Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Links between Students' Motivational Patterns and Their Perceptions of, Beliefs about, and Performance on Different Types of Science Assessments: A Multidimensional Approach to Achievement Validation. CSE Technical Report.

Snow conceived of performance as emerging from a transaction between a person, and all the relevant resources that she brings to a situation, and the situation itself. When confronted by a task, for example, the person cobbles together a “complex” (combination) of her cognitive and motivational resources to meet situational demands. This research sought to examine the link between different situational demands—in this case, three different types of science achievement tests (multiple choice, constructed response, and performance assessment)—and perceptions, beliefs and performance of high school students characterized by three well-established motivational patterns— intrinsic-mastery, ego-success, and academically-helpless. We compared students across the three motivational patterns with respect to their efficacy for working on the tests, their beliefs about whether these tests were valid measures of their science knowledge, and their observed performance on the multiple-choice and constructed response tests. We found that students varying in motivational pattern could be reliably distinguished by their (a) efficacy for working on multiple-choice and constructed response tests, (b) beliefs about the validity of multiple-choice and constructed response tests in revealing their science knowledge, and (c) performance on the multiple-choice and constructed response tests when quantitative and verbal ability are controlled for. However, motivational pattern did not relate to efficacy for or validity beliefs about performance assessments. Perhaps the flexible nature of performance assessments facilitates all students’ goal pursuits and performance whereas multiple-choice and constructed response tests do not. Snow (1994; see also Stanford Aptitude Seminar, 2002) posited that a person’s performance was a function of a broad set of aptitudes and the affordances and constraints of a particular situation. In this person-situation transaction, the person cobbles together a combination of cognitive and motivational aptitudes—an *An earlier version of this report was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Seattle, Washington, in April 2001 under the title Understanding the Links Between Students’ Motivational Patterns, Perceptions of, and Performance on Different Types of Science Achievement.
Precise positioning systems for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) is a very promising research venue that can offers many useful and critical applications including the safety applications. Most of these applications require that each vehicle knows precisely its current position in real time. GPS is the most common positioning technique for VANET. However, it is not accurate. Moreover, the GPS signals cannot be received in the tunnels, undergrounds, or near tall buildings. Thus, no positioning service can be obtained in these locations. Even if the Deferential GPS (DGPS) can provide high accuracy, but still no GPS converge in these locations. In this paper, we provide positioning techniques for VANET that can provide accurate positioning service in the areas where GPS signals are hindered by the obstacles. Experimental results show significant improvement in the accuracy. This allows when combined with DGPS the continuity of a precise positioning service that can be used by most of the VANET applications .
IL-17 Expression in Dermatitis Herpetiformis and Bullous Pemphigoid

Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) and bullous pemphigoid (BP) are skin diseases associated with eosinophilic and neutrophilic infiltrations. Although cytokines are critical for the inflammatory process, there are single findings concerning concentration of IL-17 in bullous diseases. The goal of this study was to assess IL-17 expression in DH and BP patients. Skin biopsies were taken from 10 DH, 14 BP patients and from 10 healthy subjects. The localization and expression of IL-17 was studied by immunohistochemistry and the serum concentration was measured by immunoassays. Expression of IL-17 in the epidermis and in influxed cells in dermis was detected in skin biopsies. Expression of IL-17 was statistically higher in epidermis and infiltration cells in specimens from BP than from DH patients. Examined interleukin expression was detected in perilesional skin of all patients but it was much lower than in lesional skin. The expression of IL-17 was not observed in biopsies from healthy people. Serum level of IL-17 was statistically higher in BP and DH groups as compared to control group. Our results provide the evidence that IL-17 may play an essential role in activating and recruiting eosinophils and neutrophils, which ultimately contribute to the tissue damage in DH and BP.
The clinical host response to microbial infection in medical patients with fever.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Predictors among demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables for a microbial (nonviral/nonchlamydial) infection in hospitalized medical patients with new onset of fever (temperature > or =38.0 degrees C axillary or > or =38.3 degrees C rectal) were analyzed and compared with the criteria for the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), including an abnormal body temperature and WBC count, tachypnea and tachycardia, and sepsis, defined as SIRS and the presence of a clinical infection. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING Department of internal medicine at a university hospital. PATIENTS In 300 hospitalized medical patients with new onset of fever, demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables were obtained during the first 2 days after inclusion, and peak and nadir values, when appropriate, were taken. Microbiologic results for 7 days were collected. Clinical information was used to decide on the presence of a clinical infection. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS One hundred thirty-three of 300 patients (44%) had a microbial infection: 26% suffered from local microbial infection only, 9% from bacteremia only, and 9% had bloodstream plus local microbial infections. Patients with a microbial infection had a higher World Health Organization performance score at home (p<0.05), higher peak body temperature (p<0.001), higher nadir and peak WBC counts (p<0.05), lower nadir platelet count (p<0.01), higher peak alanine and aspartate aminotransferases (p<0.01), and lower nadir albumin (p<0.001) levels in blood during the first 2 days after inclusion than those without infection. Using multivariate techniques, predictors for microbial infection or bacteremia alone, independent of age, sex, underlying disease, and clinical infection, were peak temperature, peak WBC count, and nadir platelet count and albumin level. In contrast, conventional SIRS/sepsis definitions and criteria predicted microbial infection less well, mainly because tachypnea and tachycardia were of no predictive value. CONCLUSIONS In febrile medical patients, microbial infection can be predicted with use of easily obtained clinical and laboratory variables, including peak temperature, peak WBC count, and nadir platelet count and albumin level within the first 2 days. The new model predicted microbial infection better than conventional SIRS/sepsis criteria. This may help to improve the clinical recognition of the systemic host response to microbial infection and to refine SIRS/sepsis definitions.
Functional summarization of gene product clusters using Gene Ontology similarity measures

