Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
American Early Childhood Education: Preventing or Perpetuating Inequity?

Part I – Introduction and Background Unlike merely two decades ago, early childhood education (ECE) is currently regarded as a magical panacea that prepares young children for school and life, equalizes opportunity, and prevents welfare dependence, incarceration, teenage pregnancy and school dropout. While a veritable aura of success encases contemporary early childhood education, few analyses have seared these accolades and examined the realities. This paper dons an equity lens and addresses America's contemporary commitments to all its young children. It discusses early childhood education's successes as well as its failures, noting that depending on where children live, how much money their parents have, and the color of their skin, their access to, and experiences in, early childhood settings vary dramatically. The paper suggests that while ECE has the proven potential to prevent educational inequity, if not dramatically improved, it will do the reverse and perpetuate it. Setting the Stage Nations provide for the care and education of their young children in vastly different ways. Although some provide extensive, and others quite meager, services, all nations approach early childhood education according to their visions of childhood and their values for young children (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2001). Rhetoric aside, what countries actually do with and for youngsters is a mirror of their fundamental beliefs. America is not different. Historically, twin values have framed America's approach to young children (as well as many other social policies). Escaping tyranny and religious persecution, America's forefathers built a nation around the dual values of family primacy and privacy. With family life sacrosanct and primacy pre-eminent, the family was regarded as the basic unit of society. Moreover, what went on within the family was a private matter. Government had little right and less reason to pierce the family unit. Only under the most limited of conditions—when families could not help 2 themselves—was government called upon to intervene. A close scrutiny of early public policies regarding children and families clearly reflects this ethos. In, arguably, the first American comprehensive family policy, the 1935 Social Security Act provisioned for widows and orphans—those without complete " traditional " families. Sustaining this orientation, all subsequent public policies for young children have focused on those who were at risk or otherwise in need of special supports. Amidst this ethos, it is not surprising that America's earliest programs for young children emerged in the private sector. Evangelical women, hoping to …
A Pilot Study on Hip Bone Mineral Densities Estimation from Forearm CBCT images

In this paper, we defined the relative cross-sectional area of forearm cortical bone and investigated its correlation with hip bone mineral density values of total femur, femoral neck, femoral trochanter, femoral inter-trochanter and femoral ward’s triangle, respectively. Based on the correlations, we established a linear transformation between the relative cross-sectional area of forearm cortical bone and each hip bone BMD. We obtained forearm images using CBCT and hip bone BMDs using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for 28 subjects. We also investigated the optimal forearm region to provide the strongest correlation coefficient. We used the optimized forearm region to establish each linear transformation to estimate BMD values for total femur, femoral neck, femoral trochanter, femoral inter-trochanter and femoral ward’s triangle from the relative cross-sectional area of forearm cortical bone, respectively. We observed the strong correlations with total femur (r=0.889), femoral neck (r=0.924), femoral trochanter (r=0.821), femoral inter-trochanter (r=0.867) and femoral ward’s triangle (r=0.895), respectively. The strongest correlation was observed in the forearm mid-shaft regions. Our results suggest that the hip bone BMD values can be simply estimated from forearm CBCT images in a convenient sitting position without X-ray exposure on a hip including genital organs, and may be useful for screening osteoporosis.
Developing Reliable Web Services Using Independent Replicas

Service replication-based fault tolerant strategies use several web services as replicas to perform the same task and, therefore, become an effective approach to improve the reliability of service-oriented applications. A basic assumption of these strategies is that replicas are independent. However, it does not always hold in the web services environment since replicas could be composite services which may share some common component services. How to judge independence of replicas is therefore a critical issue for replication-based strategies. What makes the problem more complicated is that replicas may not be willing to disclose their inner implementation details. To address the above problem, we first analyze the relation between the performance of replication-based strategies and the independence of replicas. Based on the analysis, we propose an approach to determining the independence of replicas. We model the problem as a special Set-Intersection problem and devise a component, TTP (Trusted Third Party), which adopts homomorphism cryptosystem to solve it. Through the proposed approach, we can build reliable web services by using independent replicas without violating their autonomy and privacy.
Characterization of Bacteria in Nigerian Yogurt as Promising Alternative to Antibiotics in Gastrointestinal Infections

