Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment in the Use of Excel Competency for Problem Solving Using the Approach of Expert and Novice Theory

The assessment of Competency-Based Learning (CBL) generally lacks a foundation to guide the construction of instruments that accords the nature and goals of this educational model. The measurement instruments normally used in CBL only provide a numerical score with limited information about the levels of competencies reached. This research aims to outline an assessment model that gives room to infer the individual's level of achieved competencies. The study is grounded in the theory of experts and novices and employed a mixed methodology in order not only to discover the measurement of the levels of competency from a numerical perspective but also to qualitatively understand how the students achieve a certain level of expertise in a concrete disciplinary area. The focus of this research study was on problem solving using Excel. Five professors participated in criteria selection, problem design, and the assessment process. We concluded that CBL assessment can be implemented in a more integral way when supported by theoretical frameworks that permit instructors to assess students' achievements and give more effective feedback related to their strengths and weaknesses. L’evaluation de l’apprentissage base sur la competence n’a pas, de facon generale, de fondement pour guider la construction d’instruments qui cadrent avec la nature et les objectifs de ce modele educatif. Les instruments de mesure normalement utilises en apprentissage base sur la competence fournissent uniquement une note numerique et des donnees limitees quant aux niveaux de competences acquises. Cette recherche veut fournir un apercu d’un modele d’evaluation qui comporte une marge permettant de deduire le niveau de competences acquises par les eleves. L’etude s’appuie sur la theorie des experts et des debutants. Elle repose sur une methodologie mixte de sorte a decouvrir comment mesurer les niveaux de competence a partir de valeurs numeriques, ainsi que comment comprendre, de facon qualitative, comment les eleves atteignent un certain niveau d’expertise dans un domaine concret. La recherche misait la resolution de problemes en utilisant Excel. Cinq professeurs ont participe a la selection des criteres, a la conception des problemes et au processus d’evaluation. Nous avons conclu que l’evaluation de l’apprentissage base sur la competence peut etre mise en œuvre de maniere plus integree quand elle est appuyee par des cadres theoriques permettant aux enseignants d’evaluer les performances des eleves et fournir de la retroaction plus efficace sur leurs forces et leurs faiblesses.
Extended Review: The Vitality of Labour Process Analysis

Reviews of: Rowena Barrett (ed.): Management, Labour Process and Software Development: Reality Bytes 2005, London and New York: Routledge, xii 212 pages, hbk Bill Harley, Jeff Hyman and Paul Thompson (eds): Participation and Democracy at Work: Essays in Honour of Harvie Ramsay 2005, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, xiv 257 pages, pbk Tony Elger and Chris Smith: Assembling Work: Remaking Factory Regimes in Japanese Multinationals in Britain 2005, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 414 pages, hbk
Muscle pain associated with tubular aggregates and structures resembling cylindrical spirals

A 42‐year‐old man complained of muscle pain in the legs and episodes of left‐sided limb weakness. Light microscopy of his quadriceps muscle showed abundant subsarcolemmal accumulations with typical histochemical features for tubular aggregates. Electron microscopy showed areas filled with tubular aggregates and vesicular profiles. Scattered within some of the tubular aggregates circular profiles reminiscent of cylindrical spirals were seen. The presence of structures resembling cylindrical spirals within tubular aggregates suggest that they may arise from a component of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. There appears to be an intimate relationship between myalgia and these various types of abnormal membranous profiles; however, the pathophysiology remains to be elucidated.
The Effect of Therapy Refusal Against Medical Advice in Retinoblastoma Patients in a Setting Where Treatment Delays are Common

Background: Patients who refuse therapy against medical advice may be at risk of adverse health outcomes. We analyzed the impact of therapy refusal and its effect on the survival of retinoblastoma patients. Patients and Methods: 165 consecutive untreated retinoblastoma patients admitted to the CM-Hospital, between 1993–2000 were evaluated retrospectively. Survival outcomes and its association with delays and tumor staging were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox-Regression. Results: Of the 165 cases, 78 cases (47,3%) were assigned to the “No-Refusal-Group”; 52 cases (31,5%) to “Temporary-Refusal-Group,” 30 cases (18,2%) to “Definite-Refusal-Group. ” Survival rates of patients who temporarily refused were significantly lower than those who did not refuse the therapy (p < 0.05). Progression of tumor stage was highly associated with temporary-refusal (p < 0.0005). In the Cox-Regression model, clinical staging of tumor was highly associated, whereas admission delay and treatment delay were slightly associated with the overall survival (p < 0.05, adjusted-hazard-ratio 6.321, 1.031,1.025, respectively). The clinical staging is the strongest variable associated with patient survival outcome. Delay ≥ 6 months between first sign and admission is highly associated with tumor progression (p < 0.0005). Conclusions: First, the high level of therapy refusal in a developing country like Indonesia has an adverse effect on the survival outcome of retinoblastoma patients. Second, the change of the tumor stage from intraocular to extraocular is the most adverse predictive factor for survival. Third, the advanced stage of the tumor is caused by long delay to admission. In a developing country the parents of many young patients refuse to accept the recommended therapy and therefore the tumor may reach a critical stage for the prognosis.
Population Genetics of Vibrio vulnificus: Identification of Two Divisions and a Distinct Eel-Pathogenic Clone

