Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Views of learning and a sense of community among students, paraprofessionals and parents in developing a school culture towards a professional learning community

In schools the participation of students, parents and paraprofessionals is important because it increases ownership and improves performance. Here the focus is on students’ and paraprofessionals’ learning and a sense of community when leaders try to develop a professional learning community in a new school in Iceland. An action research project lasting three-and-a-half years was used in the school. The researcher worked closely with two school leaders. Data were acquired through interviews, observations and reflections and from national assessments. Teachers and school leaders dominate the community but results show signs of the involvement of others in the school. Teachers take responsibility, seldom consulting with paraprofessionals. The students have a choice on ‘how’ and ‘when’ in learning while teachers decide ‘what’ they learn. The leaders should find a structure to involve the school aides in the teams to promote team diversity. The leaders and teams have to explore collaboration and discussion, not least with students. Leaders should involve parents in critical reflection on the school policy and increase structured and formal paths for their participation. The involvement of students in the development of the professional learning community was strengthened by the ‘Positive Discipline’ approach, which gave them an opportunity to discuss learning in a safe environment.
A recommendation model for reciprocal negotiation systems

In reciprocal selection systems such as job-seeking system, selecting a trade partner, husband/wife seeking, and some other reciprocal decisions, confronting with negotiation process and bargaining is unavoidable, and existing of a vast set of addressee alternatives, for each side of the negotiation would be waste of time and a high investment would be required for the consideration and coming to an agreement about the selection. A useful strategy for decreasing the cost of considering the alternatives would be to begin by eliminating those alternatives that do not appear to warrant further attention. This process is called `screening' and helps by allowing the decision maker to concentrate on a smaller set that (very likely) contains the best alternative. In this article we utilized the screening strategy in two-dimensional condition and to do this we suggested a mathematical approach, in a way that finally the proposed screened set to each decision makers, are the alternatives that are considerable enough in terms of the criteria and the optimality of both dimensions of decision making. By applying the two-dimensional screening, the sets to be considered and negotiated would decrease for each element and the waste of time and extra expenses for superfluous negotiation would be prevented; in this way, the productivity would increase remarkably and more optimal results would be acquired. We provided a real experiment to demonstrate the applicability of the approach.
Increased Complexity Has Its Benefits

This piece is a response to the Conway, Conway, Gornick, and Houck (2014) description of an automated method for assessing integrative complexity. It builds on the authors' 15 years of experience in automating a variety of textual analysis coding schemes including that measuring conceptual complexity and is intended to address some of the issues raised in the process of automating content analysis categories.
Studies on the serologic diagnosis of murine typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. II. Human infections.

The sera of 35 patients thought to have murine typhus or RMSF were studied by various tests and found positive by at least one of the procedures. All 35 were positive by the CF test using method 1 antigen in increased amounts, 31 were positive by the ESS test, 16 in the CF test with increased amounts of commercial antigen, 16 with method 1 antigen in the conventional amount (2 units), and 9 with the commercial antigen in the conventional amount. Thirteen cases were positive by the Weil-Felix test.
On the Persistence of Excitation in the Adaptive Estimation of Distributed Parameter Systems

Persistence of excitation is a sufficient condition for parameter convergence in a class of adaptive, or on-line, identification schemes for dynamical systems. In the case of abstract linear parabolic and hyperbolic distributed parameter systems, this condition requires that a family of bounded linear functionals be norm bounded away from zero. In general, this condition on the plant is difficult to verify. The level of persistence of excitation of the plant and its implications are considered for a simple parabolic and hyperbolic system for the purpose of gaining insight into its effect in the more general case. Its effect on the qualitative and quantitative behavior of the estimators is investigated. Numerical studies illustrating the results of the analysis are discussed.
CORRELATIONS AMONG INTERPERSONAL ATTACHMENT STYLE, AMBIVALENCE OVER EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION, AND DEPRESSIVE TENDENCIES IN TAIWANESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to explore correlations among various interpersonal attachment styles, dimensions of ambivalence over emotional expression, and depressive tendencies in first-to-fourth-year Taiwanese university students. The study included a total of 925 research subjects. The research tools used included a scale measuring interpersonal attachment styles, a questionnaire addressing ambivalence over emotional expressiveness, and a scale measuring depressive tendencies. The results revealed that (1) higher levels of insecure attachment were associated with more ambivalence over emotional expression, (2) higher levels of insecure attachment were associated with higher scores for depressive tendencies, and (3) higher levels of ambivalence over emotional expression were associated with higher scores for depressive tendencies.
Frameless optical computer-aided tracking of a microscope for otorhinology and skull base surgery.

