Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Teachers' Perspectives on Curriculum and Assessment Reform or the More Things Change: Change-Oriented, Experienced Teachers' Views and Practices Regarding Mandated Change.

This study was designed to see how six teachers, who had experience with educational change, dealt with particular curriculum mandated reforms in the province of Ontario (Canada). Teachers were asked to reflect and comment on their experiences implementing "The Common Curriculum, Policies and Outcomes, Grades 1 to 9, 1995," an initiative of the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training that focused on measurable and demonstrable learning outcomes for all students. The policy favored grouping traditional disciplines into the four program areas of the arts, language, mathematics, science and technology, and personal and social studies. The six teachers of grades 7, 8, or 9 from were selected because of their successful approaches to the reform. Teachers identified obstacles to reform, beginning with the physical separation of grade 9 from grades 7 and 8, something that makes collaboration difficult. Other issues that made reform difficult were content coverage issues, attitudes of staff colleagues, uncertainty and stress, and time factors. Things that facilitated change were a favorable attitude toward integration of learning, leadership and support, team teaching, teacher control of change, and teacher attitude to change. (Contains three tables and seven references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Off ice of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) his document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Induces Neurological Side Effects Independent on Thrombolysis in Mechanical Animal Models of Focal Cerebral Infarction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and Purpose Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) is the only effective drug approved by US FDA to treat ischemic stroke, and it contains pleiotropic effects besides thrombolysis. We performed a meta-analysis to clarify effect of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) on cerebral infarction besides its thrombolysis property in mechanical animal stroke. Methods Relevant studies were identified by two reviewers after searching online databases, including Pubmed, Embase, and ScienceDirect, from 1979 to 2016. We identified 6, 65, 17, 12, 16, 12 and 13 comparisons reporting effect of endogenous tPA on infarction volume and effects of rtPA on infarction volume, blood-brain barrier, brain edema, intracerebral hemorrhage, neurological function and mortality rate in all 47 included studies. Standardized mean differences for continuous measures and risk ratio for dichotomous measures were calculated to assess the effects of endogenous tPA and rtPA on cerebral infarction in animals. The quality of included studies was assessed using the Stroke Therapy Academic Industry Roundtable score. Subgroup analysis, meta-regression and sensitivity analysis were performed to explore sources of heterogeneity. Funnel plot, Trim and Fill method and Egger’s test were obtained to detect publication bias. Results We found that both endogenous tPA and rtPA had not enlarged infarction volume, or deteriorated neurological function. However, rtPA would disrupt blood-brain barrier, aggravate brain edema, induce intracerebral hemorrhage and increase mortality rate. Conclusions This meta-analysis reveals rtPA can lead to neurological side effects besides thrombolysis in mechanical animal stroke, which may account for clinical exacerbation for stroke patients that do not achieve vascular recanalization with rtPA.
Ocean currents influence the genetic structure of an intertidal mollusc in southeastern Australia – implications for predicting the movement of passive dispersers across a marine biogeographic barrier

Major disjunctions among marine communities in southeastern Australia have been well documented, although explanations for biogeographic structuring remain uncertain. Converging ocean currents, environmental gradients, and habitat discontinuities have been hypothesized as likely drivers of structuring in many species, although the extent to which species are affected appears largely dependent on specific life histories and ecologies. Understanding these relationships is critical to the management of native and invasive species, and the preservation of evolutionary processes that shape biodiversity in this region. In this study we test the direct influence of ocean currents on the genetic structure of a passive disperser across a major biogeographic barrier. Donax deltoides (Veneroida: Donacidae) is an intertidal, soft-sediment mollusc and an ideal surrogate for testing this relationship, given its lack of habitat constraints in this region, and its immense dispersal potential driven by year-long spawning and long-lived planktonic larvae. We assessed allele frequencies at 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci across 11 sample locations spanning the barrier region and identified genetic structure consistent with the major ocean currents of southeastern Australia. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data indicated no evidence of genetic structuring, but signatures of a species range expansion corresponding with historical inundations of the Bassian Isthmus. Our results indicate that ocean currents are likely to be the most influential factor affecting the genetic structure of D. deltoides and a likely physical barrier for passive dispersing marine fauna generally in southeastern Australia.
Web-Based Language Model Domain Adaptation for Real World Voice Retrieval

