Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skilled Reach Training Influences Brain Recovery Following Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Rats

[Purpose] The present study investigated how skilled reach training influences functional and neurological brain recovery via a rat model with intracerebral hemorrhage. [Subjects] Thirty rats with intracerebral hemorrhage were divided into 2 groups randomly: the control group (CON) that did not receive any treatment, and the experimental group (SRT) that received skilled reach training. [Methods] The experimental group was trained through skilled reaching training with the affected upper limb in 15-minute sessions administered 6 days per week for 4 weeks. [Results] In the behavioral test, the results showed that motor function was significantly improved in the skilled reach training group compared with the control group. In the neurological teat, the expression level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) was significantly increased in the skilled reach training group compared with the control group. [Conclusion] Skilled reach training is able to facilitate both the expression of neurotrophic factor in the motor cortex and motor function recovery following intracerebral hemorrhage.
Why johny can't program: a progress report

We are engaged in teaching technical material, specifically computer science, to a large number of undergraduates (400--500), the majority of whom are non-science majors.Many of these students have trouble learning the course material. We are not here talking about those few students who are affected by such problems as physical handicaps or other specific learning disabilities; non are we concerned with those individuals who exhibit poor study habits or strong preferences for unusual "favored modes of perception" [WEIN]. We are concerned with the significant number of students who, for no apparent reason, have a great deal of difficuly learning elementary computer concepts. Why do some never understand? Why do others, who eventually succeed, take a great deal longer than the majority of our students? This paper is a report on research in progress. Our research at this time is mainly concerned with:(a) Determining, in advance, which students are likely to encounter the severest problems learning computer science;(b) Finding out what there is specifically in the nature of the course material which causes the greatest difficulty for these students; and(c) Developing a methodology for helping students to overcome such learning problems.This paper is organized into 6 major sections.Section I is an introduction to the Natural Sciences 110 course, to the programming language used in this course, and to the major teaching problems we face.Section II is a statement of our goals in this research effort.Section III describes the method by which we are attempting to realize our intended goals.Section IV describes the special recitation sections which are being used to help us monitor the potentially "slower" students.Section V deals with classifying the specific conceptual barriers which we have thus far found to inhibit normal learning in many computer science students.Section VI is 2 statement of the direction which our research will follow in the immediate future.
Feedback control for router management and TCP/IP network stability

Several works have established links between congestion control in communication networks and feedback control theory. In this paper, following this paradigm, the design of an AQM (active queue management) ensuring the stability of the congestion phenomenon at a router is proposed. To this end, a modified fluid flow model of TCP (transmission control protocol) that takes into account all delays of the topology is introduced. Then, appropriate tools from control theory are used to address the stability issue and to cope with the time-varying nature of the multiple delays. More precisely, the design of the AQM is formulated as a structured state feedback for multiple time delay systems through the quadratic separation framework. The objective of this mechanism is to ensure the regulation of the queue size of the congested router as well as flow rates to a prescribed level. Furthermore, the proposed methodology allows to set arbitrarily the QoS (quality of service) of the communications following through the controlled router. Finally, a numerical example and some simulations support the exposed theory.
Static Analysis of Processes for No Read-Up and No Write-Down

We study a variant of the no read-up/no write-down security property of Bell and LaPadula for processes in the (cid:25)-calculus. Once processes are given levels of security clearance, we statically check that a process at a high level never sends names to processes at a lower level. The static check is based on a Control Flow Analysis for the (cid:25)-calculus that establishes a super-set of the set of names to which a given name may be bound and of the set of names that may be sent and received along a given channel, taking into account its directionality. The static check is shown to imply the natural dynamic condition.
On the Reliability of a Solitary Wave Based Transducer to Determine the Characteristics of Some Materials

In the study presented in this article we investigated the feasibility and the reliability of a transducer design for the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of the stiffness of structural materials. The NDE method is based on the propagation of highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs) along a one-dimensional chain of spherical particles that is in contact with the material to be assessed. The chain is part of a built-in system designed and assembled to excite and detect HNSWs, and to exploit the dynamic interaction between the particles and the material to be inspected. This interaction influences the time-of-flight and the amplitude of the solitary pulses reflected at the transducer/material interface. The results of this study show that certain features of the waves are dependent on the modulus of elasticity of the material and that the built-in system is reliable. In the future the proposed NDE method may provide a cost-effective tool for the rapid assessment of materials’ modulus.
GENERAL THEORY OF INFERENTIAL MODELS