OBJECTIVES To integrate a digitally controlled operating microscope without a laser autofocus system into a frameless optical computer-aided surgery system and to test the accuracy and usability of this system in otorhinological surgery. DESIGN Experimental study and case series. SETTING Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Inselspital, and the Maurice E. Müller Institute for Biomechanics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. PATIENTS Eight computer-aided microscopic surgical procedures were performed between January and October 2000 on patients with various diseases of the anterior and lateral skull base. RESULTS The practical accuracy of the navigated microscope on the lateral side of a cadaver skull was 2.27 +/- 0.25 mm and on the anterior side of the same skull was 2.07 +/- 0.35 mm. In all 8 cases of computer-aided microscopic surgery, no complications occurred. Clinical inaccuracy was 2 to 3 mm. CONCLUSION Integration of a low-cost, non-laser autofocus microscope into our computer-aided surgery system was successfully performed and offers surgeons the ability to combine the precise optics of the operating microscope with the localization power of a computer-aided system.
Automatic assessment of scintmammographic images using a novelty filter.

99mTc-sestamibi scintmammograms provide a powerful non-invasive means for detecting breast cancer at early stages. This paper describes an automatic method for detecting breast tumors in such mammograms. The proposed method not only detects tumors but also classifies non-tumor images as "normal" or "diffuse increased uptake" mammograms. The detection method makes use of Kohonen's "novelty filter". In this technique an orthogonal vector basis is created from a normal set of images. Test images presented to the detection method are described as a linear combination of the images in the vector basis. Assuming that the image basis is representative of normal patterns, then it can be expected that there should be no major differences between a normal test image and its corresponding linear combination image. However, if the test image presents an abnormal pattern, then it is expected that the "abnormalities" will show as the difference between the original test image and the image built from the vector basis. In other words, the existing abnormality cannot be explained by the set of normal images and comes up as a "novelty. " An important part of the proposed method are the steps taken for standardizing images before they can be used as part of the vector basis. Standardization is the keystone to the success of the proposed method, as the novelty filter is very sensitive to changes in shape and alignment.
Caching Eliminates the Wireless Bottleneck in Video-Aware Wireless Networks

Wireless video is the main driver for rapid growth in cellular data traffic. Traditional methods for network capacity increase are very costly and do not exploit the unique features of video, especially asynchronous content reuse. In this paper we give an overview of our work that proposed and detailed a new transmission paradigm exploiting content reuse and the widespread availability of low-cost storage. Our network structure uses caching in helper stations (femtocaching) and/or devices, combined with highly spectrally efficient short-range communications to deliver video files. For femtocaching, we develop optimum storage schemes and dynamic streaming policies that optimize video quality. For caching on devices, combined with device-to-device (D2D) communications, we show that communications within clusters of mobile stations should be used; the cluster size can be adjusted to optimize the tradeoff between frequency reuse and the probability that a device finds a desired file cached by another device in the same cluster. In many situations the network throughput increases linearly with the number of users, and the tradeoff between throughput and outage is better than in traditional base-station centric systems. Simulation results with realistic numbers of users and channel conditions show that network throughput can be increased by two orders of magnitude compared to conventional schemes.
Combining phase identification and statistic modeling for automated parallel benchmark generation

Parallel application benchmarks are indispensable for evaluating/optimizing HPC software and hardware. However, it is very challenging and costly to obtain high-fidelity benchmarks reflecting the scale and complexity of state-of-the-art parallel applications. Hand-extracted synthetic benchmarks are time- and labor-intensive to create. Real applications themselves, while offering most accurate performance evaluation, are expensive to compile, port, recon- figure, and often plainly inaccessible due to security or ownership concerns. This work contributes APPRIME, a novel tool for trace-based automatic parallel benchmark generation. Taking as input standard communication-I/O traces of an application’s execution, it couples accurate automatic phase identification with statistical regeneration of event parameters to create compact, portable, and to some degree reconfigurable parallel application benchmarks. Experiments with four NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and three real scientific simulation codes confirm the fidelity of APPRIME benchmarks. They retain the original applications’ performance characteristics, in particular the relative performance across platforms.
Acute effects of microcystins on the transcription of 14 glutathione S‐transferase isoforms in Wistar rat

