Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EXPLORING THE USES OF BLOGS AND WIKIS AS TEACHING AND LEARNING TOOLS IN MATHEMATICS: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

With the overwhelming technological innovations as Web 2.0 tools and their various integrations in education, instructors have struggled with the issue of these tools. While students report that social media tools assist them academically through collaborations, some instructors have expressed concerns that they encourage socializing and loss of educational focus. The present paper examines the uses of Blogs and wikis in two math middle school classes. The themes emerging from this study are: students' uses versus teacher's uses of Web 2.0 tools; quality and quantity in Web 2.0 communication; quality of content and the balance between online and face-to-face in Web 2.0 learning and finally the teacher's role in Web 2.0 learning.
A Novel Least-Squares Level Set Method by Using Polygonal Elements

In this study, we apply an artificial viscosity method to convert an unsteady level set (LS) convection equation into an unsteady LS convection-diffusion transport equation to stabilize the numerical solution of the convection term. Then a novel least-square polygonal finite element method is used to solve an unsteady LS convection-diffusion problem. The least-squares method provided good mathematical properties such as natural numerical diffusion and the positive definite symmetry of the resulting algebraic systems for the convection-diffusion and re-initialization equations. The proposed method is evaluated numerically in two different benchmark problems: a rigid body rotation of Zalesak’s disk, and a time-reversed single-vortex flow. In comparison with conventional triangular (T3) and quadrilateral (Q4) elements, polygonal elements are capable of providing greater flexibility in mesh generation for complicated problems as well as more accurate in solving the LS equations. In addition, the numerical results are also compared with the results which obtained from essentially non-oscillatory type formulations and particle LS methods. The results show that the proposed method completely matches the previously published results.
Design Methodologies to Manage Switching Noise with Applications to Biomedical Acoustic Systems

of the Dissertation Design Methodologies to Manage Switching Noise with Applications to Biomedical Acoustic Systems by Zhihua Gan Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering Stony Brook University 2017 Noise and power efficiency are two critical issues in modern integrated circuits (ICs) that highly impact the system performance. Due to the high density of circuits, different circuit modules are integrated on the same die. Specifically, in a mixed-signal environment, switching noise due to substrate coupling propagates from digital circuits to analog parts. Furthermore, analog circuits also suffer from the intrinsic device noise such as thermal, flicker and shot noise. Thus, a challenging issue during the design process of analog circuits is the evaluation of the dominant noise source. An analysis flow is proposed to understand the dominance characteristics of switching noise and device noise in two commonly used amplifiers. The frequencies at which the input device and switching noise are equal have been determined to provide guidelines for signal isolation process.
Types and use of educational support systems by library educators in universities in Nigeria: towards quality and effective teaching practices

This work is a review of the different types of Educational Support Systems (ESS) useful for teaching and the various ways they can be applied for teaching. Rationales for the use of ESS for teaching in the university-based library schools in Nigeria were provided while literature relevant to the study were reviewed to relate past research studies, opinions and thoughts to the discussion. An exposition was done on the importance and benefits of these resources when applied to teaching in the library schools. Finally, the author concluded that the selection and acquisition of software and related activities will demand a high level of computer, digital and information literacies from the educators and it may require their learning and understanding, once and again, the principles of courseware design and the relevance of different applications to the instructional task at hand, in order to shift the paradigm to ESS-enabled dynamic and interactive teaching and learning environment where there will be excitement, individuality and yet collaboration.
MICROVALVE-ADDRESSABLE PICOLITER CHAMBERS FOR SINGLE-MOLECULE ENZYMOLOGY

This paper reports a novel microfluidic device for characterizing low-copy enzymatic reactions via parallel mixing of picoliter-scale fluid volumes. Integrated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microvalve arrays are used to control filling and mixing of a nanoliter-sized chamber with 1-9 picoliter-sized chambers. A proof-ofconcept enzymatic reaction was performed in which the device was loaded with the enzyme alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and the fluorogenic substrate fluorescein diphosphate (FDP). Fluorescence microscopy was used to observe the rate of fluorescence increase once enzyme and substrate solutions were allowed to diffusively mix.
Inkjet-printed vertically emitting solid-state organic lasers

