Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated writing evaluation: defining the classroom research agenda

With the advent of English as a global language, the ability to write well in English across diverse settings and for different audiences has become an imperative in second language education programmes throughout the world. Yet the teaching of second language writing is often hindered by the great amount of time and skill needed to evaluate repeated drafts of student writing. Online Automated Writing Evaluation programmes have been developed as a way to meet this challenge, and the scoring engines driving such programmes have been analysed in a considerable array of psychometric studies. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how AWE is used in the classroom and the results achieved with such use. In this article, we analyse recent developments in automated writing evaluation, explain the bases on which AWE systems operate, synthesize research with these systems, and propose a multifaceted process/product research programme on the instructional use of AWE. We explore this emerging area of inquiry by proposing a range of potential questions, methodologies and analytical tools that can define such a research agenda.
CONVOLUTION OF VOLUME MEASURES

If M1 and M2 are hypersurfaces in R and μ1 and μ2 are their volume measures, we provide a formula for the absolutely continuous part h of μ1∗μ2. We prove h is continuous off a compact set of measure zero, and calculate it explicitely if M1 and M2 are spheres.
Energy-Efficient Cell Partition of 3D Space for Sensor Networks with Location Information

In the wireless sensor networks composed of battery-powered sensor nodes, one of the main issues is how to save power consumption on each node. The usual approach to this problem is to activate only necessary nodes (e.g., those nodes which compose a backbone network), and to put other nodes to sleep. One such algorithm using location information is GAF (Geographical Adaptive Fidelity), and GAF is enhanced to HGAF (Hierarchical Geographical Adaptive Fidelity). In this paper, we study the energy-efficient partition of a 3 dimensional sensor field into cells. Further, we give a theoretical upper bound on cell size for this problem.
Glycoprotein B switches conformation during murid herpesvirus 4 entry

Herpesviruses are ancient pathogens that infect all vertebrates. The most conserved component of their entry machinery is glycoprotein B (gB), yet how gB functions is unclear. A striking feature of the murid herpesvirus 4 (MuHV-4) gB is its resistance to neutralization. Here, we show by direct visualization of infected cells that the MuHV-4 gB changes its conformation between extracellular virions and those in late endosomes, where capsids are released. Specifically, epitopes on its N-terminal cell-binding domain become inaccessible, whilst non-N-terminal epitopes are revealed, consistent with structural changes reported for the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein G. Inhibitors of endosomal acidification blocked the gB conformation switch. They also blocked capsid release and the establishment of infection, implying that the gB switch is a key step in entry. Neutralizing antibodies could only partially inhibit the switch. Their need to engage a less vulnerable, upstream form of gB, because its fusion form is revealed only in endosomes, helps to explain why gB-directed MuHV-4 neutralization is so difficult.
Design of a tailor-made memory protection unit for low power microcontrollers

Low power microcontrollers are becoming more and more considered for a wide variety of application scenarios. In modern industrial automation, medical systems, critical infrastructure or smart grid systems embedded devices with low power microcontrollers are ubiquitous. But, by the proceeding trend to link these devices form the real world to the cyber world positive effects such as reduced costs are unfortunately tightly coupled with serious security problems. Especially micro-controllers without any memory protections means make these kind of devices vulnerable for malicious attacks. Recent news have shown that the above mentioned systems are already identified as possible targets. In this paper we present a tailor-made Memory Protection Unit (MPU) that provides an effective and efficient isolation of memory sections taking the characteristic of sensor node applications into account. We describe the design of our MPU and its integration in a low power microcontroller. Furthermore, we give a runtime and an area estimation. Our simulation results show that the performance penalty of our approach is in the range of four clock cycles for two operand operations that can be considered to be the most complex ones. In addition the estimated area penalty is less than 7 per cent of the area of our microcontroller.
Choice of initial conditions in the ML reconstruction of fan-beam transmission with truncated projection data

The authors investigate the effects of initial conditions in the iterative maximum-likelihood (ML) reconstruction of fan-beam transmission projection data with truncation. In an iterative ML reconstruction, the estimate of the transmission reconstructed image in the previous iteration is multiplied by some factors to obtain the current estimate. Normally, a flat initial condition (FIC) or an image with equal positive pixel values is used as initial condition for an ML reconstruction. Usage of FIC has also been perceived as a way of preventing any bias on the reconstruction which may have come from the initial condition. When projection data have truncation, the authors show that using are FIC in an ML iterative reconstruction can introduce a bias to the reconstruction inside the densely sampled region (DSR), whose projection data have no truncation at any angle. To reduce this bias, the authors propose to use the largest right singular vector (LRSV) of the system matrix as the initial condition, and demonstrate that the bias can be reduced with the LRSV. When data truncation is reduced, the LRSV approaches the FIC. This result does not contradict to the use of FIC when projection data are not truncated. The authors also demonstrate that the reconstructed transmission image using LRSV as initial condition provides a more accurate attenuation coefficient distribution than that using FIC. However, the improvement is mostly in the area outside the DSR.
A New Approach to Detect Mover Position in Linear Motors Using Magnetic Sensors

