Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid Authoring of Intellegent Tutors for Real-World and Experimental Use

Authoring tools for Intelligent Tutoring Systems are especially valuable if they not only provide a rich set of options for the efficient authoring of tutoring systems but also support controlled experiments in which the added educational value of new tutor features is evaluated. The Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT) provide both. Using CTAT, real-world ”Example-Tracing Tutors” can be created without programming. CTAT also provides various kinds of support for controlled experiments, such as administration of different experimental treatments, logging, and data analysis. We present two case studies in which Example-Tracing Tutors created with CTAT were used in classroom experiments. The case studies illustrate a number of new features in CTAT: Use of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for creating tutor interfaces, extensions to the Example-Tracing Engine that allow for more flexible tutors, a Mass Production facility for more efficient template-based authoring, and support for controlled experiments.
Alterations in Sympathetic Ganglionic Transmission in Response to Angiotensin II in (mRen2)27 Transgenic Rats

Abstract—Hypertension in (mRen2)27 transgenic rats is partly dependent on activation of the sympathetic nervous system, but the role of ganglionic transmission is unknown. We assessed indices of synaptic plasticity (post-tetanic short-term potentiation [PTP] and long-term potentiation [LTP]) and sympathetic ganglionic transmission without tetany in superior cervical ganglia (SCG) of Hannover Sprague-Dawley rats (HnSD) versus (mRen2)27 rats. There were no differences in decay time constants [PTP=9 minutes; LTP=120 to 150 minutes in both (mRen2)27 and HnSD]. However, angiotensin (Ang) II increased PTP and LTP in SCG isolated from (mRen2)27 rats to a greater extent than HnSD. Candesartan (an AT1 antagonist) blocked the potentiation in both groups. Without a preceding tetanic pulse, 16-nM Ang II induced similar significant increases in ganglionic transmission of ≈14% in both strains. Assessment of Ang II receptors by 125I-[Sar1Thr8]-Ang II binding showed that the AT1-receptor subtype predominates in the ganglia. The density of receptors in the SCG was comparable in (mRen2)27 and HnSD rats, whether measured in tissue from ganglia removed and frozen versus ganglia used in the transmission testing, suggesting that upregulation of receptors in vitro after removal of SCG did not occur. The divergence of effects of Ang II on LTP and PTP [greater in (mRen2)27 than HnSD] and nontetany ganglionic transmission (similar in both strains) may reflect different locations of receptors (pre- versus postsynaptic) or different signaling mechanisms involved in the two responses. We suggest that functional Ang II receptors in SCG mediate physiological actions of Ang II on ganglionic transmission and may play a pivotal role in hypertension.
Postoperative blindness--a rare but devastating complication.

outcome in ECT. Little, if anything, suggests that BISvalues after induction for ECT are more significant than clinical experience. We were also surprised that the authors claimed that all 109 patients left the ECT suite basically with the same blood pressure as when they entered. This leaves us somewhat puzzled since there are blood pressure swings almost invariably associated with ECT treatment.
Engaging children in cars through a robot companion

Having children as passengers in a car influences the parents' experience of driving. Concern for their safety often supersedes other considerations. When designing in-car solutions to address the special needs of children as passengers, one could aim for assisting the parents with this task. For such systems, it is important that the proposed solution is able to engage the children and keeps them from distracting the driver, while offering the children an interesting and meaningful way to spend their time in the car. We propose and evaluate a conceptual design that involves an interactive, full-speech companion that uses information from the drive to entertain and educate children. Our evaluation reveals that a robot companion is able to engage the children more than a similar system without a physical companion, giving them an entity to direct their interactions to. This finding makes it a worthwhile consideration for designers to add such components to their solutions.
A new color filter array with optimal sensing properties

We propose a new color filter array (CFA) with optimal characteristics for the acquisition of color scenes, since the luminance and chrominance information is encoded in the mosaicked image with the best achievable robustness to aliasing and noise. Our 2 × 3 pattern is based on the paradigm recently introduced by Hirakawa et al. [1], which focuses on the spectral properties of CFAs. Moreover, these superior properties are fully exploited by a simple, linear and efficient demosaicking method.
Tree-Structured Stick Breaking for Hierarchical Data

Many data are naturally modeled by an unobserved hierarchical structure. In this paper we propose a flexible nonparametric prior over unknown data hierarchies. The approach uses nested stick-breaking processes to allow for trees of unbounded width and depth, where data can live at any node and are infinitely exchangeable. One can view our model as providing infinite mixtures where the components have a dependency structure corresponding to an evolutionary diffusion down a tree. By using a stick-breaking approach, we can apply Markov chain Monte Carlo methods based on slice sampling to perform Bayesian inference and simulate from the posterior distribution on trees. We apply our method to hierarchical clustering of images and topic modeling of text data.
Evaluation of Nanometer Cutting Tool Edge for Nanofabrication