In this paper, we show that Inkjet Printing can be successfully applied to external-cavity vertically emitting thin-film organic lasers and can be used to generate a diffraction-limited output beam with an output energy as high as 33.6 μJ with a slope efficiency S of 34%. Laser emission shows to be continuously tunable from 570 to 670 nm using an intracavity polymer-based Fabry-Perotetalon. High-optical quality films with several μm thicknesses are realized, thanks to ink-jet printing. We introduce a new optical material where EMD6415 commercial ink constitutes the optical host matrix and exhibits a refractive index of 1.5 and an absorption coefficient of 0.66 cm−1 at 550–680 nm. Standard laser dyes like Pyrromethene 597 and Rhodamine 640 are incorporated in solution to the EMD6415 ink. Such large size “printed pixels” of 50 mm2 present uniform and flat surfaces, with roughness measured as low as 1.5 nm in different locations of a 50 μm × 50 μm AFM scan. Finally, as the gain capsules fabricated by Inkjet printing are simple and do not incorporate any tuning or cavity element, they are simple to make, have a negligible fabrication cost, and can be used as fully disposable items. This work opens the way towards the fabrication of really low-cost tunable visible lasers with an affordable technology that has the potential to be widely disseminated.
COMET-QE and Active Learning for Low-Resource Machine Translation

Active learning aims to deliver maximum benefit when resources are scarce. We use COMET-QE, a reference-free evaluation metric, to select sentences for low-resource neural machine translation. Using Swahili, Kinyarwanda and Spanish for our experiments, we show that COMET-QE significantly outperforms two variants of Round Trip Translation Likelihood (RTTL) and random sentence selection by up to 5 BLEU points for 20k sentences selected by Active Learning on a 30k baseline. This suggests that COMET-QE is a powerful tool for sentence selection in the very low-resource limit.
Design of Convolutional Extreme Learning Machines for Vision-Based Navigation Around Small Bodies

Deep learning architectures such as convolutional neuralnetworks arethe standard in computer vision for image processing tasks. Their accuracy however often comes at the cost of long and computationally expensive training, the need for large annotated datasets, and extensive hyper-parameter searches. On the other hand, a diﬀerent method known as convolutional extreme learning machine has shown the potential to perform equally with a dramatic decrease in training time. Space imagery, especially about small bodies, could be well suited for this method. In this work, convolutional extreme learning machine architectures are designed and tested against their deep-learning counterparts. Because of the relatively fast training time of the former, convolutional extreme learning machine architectures enable eﬃcient exploration of the architecture design space, which would have been impractical with the latter, introducing a methodology for an eﬃcient design of a neural network architecture for computer vision tasks. Also, the coupling between the image processing method and labeling strategy is investigated and demonstrated to play a major role when considering vision-based navigation around small bodies. of combination with (IP) provides compelling navigation performances with cost-eﬀective hardware.
Testing the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm for the Turkish Banking Sector: 2008-2013

The history of the studies on traditional industrial economics goes back to 1940’s. These studies (Mason, 1939; Bain, 1951) were in general conducted to provide information about market structure. The structure-conduct-performance (SCP) approach stemmed from these studies argues that, in the case of hindered market entry, the higher the concentration ratio and collusion among firms, the lower the level of competition in the market. Later on, a number of authors have contributed to the traditional SCP approach to improve it in a number of ways: The first hypothesis is called “the collusion hypothesis” and developed by Bain (1952); the second one was due to Demsetz (1973) and called the “efficient structure hypothesis. ” This study aims at testing the applicability of the SCP approaches using the data related to 23 Turkish commercial banks operating over the period 2008-2013. The empirical results have shown that the modified efficient structure hypothesis holds for the Turkish banking sector over the sample period.
Sistem Monitoring Tekanan Air pada PDAM Gianyar Berbasis Web

