Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accelerating Chronically Unresponsive Children to Tier 3 Instruction

Response-to-intervention (RTI) approaches to disability identification are meant to put an end to the so-called wait-to-fail requirement associated with IQ discrepancy. However, in an unfortunate irony, there is a group of children who wait to fail in RTI frameworks. That is, they must fail both general classroom instruction (Tier 1) and small-group intervention (Tier 2) before becoming eligible for the most intensive intervention (Tier 3). The purpose of this article was to determine how to predict accurately which at-risk children will be unresponsive to Tiers 1 and 2, thereby allowing unresponsive children to move directly from Tier 1 to Tier 3. As part of an efficacy study of a multitier RTI approach to prevention and identification of reading disabilities (RD), 129 first-grade children who were unresponsive to classroom reading instruction were randomly assigned to 14 weeks of small-group, Tier 2 intervention. Nonresponders to this instruction (n = 33) were identified using local norms on first-grade word identification fluency growth linked to a distal outcome of RD at the end of second grade. Logistic regression models were used to predict membership in responder and nonresponder groups. Predictors were entered as blocks of data from least to most difficult to obtain: universal screening data, Tier 1 response data, norm referenced tests, and Tier 2 response data. Tier 2 response data were not necessary to classify students as responders and nonresponders to Tier 2 instruction, suggesting that some children can be accurately identified as eligible for Tier 3 intervention using only Tier 1 data, thereby avoiding prolonged periods of failure to instruction.
Real-Time Scheduling for Reducing Jitters of Periodic Tasks

For control applications implemented with periodic tasks, fluctuations in start or response timing cause jitters which may disturb periodicity and result in performance degradation or instability. This study proposes real-time scheduling techniques that reduce jitters and average response times of periodic tasks. In the proposed scheduling, two techniques are employed: one which adaptively extends deadlines according to varying execution times, and the other which further obtains short deadlines by virtually advancing release times. These two techniques aim at scheduling target tasks as early as possible by giving them short enough deadlines. The evaluation shows that the former shortens average response times of the target tasks by up to 20.5% and the latter mitigates jitters by up to 35.4%, compared to the existing scheduling algorithm, Total Bandwidth Server.
Plant Viability as a Function of Temperature Stress (The Richards Function Applied to Data from Freezing Tests of Growing Shoots)

Frost resistance of growing Salix viminalis L. shoots was determined by rating mortality percentage under two commonly used freezing conditions: a condition in which plants were encased in crushed ice and another in which plants were moistened with tap water prior to freezing. The mortality-temperature data were fitted with a logistic function (having a fixed inflection point halfway between the asymptotes) and with a Richards function, which is a double asymptotic sigmoid function with a variable inflection point. Different frost resistance curves were obtained, depending on the freezing conditions used. However, conditions were inadequate for efficient ice nucleation under either condition. This implies that the applied freezing conditions are not suitable when the purpose is to induce and duplicate early ice crystal formation conditions. The Richards derivatives were negatively skewed in the one case and positively skewed in the other case, giving inflection points, as a function of the upper asymptote, situated at 0.37 when shoots were frosted in the presence of ice and at 0.81 when shoots were frozen in the presence of added moisture. These values differed significantly from 0.50, through which the logistic function would have forced the curves. Because of the significant asymmetry in these frost-resistance curves, the Richards function led to a more accurate reflection of the temperature-mortality course of growing Salix stems than the logistic function. The Richards function possesses the flexibility needed to describe plant injury response in terms of physical and plant physiological mechanisms. Therefore, the Richards function is recommended rather than the logistic function for the assessment of frost resistance.
High-resolution spatio-temporal neuronal activation in the visual oddball task: a simultaneous EEG/fMRI study

The combined use of EEG and fMRI allows for the fusion of electrophysiological and hemodynamic information in the study of human cognitive functions. In order to investigate cerebral activity during a visual oddball task, simultaneous EEG/fMRI recording from 10 healthy subjects was performed. A devoted data-analysis method based on trial-by-trial coupling of concurrent EEG and fMRI for the high-resolution spatio-temporal analysis of P300 neuronal activation was developed. Our results obtained from fMRI data showed the involvement of inferior and medial frontal gyrus, cingulated motor area, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule in the oddball task; furthermore, activations were generally right lateralized, in accordance with previous findings. Using the high temporal resolution of EEG, we could separate neuronal activations specifically related to P300 activity, and therefore study the activation timing. We found that the detection of rare targets, that is able to elicit the P300 component, stimulates a limbic-parietofrontal circuit, with latencies ranging between 300 and 400 ms. Our findings suggest that the proposed approach might be extended to other event-related experimental paradigms, and might represent an valuable tool for a clearer understanding of the cerebral mechanisms underlying a wide range of cognitive functions.
MRONoC: A Low Latency and Energy Efficient on Chip Optical Interconnect Architecture

