Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0

John Seely Brown is a Visiting Scholar and Advisor to the Provost at the University of Southern California (USC) and Independent Co-Chairman of a New Deloitte Research Center. He is the former Chief Scientist of Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Many of his publications and presentations are on his website (http://www.johnseelybrown.com). Richard P. Adler is a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto and Principal of People & Technology, a research and consulting firm in Cupertino, California. More than one-third of the world’s population is under 20. There are over 30 million people today qualified to enter a university who have no place to go. During the next decade, this 30 million will grow to 100 million. To meet this staggering demand, a major university needs to be created each week. —Sir John Daniel, 1996 T he world has become increasingly “flat,” as Tom Friedman has shown. Thanks to massive improvements in communications and transportation, virtually any place on earth can be connected to markets anywhere else on earth and can become globally competitive.1 But at the same time that the world has become flatter, it has also become “spikier”: the places that are globally competitive are those that have robust local ecosystems of resources supporting innovation and productiveness.2 A key part of any such ecosystem is a well-educated workforce with the requisite competitive skills. And in a rapidly changing world, these ecosystems must not only supply this workforce but also provide support for continuous learning and for the ongoing creation of new ideas and skills. Minds on
Intercellular network structure and regulatory motifs in the human hematopoietic system

The hematopoietic system is a distributed tissue that consists of functionally distinct cell types continuously produced through hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) differentiation. Combining genomic and phenotypic data with high‐content experiments, we have built a directional cell–cell communication network between 12 cell types isolated from human umbilical cord blood. Network structure analysis revealed that ligand production is cell type dependent, whereas ligand binding is promiscuous. Consequently, additional control strategies such as cell frequency modulation and compartmentalization were needed to achieve specificity in HSC fate regulation. Incorporating the in vitro effects (quiescence, self‐renewal, proliferation, or differentiation) of 27 HSC binding ligands into the topology of the cell–cell communication network allowed coding of cell type‐dependent feedback regulation of HSC fate. Pathway enrichment analysis identified intracellular regulatory motifs enriched in these cell type‐ and ligand‐coupled responses. This study uncovers cellular mechanisms of hematopoietic cell feedback in HSC fate regulation, provides insight into the design principles of the human hematopoietic system, and serves as a foundation for the analysis of intercellular regulation in multicellular systems.
Prevalence of glutathione S-transferase gene deletions and their effect on sickle cell patients

Background Glutathione S-transferase gene deletions are known detoxification agents and cause oxidative damage. Due to the different pathophysiology of anemia in thalassemia and sickle cell disease, there are significant differences in the pathophysiology of iron overload and iron-related complications in these disorders. Objective The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of the GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes in sickle cell disease patients and their effect on iron status. Methods Forty sickle cell anemia and sixty sickle ß-thalassemia patients and 100 controls were evaluated to determine the frequency of GST gene deletions. Complete blood counts were performed by an automated cell analyzer. Hemoglobin F, hemoglobin A, hemoglobin A2 and hemoglobin S were measured and diagnosis of patients was achieved by high performance liquid chromatography with DNA extraction by the phenol-chloroform method. The GST null genotype was determined using multiplex polymerase chain reaction and serum ferritin was measured using an ELISA kit. Statistical analysis was by EpiInfo and GraphPad statistics software. Results An increased frequency of the GSTT1 null genotype (p-value = 0.05) was seen in the patients. The mean serum ferritin level was higher in patients with the GST genotypes than in controls; this was statistically significant for all genotypes except GSTM1, however the higher levels of serum ferritin were due to blood transfusions in patients. Conclusion GST deletions do not play a direct role in iron overload of sickle cell patients.
Usage des technologies de l'information et de la communication dans l'enseignement supérieur

De nombreuses questions meritent d’etre posees afin de comprendre comment les Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC) peuvent modifier la qualite et la performance des formes d’apprentissages virtuelles. L’objet de cet article consiste a contribuer a ce debat en presentant une etude de cas testant la relation entre usage des TIC et performance des etudiants. Un dispositif experimental a ete mis en place lors du projet d’eLene-EE ayant pour objectif de tester la relation entre les inputs educationnels et les outputs en accordant une place particuliere aux TIC, des etudiants en ligne inscrits a l’Universite Ouverte de la Catalogne (UOC Barcelone).
Role of microglia in the central nervous system's immune response

