Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Massively Empowered Classroom: Enhancing Technical Education in India

Students in the developing world are frequently cited as being among the most important beneficiaries of online education initiatives such as massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, very little research has actually been done on the effects of online education in developing contexts. We describe a case study of our experience building and deploying Massively Empowered Classroom (MEC), an experimental project designed to explore how online educational content and techniques in blended learning can be used for undergraduate education in India. Our pilot study of a single course in algorithms extended over two semesters to more than 120 colleges in three state technical universities in India, and reached more than 4000 students. We identified a number of issues that we believe are unique to the Indian educational context. Specifically, we identify four key domains that MOOCs and similar educational initiatives must manage: Content, Incentives, Awareness, and Bandwidth. We believe that similar issues will extend to other developing countries with significant resource constraints.
Self-gravitating domain walls and the thin-wall limit

We analyze the distributional thin-wall limit of self-gravitating scalar field configurations representing thick domain wall geometries. We show that thick-wall solutions can be generated by appropiate scaling of the thin-wall ones, and obtain an exact solution for a domain wall that interpolates between ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{4}$ asymptotic vacua and has a well-defined thin-wall limit. Solutions representing scalar field configurations obtained via the same scaling but that do not have a thin-wall limit are also presented.
The diagnostic accuracy of the immunochemical markers in the pre-operative evaluation of follicular thyroid lesions

Aim of the study was to consider the diagnostic accuracy of galectine-3 (GAL3) in the pre-operative cytological evaluation of follicular lesions. Materials and methods: We retrospectively evaluated 100 patients suffering from thyroid nodular disease submitted to thyroidectomy from 2006 to 2007 in our Institution. Before surgery all patients underwent fine needle aspiration biopsy. The immunocytochemical analysis was performed on fine needle aspiration specimens using species-specific monoclonal antibodies and a biotin-free detection system. Based on preoperative cytological reports, 40 patients had pre-operative malignant results, and 60 patients (46 females and 14 males) showed follicular lesions. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and diagnostic accuracy of GAL3 was evaluated. Statistical analysis: Chisquare test was used to compare frequencies of GAL3 expression between the different hystopathological groups. Results: GAL3 proved to have 55% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 70% negative predictive value, and 78% diagnostic accuracy. The GAL3 expression in neoplastic and benign lesions was significantly different (GAL3+ in 16 out of 29 neoplastic lesions, GAL3+ 0 out of 31 benign lesions, p<0.01). Even comparing the GAL3 positivity between the follicular adenomas (0 GAL3+ out of 20) and the group of follicular carcinomas (5 GAL3+ out of 6), we found a statistically significant difference (p<0.01). Conclusions: Based on the data from our experience, the patients with a cytological diagnosis of GAL3 positive follicular neoformation should be referred for surgery without any further immunocytological testing.
EFFECT OF DECREASING DIETARY PROTEIN LEVELS WITH OPTIMAL AMINO ACIDS PROFILE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BROILERS

A six-week trial was conducted to study the effect of decreasing dietary crude protein (CP) level on the performance of broilers in hot climatic conditions. Four experimental rations having CP 23 (control group), 22, 21 and 20%, with optimal amino acid balance were prepared. All the four rations were isocaloric having ME 3200 kcal/kg with Energy: Protein (E:P) 139.0, 146.5, 152.4 and 160 in diets A, B, C and D respectively. One hundred and twenty day-old chicks were randomly distributed into 12 experimental units, each having 10 chicks. Rations were randomly allotted to experimental units such that each unit received three replicates. The experimental diets were fed to birds from day 1 st to 42 nd . Performance of birds was monitored in terms of weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio (FCR). At the end of experiment, two birds per each replicate were randomly selected and slaughtered to record the data on carcass yield, breast meat yield, abdominal fat and composition of breast meat. Results of the trial suggested that weight gain was significantly (P<0.01) increased in birds on diets with CP 20 and 21%. Feed consumption and FCR remained un-changed for all the treatment groups. Eviscerated carcass yield was significantly (P<0.05) higher for the group fed on diet with 20% CP. Breast meat yield, abdominal fat and composition of breast meat also remained un-changed. Economic evaluation of the trial revealed that decreasing CP levels from 23 to 20% resulted in reduced feed cost per kg of live weight gain, which clearly indicated that this approach was useful especially in severe summer conditions. The overall picture of the study suggests that dietary protein level of broilers could be reduced from 23 to 20%, with beneficial effects on growth performance and carcass characteristics and increased economic returns in hot environmental conditions, provided that levels of essential amino acids are closely looked after.
Modeling voltage-current characteristics of an electric arc furnace based on actual recorded data: A comparison of classic and advanced models