ABSTRACT Gastrointestinal infections are endemic in Nigeria and several factors contribute to their continual survival, including bacterial resistance to commonly used antibiotics. Nigerian yogurts do not include probiotics, and limited information is available about the antimicrobial properties of the fermenters in the yogurt against gastrointestinal pathogens. Therefore, the antimicrobial potentials of bacteria in Nigeria-produced yogurts against intestinal pathogens were investigated in this study. Viable counts of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in 15 brands of yogurt were enumerated and the bacteria identified by partial sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. Susceptibility of the gastrointestinal pathogens (Salmonella, Shigella and E. coli ) to antibiotics by disc diffusion method, to viable LAB by the agar overlay method, and to the cell-free culture supernatant (CFCS) of the LAB were investigated. Co-culture analysis of LAB and pathogens were also done. Viable counts of 1.5 × 1011 cfu/ml were observed in some yogurt samples. Two genera were identified: Lactobacillus (70.7%) and Acetobacter (29.3%). The Lactobacillus species reduced multidrug-resistant gastrointestinal pathogens by 4 to 5 log while the zones of inhibition ranged between 11 and 23. The Lactobacillus and Acetobacter strains examined displayed good activities against the multidrug-resistant tested pathogens. This is the first report of antimicrobial activities of acetic acid bacteria isolated from yogurt in Nigeria.
On Gray-Box Program Tracking for Anomaly Detection

Many host-based anomaly detection systems monitor a process ostensibly running a known program by observing the system calls the process makes. Numerous improvements to the precision of this approach have been proposed, such as tracking system call sequences, and various "gray-box" extensions such as examining the program counter or return addresses on the stack when system calls are made. In this paper, we perform the first systematic study of a wide spectrum of such methods. We show that prior approaches can be organized along three axes, revealing new possibilities for system-call-based program tracking. Through an empirical analysis of this design space, we shed light on the benefits and costs of various points in the space and identify new regions that appear to outperform prior approaches. In separate contributions, we demonstrate novel mimicry attacks on a recent proposal using return addresses for system-call-based program tracking, and then suggest randomization techniques to make such attacks more difficult.
In-Process Monitoring for Control of Closed-Mold Techniques for the Manufacture of Thermosetting Matrix Composites

CONTENTS 2.1 Temperature 2.1. 1 Thermocouples 2.1. 2 Thermistors 2.1. 3 Infrared Thermocouples 2.2 Pressure 2.3 Viscosity and Flow Rate 2.4 Flow Front Position 2.5 Gel Point and Degree of Cure 2.5.1 Electrochemical 2.5.2 Dielectric Sensors 2.5.2.1 Low (ð MHz) Frequency 2.5.2.2 High (Microwave) Frequency 2.5.3 Optical Fibers 2.5.3.1 Traditional Distributed Sensors 2.5.3.2 Fluorescence 2.5.3.3 Bragg Gratings 2.5. 4 Chemical Spectroscopy 2.5. 4.1 Laboratory IR and Raman Spectroscopy 2.5. 4.2 Fiber-Optic IR and Raman Spectroscopy 2.5. 4.3 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging 2.5. 5 Ultrasonics 2.5. 5.1 Velocity and Attenuation 2.5. 5.2 Embedded Waveguides and Optical Fibers 2.5. 5.3 Frequency 2.5. 6 Mechanical Impedance Analysis 2.6 Data Fusion
Aberrant Cortical Activity in Multiple GCaMP6-Expressing Transgenic Mouse Lines

