Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Rater Agreement Analysis to Refine an Oral Presentation Rubric and Improve Inter-Rater Reliability

Assurance of learning is a hot topic in higher education. State legislatures, regional and professional accreditation agencies, and employers are asking a key question: are we graduating students who actually have the knowledge and skills that we promise (Martell & Caldron, 2005; Suskie, 2004)? Reflecting this movement, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has established new accreditation standards requiring business schools to produce direct evidence of learning in their courses and programs (AACSB, 2003). Implementing and maintaining the type of on-going comprehensive assessment plan called for in the AACSB standards presents many challenges related to time, resources, and culture, and often generates significant resistance from faculty. In many cases, faculty perceive the increased emphasis on assessment as a threat to their academic freedom, an additional demand on their time, and another tool to be used as a form of performance evaluation (Walvoord, 2004). One especially challenging issue is requiring faculty who teach different sections of the same course to agree on measurable learning outcomes and use a common assessment method, such as embedded exam questions or a rubric, to assess the learning. While embedding common exam questions for cognitive outcomes is a fairly straightforward process, the use of rubrics is more difficult. Typically, rubrics are used to assess application and integration skills, such as writing and oral presentations, and are more subjective in nature. The use of rubrics raises a key question, especially when the data is collected across class sections from different instructors: is the data reasonably reliable? In other words, if two instructors viewed the same performance, would they agree on the rating for each performance element? Without some reliability in interpretation of the rubric, the composite data from multiple sections will not be very useful for demonstrating the mastery of skills and knowledge, and for improving teaching and learning. This case study documents how two business school professors are working collaboratively with two external business professionals to refine an oral presentation rubric and to improve interrater reliability. The study demonstrates the use of rater agreement analysis to identify problems with rubric design and to focus discussion on ways to improve rater agreement. The study makes a clear case for the need for rater training if assessment data from rubrics is to be useful for improving teaching and learning. Before we share our experience, it will be helpful to set the context by providing some background on the school.
Advantages of Using Cloud Computing by Knowledge Management Personnel

Cloud computing is acknowledged as one of the application that enable by the knowledge management personnel or individual level. With the facility provided by cloud computing, it is vital to encourage individual users to extensively use cloud computing to enhance the performance. The main flaw that have been highlighted by previous researcher is on security as cloud computing can be access from any geographical locations. This paper reviews the literatures related to the benefit of cloud computing at individual or personel level. As a result of review, the benefits of using and applying the cloud computing system by individual or personel level are important as it is starting from the individual itself on how the successful of knowledge management would be.
Work, well-being and presence among researchers

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate which work factors researchers in the institute sector consider important for their well-being and presence at work. We interviewed eight researchers in depth regarding work, well-being, and presence at work. By use of content analysis, we identified five main themes associated with well-being and presence at work: performing high-quality research; meaningful work; job demands; autonomy; and social support. The opportunity to perform high-quality research was the most important condition for the researchers’ well-being and presence at work. This theme seems to be intertwined with the association between all the other four themes and well-being and presence, and may therefore be regarded as being at a higher level than the other themes. To promote well-being and presence at work, it is important to provide administrative support and to organize work so that the researchers can concentrate on what they regard as core work tasks.
Clinical and immunological evaluation of asthmatic patients in a double blind treatment protocol with transfer factor

We evaluated clinically and immunologically the therapeutic effect of Transfer Factor (TF) in 17 patients with mild or moderate-severity extrinsic bronchial asthma. TF (1 U) or placebo was administered following a double blind protocol during 6 months (32 doses). The immunological evaluation of the patients and of 21 normal individuals, consisted in immediate hypersensitivity skin tests for common
COMPLIANCE OF NURSES TO NATIONAL CORE COMPETENCY STANDARDS