Field measurements of voltage and current is the most effective way for characterizing the electric response of an EAF that describe the nonlinear behavior of AC EAF loads. Sufficient measured information can be adopted to develop an appropriate EAF model. In this paper, two classic methods based on measured data, harmonic current injections and equivalent harmonic voltage sources, for the EAF load modeling are reviewed. For comparison, two advanced methods based on actual recorded data, cubic spline interpolation and radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), are also proposed to model the EAF load. A steel plant power system with EAF loads is used for field measurements and computer simulations. Comparisons between the results of measured data and simulations for the four EAF models are being made according to the voltage/current waveforms and voltage-current characteristics. It is shown that the advanced models yield better performance than classic models of the EAF.
Language & common sense: Integrating across psychology, linguistics, and computer science

The language understanding that underlies state-of-the-art Internet search, machine translation, and dictation software is undeniably impressive. Equally undeniable is that these systems do not really understand language. What is missing? One candidate is common sense. Language is a mechanism for moving ideas from one mind to another – ideas that are meant to be understood in the context of preexisting, interlocking beliefs. Thus, fully exploiting its power may require sophisticated, explicit representations of world knowledge – that is, common sense. That understanding language requires deploying knowledge about the world is not a new observation (cf. Winograd, 1972). However, new opportunities for significant progress have been suddenly opened up by recent, rapid advances in the science of common sense, along with related advances in machine vision, natural language processing, and computational tools for developing more precise cognitive theories (Liang & Potts, 2015; Sonka, Hlavac, & Boyle, 2014; Tenenbaum, Kemp, Griffiths, & Goodman, 2011). This workshop brings together researchers from across the cognitive sciences – including developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and robotics – to disseminate recent findings, discuss approaches to future progress, and set an agenda for the field. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the participants and of the research challenges faced, the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society is an ideal venue for these conversations.
Targeting JAK/STAT signalling in inflammatory skin diseases with small molecule inhibitors

For most inflammatory skin diseases topical glucocorticosteroids and traditional oral immunosuppressive drugs remain the principle treatment choices, but this has started to change. A deeper understanding in individual disease pathogenesis, basic immune mechanisms and molecular signalling pathways, together with advances in pharmaceutical drug development, allow us to interfere more precisely with disease‐related factors. Some examples of inflammation‐controlling interventions include antibodies neutralizing disease‐associated cytokines, and small molecules targeting intracellular pathways relevant to cytokine production or cytokine signalling. So far, this is best established for psoriasis, an inflammatory skin disease dominated by Th17 cytokines. In this review, we focus on chronic inflammatory skin diseases where cytokines using type I/II cytokine receptors play a dominant role in disease pathogenesis and where novel treatments with inhibitors of the JAK/STAT pathway are already under clinical investigation. To better understand the rationale of using JAK/STAT inhibitors in the discussed skin diseases, we give an overview of important genetic and immunological associations with the JAK/STAT pathway and summarize the stage of clinical development of small molecular inhibitors. JAK/STAT inhibitors will presumably find wide application in dermatology, since they can be applied not only systematically but also topically for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases.
Reducing the layer number of AB stacked multilayer graphene grown on nickel by annealing at low temperature