Abstract Microglial cells comprise a network of endogenous immunocompetent cells that pervade the brain and spinal cord. The primary function of this system is to provide continuous surveillance of the parenchyma and protect the central nervous system (CNS) during injury and disease. Here we discuss the involvement of microglia during brain aging and aging-related neurodegenerative disease, i.e. Alzheimer's disease, and briefly summarize their possible roles in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In addition, we provide an overview of the neuroinflammation associated with primary brain tumors and how microglial tumor cytotoxicity could be targeted for immunotherapeutic approaches designed to treat these lesions.
The impact of the abstractness-concreteness of an ad copy on consumers' responses to a product : the moderating role of consumers' regulatory foci and types of product attribute

i.e., the less specific) the object becomes. People may consider concepts in a similar way. That is, the extent to which a concept includes other concepts may determine whether the concept is more or less abstract or concrete. Also, it has been found that whether a concept is superordinate or subordinate is not related to the extent to which the concept activates visual imagery in people’s minds (e.g., Krammann and Streeter 1971; Wiemer-Hastings and Xu 2005). For example, most people consider the concept scientist as more abstract than the concept milk bottle. Still, when thinking about a scientist, people can picture various kinds of scientists, such as a physicist, a biologist, a chemist, and so on, as much as they can picture the image of a milk bottle. The above findings suggest that studies on the impact of the abstractnessconcreteness of an ad copy should clarify which aspect of the abstractness-concreteness of an ad copy they refer to. However, past studies have not been clear in this regard. For example, in an experimental study, MacKenzie (1986) developed abstract and concrete versions of an ad copy. The abstract version read that “According to industry sources, many watch breakdowns are due to water getting into the case,” whereas the concrete version read that “According to industry sources, 3 out of every 4 watch breakdowns are due to water or moisture getting into the case. ” After reading one version of the ads, subjects rated the importance of a focal attribute (i.e., water resistance). The study found that subjects who were exposed to the concrete version evaluated the attribute as more important, as compared to subjects who were exposed to the abstract version. In the above study, the two versions of the ad copy differ between “many watch breakdowns” and “3 out of every 4 watch breakdowns” as well as between “water” and
Detecting Epileptic Seizures from EEG Data using Neural Networks

We explore the use of neural networks trained with dropout in predicting epileptic seizures from electroencephalographic data (scalp EEG). The input to the neural network is a 126 feature vector containing 9 features for each of the 14 EEG channels obtained over 1-second, non-overlapping windows. The models in our experiments achieved high sensitivity and specificity on patient records not used in the training process. This is demonstrated using leave-one-out-cross-validation across patient records, where we hold out one patient's record as the test set and use all other patients' records for training; repeating this procedure for all patients in the database.
Not being what you claim to be: impostors as sources of group threat

We examine the notion of impostors within groups, defined in this paper as people who make public claims to an identity while disguising their failure to fulfil key criteria for group membership. In Experiment 1, vegetarians showed heightened levels of negative affect toward vegetarians who ate meat occasionally compared to an authentic vegetarian. In contrast, non-vegetarians saw the impostor to be marginally more likeable than the authentic vegetarian. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants evaluated only a vegetarian who ate meat. Evaluations of the target were influenced by group attachment, such that participants who identified strongly as vegetarians downgraded the target more strongly and experienced more negative affect than did moderate identifiers and non-vegetarians. Participants were also sensitive to the size of the gulf between the target's claims for identity and their behaviour. Thus, targets who made public claims to being a vegetarian but ate meat were evaluated more negatively than were people who kept their claims for identity private (Experiment 2). Similarly, targets who tried to keep their deviant behaviour secret were evaluated more negatively than were people who openly admitted their deviant behaviour (Experiment 3). The reasons why impostors might threaten the integrity of group identities are discussed. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.
Building Trust in Divided Societies

Political philosophy in the (very broadly understood) liberal tradition has, at least since the publication of A Theory of Justice, focussed overwhelmingly on the principles and institutions which must be put in place in order for justice to be achieved. Scant attention has been paid, however, to the conditions underpinning the unity of modern societies, in particular of culturally divided societies. Yet events of the last 10 years or so, both in the former Soviet Empire and in the West, make it clear that the problem of unity should occupy as much of a place on the political philosopher’s agenda as that of justice. Countries east of the Rhine have been falling apart at a vertiginous rate, giving rise to unspeakable human misery and suffering. And the bonds which hold together traditionally more peaceful and just countries such as Canada, Belgium, Spain and Great Britain have been severely frayed in recent years. In this context, it makes sense to explore the resources which philosophy might possess to help uncover what the source of social unity in divided societies might be. I believe that philosophers can be useful in this field of inquiry in two ways. First, they can contribute conceptual clarification which, as I will show in the next section, is much needed in this area. And second, they can contribute to the normative task of determining what states can do to promote social unity witrhout overstepping the normative bounds laid out for them by their favored conception of justice. (I will assume for the purposes of this essay that this will mean a broadly liberal political morality). This essay makes a tentative first stab in both these directions.
Academic Freedom and Tenure