This study was conducted to determine the compliance of 446 staff nurses to National Core Competency Standards. Based on the results, generally the staff nurses were Nurse 3 assigned at the General Wards, mostly from Hospital D and with work experience of 1 to 3 years; the respondents and their supervisors gave a rating of very high level of compliance in Patient Care, Empowering, Enhancing and Enabling Competencies; When grouped according to work position, there was a significant difference on the level of compliance in terms the competency: Patient Care – Communication, Enhancing and Enabling; in terms of unit of practice / department, there was a significant difference on the level of compliance in terms Enabling Competency; in terms of length of work experience as nurse practitioner, there were no significant difference in any of the 4 Competency Standards; in terms of hospital assigned; there was a significant difference in terms of the competencies: Patient Care, Enhancing and Enabling; lastly, there was a significant differences in the evaluation of the staff nurses and their supervisors in terms of the competencies: Patient Care – Safe and Quality Nursing Care, Empowering, Enhancing and Enabling; The problems encountered by staff nurses in complying were time constraints, work overload, communication barriers and lack of feedback.It is recommended that staff nurses should continue to become familiar and updated with the Core Competency Standards. Further analysis of their compliance to competency standards should be done for the basis of planning relevant and targeted educational programs and interventions to enhance nurses’ professional competence. With regards to the patients, they should be educated about being active partners in the provision of care through accurate reporting of data and assessment feedback, so that staff nurses will be aware as to how to comply with the care they need. Article DOI: https://dx.doi. org/10.20319/lijhls.2017. 32.237265 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Characterizing Performance Guarantees for Real-Time Multiagent Systems Operating in Noisy and Uncertain Environments

Autonomous robots offer the potential to conduct CounterWeapons of Mass Destruction (C-WMD) missions in an efficient and robust manner. However, to leverage this potential, a mission designer needs to be able to determine how well a robot system will operate in the noisy and uncertain environments that a CWMD mission may require. We are developing a software framework for verification of performance guarantees for CWMD missions based on the MissionLab software system and a novel process algebra approach to representing robot programs and operating environments. In this paper, we report on our initial research for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in understanding what is required from a performance guarantee to give a mission designer the information necessary to understand how well a robot program will perform in a specific environment. We link this to prior work on metrics for robot performance. Using a simple mission scenario, we explore the implications of uncertainty in the four components of the problem: the robot program, and the sensors, actuators and environment with which the program is executed.
Time-domain convolution of one-bit coded radar signals

The compression of the radar signal is considered when the latter and the reference function are both coded at one bit. A sound theory is provided, which describes the performance of hardlimited signals for pulse compression, the effect of noise and the opportunity for fast convolution methods in time domain. The theory is supported by numerical examples on simulated data. Preliminary considerations regarding the use of dedicated hardware are included.
Pioneering small-group learning in Tanzanian emergency medicine: Investigating acceptability for physician learners

Background. Emergency medicine (EM) is a relatively new, but growing medical specialty in sub-Saharan Africa. African EM training programmes have used small-group learning (SGL) modalities in their curricula. However, there is little knowledge of whether SGL modalities are perceived to be effective in these African EM training programmes. Objectives. To investigate the acceptability of SGL for physicians’ training in an academic Tanzanian emergency department using a novel EM curriculum. Methods. Using responses to a written questionnaire, we explored the perceived effectiveness of SGL compared with traditional didactic lectures among 38 emergency department physician learners in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Perceptions of SGL were identified from qualitative responses, and regression analyses were used to determine strength of association between quantitative outcomes. Results. Reported benefits of SGL included team building, simulation training, enhancement of procedural skills, and the opportunity to discuss opinions on clinical management. SGL scored more favourably with regard to improving clinical practice, enjoyment of learning, and building peer-to-peer relations. Lectures scored more favourably at improving medical knowledge. Preference towards SGL over lectures for overall training increased with years of clinical experience (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.16 - 0.62, p=0.002, Spearman’s rho 0.51), and the perception that SGL reinforces learner-teacher relationships correlated with seniority within residency training (95% CI 0.14 - 0.86, p=0.007, Spearman’s rho 0.47). Conclusion. Techniques of SGL were perceived as effective at improving clinical practice in the emergency department setting. These modalities may be more favourably accepted by more experienced physician learners – therefore, new EM teaching programmes in Africa should consider these factors when targeting educational strategies for their respective regions and learner cohorts.
A testbed for auralization of graphic art

Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information and auralization, a similar but distinct area, is an aural metaphor for visualization - the process by which objects and scenes are interpreted by the human visual system. A fundamental goal of this study is to produce a mechanism by which the visually impaired can experience the artistic content of images using an alternate modality, hearing. In this project, the auralization of images using music is explored. A software algorithm to map pixel data from images to corresponding sound sequences is presented. This conversion is based on a frequency relationship that exists between color and sound in human perception. For example, the frequency of the G tone at 392 Hz, 40 times redoubled (octaved), delivers the frequency of the color red (431 /spl times/ 10/sup 12/ Hz). In addition, the volume of the mapped sounds is used to represent color intensity.
Bayes estimation in M/M/1 queues with bivariate prior

