Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Engineering Design Challenges in High School STEM Courses: A Compilation of Invited Position Papers.

Today‘s high school science teachers find themselves in a period of transition. For the past decade there have been calls for replacing a narrow focus on science education—the traditional courses in physics, chemistry, biology, and Earth and space science—with a broader curriculum on STEM (that is, the four allied fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). However, at present there are no guidelines on what that broader curriculum should include or how it should be designed, and the gulf that has separated science and mathematics seems as wide as ever, despite decades of efforts to bridge the two disciplines. Next Generation National Standards for Science Education are currently being written, but they will not be released until at least 2013. To meet the challenge this paper suggests that educators look to the Technology and Engineering Literacy Framework for the 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as a source of principles on which to start the process of remodeling the high school science curriculum to better prepare our students to enter the STEM world of the 21 st century.
A Learning Analytics Approach for Student Performance Assessment

Due to the increasing interest in big data especially in the educational field and online education has led to a conflict in terms of performance indicators of the student. In this paper we discuss the methodology of assessing the student performance in terms of the success indicators revealing a number of indicators that is recommended to indicate success of the final academic achievement.
On the Empirical Importance of Periodicity in the Volatility of Financial Returns - Time Varying GARCH as a Second Order APC(2) Process

We discuss the empirical importance of long term cyclical effects in the volatility of financial returns. Following Amado and Terasvirta (2009), Cizek and Spokoiny (2009) and others, we consider a general conditionally heteroscedastic process with stationarity property distorted by a deterministic function that governs the possible time variability of the unconditional variance. The function proposed in this paper can be interpreted as a finite Fourier approximation of an Almost Periodic (AP) function as defined by Corduneanu (1989). The resulting model has a particular form of a GARCH process with time varying parameters, intensively discussed in the recent literature. In the empirical analyses we apply a generalisation of the Bayesian AR(1)-GARCH model for daily returns of S&P500, covering the period of sixty years of US postwar economy, including the recently observed global financial crisis. The results of a formal Bayesian model comparison clearly indicate the existence of significant long term cyclical patterns in volatility with a strongly supported periodic component corresponding to a 14 year cycle. Our main results are invariant with respect to the changes of the conditional distribution from Normal to Student-t and to the changes of the volatility equation from regular GARCH to the Asymmetric GARCH.
’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs OU Analyse : analysing at-risk students at The Open University Journal Item

Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. The OU Analyse project aims at providing early prediction of 'at-risk' students based on their demographic data and their interaction with Virtual Learning Environment. Four predictive models have been constructed from legacy data using machine learning methods. In Spring 2014 the approach was piloted and evaluated on two introductory university courses with about 1500 and 3000 students, respectively. Since October 2014 the predictions have been extended to include 10+ courses of different level. The OU Analyse dashboard has been implemented, for presenting predictions and providing a course overview and a view of individual students. 1. The objective of the OU Analyse project is to predict 'at-risk' students as early as possible within a course presentation so that interventions are meaningful and cost effective. For that purpose two types of data are used: demographic (static) data and student interactions with the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) system. Using Bayesian approach the most relevant VLE activity types (i.e. accessing important resource, student forum, etc.) are selected. Every week, together with demographic data, selected activity types are used to build four predictive models. These are: • Bayesian classifier, • Classification and regression tree (CART), • k Nearest Neighbours (k-NN) with demographic/static data, • k-NN with VLE data. Models capture different properties of input data and provide complementary results. A list of students at risk of not submitting the next assessment is sent every week to the course chairs and the student support team, who are responsible for contacting and supporting the students. For presenting the predictions and providing information about the state of the course the OU Analyse dashboard with two views has been implemented and is being deployed across selected courses at the Open University (OU). In the spring semester 2014, weekly predictions were being sent to two introductory courses where student retention was an issue. The precision of the predictions increased from about 50% at the beginning of the semester to more than 90% at the end. Recall was stable at around 50% with a drop to about 30% at the very end, due to incomplete results of the preceding assessments. In the past term (autumn 2014) the main goal was to scale up …
Physical Unclonable Functions to the Rescue A New Way to Establish Trust in Silicon

As billions of devices connect to the Internet, security and trust become crucial. This paper proposes a new approach to provisioning a root of trust for every device, based on Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). PUFs rely on the unique differences of each silicon component introduced by minute and uncontrollable variations in the manufacturing process. These variations are virtually impossible to replicate. As such they provide an effective way to uniquely identify each device and to extract cryptographic keys used for strong device authentication. This paper describes cutting-edge real-world applications of SRAM PUF technology applied to a hardware security subsystem, as a mechanism to secure software on a microcontroller and as a basis for authenticating IoT devices to
Monetary transmission and business cycle asymmetry

