Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Mobile Touch Devices to Provide Flexible Classroom Assessment Techniques

Classroom assessment techniques CATs are ungraded activities in a classroom setting that provide feedback to the teacher and to the students themselves, on the current state of student learning and understanding, which can subsequently drive corrective actions where necessary. Student response systems SRSs provide a technological solution for CATs whereby students can respond anonymously and instructors can provide instant feedback. However, existing systems have tended to suffer from constrained input, limiting the quality of the student responses. In particular, existing SRSs typically only employ well known form based input metaphors such as the multiple-choice selection and text-box input. These input types are not well suited to responses that require significant graphic or symbolic elements such as equations, circuit diagrams, and other drawings. These SRSs also have logistical issues in relation to portability and ownership of the equipment. In this paper, the authors present an SRS designed from the ground up to support CATs with freeform input to fulfil the needs of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM classroom, though the solution is applicable to any learning environment in which freeform input is valuable. To mitigate logistical issues, the solution employs touch based Android tablets and smart phones commonly owned by students and a freely downloadable student app. This paper details the design of teacher and student interaction, including instructor preparation prior to class. The authors also examine some of the issues surrounding freeform graphic and symbolic input on a range of device form factors and the particular solutions that they found effective. A summary of their ongoing evaluation of this system is also outlined within.
In Vivo Therapeutic Success of MicroRNA‐155 Antagomir in a Mouse Model of Lupus Alveolar Hemorrhage

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is a rare but life‐threatening complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Pristane‐treated B6 mice develop severe DAH within 2 weeks of treatment. MicroRNA‐155 (miR‐155) is a pleiotropic microRNA that plays a crucial role in the regulation of immune responses. Recent studies have revealed a pathogenic role of miR‐155 in various autoimmune disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of miR‐155 in the development of DAH in pristane‐induced lupus using miR‐155–knockout (miR‐155−/−) mice and miR‐155 antagomir to silence miR‐155.
The canonical way to make a heart: β-catenin and plakoglobin in heart development and remodeling

The main mediator of the canonical Wnt pathway, β-catenin, is a major effector of embryonic development, postnatal tissue homeostasis, and adult tissue regeneration. The requirement for β-catenin in cardiogenesis and embryogenesis has been well established. However, many questions regarding the molecular mechanisms by which β-catenin and canonical Wnt signaling regulate these developmental processes remain unanswered. An interesting question that emerged from our studies concerns how β-catenin signaling is modulated through interaction with other factors. Recent experimental data implicate new players in canonical Wnt signaling, particularly those which modulate β-catenin function in many its biological processes, including cardiogenesis. One of the interesting candidates is plakoglobin, a little-studied member of the catenin family which shares several mechanistic and functional features with its close relative, β-catenin. Here we have focused on the function of β-catenin in cardiogenesis. We also summarize findings on plakoglobin signaling function and discuss possible interplays between β-catenin and plakoglobin in the regulation of embryonic heart development. Impact statement Heart development, function, and remodeling are complex processes orchestrated by multiple signaling networks. This review examines our current knowledge of the role of canonical Wnt signaling in cardiogenesis and heart remodeling, focusing primarily on the mechanistic action of its effector β-catenin. We summarize the generally accepted understanding of the field based on experimental in vitro and in vivo data, and address unresolved questions in the field, specifically relating to the role of canonical Wnt signaling in heart maturation and regeneration. What are the modulators of canonical Wnt, and particularly what are the potential roles of plakoglobin, a close relative of β-catenin, in regulating Wnt signaling? Answers to these questions will enhance our understanding of the mechanism by which the canonical Wnt signaling regulates development of the heart and its regeneration after damage.
Proteomic map of peripheral blood mononuclear cells

In the field of proteomics extensive efforts have been focused on the knowledge of proteins expressed by different cell types. In particular, enormous progress has been done in the characterization of blood cellular components. In this work, we have established a public 2‐DE database for human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) proteins. Two hundred and forty‐six spots corresponding to 174 different proteins have been identified on 2‐DE gels from PBMCs isolated from six healthy individuals. All the identified proteins have been classified in thirteen categories on the basis of their differential functions or cellular localization and annotated at the http://physiology.unile. it/proteomics. The role of several proteins has been discussed in relation to their biological function. We intend to show the potentiality of PBMCs to investigate the proteomics changes possibly associated with a large number of pathologies such as autoimmune, neurodegenerative and cancer diseases.
Anomalous behavior of a tin point cell

