Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The question of access and design – Elin and Hassan walk the line of the four resources model

This article focuses on the question of access and design in literacy education. Drawing on an ethnographical study, two children’s experiences of texts1 and socialisation in relation to literacy are mirrored through the Four Resources Model (Luke & Freebody, 1999). What does access and design mean in relation to this model and how is it manifested through the perspectives of Elin and Hassan? The empirical findings indicate that the text resources distributed in school are limited and that more possibilities for meaning and identity making through texts related to own experiences – and differences – are needed. It is concluded that the paradox of access to dominant forms of literacies as well as new alternatively literacies is not a question of either-or, but the complex core of a dialogical, dialectical and democratic literacy education where the possibilities of design in order to re-write and re-read the world are necessary and crucial.
Effects of different frequencies of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on venous vascular reactivity

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a type of therapy used primarily for analgesia, but also presents changes in the cardiovascular system responses; its effects are dependent upon application parameters. Alterations to the cardiovascular system suggest that TENS may modify venous vascular response. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of TENS at different frequencies (10 and 100 Hz) on venous vascular reactivity in healthy subjects. Twenty-nine healthy male volunteers were randomized into three groups: placebo (n=10), low-frequency TENS (10 Hz, n=9) and high-frequency TENS (100 Hz, n=10). TENS was applied for 30 min in the nervous plexus trajectory from the superior member (from cervical to dorsal region of the fist) at low (10 Hz/200 μs) and high frequency (100 Hz/200 μs) with its intensity adjusted below the motor threshold and intensified every 5 min, intending to avoid accommodation. Venous vascular reactivity in response to phenylephrine, acetylcholine (endothelium-dependent) and sodium nitroprusside (endothelium-independent) was assessed by the dorsal hand vein technique. The phenylephrine effective dose to achieve 70% vasoconstriction was reduced 53% (P<0.01) using low-frequency TENS (10 Hz), while in high-frequency stimulation (100 Hz), a 47% increased dose was needed (P<0.01). The endothelium-dependent (acetylcholine) and independent (sodium nitroprusside) responses were not modified by TENS, which modifies venous responsiveness, and increases the low-frequency sensitivity of α1-adrenergic receptors and shows high-frequency opposite effects. These changes represent an important vascular effect caused by TENS with implications for hemodynamics, inflammation and analgesia.
Gamification of online idea competitions: insights from an explorative case

The implementation of game mechanics (like points or leadersboards) in a serious context is called “gamification”. In this explorative analysis of a single case participants of an online idea competition were asked about their motives for participation, flow, enjoyment, task involvement and their perception of game mechanics with respect to flow, enjoyment and task involvement. The results indicate that game mechanics may be a solution to address the main challenges of online idea competitions. However, the analyzed case illustrates also that if game mechanics are applied inadequately and unsophisticatedly they are not able to unfold their potential.
Antitrypanosomal Activities and Mechanisms of Action of Novel Tetracyclic Iridoids from Morinda lucida Benth.

ABSTRACT Trypanosoma brucei parasites are kinetoplastid protozoa that devastate the health and economic well-being of millions of people in Africa through the disease human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). New chemotherapy has been eagerly awaited due to severe side effects and the drug resistance issues plaguing current drugs. Recently, there has been an emphasis on the use of medicinal plants worldwide. Morinda lucida Benth. is a popular medicinal plant widely distributed in Africa, and several research groups have reported on the antiprotozoal activities of this plant. In this study, we identified three novel tetracyclic iridoids, molucidin, ML-2-3, and ML-F52, from the CHCl3 fraction of M. lucida leaves, which possess activity against the GUTat 3.1 strain of T. brucei brucei. The 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of molucidin, ML-2-3, and ML-F52 were 1.27 μM, 3.75 μM, and 0.43 μM, respectively. ML-2-3 and ML-F52 suppressed the expression of paraflagellum rod protein subunit 2, PFR-2, and caused cell cycle alteration, which preceded apoptosis induction in the bloodstream form of Trypanosoma parasites. Novel tetracyclic iridoids may be promising lead compounds for the development of new chemotherapies for African trypanosomal infections in humans and animals.
An efficiency Bayesian unit root test in Unobserved-ARCH models

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the new prior distribution on the Unobserved-Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARCH) unit root test. Monte Carlo simulations show that the sample size is seriously effective in efficiency of Bayesian test. To improve the performance of Bayesian test for unit root, we propose a new Bayesian test that is robust in the presence of stationary and nonstationary Unobserved-ARCH. The finite sample property of the proposed test statistic is evaluated using Monte Carlo studies. Applying the developed method, we test the policy of daily exchange rate of the German Marc with respect to the Greek Drachma.
Recent Improvements in the CMU Spoken Language Understanding System