Abstract Transgenic mouse lines are invaluable tools for neuroscience but, as with any technique, care must be taken to ensure that the tool itself does not unduly affect the system under study. Here we report aberrant electrical activity, similar to interictal spikes, and accompanying fluorescence events in some genotypes of transgenic mice expressing GCaMP6 genetically encoded calcium sensors. These epileptiform events have been observed particularly, but not exclusively, in mice with Emx1-Cre and Ai93 transgenes, of either sex, across multiple laboratories. The events occur at >0.1 Hz, are very large in amplitude (>1.0 mV local field potentials, >10% df/f widefield imaging signals), and typically cover large regions of cortex. Many properties of neuronal responses and behavior seem normal despite these events, although rare subjects exhibit overt generalized seizures. The underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon remain unclear, but we speculate about possible causes on the basis of diverse observations. We encourage researchers to be aware of these activity patterns while interpreting neuronal recordings from affected mouse lines and when considering which lines to study.
An internet slang annotated dictionary and its use in assessing message attitude and sentiments

We present an approach to create an Internet slang annotated dictionary to help identifying the level of specific attitudes and moods (specifically aggressiveness, distress, hatefulness and offensiveness) in social networks and social media posts. The annotation refers to the attitudes, with the actual meaning having a low importance. The annotated dictionary is intended for automatic use in the detection of harmful and help-requiring messages. The main contributions are the concept of dictionary annotated for attitude and the method of building and annotating the dictionary, which are not typical for slang dictionaries.
Pharmacologic management of non-neurogenic functional obstruction in women

ABSTRACT Introduction: Impaired bladder emptying in women without neurologic disease may be related to urethral obstruction and/or impaired bladder contractility. Mechanical obstruction generally requires surgical management and options are limited for impaired bladder contractility. However, functional obstruction from voiding dysfunction or primary bladder neck obstruction may present an opportunity for pharmacologic intervention. Areas covered: In this review, the authors extensively reviewed available literature regarding the use of off-label medications for functional bladder outlet obstruction in women. In addition, side effect profiles and pharmacology of these medications determined from on-label indications are reviewed. Specific medications reviewed include vaginal diazepam, baclofen, urethral botulinum toxin injection, and alpha-adrenergic blockers. Expert opinion: Alpha-blockers in particular have demonstrated promise in women with demonstrable or suspected bladder outlet obstruction with side effect profiles similar to those observed in men. However, lack of quality data hinders informed decision making with alpha-blockers or any of the other agents studied in women with non-neurogenic functional outlet obstruction. In the absence of well-designed, placebo-controlled multi-institutional trials, those prescribing these medications must be aware of special considerations and side effects associated with relatively unfamiliar treatments in the context of uncertain benefit.
Role of Computerized Physician Order Entry Usability in the Reduction of Prescribing Errors

Objectives Some hospitals have implemented computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems to reduce the medical error rates. However, research in this area has been very limited, especially regarding the impact of CPOE use on the reduction of prescribing errors. Moreover, the past studies have dealt with the overall impact of CPOE on the reduction of broadly termed "medical errors", and they have not specified which medical errors have been reduced by CPOE. Furthermore, the majority of the past research in this field has been either qualitative or has not used robust empirical techniques. This research examined the impacts of usability of CPOE systems on the reduction of doctors' prescribing errors. Methods One hundred and sixty-six questionnaires were used for quantitative data analyses. Since the data was not normally distributed, partial least square path modelling-as the second generation of multivariate data analyses-was applied to analyze data. Results It was found that the ease of use of the system and information quality can significantly reduce prescribing errors. Moreover, the user interface consistency and system error prevention have a significant positive impact on the perceived ease of use. More than 50% of the respondents believed that CPOE reduces the likelihood of drug allergy, drug interaction, and drug dosing errors thus improving patient safety. Conclusions Prescribing errors in terms of drug allergy, drug interaction, and drug dosing errors are reduced if the CPOE is not error-prone and easy to use, if the user interface is consistent, and if it provides quality information to doctors.
A Longitudinal Study of Streptococcus pneumoniae Carriage in a Cohort of Infants and Their Mothers on the Thailand-Myanmar Border