ABSTRACT Genetic relationships among 62 Vibrio vulnificus strains of different geographical and host origins were analyzed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), and sequence analyses of the recA and glnA genes. Out of 15 genetic loci analyzed by MLEE, 11 were polymorphic. Cluster analysis identified 43 distinct electrophoretic types (ETs) separating the V. vulnificus population into two divisions (divisions Ι and ΙΙ). One ET (ET 35) included all indole-negative isolates from diseased eels worldwide (biotype 2). A second ET (ET 2) marked all of the strains from Israel isolated from patients who handled St. Peter's fish (biotype 3). RAPD analysis of the 62 V. vulnificus isolates identified 26 different profiles separated into two divisions as well. In general, this subdivision was comparable (but not identical) to that observed by MLEE. Phylogenetic analysis of 543 bp of the recA gene and of 402 bp of the glnA gene also separated the V. vulnificus population into two major divisions in a manner similar to that by MLEE and RAPD. Sequence data again indicated the overall subdivision of the V. vulnificus population into different biotypes. In particular, indole-negative eel-pathogenic isolates (biotype 2) on one hand and the Israeli isolates (biotype 3) on the other tended to cluster together in both gene trees. None of the methods showed an association between distinct clones and human clinical manifestations. Furthermore, except for the Israeli strains, only minor clusters comprising geographically related isolates were observed. In conclusion, all three approaches (MLEE, RAPD, and DNA sequencing) generated comparable but not always equivalent results. The significance of the two divisions (divisions Ι and ΙΙ) still remains to be clarified, and a reevaluation of the definition of the biotypes is also needed.
Human Evaluative Conditioning without Experiencing a Valued Event

Abstract Two experiments were conducted to examine whether sensory preconditioning is demonstrable in the evaluative conditioning paradigm. Both experiments included between- and within-subjects control conditions. In Experiment 1, forward pairings of the preexposed stimuli were used, whereas in Experiment 2, forward and backward pairings were employed. The results show that affective–evaluative learning is sensitive to a sensory preconditioning procedure, thus demonstrating that evaluative conditioning does not require the direct experience of a valued event. The subjects did not show any signs of verbal knowledge of the stimulus arrangements. The results are discussed in the context of recent models of classical and evaluative conditioning.
A New Resource Planning Algorithm for Data Service

In this paper, a new network model - Erlang multiplexing model (Erlang M model) is given, which is used to describe the relationship between traffic, wireless channel amounts, access capacity and multiplexing ratio. Based on this Erlang M model, the wireless channel resources planning for data service can be more detailed and accurate, which is different from the traditional planning way that is leading by manual experience. This method has been used in the planning of Beijing's mobile network and well proved.
A Method for Simulating Signal Evolution Using Real Animals

We studied response biases to visual stimulation using a new experimental technique. The subjects (hens, Gallus gallus domesticus) were confronted with several rewarding and non-rewarding patterns on a computer screen. In contrast with standard discrimination tasks the rewarding patterns were not identical and varied in a dimension differentiating them from the non-rewarding patterns. The rewarding patterns changed in response to hens' biases in selection of patterns. The aim of the study was to examine the possibility of receivers being a driving force in signal evolution. In one of the experiments a clear-cut result was obtained. During the course of the experiment the rewarding patterns became gradually more different from the non-rewarding one, a result expected from theoretical studies of the effect of response bias in signal evolution. A second similar experiment was less conclusive, with ceiling and floor effects influencing the results.
LIP: A Light-Weighted Session-Based Incentive Protocol for Multi-Hop Cellular Networks

The multi-hop cellular network (MCN) is an evolved paradigm for mobile communications, which integrates the ad hoc characteristics into the conventional cellular systems. Similar to ad hoc networks, the performance of MCNs relies on the hypothesis that each node accepts to forward traffic for the benefit of others, which may not hold with the possible presence of selfish users. In order to stimulate the collaboration among mobile nodes in MCNs, in this paper, we propose a light-weighted secure incentive protocol (LIP). We introduce a novel reward model, in which not the source and/or the destination but the network operator credits the forwarding nodes. It is shown that our model is much more realistic for MCNs in practice and simplifies the payment scheme design as well. LIP exploits a reactive receipt-submission mechanism to identify node behavior, which significantly reduces the communication overhead. Security analysis shows that LIP can resist various attacks. The efficiency of LIP is validated through the performance evaluation.
From Abstract Crisis to Concrete Relief — A Preliminary Report on Combining State Abstraction and HTN Planning

