Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influencing policy and practice through research on early childhood education

This paper presents the scientific evidence from one study that has informed Early Years policy in the U.K. It begins with a description of the policy context in the early 1990s and shows how research was used to inform a decade of policy innovation. There have been many studies of ways that research has informed practice but fewer on instances of research shaping policy. This paper is one step in that direction, as advocated by Whitty (2007) and Huw, Nutley and Smith (2001).
9. Neighborhood-Based Models for Social Networks

We argue that social networks can be modeled as the outcome of processes that occur in overlapping local regions of the network, termed local social neighborhoods. Each neighborhood is conceived as a possible site of interaction and corresponds to a subset of possible network ties. In this paper, we discuss hypotheses about the form of these neighborhoods, and we present two new and theoretically plausible ways in which neighborhood-based models for networks can be constructed. In the first, we introduce the notion of a setting structure, a directly hypothesized (or observed) set of exogenous constraints on possible neighborhood forms. In the second, we propose higher-order neighborhoods that are generated, in part, by the outcome of interactive network processes themselves. Applications of both approaches to model construction are presented, and the developments are considered within a general conceptual framework of locale for social networks. We show how assumptions about neighborhoods can be cast within a hierarchy of increasingly complex models; these models represent a progressively greater capacity for network processes to “reach” across a network through long cycles or semipaths. We argue that this class of models holds new promise for the development of empirically plausible models for networks and network-based processes.
Support Vector Regression for prediction of stock trend

Prediction of the trend of the stock market is very crucial. If someone has robust forecasting tools, then he/she will increase the return on investment and can get rich easily and quickly. Because there are a lot of factors that can influence the stock market, the stock forecasting problem has always been very complicated. Support Vector Regression is a tool from machine learning that can build a regression model on the historical time series data in the purpose of predicting the future trend of the stock price. In this paper, we present a theoretical and empirical framework to apply the Support Vector Regression (SVR) strategy to predict the stock market. Our results suggest that SVR is a powerful predictive tool for stock predictions in the financial market.
U.S. Trends in Streamflow and Precipitation

Recently, Lins and Slack (1999) published a paper showing that in the United States in the twentieth century, there have not been significant trends up or down in the highest levels of streamflow. This follows a series of papers showing that over the same period "extreme" precipitation in the United States has increased (e.g., Karl and Knight 1998a; Karl et al. 1995). The differences in the two sets of findings have led some to suggest the existence of an apparent paradox: How can it be that on a national scale extreme rainfall is increasing while peak streamflow is not? Resolving the paradox is important for policy debate because the impacts of an enhanced hydrological cycle are an area of speculation under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Houghton et al. 1996).
Improving the quality of code snippets in stack overflow

Question and answer (Q&A) websites like Stack Overflow are one of the important sources of code examples in which developers can ask their questions and leave their answers about programming issues. Since the number of programmers who use these websites are increasing and a large number of questions and answers are being posted there by them, verifying the quality of all the answers and particularly the code snippets in them is impossible. Consequently, some code snippets might be of low quality and/or with faults. To mitigate this issue, we introduce ExRec (Example Recommender), an Eclipse plugin with which programmers can contribute in improving the quality of code snippets in the answers to questions in the Stack Overow website. Using ExRec, a programmer can transfer a code snippet in the answer to a desired question in Stack Overow to her own program, apply her desired modifications to that code snippet, and then contribute the improved code snippet to Stack Overow as an answer to that particular question. Our evaluations of ExRec in a user study with 10 skilled programmers indicate that it is effective in practice and can help in improving the quality of code snippets in Stack Overow.
State Space Reduction with Message Inspection in Security Protocol Model Checking

Model checking is a widespread automatic formal analysis that has been successful in discovering flaws in security protocols. However existing possibilities for state space explosion still hinder analyses of complex protocols and protocol configurations. Message Inspection, is a technique that delimits the branching of the state space due to the intruder model without excluding possible attacks. In a preliminary simulation, the intruder model tags the eavesdropped messages with specific metadata that enable validation of feasibility of possible attack actions. The Message Inspection algorithm then decides based on these metadata, which attacks will certainly fail according to known security principles. Thus, it is a priori known that i.e. an encryption scheme attack cannot succeed if the intruder does not posses the right key in his knowledge. The simulation terminates with a report of the attack actions that can be safely removed, resulting in a model with a reduced state space.
Aspect-Oriented QoS Modeling for Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are physical and engineered systems whose operations are monitored. Cyber-physical systems having quality-of-service (QoS) requirements driven by the dynamics of the physical environment in which they operate, the description, control, management, consultation and guarantee of QoS are very complex and challenging work, Quality of Service(QoS) is directly related to system's performance. This paper proposes an aspect-oriented QoS modeling method based on UML and formal methods. We use an aspect-oriented profile by the UML meta-model extension, and model the crosscutting concerns by this profile. In this paper, we build the aspect-oriented model for specifying Quality of Service (QoS) based on the combination of UML and RTL. We believe that the two types of notation, graphical (semi-formal) and, respectively, formal, can efficiently complement each other and provide the basis for an aspect-oriented specification approach that can be both rigorous and practical for QoS modeling. Two examples depict how aspect-oriented methods can be used during QoS analysis and design process.
Executive Functions and Approaches to Learning: Relationships to School Readiness in Head Start Preschoolers

