Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Learner Autonomy and Teacher Autonomy

In foreign language learning, the notion of learner autonomy has become rooted in people's minds ,however, it is not the only one belonging to the learners. Today , we should concern more about teacher autonomy when probing the notion of learner autonomy. This paper illustrates the relationship between learner autonomy and teacher autonomy based on the definition of the two concepts, and reaches the conclusion that learner autonomy depends on teahcer autonomy and the autonomy of teacher development can motivate learner autonomy.
Enabling constant monitoring of chronic patient using Android smart phones

Many families have experienced difficulties, when a relative has been hospitalized for some reason or suffers from a chronic condition, such as the Alzheimer's disease. In case of treatment at home, these patients should be constantly monitored. Nevertheless, around-the-clock monitoring may not always be possible. The reasons may be both economical and social, since families may not afford external help and sometimes patients do not trust outsiders. In this paper, we present an application for the monitoring and the protection of these patients, without the need of constant human helper. The use of a mobile telephone running a custom application and is connected to various biometric sensors will aid to achieve this goal.
Water and Ions in a High Resolution Structure of B-DNA*

A detailed picture of hydration and counterion location in the B-DNA duplex d(GCGAATTCG) is presented. Detailed data have been obtained by single crystal x-ray diffraction at atomic resolution (0.89 Å) in the presence of Mg2+. The latter is the highest resolution ever obtained for a B-DNA oligonucleotide. Minor groove hydration is compared with that found in the Na+ and Ca2+ crystal forms of the related dodecamer d(CGCGAATTCGCG). High resolution data (1.45 Å) of the Ca2+ form obtained in our laboratory are used for that purpose. The central GAATTC has a very stable hydration spine identical in all cases, independent of duplex length and crystallization conditions (counterions, space group). However, the organization of the water molecules (tertiary and quaternary layers) associated with the central spine vary in each case.
Usefulness of diffusion‐weighted MRI with echo‐planar technique in the evaluation of cellularity in gliomas

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with echo‐planar imaging (EPI) technique in depicting the tumor cellularity and grading of gliomas. Twenty consecutive patients (13 men and 7 women, ranging in age from 13 to 69 years) with histologically proven gliomas were examined using a 1.5 T superconducting imager. Tumor cellularity, analyzed with National Institutes of Health Image 1.60 software on a Macintosh computer, was compared with the minimum apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the signal intensity on the T2‐weighted images. The relationship of the minimum ADC to the tumor grade was also evaluated. Tumor cellularity correlated well with the minimum ADC value of the gliomas (P = 0.007), but not with the signal intensity on the T2‐weighted images. The minimum ADC of the high‐grade gliomas was significantly higher than that of the low‐grade gliomas. Diffusion‐weighted MRI with EPI is a useful technique for assessing the tumor cellularity and grading of gliomas. This information is not obtained with conventional MRI and is useful for the diagnosis and characterization of gliomas. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;9:53–60 © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Exogenous contrast agent improves sensitivity of gradient‐echo functional magnetic resonance imaging at 9.4 T

Relative to common clinical magnetic field strengths, higher fields benefit functional brain imaging both by providing additional signal for high‐resolution applications and by improving the sensitivity of endogenous contrast due to the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) mechanism, which has limited detection power at low magnetic fields relative to the use of exogenous contrast agent. This study evaluates the utility of iron oxide contrast agent for gradient echo functional MRI at 9.4 T in rodents using cocaine and methylphenidate as stimuli. Relative to the BOLD method, the use of high iron doses and short echo times provided a roughly twofold global increase in functional sensitivity, while also suppressing large vessel signal and reducing susceptibility artifacts. Furthermore, MRI measurements of the functional percentage change in cerebral blood volume (CBV) showed excellent agreement with results obtained at much lower magnetic field strengths, demonstrating that MRI estimates of this quantity are roughly independent of magnetic field when appropriate techniques are employed. The derived field dependencies for relative sensitivity and MRI estimates of the percentage change in CBV suggest that the benefits provided by exogenous agents will persist even at much higher magnetic fields than 9.4 T. Magn Reson Med 52:1272–1281, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Virtual worlds vs books and videos in history education