The glutathione S‐transferases (GST) play important roles in the detoxification of microcystins (MCs). For better understanding of the responses of GST isforms to MCs exposure, informations about the effects of MCs on GSTs are necessary. In this experiment, we cloned the full length cDNA of 14 GST isoforms (GST alpha, kappa, mu, omega, pi, theta, zeta, and microsomal GST) from Wistar rat. The mRNA abundance of each rat GST isoform in the liver, kidney, and testis was analyzed by real time quantitative PCR. Multiple GST isoforms were constitutively expressed in all examined organs, but some isoforms were expressed at higher level in one organ than in others. The relative changes of the mRNA abundance in the liver, kidney, and testis of Wiatar rat i.v. injected with crude MCs extract at dose of 1LD50 were also analyzed. Generally, the expression of most GSTs in the liver and testis was suppressed while that in kidney was induced after being injected with MCs. It is suggested that the transcription of GST isoforms varied in different ways within an organ and between organs of Wistar rat exposed to MCs. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 26: 187–194, 2011.
Preparation of a Whey-Based Probiotic Product with Lactobacillus reuteri and Bifidobacterium bifidum

Summary Lactobacillus reuteri and Bifidobacterium bifidum were inoculated (2.8·10 8 and 4.7·10 8 CFU/mL, respectively) into reconstituted whey containing sucrose and pectin in order to prepare a fermented probiotic product. Inoculation levels were: 0.5, 1 o r2%f orLactobacillus reuteri and 0.5 or 1 % for Bifidobacterium bifidum. The treatment with the highest bacterial counts and sensory scores was selected and stored at 4 °C for 30 days. Microbial counts, changes in pH values, titratable acidity and both triangle test and sensory attributes were monitored on the stored product. The beverage fermented for approx. 11 h and prepared with 2 % Lactobacillus reuteri and 0.5 % Bifidobacterium bifidum met the probiotic criterion by maintaining both bacterial populations at counts greater than 10 6 CFU/mL for the whole storage period. Titratable acidity and pH values as well as sensory properties did not change appreciably during the first 14 days of storage. At the end of the storage period (30 days), slight acidification was detected, although the beverage still retained an acceptable flavour.
Suspension rheology

(a) Properties of Stokes flows (b) Solving Stokes equations (c) Motion of a single particle (d) Boundary integral formulation and the multipole expansion (e) Rheology of a dilute Stokesian suspension of spherical particles at O(φ) (f) Motion of particle pairs . hydrodynamic interactions (g) Effect of hydrodynamic interactions on the rheology of a dilute suspension (h) Motion of three or more particles . numerical simulation (i) Shear-induced diffusion
Cell saver use in obstetrics

This study is a review of our experience of using the cell saver in obstetrics. The main aim was to determine its role in decreasing the need for homologous blood transfusion. A retrospective study of patients identified as being at high risk of massive obstetric haemorrhage at the time of caesarean section during the period between July 2005 and August 2008, was undertaken. Cases were identified from our electronic database. A of 147 cases were identified. Cell saver was used in 77 (52%) of these cases. A totalof 13 units of salvaged blood were transfused successfully, saving approximately GB£1,800. Cell salvage in our practice has not been very effective due to non-availability of trained staff in emergencies and unfamiliarity of techniques, leading to poor salvage via suction. Most of our blood loss is swabbed not suctioned and lack of salvaging blood from swabs is a contributory factor.
Attention or Impletion

Over the past 20 years or so, a large body of research has provided a picture of visual attention as a flexible, mobile source of processing facilitation that can be directed intentionally or summoned involuntarily by stimuli in the environment (Nakayama & Mackeben, 1989; Posner, 1980; Yantis & Jonides, 1984). One characteristic typically attributed to attention is its acceleration of the processing of visual stimuli. For example, in the paradigm developed by Posner (1980), participants make a speeded response to a target that can appear either to the left or to the right of fixation. When the target location is precued by a brief flash, participants are faster to respond than when the precue gives no advance information about the target location, even though fixation remains central. When the target occurs in the noncued location, responses are slowed. The difference in performance between these two conditions has been taken as a measure of the effects (both costs and benefits) of focal visual attention. Laberge (1983) found evidence for a gradient of attention, with the degree of facilitation decreasing as a function of distance from the center of the attended area. Recently, another phenomenon has been proposed to demonstrate the facilitatory effects of attention (Hikosaka,
Beyond the Euler Characteristic: Approximating the Genus of General Graphs

Computing the Euler genus of a graph is a fundamental problem in graph theory and topology. It has been shown to be NP-hard by Thomassen [27] and a linear-time fixed-parameter algorithm has been obtained by Mohar [20]. Despite extensive study, the approximability of the Euler genus remains wide open. While the existence of a constant factor approximation is not ruled out, the currently best-known upper bound is a trivial O(n/g)-approximation that follows from bounds on the Euler characteristic. In this paper, we give the first non-trivial approximation algorithm for this problem. Specifically, we present a polynomial-time algorithm which given a graph G of Euler genus g outputs an embedding of G into a surface of Euler genus gO(1). Combined with the above O(n/g)-approximation, our result also implies a O(n1-α)-approximation, for some universal constant α> 0. Our approximation algorithm also has implications for the design of algorithms on graphs of small genus. Several of these algorithms require that an embedding of the graph into a surface of small genus is given as part of the input. Our result implies that many of these algorithms can be implemented even when the embedding of the input graph is unknown.
Cloning and Characterization of Sf9 Cell Lamin and the Lamin Conformational Changes during Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus Infection