This paper presents our recent work on the development of a real world voice retrieval system, which automatically updates language models for a specific domain with the latest web data. Two of the main difficult issues in handling this system are tackled in this paper. First, when people use voice retrieval systems, new created "hot words" are inputted as the keywords. In order to ensure the quality of the user experience, it is important to increase the recognition performance of these hot words. Second, for our applications, the retrieval domain is given. How to automatically select in domain data from the web data and update domain-specific language models is another problem which needs to be solved. To address these issues, in the system the latest text training data are obtained by searching web data related to the top ranking hot words. Based on the data, a block-based language modeling method is proposed to automatically build and update domain-specific language models. Meanwhile, in-domain high frequency words and phrases are added into the lexicon for the lexicon updating. From real world users' voice retrieval dataset, experimental results showed that through the updating of our system, consistent improvements were achieved for in-domain voice retrieval recognition.
The Impact of Social Work Intervention in Alcohol-Induced Pancreatitis in Ireland: a Single-Center Experience.

AIM To evaluate the effect on recurrent admission for alcohol-induced pancreatitis (that can be up to 48%) of a brief social work intervention for alcohol dependence in a single center in Ireland METHODS Retrospective cohort study of patients admitted with acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis to a tertiary hospital in Ireland from January 2009 to December 2012. RESULTS The relapse rate in the cohort of 160 patients with alcohol-induced pancreatitis was 28.1%. There was no difference in the relapse rate of those patients who received a social work intervention compared with those who did not (ANOVA, P = 0.229). The employment status was a significant risk factor for relapse (ANOVA, P = 0.027), but did not differ between those who did, and did not, receive the intervention. CONCLUSION Although the cohort size did not allow great statistical power, it appears that our hospital's current social work intervention for alcohol-induced pancreatitis is ineffective in preventing relapse. Long-term prospective studies are required to formulate and better implement more efficacious interventions for such patients.
THE PURIFICATION AND PROPERTIES OF STREPTOLYSIN S

Considerable purification of streptolysin S has been achieved by fractionation of crude bacterial filtrates with methanol, under controlled conditions of pH, ionic strength, and temperature. The final material (P III) consisted of two electrophoretic components. The purified material was employed for kinetic studies, the results of which were confirmed with hemolysin isolated electrophoretically from P III. The heat of activation (temperature characteristic) of streptolysin S was found to be 17,900 calories per mole. Time dilution curves of the hemolysin were found to be sigmoid. The influence of certain ions and lipids on the course of hemolysis was investigated. The significance of the prolonged lag period and of the deviation in the behavior of streptolysin S from Ponder's equation has been discussed.
Sourcing van Internal Auditing-activiteiten: De uitbestedingsbeslissing en de invloed van Transaction Cost Economics-variabelen

Internal Auditing – traditioneel een intern management control-instrument – wordt in toenemende mate uitbesteed aan externe dienstverleners. In dit artikel wordt verslag gedaan van een onderzoek naar de invloed van Transaction Cost Economics-variabelen op de mate van uitbesteding van Internal Auditing. Ten behoeve hiervan is een schriftelijke enquete verspreid, waaraan is deelgenomen door 66 grote Nederlandse bedrijven. Meervoudige regressieanalyse laat een significant verband zien tussen outsourcing van Internal Auditing-activiteiten, asset specificity en frequency. Deze TCE-variabelen verklaren 57% van de variantie in de mate van uitbesteding van Internal Auditing. Andere TCE-variabelen (behavioral en environmental uncertainty) vertonen geen significante invloed.
CT Angiography for Brain Death Diagnosis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Lack of cerebral circulation is an important confirmatory test for brain death (BD). Conventional angiography remains the standard imaging method, but CT angiography (CTA) is emerging as an alternative. France accepts BD diagnoses relying on a score based on lack of opacification of 7 intracerebral vessels in CTA images. The purpose of this study was to validate the efficiency of this score and to evaluate the sensitivity of a novel 4-point CTA score in confirming BD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective multicentric study was conducted during 12 months with 105 patients referred for CTA to confirm a clinical diagnosis of BD. Clinical data were recorded. CTA images were interpreted first by local radiologists at the referent center, resulting in a 7-point score based on lack of opacification of the pericallosal and cortical segments of the middle cerebral arteries (MCAs), internal cerebral veins (ICVs), and 1 great cerebral vein per patient and, second, by a consensus panel of 3 expert radiologists, blinded to the initial scores, resulting in novel 4-point scores based on the lack of opacification of the cortical segments of the MCAs and ICVs. RESULTS: Injection of contrast medium did not alter renal function. With the initial 7-point score, sensitivity was 62.8%. With the simplified 4-point score, sensitivity was 85.7% and specificity was 100%. Opacification of ICVs was absent in 98.1% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Lack of opacification in the cortical segments of the MCAs and internal veins in CTA is efficient and reliable for confirming BD.
Towards the Development of Robot Musical Audition