Abstract Bayes estimator of different queueing performance measures are derived in steady state by recording system size from each of n iid M/M/1 queues. The Bayes estimators are obtained under both squared error loss function and precautionary loss function with a bivariate distribution beta stacy as prior, with natural restriction 0 < λ < µ where λ and µ are arrival rate and service rate respectively. A comprehensive simulation results are also shown at the last section.
The Future Of Nostalgia

Combining personal memoir, philosophical essay, and historical analysis, Svetlana Boym explores the spaces of collective nostalgia that connect national biography and personal self-fashioning in the twenty-first century. She guides us through the ruins and construction sites of post-communist cities-St. Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, and Prague-and the imagined homelands of exiles-Benjamin, Nabokov, Mandelstahm, and Brodsky. From Jurassic Park to the Totalitarian Sculpture Garden, Boym unravels the threads of this global epidemic of longing and its antidotes.
Accurate Three Dimensional Coordinates Measurements Using Differential GPS Real Time Kinematic Mode

The accurate 3-D coordinate's measurements of the global positioning systems are essential in many fields and applications. The GPS has numerous applications such as: Frequency Counters, Geographic Information Systems, Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, Car Navigation Systems, Emergency Systems, Aviations, Astronomical Pointing Control, and Atmospheric Sounding using GPS signals, tracking of wild animals, GPS Aid for the Blind, Recorded Position Information, Airborne Gravimetry and other uses. In this paper, the RTK DGPS mode has been used to create precise 3-D coordinates values for four rover stations in Baghdad university camp. The HiPer-II Receiver of global positioning system was used to navigate the coordinate value. The results will be compare with the Google Earth viewer coordinates values, the comparison shows that absolute error was few millimeters between actual and measured coordinate's values.
Pre-registration student midwives: 'Fitting In'

This study explores some of the experiences of a small group of pre-registration (long) student midwives using an ethnographic approach of enquiry; the emphasis is on the analysis of the students' perceptions of the clinical environment. Issues are explored which relate to some of the ways they learn how to function and behave in what they see as a novel and sometimes hostile world. The paper discusses how the informants strive to initiate and develop occupational and personal relationships with midwives who act as professional ‘gatekeepers’. The findings have been places within an anthropological framework in order to demonstrate the relevance and value of medical anthropology for midwives and midwifery.
Histoire parlementaire et personnel politique : une base de données informatisée pour les députés depuis la Révolution

L’auteur de la base de donnees qui recense les 16 000 deputes depuis la Revolution jusqu’a nos jours presente ici les 750 parametres renseignes pour chacun d’eux, ainsi que les sources consultees et le mode d’interrogation de cette base, a la fois outil documentaire et de recherche.
Ovarian Carcinoma Model: Correlative MicroPET and MRI

Preclinical biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of investigational radiopharmaceuticals are typically obtained by longitudinal animal studies. These have required the sacrifice of multiple animals at each time point. Advances in small-animal imaging have made it possible to evaluate the biodistribution of radiopharmaceuticals across time in individual animals, in vivo. MicroPET and MRI-based preclinical biodistribution and localization data were obtained and used to assess the therapeutic potential of 90Y-trastuzumab monoclonal antibody (mAb) (antiHER2/neu) against ovarian carcinoma. Methods: Female nude mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with 5.106 ovarian carcinoma cells (SKOV3). Fourteen days after inoculation, 12‐18 MBq 86Y-labeled trastuzumab mAb was injected intraperitoneally. Tumor-free mice, injected with 86 Y-trastuzumab, and tumor-bearing mice injected with labeled, irrelevant mAb or 86Ytrastuzumab 100-fold excess unlabeled trastuzumab were used as controls. Eight microPET studies per animal were collected over 72 h. Standard and background images were collected for calibration. MicroPET images were registered with MR images acquired on a 1.5-T whole-body MR scanner. For selected time points, 4.7-T small-animal MR images were also obtained. Images were analyzed and registered using software developed in-house. At completion of imaging, suspected tumor lesions were dissected for histopathologic confirmation. Blood, excised normal organs, and tumor nodules were measured by -counting. Tissue uptake was expressed relative to the blood concentration (percentage of injected activity per gram of tissue [%IA/g]/%IA/g blood). 86 Y-Trastuzumab pharmacokinetics were used to perform 90Y-trastuzumab dosimetry. Results: Intraperitoneal injection of mAb led to rapid blood-pool uptake (5‐9 h) followed by tumor localization (26 ‐32 h), as confirmed by registered MR images. Tumor uptake was greatest for 86Y-trastuzumab (7 1); excess unlabeled trastuzumab yielded a 70% reduction. Tumor uptake for the irrelevant mAb was 0.4 0.1. The concentration in normal organs relative to blood ranged from 0 to 1.4 across all studies, with maximum uptake in spleen. The absorbed dose to the kidneys was 0.31 Gy/MBq 90Y-trastuzumab. The liver received 0.48 Gy/MBq, and the spleen received 0.56 Gy/MBq. Absorbed dose to tumors varied from 0.10 Gy/MBq for radius 0.1 mm to 3.7 Gy/MBq for radius 5 mm. Conclusion: For all injected compounds, the relative microPET image intensity of the tumor matched the subsequently determined 86Y uptake. Coregistration with MR images confirmed the position of 86 Y uptake relative to various
Réglage du routeur d'un sous réseau dédié au contrôle commande temps réel Approche expérimentale avec apprentissage par réseau de neurones

