Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Student-Directed Transition Planning With a Computer-Based Reading Support Program on the Self-Determination of Students With Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of student-directed transition planning instruction (Whose Future Is It Anyway? curriculum) with a computer-based reading support program (Rocket Reader) on the self-determination, self-efficacy and outcome expectancy, and transition planning knowledge of students with disabilities. This study employed a pre- and postmeasure design with 168 middle school students with disabilities who were assigned to an experimental group (n = 86) and control group (n = 82). The results of the study demonstrated that self-determination, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy for education planning improved through the application of Rocket Reader . Avenues are discussed for promoting middle school students’ self-determination in their transition planning, as are implications for future research.
System design methodologies for a wireless security processing platform

Security protocols are critical to enabling the growth of a wide range of wireless data services and applications. However, they impose a high computational burden that is mismatched with the modest processing capabilities and battery resources available on wireless clients. Bridging the security processing gap, while retaining sufficient programmability in order to support a wide range of current and future security protocol standards, requires the use of novel system architectures and design methodologies. We present the system-level design methodology used to design a programmable security processor platform for next-generation wireless handsets. The platform architecture is based on (i) a configurable and extensible processor that is customized for efficient domain-specific processing, and (ii) layered software libraries implementing cryptographic algorithms that are optimized to the hardware platform. Our system-level design methodology enables the efficient co-design of optimal cryptographic algorithms and an optimized system architecture. It includes novel techniques for algorithmic exploration and tuning, performance characterization and macro-modeling of software libraries, and architecture refinement based on selection of instruction extensions to accelerate performance-critical, computation-intensive operations.
Ectopic expression of tyrosine hydroxylase in the pigmented epithelium rescues the retinal abnormalities and visual function common in albinos in the absence of melanin

Albino mammals have profound retinal abnormalities, including photoreceptor deficits and misrouted hemispheric pathways into the brain, demonstrating that melanin or its precursors are required for normal retinal development. Tyrosinase, the primary enzyme in melanin synthesis commonly mutated in albinism, oxidizes l‐tyrosine to l‐dopaquinone using l‐3,4‐dihydroxyphenylalanine (L‐DOPA) as an intermediate product. L‐DOPA is known to signal cell cycle exit during retinal development and plays an important role in the regulation of retinal development. Here, we have mimicked L‐DOPA production by ectopically expressing tyrosine hydroxylase in mouse albino retinal pigment epithelium cells. Tyrosine hydroxylase can only oxidize l‐tyrosine to L‐DOPA without further progression towards melanin. The resulting transgenic animals remain phenotypically albino, but their visual abnormalities are corrected, with normal photoreceptor numbers and hemispheric pathways and improved visual function, assessed by an increase of spatial acuity. Our results demonstrate definitively that only early melanin precursors, L‐DOPA or its metabolic derivatives, are vital in the appropriate development of mammalian retinae. They further highlight the value of substituting independent but biochemically related enzymes to overcome developmental abnormalities.
Designing Assessments of Learning with Technology

Abstract In this article, we describe an approach designed to assess student skills as they use information and communications technologies (ICT) to solve complex, significant, recurring academic and applied problems. We describe a Coordinated ICT Assessment Framework and its underpinnings in theory and research. We describe studies of ICT use in schools and highlight the recent Second Information Technology in Education Study: Module 2 (SITES M2) international case studies. We then offer an innovative design approach for assessing students’ performances as they employ a range of reasoning strategies to use technologies to solve academic and applied problems.
Automating Legal Research through Data Mining

The term legal research generally refers to the process of identifying and retrieving appropriate information necessary to support legal decision making from past case records. At present, the process is mostly manual, but some traditional technologies such as keyword searching are commonly used to speed the process up. But a keyword search is not a comprehensive search to cater to the requirements of legal research as the search result includes too many false hits in terms of irrelevant case records. Hence the present generic tools cannot be used to automate legal research. This paper presents a framework which was developed by combining several Text Mining techniques to automate the process overcoming the difficulties in the existing methods. Further, the research also identifies the possible enhancements that could be done to enhance the effectiveness of the framework.
Exploring intercultural competence in teacher education: A comparative study between science and foreign language teacher trainers

This study investigated the intercultural outcomes of short-term study visit programs for Foreign Language and Science teacher trainers. A mixed method including quantitative and qualitative data was used to compare the differences between the two groups’ intercultural development in terms of their study field. Fantini’s questionnaire was used for the quantitative data and as for qualitative data individual interviews were conducted. The results indicate significant differences in the formation of intercultural competence between the foreign language and science teacher trainers in terms of their study field. Outcomes will be discussed regarding the professional development of the educators in higher education. Key words: Higher education, intercultural competence, study visit.
Public events and the organization of autobiographical memory: An overview of the living‐in‐history project