of a dissertation at the University of Miami. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the effects of executive functions on school readiness outcomes were mediated by approaches to learning in Head Start preschoolers. Executive functions are cognitive skills, including inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, that are involved in learning as well as regulating previous literature, it was hypothesized that strong executive functions would support the development of positive approaches to learning, which in turn would lead to increased school readiness. To test this, data were collected on 179 four-year-old Head Start preschoolers. Children were assessed on executive functions (cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory), approaches to learning (using both a teacher rating scale and a direct observation), school readiness, and verbal ability. Results indicated that approaches to learning partially mediated the relationship between executive functions and school readiness, providing support for the study's main hypothesis. Results are discussed in the context of preparing at-risk preschool children for success in school. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my committee chair, Daryl Greenfield, and my committee members support and helpful comments throughout this project. I would also like to thank my Fuccillo, and Lizzy Bell for the great teamwork, support, and friendship that they provided me. I would have never gotten this project done without having such a great research lab working long hours together. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Vanessa and Geoff, and Roberto for their patience and support for the past five years.
An Interactive Rehabilitation Framework for Assisting People with Cerebral Palsy

Active participation in physical rehabilitation exercises is crucial for cerebral palsy (CP) patients to maintain and improve their muscles. However, limited percentage of CP patients participates regularly in rehabilitation exercises, mainly due to the lack of motivation. In this study, a comprehensive framework is proposed to actively engage CP patients in upper-limb rehabilitation exercises. The framework includes a set of Kinect-based computer games that cover a wide spectrum of physical exercises. The physical therapist can prescribe a customized set of these games to each CP patient based on his requirements and capabilities. Moreover, the framework enables the physical therapist to track the progress of the CP patient. The framework supports several features that improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation, motivate the patient to participate actively in game-based rehabilitation, and improve the social interaction of the patient by interacting with other individuals. Preliminary results are reported that describe the implementation of three Kinect-based games for CP rehabilitation. The games have been employed in the rehabilitation of three CP patients, and the results confirm the feasibility of the framework to complement conventional rehabilitation exercises.
mSpace: What do Numbers and Totals Mean in a Flexible Semantic Browser

With the Semantic Web community’s growing interest in Human Computer Interaction, this paper addresses a challenge for user interface design and future shifts in search paradigms. Where browsers using current search paradigms often use numeric values to indicate volumes of sub-hierarchies, future semantic browsers will not be limited to fixed hierarchical datasets, but allow flexible exploration through multiple intersecting domains. With the future use of similar numeric indicators uncertain, research here suggests that the inclusion of such indicators should be based around focal data objects within each information domain. Further research is required, as a significant number of contradicting participant expectations were present. It is the concern of the Semantic Web community to make sure that future btic search paradigms can best support their users.
Holographic Duals of 4D Field Theories

We discuss various aspect of the holographic correspondence between 5-d gravity and 4-d field theory. First of all, we describe deformations of N=4 Super Yang-Mills (SYM) theories in terms of 5-d gauged supergravity. In particular, we describe N=0 and N=1 deformations of N=4 SYM to confining theories. Secondly, we describe recent proposals for the holographic dual of the renormalization group and for 4-d central charges associated to it. We conclude with a ``holographic'' proof of the Goldstone theorem.
The Impact of the Fusarium Mycotoxin Deoxynivalenol on the Health and Performance of Broiler Chickens