This paper investigates asymmetric effects of monetary policy over the business cycle. A two-state Markov Switching Model is employed to model both recessions and expansions. For the United States and Germany, strong evidence is found that monetary policy is more effective in a recession than during a boom. Also some evidence is found for asymmetry in the United Kingdom and Belgium. In the Netherlands, monetary policy is not very effective in either regime.
Characterization of Active Carbon from Coconut Shell using X-Ray Diffraction (X-RD) and SEM-EDX Techniques

Activated carbon is produced from the coconut shell through physical and chemical activation. The pyrolysis method was employed in this research for physical activation at an optimum temperature of 600oC and 1,000oC, for chemical activation immersed using 10% Na2CO3 activating agent. This research has produced two samples, namely the physical activation of 1,000oC and the physics-chemical activation of Na2CO3. The X-Ray Diffraction (X-RD) spectrum of activated carbon in the samples 1,000oC and Na2CO3 contained silicate minerals, iron ore and quartz, respectively, and it showed the formation of carbon and graphite structures in the hkl (002) and (100) planes. Through Scherrer’s method, the average size of the Na2CO3 crystals sample is 15.03 nm and the sample crystal sample of 1,000oC is 54.53 nm; the size of the Nano-scale crystals was formed when the temperature increases ≥ 600° C. The X-RD resulted the percentage of elemental content carbon phase volume fraction (Fv) and impurity (I) in the 1,000oC sample of 75.61%, 24.39% and the Na2CO3 sample of 77.87%, 22.13% . These results indicate that the carbon content in chemical activation is much better than the physics activation. SEM results with magnification of 5,000x, it is very clear the porosity formed of the 10 μm picture size are 0.8 μm in Na2CO3 sample and 1.00 μm in 1,000oC sample.
International Financial Contagion: The Role of the UK *

The purpose of this study is to consider the role of the United Kingdom in the effect of transferring the global credit crisis from the United States to Turkey. This study compares the results of the most commonly used contagion models, which are known as Forbes and Rigobon model and Dungey, Fry, Gonzalez-Hermosillo and Martin model. Moreover, this study presents evidence regarding the manner of transmission of the crisis. This study confirmed that there is a strong contagion effect from the United States to Turkey and the United Kingdom. The importance of the United Kingdom in transferring this shock is captured in the DFGM model more accurately than in the FR model. Finally, the global credit crisis is transferred to Turkey through financial linkages rather than trade linkages. The existence and direction of contagion create an opportunity for investors to use international hedging strategies and asset allocation.
A Study On Prevalence And Pattern Of Smoking Among Rural Population In Dehradun District Of Uttarakhand

Background: Tobacco is a major public health problem all over the world with 82% of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers residing in low and middle income countries. The government of India has taken several measures, including legislation to control tobacco intake. Numerous surveys conducted worldwide and in India show a greater prevalence of smoking tobacco use among the less educated, illiterate and rural population. Objective: Objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and factors influencing smoking tobacco use among rural Community of Dehradun.
The Complexity of Morchella Systematics : A Case of the Yellow Morel from Israel

14 FUNGI Volume 3:2 Spring 2010 15 Abstract Individual morel mushrooms are highly polymorphic, resulting in confusion in their taxonomic distinction. In particular, yellow morels from northern Israel, which are presumably Morchella esculenta, differ greatly in head color, head shape, ridge arrangement, and stalk-to-head ratio. Five morphologically distinct yellow morel fruiting bodies were genetically characterized. Their internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region within the nuclear ribosomal DNA and partial LSU (28S) gene were sequenced and analyzed. All of the analyzed morphotypes showed identical genotypes in both sequences. A phylogenetic tree with retrieved NCBI GenBank sequences showed better fit of the ITS sequences to M. crassipes than M. esculenta but with less than 85% homology, while LSU sequences, showed more then 98.8% homology with both species, giving no previously defined species definition according the two sequences.
Selective Medium for Aerobic Incubation of Campylobacter