This paper is a continuation of the authors’ theoretical investigation of inferential model (IMs); see Martin, Hwang and Liu (2010). The fundamental idea is that prior-free posterior probability-like inference with desirable long-run frequency properties can be achieved through a system based on predicting unobserved auxiliary variables. In Part I, an intermediate conditioning step was proposed to reduce the dimension of the auxiliary variable to be predicted, making the construction of efficient IMs more manageable. Here we consider the problem of inference in the presence of nuisance parameters, and we show that such problems admit a further auxiliary variable reduction via marginalization. Unlike classical procedures that use optimization or integration, the proposed framework eliminates nuisance parameters via a set union operation. Sufficient conditions are given for when this marginalization operation can be performed without loss of information, and in such cases we prove that an appropriately constructed IM is calibrated, in a frequentist sense, for marginal inference. In problems where these sufficient conditions are not met, we propose a marginalization technique based on parameter expansion that leads to conservative marginal inference. The marginal IM approach is illustrated on a number of examples, including Stein’s problem and the Behrens-Fisher problem.
Binaural partial tracking

Partial tracking in sinusoidal models have been studied for over twenty years now, and have been enhanced, making it precise and useful to analyse noiseless harmonic sounds. However, such tools have always been used in a monophonic (single channel) context. A method is thus proposed to adapt the partial tracking to the case of binaural signals. This gives a tool to perform spectral analysis of such signals, keeping relevant information from both left and right channels. Moreover, azimuth (position in the horizontal plane) information for each partial is gained using interaural cues, such as interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs). The azimuth information can then be used as an attribute or as a constraint in the binaural partial tracking algorithm. Finally, some classification results using the azimuth of partials are presented.
An effective approach to identify digitized IWPs (ink and wash paintings)

Ink and wash paintings (IWPs) is the gem of Chinese traditional arts. While existing research for IWPs is primarily focused on image processing approaches, we propose a stylebased algorithm in this paper to complete their automatic classification. As IWPs Images do not have colors or even tones, the proposed algorithm applies edge detection to locate the local region and strokes to enable histogram-based feature extraction and capture important events and changes in properties of painting strokes. Such features are then applied to drive a neural network to complete the automatic classification. Evaluation via experiments supports that the proposed algorithm achieves good performances, providing excellent potential for computerized analysis and management of IWPs.
Analysis of reliability/performance trade-off in Solid State Drives

Flash-based Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are rapidly becoming the mainstream solution in the storage panorama thanks to their ruggedness, high performance and reliability. To guarantee the demanding reliability requirements, it is mandatory to embed complex Error Correction Codes (ECCs) and advanced read algorithms. These countermeasures induce an overall performance degradation and hence a non trivial reliability-performance trade-off arises. This work explores such trade-off in a qualitative manner.
Money Policy in Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models

Abstract: By using the quarterly data of 1996-2005 in China, we use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium modeling framework to compare the different design of monetary policy: an interest rate feedback rule and a money growth rule. Drawing on our econometric analysis, we argue that model, closed with interest rate feedback rule comes closer to the data. The paper also suggests to incorporate the sticky price property and fiscal policy to explain the economy better.
Organization analysis of atrial fibrillation applied to the improvement of electrical cardioversion protocols

