Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economie de l'éducation dans les pays en développement : cinq essais sur l’aide internationale à l’éducation, la nature publique ou privée de l’enseignement, le choix des parents, l’efficience des collèges et la satisfaction des enseignants

L‟acces, la qualite et l‟equite des systemes educatifs des pays en developpement sont encore tres problematiques et des millions d‟enfants ne peuvent exercer leur droit a une education de base menee a son terme. La scolarisation des populations les plus pauvres reste ainsi un des enjeux prioritaires de l‟humanite pour lequel l‟economie de l‟education a un role moteur a jouer. Au travers de cinq essais, cette these aborde les problematiques liees a l‟aide internationale a l‟education, a la nature publique ou privee de l‟enseignement, au choix des parents, a l‟efficience des colleges et a la satisfaction des enseignants. Avec un point de vue macroeconomique, le chapitre 1 analyse l‟efficacite de l‟aide international pour atteindre la scolarisation primaire universelle tandis que le chapitre 2 s‟efforce d‟expliquer les differences de repartition des eleves entre enseignements public et prive dans le monde. La suite de la these se base sur une enquete nationale originale realisee dans les colleges de Madagascar, un pays associant une grande pauvrete des menages a une forte presence et une grande diversite de l‟offre educative privee. Le chapitre 3 analyse comment les parents choisissent un college pour leurs enfants et ses effets sur la stratification sociale, le chapitre 4 s‟interroge sur l‟efficience des colleges publics et prives et ses determinants tandis que le chapitre 5 examine les facteurs d‟influence de la satisfaction, du cumul d‟emplois et de l‟absenteisme des enseignants du secondaire.
Implications of the Hierarchical Structure of Biodiversity for the Development of Ecological Indicators of Sustainable Use

Abstract The increasing interest, and the actual necessity, for adequate means to evaluate how sustainable human activities are, has led to efforts to define indicators of sustainability. We propose the use of ecological indicators of sustainability that take into account the hierarchical structure of biodiversity, distinguishing composition, structure and function at the different levels of biological organization: ecosystem and landscape, community, and population and genetic levels. We evaluated the advantages of selecting and combining indicators of different hierarchical levels by examining several use and management projects. Examples of transformed land like large-scale plantations, perform well when evaluated by ecosystem-level indicators, but lead to neglect of some composition and structure components if evaluated at different levels. Limitations in using a small number of indicators become evident in cases of intensive exploitation of resources, such as the extractive reserves, which yield good results under the ecosystem and community levels, but fail under the population and genetic indicators. Wild species management, a common example of the use of population-level indicators, do not perform well under other indicators at broader scales. We also reviewed projects that are sustainable at different hierarchical levels, like some multispecific exploitation forestry management, in which harvesting of resources is at or below sustainable levels, selective extraction is performed, and where natural regeneration and recruitment of species is allowed. It is evident that the adequacy of indicators is not universal and must take into account the complexity of processes and variables involved in the different biological levels and human components, highlighting possible conflicts and contradictions, while increasing knowledge about maintenance of quality in the use and exploitation of resources that the relevant stake-holders regard as important.
Implementation of ESEA Title I: A Problem of Compliance

This article was originally published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education and funded by the National Institute of Education. The author would like to acknowledge the very useful contributions of Paul Berman (The Rand Corporation), David Cohen (Harvard University), Erwin Flaxman (ERIC/IRCD, Teachers College, Columbia University), and Edward Merrow (USLC) to the development of this article.
Low-Jitter Discharge of a Plasma-Jet Triggered Gas Switch at Low Working Coefficients

Reducing the working coefficient of gas switch can effectively lower the prefires probability. This paper discusses in detail the discharge characteristics of a three-electrode plasma-jet triggered gas switch (PJTGS), especially at low working coefficients. The triggered discharge process of the PJTGS is analyzed. Plasma jets are observed and discussed with respect to trigger voltage, trigger energy, and gas pressure. In addition, the switch jitters at different conditions are investigated, including ground resistor, charging voltage, trigger energy, trigger voltage, and working coefficient. The results indicate that the height of the plasma jet increases with the increase of trigger voltage and energy, and decreases with the increase of gas pressure. At working coefficients higher than 75%, trigger voltage of +80 kV, and ground resistor of 100 \(\Omega \) , reliable subnanosecond jitters can be obtained with the charging voltages of ±25, ±30, ±40, and ±50 kV. When the working coefficients are between 50% and 28.1%, the switch jitters range from 1.6 to 3.5 ns. Even at the working coefficient of 28.1%, the PJTGS can still be triggered reliably with a switch jitter of 3.5 ns.
Forgery Detection and Value Identification of Euro Banknotes

