Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting College Completion Among Students With Learning Disabilities

The authors analyzed National Longitudinal Transition Study–2 (NLTS2) data to examine the role of high school academic preparation and receipt of postsecondary academic support services (PASS) in predicting college completion among students with learning disabilities. Logistic regression analyses revealed that students who earned a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) in a college preparatory curriculum were more than twice as likely to complete college than those with a similar GPA who did not complete a college preparatory curriculum. Furthermore, among students who completed a college preparatory curriculum, earning a higher GPA and accessing PASS both dramatically increased the likelihood that they would complete college. Results underscore the importance of incorporating a college preparatory curriculum into transition planning for college-bound students with learning disabilities.
Evidence for a structurally-driven insulator-to-metal transition in VO 2 : A view from the ultrafast timescale

We apply ultrafast spectroscopy to establish a time-domain hierarchy between structural and electronic effects in a strongly correlated electron system. We discuss the case of the model system ${\mathrm{VO}}_{2}$, a prototypical nonmagnetic compound that exhibits cell doubling, charge localization, and a metal-insulator transition below 340 K. We initiate the formation of the metallic phase by prompt hole photo-doping into the valence band of the low-$T$ insulator. The insulator-to-metal transition is, however, delayed with respect to hole injection, exhibiting a bottleneck time scale, associated with the phonon connecting the two crystallographic phases. This structural bottleneck is observed despite faster depletion of the $d$ bands and is indicative of important bandlike character for this controversial insulator.
Validated Solution of Initial Value Problems for ODEs with Interval Parameters

In initial value problems for ODEs with interval-valued parameters, it is desirable in many applications to be able to determine a validated enclosure of all possible solutions to the ODE system. Much work has been done for the case in which initial values are given by intervals, and there are several available software packages that deal with this case. However, relatively little work has been done on the case in which parameters are given by intervals. We demonstrate here a new method for obtaining validated solutions of initial value problems for ODEs with interval-valued parameters. The method also accounts for interval-valued initial values. The eectiv eness of the method is demonstrated using numerical examples involving kinetics in a bioreactor and motion of a double pendulum.
Deterministic multiple access wiretap channel

Two-user Multiple Access Channel with a Wire-Tapper (MAC-WT) is considered. A general outer bound for the secrecy capacity region is given. Also, we have defined the Deterministic MAC-WT, where the channel input of each user is a deterministic function of the channel output and the channel input of the other user. For this network single-letter inner and outer bounds for the secrecy capacity region are given. Furthermore, it is shown that in the Deterministic MAC-WT, if the wiretapper channel is a degraded version of the main channel, inner and outer bounds meet and the secrecy capacity region is characterized.
Plasmodium vivax but Not Plasmodium falciparum Blood-Stage Infection in Humans Is Associated with the Expansion of a CD8+ T Cell Population with Cytotoxic Potential

P. vivax and P. falciparum parasites display different tropism for host cells and induce very different clinical symptoms and pathology, suggesting that the immune responses required for protection may differ between these two species. However, no study has qualitatively compared the immune responses to P. falciparum or P. vivax in humans following primary exposure and infection. Here, we show that the two species differ in terms of the cellular immune responses elicited following primary infection. Specifically, P. vivax induced the expansion of a subset of CD8+ T cells expressing the activation marker CD38, whereas P. falciparum induced the expansion of CD38+ CD4+ T cells. The CD38+ CD8+ T cell population that expanded following P. vivax infection displayed greater cytotoxic potential compared to CD38- CD8+ T cells, and compared to CD38+ CD8+ T cells circulating during P. falciparum infection. We hypothesize that P. vivax infection leads to a stronger CD38+ CD8+ T cell activation because of its preferred tropism for MHC-I-expressing reticulocytes that, unlike mature red blood cells, can present antigen directly to CD8+ T cells. This study provides the first line of evidence to suggest an effector role for CD8+ T cells in P. vivax blood-stage immunity. It is also the first report of species-specific differences in the subset of T cells that are expanded following primary Plasmodium infection, suggesting that malaria vaccine development may require optimization according to the target parasite. Trial Registration anzctr.org. au ACTRN12612000814875; anzctr.org. au ACTRN12613000565741; anzctr.org. au ACTRN12613001040752; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02281344; anzctr.org. au ACTRN12612001096842; anzctr.org. au ACTRN12613001008718
Religious Experience: Learning and Meaning

Some experiences, especially the ones that generate in the subject a feeling of creature-consciousness can be described as nothing less than awe-inspiring. Otto spoke of such experiences in relation to the notion of the numinous. Experiences have levels. Reaching the level where we are made aware of our true identity as creatures can gainfully inform our choices and learning. We remain however at the point where we can recognise that such experiences themselves point to a logic of meaning. The meanings that we place upon our numinous experiences may be an expression of faith but the gap between meaning, faith and truth remains unbridgeable.
Mobile games on the basis of uses and gratifications approach: A comparison of the mobile game habits of university and high school students