The Metropolitan Community Colleges (Missouri) T events and issues to be discussed in this report stem from actions taken by the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Community Colleges on December 14, 1978. At its meeting on that date, the board (1) amended its policies governing layoff of members of the faculty so as to allow for appointment or retention of part-time faculty members to teach in particular areas while fulltime tenured faculty members in those areas were released; (2) received a statement from Mr. William D. Hatley, then chancellor of the college system, describing it as being in a state of financial exigency; and (3) accepted recommendations from the chancellor that twenty-one full-time tenured faculty members be issued notice of layoff, effective at the conclusion of the fall semester of the 1979-80 academic year, and that two academic programs be suspended. The Metropolitan Community Colleges system, currently consisting of four colleges in greater Kansas City, traces its origins to the establishment in 1915 of the Kansas City Polytechnic Institute by the municipal board of education. A junior college division of the institute, with several additions, four years later became the Junior College of Kansas City. Shifts of population to the suburbs and state enabling legislation led in 1964 to the creation of "The Junior College District of Metropolitan Kansas City, Missouri" and, by 1976, the emergence within it of four institutions: Longview, Maple Woods, Penn Valley, and Pioneer Community Colleges. Student enrollment in the Metropolitan Community Colleges rose steadily during the early 1970s. Amounting to 152,946 credit hours for the 1970-71 academic year, it increased to a peak of 329,293 credit hours eligible for state aid for the academic year 1975-76. Over the next three years, enrollment dropped; 211,820 credit hours eligible for state aid were reported for the academic year 1978-79. The number of administrative officers and staff rose significantly during the years of major increases in enrollment. The size of the faculty increased but little, however. In at least some areas of instruction, the numbers of different courses and sections of courses were reduced during the years of expansion, so that the sizes of classes increased. Faculty members were informed that additional full-time faculty appointments were not being made in any great quantity in order to protect existing faculty members lest enrollment in future suffer a decline. As a result, the number of full-time faculty positions in the system
Threat to macroalgal diversity: effects of the introduced green alga Caulerpa racemosa in the Mediterranean

Caulerpa racemosa is a tropical green alga introduced into the Mediterranean probably as an immigrant from the Red Sea. This study evaluated the modifications caused by C. racemosa invasion on the structure of the benthic macroalgal community near Leghorn (northwestern Mediter- ranean). To achieve this objective, we studied invasion by C. racemosa of algal assemblages on 2 dif- ferent substrata by monitoring the structure of the phytobenthic community before and after the inva- sion of the alga and comparing our results with assemblages not invaded by C. racemosa. Results showed that the invasive alga Caulerpa racemosa completely covered the surface of both types of substratum 6 mo after the start of the invasion. With rapid horizontal elongation of the stolons (up to 2 cm d -1 ) C. racemosa overgrew native macroalgal species within 4 mo. As a consequence, phyto- benthic community structure deeply changed: species cover, number and diversity greatly decreased. Furthermore, the relative importance among vegetation layers of the macroalgal assem- blage changed: turf and encrusting species were deeply affected while erect species survived after 1 yr of the invasion. During the period from December to May, when both cover and biomass of C. racemosa diminished, the macroalgal community did not return to initial conditions. Instead, the structural changes increased in the following season, indicating the importance of C. racemosa inva- sion on a local scale.
Psychological health and attitude towards Christianity: a Study among pupils attending Catholic Schools in the Netherlands

This study examines the wider relevance of recent research conducted in England, Northern Ireland and Hong Kong concerning the association between religion and psychological health among young people, by administering translations of the same measures to a sample of 980 pupils attending Catholic secondary schools in the Netherlands. These pupils completed the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data confirmed the key finding from previous research that a more positive attitude toward Christianity is associated with lower scores recorded on the psychoticism scale. The implications of these findings are discussed for religious educators.
Performance Affect in Junior Ice Hockey Players: An Application of the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning Model

Individual patterns of positive–negative affect (PNA) were studied in 46 ice hockey players, ages 15–17 years. Recall idiographic scaling following the methodology of the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model was used to identify subjective emotional experiences related to each player’s successful and unsuccessful game performance. Individual zones for each emotion were then estimated using Borg’s Category Ratio (CR-10) scale. Different positive and negative emotions were functionally facilitating (20.5%), debilitating (25.3%), or both (54.2%). Significant differences were revealed only at intra- and interindividual but not at the group level. Optimal and nonoptimal zones for different emotions in different players were also individual. The data support and extend Hanin’s IZOF model to the content and intensity of PNA in ice hockey. Implications for the development of sports-specific scales, idiographic assessments, and application of the IZOF model in team sports are suggested.
On Ecological Conceptualizations of Perceptual Systems and Action Systems

