Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing a discourse community of preservice teachers in a technology‐mediated context

Abstract Through an asynchronous discussion group on the Internet, students were given opportunities to interact in a community of beginning preservice and inservice teachers. They questioned, argued, and negotiated issues generated from their experiences in an introductory educational psychology course and school‐based practicum. This paper reports findings from an investigation into the social dynamics of a technology‐mediated environment and the extent to which community‐building occurred. Using a discourse analysis approach, the data were analyzed to determine the extent to which a technology‐mediated discourse community reflects the five main features that characterize the ethos of classroom communities: respect among members with open exchange of ideas, individual responsibility with communal sharing, shifting roles among members, constructive discussion/making meaning, and a participation framework. Illustrations of each of these categories that demonstrate an overall sense of community among the participants are provided.
A Whole Brain Staining, Embedding, and Clearing Pipeline for Adult Zebrafish to Visualize Cell Proliferation and Morphology in 3-Dimensions

The field of macro-imaging has grown considerably with the appearance of innovative clearing methods and confocal microscopes with lasers capable of penetrating increasing tissue depths. The ability to visualize and model the growth of whole organs as they develop from birth, or with manipulation, disease or injury, provides new ways of thinking about development, tissue-wide signaling, and cell-to-cell interactions. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has ascended from a predominantly developmental model to a leading adult model of tissue regeneration. The unmatched neurogenic and regenerative capacity of the mature central nervous system, in particular, has received much attention, however tools to interrogate the adult brain are sparse. At present there exists no straightforward methods of visualizing changes in the whole adult brain in 3-dimensions (3-D) to examine systemic patterns of cell proliferation or cell populations of interest under physiological, injury, or diseased conditions. The method presented here is the first of its kind to offer an efficient step-by-step pipeline from intraperitoneal injections of the proliferative marker, 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU), to whole brain labeling, to a final embedded and cleared brain sample suitable for 3-D imaging using optical projection tomography (OPT). Moreover, this method allows potential for imaging GFP-reporter lines and cell-specific antibodies in the presence or absence of EdU. The small size of the adult zebrafish brain, the highly consistent degree of EdU labeling, and the use of basic clearing agents, benzyl benzoate, and benzyl alcohol, makes this method highly tractable for most laboratories interested in understanding the vertebrate central nervous system in health and disease. Post-processing of OPT-imaged adult zebrafish brains injected with EdU illustrate that proliferative patterns in EdU can readily be observed and analyzed using IMARIS and/or FIJI/IMAGEJ software. This protocol will be a valuable tool to unlock new ways of understanding systemic patterns in cell proliferation in the healthy and injured brain, brain-wide cellular interactions, stem cell niche development, and changes in brain morphology.
Scenario Adaptation : An Approach to Customizing Computer-Based Training Games and Simulations

Game-based learning environments often make use of pre-scripted scenarios to present educational and training content. However, a one-size-fits-all scenario may not address all of the abilities, needs, or goals of a particular learner. This paper presents a methodology for automatically adapting a game scenario to better suit such requirements. We describe initial steps toward an intelligent technology called a Scenario Adaptor that employs planning-like algorithms to add or remove events from a scenario that relate to learning objectives. The Scenario Adaptor attempts to “re-write” scenarios in order for the learner to achieve the desired set of learner-specific learning objectives. Scenario cohesion is maintained by integrating causal chains of events that lead to the scenario’s outcome. We also briefly discuss scenario execution in two different game environments.
Probabilistic mapping for mobile robots using spatial correlation models

Generating accurate environment representations can significantly improve the autonomy of mobile robots. In this article we present a novel probabilistic technique for solving the full SLAM problem by jointly solving the data registration problem and the accurate reconstruction of the underlying geometry. The key idea of this paper is to incorporate spatial correlation models as prior knowledge on the map we seek to construct. We formulate the mapping problem as a maximum a-posteriori estimation comprising common probabilistic motion and sensor models as well as two spatial correlation models to guide the optimization. Instead of discarding data at an early stage, our algorithm makes use of all data available in the optimization process. When applied to SLAM, our method generates maps that closely resemble the real environment. We compare our approach to state-of-the-art algorithms, using both real and synthetic data sets.
Queue-based contention control for congested multihop wireless networks