The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of university and high school students towards mobile games, and to investigate their motivation and gratification needs in terms of mobile gaming. The descriptive method was used in the study. The sampling group was composed of 846 participants. The data were collected through the Mobile Gaming Motivation Survey. The reliability coefficient of the survey (Cronbach’s alpha) was found to be 0.893. The data analysis revealed that the mobile gaming motives of participants were self-realization/individual gratification, rivalry, social interaction, addiction and escaping. It was concluded that the motivation of the participants to play mobile games and the time they spent on mobile gaming decreased as their education level increased. It was also found that the mean scores for each factor got lower as the age progressed.
A disproportionately greater body weight of the recipient in regards to the donor causes chronic graft nephropathy. A study of paired kidneys.

BACKGROUND Chronic graft nephropathy is the most frequent cause of long-term renal transplant loss. Although immunological causes participate in its pathogenesis, other non-immunological factors such as hyperfiltration due to reduced renal mass have been proposed as causal factors of chronic renal graft nephropathy. AIM This study aimed to assess the effect of weight disproportion between the donor and recipient in the development of chronic renal graft nephropathy. METHODS Three weight categories for donors and recipients were established: < 50, 50-75 and > 75 kg. Three groups were distinguished according to the three possible weight combinations between donor and recipient: donor weight (DW)>recipient weight (RW) (N = 133), DW = RW (N = 255) and DW<RW (N = 80). For the study of paired kidneys from the same donor, a multiple Cox regression model was applied to observe the influence of the weight differences between donor and recipient and other variables on the long-term graft and patient survival, and on the level of serum creatinine, proteinuria and arterial hypertension at 3 months after transplantation. RESULTS Graft survival at 10 years was significantly lower in the DW<RW group vs the DW = RW and DW>RW groups. In addition, the DW<RW group developed higher proteinuria even by 3 months of evolution. Donor and recipient age, acute rejection and type of immunosuppressive treatment were also independent risk factors to develop chronic nephropathy in this study of paired kidneys. CONCLUSIONS Weight disproportion between donor and recipient, unfavourable to the recipient, is a risk factor for the development of chronic graft nephropathy. Matching the body weights between the donor and recipient is obligatory to prevent chronic rejection.
Research and Evaluation of Network Virtualization in Cloud Computing Environment

Network virtualization in cloud computing environment has attracted many attentions recently. With the help of network virtualization, VMM is able to provide fine-grained isolation among different VMs. However, the performance and overhead introduced by network virtualization is also important concerns when applying network virtualization to the cloud computing environment. In this paper, we evaluated the security, performance and QoS of popular virtual switch software Open vSwitch. The results can provide several guidelines for cloud application developer and administrators.
TLR2 and Nod2 Mediate Resistance or Susceptibility to Fatal Intracellular Ehrlichia Infection in Murine Models of Ehrlichiosis

Our murine models of human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME) have shown that severe and fatal ehrlichiosis is due to generation of pathogenic T cell responses causing immunopathology and multi-organ failure. However, the early events in the liver, the main site of infection, are not well understood. In this study, we examined the liver transcriptome during the course of lethal and nonlethal infections caused by Ixodes ovatus Ehrlichia and Ehrlichia muris, respectively. On day 3 post-infection (p.i.), although most host genes were down regulated in the two groups of infected mice compared to naïve counterparts, lethal infection induced significantly higher expression of caspase 1, caspase 4, nucleotide binding oligomerization domain-containing proteins (Nod1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin 10, and CCL7 compared to nonlethal infection. On day 7 p.i. , lethal infection induced highly significant upregulation of type-1 interferon, several inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which was associated with increased expression levels of Toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2), Nod2, MyD88, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), Caspase 4, NLRP1, NLRP12, Pycard, and IL-1β, suggesting enhanced TLR signals and inflammasomes activation. We next evaluated the participation of TLR2 and Nod2 in the host response during lethal Ehrlichia infection. Although lack of TLR2 impaired bacterial elimination and increased tissue necrosis, Nod2 deficiency attenuated pathology and enhanced bacterial clearance, which correlated with increased interferon-γ and interleukin-10 levels and a decreased frequency of pathogenic CD8+ T cells in response to lethal infection. Thus, these data indicate that Nod2, but not TLR2, contributes to susceptibility to severe Ehrlichia-induced shock. Together, our studies provide, for the first time, insight into the diversity of host factors and novel molecular pathogenic mechanisms that may contribute to severe HME.
Neurophysiology of Tactile Perception : A Tribute to Steven Hsiao Neuronal activity in somatosensory cortex related to tactile exploration