Predicting non-invasively the effectiveness of a shock in external electrical cardioversion (ECV) is clinically relevant to enhance these protocols in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The present contribution analyzes the ability of a non-linear regularity index, such as sample entropy (SampEn), to follow-up noninvasively AF organization under successive attempts of ECV and to predict the effectiveness of every single shock. Results showed that, after each unsuccessful shock, a SampEn relative decrease was observed for the patients who finally reverted to normal sinus rhythm (NSR), but the largest variation took place after the first attempt, thus indicating that this shock plays the most important role in the procedure. Indeed, by considering jointly the patients who needed only one shock and the patients who needed several shocks, 91.67% (22 out of 24) of ECVs resulting in NSR, 93.55% (29 out of 31) of ECVs relapsing to AF during the first month and 100% (10 out of 10) of ECVs in which NSR was not restored were correctly classified. As conclusion, AF organization analysis via SampEn from the surface ECG can provide useful information that could improve the effectiveness of conventional external ECV protocols used in AF treatment.
Energy Aware Routing Protocol for Resource Constrained Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a developing technology that improves the resource utilization in various fields such as home automation, e-health, smart grid, precision agriculture etc. It consists of sensor devices, which works autonomously with its sensing, communication and computation capabilities. In most of the sensor network applications the nodes will be deployed in remote areas (land slide monitoring, wildlife monitoring etc.), so replacing the battery often is impossible in many WSN scenarios. Hence energy is considered as a valuable resource in resource constrained wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a new routing methodology to improve the energy efficiency in resource constrained WSN. The proposed technique uses SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), node degree and residual energy as routing parameters, to find an energy efficient and reliable path for data transmission. The combination of the parameters used in the proposed routing technique is done based on weighted sum approach. The proposed framework has been implemented on and compared with a number of standard energy efficient protocols and our results show considerable improvement in comparison to the existing techniques.
Choice of Memes In Memetic Algorithm

One of the fastest growing areas of evolutionary algorithm research is the enhancement of genetic algorithms by combination with local search methods or memes: often known otherwise as memetic algorithms. However there is often little theoretical basis on which to characterize the choice of memes that lead to successful memetic algorithm performance. In this paper, we investigate empirically the use of different memes in the memetic algorithms across a variety of benchmark test functions for function optimization. Empirical results show that the choice of memes affects the search performance significantly. Further, an investigation on the random choice of memes at each decision point during the memetic algorithm search arrives at interesting results.
An investigation of the practice of scientific inquiry in secondary science and agriculture courses

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate the practice of scientific inquiry in two secondary biology classes and one agriculture class from different schools in different communities. The focus was on teachers’ interests and intentions for the students’ participation in inquiry, the voices contributing to the inquiry, and students’ opportunities to confront their conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP) served as the context by providing students with opportunities to design and conduct original experiments to help elucidate the function(s) of a disabled gene in Arabidopsis thaliana. Transcripts of teacher and student semi-structured interviews, field notes of classroom observations and classroom conversations, and documents (e.g., student work, teacher handouts, school websites, PREP materials) were analyzed for evidence of the practice of scientific inquiry. Teachers were interested in implementing inquiry because of potential student learning about scientific research and because PREP supports course content and is connected to a larger scientific project outside of the school. Teachers’ intentions regarding the implementation of inquiry reflected the complexity of their courses and the students’ previous experiences. All inquiries were student-directed. The biology students’ participation more closely mirrored the practice of scientists, while the agriculture students were more involved with the procedural display of scientific inquiry. All experiences could have been enhanced from additional knowledge-centered activities regarding scientific reasoning. No activities brought explicit attention to NOS. Biology activities tended to implicitly support NOS while the agriculture class activities tended to implicitly contradict NOS. Scientists’ interactions contributed to implied support of the NOS. There were missed opportunities for explicit attention to NOS in all classes. The major voices contributing to the inquiry in all classrooms included those of teachers, students, technology, scientists, textbooks, and mandated standards; however, they were more prevalent in the biology classrooms than the agriculture classroom. The powers influencing the voice frequency may be related to the teachers’ own teaching and research experiences, as well as the alignment of the expectations and values of students’ participation in scientific inquiry and those associated with the school-classroom communities and the students’ identities.
Integrating Process and Organization Models of Collaborations through Object Petri Nets