A new method to detect the mover position of a linear motor is proposed in this paper. This method employs a simple cheap Hall Effect sensor-based magnetic sensor unit to detect the mover position of the linear motor. With the movement of the linear motor, Hall Effect sensor modules electrically separated 120° along with the idea of three phase balanced condition (va + vb + vc = 0) are used to produce three phase signals. The amplitude of the sensor output voltage signals are adjusted to unit amplitude to minimize the amplitude errors. With the unit amplitude signals three to two phase transformation is done to reduce the three multiples of harmonic components. The final output thus obtained is converted to position data by the use of arctangent function. The measurement accuracy of the new method is analyzed by experiments and compared with the conventional two phase method. Using the same number of sensor modules as the conventional two phase method, the proposed method gives more accurate position information compared to the conventional system where sensors are separated by 90° electrical angles.
Nongenetic Determinants of Age at Menarche: A Systematic Review

Background. The acceleration of pubertal development is an important medical and social problem, as it may result in increased morbidity and mortality in later life. This systematic review summarizes relevant data about nongenetic factors, which contribute to age at menarche (AAM), and suggests those which may be the most important. Methods. The available literature from 1980 till July 2013 was searched using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Finally, 154 papers were selected for the analysis. Results. Environmental factors, which may affect AAM, vary in populations of different ethnicity. The prenatal, infancy, and early childhood periods are the most susceptible to these factors. Body weight, high animal protein intake, family stressors (e.g., single parenting), and physical activity seem to influence AAM in most populations. Conclusions. The data about influence of nongenetic factors on AAM are still inconsistent. The factors affecting prenatal and early childhood growth seem to have a larger effect on further sexual maturation. Further studies are needed in order to validate the association between other environmental determinants and AAM in different ethnical groups.
SINGULARITIES OF ROBOT MANIPULATORS

Engineers have for some time known that singularities play a significant role in the design and control of robot manipulators. Singularities of the kinematic mapping, which determines the position of the end–effector in terms of the manipulator’s joint variables, may impede control algorithms, lead to large joint velocities, forces and torques and reduce instantaneous mobility. However they can also enable fine control, and the singularities exhibited by trajectories of the points in the end–effector can be used to mechanical advantage. A number of attempts have been made to understand kinematic singularities and, more specifically, singularities of robot manipulators, using aspects of the singularity theory of smooth maps. In this survey, we describe the mathematical framework for manipulator kinematics and some of the key results concerning singularities. A transversality theorem of Gibson and Hobbs asserts that, generically, kinematic mappings give rise to trajectories that display only singularity types up to a given codimension. However this result does not take into account the specific geometry of manipulator motions or, a fortiori , to a given class of manipulator. An alternative approach, using screw systems, provides more detailed information but also shows that practical manipulators may exhibit high codimension singularities in a stable way. This exemplifies the difficulties of tailoring singularity theory’s emphasis on the generic with the specialized designs that play a key role in engineering.
Multiscale Complexity/Entropy

We discuss the role of scale dependence of entropy/complexity and its relationship to component interdependence. The complexity as a function of scale of observation is expressed in terms of subsystem entropies for a system having a description in terms of variables that have the same a priori scale. The sum of the complexity over all scales is the same for any system with the same number of underlying degrees of freedom (variables), even though the complexity at specific scales differs due to the organization/interdependence of these degrees of freedom. This reflects a tradeoff of complexity at different scales of observation. Calculation of this complexity for a simple frustrated system reveals that it is possible for the complexity to be negative. This is consistent with the possibility that observations of a system that include some errors may actually cause, on average, negative knowledge, i.e. incorrect expectations.
Remote sensing-based soil water balance for irrigation water accounting at the Spanish Iberian Peninsula