Fortier-Poisson P, Smith AM. Neuronal activity in somatosensory cortex related to tactile exploration. J Neurophysiol 115: 112–126, 2016. First published October 14, 2015; doi:10.1152/jn.00747. 2014. —The very light contact forces ( 0.60 N) applied by the fingertips during tactile exploration reveal a clearly optimized sensorimotor strategy. To investigate the cortical mechanisms involved with this behavior, we recorded 230 neurons in the somatosensory cortex (S1), as two monkeys scanned different surfaces with the fingertips in search of a tactile target without visual feedback. During the exploration, the monkeys, like humans, carefully controlled the finger forces. Highfriction surfaces offering greater tangential shear force resistance to the skin were associated with decreased normal contact forces. The activity of one group of neurons was modulated with either the normal or tangential force, with little or no influence from the orthogonal force component. A second group responded to kinetic friction or the ratio of tangential to normal forces rather than responding to a specific parameter, such as force magnitude or direction. A third group of S1 neurons appeared to respond to particular vectors of normal and tangential force on the skin. Although 45 neurons correlated with scanning speed, 32 were also modulated by finger forces, suggesting that forces on the finger should be considered as the primary parameter encoding the skin compliance and that finger speed is a secondary parameter that co-varies with finger forces. Neurons (102) were also tested with different textures, and the activity of 62 of these increased or decreased in relation to the surface friction.
Moving and making strange: An embodied approach to movement-based interaction design

There is growing interest in designing for movement-based interactions with technology, now that various sensing technologies are available enabling a range of movement possibilities from gestural to whole-body interactions. We present a design methodology of Moving and Making Strange, an approach to movement-based interaction design that recognizes the central role of the body and movement in lived cognition. The methodology was developed through a series of empirical projects, each focusing on different conceptions of movement available within motion-sensing interactive, immersive spaces. The methodology offers designers a set of principles, perspectives, methods, and tools for exploring and testing movement-related design concepts. It is innovative for the inclusion of the perspective of the mover, together with the traditional perspectives of the observer and the machine. Making strange is put forward as an important tactic for rethinking how to approach the design of movement-based interaction.
Combination of vector quantization and gaussian mixture models for speaker verification with sparse training data

We present a combination of an extended vector quantization (VQ) algorithm for training a speaker model and a gaussian interpretation of the VQ speaker model in the veri(cid:12)cation phase. This leads to a large decrease of the error rates compared to normal vector quantization and only a slight deterioration compared to full Gaussian mixture model (GMM) training. The training costs of the new method are only slightly higher than for pure vector quantization.
Customer-Base Analysis in a Discrete-Time Noncontractual Setting

Many businesses track repeat transactions on a discrete-time basis. These include (1) companies for whom transactions can only occur at fixed regular intervals, (2) firms that frequently associate transactions with specific events (e.g., a charity that records whether supporters respond to a particular appeal), and (3) organizations that choose to utilize discrete reporting periods even though the transactions can occur at any time. Furthermore, many of these businesses operate in a noncontractual setting, so they have a difficult time differentiating between those customers who have ended their relationship with the firm versus those who are in the midst of a long hiatus between transactions. We develop a model to predict future purchasing patterns for a customer base that can be described by these structural characteristics. Our beta-geometric/beta-Bernoulli (BG/BB) model captures both of the underlying behavioral processes (i.e., customers' purchasing while “alive” and time until each customer permanently “dies”). The model is easy to implement in a standard spreadsheet environment and yields relatively simple closed-form expressions for the expected number of future transactions conditional on past observed behavior (and other quantities of managerial interest). We apply this discrete-time analog of the well-known Pareto/NBD model to a data set on donations made by the supporters of a nonprofit organization located in the midwestern United States. Our analysis demonstrates the excellent ability of the BG/BB model to describe and predict the future behavior of a customer base.
An ultra-low-power biomedical chip for injectable pressure monitor

Implantable pressure monitors enable diagnosis and track patient health or disease progression in different organs such as the brain, eye, heart, and bladder. Miniaturization of the implantable sensors helps reduce patient pain and recovery time, decrease foreign body rejection, and allow the device to be placed in limited spaces. This paper explores a miniaturized pressure monitor which can even be injected through a syringe. Required specifications are investigated to develop the small pressure monitor. Also, low-power circuit techniques to meet extremely small power budget are discussed for a capacitive-to-digital converter, an energy harvester, and digital circuits.
A Hybrid Connectionist, Sy b&c Learning System