Regional Water Company (PDAM) Gianyar Regency is one of the regionally owned companies in Gianyar Regency. Gianyar PDAM is responsible for the availability of clean water for consumers in the Gianyar region and its surroundings. In a water distribution system, the PDAM monitors water pressure in the pipeline so that water is guaranteed to flow to the customer. During this time the system of recording water pressure on the manometer installed in each particular zone is done manually using report paper. The difficulty caused is the slow monitoring of water pressure reported by the recording officer to the distribution officer, so that the water distribution process becomes stagnant which ultimately harms the customers and the PDAM itself. This study aims to create a system that can record water pressure which makes it easier for the distribution head to get information quickly. With the research phase which includes data collection techniques, system analysis, and system design to maximize research and implement systems and tests on each system, it can be concluded that the system that has been made can run well and as expected. The functional features generated in this study are the dashboard graph of the average water pressure per month, processing master employee data, processing village master data, processing master manometer data, processing schedule data, manometer monitoring by officers, manometer monitoring by admin and manometer monitoring report .
LES modelling of nitric oxide (NO) formation in a propane-air turbulent reacting flame

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technique is applied to investigate the nitric oxide (NO) formation in the propane-air flame inside a cylindrical combustor. In LES a spatial filtering is applied to the governing equations to separate the flow field into large scale eddies and small scale eddies. The large scale eddies which carry most of the turbulent energy are resolved explicitly while the unresolved small scale eddies are modelled. A Smagorinsky model with model constant Cs = 0.1 as well as a dynamic model has been employed for modelling of the sub-grid scale eddies, while the nonpremixed combustion process is modelled through the conserved scalar approach with laminar flamelet model. In NO formation model, the extended Zeldovich (thermal) reaction mechanism is taken into account through a transport equation for NO mass fraction. The computational results are compared with those of the experimental results investigated by Nishida and Mukohara [1] in co-flowing turbulent flame.
Carbon budgets of bermudagrass using eddy-covariance technique

Scant attention has been given to evaluate the magnitude of net carbon balance from turf despite the fact that approximately 30% of total urban area in continental United States is dominated by turfgrasses. While most of the carbon related studies in turfgrasses are focused in cool-season grasses, this study delves into carbon balance of ‘Tifway’ bermudagrass, the most extensively used warm-season turfgrass in Georgia. Using the highly efficient eddy-covariance method, we estimated carbon budgets of a highly managed turfgrass system in a commercial sod farm for three consecutive years. Our results show that ‘Tifway’ bermudagrass is a net sink of carbon, sequestering it at the rate of 4.83 ± 0.32 Mg ha yr. Carbon fluxes from this system showed a significant dependence on average solar radiation and air temperature, while soil moisture conditions also affected the optimum rates of photosynthesis. The turfgrass system was an efficient assimilator of C during summer and fall. Sod harvest and heavy mowing had a profound effect on carbon balance of the system while light mowing had a small temporary effect. INDEX WORDS: Turfgrass, Carbon Flux, Eddy Covariance, Bermudagrass, Carbon Sequestration CARBON BUDGETS OF BERMUDAGRASS USING EDDY-COVARIANCE TECHNIQUE by
Differential retention of Pfam domains creates long-term evolutionary trends