En depit de leur qualite de determinisme dedie au controle commande, les protocoles traditionnels de reseaux de terrains (tels que FIP ou PROFIBUS) se voient menaces par l'arrivee de solutions utilisant Ethernet. Cet article propose une demarche pour fournir a un utilisateur les valeurs de reglage d'un routeur sur un sous reseau de controle commande. Ces valeurs permettront de garantir la Qualite de Controle tout en maximisant les communications avec l'exterieur. Un « benchmark » est utilise dans le but de valider la demarche utilisant un apprentissage par reseaux de neurones.
From beat to BCI: A musical paradigm for, and the ethical aspects of Brain-Computer Interfacing

An auditory rhythm can be perceived as a sequence of accented (loud) and non-accented (soft) beats or it can be imagined. Subjective rhythmization refers to the induction of accenting patterns during the presentation of identical auditory pulses at an isochronous rate. It can be an automatic process, but it can also be voluntarily controlled. We investigated whether imagined accents can be decoded from brain signals on a single-trial basis, and if there is information shared between perception and imagery in the contrast of accents and non-accents. Ten subjects perceived and imagined three different metric patterns (2-, 3-, and 4-beat) superimposed on a steady metronome while electroencephalography (EEG) measurements were made. Shared information between perception and imagery EEG is investigated by means of principal component analysis and by means of single-trial classification. Classification of accented from non-accented beats was possible with an average accuracy of 70% for perception and 61% for imagery data. Cross-condition classification yielded significant performance above chance level for a classifier trained on perception and tested on imagery data (up to 66%), and vice-versa (up to 60%). Results show that detection of imagined accents is possible and reveal similarity in brain signatures relevant to distinction of accents from non-accents in perception and imagery. Our results support the idea of shared mechanisms in perception and imagery for auditory processing. This is relevant for a number of clinical settings, most notably by elucidating the basic mechanisms of rhythmic auditory cuing paradigms, e.g. as used in motor rehabilitation or therapy for Parkinson’s disease. As a novel Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) paradigm, our results imply a reduction of the necessary BCI training in healthy subjects and in patients. 1Chapters 2 and 3 make use of a single EEG dataset, analysed from different angles and answering a different set of questions
OneCloud: A Study of Dynamic Networking in an OpenFlow Cloud

Cloud computing is a popular paradigm for accessing computing resources. It provides elastic, on-demand and pay-per-use models that help reduce costs and maintain a flexible infrastructure. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds are becoming increasingly popular because users do not have to purchase the hardware for a private cloud, which significantly reduces costs. However, IaaS presents networking challenges to cloud providers because cloud users want the ability to customize the cloud to match their business needs. This requires providers to offer dynamic networking capabilities, such as dynamic IP addressing. Providers must expose a method by which users can reconfigure the networking infrastructure for their private cloud without disrupting the private clouds of other users. Such capabilities have often been provided in the form of virtualized network overlay topologies. In our work, we present a virtualized networking solution for the cloud using the OpenFlow protocol. OpenFlow is a software defined networking approach for centralized control of a network’s data flows. In an OpenFlow network, packets not matching a flow entry are sent to a centralized controller(s) that makes forwarding decisions. The controller then installs flow entries on the network switches, which in turn process further network traffic at line-rate. Since the OpenFlow controller can manage traffic on all of the switches in a network, it is ideal for enabling the dynamic networking needs of cloud users. This work analyzes the potential of OpenFlow to enable dynamic networking in cloud computing and presents reference implementations of Amazon EC2’s Elastic IP Addresses and Security Groups using the NOX OpenFlow controller and the OpenNebula cloud provisioning engine.