This paper describes both hardware and software components to detect counterfeits of Euro banknotes. The proposed system is also able to recognize the banknote values. Differently than other state-of-the-art methods, the proposed approach makes use of banknote images acquired with a near infrared camera to perform recognition and authentication. This allows one to build a system that can effectively deal with real forgeries, which are usually not detectable with visible light. The hardware does not use any mechanical parts, so the overall system is low-cost. The proposed solution is reliable for ambient light and banknote positioning. Users should simply lean the banknote to be analyzed on a flat glass, and the system detects forgery, as well as recognizes the banknote value. The effectiveness of the proposed solution has been properly tested on a dataset composed by genuine and fake Euro banknotes provided by Italy's central bank.
Scalable reputation management with trustworthy user selection for P2P MMOGs

Recent research on Peer-to-Peer Massively Multiplayer Online Games (P2P MMOGs) has tried to find more scalable and affordable solutions to build virtual environments via the resource sharing of clients. However, P2P approaches face the problem of client misbehaviours where game rules are not processed properly, undermining a game's fairness and normal operations. In this paper, we present REPS, a distributed reputation management system for P2P MMOGs that allows trustworthy clients be identified to perform important tasks. REPS first considers the generation, storage, and query for certain reputation factors that could be the basis to evaluate user trustworthiness. We then propose Trustworthy user Selection (TuS) to adjust the weights of each factor to give preference to the more important ones. Based on the mutual rating among users and reputation queries, REPS provides a scalable and reliable mechanism to facilitate decision making, from choosing trustworthy superpeers, to deciding whether to interact with particular users.
TuinLEC, an intelligent tutoring system to improve reading literacy skills / TuinLEC, un tutor inteligente para mejorar la competencia lectora

Abstract This study describes an intelligent tutoring system to improve reading literacy skills called TuinLEC and it presents the results of its application to a group of sixth grade students. TuinLEC adopts the reading literacy theoretical framework of PISA (Program for International Students Assessment, OECD, 2009). TuinLEC includes eight lessons distributed in two phases, one for modeling and guided practice, and the second for independent practice. TuinLEC interacts with every student and it provides help and feedback for the task in a game-like environment. Half of the students were taught with TuinLEC, whereas the other half served as the control group. Children in both groups were paired according to reading comprehension scores. We measured students’ reading literacy skills after intervention, which showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. Students who were taught with TuinLEC were also given a questionnaire measuring satisfaction, usability, and self-efficacy; TuinLEC scored positively in all these measurements. We discuss how TuinLEC can improve the reading literacy skills of sixth-graders as well as the contribution of intelligent tutoring systems to instructional interventions.
Managing mobile provision for community healthcare support: issues and challenges

Purpose – This paper addresses some key management issues relating to developing mobile support for community healthcare (CHC) provision, such as support structures, service management and organization.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents three generic examples that draw out the heterogeneous nature of CHC support and the issues and challenges involved. The research is mostly qualitative, based on interviews with key health and social care professionals in the south of England, supported by desk‐based activity. The initial phase of the pilot involved six healthcare professionals, who were interviewed for approximately an hour and a half each using a semi‐structured questionnaire.Findings – It is clear that many CHC professionals, for the generic case examples, cannot do their community activity without some mobile technology support, such as a mobile telephone. More sophisticated support offers much potential to improve patient/client care in the community as well as efficiency benefits.Resear.
Disruption of Reproductive Rhythms and Patterns of Melatonin and Prolactin Secretion Following Bilateral Lesions of the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei in the Ewe

To determine whether the photoperiodic responses of reproductive and prolactin (PRL) rhythms in the ewe requires an intact suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) driving the pineal rhythm of melatonin secretion, four groups of ovary‐intact ewes over a 6‐year period were subjected to bilateral (n = 40) or sham lesions (n = 15) of the SCN. Animals were exposed to an alternating 90–120 day photoregimen of 9L:15D and 16L: 8D photoperiods. Blood samples taken twice weekly were assayed for prolactin and for progesterone to monitor oestrous cycles. On several occasions blood samples also were taken at hourly intervals for 24 h and analyzed for melatonin. Melatonin concentrations in sham lesioned ewes were basal during the lights‐on period and rose robustly during darkness. Those sheep bearing unilateral lesions of the SCN (n = 13) or where the lesion spared the SCN entirely (n = 8) had patterns of melatonin secretion similar to sham ewes. The remaining ewes, having complete (n = 9) or incomplete bilateral (n = 8) destruction of the SCN, with one exception, had disrupted patterns of melatonin secretion. The nature of this disruption varied from complete suppression to continuously elevated levels. In lesioned ewes where melatonin secretion was not affected the onset and cessation of ovarian cycles were similar to sham ewes; stimulation of oestrous cycles under 9L:15D and cessation of oestrous cycles under 16L:8D. In contrast, 13 of 17 ewes with disrupted melatonin secretion also exhibited disrupted patterns of ovarian activity. In these animals oestrous cycles were no longer entrained by photoperiod but still occurred in distinct clusters, that is, groups of cycles began and ended spontaneously. Sheep with normal melatonin patterns showed low levels of PRL secretion during short days and elevated PRL levels during long days. However, 8 of 13 ewes with disrupted melatonin showed patterns of PRL secretion that were no longer entrained by photoperiod. A minority of ewes with disrupted melatonin patterns still showed reproductive (n = 4) and PRL (n = 5) responses similar to those of sham‐lesioned ewes. These results show that bilateral destruction of the SCN in the ewe disrupts the circadian pattern of melatonin secretion and that this disruption usually, but not always, is associated with altered photoperiodic responses. These results strongly suggest that the SCN are important neural elements within the photoperiod time–keeping system in this species. A role for the SCN in the generation of endogenous transitions in reproductive activity (refractoriness) and prolactin secretion is not supported.
Lowering Inter-datacenter Bandwidth Costs via Bulk Data Scheduling