The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the effects of feeding grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins on morphometric indices of jejunum and to follow the passage of deoxynivalenol (DON) through subsequent segments of the digestive tract of broilers. A total of 45 1-d-old broiler chickens (Ross 308 males) were randomly allotted to three dietary treatments (15 birds/treatment): (1) control diet; (2) diet contaminated with 1 mg DON/kg feed; (3) diet contaminated with 5 mg DON/kg feed for five weeks. None of the zootechnical traits (body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion) responded to increased DON levels in the diet. However, DON at both dietary levels (1 mg and 5 mg DON/kg feed) significantly altered the small intestinal morphology. In the jejunum, the villi were significantly (P < 0.01) shorter in both DON treated groups compared with the controls. Furthermore, the dietary inclusion of DON decreased (P < 0.05) the villus surface area in both DON treated groups. The absolute or relative organ weights (liver, heart, proventriculus, gizzard, small intestine, spleen, pancreas, colon, cecum, bursa of Fabricius and thymus) were not altered (P > 0.05) in broilers fed the diet containing DON compared with controls. DON and de-epoxy-DON (DOM-1) were analyzed in serum, bile, liver, feces and digesta from consecutive segments of the digestive tract (gizzard, cecum, and rectum). Concentrations of DON and its metabolite DOM-1 in serum, bile, and liver were lower than the detection limits of the applied liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method. Only about 10 to 12% and 6% of the ingested DON was recovered in gizzard and feces, irrespective of the dietary DON-concentration. However, the DON recovery in the cecum as percentage of DON-intake varied between 18 to 22% and was not influenced by dietary DON-concentration. Interestingly, in the present trial, DOM-1 did not appear in the large intestine and in feces. The results indicate that deepoxydation in the present study hardly occurred in the distal segments of the digestive tract, assuming that the complete de-epoxydation occurs in the proximal small intestine where the majority of the parent toxin is absorbed. In conclusion, diets with DON contamination below levels that induce a negative impact on performance could alter small intestinal morphology in broilers. Additionally, the results confirm that the majority of the ingested DON quickly disappears through the gastrointestinal tract.
Sign Language Subtitling by Highly Comprehensible “Semantroids”

We introduce a new method of sign language subtitling aimed at young deaf children who have not acquired reading skills yet, and can communicate only via signs. The method is based on: 1) the recently developed concept of “semantroid™” (an animated 3D avatar limited to head and hands); 2) the design, development, and psychophysical evaluation of a highly comprehensible model of the semantroid; and 3) the implementation of a new multi-window, scrolling captioning technique. Based on “semantic intensity” estimates, we have enhanced the comprehensibility of the semantroid by: i) the use of non-photorealistic rendering (NPR); and ii) the creation of a 3D face model with distinctive features. We have then validated the comprehensibility of the semantroid through a series of tests on human subjects which assessed accuracy and speed of recognition of facial stimuli and hand gestures as a function of mode of representation and facial geometry. Test results show that, in the context of sign language subtitling (i.e., in limited space), the most comprehensible semantroid model is a toon-rendered model with distinctive facial features. Because of its enhanced comprehensibility, this type of semantroid can be scaled to fit in a very small area, and thus it is possible to display multiple captioning windows simultaneously. The concurrent display of several progressive animated signed sentences allows for review of information, a feature not present in any sign language subtitling method presented so far. As an example of application, we have applied the multi-window, scrolling captioning technique to a children's video of a chemistry experiment.
Tracheal T-Tube Stent for Laryngotracheal Stenosis: Ten Year Experience

Introduction: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the outcome following stenting over a period of 10 years in patients with chronic laryngotracheal stenosis. Materials and Methods: Between 2000–2010, out of 111 patients with laryngotracheal trauma, 71 underwent tracheal T-stenting for laryngotracheal stenosis in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, India. All 71 patients underwent stenting by tracheal T-stent through an external approach. The follow-up period ranged from 3–10 years (mean, 3.2 years). The tracheal T-stent was removed after a minimum period of 6–12 months. Results: The majority of patients in this study were aged less than 10 years or between the ages of 20–30 years. A pre-operative tracheostomy (emergency or elective) was performed in all patients. of 71 patients, decannulation was not possible in six (8%). Conclusion: Management of laryngotracheal stenosis is a challenging problem that demands a multidisciplinary approach from surgical teams well trained in this field. The ideal treatment option should be individualized according to patient characteristics. The use of silastic stents has both advantages and disadvantages.
Robot Task Planning for Mixed-Initiative Human Robot Interaction in Home Service Robot

The main reason of current robotics research is the difficulties of coping with dynamic environment, uncertainty, operational limitation, etc. Human robot interaction (HRI) becomes important role in robotics research and especially humanpsilas roles in HRI is increasing. In this paper, we made robot task planning framework for MI HRI in home service environment. We suggest an structure of task network called joint script which enables MI HRI and its planning process based on three procedures; search, selection and adaptation in deliberative layer. For experiment, we manually made 200 heterogeneous joint scripts and each module for script-based planning is validated by showing appropriate scenario.
Facing Diagnosis Reality-Model-Based Fault Tree Generation in Industrial Application