This article examines Gibson’s concept of perceptual system and Reed’s concept of action system. After discussing several assumptions underlying these concepts, the ontological status of these systems is considered. It is argued that perceptual systems and action systems should be conceptualized neither as parts of an animal’s body nor as softly (temporarily) assembled devices; rather, they are best understood as animals’ abilities to achieve functional relationships, that is, as dispositional properties. This conceptualization entails that these systems are relatively permanent properties of the animal that are causally supported by, though not identical to, anatomical substrates. Further, it entails that it is the animal that perceives and acts, not its perceptual and action systems.
Antimicrobial Properties of Garlic Oil against Human Enteric Bacteria: Evaluation of Methodologies and Comparisons with Garlic Oil Sulfides and Garlic Powder

ABSTRACT The antimicrobial effects of aqueous garlic extracts are well established but those of garlic oil (GO) are little known. Methodologies for estimating the antimicrobial activity of GO were assessed and GO, GO sulfide constituents, and garlic powder (GP) were compared in tests against human enteric bacteria. Test methodologies were identified as capable of producing underestimates of GO activity. Antimicrobial activity was greater in media lacking tryptone or cysteine, suggesting that, as for allicin, GO effects may involve sulfhydryl reactivity. All bacteria tested, which included both gram-negative and -positive bacteria and pathogenic forms, were susceptible to garlic materials. On a weight-of-product basis, 24 h MICs for GO (0.02 to 5.5 mg/ml, 62 enteric isolates) and dimethyl trisulfide (0.02 to 0.31 mg/ml, 6 enteric isolates) were lower than those for a mixture of diallyl sulfides (0.63 to 25 mg/ml, 6 enteric isolates) and for GP, which also exhibited a smaller MIC range (6.25 to 12.5 mg/ml, 29 enteric isolates). Viability time studies of GO and GP against Enterobacter aerogenes showed time- and dose-dependent effects. Based upon its thiosulfinate content, GP was more active than GO against most bacteria, although some properties of GO are identified as offering greater therapeutic potential. Further exploration of the potential of GP and GO in enteric disease control appears warranted.
Bromidobis(N,N′-diphenylthiourea-κS)copper(I) monohydrate

In the title compound, [CuBr(C13H12N2S)2]·H2O, the CuI atom adopts a slightly distorted trigonal-planar coordination arising from two S atoms of two diphenylthiourea ligands and a bromide ion. There are two intramolecular N—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds completing twisted six-membered rings with R(6) motifs. The dihedral angles between the aromatic rings in the ligands are 62.11 (13) and 85.73 (13)°. In the crystal, components are linked by N—H⋯O, O—H⋯S and O—H⋯π interactions. There also exist π–π interactions with a distance of 3.876 (2) Å between the centroids of benzene rings of two different ligands. Together, the intermolecular interactions lead to a three-dimensional network.
Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells promote tumor growth in distinct colorectal cancer cells by a β1‐integrin‐dependent mechanism

Tumor–stroma interactions play an essential role in the biology of colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) may represent a pivotal part of the stroma in CRC, but little is known about the specific interaction of MSC with CRC cells derived from tumors with different mutational background. In previous studies we observed that MSC promote the xenograft growth of the CRC cell‐line DLD1. In the present study, we aimed to analyze the mechanisms of MSC‐promoted tumor growth using various in vitro and in vivo experimental models and CRC cells of different mutational status. MSC specifically interacted with distinct CRC cells and supported tumor seeding in xenografts. The MSC–CRC interaction facilitated three‐dimensional spheroid formation in CRC cells with dysfunctional E‐cadherin system. Stable knock‐downs revealed that the MSC‐facilitated spheroid formation depended on β1‐integrin in CRC cells. Specifically in α‐catenin‐deficient CRC cells this β1‐integrin‐dependent interaction resulted in a MSC‐mediated promotion of early tumor growth in vivo. Collagen I and other extracellular matrix compounds were pivotal for the functional MSC–CRC interaction. In conclusion, our data demonstrate a differential interaction of MSC with CRC cells of different mutational background. Our study is the first to show that MSC specifically compared to normal fibroblasts impact early xenograft growth of distinct α‐catenin deficient CRC cells possibly through secretion of extracellular matrix. This mechanism could serve as a future target for therapy and metastasis prevention.
Integration of error augmentation training method to an assistive controller for rehabilitation robotic systems

This paper presents an approach to enhance an assistive controller, which has been designed for robotic rehabilitation of the upper extremity after stroke, with an error augmentation training method. The assistive controller provides robotic assistance to the participant as and when needed, while position errors that are visually fed back to the participant are amplified to heighten the participant's motivation to improve tracking accuracy. Experimental results on unimpaired participants are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the enhanced assistive controller.