The circuit switched optical network on chip (ONoC) is popularly employed since the optical buffer is not available. However, this technique suffers from limited transmission bandwidth, high setup-time overhead, and high network resource contention, which consequentially induces long latency and degraded throughput. In this paper, we propose a new ONoC architecture aiming at ultralow setup cost, improved scalability, and contention-free communication. We first utilize wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to introduce the basic version of this ONoC with efficient wavelength assignment. A series of potential versions are developed by using multiple waveguides to relieve the pressure on the number of wavelengths. These potential versions can make a tradeoff between required wavelengths and waveguides and improve the scalability. The new architectures employ two layers relying on the interlayer coupler, which contributes to the decrease of crossing losses. The simulation results show that the architecture can achieve 133% saturated bandwidth improvement compared with the traditional mesh ONoC employing WDM technology under the uniform traffic pattern.
On the equivalence of systems of rules and systems of axioms in illative combinatory logic

The curious thing is that no system (other than some proved inconsistent) has been found in which these axioms are in turn derivable from the deduction theorem and the other rules. This is unfortunate particularly as investigations into consistency are simpler for systems of rules. The system of rules corresponding to Curry's system of axioms J 2 2, for example, was proved Q-consistent (see [8] and [9]), but this system is not equivalent to 922. In this paper we examine this problem by looking at a system strong enough for first order predicate calculus (that of [1]) and a generalization of this (that of [4]) which is strong enough for the development of a predicate logic of arbitrarily high order. We then suggest a weaker version of [4] to bring the goal of equivalence between the two kinds of systems nearer, but find that only a radical addition—the allowance of quantification over theorems as well as over various functions over
FPGA implementation of a recurrent neural fuzzy network for on-line temperature control

FPGA implementation of a TSK-type recurrent neural fuzzy network (TRNFN) for water bath temperature control is proposed in this paper. The TRNFN is constructed from recurrent fuzzy if-then rules and is built through a concurrent structure and parameter learning. To apply TRNFN to temperature control, the direct inverse control configuration is adopted. For the on-line adaptive control objective, the implemented TRNFN chip is characterized with learning ability, where the consequent part parameters of TRNFN are tuned by gradient descent. Experiments on water bath temperature control have verified the function of the designed TRNFN chip.
Recent progress in pharmacological research of propolis

Propolis is a resinous hive product collected by honeybees from various plant sources. It is a popular folk medicine possessing a broad spectrum of biological activities. It has also been used as a health drink in various Asian, European and American countries. Several groups of researchers have focused their attention on the biological activity of propolis and its active principles. Many scientific articles are published every year in different international journals related to the pharmacological properties of propolis. This review article compiles recent findings (since 1995) on the pharmacological properties of propolis focusing on its antihepatotoxic, antitumour, antioxidative, antimicrobial and antiinflammatory properties. The possible mechanism of action of propolis as well as the active compounds are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Transcriptional regulation of α B-crystallin in astrocytes : analysis of HSF and AP 1 activation by different types of physiological stress

The coordinated cellular responses to physiological stress are known to be effected in part by the activation of heat shock factor 1, a transcriptional activator protein capable of binding to, and inducing transcription from genes containing heat shock elements. Other stress responsive signal transduction pathways also exist including the stress activated protein kinase cascade that regulates the activity of the transcription factor AP1. We have examined the expression of the low molecular stress proteins, heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin in astrocytes in response to physiological stress of different types and asked what component of this induction is effected at the transcriptional level and whether activation of heat shock factor 1 and AP1 might account for these events. We have found that stress regulated induction of αB-crystallin has a strong transcriptional component and that it may be effected by at least two different transcriptional mechanisms. In one set of phenomena, represented here by cadmium exposure, αB-crystallin and heat shock protein 27 are coordinately regulated and this occurs in the presence of activated heat shock factor 1. In the second series of phenomena, represented here by hypertonic stress, αB-crystallin is induced in the absence of heat shock factor activation and in the absence of any corresponding change in heat shock protein 27 expression. Although hypertonic stress does activate an AP1-like binding activity, the AP1 consensus binding site in the αB-crystallin promoter does not appear to be a target for this hypertonic stress inducible activity. These data suggest that the hypertonic stress response is effected through a heat shock factor independent mechanism and that hypertonic stress regulated induction of αB-crystallin does not directly depend on the SAPK pathway and AP1 activity.
Essential role of Dkk3 for head formation by inhibiting Wnt/β‐catenin and Nodal/Vg1 signaling pathways in the basal chordate amphioxus