At NMIJ, AIST, ensembles of fixed point cells are maintained for each defining fixed point to underpin the confidence for the maintenance of the national standards for thermometry. As a routine work, fixed point cells for the same temperature are realized simultaneously and the temperature differences between them are measured when the liquid fraction (1/F) is between 1 and 2. An anomalous temperature difference of approximately 0.2 mK was observed for one tin point cell. In this paper, we report the details of this anomalous temperature difference, and also the analysis to elucidate its cause. We assume that such anomalous behavior probably occurred due to condensation of impurities by employing a specific realization method repeatedly. Also we present that the anomalous behavior appears to be resolved by adopting another realization method during the experiments conducted under the present work.
Role of Silver Ions in Destabilization of Intermolecular Adhesion Forces Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy in Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilms

ABSTRACT In this paper, we report on the potential use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) as a tool to measure the intermolecular forces in biofilm structures and to study the effect of silver ions on sessile Staphylococcus epidermidis cell viability and stability. We propose a strategy of destabilizing the biofilm matrix by reducing the intermolecular forces within the extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) using a low concentration (50 ppb) of silver ions. Our AFM studies on the intermolecular forces within the EPSs of S. epidermidis RP62A and S.epidermidis 1457 biofilms suggest that the silver ions can destabilize the biofilm matrix by binding to electron donor groups of the biological molecules. This leads to reductions in the number of binding sites for hydrogen bonds and electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions and, hence, the destabilization of the biofilm structure.
Plasma homocysteine, brain imaging and cognition in older patients with mental illness

Total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) concentration is elevated in older patients with mental illness, and patients with vascular disease have higher plasma tHcy concentration than patients without vascular disease. Plasma tHcy has been reported to be associated with cognitive functions. The mechanism by which plasma tHcy may influence cognitive functions is not clear.
Contribution of lung and chest wall mechanics following emphysema resection.

OBJECTIVE To determine the contributions of (1) chest wall (Pcw) and (2) lung elastic recoil pressure (PL) to (3) total elastic recoil pressure exerted by the respiratory system (Prs) in 18 patients (12 men) aged 66 +/- 6 years (mean +/- 1 SD) with severe emphysema who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic bilateral lung volume reduction surgery under paralyzed (vecuronium) general anesthesia (isoflurane). DESIGN We measured preoperative and 6-week postoperative lung function studies, and intraoperative inspiratory lung conductance (GL), PL, Pcw, and Prs (cm H2O) at end-expiratory lung volume (EELV), EELV plus 0.60 +/- 0.0 L, and EELV plus 1.15 +/- 0.0 L. All values are mean +/- SEM. RESULTS Preoperative vs postoperative FVC was 1.9 +/- 0.1 L vs 2.3 +/- 0.1 L (p = 0.03); FEV1 was 0.6 +/- 0.1 L vs 0.9 +/- 0.1 L (p < 0.02); total lung capacity was 7.4 +/- 0.4 L vs 5.9 +/- 0.3 L (p < 0.001); functional residual capacity was 5.7 +/- 0.4 L vs 4.4 +/- 0.2 L (p = 0.001). At EELV preoperative vs postoperative, PL was 0.0 +/- 0.3 vs 1.1 +/- 0.05 (p = 0.04), Pcw was 5.0 +/- 0.7 vs 2.4 +/- 0.9 (p = 0.02), and Prs was 5.0 +/- 0.8 vs 3.5 +/- 0.7 (p = 0.08). AT EELV plus 0.60 L, PL was 3.2 +/- 0.6 vs 6.1 +/- 0.9 (p < 0.001), Pcw was 8.8 +/- 0.8 vs 7.0 +/- 0.9 (p = 0.12), and Prs was 12.0 +/- 0.8 vs 13.1 +/- 0.7 (p = 0.80). At EELV plus 1.15 L, PL was 6.8 +/- 0.9 vs 10.3 +/- 1.1 (p < 0.001), Pcw was 13.5 +/- 1.0 vs 11.2 +/- 1.2 (p = 0.12), and Prs was 20 +/- 1.2 vs 21.5 +/- 1.0 p = 0.93). AT EELV plus 0.06 L, GL was 0.09 +/- 0.00 L/S/cm H2O vs 0.16 +/- 0.01 (p < 0.01). At EELV plus 1.15 L, GL was 0.12 +/- 0.01 vs 0.21 +/- 0.03 (p < 0.05) with similar preoperative vs postoperative GL/PL slopes. CONCLUSION The increase in PL and decrease in Pcw following LVRS for emphysema may be responsible for the increase in spirometry and airway conductance.
Improvement of beehive management practices in biology using kernel-based subset vector autoregressive modelling

Honey production in Australia is worth about $50 million a year, with the value of pollination being estimated at between $600 million and $1.2 billion a year. Other bee products such as wax and queen rearing earn about $65 million a year, much of that in export earnings. With reference to current circumstances of reduced production because of the prolonged drought, examination of this industry is crucial as it appears that Australia may be able to increase profitability by improving beehive management practices. In this paper we propose a kernel-based vector recursive algorithm to sequentially estimate subset vector autoregressive models (including full-order models). We apply this algorithm to test the direct causal relationships between the population of honeybee foragers and foraging types gathering nectar, pollen or water. The findings suggest that we may be able to predict the optimal conditions at any time to maximise the honey yield of colonies.
Optimización matemática: ejemplos y aplicaciones