In this article, we summarize a cross‐national research programme, the Living‐in‐History Project, investigating the impact of war, terrorism and natural disaster on the organization of autobiographical memory. More specifically, the aims of this project were: (a) to develop a method for assessing the impact of public events on autobiographical memory; (b) to determine whether there are systemic group differences in the relationship between these two types of knowledge; and (c) to identify factors that are present when personal memory and historical memory become intertwined. This method was used to collect data from 18 samples located in nine countries. We conclude that wars (e.g. the civil war in Bosnia; World War II) and natural disasters (e.g. the Izmit Earthquake) spawn Historically defined Autobiographic Periods (H‐DAPs), but terrorist attacks (e.g. 9/11, the Second Intifada) and nonviolent political upheaval (the fall of the Soviet Union) do not. We also conclude that autobiographical memory and historical memory are interrelated only when public events dramatically alter the fabric of daily life, for a population, for an extended period.
Optimization and evaluation of image- and signal-processing kernels on the TI C6678 multi-core DSP

Power efficiency is an important aspect in today's high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) systems. Digital signal processors (DSPs) are well known for their power efficiency and are commonly employed in embedded systems. Increasing computational demands in image- and signal-processing applications in embedded systems has led to the development of multi-core DSPs with floating-point capabilities. The TMS320C6678 is an eight-core, high-performance DSP from Texas Instruments that provides 128 GFLOPS of single-precision and 32 GFLOPS of double-precision performance under 10W of power. In this paper, we optimize and evaluate the performance of the TMS320C6678 DSP using two image-processing kernels, 2D convolution and bilinear interpolation with image rotation, and two signal-processing kernels, frequency-domain finite impulse response (FDFIR) and corner turn. Our 2D convolution results show that the performance of the TMS320C6678 is comparable to a Nvidia GeForce 295 GTX GPU and 5 times better than a quad-core Intel Xeon W3520 CPU. We achieve real-time performance for bilinear interpolation with image rotation on the TMS320C6678 for high-definition (HD) image resolution. Our performance per Watt results for FDFIR shows that the TMS320C6678 is 8.2 times better than the Nvidia Tesla C2050 GPU. For corner turn, although the raw performance of the Tesla C2050 is better than the TMS320C6678, the performance per Watt of TMS320C6678 is 1.8 times better than the Tesla C2050.
Inactivation of Bovine Pancreatic DNase by 2-Nitro-54 hiocyanobenzoic Acid

Though DNase does not contain any cysteine residues, incubation of the enzyme with 2-nitro-5-thiocyanobenzoic acid in the presence of Ca”+ at pH values above 7.5 results in an irreversible inactivation of the enzyme. The inactivation also occurs when Ca2+ is replaced by M$+, but not in their absence. Amino acid analyses after acid hydrolyses of the completely inactivated and the native enzymes show no significant differences in composition, including tryptophan and half-cystine residues. However, sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis indicates enzyme cleavage by the treatment with 2-nitro-Sthiocyanobenzoic acid. This reagent does not inactivate chymotrypsin and lysozyme, and under conditions where bovine DNase is inactivated, does not inactivate other nucleases such as ribonuclease, snake venom phosphodiesterase, and spleen acid DNase. However, it inactivates malt DNase and can, therefore, be considered a specific inhibitor of DNase I. The inactivation kinetics is pseudo-first order, resembling Michaelis-Menten, with an affinity constant of 16.7 mM. It is the cyano group, not the thionitrobenzoic acid of 2-nitro-5-thiocyanobenzoic acid that reacts to form cyano-DNase.
A Content-based Image Retrieval System Based On Convex Hull Geometry

Developments in data storage technologies and image acquisition methods have led to the assemblage of large data banks. Management of these large chunks of data in an efficient manner is a challenge. Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has emerged as a solution to tackle this problem. CBIR extracts images that match the query image from large image databases, based on the content. In this paper, a novel approach of comparing the convex hull geometry of the query image to that of the database image in terms of a relative metric which is denoted as the Convex Hull Area Ratio (CHAR) is used. The metric CHAR is the ratio of the area of the intersection of the two convex hulls to the area of their union. Convex hull shape polygon is extracted from the database images and the coordinate values are stored in the feature library. When a query image is given, the convex hull values are extracted in the same fashion. Ratio of the intersected area to union area of the two convex hulls (CHAR) are found and stored in an array. Subsequently, similarity measurement is performed and the maximum value of the CHAR indicates the closest match. Thus, the database images that are relevant to the given query image are retrieved. Scale and translational invariance have been preserved by a suitable co-ordinate transformation. The proposed CBIR technique is evaluated by querying different images and the retrieval efficiency is evaluated by determining precision-recall values for the retrieval results.
Proposal for a Version of MWMS Across Mediterranean Countries: A Validation Study in Greece, Italy, and Spain