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate an application of virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI) as a technological combination that has a potential to improve the learning experience and engage with the modern generation of students. To address this need, we have created a virtual reality replica of one of humanity's first cities, the city of Uruk and populated this city with AI-controlled 3D avatars, which re-enact everyday life of ancient Sumerians in the period around 3000 B.C. Our hypothesis is that by immersing students into this environment and allowing them to learn by browsing through it and interacting with its virtual citizens can be more engaging and motivating than simply reading the corresponding history text or watching an educational video. To confirm this assumption, we have designed a study with three groups of students. One group was given a historical text about Uruk and everyday life of its citizens (created by our subject matter experts), the second group was shown a documentary video on Uruk and the third group was immersed into virtual Uruk and engaged into interactions with its virtual inhabitants. The outcomes of the study suggest that not only did people in the third group provide much more positive qualitative feedback about the learning experience, but they also showed a better comprehension of the study material by performing (on average) 20% better than the first two groups on the mini-exam that was conducted as a part of this study.
Microtubule function in fibroblast spreading is modulated according to the tension state of cell–matrix interactions

Mechanical and physical features of the extracellular environment dramatically impact cell shape. Fibroblasts interacting with 3D relaxed collagen matrices appear much different from cells on 2D collagen-coated surfaces and form dendritic cell extensions that contain microtubule cores and actin-rich tips. We found that interfering with cellular microtubules caused cells in relaxed matrices to remain round and unable to form dendritic extensions, whereas fibroblasts on coverslips formed lamellipodial extensions and were spread completely without microtubules but were unable to become polarized. Fibroblasts in relaxed collagen matrices lack stress fibers, focal adhesions, and focal adhesion signaling. Fibroblasts on collagen-coated coverslips that were unable to develop stress fibers and focal adhesions, because of either adding blebbistatin to the cells or use of soft coverslips, also formed microtubule-dependent dendritic extensions. Conversely, fibroblasts interacting with precontracted collagen matrices developed stress fibers and lamellipodial extensions and required microtubules for polarization but not spreading. Our findings demonstrate an unexpected relationship between the role of microtubules in cell spreading and the tension state of cell–matrix interactions. At a low tension state (absence of stress fibers and focal adhesions) typical of fibroblasts in relaxed collagen matrices, cells spread with dendritic extensions whose formation requires microtubules; at a high tension state (stress fibers and focal adhesions) typical of cells on coverslips, cells spread with lamellipodial extensions and microtubules are required for cell polarization but not for spreading.
Comparison of kinetic models for analysis of pyruvate‐to‐lactate exchange by hyperpolarized 13C NMR

The activity of specific enzyme‐catalyzed reactions may be detected in vivo by 13 C NMR of hyperpolarized (HP) substrates. The signals from HP substrates and products, acquired over time, have been fitted to a number of different mathematical models to determine fluxes, but these models have not been critically compared. In this study, two‐pool and three‐pool first‐order models were constructed to measure flux through lactate dehydrogenase in isolated glioblastoma cells by NMR detection of lactate and pyruvate following the addition of HP [1‐13C]pyruvate. Mass spectrometry (MS) was used to independently monitor 13 C enrichment in intra‐ and extracellular lactate. Six models were evaluated using time‐dependent pyruvate C2 and lactate C1 HP NMR data acquired by the use of selective excitation pulses, plus 13 C enrichment data from intracellular and extracellular lactate measured by MS. A three‐pool bidirectional model provided the most accurate description of pyruvate metabolism in these cells. With computed values for T1 of pyruvate and lactate, as well as the effect of pulsing, the initial flux through lactate dehydrogenase was well determined by both the two‐pool bidirectional and unidirectional models when only HP data were available. The three‐pool model was necessary to fit the combined data from both MS and HP, but the simpler two‐pool exchange model was sufficient to determine the 13 C lactate concentration when the lactate appearance was measured only by HP. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
High resolution 2D quantification of myocardial motion abnormalities in mice using high resolution ultrasound with MRI validation

High resolution ultrasound image sequences of left-ventricular motion abnormalities in mice were analyzed on a regional basis using an optimized 2D pixel block tracking technique. The mouse heart was imaged at 35 MHz with approximately 40 mum axial resolution and 100 mum lateral resolution. Myocardial regional motion was tracked using high frame rate mouse heart image sequences using 2D minimum sum of absolute differences (MSAD) block matching. Eight pixel parallel processing was achieved using single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instructions, resulting in a processing speed of 0.11 seconds per frame on a 2.9 GHz Pentium4 PC. Significant differences were observed in the regional displacement, strain and velocity between healthy and infarcted myocardial tissue. Myocardial strains were compared to those obtained via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The correlation between the assessment using ultrasound and MRI was R = 91% for radial strain and R = 84% for circumferential strain. Thus, high resolution ultrasound followed by 2D image motion post-processing offers the potential to derive quantitative measures of mouse heart function with the low cost, fine temporal resolution and ease-of-mobility of ultrasound instrumentation
Relational Contracting Under Threats of Economic Downturn