Cloud service providers (CSP) of today operate multiple data centers, over which they provide resilient infrastructure, data storage and compute services. The links between data centers have very high capacity, and are typically purchased by the CSPs using established billing practices, such as 95-thpercentile billing or average-usage billing. These links are used to serve both client traffic as well as CSP-specific bulk data traffic, such as backup jobs, etc. Past studies have shown a diurnal pattern of traffic over such links. However, CSPs pay for the peak bandwidth, which implies that they are under-utilizing the capacity for which they have paid for. We propose a scheduling framework that considers various classes of jobs that are encountered over such links, and propose GRESE, an algorithm that attempts to minimize overall bandwidth costs to the CSP, by leveraging the flexible nature of the deadlines of these bulk data jobs. We demonstrate the problem is not a simple extension of any well-known scheduling problems, and show how the GRESE algorithm is effective in curtailing CSP bandwidth costs.
A new digital control strategy of boost PFC at high-line light-load condition

The power factor correction (PFC) converter is commonly used in many applications nowadays. For high power applications, boost PFC converter operated in continuous conduction mode is usually employed. However, at high-line light-load condition, the converter operates in discontinuous conduction mode. This leads to erroneous input current sampling which results in low power factor (PF) and high total harmonic distortion (THD). Moreover, the effect of EMI filter capacitor causes the displacement between the input current and input voltage. This paper proposes a digital control method to improve PF and reduce THD by using the current sample correction algorithm, duty ratio feed forward for current controller and EMI filter capacitance current injection algorithm. The increase of PF and reduction of THD are demonstrated by experiments on a 400W boost PFC converter.
Multicage image deformation on GPU

As a linear blending method, cage-based deformation is widely used in various applications of image and geometry processing. In most cases especially in the interactive mode, deformation based on embedded cages does not work well as some of the coefficients are not continual and make the deformation discontinuous, which means existing "spring up" phenomenon. However, it's common for us to deform the ROI(Region of Interest) while keeping local part untouched or with only small adjustments. In this paper, we design a scheme to solve the above problem. A multicage can be generated manually or automatically, and the image deformation can be adjusted intelligently according to the local cage shape to preserve important details. On the other hand, we don't need to care about the pixels' position relative to the multicage. All the pixels go through the same process, and this will save a lot of time. We also design a packing method for cage coordinates to pack all the necessary coefficents into one texture. A vertex shader can be used to accelerate the deformation process, leading to realtime deformation even for large images.
Performance analysis of ultra‐dense networks with MRC reception and successive interference cancellation under rate‐limited backhaul

Ultra‐dense network (UDN) is one of candidate technologies for next generation cellular networks. In this paper, we explore performance limits of cooperative UDN with maximal ratio‐combining detection under limited‐capacity backhaul links. More concretely, based on the imperfect estimation, lower bounds of the average per‐user rate are derived for maximal ratio‐combining detection with and without successive interference cancellation scheme when the number of Base stations (BSs) in the network goes to infinite. Then we discuss how the average per‐user rate is impacted by the number of cooperative BSs and the backhaul capacity. Our results show that there is an optimal number of cooperative BSs in the UDN to achieve the best performance in low signal‐to‐noise‐ratio region. Simulations demonstrate that our asymptotic rate bounds are tight when the number of BSs is large. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Potential molecular mechanisms underlying muscle fatigue mediated by reactive oxygen and nitrogen species