Se introducen aquí diversas aplicaciones de la Optimización Matemática, tanto de la Lineal Continua como de la Entera. El objetivo es mostrar algunas de las tantas situaciones reales que demandan métodos de optimización. En cada situación se propone un Modelo Matemático, punto de partida fundamental para intentar afrontar su resolución mediante Programación Matemática. En la charla veremos además algunas herramientas que permiten encontrar soluciones para los problemas a partir de los modelos.
An Agent-based Electronic Market to Help Airlines to Recover from Delays

The Airline Operations Control Center (AOCC) has the responsibility to ensure that flights meet their planned schedule or, if any problem arises, to find a viable solution that minimizes both the impact in the operational plan and its cost. The high cost of resources involved in this process (aircraft and crew members) leads to a lack of additional resources from the airline companies, implying a restricted solution space. Here, we propose an electronic market modeled as a multi-agent system where airline companies can negotiate and lease each other the required resources when solving a disruption problem, thus expanding their solution space. The proposed negotiation occurs in several rounds, where qualitative comments made by the buyer agent on proposals sent by the sellers enables these to learn how to calculate new proposals, using a case-based reasoning methodology.
Large Eddy Simulation and Hilbert Huang Transform for fluctuation pressure of high speed train

Fluctuation pressure acting on the surface of high speed trains is the main source of aerodynamic noise. Therefore, it becomes very important to research components of the fluctuation pressure for controlling the aerodynamic noise. In this paper, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method is applied to calculate the fluctuation pressure acting on a certain type of CRH high speed train and the distribution rule of the fluctuation pressure is studied by Hilbert Huang Transform (HHT) method. Both the fluctuating part and the average part from the surface pressure are extracted by Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). A comparison of the distribution rules for fluctuation pressure at two different speed levels is made.
Self-reported and test-based mobility limitations in a representative sample of Finns aged 30+

Aims: The object of the present study was to acquire a comprehensive and accurate picture of mobility limitations in the Finnish adult population. Methods: A nationally representative sample of 8,028 persons aged 30+ with high participation was interviewed and examined in the Health 2000 Survey conducted in 2000—01. Mobility limitations were measured by self-reports and performance tests. Results: Perceived running difficulties were already common among persons in middle age, while difficulties in moving about indoors were frequent only among persons aged 75+. A third of women and a fifth of men aged 55+ could not reach a walking speed of 1.2 m/s. Working-aged women were more limited than men only in physically demanding tasks, but in the elderly the gender difference was evident in most mobility tasks. A substantial disagreement was found between the self-reported and test-based indicators in stair climbing. Supplementary data collection, carried out to increase participation in the health examination, as well as inclusion of institutionalized persons, provided a more complete estimate of the prevalence of mobility limitations among the elderly. Conclusions: Both self-reported and performance-based indicators are needed to achieve a comprehensive view of disability and its variation between population groups. Exclusion of institutionalized persons and low participation lead to underestimation of the occurrence of limitations. The number of persons suffering from mobility problems will increase with ageing of the population, which accentuates the importance of early intervention to maintain functional ability, especially in women.
The number of FoxP3+ cells in transbronchial lung allograft biopsies does not predict bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome within the first five years after transplantation

An important limitation to the success of lung transplantation is the development of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). It has been hypothesized that regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) are related to the risk of BOS. We aim to evaluate whether the number of forkhead box P3 (FoxP3+) cells/mm2 in lung allograft biopsies is a predictor of long‐term outcome.
Towards synergistic models of motion information processing in biological and artificial vision. (Vers des modèles synergiques de l'estimation du mouvement en vision biologique et artificielle)

