Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Digital Score Reporting and Feedback on Students' Learning in Higher Education

Personalized feedback generated via digital score reports is essential in higher education due to the important role of feedback in teaching and learning as well as in improving students’ performance and motivation in such educational settings. This study introduces and evaluates ExamVis, a novel and engaging digital score reporting system that delivers personalized feedback to students after they complete their exams. It also presents the results of two empirical studies employing hierarchical linear regressions in which 776 pre-service teachers took two midterms and a final exam, receiving a digital score report with personalized feedback after each exam and having the option to review each of the score reports. Study 1 found that reviewing short reports (with visual feedback given immediately after an exam) and extended reports (with visual and written feedback given after all students completed the exam) significantly predicted students’ final exam scores above and beyond their midterm exam scores. Study 2 found that students who were provided with only extended digital score reports outperformed on the final exam those who had access to both short and extended digital score reports. Implications for designing digital score reports with personalized feedback that have a positive impact on student performance are discussed.
Simulation of Next-generation Cellular Networks with ns-3: Open Challenges and New Directions

One of the main strengths of Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) is the availability of modules to simulate cellular networks, including LTE and mmWave/NR deployments. These implementations model the protocol stack with a high level of detail, and, thanks to the integration with the whole ns-3 code base, make it possible to study end-to-end scenarios and identify complex interactions between the different components of a network. In this white paper we discuss the current limitations of this platform, and suggest directions for future work that could improve the accuracy of the simulations.
Project Title and Summary A . 1 . Project Title Semantic Vector Representations of Sentences A . 2

The research will investigate methods for the production and utilization of vector representations for natural language sentences while preserving meaning. Algorithms producing vector embeddings of sentences and longer documents currently exist, however the field is still developing. Existing methods have not been shown to sufficiently preserve meaning in the vector representation. There has also only been limited investigation into reversing the projection and resynthesize text from the embedding space. The aims of this project are thus:
Enhancement of Chemosensitivity to Fluoropyrimidines by Retroviral Transduction of Thymidine Phosphorylase cDNA : an in vitro and in vivo Study

Thymidine phospholyrase (TP) is an essential enzyme in activating 5’-deoxy-5-fluorocytidine (5’DFUR) into 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and for the conversion of 5-FU into 5-fluoro-2’-deoxyuridine. The purpose of this study was to examine the therapeutic efficacy of the retroviral vector-mediated TP gene in the sensitivity to fluoropyrimidines, 5-FU and its prodrugs, 5’-DFUR and capecitabine, in MC38 murine colon adenocarcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo. After retroviral infection with or without human TP cDNA, we obtained MC38 cells having the stable expression of TP (MC38-TP) and control-vector transfected cells (MC38-Neo). There was no significant difference in the doubling time in vitro and tumor growth rate in vivo among parental MC38 cells (MC38-P), MC38Neo and MC38-TP, demonstrating that the TP gene was not directly toxic. The in vitro study showed significant increases in sensitivities to 5-FU, 5’-DFUR and capecitabine in MC38-TP cells. The 50% growth inhibitory concentration (IC50) of MC38-TP cells to 5-FU, 5’-DFUR and capecitabine, respectively, was about 10-fold, 800-fold and 40-fold higher than that of MC38-P cells and MC38-Neo cells. The in vivo study showed significant increases in sensitivities to 5-FU, 5’DFUR and capecitabine in MC38-TP tumors. There was no significant difference in the sensitivities to 5-FU, 5’-DFUR and capecitabine between MC38 and MC38-Neo tumors. The tumor-cure rate in MC38-TP tumors treated with capecitabine was 100% and that treated with 5’-DFUR was 63%. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the stable expression of TP gene by using recombinant retroviral vector could dramatically increase the anticancer effect of fluoropyrimidines.
A Temporal Signal-Processing Circuit Based on Spiking Neuron and Synaptic Learning

Time is a continuous, homogeneous, one-way, and independent signal that cannot be modified by human will. The mechanism of how the brain processes temporal information remains elusive. According to previous work, time-keeping in medial premotor cortex (MPC) is governed by four kinds of ramp cell populations (Merchant et al., 2011). We believe that these cell populations participate in temporal information processing in MPC. Hence, in this the present study, we present a model that uses spiking neuron, including these cell populations, to construct a complete circuit for temporal processing. By combining the time-adaptive drift-diffusion model (TDDM) with the transmission of impulse information between neurons, this new model is able to successfully reproduce the result of synchronization-continuation tapping task (SCT). We also discovered that the neurons that we used exhibited some of the firing properties of time-related neurons detected by electrophysiological experiments in other studies. Therefore, we believe that our model reflects many of the physiological of neural circuits in the biological brain and can explain some of the phenomena in the temporal-perception process.
Chapter 2 Disciplines , Perspectives and Conversations

