Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study abroad as professional development for FSL teachers

In July 2009, a group of over 80 FSL teachers from British Columbia (BC) participated in a two-week sojourn at the Centre d’Approches vivantes des Langues et des Medias (CAVILAM) in Vichy, France, as part of an initiative to address the critical shortage of qualified French language teachers in the province. After almost four decades of study abroad (SA) research, the literature offers little insight into teachers’ professional development abroad. The following article attempts to situate the recent sojourn of the BC teachers within the field by presenting an overview of some of the major research trends of SA research as well as summarizing how teachers have been acknowledged in the literature to date. A description of the program at CAVILAM and the current research study is presented to highlight some of the emerging opportunities for future research on teacher education within a SA context.
An Adaptive Framework for Classification of Concept Drift with Limited Supervision

This thesis deals with the problem of classification of data affected by concept drift. In particular, it investigates the area of unsupervised model updating in which a classification model is updated without using information about the changing distributions of the classes. An adaptive framework that contains an ensemble of classifiers is developed. These can be mature or naive. In particular, only mature classifiers generate decisions, through majority voting, while naive classifiers are candidate to become mature. The first novelty of the proposed framework is a technique of feedback that combines concepts from ensemble-learning with concepts from self-training. In particular, naive classifiers are trained using unlabelled data and labels generated by mature classifiers over that data, by means of voting. This technique allows updates of the model of the framework in absence of supervision, namely, without using the true classes of the data. The second novelty is a technique that infers the presence of concept drift by measuring the similarity between the decisions of mature classifiers and the decisions of naive classifiers. When concept drift is inferred, a naive classifier is selected to become mature, and a mature classifier is deleted. A series of experiments are performed. They show that the framework can classify data with Gaussian distribution, and that this capability regards different classification techniques. The experiments also reveal that the framework cannot deal with the concept drift of a uniformly distributed dataset. Moreover, further experiments show that the inference of drift combines quick adapation with low false detections, thus leading to higher classification performance than comparative methods. However, this technique is not able to detect concept drift if the classes are separable.
Mecanismo de Ação de Compostos Utilizados na Cosmética para o Tratamento da Gordura Localizada e da Celulite

Localized fat and cellulites are the main causes of people´s lack of satisfaction with their body. Whereas localized fat is characterized by the hypertrophy of adipose tissues in some body regions, cellulites is characterized by larger adipose tissues and deficiencies in the venous and lymphatic return with subsequent accumulation of liquid and toxins in the interstices featuring a special irregular aspect to the skin. Current research analyzed the mechanisms, physiological effects, restrictions and counter-indications of the main cosmetic lipolitic and anti-cellulites active principles, used topically for the treatment of cellulites and localized fat. Lipids were identified in methylxanthines (caffeine, theophylline, aminophylline etc) which increase the AMPc levels, in retinol that inhibits the difference of the pre-adipocytes by a decrease of the ob gene, phosphatidylcholine with still unknown mechanism, L-carnitine that helps in lipolysis and the growth hormone and gelidium extract that stimulate β-adrenergic receptors. Anti-cellulites compounds were ginkgo biloba, methyl nicotinate, menthol, camphor, centella asiatica and silicon which mainly improve blood circulation. No new active principles were extant in spite of improvements in cosmetics. Methylxanthines predominate in the treatment of localized lipodystrophy coupled to other compounds that are active in micro-circulation together with lipids for the treatment of cellulites.
Novel Toolset for 2D Drawing and Animation