The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of three antibiotic mixtures for use as supplements in a selective medium that could be used to isolate Campylobacter from mixed bacterial cultures during aerobic incubation. A non-selective, basal broth medium was prepared and supplemented with Bolton, Cefex, or Skirrow antibiotic mixtures. The ability of pure cultures of Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter fetus, Campylobacter jejuni, and Campylobacter lari to grow in basal broth and basal broth supplemented with each one of the antibiotic mixtures after aerobic incubation for 24 and 48 h at 37°C was determined. Also, the ability of pure cultures of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella Kentucky, and Staphylococcus aureus to grow in basal and supplemented broth medium was determined. Additionally, the recovery of bacteria from mixed cultures containing one Campylobacter isolate with the other 6 non-Campylobacter isolates after aerobic incubation for 48 h at 37°C in basal broth and broth supplemented with the Bolton antibiotic mixture was examined. Results indicated that there was significant (p ≤ 0.05) growth of most Campylobacter isolates in basal broth and in broth supplemented with Bolton, Cefex, or Skirrow antibiotic mixtures after 24 or 48 h of aerobic incubation. Although, there was significant growth non-Campylobacter isolates in basal broth, growth of most these bacteria was inhibited in media supplemented with antibiotic mixtures. Also, Campylobacter growth was generally significantly less than other bacteria in mixed bacterial cultures grown in basal broth for 48 h at 37°C, but significantly more of most Campylobacter isolates were recovered from mixed bacterial cultures grown in media supplemented with the Bolton antibiotic mixture. Findings indicate that basal medium containing this supplement should be studied as a selective medium that may be utilized with aerobic incubation to isolate Campylobacter from environmental samples containing other bacteria.
A Comparative Goodness-of-Fit Analysis of Distributions of Some Lévy Processes and Heston Model to Stock Index Returns

In this paper, we investigate the goodness-of-fit of three Levy processes, namely Variance-Gamma (VG), Normal-Inverse Gaussian (NIG) and Generalized Hyperbolic (GH) distributions, and probability distribution of the Heston model to index returns of twenty developed and emerging stock markets. Furthermore, we extend our analysis by applying a Markov regime switching model to identify normal and turbulent periods. Our findings indicate that the probability distribution of the Heston model performs well for emerging markets under full sample estimation and retains goodness of fit for high volatility periods, as it explicitly accounts for the volatility process. On the other hand, the distributions of the Levy processes, especially the VG and NIG distributions, generally improves upon the fit of the Heston model, particularly for developed markets and low volatility periods. Furthermore, some distributions yield to significantly large test statistics for some countries, even though they fit well to other markets, which suggest that properties of the stock markets are crucial in identifying the best distribution representing empirical returns.
THE PROCESS HYDROLOGY APPROACH TO IMPROVING PREDICTION OF UNGAUGED BASINS IN CANADA

Numerous research basins have been instrumented and monitored for understanding the water balance and improving rainfall-runoff relationships in Canada, with mixed results and uneven improvements in our understanding and prediction of these systems. Two limitations on gaining useful results from these basins have been that their experimental designs often depended on long-term comparisons of observations and/or on calibrations of conceptual, rather than physically based, runoff models. Such comparisons and calibrations can be hampered by changes in climate and land use, measurement uncertainties, mixed sets of processes causing the basin runoff response, an over-emphasis on streamflow rather than comprehensive basin hydrology and energetics and the relatively short time period that most Canadian research basins have been operating. An alternative to such traditional study of basin dynamics and response has been implemented where the hydrology was poorly understood and long term observations were not available or desirable. The new approach has provided rapid improvements to our understanding and prediction of these systems and is suited to application in ungauged basins. The approach consists of: i) intensive observations of the most uncertain hydrological processes or pathways in an experimental basin that represents ungauged basins in some region; ii) development of algorithms to describe the operation of the primary hydrological processes and pathways in the experimental basin, and; 67 Prediction in Ungauged Basins: Approaches for Canada’s Cold Regions
Generalized Inverse Reinforcement Learning

Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) is used to teach behaviors to agents, by having them learn a reward function from example trajectories. The underlying assumption is usually that these trajectories represent optimal behavior. However, it is not always possible for a user to provide examples of optimal trajectories. This problem has been tackled previously by labeling trajectories with a score that indicates bad, as well as good, behaviors. In this work, we formalize the IRL problem in a generalized framework that allows for learning from good and bad demonstrations, and everything in between. In our framework, users can score entire trajectories (as usual) as well as particular state-action pairs. This additional control allows the agent to learn preferred behaviors from a relatively small number of trajectories. We expect this framework to be especially useful in robotics domains, where the user can collect fewer trajectories at the cost of labeling bad state-action pairs, which might be easier than maneuvering a robot to collect additional (entire) trajectories.
Effect of the Duration of Electromagnetic Pulse Force on the Rebound Suppression in V-Bending Experiment