The management of virtual enterprises needs extended and integrated approaches of business modeling. While most formal approaches to business process modeling consider only the control-flow perspective, it is essential in an inter-organizational context to link tasks with the enterprise responsible for their execution. This paper presents the concept of the transforming BPMN-conform XML representation of process models and a proprietary OMN-XML representation of organization models into a special type of object Petri nets called Reference net. The benefit of our approach is that by using Reference nets, the control-flow and the inter-organizational perspective of a business process can be integrated into a unique formalism ready to by analyzed and simulated by appropriate Petri net tools like RENEW. After introducing the transformation concept its application will be demonstrated by an example.
The Impact of Both Individual and Collaborative Job Crafting on Spanish Teachers’ Well-Being

Current changes in social structures and political-economic systems directly affect teachers’ job performance. Among others, these changes include changes in communication and information technologies, the scientific revolution, changes in the structure of populations, the revolution of social relations, economic and political transformations, and revolutions in labor relations and leisure time. These changes all seem to have promoted educational revolutions, which encourage the development of autonomous individuals who are capable of making critical judgments, ready to dialogue and cooperate in problem solving, and who seek alternatives aimed at building a better society. Thus, teachers suffer daily from the impact of continual changes that affect the way they do their work. According to the job-demands resources model, each job environment has its own characteristics that can be grouped into two dimensions: job demands and job resources. However, the relationship between job demands and resources has serious implications for individuals’ lives and psychological well-being. While work provides us with the means to survive, develop social relationships, and experience control over our lives, an excess of demands and a shortage of resources to cope with them would adversely affect personal well-being. Hence, individuals can perform behaviors through job crafting to balance this relationship between demands and resources at work. Job crafting is a proactive behavior of the worker who improves his own working conditions in order to achieve a more meaningful and satisfactory job. This phenomenon allows individuals to play a certain role by “creating” their own job, changing the conditions in which they perform their tasks. In this study, 146 teachers participated to investigate the relationships between both individual and collaborative job crafting behaviors, on the one hand, and job satisfaction, work engagement, and teaching performance, on the other.
Decomposition and convergence of total factor productivity in China

Productivity growth is a major source of economic growth. A panel data set of 29 provinces in China is used to analyze the decomposition and convergence of total factor productivity(TFP) in China over the period 1991–2007. This paper use the method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate the output-oriented Malmquist productivity indexes, and their decomposition, which include technology progress, technical efficiency changes, pure technical effect and scale effect. The results of the decomposition reveal that technology progress has been the main driving force of productivity growth, but that differences in technical efficiency changes explain cross-regions differences in TFP growth. While technical efficiency changes have contributed to reduce average productivity growth. The empirical results show the decomposition carried out in this study may be very helpful to elicit the correct diagnosis of China's productivity problem and develop effective policies to reverse the situation. In addition, by the regression analysis panel data, it is found that the economic productivity in general has a convergence of trends in China. Therefore the China's productivity gap will be reduced.
Software Tamper Resistance: Obstructing Static Analysis of Programs

Reliable execution of software on untrustworthy platforms is a difficult problem. On the one hand, the underlying system services cannot be relied upon to provide execution assurance, while on the other hand, the effect of a tampered execution can be disastrous -- consider intrusion detection programs. What is needed, in this case, is tamper resistant software. Code obfuscation has been an area of development, in part, to enhance software tamper resistance. However, most obfuscation techniques are ad hoc, without the support of sound theoretical basis or provable results. In this paper, we address one aspect of software protection by obstructing static analysis of programs. Our techniques are based, fundamentally, on the difficulty of resolving aliases in programs. The presence of aliases has been proven to greatly restrict the precision of static data-flow analysis. Meanwhile, effective alias detection has been shown to be NP-Hard. While this represents a significant hurdle for code optimization, it provides a theoretical basis for structuring tamper-resistant programs -- systematic introduction of nontrivial aliases transforms programs to a form that yields data flow information very slowly and/or with little precision. Precise alias analysis relies on the collection of static control flow information. We further hinder the analysis by a systematic "break-down" of the program control-flow; transforming high level control transfers to indirect addressing through aliased pointers. By doing so, we have made the basic control-flow analysis into a general alias analysis problem, and the data-flow analysis and control-flow analysis are made co-dependent. We present a theoretical result which shows that a precise analysis of the transformed program, in the general case, is NP-hard and demonstrate the applicability of our techniques with empirical results.