In multihop wireless networks, packets from a source node are relayed by intermediate nodes (relay nodes) toward their destination node along a multihop wireless path. However, if a relay node simultaneously receives a large number of packets and fails to forward them at the same rate as they are received, the end-to-end throughput performance of the network degrades due to packet losses at the bottleneck relay node. In this paper, we propose an adaptive contention control algorithm that adjusts the channel access probability depending on the level of congestion at each relay node in order to improve the end-to-end throughput performance in multihop wireless networks. In this algorithm, a bottleneck relay node is granted permission to increase its channel access probability by reducing its contention window size, thus enabling it to forward packets more aggressively. Through a series of simulations, we show that the end-to-end throughput is improved by about 60% in a chain topology.
A Curriculum for the Citizen of the 21St Century

a weakness in our western intellectual enterprise as a whole. This is not to suggest that the western intellectual enterprise is a failure; on the contrary, it has been extraordinarily successful. The western intellectual enterprise developed over the past three centuries is far superior to any knowledge system possessed by humans in earlier times. Nevertheless, our successes have in some ways overrun themselves leaving certain weaknesses. These weaknesses are reflected in the
Opening Versus Self-Sealing Behaviour Of Single Fractures In Mudstone Caprocks During CO2 Migration

Reactions between CO2 and CO2-charged brines and mudrocks may inhibit CO2 leakage via the precipitation of carbonate minerals or via swelling of clay minerals or enhance leakage via the corrosion of carbonate cements. The timescales for the potential self-sealing behaviour, and/or the magnitudes of the permeability enhancements are uncertain. Laboratory experiments can provide constraints on the intrinsic fracture permeabilities, but the quantification of permeability changes following reaction or under conditions of multiphase flow is challenging in the laboratory. Reactive transport modelling (RTM) provides a numerical laboratory in which the intrinsic permeabilities of rough fractures, and the coupling of the flow and reaction processes, can be investigated. A modified local cubic law (MLCL) is used to model rough fracture permeability, and coupling of permeability-porosity changes to mineralization and clay swelling. The results show that the intrinsic permeability of self-affine fractures is primarily dependent on the roughness and degree of correlation between the two fracture surfaces, and that with increasing roughness the simulated fracture permeabilities are systematically lower than permeabilities predicted from the fracture aperture mean using a cubic law. The dependence of fracture permeabilities on reactions is investigated, and the relationship between mineralization behaviour and fluid residence time is discussed.
Synergistic Reversal of Intrahepatic HCV-Specific CD8 T Cell Exhaustion by Combined PD-1/CTLA-4 Blockade

Viral persistence is associated with hierarchical antiviral CD8 T cell exhaustion with increased programmed death-1 (PD-1) expression. In HCV persistence, HCV-specific CD8 T cells from the liver (the site of viral replication) display increased PD-1 expression and a profound functional impairment that is not reversed by PD-1 blockade alone. Here, we report that the inhibitory receptor cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is preferentially upregulated in PD-1+ T cells from the liver but not blood of chronically HCV-infected patients. PD-1/CTLA-4 co-expression in intrahepatic T cells was associated with a profound HCV-specific effector dysfunction that was synergistically reversed by combined PD-1/CTLA-4 blockade in vitro, but not by blocking PD-1 or CTLA-4 alone. A similar effect was observed in circulating HCV-specific CD8 T cells with increased PD-1/CTLA-4 co-expression during acute hepatitis C. The functional response to combined blockade was directly associated with CTLA-4 expression, lost with CD28-depletion and CD4-independent (including CD4+FoxP3+ Tregs). We conclude that PD-1 and CTLA-4 pathways both contribute to virus-specific T cell exhaustion at the site of viral replication by a redundant mechanism that requires combined PD-1/CTLA-4 blockade to reverse. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms of virus-specific T cell dysfunction, and suggest that the synergistic effect by combined inhibitory receptor blockade might have a therapeutic application against chronic viral infection in vivo, provided that it does not induce autoimmunity.
Effects of Teachers on Minority and Disadvantaged Students' Achievement in the Early Grades

The study reported in this article investigated the differential effects of teachers on female, minority, and low‐socioeconomic‐status (SES) students' achievement. I used data from a 4‐year, large‐scale, randomized experiment (Project STAR) that was conducted between 1985 and 1989 in Tennessee, in which students and teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms within schools. The sample consisted of nearly 11,000 elementary students in 79 schools who participated in the experiment from kindergarten through third grade. Data from Project STAR included information about student outcomes such as Stanford Achievement Test scores in mathematics and reading and student demographics such as gender, race, and SES. I used multilevel models to examine how teacher effects interacted with student gender, race/ethnicity, and SES. Similar methods were employed to explore whether teacher effects were more pronounced in high‐poverty schools. Teacher effects were measured as residual variability in achievement among classrooms within schools. Results indicated that all students benefited from effective teachers. The differential teacher effects on gender, race, and SES were overall small and insignificant. However, there was some weak evidence that females, whites, and high‐SES students might benefit more from teacher effects than other students. In addition, there was some, although mixed, evidence that teacher effects were more pronounced in lower‐SES schools.
Theme: Teachers' Beliefs