This thesis addresses the study of the motion perception in primates. We propose that scaling up the models rooted in biological vision by taking a task centric approach would gives us further insights to probe biological vision and better constraints to design models. The first part of this thesis relates to a feedforward view of how the motion information is processed in the mammalian brains with specific focus on areas V1 and MT. Based on a standard physiological model describing the activity of motion sensitive neurons in areas V1 and MT, we propose a feedforward model for dense optical flow estimation. This feedforward V1-MT model is benchmarked with modern computer vision datasets and results form a basis to study multiple aspects of dense motion estimation. Benchmarking results demonstrated that a sharp optical flow map cannot be obtained by considering isotropic pooling and motion estimation is disrupted in regions close to object or motion boundaries. It also shows a blindspot in the modelling literature that spatial association of the extracted motion information has not been attempted or has been limited to recovering coarser attributes. In order to improve the motion estimation, we investigated the pooling by MT neurons in terms of spatial-extent and selectivity for integration as well as the decoding strategy in order to obtain a spatially dense optical flow map. We show that by incorporating a pooling strategy that is regulated by form-based cues and considering lateral propagation of the activity, the motion estimation quality is improved. Interestingly, incorporating the form based cues amounts to addition of neurons with different kinds of selectivity to the network. This raises a question, whether or not a minimal network with recurrent interactions in feature domain can exhibit different kinds of feature selectivities or we need to consider explicitly cells with different kinds of selectivity? This question relates to the second part of the thesis. We investigated this question using a ring network model under neural fields formalism with motion direction as feature space, closely mimicing MT physiological experiments. Our model produced a rich variety of results. Our results indicate that a variety of tuning behaviors found in MT area can be reproduced by a minimal network of directionally tuned cells, explicit 2D cues need not be required for motion integration, dynamical changes inthe MT neuronal tuning reported in the literature can be explained through feature domain recurrent interactions and also open the door for accounting transparency by challenging the high inhibition regimes considered by many models in the literature for motion integration. To conclude, we re-emphasize on task-centric modelling approaches and several directions for interfacing studies in biological and computer vision.
Model and analysis: Diabetes and obesity

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my advisor and professor, Dr. Clyde Martin, for all the guidance of his profession and for the prodigious opportunity which he has bestowed upon me, I offer my honest gratitude. Also, I hold a deep appreciation for Dr. Elmus Beale, for his exalted supervision of yours truly, throughout the biological aspects of my undertaking, and furthermore for the forbearance he has granted in these past months. Conjointly, residing on the committee is, Dr Lance Drager, a cogent body in the reconstruction of the department into a beneficial environment for application. Never have I been in lack of reinforcement, individuality or affection owing to Sina Hamza and Osama Al-Hashmi. My ardent mother and father's equable chivying is a significant factor in my success to this point. I truly believe, without a shadow of a doubt that it will continue to be a prominent staple throughout. Another of the cardinal colonnades of abutment in my academic pursuits is my older cousin, Mohamed Manaf Shihab; thank you for your bearing, courtesy and sustenance. Last but definitely not least, a former diabetes patient, my uncle Farook Hamza 1943-2003, my arduous conjecture was elevated to a higher, more personal plane through his experience. To research a topic with an intimate meaning to me has been an honorable ordeal and to his loving memory I dedicate this thesis.
On achieving large inductances for small on-chip inductors through providing pre-programmed multi-dipole cushioning for the spiral inductors via nano technology

The verified success of proton bombardment treatment in both the device isolation and the inductor Q-improvement (C. P. Liao et al., 2003) (C. P. Liao et al., 1998) on already-manufactured mixed-mode IC wafers (prior to packaging) has also uncovered new phenomena, especially the explosive rises of inductance near certain frequency (or, frequencies) (C. P. Liao et al., 2003). A previously proposed theory identified the cause to be resonant interaction between the inductor EM wave and the proton-caused defect electric dipoles (C. P. Liao et al., 2003). Based on such understanding, this paper aims at providing a new possibility of greatly enhancing the effectiveness of on-chip inductors by cushioning them on multiple dipoles using nanotechnical means
In vitro models to study trophoblast function and dysfunction-- a workshop report.

Thiede first used trypsin to dissociate and culture term trophoblast. Most current methods use variations of a trypsin-DNAse procedure devised by Hall (Hall et al., 1977; Bloxam, Bax and Bax, 1997a b). All methods appear to yield cells that display a cytotrophoblast phenotype (see caviat below), do not proliferate, have some invasive ability (but significantly less than first trimester cytotrophoblast), and spontaneously differentiate in varying degrees into syncytium with strong expression of a wide range of specific syncytial biochemical products even if morphological fusion does not occur. The cells can effectively be used to study cytokine actions on the placenta, metabolism, transport, and syncytial formation, eg as induced by EGF. All evidence to date indicates that syncytia formed in vitro behave the same as in vivo syncytium and may thus be considered a useful model of this cell type (Morrish et al., 1997). Term cytotrophoblasts have been used in one and two-sided culture (Bloxam et al., 1997b) and can be made to form a confluent barrier for viral penetration studies (Hemmings et al., 2001). Because of the abundance of tissue available, molecular
Simplified Distributed-Parametermodel of Brachial-Radial Arteries for Noninvasive Determination of Mechanical Characteristics of Vessel

This paper proposes a simplified distributed-parameter model of the brachial-radial arteries segment for the determination of mechanical parameters of these arteries and compares it with a four-element Windkessel model. The comparison is performed using data collected noninvasively of pressure pulse waveforms at two different locations of the arterial segment, under physiological (normotensive) and pathological (primary hypertension) conditions. The results show, by Akaike Information Criterion, that the proposed model fits the real pressure pulse waveform better than classical Windkessel model, and that also gives mechanical parameters coherent with the clinical condition