The paper addresses the problem of constructing a functional summarization of groups of gene products that are found by clustering a database of such products annotated by the Gene Ontology. Our method builds the "most representative term" (MRT) for each cluster in three increasingly sensitive ways. Initially, we perform crisp hierarchical clustering using BLAST and our novel fuzzy measure similarities and find the MRTs as the terms of highest frequency in the description of the gene products. Using weights from the fuzzy partition matrix generated by a relational fuzzy clustering algorithm, we show how more specific MRTs can be made. Finally, weighting these memberships by the information content of each term further increases the specificity of the functional annotation of the clusters.
Where To Go And How To Get There: Guidelines For Indoor Landmark-Based Navigation In A Museum Context

Technology-supported indoor navigation is not easy; there are many technological challenges as well as UI challenges that need to be addressed. A set of user interface guidelines for designing a navigation system in a CH setting has been developed based on our experience and current best practices. In this paper, we describe an implementation of our guidelines in an indoor navigation system that supports visitors in a cultural Heritage (CH) setting. The system was developed to provide a user-friendly tool for route navigation, based on photo landmarks. Maps, landmarks and contextual information are used in order to navigate. In addition the system supports visitors who meander off the path while navigating
An empirical review of lean manufacturing and their strategies

Article history: Received: February 1, 2017 Received in revised format: March 16, 2017 Accepted: April 25, 2017 Available online: April 26, 2017 The theory of lean manufacturing provides the quality of the products in minimum cost and provides customer satisfaction. Today, the competition level is very high and every industry tries to supply high quality products in nominal cost, so lean is the latest tool to achieve. The objective of this paper is to study different lean concepts under various lean strategies. This study helps to find out the status of lean manufacturing and its ways of implementation. Also in this paper, there is a discussion about lean manufacturing concept, lean waste, lean strategies, lean barriers and cycle of lean implementation. This paper presents a literature review to clear the status of lean manufacturing and their strategies with help of collection of relevant papers. © 2017 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Action recognition based on semantic feature description and cross classification

Action recognition is a challenging topic in computer vision. In this work, we present a novel method for action recognition which is based on two claimed contributions: semantic feature description and cross classification. The designed descriptor is combined by several local 3D-SIFT and is informative and distinctive, reflecting the spatio-temporal clues of the video. The cross classification effectively combines the feature localization and action categorization together. The proposed method is justified on a popular dateset named UCF50 and the experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art competitors.
Error Analysis of DS-BPSK UWB Systems in the Presence of Multiple-Access Interference

An analysis of an asynchronous DS-BPSK UWB system is presented. The standard UWB channel (proposed by IEEE 802.15.3a task group) rather than AWGN or any other kinds of multipath fading channels by Bo Hu (2004) is employed in the analysis to reflect the actual channel conditions. We adopt the standard Gaussian approximation in the analysis because of its facilities in analyzing the complicated multipath fading channel which comprises many random variables. The result of this analysis reveals that in certain channel conditions, the bit error probability of such systems is influenced by several key parameters which include the period of the pseudo-random code, the mean of the squared value of the pulse's normalized autocorrelation function, and the expected sum of the squared value of discrete aperiodic cross-correlation function between every two different signature sequences. The impacts of the above key parameters are revealed by both analysis and numerical examples
An NoC Traffic Compiler for efficient FPGA implementation of Parallel Graph Applications