This article provides an in-depth study of one student during his two semesters of student teaching in a graduate preservice program. Data for the study were drawn from the student's dialogue jour nals, documents, interviews with supervisors, and observation and interview of the student during his first year of teaching. The interpretive focus is on how a program designed to prepare deliberative teachers can serve a student who resists reflective thinking. Findings suggest that although the dialogue journal provides an effective index of student thinking, it must be used appropriately by supervisors and may need to be supplemented with other tools for development of reflective thought, such as the personal journal.
Pension Plan Funding and Stock Market Efficiency

The paper argues that the market signifficantly overvalues firms with severely underfunded pension plans. These companies earn lower stock returns than firms with healthier pension plans for at least five years after the first emergence of the underfunding. The low returns are not explained by risk, price momentum, earnings momentum, or accruals. Further, the evidence suggests that investors do not anticipate the impact of the pension liability on future earnings, and they are surprised when the negative implications of underfunding ultimately materialize. Finally, underfunded firms have poor operating performance, and they earn low returns, although they are value companies.
Health, Climate Change and Energy Vulnerability: A Retrospective Assessment of Strategic Health Authority Policy and Practice in England

Background A number of policy documents suggest that health services should be taking climate change and sustainability seriously and recommendations have been made to mitigate and adapt to the challenges health care providers will face. Actions include, for example, moving towards locally sourced food supplies, reducing waste, energy consumption and travel, and including sustainability in policies and strategies. A Strategic Health Authority (SHA) is part of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. They are responsible for developing strategies for the local health services and ensuring high-quality performance. They manage the NHS locally and are a key link between the U.K. Department of Health and the NHS. They also ensure that national priorities are integrated into local plans. Thus they are in a key position to influence policies and practices to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change and promote sustainability. Aim The aim of this study was to review publicly available documents produced by Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) to assess the extent to which current activity and planning locally takes into consideration climate change and energy vulnerability. Methods A retrospective thematic content analysis of publicly available materials was undertaken by two researchers over a six month period in 2008. These materials were obtained from the websites of the 10 SHAs in England. Materials included annual reports, plans, policies and strategy documents. Results Of the 10 SHAs searched, 4 were found to have an absence of content related to climate change and sustainability. Of the remaining 6 SHAs that did include content related to climate change and energy vulnerability on their websites consistent themes were seen to emerge. These included commitment to a regional sustainability framework in collaboration with other agencies in the pursuit and promotion of sustainable development. Results indicate that many SHAs in England have yet to embrace sustainability, or to integrate preparations for climate change and energy vulnerability within their organisational strategies. Evidence also suggests that SHAs that have recognised the importance of sustainability within their documentation and policies have yet to fully demonstrate this in practice through the implementation of these policies. Conclusions Further research is required to investigate means by which SHAs (U.K.) and agencies responsible for health service policy in other countries may be enabled to include a greater consideration of sustainability and climate change within their policies, and to find effective ways of implementing these policies within daily working practice.
Density-Driven Generalized Regression Neural Networks (DD-GRNN) for Function Approximation

This paper proposes a new nonparametric regression method, based on the combination of generalized regression neural networks (GRNNs), density-dependent multiple kernel bandwidths, and regularization. The presented model is generic and substitutes the very large number of bandwidths with a much smaller number of trainable weights that control the regression model. It depends on sets of extracted data density features which reflect the density properties and distribution irregularities of the training data sets. We provide an efficient initialization scheme and a second-order algorithm to train the model, as well as an overfitting control mechanism based on Bayesian regularization. Numerical results show that the proposed network manages to reduce significantly the computational demands of having individual bandwidths, while at the same time, provides competitive function approximation accuracy in relation to existing methods.
Where Are the Children's Experiences? Analysing Social and Cultural Exclusion in 'Special' and 'Mainstream' Schools

In this paper we employ ethnographic data to illustrate that disabled children encounter discriminatory notions of 'normality' and 'difference' in both 'special' and 'mainstream' schools, and that these experiences relate to both the structural forces in schools, and the everyday individual and cultural practices of adults and children. In contrast to much of the literature in the field, this paper examines the everyday life experiences of adults and disabled children from their own perspective. We highlight disabled children's own criticisms of 'special' and 'mainstream' schools to illustrate the fluid nature of disabled children's lives within educational settings. We argue that schools will be prevented from becoming fully inclusive until adults who control schools take account of children's views of specific educational processes and until educational policy makers adopt a more nuanced multi-level approach to inclusion. Children should be enabled to challenge the structural, cultural and individual conditions which create disability.
Fairness Comparisons among Modern TCP Implementations