We have been developing a spoken language system to recognize and understand spontaneous speech. It is difficult for such systems to achieve good coverage of the lexicon and grammar that subjects might use because spontaneous speech often contains disfluencies and ungrammatical constructions. Our goal is to respond appropriately to input, even though coverage is not complete. The natural language component of our system is oriented toward the extraction of information relevant to a task, and seeks to directly optimize the correctness of the extracted information (and therefore the system response). We use a flexible frame-based parser, which parses as much of the input as possible. This approach leads both to high accuracy and robustness. We have implemented a version of this system for the Air Travel Information Service (ATIS) task, which is being used by several ARPA-funded sites to develop and evaluate speech understanding systems. Users are asked to perform a task that requires getting information from an Air Travel database. In this paper, we describe recent improvements in our system resulting from our efforts to improve the coverage given a limited amount of training data. These improvements address a number of problems including generating an adequate lexicon and grammar for the recognizer, generating and generalizing an appropriate grammar for the parser, and dealing with ambiguous parses.
Conditions for Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems With Time-Delays and Uncertain Switching Topology

This paper proposes a new approach for the analysis of consensus of multi-agent systems subject to time-varying delayed control inputs and switching topology. The main contribution is a condition for consensus for a networked system based on linear matrix inequalities that takes into account the joint effect of time-varying delays and switching network topology. Topology changes are modeled using Markov jumps with uncertain rates of transitions. A practical example is shown to illustrate the main result in various scenarios.
Modulation of melatonin receptors and G‐protein function by microtubules

Abstract: Chronic melatonin exposure produces microtubule rearrangements in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells expressing the human MT1 melatonin receptor while at the same time desensitizing MT1 receptors. Because microtubule rearrangements parallel MT1 receptor desensitization, we tested whether microtubules modulate receptor responsiveness. We determined whether depolymerization of microtubules by Colcemid, which prevents melatonin‐induced outgrowths in MT1‐expressing CHO cells, also prevents MT1 receptor desensitization by affecting G‐GTP exchange on G‐proteins. In this study, we found that depolymerization of microtubules in MT1 receptor expressing cells, prevented melatonin‐induced receptor desensitization reflected by an increase in the number of high potency sites when compared with melatonin‐treated cells. Further examination of the mechanism(s) underlying this desensitization suggested that these effects occurred at the level of G‐proteins. Depolymerization of microtubules during melatonin‐induced desensitization, attenuated forskolin‐induced cAMP accumulation, the opposite of which usually occurs following melatonin exposure alone. Concomitant to this attenuation in the forskolin response was a reduction in the amount of Giα protein coupled to MT1 receptors and an increase in [32P] azidoanilido GTP incorporation into Gi proteins. These data are consistent with the findings that microtubule depolymerization did not affect MT1/Gq coupling nor did it affect melatonin‐induced phosphoinositide hydrolysis following melatonin exposure. However, interestingly, microtubule depolymerization enhanced melatonin‐induced protein kinase C activation that was blocked in the presence of pertussis toxin. These data demonstrate that microtubule dynamics can modulate melatonin receptor function through their actions on Gi proteins and impact on downstream signaling cascades.
Viral Replicase Gene Products Suffice for Coronavirus Discontinuous Transcription

ABSTRACT We have used vaccinia virus as a vector to clone a 22.5-kbp cDNA that represents the 5′ and 3′ ends of the human coronavirus 229E (HCoV 229E) genome, the HCoV 229E replicase gene, and a single reporter gene (coding for green fluorescent protein [GFP]) located downstream of a regulatory element for coronavirus mRNA transcription. When RNA transcribed from this cDNA was transfected into BHK-21 cells, a small percentage of cells displayed strong fluorescence. A region of the mRNA encoding GFP was amplified by PCR and shown to have the unique mRNA leader-body junction indicative of coronavirus-mediated transcription. These data show that the coronavirus replicase gene products suffice for discontinuous subgenomic mRNA transcription.
CMIR: A Corpus for Evaluation of Code Mixed Information Retrieval of Hindi-English Tweets

Social media has become almost ubiquitous in present times. Such proliferation leads to automatic information processing need and has various challenges. The nature of social media content is mostly informal. Additionally while talking about Indian social media, users often prefer to use Roman transliterations of their native languages and English embedding. Therefore Information retrieval (IR) on such Indian social media data is a challenging and difficult task when the documents and the queries are a mixture of two or more languages written in either the native scripts and/or in the Roman transliterated form. Here in this paper we have emphasized issues related with Information Retrieval (IR) for Code-Mixed Indian social media texts, particularly texts from twitter. We describe a corpus collection process, reported limitations of available state-of-the-art IR systems on such data and formalize the problem of Code-Mixed Information Retrieval on informal texts.
Advances in Remote Sensing of Agriculture: Context Description, Existing Operational Monitoring Systems and Major Information Needs