Parallel graph algorithms expressed in a BulkSynchronous Parallel (BSP) compute model generate highlystructured communication workloads from messages propagating along graph edges. We can expose this structure to traffic compilers and optimization tools before runtime to reshape and reduce traffic for higher performance (or lower area, lower energy, lower cost). Such offline traffic optimization eliminates the need for complex, runtime NoC hardware and enables lightweight, scalable FPGA NoCs. In this paper, we perform load balancing, placement, fanout routing and fine-grained synchronization to optimize our workloads for large networks up to 2025 parallel elements. This allows us to demonstrate speedups between 1.2× and 22× (3.5× mean), area reductions (number of Processing Elements) between 3× and 15× (9× mean) and dynamic energy savings between 2× and 3.5× (2.7× mean) over a range of realworld graph applications. We expect such traffic optimization tools and techniques to become an essential part of the NoC application-mapping flow.
Prognostic factors in advanced synovial sarcoma: an analysis of 104 patients treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital.

AIMS Key prognostic factors at diagnosis of synovial sarcoma are well defined from the literature. There are few data regarding prognostic parameters in the setting of advanced disease. Our aim was to look specifically at a cohort of patients with advanced synovial sarcoma and to identify potential prognostic factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred and four patients with advanced synovial sarcoma were identified from the Royal Marsden Hospital's sarcoma database between 1978 and 2003. Patient data were analysed retrospectively. Most patients were aged between 20 and 50 years at diagnosis. Seventy-one patients were deceased at the time of analysis. Ninety-two patients received chemotherapy for management of advanced disease (most commonly doxorubicin + ifosfamide). RESULTS Median survival following development of advanced disease was 22 months. Predictors of survival with advanced disease were age <35 years (P = 0.03) and response to first-line chemotherapy (P = 0.05). The response rate to doxorubicin plus ifosfamide was 58.6%, and this was superior to either agent when given singly. Metastasectomy was not associated with improved prognosis in this series. CONCLUSIONS Synovial sarcoma is a chemosensitive soft tissue sarcoma. Compared with historical controls, survival with advanced disease seems to have improved over the years, possibly as a result of better use of chemotherapy. Age <35 years and response to first-line chemotherapy predict for improved survival with advanced disease.
Informal Institutions and Their Comparative Influences on Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship: The Role of In‐Group Collectivism and Interpersonal Trust

We use insights from institutional theory to study how societal collectivism and societal trust facilitate or constrain the emergence of social entrepreneurship (SE) and commercial entrepreneurship (CE). Using 58,918 individual‐level responses obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey of 27 countries and supplementing with country‐level data obtained from the World Values Survey (WVS) and the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study, our results from multilevel analyses demonstrate that while societal collectivism decreases the likelihood of CE, it increases that of SE. Further, while societal trust influences both SE and CE positively, the strength of this positive influence is felt more strongly on SE than CE.
Lower bounds on the MSE for mixed far-field and near-field sources direction-of-arrivals

Fundamental limits in terms of mean square error for source localization by an array of sensors are investigated. The context is the case of a far-field source and a near-field source for which few results are available. Particularly, in order to characterize the SNR threshold exhibited by estimators in such scenario, lower bounds other than the Cramér-Rao bound are studied.
Designing a Superheterodyne Receiver Using an IF Sampling Diversity Chipset

The paper introduces a chipset to simplify receiver design and puts forth a design example based on GSM but can be extended to many open or closed air interface. Advances in analog converter technology now allow IF sampling which can greatly simplify receiver design. Advances in digital integrated circuits also advance the state of the art in terms of digital tuning and filtering. Together these two chips can replace many of the cumbersome stages of a traditional analog receiver with predictable and reliable performance. The superheterodyne receiver is still a workhorse in receiver technology. It has served its duty faithfully for many years now. However new technologies in receiver component designs are offering to extend the possibilities into the digital age. A typical receiver design may consist of two or three down conversions to provide the sensitivity and selectivity required of the individual receiver. With each down conversion, a local oscillator, mixer and filter are required. Each additional stage adds complexity, cost and difficulty of manufacture. LO FILTER & LNA DETECTOR PROCESS
Material Properties Determine How we Integrate Shape Signals in Active Touch

