sensor networks

Network congestion occurs when offered traffic load exceeds available capacity at any point in a network. In wireless sensor networks, congestion causes overall channel quality to degrade and loss rates to rise, leads to buffer drops and increased delays (as in wired networks), and tends to be grossly unfair toward nodes whose data has to traverse a larger number of radio hops. Congestion control in wired networks is usually done using end-to-end and network-layer mechanisms acting in concert. However, this approach does not solve the problem in wireless networks because concurrent radio transmissions on different "links" interact with and affect each other, and because radio channel quality shows high variability over multiple time-scales. We examine three techniques that span different layers of the traditional protocol stack: hop-by-hop flow control, rate limiting source traffic when transit traffic is present, and a prioritized medium access control (MAC) protocol. We implement these techniques and present experimental results from a 55-node in-building wireless sensor network. We demonstrate that the combination of these techniques, Fusion, can improve network efficiency by a factor of three under realistic workloads.
Turning Around Five At‐Risk Elementary Schools

Abstract This article presents a description of an instructional management system called Consistency Management and its implementation in five urban elementary schools in Texas. The five schools were identified in 1986 by the Texas Education Agency as ranking in the lowest 5 percent of all elementary schools taking the state mandated Texas Education Assessment of Minimal Skills (TEAMS). An analysis of the program indicates that the five schools significantly improved their TEAMS test scores from 1985‐86 to the 1987‐1988 school year in mathematics, reading and writing. When compared to a matched set of elementary schools, the Consistency Management schools increased 17 percent in the percent passing the TEAMS while the non‐program schools decreased 2 percent in the percent passing during the 1987‐1988 school year. When the students of teachers trained in the program were compared with students of untrained teachers, based on the Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT6) and the TEAMS, the program (experimenta.
Memory reference reuse latency: Accelerated warmup for sampled microarchitecture simulation

This paper proposes to speedup sampled microprocessor simulations by reducing warmup times without sacrificing simulation accuracy. It exploiting the observation that of the memory references that precede a sample cluster, references that occur nearest to the cluster are more likely to be germane to the execution of the cluster itself. Hence, while modeling all cache and branch predictor interactions that precede a sample cluster would reliably establish their state, this is overkill and leads to long-running simulations. Instead, accurately establishing simulated cache and branch predictor state can be accomplished quickly by only modeling a subset of the memory references and control-flow instructions immediately preceding a sample cluster. Our technique measures memory reference reuse latencies (MRRLs) - the number of completed instructions between consecutive references to each unique memory location - and uses these data to choose a point prior to each cluster to engage cache hierarchy and branch predictor modeling. By starting cache and branch predictor modeling late in the pre-cluster instruction stream, we were able to reduce overall simulation running times by an average of 90.62% of the maximum potential speedup (accomplished by performing no pre-cluster warmup at all), while generating an average error in IPC of less than 1%, both relative to the IPC generated by warming up all pre-cluster cache and branch predictor interactions.
Explicit force control V.S. impedance control for micromanipulation.

This paper presents a study of different force control schemes for controlling contact during manipulation tasks at the microscale. Explicit force control and impedance control are compared in a contact transition scenario consisting of a compliant microforce sensor mounted on a microrobotic positioner, and a compliant microstructure fabricated using Silicon MEMS. A traditional double mass-spring-damper model of the overall robot is employed to develop the closed-loop force controllers. Specific differences between the two control schemes due to the microscale nature of contact are highlighted in this paper from the experimental results obtained. The limitations and tradeoffs of the two control laws at the microscale due to the presence of backlash are discussed. A simple method to deal with the pull-off force effects specific to the microscale is proposed. Future improvements of the impedance control schemes to include adaptation are discussed in order to handle objects with unknown stiffness.
Matching theory for priority-based cell association in the downlink of wireless small cell networks

The deployment of small cells, overlaid on existing cellular infrastructure, is seen as a key feature in next-generation cellular systems. In this paper, the problem of user association in the downlink of small cell networks (SCNs) is considered. The problem is formulated as a many-to-one matching game in which the users and SCBSs rank one another based on utility functions that account for both the achievable performance, in terms of rate and fairness to cell edge users, as captured by newly proposed priorities. To solve this game, a novel distributed algorithm that can reach a stable matching is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed approach yields an average utility gain of up to 65% compared to a common association algorithm that is based on received signal strength. Compared to the classical deferred acceptance algorithm, the results also show a 40% utility gain and a more fair utility distribution among the users.
Hopelessness and Suicide Proneness in U.S. and Japanese College Students

Few empirical studies have focused on the associations among suicide proneness, hopelessness, and depression cross-culturally. The current study examined the potential to determine differences in the overall expression of suicide proneness between Japanese (n = 396) as compared with U.S. (n = 417) college students. Depressive symptoms were considered as a potential mediator of the relation between hopelessness and suicide proneness in both samples of students. Preliminary analyses focused on estimates of internal consistency reliability and differential item functioning (DIF) on the measures of hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicide proneness. Results of the primary analyses revealed that Japanese students reported more suicide proneness, greater hopelessness, and higher levels of depressive symptoms than did U.S. students. As expected, hopelessness and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with suicide proneness in both cultures. Additionally, the hopelessness–suicide proneness link was significantly mediated by depressive symptoms in both samples. Implications are offered for improved identification and treatment of college students at risk of suicidal behaviors both in the United States and in Japan.
An Iterative Model Order Reduction Scheme for a Special Class of Bilinear Descriptor Systems Appearing in Constraint Circuit Simulation