This thesis investigates a set of novel digital tools for 2D Animation addressing the shortcomings of current digital support, representations and algorithms. Our goal is to produce animation tools that are intuitive to use, allow full control over the resulting drawing when desired, and provide the artist with immediate visual feedback of the animation as it progresses. In contrast to previous work, where automation has been often been the goal, we focus on building tools that keep the artist as a central agent. We target automation of the most tedious tasks where the need for artistic interpretation is minimal, and otherwise aim for computer-assisted solutions geared to provide a similar experience as with traditional workflows augmented with algorithmic computation. We start by investigating the problem of representing drawings digitally, analyzing existing representations, and highlighting their major shortcomings. We then present a hybrid representation that combines the advantages of vector and raster images, and propose the use of a novel vector description for lines and areas. We then address the problem of vectorization of line drawings. This problem is challenging due to ambiguities in regions where lines are drawn close to each other or intersect. We propose a two-step, topology-driven approach that first exploits the pixel gradient information in a clustering process to generate an initial stroke graph from which the topology of the drawing is learned, and then applies a “reverse drawing” procedure where plausible junction configurations are considered and a heuristic optimum is selected. Segmentation is a key step in organizing digital drawings into semantic groups ready for editing and animation. Done manually, this can be a very labor intensive task. We propose a scribble-based interface that guides a novel
PEMANFAATAN LABORATORIUM IPS SMP

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui pemanfaatan laboratorium IPS di SMP. Pemanfaatan laboratorium dalam penelitian ini ditinjau dari; 1) kondisi laboratorium IPS di SMP, 2) manajemen laboratorium IPS di SMP, 3) peran kepala sekolah dalam pemanfaatan laboratorium IPS, 4) strategi guru dalam pemanfaatan laboratorium IPS, 5) pemanfaatan laboratorium IPS bagi para siswa. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di SMP 1 Bantul, SMP 19 Purworejo dan SMP IT Darul Hikmah Pakem pada bulan Oktober sampai dengan November 2012. Data diperoleh dengan teknik wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi menggunakan pedoman wawancara dan lembar observasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: 1) kondisi laboratorium IPS di tiga sekolah yang diteliti pada dasarnya telah memenuhi syarat minimal laboratorium, hanya saja ketersediaan perangkat lain masih kurang lengkap, 2) manajemen laboratorium IPS didasarkan pada pengelompokkan subjek atau konsep ilmu-ilmu sosial serta penggunaannya telah diatur sehingga memungkinkan pemanfaatan laboratorium secara teratur dan tidak terjadi benturan jadwal antar guru, 3) kepala sekolah mulai menyadari pentingnya laboratorium IPS dalam mendukung kualitas pembelajaran di SMP, sehingga mereka mulai memperhatikan keberadaan laboratorium IPS dengan dukungan kebijakan pengembangan laboratorium IPS, 4) Para guru merasakan pentingnya keberadaan laboratorium IPS, dan mereka telah berupaya melakukan pemanfaatan laboratorium IPS dalam mendukung pembelajaran IPS namun belum optimal disebabkan oleh terbatasnya sumber daya yang menangani, belum optimalnya dukungan finansial untuk mengembangkan laboratorium IPS, dan pada kenyataannya bahwa keberadaan laboratorium IPS di SMP masih merupakan hal baru dalam praksis pendidikan IPS di sekolah, 5) Para siswa merasa sangat terbantu dengan adanya laboratorium IPS di sekolah, karena pembelajaran menjadi lebih mudah dan menyenangkan.
Modelado eficiente de obstáculos en guía de onda rectangular para simuladores comerciales utilizando código Verilog-A

This paper reports the modelling of classical obstacles (post, iris, screw, etc.) within rectangular waveguide in terms of electrical lumped elements equivalent circuit using Verilog-A language code. This ability, allows making possible the enabling of the digital computer interaction and simulation using standard CAD simulation tools. Furthermore, the paper shows the simplicity and friendly technique of modelling passive microwave devices using Verilog-A code. Several examples have been studied under different commercial simulators: Agilent ADS and GENESYS. A comparison between the results obtained from Verilog-A based simulations and full 3-D electromagnetic simulation is shown, too.
Attribute-Driven Design (ADD), Version 2.0

Abstract : This report revises the Attribute-Driven Design (ADD) method that was developed by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute. The motivation for revising ADD came from practitioners who use the method and want ADD to be easier to learn, understand, and apply. The ADD method is an approach to defining a software architecture in which the design process is based on the software quality attribute requirements. ADD follows a recursive process that decomposes a system or system element by applying architectural tactics and patterns that satisfy its driving quality attribute requirements. This technical report revises the steps of ADD and offers practical guidelines for carrying out each step. In addition, important design decisions that should be considered at each step are provided.
The Dynamics of Living Arrangements of the Elderly