To dissect the molecular mechanism of head specification in the basal chordate amphioxus, we investigated the function of Dkk3, a secreted protein in the Dickkopf family, which is expressed anteriorly in early embryos. Amphioxus Dkk3 has three domains characteristic of Dkk3 proteins—an N‐terminal serine rich domain and two C‐terminal cysteine‐rich domains (CRDs). In addition, amphioxus Dkk3 has a TGFβ‐receptor 2 domain, which is not present in Dkk3 proteins of other species. As vertebrate Dkk3 proteins have been reported to regulate either Nodal signaling or Wnt/β‐catenin signaling but not both in the same species, we tested the effects of Dkk3 on signaling by these two pathways in amphioxus embryos. Loss of function experiments with an anti‐sense morpholino oligonucleotide (MO) against amphioxus Dkk3 resulted in larvae with truncated heads and concomitant loss of expression of anterior gene markers. The resemblance of the headless phenotype to that from upregulation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling with BIO, a GSK3β inhibitor, suggested that Dkk3 might inhibit Wnt/β‐catenin signaling. In addition, the Dkk3 MO rescued dorsal structures in amphioxus embryos treated with SB505124, an inhibitor of Nodal signaling, indicating that amphioxus Dkk3 can also inhibit Nodal signaling. In vitro assays in Xenopus animal caps showed that Nodal inhibition is largely due to domains other than the TGFβ domain. We conclude that amphioxus Dkk3 regulates head formation by modulating both Wnt/β‐catenin and Nodal signaling, and that these functions may have been partitioned among various vertebrate lineages during evolution of Dkk3 proteins.
Experimental Analysis and Evaluation of the Numerical Prediction of Wake Characteristics of Tidal Stream Turbine

It is important to understand tidal stream turbine performance and flow field, if tidal energy is to advance. The operating condition of a tidal stream turbine with a supporting structure has a significant impact on its performance and wake recovery. The aim of this work is to provide an understanding of turbine submerged depth that governs the downstream wake structure and its recovery to the free-stream velocity profile. An experimentally validated numerical model, based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, was present to obtain longitudinal, transverse and vertical velocity profiles. Wake characteristics measurements have been carried out in an open channel at Hohai University. The results indicate that varying the turbine proximity to the water surface introduces differential mass flow rate around the rotor that could make the wake persist differently downstream. CFD shows the same predicted wake recovery tendency with the experiments, and an agreement from CFD and experiments is good in the far-wake region. The results presented demonstrate that CFD is a good tool to simulate the performance of tidal turbines particularly in the far-wake region and that the turbine proximity to the water surface has an effect on the wake recovery.
Heme oxygenase‐1 gene transfer inhibits angiotensin II‐mediated rat cardiac myocyte apoptosis but not hypertrophy

Cardiac myocyte apoptosis underlies the pathophysiology of cardiomyopathy, and plays a critical role in the transition from myocardial hypertrophy to heart failure. Angiotensin II (Ang II) induces cardiac myocyte apoptosis and hypertrophy which contribute to heart failure possibly through enhanced oxidative stress; however, the mechanisms underlying the activation of both pathways and their interactions remain unclear. In the present study, we have investigated whether overexpression of the antioxidant protein heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) protects against apoptosis and hypertrophy in cultured rat cardiac myocytes treated with Ang II. Our findings demonstrate that Ang II (100 nM, 24 h) alone upregulates HO‐1 expression and induces both myocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis, assessed by measuring terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase dUTP nick‐end labelling (TUNEL) staining, caspase‐3 activity and mitochondrial membrane potential. Ang II elicited apoptosis was augmented in the presence of tin protoporphyrin, an inhibitor of HO activity, while HO‐1 gene transfer to myocytes attenuated Ang II‐mediated apoptosis but not hypertrophy. Adenoviral overexpression of HO‐1 was accompanied by a significant increase in Ang II induced phosphorylation of Akt, however, Ang II‐mediated p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation was attenuated. Inhibition of phosphotidylinositol‐3‐kinase enhanced myocyte apoptosis elicited by Ang II, however, p38MAPK inhibition had no effect, suggesting that overexpression of HO‐1 protects myocytes via augmented Akt activation and not through modulation of p38MAPK activation. Our findings identify the signalling pathways by which HO‐1 gene transfer protects against apoptosis and suggest that overexpression of HO‐1 in cardiomyopathies may delay the transition from myocyte hypertrophy to heart failure. J. Cell. Physiol. 209: 1–7, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Guidance and Counselling: What is the level of Human and Physical Resource Preparedness in providing effective Services in Secondary Schools in Bureti Sub County, Kericho County, Kenya?