Self-determination theory introduces a multidimensional view of motivation and explains how the different types of motivation can be promoted or hindered. Following Gagné et al. (2014), the purpose of this study was to create an abbreviated version of the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (MWMS) and to study the psychometric properties of the instrument using data from 1,035 workers from three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, and Spain). Factorial analyses indicated that the 18-item scale has the same factor structure across the three Mediterranean languages, reflecting common cultural idiosyncrasies and influences. Convergent and discriminant validity indicated that intrinsic and integrated forms of autonomous motivation had a positive relationship with job satisfaction, affective and normative commitment, prosocial behavior, perceived organizational support, job autonomy, and leader-member exchange. Controlled forms of motivation (e.g., social and material) were unrelated or negatively related to most of the variables examined, with the exception of continuance commitment (positive association). Lastly, amotivation was negatively related to all employee-related variables, except for continuance commitment. Practical implications and suggestions for the development of future research based on self-determination theory are discussed.
Student-centred learning and disciplinary enculturation: an exploration through physics

This study argues that student-centred methods in the teaching of physics can be beneficial for students’ enculturation into the discipline and into a physicist’s profession. Interviews conducted with academics and students from six master degrees in physics in three different European countries suggest that student-driven classroom activities, collaborative learning and problem-solving, or integration in research groups/projects enable students to engage in practices similar to those which are part of professional scientists’ routine. Through interactive, participative methods reminiscent of cognitive apprenticeship, students develop a range of abilities necessary in a physicist’s career: capacity of explanation, argumentation and defence of claims; analytical reasoning; capacity to critically review literature; ability to discern research paths worth pursuing; writing skills; and interpersonal skills. These give them a first taste of what it is like to be a physicist and ease their transition into a professional physics career.
Probabilistic in-network caching for information-centric networks

In-network caching necessitates the transformation of centralised operations of traditional, overlay caching techniques to a decentralised and uncoordinated environment. Given that caching capacity in routers is relatively small in comparison to the amount of forwarded content, a key aspect is balanced distribution of content among the available caches. In this paper, we are concerned with decentralised, real-time distribution of content in router caches. Our goal is to reduce caching redundancy and in turn, make more efficient utilisation of available cache resources along a delivery path. Our in-network caching scheme, called ProbCache, approximates the caching capability of a path and caches contents probabilistically in order to: i) leave caching space for other flows sharing (part of) the same path, and ii) fairly multiplex contents of different flows among caches of a shared path. We compare our algorithm against universal caching and against schemes proposed in the past for Web-Caching architectures, such as Leave Copy Down (LCD). Our results show reduction of up to 20% in server hits, and up to 10% in the number of hops required to hit cached contents, but, most importantly, reduction of cache-evictions by an order of magnitude in comparison to universal caching.
Mapping Transient, Randomly Occurring Neuropsychological Events Using Independent Component Analysis

The feasibility of mapping transient, randomly occurring neuropsychological events using independent component analysis (ICA) was evaluated in an auditory sentence-monitoring fMRI experiment, in which prerecorded short sentences of random content were presented in varying temporal patterns. The efficacy of ICA on fMRI data with such temporal characteristics was assessed by a series of simulation studies, as well as by human activation studies. The effects of contrast-to-noise ratio level, spatially varied hemodynamic response within a brain region, time lags of the responses among brain regions, and different simulated activation locations on the ICA were investigated in the simulations. Component maps obtained from the auditory sentence-monitoring experiments in each subject using ICA showed distinct activation in bilateral auditory and language cortices, as well as in superior sensorimotor cortices, consistent with previous PET studies. The associated time courses in the activated brain regions matched well to the timing of the sentence presentation, as evidenced by the recorded button-press response signals. Methods for ICA component ordering that may rank highly the components of primary interest in such experiments were developed. The simulation results characterized the performance of ICA under various conditions and may provide useful information for experimental design and data interpretation.
Analytical Study of the IEEE 802.11p MAC Sublayer in Vehicular Networks