This paper investigates the robustness of the “two-tiered labor market” experimental results of Brown, Falk and Fehr (2004) by subjecting relationships to stochastic interruptions. Firms in Brown et al prepay a wage, request a level of effort, and then workers who accept the offer choose effort. Effort is costly to workers and valuable to firms, but cannot be explicitly contracted for. They find that when firms can make private offers to particular workers (identified by ID numbers), long term relationship with high wages and high effort level account for a large fraction of contracts in the market. Our experiments replicate this basic pattern quite closely using different subject pools and extending number of contracting periods from 15 to 30. We then study the impact of exogenous random “downturns” in which firms cannot hire workers for three periods. Surprisingly, the downturns do not harm aggregate market efficiency and actually raise average efficiency per trade slightly. The reason is that in the downturn sessions firms offer higher wages and request more effort, workers exert a little more effort. There is also a high rate of reconnection after downturns (i.e., firms make private offers to the workers they employed previously), although this rate is much higher among Caltech subjects than among UCLA subjects. The net effect is that downturns actually increase worker surplus substantially, lower firm profits slightly, and increase overall surplus slightly.
Methylprednisolone Applied Directly to the Round Window Reduces Dizziness after Cochlear Implantation: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This prospective, double-blind controlled, randomized clinical trial of 43 adults showed that topical methylprednisolone applied to the round window during cochlear implantation was effective in protecting inner ear function. Postoperative vestibular disturbance was significantly lower in the steroid group (5%) than the control group (29%). Electrode impedances from the middle portion of the electrode array (electrodes 10–13) were significantly reduced in steroid-treated recipients compared to controls. Hearing and vestibular function analyses were under-powered to detect any drug changes due to limited participant data.
Poster: A Medium Access Control Protocol for Full-duplex Wireless Information and Power Transfer

Full-duplex wireless information and power transfer allows the implementation of wireless sensor networks without batteries. In a full-duplex wireless network, an access point and sensor nodes transmit information and power signals simultaneously. However, this simultaneous transmission leads to a collision problem. To solve this collision problem, we propose a media access control (MAC) protocol, namely the Full-Duplex Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer Medium Access Control (FD-SWIPT MAC) protocol, for full-duplex wireless information and power transfer. The evaluation results show that the proposed FD-SWIPT MAC protocol outperforms other MAC protocols.
In Th2‐biased lymphatic filarial patients, responses to purified protein derivative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis remain Th1

Natural infection with filarial nematode parasites results in immune responses skewed towards T helper (Th)2, while infection with mycobacteria shows many characteristics of a Th1‐dominated response. Cytokines typifying Th1, interferon (IFN)‐γ, and Th2, interleukin (IL)‐4, were measured following stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from filarial patients with Brugia malayi adult worm antigen (BmA) and purified protein derivative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (PPD). In response to PPD, only 1 out of 81 patients produced IL‐4, and this at an amount (4.4 pg/ml) just above the detection limit, whereas 59% of patients responded to BmA by releasing IL‐4. Conversely, substantial quantities of IFN‐γ were released in response to PPD (geometric mean 37.43 U/ml) compared to low BmA‐stimulated IFN‐γ production in the same patients (geometric mean 5.02 U/ml). These results demonstrate that the strong skewing of the cytokine environment towards Th2 in filarial patients in vivo does not influence the predominance of a Th1 type immune response to PPD.
Trial of decompressive craniectomy for traumatic intracranial hypertension

Patients: Aged 10–65 years old with refractory traumatic intracranial hypertension. Intervention: Patients were randomly assigned to either decompressive craniectomy or ongoing medical management (including optional barbiturate therapy). Outcomes: The primary outcome was Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS-E) (see Appendix 1) at six months’ post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes included mortality at 6, 12, and 24 months; GOS-E at 12 and 24 months; quality-of-life at 6, 12, and 24 months; time in ICU; GCS at discharge from ICU; and assessment of ICP control.
Multimodal Human Computer Interaction with MIDAS Intelligent Infokiosk

In this paper, we present an intelligent information kiosk called MIDAS (Multimodal Interactive-Dialogue Automaton for Self-service), including its hardware and software architecture, stages of deployment of speech recognition and synthesis technologies. MIDAS uses the methodology Wizard of Oz (WOZ) that allows an expert to correct speech recognition results and control the dialogue flow. User statistics of the multimodal human computer interaction (HCI) have been analyzed for the operation of the kiosk in the automatic and automated modes. The infokiosk offers information about the structure and staff of laboratories, the location and phones of departments and employees of the institution. The multimodal user interface is provided with a touch screen, natural speech input and head and manual gestures, both for ordinary and physically handicapped users.
Socio-economic differences in health, income inequality, unequal access to care and spending on health: A country-level comparison of Finland and 16 other European countries

