Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of a Media-Based Approach to Teach Programming to Middle School Students

Previous studies have presented approaches to teach programming based on contexts close to students, such as games, robotics, and media. Those contexts may turn learning easier and more motivating. Media manipulation is one of such contexts relevant to teenage students, for their thorough use of image applications and social networks. In this work, we design and evaluate a spiral approach to teach programming to ninth-grade students of a middle school in Brazil's countryside. The approach is contextualized by media, i.e., image creation and manipulation, and we use the Python language with turtle graphics and JES tools to support it. Results point out to the influence of context and tools on learning, significant changes of perception about computing, high motivation to learn how to code, as well as a positive correlation between learning and motivation.
HielM: Highly flexible in-memory computing using STT MRAM

In this paper we propose a Highly Flexible InMemory (HieIM) computing platform using STT MRAM, which can be leveraged to implement Boolean logic functions without sacrificing memory functionality. It could pre-process data within memory to further reduce power hungry long distance communication between memory and processing units as in Von-Neumann computing system. HieIM can implement all the Boolean logic functions (AND/NAND, OR/NOR, XOR/XNOR) between any two cells in the same memory array, thus overcoming the ‘operand locality’ problem in contemporary in-memory computing platform designs. To investigate the performance of HieIM, we test in-memory bulk bit-wise Boolean logic operations using different vector datasets, which shows ∼ 8x energy saving and ∼ 5x speedup compared to recent DRAM based in-memory computing platform. We further implement an in-memory data encryption engine design based on HieIM as another case study. With AES algorithm, it shows 51.5% and 68.9% lower energy consumption compared to CMOS-ASIC and CMOL based implementations, respectively.
Features of Educational Attainment and Job Promotion Prospects

In much sociological research on occupational achievement it is presumed that the full effect of education can be understood from an examination of years of years of schooling. It is also commonly assumed that the impact of education on career development can be investigated without reference to an individual's current organizational rank. This article shows that, with reference to promotion, several features from an employee's educational biography will influence his or her rate of advancement. It is also shown that the returns to years of schooling-and to other educational measures-vary with organizational rank; indeed, employers do not reward educational attainment indiscriminately, but only when it is likely to contribute to productivity. In conclusion, it is noted that whereas the "job-matching" literature argues that the rate of mobility is greatest when the fit between an individual's resources and a job's requirements is poor, the results with regard to promotion suggest that the converse is true.
Effects of Surface and In-Layer van der Waals Interaction on Mechanical Properties for Carbon Nanotubes

At the nanoscale, surface effect could cause atomistic structures a pre-stressed or pre-deformed state, which would consequently have a great dependence on their bulk mechanical properties. Besides, according to molecular mechanics [1,2], the effect of the non-bonding interactions among the atoms that are separated by equal or more than two bonds, say, van der Waals (vdW) forces, should be taken into account. Thus, the underlying objective of the study attempts to explore the extent of the surface effect and the in-layer vdW interactions on the mechanical properties of single/multi-walled carbon nanotubes(S/MWCNTs) with two different types of chiralities, including zigzag and armchair. To deal with the problem, an atomistic-continuum modeling (ACM) approach is introduced. The ACM is established by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and equivalent continuum modeling (ECM). MD simulation is adopted to derive the initial equilibrium state of CNTs due to the surface effect, and the ECM is applied to calculate the mechanical properties of CNTs. The ECM is formulated based on the finite element (FE) approximations, which are composed of three-dimensional beam elements and one-dimensional non-linear spring elements. They basically represent the bonding and non-bonding interactions, respectively. The equivalent material constants of these two types of elements are derived from classical molecular mechanics and beam theory. The present results are also compared with those obtained from other simulations and experiments.
Absorption Spectra Of Typical Space Materials In The Vacuum Ultraviolet

In order to develop a data base for potential optical degradation of space vacuum ultra-violet instruments, the collected volatile condensed material (CVCM) transmittance was measured in the wavelength region from 115 nm to 300 nm. The parent outgassing materials included: the adhesives, Ablebond 36-2, Trabond BB-211C, EA-9309, and Scotchweld 2216; the paints, Chemglaze Z-306, Z-306 over 9922 primer, Z-306 over AP-131 primer, Cat-A-Lac 463-3-8, 463-3-8 over primer, 3M Nextel 401-C10, and 401-C10 over 901-P1 primer; the resins, Fiberite 934, Solithane 113/C113-300 Formulation #1, and 113/C113-300 Formulation #8; the lubricants, Lube-Lok 4306 and RT/Duroid 5813; and the double-sided adhesive tape 3M-415. The effect of thermal vacuum conditioning of selected materials was also studied. The transmittance measurements were used to calculate the absorption coefficient for each of 28 different source materials versus wavelength.
Modeling and Analysis of Variable Frequency One-Cycle Control on High-Power Switched-Capacitor Converters