This paper proposes an analytical model for the throughput of the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) mechanism in the IEEE 802.11p medium-access control (MAC) sublayer. Features in EDCA such as different contention windows (CW) and arbitration interframe space (AIFS) for each access category (AC) and internal collisions are taken into account. The analytical model is suitable for both basic access and the request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) access mode. Different from most of existing 3-D or 4-D Markov-chain-based analytical models for IEEE 802.11e EDCA, without computation complexity, the proposed analytical model is explicitly solvable and applies to four access categories of traffic in the IEEE 802.11p. The proposed model can be used for large-scale network analysis and validation of network simulators under saturated traffic conditions. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the accuracy of the analytical model. In addition, we investigate service differentiation capabilities of the IEEE 802.11p MAC sublayer.
Developing oral drug delivery systems using formulation by design: vital precepts, retrospect and prospects

Introduction: Over the past few decades, the domain of drug formulations has metamorphosed from the conventional tablets and capsules to advanced and intricate drug delivery systems (DDS), both temporal and spatial. Formulation development of the oral DDS, accordingly, cannot be adequately accomplished using the traditional ‘trial and error’ approaches of one variable at a time. This calls for the adoption of rational, systematized, efficient and cost-efficient strategies using ‘design of experiments (DoE)’. The recent regulatory guidelines issued by the key federal agencies to practice ‘quality by design (QbD)’ paradigms have coerced researchers in industrial milieu, in particular, to use experimental designs during drug product development. Areas covered: This review article describes these principles of DoE and QbD as applicable to drug delivery development using a more apt expression, that is, ‘formulation by design (FbD)’. The manuscript describes the overall FbD methodology along with a summary of various experimental designs and their application in formulating oral DDS. The article also acts as a ready reckoner for FbD terminologies and methodologies. Select literature and an extensive FbD case study have been included to provide the reader with a comprehensive portrayal of the FbD precept. Expert opinion: FbD is a holistic concept of formulation development aiming to design more efficacious, safe, economical and patient-compliant DDS. With the recent regulatory quality initiatives, implementation of FbD has now become an integral part of drug industry and academic research.
Effect of a multi-lead PCA approach on modified moving average method for T-wave alternans detection

Abstract T-wave alternans, a beat-to-beat re-polarization pattern variation phenomenon, plays an important role in sudden cardiac death prediction. The proposed method modifies the currently available Modified Moving Average Method (MMAM) by a multi-lead principal component analysis (PCA) approach. Application of PCA will concentrate the alternans effect, which is supposed to be distributed on multiple leads in a single derived lead. MMAM is applied to the derived lead and alternans magnitude is measured. Results are compared with MMAM, implemented by the authors and by an open source tool, TWAnalyser. The TWA Physionet/CinC 2008 Challenge Database is used for testing. Performances are measured in terms of root mean square error (rmse) and correlation coefficients. The rmse is highest for TWAnalyser results and lowest for the proposed method. While the correlation coefficient is highest for the proposed method, 0.88, that for normal MMAM is 0.73 and for TWAnalyser is 0.75. The proposed multi-lead PCA approach provides improved performance of current MMAM.
Dilemma of Empowerment: Responsibility Attribution in Prison Counseling

Prison counseling as a new intervening tool to reform inmates in China has provided a site in which inmates could have more rights to confidentiality or equality and be motivated towards positive change. In actual practice, however, there are occasions in which the police counselors do not seem to act as facilitators and helpers as they are supposed to. This paper, drawing on discursive psychology, looks into how the police counselors attribute responsibility for the problems that drive the inmate clients to the counseling by focusing on variant cases. Analysis reveals that two main discursive devices, tag questions and reformulation, are employed by the police counselors in an attempt to deflect responsibility for the problems of the inmate clients and the solution to these problems from the prison and stakeholders within the prison. Prison counseling is caught in a dilemma of empowerment.
Tension and Ampacity Monitoring System for Overhead Lines

Real-time monitoring allows the determination of the line state and the calculation of the actual rating value. The real-time monitoring systems measure sag, conductor tension, conductor temperature, or weather-related magnitudes. In this paper, a new ampacity monitoring system for overhead lines, based on the conductor tension, the ambient temperature, the solar radiation, and the current intensity is presented. The measurements are transmitted via general-packet radio service to a control center where a software program calculates the ampacity value. The system takes the creep deformation experienced by the conductors during their lifetime into account and calibrates the tension-temperature reference and the maximum-allowable temperature in order to obtain the ampacity. The system includes hardware implementation and remote-control software.
A behavioural model for sigma delta fractional PLL

This paper presents an accurate high level model for the design of sigma-delta fractional Phase locked loop (PLL) architectures. High level models provide simulation speedups of about two orders of magnitude when compared to transistor level simulation. When compared to other models present in the literature the proposed model has the advantage of having the frequency instead of phase as the output of the VCO. This approach greatly simplifies the implementation of the PLL blocks and results in an increase of the overall model performance. Several nonlinear phenomenons such as cycle slipping, spurious signals and phase noise are also accurately modelled.