Computer diagnosis systems grounded on hand-crafted fault trees are widespread in industrial practice. Since the complexity of technical systems increases and innovation cycles get shorter, the need for systematic fault tree generation and maintenance arises. In this paper, the MAD system is introduced which generates fault trees based on models of technical devices. Since a fault tree can be generated automatically based on a device model, the cost for providing, modifying, and maintaining diagnosis equipment can be drastically reduced and quality management of diagnosis equipment can be facilitated. Furthermore, the cost of fault-tree-based fault identification can be reduced because model-generated fault trees can be optimized. MAD is specifically designed to facilitate its integration into existing service workflow. We have successfully evaluated the MAD system in cooperation with the German forklift manufacturer STILL GmbH Hamburg.
Service Offer Discovery Using Genetic Algorithms

Available service descriptions are often specified using abstract definitions of service attributes. However, service consumers are mainly interested in concrete, consumable service offers which are specified using concrete values of service attributes. Service offers, due to their request dependence and dynamicity, have to be generated on-the-fly what may require interaction with a service. We propose a service description model that facilitates creation of consumable service offers. A large number of service offers can be generated considering flexible search requests. In order to address that, we propose a novel approach to dynamic generation of service offers. Our approach is based on genetic algorithms and reduces the number of relevant service offers. For evaluation purposes we apply our approach to the shipping domain where real shipping services on the Web are used to prove the effectiveness and usability of our approach in a real-world domain.
Groundwater use for irrigation - a global inventory

Abstract. Irrigation is the most important water use sector accounting for about 70% of the global freshwater withdrawals and 90% of consumptive water uses. While the extent of irrigation and related water uses are reported in statistical databases or estimated by model simulations, information on the source of irrigation water is scarce and very scattered. Here we present a new global inventory on the extent of areas irrigated with groundwater, surface water or non-conventional sources, and we determine the related consumptive water uses. The inventory provides data for 15 038 national and sub-national administrative units. Irrigated area was provided by census-based statistics from international and national organizations. A global model was then applied to simulate consumptive water uses for irrigation by water source. Globally, area equipped for irrigation is currently about 301 million ha of which 38% are equipped for irrigation with groundwater. Total consumptive groundwater use for irrigation is estimated as 545 km3 yr−1, or 43% of the total consumptive irrigation water use of 1277 km3 yr−1. The countries with the largest extent of areas equipped for irrigation with groundwater, in absolute terms, are India (39 million ha), China (19 million ha) and the USA (17 million ha). Groundwater use in irrigation is increasing both in absolute terms and in percentage of total irrigation, leading in places to concentrations of users exploiting groundwater storage at rates above groundwater recharge. Despite the uncertainties associated with statistical data available to track patterns and growth of groundwater use for irrigation, the inventory presented here is a major step towards a more informed assessment of agricultural water use and its consequences for the global water cycle.
Exploiting locality in the run-time parallelization of irregular loops

The goal of this work is the efficient parallel execution of loops with indirect array accesses, in order to be embedded in a parallelizing compiler framework. In this kind of loop pattern, dependences can not always be determined at compile-time as, in many cases, they involve input data that are only known at run-time and/or the access pattern is too complex to be analyzed In this paper we propose runtime strategies for the parallelization of these loops. Our approaches focus not only on extracting parallelism among iterations of the loop, but also on exploiting data access locality to improve memory hierarchy behavior and, thus, the overall program speedup. Two strategies are proposed one based on graph partitioning techniques and other based on a block-cyclic distribution. Experimental results show that both strategies are complementary and the choice of the best alternative depends on some features of the loop pattern.
Virtual Humans That Touch Back: Enhancing Nonverbal Communication with Virtual Humans through Bidirectional Touch

Touch is a powerful component of human communication, yet has been largely absent in communication between humans and virtual humans (VHs). This paper expands on recent work which allowed unidirectional touch from human to VH, by evaluating bidirectional touch as a new channel for nonverbal communication. A VH augmented with a haptic interface is able to touch her interaction partner using a pseudo-haptic touch or an active-haptic touch from a co-located mechanical arm. Within the context of a simulated doctor-patient interaction, two user studies (n = 54) investigate how touch can be used by both human and VH to communicate. Results show that human-to-VH touch is used for the same communication purposes as human-to-human touch, and that VH-to-human touch (pseudo-haptic and active-haptic) allows the VH to communicate with its human interaction partner. The enhanced nonverbal communication provided by bidirectional touch has the potential to solve difficult problems in VH research, such as disambiguating user speech, enforcing social norms, and achieving rapport with VHs.