The gist of this study was to examine the human and resource preparedness to provide effective guidance and counselling (G&C) services in secondary schools in Bureti Sub County, Kericho County, Kenya. The study used combinations of descriptive survey and correlation research designs. Stratified sampling technique was employed to select 20 principals and 20 heads of G&C department while simple random sampling technique was used to select 400 students yielding a sample size of 440. Questionnaire, interview schedule and document analysis guide were used to collect data for the study. The study established that approximately two thirds of the practicing school guidance and counseling personnel did not have the required qualifications of diploma and above. Guidance and Counseling facilities were too inadequate to facilitate effective implementation of G&C services in most schools within the study locale. Based on the findings, it was recommended that regular workshops on G&C for public secondary school teachers and other service providers be intensified to enable them improve significantly in pedagogy and effectiveness. The importance of professional self-development and upgrading for teacher effectiveness through self-sponsored workshop attendance should be encouraged. These findings are significant to teacher counselors, Principals and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology as it will enable them to enhance G&C services in schools and achieve the set objectives of school guidance and counseling program in schools. [224 words] Keywords : Guidance and Counselling, Human and Physical Resources, Preparedness , effective Services , Secondary Schools, Bureti Sub County, Kericho County, Kenya.
High‐efficiency nano‐ and micro‐HPLC – High‐resolution Orbitrap‐MS platform for top‐down proteomics

In terms of resolution, mass accuracy, and sensitivity, the Orbitrap represents one of the most potent mass analyzers available today. We here elucidate the potential of interfacing Orbitrap‐MS to ion‐pair RP HPLC for intact protein analysis. Using gradients of ACN and monolithic columns of 1.0 and 0.10 mm id, peak capacities between 120 and 130 were achievable within 20–25 min separation time. Compared with silica‐based stationary phases, protein recovery and carryover from monolithic columns were found clearly superior. Intact proteins were detectable in a mass range covering 5.7–150 kDa with LODs in the low femtomol range. Compared with UV detection, MS detection with a scanning speed of 1.6 s per spectrum on average led to a 26% increase in chromatographic peak widths, whereas chromatographic patterns were mostly preserved in extracted ion chromatograms at an acquisition rate of 0.5 s per spectrum. Isotopic resolution of multiply charged ions was demonstrated for proteins up to 42 kDa. A micro‐HPLC‐Orbitrap‐MS setup employing a 1.0 mm id column was utilized to characterize a 150 kDa recombinant monoclonal antibody. The applicability of nano‐HPLC‐Orbitrap‐MS to the analysis of highly complex protein mixtures is demonstrated for the 70% ethanol extractable subproteome of wheat grains.
Explorer Coalgebraic Aspects of Bidirectional Computation

We have previously (Bx, 2014; MPC, 2015) shown that several statebased bx formalisms can be captured using monadic functional programming, using the state monad together with possibly other monadic effects, giving rise to structures we have called monadic bx (mbx). In this paper, we develop a coalgebraic theory of state-based bx, and relate the resulting coalgebraic structures (cbx) to mbx. We show that cbx support a notion of composition coherent with, but conceptually simpler than, our previous mbx definition. Coalgebraic bisimulation yields a natural notion of behavioural equivalence on cbx, which respects composition, and essentially includes symmetric lens equivalence as a special case. Finally, we speculate on the applications of this coalgebraic perspective to other bx constructions and formalisms.
A T heoretical F ramework for D eep T ransfer L earning

We generalize the notion of PAC learning to include transfer learning. In our framework, the linkage between the source and the target tasks is a result of having the sample distribution of all classes drawn from the same distribution of distributions, and by restricting all source and a target concepts to belong to the same hypothesis subclass. We have two models: an adversary model and a randomized model. In the adversary model, we show that for binary classification, conventional PAClearning is equivalent to the new notion of PAC-transfer and to transfer generalization of the VC-dimension. For regression, we show that PAC-transferability may exist even in the absence of PAC-learning. In the randomized model, we provide PAC-Bayesian and VC-style generalization bounds to transfer learning, including bounds specifically derived for Deep Learning. A wide discussion on the tradeoffs between the different involved parameters in the bounds is provided. We demonstrate both cases in which transfer does not reduce the sample size (“trivial transfer”) and cases in which the sample size is reduced (“non-trivial transfer”).
New procedure for isolation of Rous sarcoma virus-specific RNA from infected cells

The use of mercurated "strong stop" complementary DNA (complementary to the 5'-terminal 101 nucleotides of Rous sarcoma virus RNA) in the isolation of virus-specific RNA from infected chicken embryo fibroblasts is described. Strong stop Rous sarcoma virus complementary DNA was mercurated chemically, and, as a result of the low complexity of this DNA, short hybridization times (up to 15 min) and heating in the absence of formamide were found to be adequate conditions for the isolation of virus-specific RNA. The purity of the isolated RNA was demonstrated by analysis of labeled RNase T1-resistant oligonucleotides by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The isolated RNA could be translated in the in vitro protein synthesis system derived from rabbit reticulocytes, and an analysis of polypeptides programmed by isolated RNA before and after immunoprecipitation further demonstrated both the purity of the isolated mRNA and the quantitative nature of the isolation procedure.