When sliding a finger across a bumpy surface, the finger follows the surface geometry (position signal). At the same time the finger is exposed to forces related to the slope of the surface (force signal) [1]. For haptic shape perception the brain uses both signals integrating them by weighted averaging [2]. This is consistent with the Maximum-Likelihood-Estimate (MLE) model on signal integration, previously only applied to passive perception. The model further predicts that signal weight is proportional to signal reliability. Here, we tested this prediction for the integration of force and position signals to perceived curvature by manipulating material properties of the curve. Low as compared to high compliance decreased the reliability and so the weight of the sensorily transduced position signal. High as compared to low friction decreased the reliability and so the weight of the transduced force signal. These results demonstrat that the MLE model extends to situations involving active touch.
Indoor Localization and Tracking using Posterior State Distribution and Fingerprint Interpolation

wireless application. In this paper, the problem of location estimation and tracking of mobile user in a fixed wireless network is addressed. A strategy based on empirical map of received signal strength with interpolation to reduce the calibration effort for radio map creation is proposed. The proposed system models the motion dynamics of a mobile user as a hidden markov model in which each state corresponds to geo-location then tracking the user location using the posterior HMM state distribution. We present experimental results that demonstrate the ability of our tracking system to estimate the user location with a high degree of accuracy and less calibration effort.
Beyond the Centralized Mindset

In recent years, there has been a growing fascination with decentralized systems and self-organizing phenomena. Increasingly, people are choosing decentralized models for the organizations and technologies that they construct in the world and for the theories that they construct about the world. However, even as decentralized ideas spread through the culture, there is a deep-seated resistance to such ideas. In trying to understand patterns in the world, people often assume centralized control where none exists (e.g., assuming that a "leader bird" guides the rest of the flock). To probe how people think about decentralized systems and to help them develop new ways of thinking about such systems, I developed a programmable modeling environment called StarLogo with which people can easily create and experiment with decentralized systems. StarLogo allows users to control the actions and interactions of thousands of artificial creatures on the computer screen. I describe three StarLogo projects created by high.
CAROTENOID CLEAVAGE DIOXYGENASE 7 modulates plant growth, reproduction, senescence, and determinate nodulation in the model legume Lotus japonicus

Strigolactones (SLs) are newly identified hormones that regulate multiple aspects of plant development, infection by parasitic weeds, and mutualistic symbiosis in the roots. In this study, the role of SLs was studied for the first time in the model plant Lotus japonicus using transgenic lines silenced for CAROTENOID CLEAVAGE DIOXYGENASE 7 (LjCCD7), the orthologue of Arabidopsis More Axillary Growth 3. Transgenic LjCCD7-silenced plants displayed reduced height due to shorter internodes, and more branched shoots and roots than the controls, and an increase in total plant biomass, while their root:shoot ratio remained unchanged. Moreover, these lines had longer primary roots, delayed senescence, and reduced flower/pod numbers from the third round of flower and pod setting onwards. Only a mild reduction in determinate nodule numbers and hardly any impact on the colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were observed. The results show that the impairment of CCD7 activity in L. japonicus leads to a phenotype linked to SL functions, but with specific features possibly due to the peculiar developmental pattern of this plant species. It is believed that the data also link determinate nodulation, plant reproduction, and senescence to CCD7 function for the first time.
Daytime Sleepiness: Associations with Alcohol Use and Sleep Duration in Americans

The aim of the current analysis was to investigate the relationship of daytime sleepiness with alcohol consumption and sleep duration using a population sample of adult Americans. Data was analyzed from adult respondents of the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2008 (N = 2919) using self-reported variables for sleepiness, sleep duration, and alcohol consumption (quantity and frequency of alcohol use). A heavy drinking episode was defined as the consumption of ≥5 standard alcoholic beverages in a day. Logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic variables and insomnia covariates were used to evaluate the relationship between daytime sleepiness and an interaction of alcohol consumption variables with sleep duration. The results showed that daytime sleepiness was reported by 15.07% of the subjects. In univariate analyses adjusted for covariates, an increased probability of daytime sleepiness was predicted by decreased log drinks per day [OR = 0.74 (95% CI, 0.58–0.95)], a decreased log drinking frequency [0.90 (95% CI, 0.83–0.98)], and lower sleep duration [OR = 0.75 (95% CI, 0.67–0.84)]. An interaction between decreased sleep duration and an increased log heavy drinking frequency predicted increased daytime sleepiness (P = 0.004). Thus, the effect of sleep duration should be considered when evaluating the relationship between daytime sleepiness and heavy drinking.
Mining the URLs: An Approach to Measure the Similarities between Named-Entities

Measuring the similarity between named-entities is a foundation work for a number of practical applications, such as information extraction, query expansion, etc. In this paper the authors study the similarity measure between two named-entities. Especially, the authors are interested in fine-grained similarity differences between named-entities in one class, such as "novelist". Different from previous works on named-entity associations, this paper suggests a novel Web mining method that solely depends on the URLs returned by a search engine using named-entities as queries. The problem of similarity between two namedentities is converted to that of similarity of two URL sets. Evaluations show that this method achieves good results under two experiments.