Transdisciplinarity as a concept attracts a range of interpretations. Julie Thompson Klein, who has contributed clarity, context and classification to the concept – particularly in relation to other modes of knowledge production – is nonetheless short on comfort for the ontologically insecure and the epistemologically doubtful when she states that ‘there is no universal theory, methodology, or definition of transdisciplinarity’ (Klein, 2013, p.189). Where, then, does this leave us as we embark upon an exercise in ‘transdisciplinary conversations’? A sociologist can at least look to the genesis narrative that she (and others) provide and which suggests some concordance with disciplinary canons that point to heterodoxy rather than heresy. To some extent, Nicolescu’s (2010) ironic use of the phrase ‘war of definition’ in his discussion of the ‘methodology of transdisciplinarity’ at least allows the space, in the words of Beck, for the struggle for definition. Although, a less confrontational idea like Pohl’s (2010) notion of a ‘concept in flux’ is probably more forgiving. Pohl (2010, p.81) suggests that rather than ‘a unifying definition’ a ‘structured plurality of definitions’ is a more likely outcome. Thus, as we can see from the outset, there are no singular paths through the tricky terrain of transdisciplinarity.
TopoX: Topology Refactorization for Efficient Graph Partitioning and Processing

Traditional graph partitioning methods attempt to both minimize communication cost and guarantee load balancing in computation. However, the skewed degree distribution of natural graphs makes it difficult to simultaneously achieve the two objectives. This paper proposes topology refactorization (TR), a topology-aware method allowing graph-parallel systems to separately handle the two objectives: refactorization is mainly focused on reducing communication cost, and partitioning is mainly targeted for balancing the load. TR transforms a skewed graph into a more communication-efficient topology through fusion and fission , where the fusion operation organizes a set of neighboring low-degree vertices into a super-vertex, and the fission operation splits a high-degree vertex into a set of sibling sub-vertices. Based on TR, we design an efficient graph-parallel system (TopoX) which pipelines refactorization with partitioning to both reduce communication cost and balance computation load. Prototype evaluation shows that TopoX outperforms state-of-the-art PowerLyra by up to 78.5% (from 37.2%) on real-world graphs and is significantly faster than other graph-parallel systems, while only introducing small refactorization overhead and memory consumption.
Balance-Aware Distributed String Similarity-Based Query Processing System

Data analysts spend more than 80% of time on data cleaning and integration in the whole process of data analytics due to data errors and inconsistencies. Similarity-based query processing is an important way to tolerate the errors and inconsistencies. However, similarity-based query processing is rather costly and traditional database cannot afford such expensive requirement. In this paper, we develop a distributed in-memory similarity-based query processing system called Dima. Dima supports four core similarity operations, i.e., similarity selection, similarity join, top- k selection and top- k join. Dima extends SQL for users to easily invoke these similarity-based operations in their data analysis tasks. To avoid expensive data transmission in a distributed environment, we propose balance-aware signatures where two records are similar if they share common signatures, and we can adaptively select the signatures to balance the workload. Dima builds signature-based global indexes and local indexes to support similarity operations. Since Spark is one of the widely adopted distributed in-memory computing systems, we have seamlessly integrated Dima into Spark and developed effective query optimization techniques in Spark. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first full-fledged distributed in-memory system that can support complex similarity-based query processing on large-scale datasets. We have conducted extensive experiments on four real-world datasets. Experimental results show that Dima outperforms state-of-the-art studies by 1--3 orders of magnitude and has good scalability.
Urinary Bladder CAD System for 3 D Reconstruction from CT Scans

This project focused on the development of a reliable algorithm for urinary bladder volume frameby-frame segmentation and posterior 3D reconstruction, from CT studies without contrast, from patients suffering from bladder wall tumours. Active Contour Models, region growing and Chan-Vese algorithms had their performance evaluated and discussed on the scope of this project and, afterwards, based on the conclusions drawn, an algorithm using Fuzzy c-Means, a Gaussian-curve-based intensity transformation, and ACM was developed, based on the work of Bueno et al. [6]. The performance of this algorithm was evaluated on patients of the TCGA-BLCA collection [41], rendering ≈ 80% of successful segmentations for small-lesion patients (below 2.0 cm of thickness), and ≈ 60% for large-lesion patients. Successful segmentations presented an average of 5.1 mm and 87.3% of Hausdorff distance and Degree of Overlap, respectively, while poor segmentations presented the average values of 20.6 mm and 66.5%. The obtained segmentations were, finally, explored for the purposes of 3D reconstruction and visualization of the bladder, through orientation, scaling and positioning of each frame according to the original DICOM files information. The high percentage of successful segmentation and the good average values of Hausdorff distance and Degree of Overlap for small-lesion patients revealed high potential of the segmentation algorithm to serve as basis for an effective early-stage bladder wall tumour CAD system.
USING FEATURE-BASED MODELS