Electromagnetic Forming (EMF) is one of the high speed forming technologies. The spatial distribution and temporal evolution of electromagnetic body force and the constraint imposed by the die on the sheet metal, are key factors which influence the dynamic deformation behaviour of sheet metal. The great force induced by the collision at high speed of the sheet and the die causes the rebound of the sheet off the die. The rebound has a significant influence on the final shape of the part. On the basis of the comparison of time relationship between the displacement of the sheet metal and the amplitude of electromagnetic force, the study about the rebound phenomenon in an electromagnetic V-bending experiment and its numerical simulation model is carried out in this paper. Collision promotes deformation process, resulting in a drastic change of sheet geometry in which a new distribution of electromagnetic force helps the part to fit the die. The attenuation of force caused by distance increase is comparatively weak when forming into a shallow die, so that the electromagnetic force maintains enough intensity which can effectively suppress the rebound and help to calibrate the V-Shape of the part. Increasing the duration of coil current pulse helps to suppress rebound effect of sheet metal when forming into a shallow die. * This work is based on the experiments of Long Pan; the authors would like to thank the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2011CB012804) for its financial support. Corresponding author: Wen-Ping Wang; wwp_2003@163.com; Tel. :+86 010-82338613
Temperature response of CO 2 exchange in three tropical tree species

Tropical forests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle, but our limited understanding of the physiological sensitivity of tropical forest trees to environmental factors complicates predictions of tropical carbon fluxes in a changing climate. We determined the short-term temperature response of leaf photosynthesis and respiration of seedlings of three tropical tree species from Panama. For one of the species net CO2 exchange was also measured in situ. Dark respiration of all species increased linearly – not exponentially – over a ~30 C temperature range. The early-successional species Ficus insipida Willd. and Ochroma pyramidale (Cav. ex Lam.) Urb. had higher temperature optima for photosynthesis (Topt) and higher photosynthesis rates at Topt than the late-successional species Calophyllum longifoliumWilld. The decrease in photosynthesis above Topt could be assigned, in part, to observed temperature-stimulated photorespiration and decreasing stomatal conductance (gS), with unmeasured processes such as respiration in the light, Rubisco deactivation, and changing membrane properties probably playing important additional roles, particularly at very high temperatures. As temperature increased above Topt, gS of laboratory-measured leaves first decreased, followed by an increase at temperatures >40 45 C. In contrast, gS of canopy leaves of F. insipida in the field continued to decrease with increasing temperature, causing complete suppression of photosynthesis at ~45 C, whereas photosynthesis in the laboratory did not reach zero until leaf temperature was ~50 C. Models parameterised with laboratory-derived data should be validated against field observations when they are used to predict tropical forest carbon fluxes. Additional keywords: carbon balance, gas exchange, global warming, photosynthetic temperature response, stomatal conductance, tropical forest. Received 12 October 2015, accepted 21 January 2016, published online 2 March 2016
Text me! Interpersonal Discourse Analysis of Egyptian Mobile Operators’ SMSs

The present study examines the discourse of a number of Short Messaging Service (SMS). The selected data is analyzed according to the lexico-grammatical choices reflected in the interpersonal metafunction. Results are, then, interpreted for the purpose of deciding how service providers use language to convince a large number of customers of their digital products. Such accomplishment is conditioned by how much they succeed in persuading their audience that they are capable of providing them useful products and how these products, in turn, meet their communicative demands. The study assure that the selection of the lexico-grammatical tools is crucial in enabling senders to perform a number of functions such as constructing social relations, exercising power or maintaining solidarity with the receivers. Keywords: service provider, mood, pronouns, tense, discourse, lexico-grammatical
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Enterprise KV stores are not well suited for HPC applications, and entail customization and cumbersome end-toend KV design to extract the HPC application needs. To this end, in this paper we present BESPOKV, an adaptive, extensible, and scale-out KV store framework. BESPOKV decouples the KV store design into the control plane for distributed management and the data plane for local data store. BESPOKV takes as input a single-server KV store, called a datalet, and transparently enables a scalable and fault-tolerant distributed KV store service. The resulting distributed stores are also adaptive to consistency or topology requirement changes and can be easily extended for new types of services. Experiments show that BESPOKV-enabled distributed KV stores scale horizontally to a large number of nodes, and performs comparably and sometimes better than the state-of-the-art systems.