Demands for the nanofabrication of the precision surfaces, which have threedimensional (3D) structures to add specific functions, are continuously increasing. For the nanofabrication on machining tools such as an ultra-precision turning, an ultra-precision diamond cutting tool is generally employed because of its sharp edge and durability. Figure 1(a) shows the illustrations of a chip of the diamond cutting tool. The diamond chip is mounted on the tip of the cutting tool. Figure 1(b) and (c) show a top view from the rakeface side and a side view of the chip, respectively. The chip has a certain nose (corner) radius R at its edge top as shown in Fig. 1(b). The rake angle, radius of the cutting edge, wedge angle and clearance angle are determined as shown in Fig. 1(c). In the nanofabrication, a quality of the fabricated surface will be dominated by the accuracy of the cutting edge profile. Although the design of the cutting edge profile has some tolerances for its shape, the allowed tolerances for ultra-precision machining are so tight that the highly-accurate measurement technique would be required for assuring the accuracy of the cutting edge profile. Moreover, a wear of the tool edge should also be taken into consideration for the nanofabrication. Basically, the amount of the wear is very small because the diamond is a hard material. However, a slight wear of the tool edge cannot be avoided even though target materials are the non-steel alloys; namely, the cutting edge profile could change every short periods of the use. The slight change of the cutting edge profile could affect the accuracy of the fabricated surfaces. Therefore, the cutting edge profile should be checked periodically. Generally, the accurate measurement of the cutting edge profile is a time-consuming task. That is why, not only the accuracy but also the easiness of the measurement setting will be required for the nanometer-level evaluation of the cutting edge profile. Based on such a background described above, in this chapter, the authors describe a method to evaluate the nanometer cutting tool edge by using AFM, including not only a measurement theory but also experimental setup and some results of the tool edge measurement.
Efficient Cooperative Diversity Schemes and Radio Resource Allocation for IEEE 802.16j

This paper studies various cooperative diversity schemes for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)- time division duplex (TDD) based two-hop cellular networks in low mobility scenarios, where the instantaneous channel state information is available at the base station. A user scheduling and radio resource allocation technique is developed in order to efficiently integrate various cooperative diversity schemes for the emerging IEEE 802.16j based systems. The analysis of the system with this scheduler shows that a simple cooperative diversity scheme which dynamically selects the best scheme between conventional relaying and direct transmission is promising in terms of throughput and implementation complexity. The conventional relaying refers to the scheme where the destination relies solely on the signals received through the relay.
Short Natural Fibers Reinforced Polyolefin Composites

This article summarizes modification techniques of the most popular polyolefin composite reinforced with short natural fibers based on two interface modification strategies: filler modification and matrix modification by additives. According to analysis of published papers, it can be concluded that the fiber pretreatment does not result in higher improvement of the properties compared with adding coupling agent in the compounding process.
When Societal Norms and Social Identity Collide

Racial minorities face a unique “race talk” dilemma in contemporary American society: Their racial background is often integral to their identity and how others perceive them, yet talk of race is taboo. This dilemma highlights the conflict between two fundamental social processes: social identity development and social norm adherence. To examine how, and with what costs, this dilemma is resolved, 9- to 12-year-old Latino, Asian, Black, and White children (N = 108) completed a photo identification task in which acknowledging racial difference is beneficial to performance. Results indicate minority children are just as likely to avoid race as White children, and such avoidance exacted a cost to performance and nonverbal comfort. Results suggest that teachers are particularly important social referents for instilling norms regarding race. Norms that equate color blindness with socially appropriate behavior appear more broadly influential than previously thought, stifling talk of race even among those for whom it may be most meaningful.
Blind Separation for Convolutive Mixtures of Non-stationary Signals

Abstract-This paper proposes a method of ''blind separation'' which extracts non-stationary signals (e.g., speech signals, music) from their convolutive mixtures. The function is acquired by modifying a network's parameters so that a cost function takes the minimum at any time. the cost function is the one introduced by Matsuoka et al. The learning rule is derived from the natural gradient minimization of the cost function. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed by computer simulation.
Papain-like peptidases: structure, function, and evolution