This paper describes the learning part of a system which has been developed to provide expert systems capability augmented with learning. The learning scheme is a hybrid connectionist, symbolic one. A network representation is used. Learning may be done incrementally and requires only one pass through the data set to be learned. Attribute, value pairs are supported as a variable implementation. Variables are represented by groups of connected cells in the network. The learning algorithm is described and an example given. Current results are discussed, which include learning the well-known Iris data set. The results show that the system has promise.
Cisgender Men and Trans Prejudice: Relationships With Sexual Orientation and Gender Self-Esteem

Strong identification with the male gender group, or gender self-esteem, predicts trans prejudice in heterosexual men. Less is known about whether gender self-esteem predicts gay and bisexual men’s attitudes toward trans people. Cisgender gay (n = 88), bisexual (n = 74), and heterosexual (n = 98) men completed measures of trans prejudice and gender self-esteem, as well as beliefs that transgenderism is a psychological disorder and that people are born transgender. The lowest levels of trans prejudice, the least agreement that transgenderism is a psychological disorder, and the most agreement that people are born transgender were reported by gay men, followed by bisexual men, then heterosexual men. Reported levels of teasing were higher for trans women than trans men regardless of men’s sexual orientation. Higher levels of trans prejudice correlated with greater agreement that transgenderism is a psychological disorder and less agreement that people are born transgender for all 3 groups of men. Finally, higher levels of gender self-esteem predicted higher levels of trans prejudice for bisexual and heterosexual men, but not gay men. Future research could further examine factors that underlie gay and bisexual men’s trans prejudice, such as strength of identification with one’s sexual orientation and attitudes toward masculinity and femininity.
The impact of pharmaceutical care on patients with hypertension and their pharmacists

Objective The purpose of the study was to assess the influence of pharmaceutical care on patients’ knowledge, quality of life and blood pressure and to determine whether new type of pharmaceutical services changes the pharmacists’ satisfaction and knowledge. Methods Community pharmacies were randomly assigned to study and control group and pharmacists from both groups included patients with hypertension, who meet inclusion and exclusion criteria. Study group provided the pharmaceutical care (education, pharmacotherapy monitoring, detecting and solving drug related problems) for their patients, while the control group provided the standard pharmaceutical services (dispensing medicines with or without counseling). At the beginning and the end of the study pharmacists and patients filled in the knowledge test. Pharmacists fulfilled also satisfaction questionnaire. Results Survey data were collected from 28 and 56 patients from community pharmacies in study and control group respectively. At the last meeting the normal blood pressure achieved 79% and 55% patients in study and control group, respectively (p>0,05). The pharmaceutical care improved patients’ knowledge about disease. Pharmacists from study group, who provided pharmaceutical care, had higher level of pharmacotherapy knowledge and professional satisfaction than the control group. Conclusions Implementation of pharmaceutical care into the pharmacy practice benefits both, patients and pharmacists.
From similarity retrieval to cluster analysis: The case of R*-trees

Data mining is concerned with important aspects related to both database techniques and AI/machine learning mechanisms, and provides an excellent opportunity for exploring the interesting relationship between retrieval and inference/reasoning, a fundamental issue concerning the nature of data mining. In the data mining context, this relationship can be restated as connection and differences between data retrieval and data mining. In this paper we explore this relationship by examining time series data indexed through R*-trees, and study the issues of (1) retrieval of data similar to a given query (which is a plain data retrieval task), and (2) clustering of the data based on similarity (which is a data mining task). Along the way of examination of our central theme, we also report new algorithms and new results related to these two issues. We have developed a software package consisting of a similarity analysis tool and two implemented clustering algorithms: KMeans-R and Hierarchy-R. A sketch of experimental results is also provided
Efficient and Reliable Multicast in Multi-radio Networks

This paper investigates a novel efficient approach to utilize multiple radio interfaces for enhancing the performance of reliable multicasts from a single sender to a group of receivers. In the proposed scheme, one radio channel (and interface) is dedicated only for recovery information transmissions. We apply this concept to both ARQ and hybrid ARQ+FEC protocols, formally analyzing the number of packets each receiver needs to process in both our approach and in the common single channel approach. We also present a corresponding efficient protocol, and study its performance by simulation. Both the formal analysis and the simulations demonstrate the benefits of our scheme.
Adaptive Resources Provisioning for Grid Applications and Services

Applications utilizing Grid computing infrastructure usually require resources allocation (e.g., bandwidth and CPU) to satisfy their quality of service (QoS) requirements. Given the dynamic nature of grid computing, QoS support and adaptation must be a high priority to successfully support those applications. In this paper, we present an adaptive resources provisioning scheme that optimizes the resources utilization while satisfying the required QoS. More specifically, it minimizes the request blocking probability and, thus, maximizes the revenues of the infrastructure provider.