Flexible support for crisis management can definitely be improved by making use of advanced planning capabilities. However, the complexity of the underlying domain often causes intractable efforts in modeling the domain as well as a huge search space to be explored by the system. A way to overcome these problems is to impose a structure not only according to tasks but also according to relationships between and properties of the objects involved, thereby using so-called decomposition axioms. We outline the prototype of a system that is capable of tackling planning for complex application domains. It is based on a well-founded combination of action and state abstractions. The paper presents the basic techniques and provides a formal semantic foundation of the approach. It introduces the planning system and illustrates its underlying principles by examples taken from the crisis management domain used in our ongoing project.
Indicator variable dependent output probability modelling via continuous posterior functions

Investigates the problem of inserting an additional hidden variable into a standard HMM. It is shown that this can be done by introducing a continuous feature which is used to calculate the probability of observing the different states of the hidden variable. The posteriors are modelled by softmax functions with polynomial exponents and an efficient method is developed for reestimating their parameters. After analysing a two dimensional reestimation example on artificial data, the proposed HMM is evaluated on the 1997 Broadcast News task with a particular focus on spontaneous speech. To derive a good indicator variable for this purpose, classification experiments are carried out on fast and slow classes of phones on the 1997 Broadcast News training data. Finally, recognition experiments on the test set of this task show that the proposed model gives an improvement over a standard HMM with a comparable number of parameters.
Decreased Venous Distensibility and Reduced Renin Responsiveness in Hypertension

Abnormalities of renin release and of venous distensibility have been described in essential hypertension. We have postulated that decreased venous distensibility could contribute to the blunted renin response to upright posture in hypertension. Stiffer veins might prevent venous pooling in the lower extremities, which in turn might affect the stretch on cardiopulmonary mechanoreceptors, thereby influencing the reflex release of renin. We investigated this hypothesis in the present study of 47 patients with mild hypertension and 26 (male) healthy volunteers of similar age and race. To induce isolated changes in the stretch of cardiopulmonary mechanoreceptors, systemic hemodynamics were measured before and after thigh cuff inflation at 60 mm Hg for 30 minutes. Cardiac output was determined by dye dilution. Before the intervention, variable thigh cuff pressures were used to measure venous pressure volume with mercury-in-Silastic strain gauge plethysmography. Venous distensibility was diminished in hypertension, as evidenced by a shift in the calf venous volume/pressure curve toward the pressure axis. During the 30-minute experiment, the hypertensive subjects had less blood pooling in their legs in response to thigh cuff inflation, as compared with the control subjects. The hemodynamic and renin responses reflected this diminished effect of thigh cuff inflation on venous return. The smal ler increase of renin in the hypertensive group was associated with a smaller fall in the stroke index and right atrial pressure; the reflex rise in the heart rate was also decreased. By pooling blood in the lower extremities, thigh cuff inflation simulates upright posture. It is customary to classify the renin status of hypertensive patients according to the renin response to upright posture. Our study suggests that abnormal venous distensibility, through its effect on cardiopulmonary receptors, may be partly responsible for the low renin values frequently observed in hypertension.
Mature and Precursor Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Have Individual Roles in the Mouse Olfactory Bulb

Background Sensory deprivation induces dramatic morphological and neurochemical changes in the olfactory bulb (OB) that are largely restricted to glomerular and granule layer interneurons. Mitral cells, pyramidal-like neurons, are resistant to sensory-deprivation-induced changes and are associated with the precursor to brain-derived neurotrophic factor (proBDNF); here, we investigate its unknown function in the adult mouse OB. Principal Findings As determined using brain-slice electrophysiology in a whole-cell configuration, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), but not proBDNF, increased mitral cell excitability. BDNF increased mitral cell action potential firing frequency and decreased interspike interval in response to current injection. In a separate set of experiments, intranasal delivery of neurotrophic factors to awake, adult mice was performed to induce sustained interneuron neurochemical changes. ProBDNF, but not BDNF, increased activated-caspase 3 and reduced tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in OB glomerular interneurons. In a parallel set of experiments, short-term sensory deprivation produced by unilateral naris occlusion generated an identical phenotype. Conclusions Our results indicate that only mature BDNF increases mitral cell excitability whereas proBDNF remains ineffective. Our demonstration that proBDNF activates an apoptotic marker in vivo is the first for any proneurotrophin and establishes a role for proBDNF in a model of neuronal plasticity.
Uncontrolled Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Its Receptors Leads to Insufficient Skin Angiogenesis in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) skin lesions are characterized by disturbed vessel morphology with enlarged capillaries and an overall reduction in capillary density, suggesting a deregulated, insufficient angiogenic response. It has been postulated that this phenomenon is due to reduced expression of the potent angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In contrast to this hypothesis, we demonstrate that the expression of both VEGF and its receptors VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 is dramatically upregulated in skin specimens of SSc patients throughout different disease stages. Interestingly, upregulation of VEGF was not mediated by hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1 (HIF-1) as indicated by only a weak expression of the oxygen-sensitive &agr;-subunit of HIF-1 in the skin of SSc patients. This was unexpected on measuring low PO2 values in the SSc skin by using a polarographic oxygen microelectrode system. Considering our observation that PDGF and IL-1β costimulated VEGF expression, we propose that chronic and uncontrolled VEGF upregulation that is mediated by an orchestrated expression of cytokines rather than VEGF downregulation is the cause of the disturbed vessel morphology in the skin of SSc patients. Consequently, for therapeutic approaches aiming to improve tissue perfusion in these patients, a controlled expression and timely termination of VEGF signaling appears to be crucial for success of proangiogenic therapies.
A Small Family of MYB-Regulatory Genes Controls Floral Pigmentation Intensity and Patterning in the Genus Antirrhinum[W]