Abstract Papain-like cysteine peptidases are a diverse family of peptidases found in most known organisms. In eukaryotes, they are divided into multiple evolutionary groups, which can be clearly distinguished on the basis of the structural characteristics of the proenzymes. Most of them are endopeptidases; some, however, evolved into exopeptidases by obtaining additional structural elements that restrict the binding of substrate into the active site. In humans, papain-like peptidases, also called cysteine cathepsins, act both as non-specific hydrolases and as specific processing enzymes. They are involved in numerous physiological processes, such as antigen presentation, extracellular matrix remodeling, and hormone processing. Their activity is tightly regulated and dysregulation of one or more cysteine cathepsins can result in severe pathological conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Other organisms can utilize papain-like peptidases for different purposes and they are often part of host-pathogen interactions. Numerous parasites, such as Plasmodium and flukes, utilize papain-like peptidases for host invasion, whereas plants, in contrast, use these enzymes for host defense. This review presents a state-of-the-art description of the structure and phylogeny of papain-like peptidases as well as an overview of their physiological and pathological functions in humans and in other organisms.
The Spermatid Nucleus in Two Species of Grasshopper

The nuclear changes accompanying spermatid elongation have been studied in two species of grasshopper, Dissosteira carolina and Melanoplus femur-rubrum. Testes were fixed in 1 per cent buffered OsO4, imbedded in butyl methacrylate, and examined as thin sections in the electron microscope. In both species nuclear changes during spermatid development involve (1) an early period, during which the nuclear contents are predominately fibrous; (2) a middle period, characterized by the lateral association of the nuclear fibers to form plates or lamellae which are oriented longitudinally in the major axis of the elongated nucleus; and (3) a late period, involving coalescence of the lamellae into a crystalline body which eventually becomes so dense that all resolvable detail is lost. The fibers seen in the early spermatid nucleus are about 150 A in diameter and so are similar to fibers described from other types of nuclei. The thickness of the lamellae varies from about 150 A when first formed to 70 A during the later stages. The lack of evident chromosomal boundaries in the spermatid nucleus makes it difficult to relate either the fibers or lamellae to more familiar aspects of chromosome structure. We see no apparent reason to consider that the fiber alignment described here is related to conventional chromosome pairing.
Equivalent Circuit Model of a High Q Tunable PIFA

This paper presents an Equivalent Circuit Model (ECM) for a high Quality factor (Q) tunable Planar Inverted F Antenna (PIFA). A PIFA is described and simulated with the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. The resonance behavior of the proposed ECM is compared to the FDTD results and shows a match. The ECM is also valid when the PIFA is made tunable with an additional capacitor.
Automatic Enrichment of WordNet with Common-Sense Knowledge

WordNet represents a cornerstone in the Computational Linguistics field, linking words to meanings (or senses) through a taxonomical representation of synsets, i.e., clusters of words with an equivalent meaning in a specific context often described by few definitions (or glosses) and examples. Most of the approaches to the Word Sense Disambiguation task fully rely on these short texts as a source of contextual information to match with the input text to disambiguate. This paper presents the first attempt to enrich synsets data with common-sense definitions, automatically retrieved from ConceptNet 5, and disambiguated accordingly to WordNet. The aim was to exploit the shared- and immediate-thinking nature of common-sense knowledge to extend the short but incredibly useful contextual information of the synsets. A manual evaluation on a subset of the entire result (which counts a total of almost 600K synset enrichments) shows a very high precision with an estimated good recall.
An MPICH 2 Channel Device Implementation over VAPI on InfiniBand

MPICH2, the successor of one of the most popular open source message passing implementations, aims to fully support the MPI-2 standard. Due to a complete redesign, MPICH2 is also cleaner, more flexible, and faster. The InfiniBand network technology is an open industry standard and provides high bandwidth and low latency, as well as reliability, availability, serviceability (RAS) features. It is currently spreading its influence on the market of costeffective cluster computing. We expect for the near future that upcoming requirements in many cluster environments can only be satisfied by the functionality of MPICH2 and the performance of InfiniBand. Hence, there is the need for an effective support of the InfiniBand interconnect technology by MPICH2. In this paper we present our experience that has been gained during the implementation of our MPICH2 Device for InfiniBand. Further, a performance overview is given, as well as ideas for future developments. The device is implemented in terms of the Channel Interface (CH3) and uses both the channel semantics (Send/Receive) and memory semantics (RDMA) provided by Mellanox’ Verbs implementation VAPI. With this combined approach a significant performance gain can be achieved. The design decisions discussed may also be of interest beyond the scope of this paper. Keywords—Message Passing, MPI2, MPICH2, InfiniBand, RDMA, Cluster Computing
Building a Chaotic Proved Neural Network

Chaotic neural networks have received a great deal of attention these last years. In this paper we establish a precise correspondence between the so-called chaotic iterations and a particular class of artificial neural networks: global recurrent multi-layer perceptrons. We show formally that it is possible to make these iterations behave chaotically, as defined by Devaney, and thus we obtain the first neural networks proven chaotic. Several neural networks with different architectures are trained to exhibit a chaotical behavior.
A Simple Vector-Approximation File for Similarity Search in High-Dimensional Vector Spaces