Abstract. Temporal series maps of irrigated areas, and the corresponding irrigation water requirements based on remote sensing, is a recognized tool contributing to water governance at different scales, from water user associations to whole river basin districts. These thematic cartographies offer a first estimation of the crop irrigation requirements, and a biophysical based approach of the temporal and spatial distribution of the crop water use in the cultivated areas. This work describes the operational application of these methodologies, providing valuable information for water governance and management purposes. The basic products obtained in the whole Spanish part of the Iberian Peninsula during the period 2014–2017 were: (i) annual maps of irrigated crops based on time series of multispectral satellite imagery; and (ii) the direct remote sensing-based water accounting, by quantifying agricultural water flows (e.g. rainfall, irrigation, evapotranspiration, drainage and recharge), through a remote sensing-based soil water balance. Hence this paper provides a remote sensing based water accounting approach, which relies on dense time series of multispectral imagery acquired by the multisensor constellation arranged by Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellites, jointly with meteorological data and agronomic knowledge. Then, based on these purpose and approach, annual and monthly maps of net irrigation water requirements have been elaborated at the most practical spatial and temporal scales for water governance purposes over big areas such river basin districts. This work summarizes the methodologies used and discuss the technical and non-technical feasibility of the proposed approach.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Cancer

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the principal organelle responsible for multiple cellular functions including protein folding and maturation and the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. ER stress is activated by a variety of factors and triggers the unfolded protein response (UPR), which restores homeostasis or activates cell death. Multiple studies have clarified the link between ER stress and cancer, and particularly the involvement of the UPR. The UPR seems to adjust the paradoxical microenvironment of cancer and, as such, is one of resistance mechanisms against cancer therapy. This review describes the activity of different UPRs involved in tumorigenesis and resistance to cancer therapy.
Effect of epitaxial strain on tunneling electroresistance in ferroelectric tunnel junctions

We report the effect of compressive strain on the tunneling electroresistance (TER) effect in BaTiO3/SrRuO3 (BTO/SRO) heterostructures. We find that epitaxial strain imposed by the mismatch of NdGaO3 and SrTiO3 lattice parameters with the BTO and SRO layers improves ferroelectric polarization of BTO and concurrently promotes the metallicity of the SRO films. While the enhanced polarization is beneficial for the TER magnitude, the reduced asymmetry in the tunneling barrier due to the shortened screening length of SRO is detrimental for the effect. Thus, a combined effect of strain on the polarization of the ferroelectric barrier and the screening properties of the electrodes needs to be taken into account when considering and predicting the TER effect in ferroelectric tunnel junctions.
An Analytical Model for Fringing Capacitance in Double gate Hetero Tunnel FET and Analysis of effect of Traps and Oxide charges on Fringing Capacitance

In this paper fringe capacitance of double hetero gate Tunnel FET has been studied. The physical model for fringe capacitance is derived considering source gate overlap and gate drain non overlap. Inerface trap charge and oxide charges are also introduced under positive bias stress and hot carrier stress and their effect on fringe capacitance is also studied. The fringe capacitance is significant speed limiter in Double gate technology. The model is tested by comparing with simulation results obtained from Sentauras TCAD simulations .
Power enhancement via multivariate outlier testing with gene expression arrays

Motivation: As the use of microarrays in human studies continues to increase, stringent quality assurance is necessary to ensure accurate experimental interpretation. We present a formal approach for microarray quality assessment that is based on dimension reduction of established measures of signal and noise components of expression followed by parametric multivariate outlier testing. Results: We applied our approach to several data resources. First, as a negative control, we found that the Affymetrix and Illumina contributions to MAQC data were free from outliers at a nominal outlier flagging rate of α=0.01. Second, we created a tunable framework for artificially corrupting intensity data from the Affymetrix Latin Square spike-in experiment to allow investigation of sensitivity and specificity of quality assurance (QA) criteria. Third, we applied the procedure to 507 Affymetrix microarray GeneChips processed with RNA from human peripheral blood samples. We show that exclusion of arrays by this approach substantially increases inferential power, or the ability to detect differential expression, in large clinical studies. Availability: http://bioconductor.org/packages/2.3/bioc/html/arrayMvout.html and http://bioconductor.org/packages/2.3/bioc/html/affyContam.html affyContam (credentials: readonly/readonly) Contact: aasare@immunetolerance.org; stvjc@channing.harvard. edu
Trees and Climate Change

Scientific consensus indicates that significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions by humans are causing climate change. Greenhouse gases include nitrous oxide, water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide. They become trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and retain heat, which sometimes is called the “greenhouse effect”. Although greenhouse gases can be produced naturally, human activity cause emissions of
Optimal noise in spiking neural networks for the detection of chemicals by simulated agents