At present, the details of lamina alterations after baculovirus infection remain elusive. In this study, a lamin gene in the Sf9 cell line of Spodoptera frugiperda was cloned. The open reading frame (orf) of the Sf9 lamin was 1860 bp and encoded a protein with a molecular weight of 70 kDa. A transfection assay with a red fluorescence protein (rfp)-lamin fusion protein indicated that Sf9 lamin was localized in the nuclear rim. Transmission electron microscopy observations indicated that Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) nucleocapsids may pass through the nuclear envelope. Immunofluorescence assay indicated that the lamina showed a ruffled staining pattern with the formation of invaginations in the Sf9 cells infected with AcMNPV, while it was evenly distributed at the nuclear periphery of mock-infected cells. Western blotting results indicated that the total amount of lamin in the baculovirus-infected Sf9 cells was significantly decreased compared with the mock-infected cells. These results imply that AcMNPV infection induces structural and biochemical rearrangements of lamina of Sf9 cells.
Drift Reduction For Metal-Oxide Sensor Arrays Using Canonical Correlation Regression And Partial Least Squares

The transient response of metal-oxide sensors exposed to mild odours can be oftentimes highly correlated with the behaviour of the array during the preceding wash and reference cycles. Since wash/reference gases are virtually constant overtime, variations in their transient response can be used to estimate the amount of sensor drift present in each experiment. We perform canonical correlation analysis and partial least squares to find a subset of "latent variables" that summarize the linear dependencies between odour and wash/reference responses. Ordinary least squares regression is then used to subtract these "latent variables" from the odour response. Experimental results on an odour database of four cooking spices, collected on a 10-sensor array over a period of three months, show significant improvements in predictive accuracy.
FPGA-based deep-pipelined architecture for FDTD acceleration using OpenCL

Acceleration of the FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) computation is very important for the electromagnetic simulations. Conventional FDTD acceleration methods using multicore CPUs and CPUs have the common problem of memory-bandwidth limitation due to a large amount of parallel data access. Although FPGAs have the potential to solve this problem, very long design, testing and debugging time is required to implement an architecture successfully. To solve this problem, we propose an FPGA architecture designed using C-like programming language called OpenCL (open computing language). Therefore, the design time is very small and extensive knowledge about hardware-design is not required. We implemented the proposed architecture on an FPGA and achieved over 114 GFLOPS of processing power. We also achieved more than 13 times and 4 times speed-up compared to CPU and GPU implementations respectively.
DCDS: A Real-time Data Capture and Personalized Decision Support System for Heart Failure Patients in Skilled Nursing Facilities

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Heart failure disease management can improve health outcomes for elderly community dwelling patients with heart failure. This paper describes DCDS, a real-time data capture and personalized decision support system for a Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating the Effect of a Heart Failure Disease Management Program (HF-DMP) in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF). SNF is a study funded by the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The HF-DMP involves proactive weekly monitoring, evaluation, and management, following National HF Guidelines. DCDS collects a wide variety of data including 7 elements considered standard of care for patients with heart failure: documentation of left ventricular function, tracking of weight and symptoms, medication titration, discharge instructions, 7 day follow up appointment post SNF discharge and patient education. We present the design and implementation of DCDS and describe our preliminary testing results.
All Together Now. . . This Time with Meaning: a Hierarchical Lexicon for Semantic Coordination Msc in Logic

Classically, semantic theories have assumed that words are endowed with universal, immutable meanings. This assumption is not tenable when modeling natural language dialogue; far from treating word meanings as fixed entities, linguistic agents are constantly coordinating useful semantic conventions. They disambiguate polysemous words, construct ad hoc interpretations particular to their communicatory goals, and ultimately learn new ways to use old words based on these collaborations. This thesis proposes a lexical model for dialogue semantics that supports semantic coordination. The model that is proposed employs a hierarchical lexicon to distinguish between the different kinds of shared semantic information. It is used to build a theory of semantic coordination that drives lexicosemantic learning and tends to introduce polysemy in the lexicon. The lexical model and theory of semantic coordination are formalized using Type Theory with Records, which uses feature structure-like objects to store semantic information. Finally, the thesis presents some empirical work: A corpus study on contrastive focus reduplication—one strategy for semantic coordination—confirms predictions made by the pragmatic and semantic theory presented earlier, and a signaling games simulation supports the connection between semantic coordination and polysemy that is predicted by the hierarchical lexical model.