Over modern long fat networks, enough throughput is not obtained using TCP Reno, which is the classical standard TCP congestion avoidance algorithm. For this reason, many high performance TCPs have been proposed, such as Compound TCP (CTCP) and CUBIC TCP. Then, these proposals caused a new issue, which is fairness among these modern TCPs. For this issue, several fairness evaluations and some proposals for improving fairness have been published. However, most evaluations are executed using network simulator, so fairness in actual network elements and actual TCP implementations has not been discussed enough yet. In this paper, we present fairness evaluation among modern TCPs with actual network elements and actual TCP implementations. Our evaluations demonstrated that fairness among modern TCPs is very poor, especially in case of using CUBIC. Furthermore, we evaluated existing fairness improving method. The results show that the methods can improve fairness.
A Pilot Study on Dual-Energy Computed Tomography for Detection of Urate Deposits in Renal Transplant Patients With Asymptomatic Hyperuricemia

BackgroundAn increasing role of dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) scan in tophaceous gout assessment is recognized, whereas its role in asymptomatic hyperuricemia is unknown. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of joint and renal monosodium urate deposits by DECT in asymptomatic hyperuricemia. MethodsAmong a renal transplant population with at least 1 year of follow-up, we included 27 patients with sustained hyperuricemia and 11 with normal serum uric acid (SUA) levels. We excluded patients with gout or history of monoarthritis or oligoarthritis. We registered demographic data, drugs, hyperuricemia onset, comorbidities, renal function, and SUA. We used a 128-slice dual-source CT system, and the acquisition protocol included the pelvis and imaging of elbows, wrists, hands, knees, ankles, and feet. The reading process was performed by 2 radiologists. ResultsThe mean age was 43.7 ± 12 years, 57.8% were males, and median follow-up was 7 years. Hyperuricemia presented after a median time of 0.61 years after transplantation and had persisted for a median of 3.2 years (0.5–16.8 years). For the hyperuricemic group, the median SUA at the DECT scan and the maximum SUA levels were 7.9 and 8.9 mg/dL, respectively. Groups were similar in most of the clinical variables. We did not find any articular or renal deposit; conversely, we demonstrated a quadriceps tendon deposition in 1 patient with hyperuricemia (prevalence of 0.03%; 95% confidence interval, 0.006%–0.17%). ConclusionsIn these patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia, the prevalence of monosodium urate deposition assessed by DECT was low; however, larger studies need to be performed for further validation.
A novel SOD1-dependent mechanism for the iron-induced production of toxic SOD1 and oxidative stress that initiates ALS

Free iron is highly toxic and the blood-derived iron initiates early motor-neuron degeneration upon breakdown of blood-spinal cord barrier. Iron is currently known to trigger oxidative stress by Fenton chemistry but no report implies that iron manifests its toxicity through CuZn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1), the central antioxidant enzyme in all human tissues that carries >180 ALS-causing mutations. Here, by NMR we show that Zn2+ play an irreplaceable role in the maturation of the nascent hSOD1, and further decipher for the first time that out of 11 other cations only Fe2+ has the Zn2+-like capacity to induce folding to form the Fe2+-bound hSOD1. This acts to reduce or even block the maturation of wild-type and ALS-causing mutant hSOD1, consequently trapping SOD1 in toxic forms and provoking oxidative stress. Our study establishes a novel SOD1-dependent mechanism for iron to manifest cellular toxicity that contributes to pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, aging and even more. One Sentence Summary Our study establishes a novel SOD1-dependent mechanism for iron to manifest toxicity contributing to neurodegenerative diseases, aging and even more.
Mechanism of the electron transfer catalyst DsbB from Escherichia coli

The membrane protein DsbB from Escherichia coli is essential for disulfide bond formation and catalyses the oxidation of the periplasmic dithiol oxidase DsbA by ubiquinone. DsbB contains two catalytic disulfide bonds, Cys41–Cys44 and Cys104–Cys130. We show that DsbB directly oxidizes one molar equivalent of DsbA in the absence of ubiquinone via disulfide exchange with the 104–130 disulfide bond, with a rate constant of 2.7 × 10 M−1 s−1. This reaction occurs although the 104–130 disulfide is less oxidizing than the catalytic disulfide bond of DsbA (Eo′ = −186 and −122 mV, respectively). This is because the 41–44 disulfide, which is only accessible to ubiquinone but not to DsbA, is the most oxidizing disulfide bond in a protein described so far, with a redox potential of −69 mV. Rapid intramolecular disulfide exchange in partially reduced DsbB converts the enzyme into a state in which Cys41 and Cys44 are reduced and thus accessible for reoxidation by ubiquinone. This demonstrates that the high catalytic efficiency of DsbB results from the extreme intrinsic oxidative force of the enzyme.
Common Rate Support in Multi-Antenna Downlink Channels Using Semi-Orthogonal User Selection

We consider a flat fading multiantenna downlink system with a large number of users where the objective is to deliver equal rates to nonoutage users with a low complexity. We show that in the limit of a large number of users, a zero-forcing beamforming strategy combined with a low complexity user grouping algorithm based on a semi-orthogonal user selection achieves asymptotically optimal performance, with respect to an upper bound that can be achieved when no interference is present among users.