We created a spiking neural controller for an agent that could use two different types of information encoding strategies depending on the level of chemical concentration present in the environment. The first goal of this research was to create a simulated agent that could react and stay within a region where there were two different overlapping chemicals having uniform concentrations. The agent was controlled by a spiking neural network that encoded sensory information using temporal coincidence of incoming spikes when the level of chemical concentration was low, and as firing rates at high level of concentration. With this architecture, we could study synchronization of firing in a simple manner and see its effect on the agent’s behaviour. The next experiment we did was to use a more realistic model by having an environment composed of concentration gradients and by adding input current noise to all neurons. We used a realistic model of diffusive noise and showed that it could improve the agent’s behaviour if used within a certain range. Therefore, an agent with neuronal noise was better able to stay within the chemical concentration than an agent without.
Failure of the Adaptive Unfolded Protein Response in Islets of Obese Mice Is Linked With Abnormalities in β-Cell Gene Expression and Progression to Diabetes

The normal β-cell response to obesity-associated insulin resistance is hypersecretion of insulin. Type 2 diabetes develops in subjects with β-cells that are susceptible to failure. Here, we investigated the time-dependent gene expression changes in islets of diabetes-prone db/db and diabetes-resistant ob/ob mice. The expressions of adaptive unfolded protein response (UPR) genes were progressively induced in islets of ob/ob mice, whereas they declined in diabetic db/db mice. Genes important for β-cell function and maintenance of the islet phenotype were reduced with time in db/db mice, whereas they were preserved in ob/ob mice. Inflammation and antioxidant genes displayed time-dependent upregulation in db/db islets but were unchanged in ob/ob islets. Treatment of db/db mouse islets with the chemical chaperone 4-phenylbutyric acid partially restored the changes in several β-cell function genes and transcription factors but did not affect inflammation or antioxidant gene expression. These data suggest that the maintenance (or suppression) of the adaptive UPR is associated with β-cell compensation (or failure) in obese mice. Inflammation, oxidative stress, and a progressive loss of β-cell differentiation accompany diabetes progression. The ability to maintain the adaptive UPR in islets may protect against the gene expression changes that underlie diabetes development in obese mice.
Large-scale Incremental Processing Using Distributed Transactions and Notifications

Updating an index of the web as documents are crawled requires continuously transforming a large repository of existing documents as new documents arrive. This task is one example of a class of data processing tasks that transform a large repository of data via small, independent mutations. These tasks lie in a gap between the capabilities of existing infrastructure. Databases do not meet the storage or throughput requirements of these tasks: Google's indexing system stores tens of petabytes of data and processes billions of updates per day on thousands of machines. MapReduce and other batch-processing systems cannot process small updates individually as they rely on creating large batches for efficiency.We have built Percolator, a system for incrementally processing updates to a large data set, and deployed it to create the Google web search index. By replacing a batch-based indexing system with an indexing system based on incremental processing using Percolator, we process the same number of documents per day, while reducing the average age of documents in Google search results by 50%.
Small Beneficial Effect of Caffeinated Energy Drink Ingestion on Strength

Abstract Collier, NB, Hardy, MA, Millard-Stafford, ML, and Warren, GL. Small beneficial effect of caffeinated energy drink ingestion on strength. J Strength Cond Res 30(7): 1862–1870, 2016—Because caffeine ingestion has been found to increase muscle strength, our aim was to determine whether caffeine when combined with other potential ergogenic ingredients, such as those in commercial energy drinks, would have a similar effect. Fifteen young healthy subjects were used in a double-blind, repeated-measures experimental design. Each subject performed 3 trials, ingesting either a caffeinated energy drink, an uncaffeinated version of the drink, or a placebo drink. The interpolated twitch procedure was used to assess maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) strength, electrically evoked strength, and percent muscle activation during MVIC of the knee extensors both before and after drink ingestion, and after a fatiguing bout of contractions; electromyographic (EMG) amplitude of the knee extensors during MVIC was also assessed. The mean (±SE) change in MVIC strength from before to after drink ingestion was significantly greater for the caffeinated energy drink compared with placebo [+5.0 (±1.7) vs. −0.5 (±1.5)%] and the difference between the drinks remained after fatigue (p = 0.015); the strength changes for the uncaffeinated energy drink were not significantly different from those of the other 2 drinks at any time. There was no significant effect of drink type on the changes in electrically evoked strength, percent muscle activation, and EMG from before to after drink ingestion. This study indicates that a caffeinated energy drink can increase MVIC strength but the effect is modest and the strength increase cannot be attributed to increased muscle activation. Whether the efficacy of energy drinks can be attributed solely to caffeine remains unclear.