We are seeking to enable humanoid robots to participate in live human-robot musical ensembles. In ensembles, the musicians must be able to listen to the audio that they and the others are producing in order to identify high-level features of the music (e.g., location in the score, tempo, cues). This information is crucial for the musicians so that they can know what to play next. One requirement for robots capable of participating in musical ensembles is, therefore, the ability to listen to the music and identify some of these features. While other sensory input is also important (vision, for example, could enable a robot to determine what a conductor is indicating), many of these fields already have a significant amount of active research. Robot vision, for example, is a popular topic in the research community. By contrast, a comparatively small amount of research is performed on robot musical audition. We therefore feel it is important for us to pursue research in this field.
A Higher Order Rewriting Logic for Functional Logic Programming

According to a well known conception, programs in a declarative programming language can be viewed as theories in some suitable logic, while computations can be viewed as deductions. In our opinion, there is yet no general assent on the logic to be viewed as the foundation of higher order, lazy functional logic languages. In this paper, we argue that a specific rewriting logic can play this role, and we justify the adequacy of our proposal by means of proof-theoretical and model-theoretical results. Moreover, we present a sound and complete lazy narrowing calculus for goal solving, and we discuss a circuit synthesis problem that illustrates the expressiveness of our approach. This example has been tested in an implemented system.
On Some Issues of Knowledge Management System: A Review

The objective of KMS is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge and knowledge management are complex and multi-faceted concepts. Thus, effective development and implementation of KMS requires a foundation in several rich literatures. This paper surveys KMS development using a literature review. The author hopes that the ideas, discussion, and research issues set forth in this paper will stimulate interest and future work in the knowledge management area by researchers.
Trends in the use of verbal protocol analysis in software engineering research

This article reviews the technique of verbal protocol analysis and gives a profile of its use within software engineering research over the last two decades. An overview is given of the procedures used in verbal protocol analysis, and commonly-found difficulties in the application of the technique by researchers are described. The article reports on published efforts to develop tools to automate the procedures. A review of the literature shows trends in the use of the verbal protocol analysis in software engineering research from the 1980s to the present. Recurring themes of its purpose within software engineering research are identified, including the comparison of the behaviours of subjects with differing levels of expertise and the identification of effective software comprehension strategies. Advances and problems with the development of a general-purpose encoding scheme for verbal protocol analysis appropriate to a range of domains within software engineering are described.
Relationships between plasma fatty acid composition and coronary artery disease.

AIM The Japan EPA Lipid Intervention Study (JELIS) was the first prospective randomized clinical trial to demonstrate prevention of coronary events by pure eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between various plasma fatty acid concentrations and the risk of coronary events in JELIS participants. METHODS In 15,534 participants, we calculated the hazard ratio for major coronary events (sudden cardiac death, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, and angioplasty/stenting or coronary artery bypass grafting) relative to the on-treatment average level of plasma fatty acids with the Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS As a result of EPA intervention, the plasma EPA concentration increased, but the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentration did not. The other fatty acids measured decreased slightly. The higher plasma level of EPA (hazard ratio=0.83, p=0.049, in all participants and hazard ratio=0.71, p=0.018, in the EPA intervention group), but not of DHA, was inversely associated with the risk of major coronary events. The associations between other fatty acids and the risk of major coronary events were not significant. In all JELIS participants, the risk of major coronary events was significantly decreased (20%) in the group with high (150 µg/mL or more) on-treatment plasma EPA concentration compared with that in the low (less than 87 µg/mL) group. CONCLUSION The risk of coronary artery disease is influenced by variations in plasma fatty acid composition. Among n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, EPA and DHA exhibited differences in the correlation with the risk of major coronary events.
Characterization of battery consumption in 802.15.4/ZigBee sensor motes

Battery consumption is a key aspect in the performance of wireless sensor networks. One of the most promising technologies for this type of networks is 802.15. 4/ZigBee. This paper presents an empirical characterization of battery consumption in commercial 802.15. 4/ZigBee motes. This characterization is based on the measurement of the current that is drained from the power source under different operations of 802.15. 4 communications. The measurements permit to define a model to predict the battery lifetime of a sensor networking application as a function of the sensor duty cycle and the size of sensed data.
Behavior of A Manufacturing System In Terms of Performance Parameters Under The Control of Different JIT Techniques