In this paper, we analyze Learning Objects (LOs) from the reusability perspective aiming to better understand the reuse dimension in e-learning and how to handle some reuse issues of LOs more effectively. First, we introduce feature-based modeling concepts borrowed from software engineering for analysis, which outlines dominating factors (features) and the way they affect reusability of LOs. Next, we focus on content/context forming factors such as content granularity, context independence; multiple content/context mappings, accumulative and flexible content updating and changing. Based on knowledge extracted from the analysis, we reconsider feature-based context and content models to analyze and to understand LOs research. We also consider the concept of Generative LOs and motivate the need to extend the concept.
Is Routine Subcarinal Lymph Node Dissection Necessary in Superficial Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma? A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of subcarinal lymph node dissection on short-term and long-term outcomes after esophagectomy in patients with superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: From January 2010 to December 2015, 490 patients with pT1 ESCC were enrolled in the study. Patients in subcarinal dissection or non-dissection group were matched randomly in a 2:1 ratio, eventually, 255 patients were selected for further statistical analysis. Results: The metastasis rate of subcarinal lymph nodes in superficial ESCC was 1.24% and significantly lower than the other stations (7.14-9.96%). Compared with dissection group, non- dissection group had shorter operation time (193±35 vs. 204±39, P=0.016), less blood loss (157±48 vs. 178±29, P=0.011) as well as lower incidence of pulmonary complications (9.4 vs. 20%, P=0.032). At a median follow-up of 46 months, the recurrent rate in each group was similar (16.5 vs. 15.3%, P=0.809). Survival analysis revealed no overall survival (P=0.992) and disease-free survival (P=0.665) reductions in non-dissection group. In univariate and multivariate analyses, subcarinal lymph node dissection was not a predictive factor of overall and disease-free survival in superficial ESCC. Conclusion: Subcarinal lymph node dissection was not beneficial and could be omitted in superficial ESCC.
Conservation Agriculture Enhances Soil Fauna Richness and Abundance in Low Input Systems: Examples From Kenya

Conservation agriculture (CA) is believed to improve soil nutrient status, soil structure, control soil erosion, and also enhance soil biodiversity. Despite the widespread interest in CA, empirical evidence of the benefits of CA on soil biodiversity is limited, especially in low-input systems of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Consequently, the magnitude and effect by CA on soil fauna remains unquantified. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of CA and associated management practices on soil fauna richness and abundance. We hypothesized that CA (zero tillage + organic inputs as surface residue) and mixed cropping would positively influence soil fauna richness and abundance. We compared CA with conventional till (CT; with or without residues) in sole maize and maize-bean cropping systems. Soil macrofauna and mesofauna were sampled across the treatments in medium-term (6 yrs) trials in Embu, Central Kenya, and Kakamega (6 yrs) and a long-term trial in Nyabeda (15 yrs) using soil monoliths and core samplers, respectively. In agreement with our hypothesis, higher macrofauna taxonomic richness and mesofauna was recorded in CA than in CT without residues. This study demonstrated that: 1) medium to long-term addition of organic residues enhances soil fauna richness and abundance, 2) CA increases soil fauna taxonomic richness and abundance compared with CT, and 3) CA under maize-bean intercropping, rotation and sole maize cropping systems promote soil fauna richness and abundance compared with sole legume (common beans). We conclude that adoption of CA is important in enhancing richness of soil fauna. Given the numerous challenges faced by smallholder farmers of SSA in the adoption of CA, who in most cases rarely practice all the three CA principles simultaneously, we propose a further study that will determine the effects and interactions between each of the CA components on soil fauna richness and abundance.
Markers of Novelty Processing in Older Adults Are Stable and Reliable