Protein domains that emerged more recently in evolution have higher structural disorder and greater clustering of hydrophobic residues along the primary sequence. It is hard to explain how selection acting via descent with modification could act so slowly as not to saturate over the extraordinarily long timescales over which these trends persist. Here we hypothesize that the trends were created by a higher level of selection that differentially affects the retention probabilities of protein domains with different properties. This hypothesis predicts that loss rates should depend on disorder and clustering trait values. To test this, we inferred loss rates via maximum likelihood for animal Pfam domains, after first performing a set of stringent quality control methods to reduce annotation errors. Intermediate trait values, matching those of ancient domains, are associated with the lowest loss rates, making our results difficult to explain with reference to previously described homology detection biases. Simulations confirm that effect sizes are of the right magnitude to produce the observed long-term trends. Our results support the hypothesis that differential domain loss slowly weeds out those protein domains that have non-optimal levels of disorder and clustering. The same preferences also shape differential diversification of Pfam domains, further impacting proteome composition.
RIG-I activation primes and trains innate antiviral immune memory

Adaptive processes of the innate immune system, known as trained immunity (TI), are critical to human health and disease, yet they have not been systematically investigated downstream of antiviral sensing. Here, we elucidate the potential of the antiviral cytosolic RNA receptor retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) to train, prime and tolerize the innate immune system. Using a specific RIG-I agonist, we observed that repetitive stimulation enhanced interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) and pro-inflammatory cytokine induction in human primary monocytes, epithelial cells and fibroblasts and afforded non-specific antiviral protection. RNA sequencing revealed broad, cell type-specific transcriptional changes, indicative of priming of ISGs and training of the NFκB pathway, without measurable tolerization, while ATAC sequencing in monocytes demonstrated chromatin remodeling and enhanced accessibility of key transcription factor-binding motifs such as STAT1. Moreover, while STAT1 signaling was critically required, it was not sufficient to recapitulate RIG-I induced TI. Altogether, our data demonstrate that RIG-I-mediated TI promotes an immunologically alert state with important implications for host defense and the application of RIG-I ligands in anti-infective and anti-tumoral therapies. One Sentence Summary RIG-I activation trains and primes innate immune response at the cellular level, affording non-specific immune protection by immune and non-immune cells.
Seed phytate content and phosphorus uptake and distribution in dry bean genotypes

Phytic acid is the major storage form of phosphorus in seeds of legumes and cereals. Since phytate can form complexes with proteins and minerals, reducing the digestive availability of these nutrients, it is usually regarded as an antinutrient, although recent work indicates that it has important beneficial roles as an antioxidant and anticarcinogen. Therefore, there is an interest in the assessment and manipulation of phytate contents in important food grains such as beans. The objective of this work was to compare eleven dry bean genotypes with regard to grain contents of P, phytate, inorganic P and protein and to examine if differences between genotypes could be explained by differences in grain protein content or in uptake and partitioning of P. Plants were grown in a greenhouse in pots containing soil and commercial substrate amended with 7.4 and 37 mg P.dm-3. The experimental setup was a random, complete block design with five replications. Genetic variability in grain phytate contents was observed. At the higher dose of P fertilization, genotype Una presented the highest phytate content (1.48 %) and the highest fraction of P as phytate (72 %), whereas these features were lowest in Paraiso (0.70 % and 47 %, respectively). Inorganic P made up 8 % of total P in Paraiso. A correlation between phytate and protein contents among genotypes was significant (r = 0.73) only under the higher dose of P fertilization. With the exception of genotype 4AP, differences in phytate content could not be explained by differences in uptake and partitioning of P in the plant. In the case of Paraiso, it is inferred that the lower phytate contents were due to differences in the metabolism of P and dry matter accumulation in the grain.
Virus-like particles vaccines based on glycoprotein E0 and E2 of bovine viral diarrhea virus induce Humoral responses