In all countries, there are differences in health between socio-economic groups. In Finland those health differences are comparatively large. Why there is such wide cross-national variation in relative health differences between socio-economic groups remains an unanswered question. One brand of explanations links health outcomes to income inequalities. The other brand of explanations emphasizes the role of health care systems and unequal access to health care. The latter explanation has dominated the Finnish debate, which is motivated by the fact that the OECD has classified the Finnish health care system as one of the most unequalizing in the industrial countries. A third set of explanations argues that health outcomes are related to the size of the health budget. In this article, we focus on socio-economic differences in selfassessed health. We ask how strongly socio-economic health differences are linked to income inequalities (H1), how satisfactorily the characteristics of health care systems explain these differences (H2), and what the relative role of the health budget is (H3). The comparisons show that the socio-economic health differences among 17 European countries are more strongly associated to the health budget (H3) than to the features of health care systems (H2) or income inequality (H1). However, these two explanations also get qualified support— but bigger seems to be better.
Anticipatory Saccadic‐Vergence Responses in Humans

Under natural conditions, most shifts of our point of visual fixation are between objects that lie in different directions and different distances in the environment. These shifts are achieved by combined saccadic and vergence movements.1 Saccades and vergence movements are each generated by separate populations of “burst neurons,” which lie in the brainstem.2,3 Saccadic burst neurons are inhibited by omnipause neurons, which lie in the pons of the brainstem.4 Recent studies have suggested that omnipause neurons gate both saccadic and vergence burst neurons, and thus act as a premotor switch that allows gaze shifts.1,5 Omnipause neurons receive motor commands from the frontal eye fields and the superior colliculus6 and also respond to visual stimuli.7 We investigated whether it was the visual stimulus, the saccadic command, or the vergence command that triggered the omnipause “switch” to permit a shift in the point of fixation. We studied 10 normal subjects, all of whom gave informed consent. We measured movements of each eye using the magnetic search-coil technique. Subjects alternately switched their point of fixation between near and far targets, both aligned on the midline. The far visual stimulus was a red laser spot at 1.2 m, and the near target was a green LED at 20 cm. Each target was alternately illuminated in a predictable sequence, every 1.25 sec. Digitized signals were filtered and differentiated as previously described.8 Our experimental strategy was to look for small, high-frequency, conjugate oscillations, which are a behavioral marker that omnipause neurons are turned off.8 We used our data to test a current model for combined saccade–vergence movements.1 All subjects showed some anticipatory responses, each consisting of a vergence drift, accompanied by a small saccade, that preceded target jumps (FIG. 1A). Overall, predictive responses occurred during 95% of divergence and 85% of convergence movements. In all trials, an initial vergence movement preceded the saccade, and this
Remotely detected fire events: Potential and challenges of validating against national ground data

The Earth Observation data are recognized as valuable source of information about fire events. In this paper we present the potential of using the satellite-based `hotspots' in management of fires as well as challenges of validating the remotely detected fire events in Poland. We compare the spatio-temporal distribution of fires derived from satellites against ground-based fires reported in the National Forest Fire Information System. The preliminary results showed that about 35% of the remotely detected fires were recorded in the ground-based fire database over the period 2002-2013. The satellites has missed the vast majority of vegetation fires. The limitation of both databases was also discussed. The analysis of fire intensity, for the fires detected both remotely and on the ground, demonstrated that forest fires were the greatest and the most intensive fires. However, the analysis of the mean Fire Radiative Power values calculated for all recorded MODIS hotspots confirmed that wetland fires are the most intensive considering that the number of burning events was relatively low.
Adapting and testing the Fama and French model, with some variations of company characteristics

ABSTRACT We examine whether the Fama and French (1992) (F&F) model can be adapted to become a more versatile and flexible tool, capable of incorporating variations of company characteristics in a more dynamic form. For this, the risk factors are reconstructed at the end of each reading of monthly data. We argue that, over time, the evaluation of a company may change as a result of variations in its market price, size or book price, and we are aware that the F&F model does not accurately reflect these dynamics. Our results show that the adapted model is able to capture the behaviour of a greater number of stocks than the original F&F model and risk factors are more significant when building them through our procedure. In addition, we carry out these adaptations during a period of instability in financial markets.