Many remote sensing applications are devoted to the agricultural sector. Representative case studies are presented in the special issue "Advances in Remote Sensing of Agriculture". To complement the examples published within the special issue, a few main applications with regional to global focus were selected for this review, where remote sensing contributions are traditionally strong. The selected applications are put in the context of the global challenges the agricultural sector is facing: minimizing the environmental impact, while increasing production and productivity. Five different applications have been selected, which are illustrated and described: (1) biomass and yield estimation, (2) vegetation vigor and drought stress monitoring, (3) assessment of crop phenological development, (4) crop acreage estimation and cropland mapping and (5) mapping of disturbances and land use/land cover (LULC) changes. Many other applications exist, such as precision agriculture and irrigation management (see other special issues of this journal), but were not included to keep the paper concise. The paper starts with an overview of the main agricultural challenges. This section is followed by a brief overview of existing operational monitoring systems. Finally, in the main part of the paper, the mentioned applications are described and illustrated. The review concludes with some key recommendations.
Methyl 4-anilino-2′,5-dioxo-1′,2′-dihydro-5H-spiro[furan-2,3′-indole]-3-carboxylate

In the title compound, C19H14N2O5, the spiro junction links an oxindole moeity and a furan ring, which subtend a dihedral angle of 83.49 (6)°. The molecular structure features an N—H⋯O hydrogen bond, which generates an S(6) ring motif. The crystal packing is governed by two N—H⋯O interactions, one of which generates a centrosymmetric R 2 2(14) dimer. The other N—H⋯O interaction along with a C—H⋯O hydrogen bond contributes to the formation of a C 2 2[R 2 2(9)] dimeric chain running along the b-axis direction.
A 5 Gb/s Transmitter With a TDR-Based Self-Calibration of Preemphasis Strength

This brief presents a differentially terminated CML transmitter with a self-calibration scheme based on time-domain reflectometry for preemphasis strength control. Without any handshaking or receiver mode control, the transmitter measures the time of flight by applying the same step input on the two transmission lines of the differential link. Since the receiver does not change its configuration, the proposed scheme greatly simplifies the preemphasis adaptation. To verify the calibration scheme, the proposed transmitter is fabricated in a 0.18 ¿m- CMOS. For various lengths of the microstrip line on the printed circuit board up to 80 cm, the tested transmitter greatly improves signal integrity and shows clear eye diagrams at 5 Gb/s.
MMC05-6: PACA: Peer-Assisted Channel Assignment for Home Wireless LANs

A home network is a residential local area network, in which users are networking their PCs, laptops or wireless multimedia appliances to use a single residential access point (AP) or gateway connecting to the Internet. As network-capable appliances continue to gain momentum in the home, home networks are becoming increasingly popular. The problem arising from the increasing number of "wireless home" is the interference introduced from neighbor's home networks which leads to throughput dropped precipitously. This problem is different from the traditional channel assignment problem in WLAN. We are considering how home wireless network can self-configure its operating channel to minimize interference with other networks instead of how network administrator assigns channel to different APs. In this paper, we propose a peer-assisted channel assignment algorithm, termed PACA, for home wireless LAN based on local information. A newly power on AP automatically configures itself to operate on a channel with least interference. Mobile node helps other APs to do channel assignment and switching dynamically by providing traffic load information. Our simulation and experimental measurements show that the algorithm reduces interference among different networks and improves user throughput.
Adaptive nonlinear path following method for fix-wing micro aerial vehicle

– The purpose of this paper is to present an adaptive controller of nonlinear path following for a fix‐wing micro‐aerial‐vehicle (MAV) in flight. The adaptive controller discussed in this work was able to successfully complete the flight tasks in complicated terrain, with improved trajectory tracking precision and flight quality. , – The nonlinear desired trajectory was fitted by the method of fifth‐order B‐splines with a sequence of waypoints which are created and sent by the ground station. According to the relationship between the nonlinear desired trajectory and aircraft's flight path, the authors have built the relevant error equations of position and course under wind disturbances, based on the Serret‐Frenet frame. The Lyapunov function can be constructed in virtue of the error equations and desired course function applying the vector field theory. On the basis of Lyapunov stability arguments, the authors have also constituted the course adaptive control law, which is converged asymptotically and stably. , – According to the nonlinear desired trajectory fitted by the proposed adaptive control methods, the authors have carried out the flight tests experiments with various positions, courses and airspeeds of aircraft. The experimental results show a good path following, as well as under wind disturbances. , – A new methodology for the nonlinear path following has been proposed, which is also proven to be promising for other special applications such as the path following in straight‐line segment and orbit, etc., – The paper provides a novel realization method for accurate path following for MAVs. This method can also be carried out in many applications by a simple hardware.
Cross layer optimization architecture for video streaming in WIMAX networks