Controlling the number of layers of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition is crucial for large scale graphene application. We propose here an etching process of graphene which can be applied immediately after growth to control the number of layers. We use nickel (Ni) foil at high temperature (T = 900 °C) to produce multilayer-AB-stacked-graphene (MLG). The etching process is based on annealing the samples in a hydrogen/argon atmosphere at a relatively low temperature (T = 450 °C) inside the growth chamber. The extent of etching is mainly controlled by the annealing process duration. Using Raman spectroscopy we demonstrate that the number of layers was reduced, changing from MLG to few-layer-AB-stacked-graphene and in some cases to randomly oriented few layer graphene near the substrate. Furthermore, our method offers the significant advantage that it does not introduce defects in the samples, maintaining their original high quality. This fact and the low temperature our method uses make it a good candidate for controlling the layer number of already grown graphene in processes with a low thermal budget.
EEG in dialysis encephalopathy

Electroencephalography (EEG) in dialysis encephalopathy (DE) was investigated by collecting 173 EEGs from 77 dialyzed patients; 26 had DE. An attempt was made to predict the DE patients, as opposed to the control group without DE, on the basis of EEG alone. Based on the presence or absence of bilateral spike and wave complexes, 91% of the patients along with 91% of their EEGs were correctly placed into the proper clinical category. Also, diffuse slow waves, usually seen in bursts maximal on the frontal areas, appeared in the DE group significantly more often and also with a greater degree of abnormality than in the non-DE group. Considerable variability was noted in the EEGs of these patients. The bilateral spike and wave complexes were discussed as an EEG marker of dialysis encephalopathy, which now seems to be related etiologically to aluminum toxicity.
Mortality among twins

EDITOR,—Kaare Christensen and colleagues' study of the lifetime mortality of the 24% of Danish twins whom they were able to trace is offered as a challenge to the validity of the fetal origins hypothesis.1 The authors assume that if growth retardation in fetal life were associated with cardiovascular disease then twins, who have a lower birth weight …
Cost performance analysis: Usage of resources in cloud using Markov-chain model

Effective Utilization of Resources and throughput computation is an important consideration in using cloud resources. Each resource is allocated by the tasks and each resource has virtual machines to handle the subtasks of use cases. The cost performance analysis is done using the markov model and the Server Allocation Matrix (SAM). Resource allocation in cloud computing System is a new dimension in place by taking into consideration the failure of the physical machines in the datacenter that constitutes the cloud. The failure of physical machines is considered by making use of the markov-chain model to do a probabilistic prediction of failure. This paper consists of two parts, one is to determine the optimum number of resource are in working condition and second is to determine effective use of these resources. We try to allocate the resources among those systems that are operational. The benefits of the system are that it allows the user to mainly predict the failure of the system and also find the optimal throughput by optimal resource allocation among those systems. We propose a general methodology and simulated the proposed methodology and illustrated with a case study.
Minimum-Effort Motions for Open-Chain Manipulators with Task-Dependent End-Effector Constraints

In this article, we examine the solution of minimum-effort optimal control problems for open-chain manipulators. An approximate Solution to the optimal control problem is determined by a constrained parameter optimization over a set of B-spline basis functions. We demonstrate that the parameter-optimization formulation of the problem is numerically ill-conditioned, and that it is therefore essential to include analytic, or exact, gradients of the objective fiunction and the constraints in order to guarantee a solution. A recursive expression for these gradients is developed for general serial chains. Constraints on end-effector motions are taken into account using the logarithmn of the spatial displacement. Our formulation relies on the use of matrix exponentials for the manipulator kinematics, dynamics, and task constraints. Several examples are presented that demostrate the power and flexibility of our approach.
Extracting information on folding from the amino acid sequence: accurate predictions for protein regions with preferred conformation in the absence of tertiary interactions.