The Rosea1, Rosea2, and Venosa genes encode MYB-related transcription factors active in the flowers of Antirrhinum majus. Analysis of mutant phenotypes shows that these genes control the intensity and pattern of magenta anthocyanin pigmentation in flowers. Despite the structural similarity of these regulatory proteins, they influence the expression of target genes encoding the enzymes of anthocyanin biosynthesis with different specificities. Consequently, they are not equivalent biochemically in their activities. Different species of the genus Antirrhinum, native to Spain and Portugal, show striking differences in their patterns and intensities of floral pigmentation. Differences in anthocyanin pigmentation between at least six species are attributable to variations in the activity of the Rosea and Venosa loci. Set in the context of our understanding of the regulation of anthocyanin production in other genera, the activity of MYB-related genes is probably a primary cause of natural variation in anthocyanin pigmentation in plants.
Function Approximation With XCS: Hyperellipsoidal Conditions, Recursive Least Squares, and Compaction

An important strength of learning classifier systems (LCSs) lies in the combination of genetic optimization techniques with gradient-based approximation techniques. The chosen approximation technique develops locally optimal approximations, such as accurate classification estimates, Q-value predictions, or linear function approximations. The genetic optimization technique is designed to distribute these local approximations efficiently over the problem space. Together, the two components develop a distributed, locally optimized problem solution in the form of a population of expert rules, often called classifiers. In function approximation problems, the XCSF classifier system develops a problem solution in the form of overlapping, piecewise linear approximations. This paper shows that XCSF performance on function approximation problems additively benefits from: 1) improved representations; 2) improved genetic operators; and 3) improved approximation techniques. Additionally, this paper introduces a novel closest classifier matching mechanism for the efficient compaction of XCS's final problem solution. The resulting compaction mechanism can boil the population size down by 90% on average, while decreasing prediction accuracy only marginally. Performance evaluations show that the additional mechanisms enable XCSF to reliably, accurately, and compactly approximate even seven dimensional functions. Performance comparisons with other, heuristic function approximation techniques show that XCSF yields competitive or even superior noise-robust performance.
Drug resistance among tuberculosis patients, New York City, 1991 and 1992.

The authors assessed drug susceptibility patterns among tuberculosis patients reported to the New York City Department of Health in the first quarters of 1991 and 1992. Resistance to one or more drugs was seen in 26 percent (137 divided by 520) in 1991 and 24 percent (122 divided by 517) in 1992. Resistance to isoniazid was seen in 22 percent and 19 percent of patients in 1991 and 1992, respectively; resistance to rifampin in 15 percent and 14 percent; and to both isoniazid and rifampin in 15 percent and 14 percent. Combined resistance to four first line drugs (isoniazid, rifampin, streptomycin, and ethambutol) was seen in 6 percent (1991) and 8 percent (1992). Patients with organisms resistant to both isoniazid and rifampin were as likely among U.S. born as among foreign born, and younger patients were more likely than older patients to have isoniazid and rifampin resistant organisms. These findings underscore the importance of obtaining susceptibility testing in all patients who have cultures positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Hypothalamic Hamartomas: A Review

Epilepsy is the most frequent manifestation of hypothalamic hamartomas, being in most cases drug-resistant, which lead to difficulties in the management of these patients, requiring in many cases surgery for its control. The occurrence of psychiatric co morbidity and cognitive impairment is frequent. Nowadays the increasing evidence of hypothalamic hamartomas can be treated effectively with a variety of neurosurgical approaches. Selection of treatment modalities depends on type and size of the HH and the surgeon’s experience. We discussed the clinical features, pathology, diagnostic studies, neurosurgical techniques with the advantages and disadvantages of the different treatment modalities.