The control policy affects performance of a manufacturing line and can be classified as push, pull, or combination of pull and push. A pull or just-in-time (JIT) production system is a philosophy or an approach of the manufacturing system in which order release occurs due to physical removal of finished inventory in response to the customer demand. In this paper, we review the behavior of a manufacturing system in terms of performance parameters under the control of different JIT techniques. The considered control policies are kanban, CONWIP, and hybrid which are based on planned elimination of all waste and continuous improvement of productivity. A separate comparison among all the control policies in terms of performance parameters has also been included in this study. At the end, a table summarizes the use of JIT strategy or its techniques such as kanban, CONWIP and kanban-CONWIP (referred as hybrid) in manufacturing systems from the internationally reputed researches.
Application of SVM based on rough set in smart grid energy-saving prediction

With the global resources being scarce, it is the common goal of global power industry to build a reasonable energy-saving smart grid system. It combines rough set (RS) with the SVM in this paper, reduces performance of SVM input space and the dimension of input space with the reduction of RS, so as to improve SVM predict accuracy. The experimental results prove this method of RS-SVM is to high predict accuracy and of great prospect compare to the BP method.
L-Ferritin Binding to Scara5: A New Iron Traffic Pathway Potentially Implicated in Retinopathy

Iron is essential in the retina because the heme-containing enzyme guanylate cyclase modulates phototransduction in rods and cones. Transferrin endocytosis is the classical pathway for obtaining iron from the blood circulation in the retina. However, the iron storage protein ferritin has been also recently proposed as an iron carrier. In this study, the presence of Scara5 and its binding to L-ferritin was investigated in the retina. Our results showed that Scara5, the specific receptor for L-ferritin, was expressed in mouse and human retinas in many cell types, including endothelial cells. Furthermore, we showed that intravenously injected ferritin crossed the blood retinal barrier through L-ferritin binding to Scara5 in endothelial cells. Thus, suggesting the existence of a new pathway for iron delivery and trafficking in the retina. In a murine model of photoreceptor degeneration, Scara5 was downregulated, pointing out this receptor as a potential player implicated in retinopathy and also as a possible therapeutic target.
Antigen-induced locomotor responses in lymphocytes

The effect of protein antigens on the locomotion of lymphocytes from the lymph nodes draining the site of antigenic challenge in immunized mice, and from the same nodes in control mice, was studied in filters using a checkerboard assay in which the absolute concentration and the concentration gradient of attractant was varied in a series of chambers. Serum albumin (HSA or BSA) was chemokinetic for unimmunized lymphocytes inasmuch as the distance migrated into filters by cells in its presence varied with the absolute concentration of albumin, but not with the concentration gradient, indicating an influence of the serum albumin on the rate but not on the direction of locomotion. Ovalbumin and nonalbumin proteins did not show this effect. Using the same assay, the migration of primed lymphocytes in the presence of the priming antigen was shown to be influenced by the antigen gradient in a way that suggested a positive chemotactic response of the lymphocytes to antigen. This response was only shown clearly when the cells were in a chemokinetic medium containing serum albumin.
Mapping MIMO control system specifications into parameter space

This paper considers the mapping of design objectives for parametric multi-input multi-output systems into parameter space. To this end mapping equations for standard norm specifications are derived. Design objectives under consideration include H/sub /spl infin// performance, H/sub 2/ performance and dissipativity. The mapping equations are derived from a novel uniform framework. These presented mapping equations are similar to the well-known mapping equations for pole location specifications. The theory which extends the parameter space approach to MIMO systems is illustrated by an example.
Awareness agents: A distributed system for group awareness

We are investigating the use of distributed knowledge to gather group awareness information. In a typical workgroup, an individual’s presence information is known in bits and pieces by several agents including co-workers, software agents (e.g., email clients who know about the last time message was read/sent), and sensor agents (e.g., motion detecting light switches). Utilizing that fact, we have built awareness agents who gather and process the presence information for each of the group members. They do this by compiling volunteered information (e.g., a user manually setting her status) as well as sending inquiries to other agents and processing their replies.
Regular Quasi-cyclic LDPC Codes with Girth 6 from Prime Fields

The short paper proposes a method for constructing regular quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes based on circulant permutation matrices via simple prime field operations. The main advantage is that regular QC LDPC codes with a variety of block lengths and rates can be easily constructed which have no cycles of length four or less. Simulation results show that within only a maximum of ten decoding iterations of sum-product algorithm(SPA) the constructed regular codes of high rates have no error floor down to the bit-error rate of $10^{-7}$.