Exploratory behavior and responsiveness to novelty play an important role in maintaining cognitive function in older adults. Inferences about age- or disease-related differences in neural and behavioral responses to novelty are most often based on results from single experimental testing sessions. There has been very limited research on whether such findings represent stable characteristics of populations studied, which is essential if investigators are to determine the result of interventions aimed at promoting exploratory behaviors or draw appropriate conclusions about differences in the processing of novelty across diverse clinical groups. The goal of the current study was to investigate the short-term test-retest reliability of event-related potential (ERP) and behavioral responses to novel stimuli in cognitively normal older adults. ERPs and viewing durations were recorded in 70 healthy older adults participating in a subject-controlled visual novelty oddball task during two sessions occurring 7 weeks apart. Mean midline P3 amplitude and latency, mean midline amplitude during successive 50 ms intervals, temporospatial factors derived from principal component analysis (PCA), and viewing duration in response to novel stimuli were measured during each session. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no reliable differences in the value of any measurements between Time 1 and 2. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between Time 1 and 2 were excellent for mean P3 amplitude (ICC = 0.86), the two temporospatial factors consistent with the P3 components (ICC of 0.88 and 0.76) and viewing duration of novel stimuli (ICC = 0.81). Reliability was only fair for P3 peak latency (ICC = 0.56). Successive 50 ms mean amplitude measures from 100 to 1,000 ms yielded fair to excellent reliabilities, and all but one of the 12 temporospatial factors identified demonstrated ICCs in the good to excellent range. We conclude that older adults demonstrate substantial stability in ERP and behavioral responses to novel visual stimuli over a 7-week period. These results suggest that older adults may have a characteristic way of processing novelty that appears resistant to transient changes in their environment or internal states, which can be indexed during a single testing session. The establishment of reliable measures of novelty processing will allow investigators to determine whether proposed interventions have an impact on this important aspect of behavior.
New records of bats and terrestrial small mammals from the Seli River in Sierra Leone before the construction of a hydroelectric dam

Abstract Sierra Leone is situated at the western edge of the Upper Guinean Forests in West Africa, a recognised biodiversity hotspot which is increasingly threatened by habitat degradation and loss through anthropogenic impacts. The small mammal fauna of Sierra Leone is poorly documented, although bats and rodents account for the majority of mammalian diversity. Based on morphological, genetic and echolocation data, we recorded 30 bat (Chiroptera), three shrew (Soricomorpha) and eleven rodent (Rodentia) species at the Seli River in the north of the country in 2014 and 2016, during a baseline study for the Bumbuna Phase II hydroelectric project. In 2016, 15 bat species were additionally documented at the western fringe of the Loma Mountains, a recently established national park and biodiversity offset for the Bumbuna Phase I dam. Three bat species were recorded for the first time in Sierra Leone, raising the total number for the country to 61. Further, two bat species are threatened and endemic to the Upper Guinean Forest and several taxa of small mammals are poorly known or represent undescribed species. Overall, the habitats of the project area supported a species-rich small mammal fauna including species of global conservation concern. Suitable mitigation measures and/or offsets are necessary to maintain biodiversity and ecosystems in a region that is under high human pressure.
CULTURE, AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN DETERMINING THE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

This paper addresses some of the cultural aspects that affect the accounting system in Albania and its implementation’s quality. Many authors have studied and observed cultural dimensions and their impact on the accounting system. A nation's culture affects every life aspect consequently accounting is included. Accounting system is not a subject affected only by the culture but by all economic, political and legal background elements in which it is fitted. Accounting system is simultaneously influenced by the background in which entities operate and by the organizational culture of each of the units. Observing the Albanian financial reporting and its implementation quality will be discussed how cultural differences affect the harmonization of accounting and financial reporting. In the first part of the paper will provide a literature review that constitutes the theoretical framework in which will be later made the findings analysis. The paper’s metodology will be based on a qualitative model which will elaborate the findings from the interviews and questionnaires with the preparers of the financial statements and a group of their users. The outcomes from the analysis will provide the conclusion and recommendations of the paper.
Advance Control Techniques for DC/DC BuckConverter with Improved Performance

A buck converter is a very common and useful device in modern power electronics. It has wide application in modern HVDC power system network. The common and effective technique to control the buck converter is PID controller. PID controller is widely used in modern automatic control system. More advance technique to control the converter is non-linear control. Sliding mode control is a non-linear control technique.Every control method has some advantages and drawbacks due to which that particular control method consider as a suitable control method under specific conditions, compared to other control methods. The control method that gives the best performances under any conditions is always in demand.
Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Write-Back Policy with Cache Augmented Data Stores

The Cache Augmented Data Store (CADS) architecture extends a persistent data store with an in-memory cache manager. It is widely deployed to support read-intensive workloads. However, its write-around and write-through policies prevent the caching tier from absorbing write load. This means the data store layer must scale to process writes even when the extra capacity is not needed for read load. We address this limitation by devising a write-back technique to enable the caching layer to process both reads and writes. This technique preserves ACID transactions. We present a client side implementation of write-back and evaluate it using the YCSB, BG, and TPC-C benchmarks. In addition, we compare our write-back with (a) write-back policy of a data store such as MongoDB and (b) write-back policy of a host-side cache such as Flashcache.