In this paper, we propose a cross layer optimizer named XLO between scalable video streaming application and IEEE 802.16 MAC layer. The main objective is to allow video streaming application to adapt its parameters according to 802.16 MAC layer conditions and resource availability. XLO uses the existing service flow management messages exchanged between base station (BS) and subscriber station (SS) and makes them available to the video streaming application via a specific XLO interface. We implemented the XLO in the QualNet simulator and performed extensive simulations using a personalized scalable video traffic generator, capable of streaming video with different data rates. We also introduce an enhanced admission control function at the BS that takes into account video adaptability property. The simulation results show the effectiveness of our XLO mechanism for delivering better quality of service.
‘Handedness’ in snakes? Lateralization of coiling behaviour in a cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma, population

Studies have documented the presence of behavioural lateralization in many groups of lower vertebrates, demonstrating that these behaviours are not limited to mammals and birds. These studies suggest that the evolution of brain lateralization, often linked to lateralized behaviours, may have occurred early in evolutionary history and may not have been the result of multiple independent evolutionary events as previously thought. The goal of this study was to further document behavioural lateralization in another group of lower vertebrates, snakes. Given the importance of the coiling posture to snakes, I examined the coiling behaviour of a cottonmouth population. Coiling asymmetries were found at both the individual and population levels. However, the adaptive significance and mechanisms influencing this behaviour remain undefined. Additional research is needed to explore these areas and to link the lateralized behaviours documented in this and other studies directly to brain asymmetries before the evolutionary history of brain lateralization can be further resolved.  2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Attractiveness and Cooperation in Social Exchange

We tested the hypothesis that physically more attractive men are less likely to cooperate in social exchange than less attractive men, while physical attractiveness has no effect on women's tendency toward cooperation, with four different experimental games (Prisoner's Dilemma with 99 players, Allocator Choice with 77 players, Faith with 16 players, and Trust with 21 players). Pictures of the game players were taken after they participated in one of the four games, and those pictures were presented to another set of participants (85 raters in Study 1 and 2, 36 raters in Study 3) for attractiveness ratings. Both male and female raters who were unaware of the photographed game players' actual behavior in the game judged the faces of male defectors (who defected in one of the four games) to be more attractive than those of male cooperators, but they did not give differential attractiveness ratings to female defectors and female cooperators.
Optimal Performance Design Method of Thrust Slide-Bearing in Scroll Compressors for Maximum Efficiency

This study presents an optimal design methodology for lubrication of the thrust slide-bearing in scroll compressors, where the average Reynolds equation by Patir & Cheng and the solid contact theory by Greenwood & Williamson were applied to calculate the resultant lubrication performance. For given values of friction area, thrust load and orbiting speed, the oil film pressure, the solid contact force and the friction forces were calculated to determine the friction coefficient. The friction coefficient decreases gradually with decreasing friction area, because of decreasing oil viscous force. However, when the friction area becomes quite small, the influence of the surface roughness becomes large, thus resulting in an increase in the friction coefficient. Thus, a friction area must exist at which the friction coefficient is at its minimum, that is, a point of optimum performance. In addition, the optimal friction area changes with working conditions, such as the lubricating oil viscosity, the orbiting speed and the thrust load. It is concluded that an optimal design value for specified working conditions can be determined for the thrust slidebearing of scroll compressor.
The Meaning and Use of Metaphor in Analytic Field Theory

Each of the principal psychoanalytic models is underlain by certain key metaphors. For example, the archaeological and surgical metaphors, as well as that of the analyst-as-screen, all throw light on some of Freud's basic concepts. In classical psychoanalysis, however, metaphor still tends to be an illegitimate or secondary element. Analytic field theory, on the other hand, reserves a completely different place for it, both as an instrument of technique in clinical work and as a conceptual device in theoretical activity. Metaphor and the field are linked in a chiasm: The field metaphor transforms Kleinian relational theory into a radically intersubjective theory, which, in turn, places metaphor at a point along the spectrum of dreaming—to paraphrase Bion, it is the stuff of analysis. For the sake of illustration, we examine first the origins and meaning of the field metaphor in analytic field theory; we then consider the mutual implications of this particular development of post-Bion psychoanalysis and the modern linguistic theory of metaphor; and, finally, we put the theoretical hypotheses discussed in the first part of this contribution to work in the clinical situation.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Validation procedures in computerized dentistry

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