Bovine viral diarrhea/mucosal disease (BVD/MD) is a viral infectious disease that seriously endangers the health of cattle herds and brings serious economic losses to the global cattle industry. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are empty shell structures without viral nucleic acid, which are similar to natural virus particles in morphology and structure. Because of their strong immunogenicity and biological activity, some of them have been used as vaccines in clinical trials. In this study, we developed a strategy to generate BVDV (E0 + E2, E2 + E2) VLPs using an insect baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS). The VLPs obtained were detected by immunofluorescence assay (IFA), western blotting analyses and transmission electron microscope (TEM), and the results showed that VLPs of high purity were obtained. Mice immunized with VLPs (15 μg) and Freund’s adjuvant (100 μl) elicited higher BVDV-neutralizing antibody in comparison with Freund’s adjuvant control (p < 0.0001), and even on day 21 or 35 post-prime immunization, the neutralizing antibody levels of mice immunized with E0 + E2 or E2 + E2 VLPs were significantly higher compared with inactivated vaccine (p < 0.05). A subsequent challenge reveals that the viral loads of livers, kidneys, spleens, lungs and small intestines were significantly lower compared with control (p < 0.0001), and the viral loads of mice immunized with E0 + E2 or E2 + E2 VLPs in the small intestines were significantly lower compared with inactivated vaccine (p < 0.05). Thus, VLPs are a promising candidate vaccine and warrants further clinical evaluation.
Season and environment modulate aquatic invertebrates’ responses to trout and indigenous fishes in three South African mountain streams

Introduced organisms are seen as one of the greatest threats to resource sustainability worldwide, and aquatic macroinvertebrates are regarded as good indicators of the health of water resources. To explore these two perspectives, the responses of macroinvertebrate faunas to native and introduced fishes in three headwater tributaries of the Keiskamma River system, South Africa, were examined by comparing potential indicator communities in reaches considered to be fishless, reaches invaded by introduced salmonid species, and reaches containing native fishes. Patterns in the macroinvertebrate faunal assemblage data were driven strongly by season and flow rate, and less strongly by the presence of insectivorous fishes and biotope availability, a finding in parallel with several similar studies from the region. This affirms that aquatic macroinvertebrate faunas are responsive indicators of both environmental and biotic factors and leaves room for further studies to resolve the effects of non-native fish in the Keiskamma River system and other similar systems from South Africa.
Case report: Prenatal diagnosis of Ectrodactyly–Ectodermal dysplasia–Cleft syndrome (EEC) in a fetus with cleft lip and polycystic kidney

Ectrodactyly–ectodermal dysplasia–cleft (EEC) syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by ectrodactyly, ectodermal dysplasia, and orofacial clefting. Reduced penetrance is manifested in these core features and additional under-recognized features, especially in prenatal cases. Here, we present a fetus with EEC syndrome at 22 weeks gestation, in which the cleft lip and palate and the right polycystic kidney are shown by prenatal ultrasound. A de novo missense mutation of R304W in the TP63 gene is confirmed by whole-exome sequencing associated with EEC syndrome. We further investigate the reported TP63-related prenatal cases and provide a more complete picture of the prenatal phenotypic spectrum about EEC. It illustrates the potential severity of genitourinary anomalies in TP63-related disorders and highlights the need to counsel for the possibility of EEC syndrome, given the occurrence of genitourinary anomalies with orofacial cleft or limb deformities.
Role of reactive oxygen species in lesion mimic formation and conferred basal resistance to Fusarium graminearum in barley lesion mimic mutant 5386

This study investigated the barley lesion mimic mutant (LMM) 5386, evidenced by a leaf brown spot phenotype localized on the chromosome 3H, and its conferred basal resistance to Fusarium graminearum. RNA-seq analysis identified 1453 genes that were differentially expressed in LMM 5386 compared to those in the wild type. GO and KEGG functional annotations suggested that lesion mimic formation was mediated by pathways involving oxidation reduction and glutathione metabolism. Additionally, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in brown spots was substantially higher in LMM 5386 than in the wild-type plant; therefore, antioxidant competence, which is indicated by ROS accumulation, was significantly lower in LMM 5386. Furthermore, the reduction of glycine in LMM 5386 inhibited glutathione biosynthesis. These results suggest that the decrease in antioxidant competence and glutathione biosynthesis caused considerable ROS accumulation, leading to programmed cell death, which eventually reduced the yield components in LMM 5386.