Intense contractile activity causes a dramatic decline in the force and velocity generating capacity of skeletal muscle within a few minutes, a phenomenon that characterizes fatigue. Much of the research effort has focused on how elevated levels of the metabolites of ATP hydrolysis might inhibit the function of the contractile proteins. However, there is now growing evidence that elevated levels of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS), which also accumulate in the myoplasm during fatigue, also play a causative role in this type of fatigue. The most compelling evidence comes from observations demonstrating that pre-treatment of intact muscle with a ROS scavenger can significantly attenuate the development of fatigue. A clear advantage of this line of inquiry is that the molecular targets and protein modifications of some of the ROS scavengers are well-characterized enabling researchers to begin to identify potential regions and even specific amino acid residues modified during fatigue. Combining this knowledge with assessments of contractile properties from the whole muscle level down to the dynamic motions within specific contractile proteins enable the linking of the structural modifications to the functional impacts, using advanced chemical and biophysical techniques. Based on this approach at least two areas are beginning emerge as potentially important sites, the regulatory protein troponin and the actin binding region of myosin. This review highlights some of these recent efforts which have the potential to offer uniquely precise information on the underlying molecular basis of fatigue. This work may also have implications beyond muscle fatigue as ROS/RNS mediated protein modifications are also thought to play a role in the loss of muscle function with aging and in some acute pathologies like cardiac arrest and ischemia.
Evaluation of core and surface body temperatures, prevalence, onset, duration and severity of hot flashes in men after bilateral orchidectomy for prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence, onset, duration and severity of hot flashes in men after bilateral orchidectomy (BO) for prostate cancer, to evaluate body temperature changes during hot flashes and to determine whether an elevated temperature within a few days after BO can be caused by deprivation of androgen. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients (n = 101) were questioned about the characteristics of their hot flashes after BO for prostate cancer. A subgroup of these men (n = 17) were instructed to record their oral and forehead temperatures during and at fixed intervals between hot flashes daily for 4 weeks. RESULTS The mean age was 71.6 years, mean follow-up after BO was 33.2 months. Hot flashes were reported by 87 men (86%) with previous spontaneous remission in 9 (10%). The median time between BO and the onset of hot flashes was 21 days (range 1-730), median number of hot flashes 3 per day (range 1-20), and median duration was 120 seconds (range 5 to 1800). There was no significant difference between median oral (36.4(o) C) and forehead (36.0(o) C) temperature in the normal state, but during hot flashes the median forehead temperature (37.0(o) C) was higher than the oral temperature (36.5(o) C) (p = 0.0004). Both median oral and forehead temperatures were higher during hot flashes (36.5(o) C and 37.0(o) C) than in the normal state (36.4(o) C and 36.0(o) C, respectively) (p < 0.0001). During hot flashes, the oral temperature was 38(o) C to 40(o) C in only 3.2% of 593 readings in 17 patients. CONCLUSIONS The median oral and forehead temperatures are higher during hot flashes than in normal periods. Oral temperature elevation > 38(o) C within days after a BO is unlikely to be the result of androgen deprivation alone.
Statin-exposed vascular smooth muscle cells secrete proteoglycans with decreased binding affinity for LDL Published, JLR Papers in Press, August 16, 2003. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M300252-JLR200

Retention of LDL in the artery intima is mediated by extracellular matrix proteoglycans and plays an important role in the initiation of atherosclerosis. Compared with quiescent cells, proliferating smooth muscle cells secrete proteoglycans with elongated glycosaminoglycan side chains, which have an increased binding affinity to LDL. Because 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) decrease smooth muscle cell proliferation, we hypothesized that statin exposure would decrease both the size and LDL binding affinity of vascular proteoglycans. Monkey aortic smooth muscle cells grown in culture were exposed to simvastatin (10 and 100 μM) and cerivastatin (0.1 and 1 μM), and newly secreted proteoglycans were quantified and characterized. Both simvastatin and cerivastatin caused a concentration-dependent reduction in cell growth and reduced 35SO4 incorporation into secreted proteoglycans, on both an absolute and a per cell basis. Interestingly, statin exposure increased the apparent molecular weight and hydrodynamic size of secreted proteoglycans. However, proteoglycans secreted from statin-exposed cells demonstrated a reduction in binding affinity to LDL. Thus, statins may induce atheroprotective changes in vascular proteoglycans and lower LDL retention in the vessel wall. These findings suggest a mechanism whereby statins may benefit atherosclerosis in a manner unrelated to serum LDL lowering.
Detectando la ironía: La hipótesis aditiva como alternativa a las de referencia y la intención

Esta investigacion estuvo dirigida al estudio de los factores que subyacen a la deteccion y comprension del habla ironica. Tres son las hipotesis existentes sobre este tema: la hipotesis tradicional, que ve a la ironia como un caso de lenguaje figurado ; la hipotesis de la referencia, que entiende la ironia como un caso de mencion ecoica, y la hipotesis de la intencion, que ve la clave de la comprension ironica en el conocimiento, por parte del oyente, de las relaciones interpersonales existentes entre autor / victima de la ironia. Tras la contrastacion experimental de cada una de estas hipotesis, se propone una cuarta, la hipotesis aditiva que defiende la intervencion de multiples factores situacionales, episodicos y sociales en la deteccion de las ironias.