We focus on interpolatory-based model order reduction for a special class of bilinear descriptor systems in the H2-optimal framework, appearing in constraint circuit simulations. The straightforward extension of the H2-optimality conditions for ODE systems to descriptor systems generically may produce an unbounded error in the H2 or H∞ norm, or both. This arises due to the inappropriate use of the polynomial part of the system. To ensure bounded error, one needs to deal with the polynomial part of the systems properly. To do so, we first transform these descriptor systems into equivalent ODE systems by means of oblique projectors, as it is widely done in the literature for linear index-2 ODEs. This enables us to employ bilinear iterative rational Krylov algorithm (B-IRKA) which provides us locally H2-optimal reducedorder systems on convergence, if it converges. Unfortunately, the direct implementation of BIRKA on equivalent ODEs requires the expensive explicit computation of the oblique projectors. Therefore, as one of our contributions, we show how to apply B-IRKA to the equivalent bilinear ODE system without an explicit computation of the projectors. We demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed technique by means of several constraint circuit examples and compare the quality of the reduced-order systems with the ones obtained by using the projection matrices determined by applying IRKA on the corresponding linear part.
Age, gender and litter‐related variation in T‐lymphocyte cytokine production in young pigs

The capacity of farm animals to produce cytokines could be an important determinant of robustness and health. From research in rodents and humans it appears that the production and the balance of T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 2 (Th2)‐type cytokines influences susceptibility to autoimmune and infectious diseases. It is known that pigs show a large variation in many immune response parameters. So far the extent of individual variation in the production of Th1‐ and Th2‐type cytokines in commercial outbred pigs has not been reported. In the current experiment we determined mRNA expression, as well as protein production of cytokines in 32 pigs from eight litters. From each litter two male and two female pigs were tested at 2, 5 and 8 weeks of age. Two Th1‐type cytokines, interleukin (IL)‐2 and interferon (IFN)‐gamma, and two Th2‐type cytokines, IL‐4 and IL‐10, were measured after phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)‐stimulation of blood mononuclear cells. Cytokine production and the Th1/Th2‐ratio were highly variable. The variation in cytokine protein production was moderately consistent across ages, i.e. pigs that produced high levels of cytokine at 2 weeks of age tended to do so as well at 5 and 8 weeks of age. Cytokine production tended to increase with age, and gilts and boars differed in their IL‐2/IL‐4 ratio. Unexpectedly, age, gender and litter effects often differed for mRNA and protein production data. We hypothesize that cytokine production is a consistent trait in pigs, especially at the protein production level. Future investigations in more animals and across a wider age range are necessary.
Sentiment analysis for short Chinese text based on character-level methods

To date, analyzing the sentiment of user-generated reviews is an important way to get timely feedbacks from customers. In order to solve the task, many semantics methods and machine learning algorithms are applied. However, most of them are based on word-level features. Segmenting a sentence into words is a much harder process in tonal languages, like Chinese and Thai, than the others, like English. Thus in this paper, we propose several methods only based on character-level features to avoid the problem. We collect reviews of three different kinds of products from the Internet as data sets, and test our methods to show the effectiveness.
Identification of GALNT14 as a novel neuroblastoma predisposition gene

Although several genes have been associated to neuroblastoma (NB) predisposition and aggressiveness, further genes are likely involved in the overall risk of developing this pediatric cancer. We thus carried out whole-exome sequencing on germline DNA from two affected second cousins and two unlinked healthy relatives from a large family with hereditary NB. Bioinformatics analysis revealed 6999 variations that were exclusively shared by the two familial NB cases. We then considered for further analysis all unknown or rare missense mutations, which involved 30 genes. Validation and analysis of these variants led to identify a GALNT14 mutation (c.802C > T) that properly segregated in the family and was predicted as functionally damaging by PolyPhen2 and SIFT. Screening of 8 additional NB families and 167 sporadic cases revealed this GALNT14 mutation in the tumors of two twins and in the germline of one sporadic NB patient. Moreover, a significant association between MYCN amplification and GALNT14 expression was observed in both NB patients and cell lines. Also, GALNT14 higher expression is associated with a worse OS in a public dataset of 88 NB samples (http://r2.amc.nl). GALNT14 is a member of the polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyl-transferase family and maps closely to ALK on 2p23.1, a region we previously discovered in linkage with NB in the family here considered. The aberrant function of GALNTs can result in altered glycoproteins that have been associated to the promotion of tumor aggressiveness in various cancers. Although rare, the recurrence of this mutation suggests GALNT14 as a novel gene potentially involved in NB predisposition.