Switched-capacitor (SC) converter is a type of variable structure systems. SC converters are typically equipped with open-loop control or some linear feedback control methods. However, these approaches provide slow dynamic response speed, small operation region, and large voltage ripple. Some new nonlinear control methods have been proposed in the literature to overcome these barriers. However, such control methods are usually proposed for applications involving low-power SC converters due to the limitations of them. This paper presents a nonlinear constant on-time variable frequency one-cycle control (CVFOCC) strategy based on dynamic capacitor ampere-second balance transient calculation (CASBTC) modeling method and one-cycle control (OCC) technique for high-power SC converters. This method successfully addresses the regulation issue of high-power SC converters. A high-power 3X Two-switch Boosting Switched-Capacitor converter (TBSC) is employed as an example topology. Simulation and experimental results both demonstrate that CVFOCC method could significantly improve the dynamic response speed and achieve excellent line and load regulation for the high-power SC converter in wide operation range.
On the Complexity of the Block Low-Rank Multifrontal Factorization

Matrices coming from elliptic partial differential equations have been shown to have a low-rank property: well-defined off-diagonal blocks of their Schur complements can be approximated by low-rank products, and this property can be efficiently exploited in multifrontal solvers to provide a substantial reduction of their complexity. Among the possible low-rank formats, the block low-rank (BLR) format is easy to use in a general purpose multifrontal solver and has been shown to provide significant gains compared to full-rank on practical applications. However, unlike hierarchical formats, such as $\mathcal{H}$ and HSS, its theoretical complexity was unknown. In this paper, we extend the theoretical work done on hierarchical matrices in order to compute the theoretical complexity of the BLR multifrontal factorization. We then present several variants of the BLR multifrontal factorization, depending on the strategies used to perform the updates in the frontal matrices and on the constraints on how numerical .
Teaching Heuristic Methods to Industrial Engineers: A Problem-Based Experience

Because of its mathematical and computational components, operations research OR is not simple to teach or to learn, despite its innumerable industry applications. However, advanced OR is included in many graduate degrees related to industrial engineering, where students need these techniques to solve complex optimization problems. Faced with the problem of teaching heuristic methods to master's students at the University of Seville, we developed a problem-based approach whereby instead of listening to lectures and taking exams on these techniques, one algorithmic technique is randomly assigned to each student, who must apply it to solving a certain optimization problem. Here we discuss our approach to putting our heuristics course into practice, the problems we faced, how we addressed those problems, the positive results obtained, and the lessons learned.
Expressing Semantic Web Service Behavior using Description Logics ?

For the automation of major tasks of the traditional Web service (WS) usage, semantic Web services research has identified the need for (1) the provision of additional aspects of Web services, as well as (2) the formalization of these descriptions. This work focuses on the behavioral aspects of Web services and proposes to use Description Logics (DL) for their formalization. We provide DL constructs for describing interactions in sequences and parallel splits. This yields several advantages for the tasks of WS retrieval and composition. (1) The development of the retrieval and composition software becomes simplified which therefore results in more robust code. (2) The Web service description can be extended by additional features without touching the evaluating code. (3) In combination with the ontology language OWL-DL, the Web service description can directly be integrated with existing semantic Web efforts, e. g. domain ontologies.
MiRNA203 suppresses the expression of protumorigenic STAT1 in glioblastoma to inhibit tumorigenesis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in regulating cancer cell proliferation, migration, survival and sensitivity to chemotherapy. The potential application of using miRNAs for cancer prognosis holds great promise but miRNAs with predictive value remain to be identified and underlying mechanisms of how they promote or suppress tumorigenesis are not completely understood. Here, we show a strong correlation between miR203 expression and brain cancer patient survival. Low miR203 expression is found in subsets of brain cancer patients, especially glioblastoma. Ectopic miR203 expression in glioblastoma cell lines inhibited cell proliferation and migration, increased sensitivity to apoptosis induced by interferon or temozolomide in vitro, and inhibited tumorigenesis in vivo. We further show that STAT1 is a direct functional target of miR203, and miR203 level is negatively correlated with STAT1 expression in brain cancer patients. Knockdown of STAT1 expression mimicked the effect of overexpression of miR203 in glioblastoma cell lines, and inhibited cell proliferation and migration, increased sensitivity to apoptosis induced by IFN or temozolomide in vitro, and inhibited glioblastoma tumorigenesis in vivo. High STAT1 expression significantly correlated with poor survival in brain cancer patients. Mechanistically, we found that enforced miR203 expression in glioblastoma suppressed STAT1 expression directly, as well as that of a number of STAT1 regulated genes. Taken together, our data suggest that miR203 acts as a tumor suppressor in glioblastoma by suppressing the pro-tumorigenic action of STAT1. MiR203 may serve as a predictive biomarker and potential therapeutic target in subsets of cancer patients with low miR203 expression.
Real Time Observation of SiC Oxidation Using an In Situ Ellipsometer