Many similarity measures in multimedia databases and decision-support systems are based on underlying vector spaces of high dimensionality. Data-partitioning index methods for such spaces (for example, grid les, R-trees, and their variants) generally work well for low-dimensional spaces, but perform poorly as dimensionality increases. This problem has become known as thèdimensional curse'. This paper introduces the vector-approximation le (VA-File) for similarity search in high-dimensional vector spaces. The VA-File overcomes the dimensional curse by following not the data-partitioning approach of conventional index methods, but rather the lter-based approach of signature les. Space|not data|is divided into cells, and vectors are assigned approximations based on the cells in which they lie. A VA-File contains these small, bit-encoded approximations. By scanning rst all of the smaller approximations, nearest-neighbor queries need only visit a fraction of the vectors themselves. Thus, the VA-File is used as a simple lter, much as a signature le is a lter. The performance of the VA-File is evaluated on the basis of real and semi-synthetic degree-45 vector data characterizing color features of a moderate-sized image database. We show that performance does not degrade, and even improves marginally with increased dimensionality.
Toward a Framework for Capturing and Using Architecture Design Knowledge

Management of architecture knowledge is vital for improving an organization’s architectural capabilities. Despite the recognition of the importance of capturing and reusing architecture knowledge, there is no suitable support mechanism. We propose a conceptual framework for providing appropriate guidance and tool support for making tacit or informally described architecture knowledge explicit. This framework identifies different approaches to capturing implicit architecture knowledge. We discuss different usages of the captured knowledge to improve the effectiveness of architecting process. The report also presents a brief description of a prototype of a web-based architecture knowledge management tool to support the storage and retrieval of the captured knowledge. The report concludes with open issues that we plan to address in order to successfully transfer this support mechanism for capturing and using architecture knowledge to the industry.
Utilizing Federated Knowledge in Semantic Web Applications

Your future knowledge store will be a collection that lives in-memory, on your local hard disk, on your intranet and/or distributed on the global web. It will be a collection of inter-related triple-stores federated into an ever-changing whole. We will demonstrate a flexible architecture for creating 'federated knowledge stores' on the fly that allow for transparent RDFS++ reasoning and SPARQL queries. We will demonstrate this new architecture with billions of triples from distributed sources including the Census database, the DBPedia, Wordnet, Geonames and the Enron e-mail corpus in an RDF federation.
Rapid, High-Throughput, Multiplex, Real-Time PCR for Identification of Mutations in the cyp51A Gene of Aspergillus fumigatus That Confer Resistance to Itraconazole

ABSTRACT Aspergillus fumigatus is an important cause of life-threatening invasive fungal disease in patients with compromised immune systems. Resistance to itraconazole in A. fumigatus is closely linked to amino acid substitutions in Cyp51A that replace Gly54. In an effort to develop a new class of molecular diagnostic assay that can rapidly assess drug resistance, a multiplexed assay was established. This assay uses molecular beacons corresponding to the wild-type cyp51A gene and seven mutant alleles encoding either Arg54, Lys54, Val54, Trp54, or Glu54. Molecular beacon structure design and real-time PCR conditions were optimized to increase the assay specificity. The multiplex assay was applied to the analysis of chromosomal DNA samples from a collection of 48 A. fumigatus clinical and laboratory-derived isolates, most with reduced susceptibility to itraconazole. The cyp51A allelic identities for codon 54 were established for all of the strains tested, and mutations altering Gly54 in 23 strains were revealed. These mutations included G54W (n = 1), G54E (n = 12), G54K (n = 3), G54R (n = 3), and G54V (n = 4). Molecular beacon assay results were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Multiplex real-time PCR with molecular beacons is a powerful technique for allele differentiation and analysis of resistance mutations that is dynamic and suitable for rapid high-throughput assessment of drug resistance.
The effect of benefits and risks on e-procurement implementation: an exploratory study of Swedish and Indian firms

E-procurement is constantly receiving lots of attention from industries and government agencies. Analysts believe that utilisation of e-procurement can lead to enormous cost saving and efficiency in procurement process. Though, e-procurement has benefited the global business tremendously, its expected growth rate has been moving downwards. The present study explores how the benefits and risks associated to e-procurement affect the e-procurement implementation. The differences and similarities among firms in different setting are also investigated. By using Swedish and Indian firms, the results show that cost benefit is the main driver for companies to implement e-procurement. The problems of implementation and integration of existing infrastructure are holding back companies from implementing e-procurement. But benefits are overpowering risks and companies are moving toward more aggressive strategic approach of implementing e-procurement. Finally, e-procurement is typically used for buying indirect material and the buyer side model is most dominated in industry.