A recently developed procedure to predict backbone structure from the amino acid sequence [Rooman, M. , Kocher, J. P., & Wodak, S. (1991) J. Mol. Biol, 221, 961-979] is fine tuned to identify protein segments, of length 5-15 residues, that adopt well-defined conformations in the absence of tertiary interactions. These segments are obtained by requiring that their predicted lowest energy structures have a sizable energy gap relative to other computed conformations. Applying this procedure to 69 proteins of known structure, we find that regions with largest energy gaps--those having highly preferred conformations--are also the most accurately predicted ones. On the basis of previous findings that such regions correlate well with sites that become structured early during folding, our approach provides the means of identifying such sites in proteins without prior knowledge of the tertiary structure. Furthermore, when predictions are performed so as to ignore the influence of residues flanking each segment along the sequence, a situation akin to excising the considered peptide from the rest of the chain, they offer the possibility of identifying protein segments liable to adopt well-defined conformations on their own. The described approach should have useful applications in experimental and theoretical investigations of protein folding and stability, and aid in designing peptide drugs and vaccines.
A survey of New Yorkers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

OBJECTIVE This study examined the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among residents/workers in Manhattan 3-6 months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. METHOD A total of 1,009 adults (516 men and 493 women) were interviewed in person throughout Manhattan. All answered questions about themselves before and after September 11 that included their emotional status. RESULTS A total of 56.3% had at least one severe or two or more mild to moderate symptoms. Women reported significantly more symptoms than men. Loss of employment, residence, or family/friends correlated with greater and more severe symptoms. The most distressing experiences appeared to be painful memories and reminders; dissociation was rare. Only 26.7% of individuals with severe symptoms were obtaining treatment. CONCLUSIONS Over half of the individuals had some emotional sequelae 3-6 months after September 11, but the percent was decreasing. Only a small portion of those with severe responses was seeking treatment.
Transplantation of Human Neural Progenitor Cells into the Neonatal Rat Brain: Extensive Migration and Differentiation with Long-Distance Axonal Projections

Here we examined the ability of human neural progenitors from the embryonic forebrain, expanded for up to a year in culture in the presence of growth factors, to respond to environmental signals provided by the developing rat brain. After survival times of up to more than a year after transplantation into the striatum, the hippocampus, and the subventricular zone, the cells were analyzed using human-specific antisera and the reporter gene green fluorescent protein (GFP). From grafts implanted in the striatum, the cells migrated extensively, especially within white matter structures. Neuronal differentiation was most pronounced at the striatal graft core, with axonal projections extending caudally along the internal capsule into mesencephalon. In the hippocampus, cells migrated throughout the entire hippocampal formation and into adjacent white matter tracts, with differentiation into neurons both in the dentate gyrus and in the CA1-3 regions. Directed migration along the rostral migratory stream to the olfactory bulb and differentiation into granule cells were observed after implantation into the subventricular zone. Glial differentiation occurred at all three graft sites, predominantly at the injection sites, but also among the migrating cells. A lentiviral vector was used to transduce the cells with the GFP gene prior to grafting. The reporter gene was expressed for at least 15 weeks and the distribution of the gene product throughout the entire cytoplasmic compartment of the expressing cells allowed for a detailed morphological analysis of a portion of the grafted cells. The extensive integration and differentiation of in vitro-expanded human neural progenitor cells indicate that multipotent progenitors are capable of responding in a regionally specific manner to cues present in the developing rat brain.
Cardioprotective effects of a novel calpain inhibitor , SNJ-1945 for 1 reperfusion injury after cardioplegic cardiac arrest 2 3 4