Background Pneumococcal disease is a major cause of childhood death. Almost a third of the world's children live in Southeast Asia, but there are few data from the region on pneumococcal colonization or disease. Our aim was to document the dynamics of pneumococcal carriage in a rural SE Asian birth cohort. Methods We studied 234 Karen mother-infant pairs in Northwestern Thailand. Infants were followed from birth and nasopharyngeal swabs were taken from mother and infant at monthly intervals until 24 months old. Results 8,386 swabs were cultured and 4,396 pneumococci characterized. Infants became colonized early (median 45.5 days; 95% confidence interval [CI] 44.5-46.0) and by 24 months had a median of seven (range 0–15) carriage episodes. Maternal smoking and young children in the house were associated with earlier colonization (hazard ratio [HR] 1.5 (95% CI 1.1–2.1) and 1.4 (95% CI 1.0–1.9)). For the four commonest serotypes and non-typeable pneumococci, previous exposure to homologous or heterologous serotypes resulted in an extended interval to reacquisition of the same serotype. Previous colonization by serotypes 14 and 19F was also associated with reduced carriage duration if subsequently reacquired (HR [first reacquisition] 4.1 (95% CI 1.4–12.6) and 2.6 (1.5–4.7)). Mothers acquired pneumococci less frequently, and carried them for shorter periods, than infants (acquisition rate 0.5 vs. 1.1 /100 person-days, p<0.001; median duration 31.0 vs. 60.5 days, p = 0.001). 55.8% of pneumococci from infants were vaccine serotypes (13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, PCV13), compared with 27.5% from mothers (p<0.001). Non-typeable pneumococcal carriage was common, being carried at least once by 55.1% of infants and 32.0% of mothers. Conclusions Pneumococcal carriage frequency and duration are influenced by previous exposure to both homologous and heterologous serotypes. These data will inform vaccination strategies in this population.
Analysis of Tubular Linear Motors for Different Shapes of Magnets

This paper presents the analysis of tubular linear motors for different shapes of magnets. The appropriate option for refrigeration applications is the single-phase tubular permanent magnet linear motor (TPMLM), which provides high efficiency, high thrust force, and low cogging force. Three design variants of TPMLMs with moving magnet and quasi-Halbach magnetization have been proposed, and their finite-element analysis (FEA) models have been established. Accordingly, analytical methods using Fourier series and Maxwell’s equations have been created for the three proposed designs, and the results have been compared. It is found that the results from the analytical method are in good agreement with the FEA results.
Component Based Architecture for the Control of Crossing Regions in Railway Networks

The research work in this paper discusses an improved Petri net model of railway crossing regions which are important and critical components of a railway networks. A control algorithm has been developed showing the interaction of the controller to other component of the system. A formal approach viz. Petri net (PN) is applied to model the safety requirement of trains along the crossing regions in railway networks. For the modeling, the component based modeling and the state-oriented modeling approaches have been integrated. First the track components and the control component are identified. The interaction of identified components, satisfying the safety requirements, is also defined in the high level architecture. Finally, state-oriented modeling approach has been adopted to design the detailed model of crossing region. Further, this paper uses the coverability tree to verify the specifications of crossing regions. By taking the crossing point as center, a circular region is introduced for safety purpose. Further, safety properties have been defined in term of place-invariants which have been verified by the state-space analysis.
Are Terrestrial Organisms Able to Live in Contaminated Soil after Fire-Fighting?

There was performed test of ecotoxicity with using earthworm Eisenia Fetida as chief representative of terrestrial organisms in the study. Soil matrix LUFA 2.3 was selected as a model of natural soil environment. Tested FEAs were follows: Sthamex F-15, Moussol-APS F-15 and Finiflam F-15. For experimental purposes, laboratory installation for infiltration was designed and compiled. Infiltration of three FEAs solutions was done before the ecotoxicity testing. Contaminated soil after infiltration was tested for semi-chronic ecotoxicity and reproduction ecotoxicity then. Introductory results indicates differences between each FEA, caused by various composition. Sthamex F-15 was determined as the most ecotoxic agent at all. Whilst Moussol-APS F-15 was evaluated as the agent with least ecotoxicity effect.
Effect of Target Luminance on Optimum Pupil Diameter for Presbyopic Eyes