Real time observation of SiC oxidation was performed using an in-situ ellipsometer over the temperature range from 900°C to 1150°C. The relations between oxide thickness and oxidation time were obtained precisely by virtue of the real time measurements. We analyzed the relations between oxide thickness and oxidation time by applying the Deal and Grove model to obtain the linear and parabolic rate constants. Taking advantage of in-situ measurements, we successfully obtained the oxidation rate constants with high accuracy.
Instability of the delta-ferrite/austenite interface in low carbon steels: The influence of delta-ferrite recovery sub-structures

An in-situ study of the delta-ferrite/austenite phase transformation in low carbon steels utilising laser scanning confocal microscopy has found that the presence of a recovery sub-structure in the delta-ferrite phase plays an active role in the apparent instability of delta-ferrite/austenite interfaces. Phase field modelling conducted in an attempt to quantify the influence of sub-boundaries on the transformation rate of delta-ferrite to austenite in Fe-C and Fe-C-Mn alloys, confirmed the in-situ observations that austenite grows preferentially along delta-ferrite sub-boundaries. The modelling studies also predicted that the transformation kinetics of the delta-ferrite to austenite would be enhanced if a sub-boundary network were present in the delta-ferrite grains.
Utilization of Starch to Accelerate the Growth of Degrading Microorganisms on the Surface of Natural Rubber Latex Films

NRL (natural rubber latex) films with 0 (control) and 10 phr sago starch loading were buried in compost soil for 4 weeks. The biodegradation assessments were carried out through films WVT (water vapor transmission) and mass loss. Scanning electron microscopy was carried out to identify and monitor the properties of rubber degrading organism colonies. Results showed that incorporation of sago starch increased the formation and rates of propagation for microorganism colonies on NRL films with duration of biodegradation. The results also indicate the mechanism of sago starch granules utilization as sole source of energy for microbial growth. The behavior and characteristics of microorganisms involved in NRL films degradation also successfully discussed.
Zeeman spectroscopy of CaH molecules in a magnetic trap

In a recent experiment [Weinstein et al., Nature 395, 148 (1998)] we magnetically trapped 108 ground-state calcium monohydride molecules, CaH(X 2Σ,v″=0, J″=0). The molecules were prepared by laser ablation of a solid sample of CaH2 and loaded via thermalization with a cold (<1 K) 3He buffer gas. The magnetic trap was formed by superconducting coils arranged in the anti-Helmholtz configuration. The detection was done by laser fluorescence spectroscopy excited at 635 nm (in the B 2Σ,v′=0−X 2Σ,v″=0 band) and detected at 692 nm (within the B,v′=0−X,v″=1 band). Both a photomultiplier tube and a CCD camera were used. Due to the thermalization of molecular rotation, only a transition from the lowest rotational state could be detected at zero field, N′=1, J′=3/2←N″=0, J″=1/2. In the magnetic field this rotational transition splits into two features, one shifted towards lower and one towards higher frequencies. The measured shifts are linear in field strength and indicate a small difference (0.02 μB) in the magnet.
EyeAR: Refocusable Augmented Reality Content through Eye Measurements

The human visual system always focuses at a distinct depth. Therefore, objects that lie at different depths appear blurred, a phenomenon known as Depth of Field (DoF); as the user's focus depth changes, different objects come in and out of focus. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes computer graphics (CG) images onto a user's view of the real world. A commonly used AR display device is an Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Display (OST-HMD), enabling users to observe the real-world directly, with CG added to it. A common problem in such systems is the mismatch between the DoF properties of the user's eyes and the virtual camera used to generate CG.In this demonstration, we present an improved version of the system presented in [11] as two implementations: The first as a high quality tabletop system, the second as a component which has been integrated into the Microsoft Hololens [18].
Heteromeric MT1/MT2 Melatonin Receptors Modulate Photoreceptor Function