22 We have previously indicated that calpain-inbitor-1 prevents the heart from ischemia23 reperfusion injury associated with the impairment of total Ca handling by inhibiting the 24 proteolysis of α-fodrin. However, this inhibitor is insoluble with water and inappropriate for 25 clinical application. The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of a 26 newly developed calpain inhibitor, SNJ-1945 (SNJ) with good aqueous solubility on left 27 ventricular (LV) mechanical work and energetics in the cross-circulated rat hearts. SNJ (150 28 μM) was added to KCl (30 mEq) cardioplegia (CP). Mean end-systolic pressure at midrange LV 29 volume (ESPmLVV) and systolic pressure-volume area (PVA) at mLVV (PVAmLVV: a total 30 mechanical energy per beat) were hardly changed after CP plus SNJ arrest-reperfusion (post 31 CP+SNJ), whereas ESPmLVV and PVAmLVV in post CP group were significantly (P<0.01) 32 decreased. Mean myocardial oxygen consumption for the total Ca handling in 33 excitation-contraction coupling did not significantly decrease in post CP+SNJ group, whereas it 34 was significantly (P<0.01) decreased in post CP group. The mean amounts of 145& 150kD 35 fragments of α-fodrin in post CP group were significantly larger than those in normal and post 36 CP+SNJ groups. In contrast, the mean amounts of L-type Ca channel and sarcoplasmic 37 reticulum Ca ATPase were not significantly different among normal, post CP and post 38 CP+SNJ groups. Our results indicate that soluble SNJ attenuates cardiac dysfunction due to CP 39 arrest-reperfusion injury associated with the impairment of the total Ca handling in 40 excitation-contraction coupling by inhibiting the proteolysis of α-fodrin. 41 42 43
Embedded Si Fan Out: A Low Cost Wafer Level Packaging Technology without Molding and De-Bonding Processes

Advanced packaging technology plays more and more important role for device miniaturization, system integration, and performance enhancement. Among many new packaging technologies, fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) aroused more interests and showed the advantages of higher number of I/Os, integration flexibilities, low cost, and small form factor due to the elimination of substrate. However, FOWLP using epoxy mold compound (EMC) material faces a number of technical challenges such as warpage wafer handling, difficult to fabricate fine-pitch redistribution layer (RDL), and reliability issues for large package due to the CTE mismatch between chip and EMC. In addition, for high performance SiP, advanced FOWLP with multilayer fine-pitch RDLs, excellent alignment accuracy, shortest interconnect routing between dies, and ultra small form factor was required. In this paper, the development of a wafer level embedded silicon fan-out, named eSiFO technology was reported. For eSiFO package, the known good dies are embedded in the cavities formed on silicon wafer and the micro-scale gap between the dies and cavities is filled by epoxy material. An almost entire silicon surface was constructed as the fan-out area for RDL and BGA. The process is simple comparing with standard FOWLP since there is no molding, temporary bonding and de-bonding process. The key advantage is that the CTE for dies and silicon wafer is same and there is no warpage issue during manufacturing which results in good packaging yield. An eSiFO package with size of 3.3×3.3mm, one layer RDL and 50 BGAs was successfully demonstrated. The results proved that the process of eSiFO was simple and suitable for high density system integration with ultra low profile. Various reliability tests were carried out to study the package reliability and no failure was found. The simulation results show that for the same package, eSiFO has lower thermal stress than FOWLP using EMC.
Codebook Learning for Image Recognition Based on Parallel Key SIFT Analysis

SUMMARY The quality of codebook is very important in visual image classiﬁcation. In order to boost the classiﬁcation performance, a scheme of codebook generation for scene image recognition based on parallel key SIFT analysis (PKSA) is presented in this paper. The method iteratively applies classical k-means clustering algorithm and similarity analysis to evaluate key SIFT descriptors (KSDs) from the input images, and generates the codebook by a relaxed k-means algorithm according to the set of KSDs. With the purpose of evaluating the performance of the PKSA scheme, the image feature vector is calculated by sparse code with Spatial Pyramid Matching (ScSPM) after the codebook is constructed. The PKSA-based ScSPM method is tested and compared on three public scene image datasets. The experimental results show the proposed scheme of PKSA can signiﬁcantly save computational time and enhance categorization rate. key words