Purpose To quantify the optimum pupil diameters for presbyopic eyes when environmental light levels vary from high photopic to low mesopic. Methods We computed the white light visual Strehl ratio from the polychromatic optical transfer function (VSOTF). The impact on image quality of retinal illuminance and the accompanying changes in photon noise were reflected in changing neural contrast sensitivity. VSOTF was calculated for focused and −2D defocused images, over a wide range of photopic and mesopic target luminances, and for pupil diameters ranging from 1 to 7 mm. We compare these modeling data to logMAR visual acuity measured under the same conditions. Results Optimum pupil depends on the relative gain of optical factors (diffraction and aberrations) and neural thresholds (photon noise effect). When light levels are reduced from 1000 to 2 cd/m2, the pupil size that optimizes VSOTF for a well-focused presbyopic eye model also maximizes visual acuity and it increases from 2.5 to 4 mm. A 1-mm-diameter pupil maximizes VSOTF at all light levels when −2D of defocus are included, but at 2 cd/m2 the optimum pupil diameter for acuity increases slightly to 1.4 mm. At 0.2 cd/m2, the pupil size that optimizes VSOTF remains 4 and 1 mm for a focused and −2D defocused eye, respectively, but significantly larger pupils are needed for maximal visual acuity. Reducing pupils to 30% of their natural size is beneficial for distance and near image quality and visual acuity at all light levels, producing more gains for near than for distance. Conclusions A fixed 2- to 3-mm small pupil or a 30% pupil miosis can both produce near visual acuity gains without significant losses to distance acuity or image quality, and therefore can be considered as optimal for a presbyope experiencing a wide range of light levels.
A brain-computer interface to examine the effects of sound on a haptic-based virtual drilling task

Despite the recent hardware and computational advancements, virtual simulations and serious games have generally been restricted to cognitive skills training given the complexities and costs associated with high-end haptic-based rendering inherent in a variety of applications including those related to medical-based technical skills development. In this paper, we explore the effect of sound on haptic fidelity perception (with respect to a virtual drilling task), to determine whether sound can be used to increase our perception of haptic fidelity perception. To validate the effects we use data obtained from a brain-computer interface (BCI) and user ratings on the haptics and sound experience. Although our results are very preliminary, they do indicate that sound can influence (increase) haptic fidelity perception. Furthermore, our results also demonstrate the difficulty associated in employing a consumer-level BCI device in such a situation.
CRLite: A Scalable System for Pushing All TLS Revocations to All Browsers

Currently, no major browser fully checks for TLS/SSL certificate revocations. This is largely due to the fact that the deployed mechanisms for disseminating revocations (CRLs, OCSP, OCSP Stapling, CRLSet, and OneCRL) are each either incomplete, insecure, inefficient, slow to update, not private, or some combination thereof. In this paper, we present CRLite, an efficient and easily-deployable system for proactively pushing all TLS certificate revocations to browsers. CRLite servers aggregate revocation information for all known, valid TLS certificates on the web, and store them in a space-efficient filter cascade data structure. Browsers periodically download and use this data to check for revocations of observed certificates in real-time. CRLite does not require any additional trust beyond the existing PKI, and it allows clients to adopt a fail-closed security posture even in the face of network errors or attacks that make revocation information temporarily unavailable. We present a prototype of name that processes TLS certificates gathered by Rapid7, the University of Michigan, and Google's Certificate Transparency on the server-side, with a Firefox extension on the client-side. Comparing CRLite to an idealized browser that performs correct CRL/OCSP checking, we show that CRLite reduces latency and eliminates privacy concerns. Moreover, CRLite has low bandwidth costs: it can represent all certificates with an initial download of 10 MB (less than 1 byte per revocation) followed by daily updates of 580 KB on average. Taken together, our results demonstrate that complete TLS/SSL revocation checking is within reach for all clients.