Melatonin stimulates a heteromeric G protein–coupled receptor to modulate the eye’s response to light flashes at night. Flash Response In the retina, melatonin increases photoreceptor sensitivity to light at night, but not in mice deficient in the melatonin receptor MT1. Baba et al. found that two melatonin receptors, the G protein (heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding protein)–coupled receptors (GPCRs) MT1 and MT2, were both present in the photoreceptor cells of mice, and, when coexpressed in cultured cells, these receptors formed homomeric and heteromeric complexes. Mice deficient in MT2 or expressing a mutant form of MT2 failed to respond to melatonin, suggesting that MT1 and MT2 may function as a heteromeric complex to mediate this response. By testing the response in the presence of various pharmacological agents, melatonin mediated its effect on photoreceptor responses in vivo through the inositol trisphosphate to protein kinase C pathway. Thus, this study delineates a pathway by which melatonin affects vision and provides in vivo evidence for functional GPCR heteromers. The formation of G protein (heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding protein)–coupled receptor (GPCR) heteromers enables signaling diversification and holds great promise for improved drug selectivity. Most studies of these oligomerization events have been conducted in heterologous expression systems, and in vivo validation is lacking in most cases, thus questioning the physiological significance of GPCR heteromerization. The melatonin receptors MT1 and MT2 exist as homomers and heteromers when expressed in cultured cells. We showed that melatonin MT1/MT2 heteromers mediated the effect of melatonin on the light sensitivity of rod photoreceptors in mice. This effect of melatonin involved activation of the heteromer-specific phospholipase C and protein kinase C (PLC/PKC) pathway and was abolished in MT1−/− or MT2−/− mice, as well as in mice overexpressing a nonfunctional MT2 mutant that interfered with the formation of functional MT1/MT2 heteromers in photoreceptor cells. Not only does this study establish an essential role of melatonin receptor heteromers in retinal function, it also provides in vivo support for the physiological importance of GPCR heteromerization. Thus, the MT1/MT2 heteromer complex may provide a specific pharmacological target to improve photoreceptor function.
Fog Collection by Mimicking Nature

Research on fog harvesting for drinking water is uncommon because it is not a continuous climatic phenomenon and concerns only arid and semi-arid regions abundant with fog. This paper proposes a new biomimetic-inspired method of harvesting fog by mimicking the skin of the Namib desert beetle. Stainless steel mesh panels are subjected to ultra shortening and annealing to create a hierarchical nano/micro hybrid surface, and an emulsion of PTFE, polyvinyl acetate and sodium benzene sulfonate is sprayed over the steel mesh. This produces hydrophilic nano/micro mounts and hydrophobic troughs. This method, although initially costly, offers a sustainable fog collecting system which can be adopted for arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan and other similar regions.
Content adaptive quantization parameter cascading for random-access structure in HEVC

In high-efficiency coding (HEVC), the random-access structure (RAS) is employed due to its high coding efficiency and “random-access” performance. Pictures in RAS are assigned to different temporal layers. And how to select the QP for each temporal layer in quantization parameter cascading (QPC) technique is critical for improving the coding efficiency of RAS. In order to further improve the coding efficiency of RAS, a QPC technique considering the video content characteristics (denoted as VC-QPC for short) is proposed. In VC-QPC, motion and texture complexities of a video are used for predicting the optimal quantization parameter values of temporal layers. Compared with the method in the test model of HEVC, i.e., HM14.0, the BD-rate of proposed VC-QPC is −5.60% for RAS.
On the Theory of a Non-Periodic Quasilattice Associated with the Icosahedral Group II

A new approach is described for a quasilattice associated with with the icosahedral group which was analyzed in Z. Naturforschung 40 a, 775 (1985). This approach is based on dualization and intersection properties of hypercubic lattices in n dimensions. A Kepler zone is defined as a convex triacontahedron with 30 rhombus faces. The structure properties of the quasilattice are analyzed by use of this zone and by introduction of an infinite graph inside of it.
Microstructure and failure modes during scratch testing of laser cladded WC–NiCrBSi coatings with spherical and angular carbides

Laser cladded coatings have been used extensively to extend the service life of components exposed to severe abrasive wear. One of the main wear resistant materials used in laser cladding is ceramic–metallic composite. Despite extensive use of this class of material, there is very limited knowledge regarding mechanical degradation mechanisms, such as cracking and plastic deformation, under different wear conditions. In this investigation a mixture of nickel alloy and tungsten carbide powders were used to deposit the coating. Two types of tungsten carbide powders with spherical and angular carbides were employed. The microstructures of the coatings were analysed thoroughly by optical microscopy, electron probe microanalysis and wavelength dispersive spectrometry. Failure and cracking mechanisms of laser cladded coatings under normal and tangential loading were systematically investigated using scratch testing. In the nickel alloy matrix, fine mixed secondary carbides were formed due to partial dissolution and formation of the secondary tungsten carbide during laser cladding. These secondary carbides were rich in chromium, tungsten and nickel and had a blocky and/or bar-like shape. Failure mechanisms associated with scratch testing were dependent on the microstructure and carbide morphology, applied stress and location of carbide particles with regard to the scratch groove. Owing to the high binder mean free path between the carbide particles, plastic deformation of the binder was the dominant failure mechanism. Additionally, partial or whole fragmentation of carbides, carbide/binder interface cracking and limited binder fracture were observed.