This paper uses a new data set to study the choice of living arrangements of some 3000 Massachusetts elderly between 1982 and 1986. The data have a number of unique features; they are longitudinal and combine detailed information on health with information on economic status and family relations. This paper considers the influence on living arrangements of alternative measures of health (subjective versus functional abilities versus diagnosed condition), incomes and marital status of parents, and the number and sexes of children. It also examines the extent to which changes in health and the death of a spouse trigger changes in living arrangements and how rapidly such changes occur. The main findings of the paper are: Functional ability indices are very good predictors of living arrangements. Subjective health reports are poor predictors of living arrangements. The probability of institutionalization declines rapidly with the income of the elderly. In the cases of the older old daughters are much more likely than sons to share living quarters. Living arrangements are fairly stable. When changes in living arrangements occur they are often triggered by changes in health status or the death of a spouse. When deterioration in health status or the death of a spouse leads to a change in living arrangements, such changes typically occur within a year of the triggering event.
A Model-based Design Framework for Application-specific Heterogeneous Systems

The increasing heterogeneity of computing systems enables higher performance and power efficiency. However, these improvements come at the cost of increasing the overall complexity of designing such systems. These complexities include constructing implementations for various types of processors, setting up and configuring communication protocols, and efficiently scheduling the computational work. The process for developing such systems is iterative and time consuming, with no well-defined performance goal. Current performance estimation approaches use source code implementations that require experienced developers and time to produce. We present a framework to aid in the design of heterogeneous systems and the performance tuning of applications. Our framework supports system construction: integrating custom hardware accelerators with existing cores into processors, integrating processors into cohesive systems, and mapping computations to processors to achieve overall application performance and efficient hardware usage. It also facilitates effective design space exploration using processor models (for both existing and future processors) that do not require source code implementations to estimate performance. We evaluate our framework using a variety of applications and implement them in systems ranging from low power embedded systems-on-chip (SoC) to high performance systems consisting of commercial-off-theshelf (COTS) components. We show how the design process is improved, reducing the number of design iterations and unnecessary source code development ultimately leading to higher performing efficient systems.
As Low Birth Weight Babies Grow, Can &Apos;Good&Apos; Parents Buffer this Adverse Factor? a Research Note

This research note combines two national Taiwanese datasets to investigate the relationship between low birth weight (LBW) babies, their family background and their future academic outcomes. We find that LBW is negatively correlated with the probability of such children attending university at the age of 18; however, when both parents are college or senior high school graduates, such negative effects may be partially offset. We also show that discrimination against daughters does occur, but only in those cases where the daughters were LBW babies. Moreover, high parental education (HPE) can only buffer the LBW shock among moderately-LBW children (as compared to very-LBW children) and full term-LBW children (as compared to preterm-LBW children).
Group consensus control for double‐integrator dynamic multiagent systems with fixed communication topology

The problem of group consensus is investigated in this paper, where all agents possess double‐integrator dynamics. Two different kinds of consensus protocols are proposed for networks with fixed communication topology to reach group consensus for the agents’ positions and velocities. Convergence analysis is discussed, and necessary and/or sufficient conditions are presented for multiagent systems to achieve group consensus. The first protocol leads to dynamic consensus where positions of all agents reach time‐varying consensus values. By applying the second protocol, both the agents’ positions and their velocities reach constant consensus values. That is, static consensus is achieved. Simulation examples are given to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Developing Object-Oriented Software for the MacIntosh: Analysis, Design, and Programming

From the Publisher: Based on Neal Goldstein's widely acclaimed Object-Oriented Design and C++ seminars at Apple Computer, Inc., Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh takes Macintosh software developers step by step through the object-oriented software development process. This is the first book to deal with the complete process of developing object-oriented software, from analysis through design and programming. Programmers, systems analysts, managers,and anyone concerned with Macintosh software development will benefit from the concepts and methodology of this practical, hands-on guide. The book first covers the basics of creating object-oriented software, focusing on the essential concepts and principles. It then presents the author's acclaimed Solution Based Modeling methodology and notation for analysis, design, and programming in object-oriented development. Special attention is paid throughout to problems inherent in large-scale Macintosh development, and code examples are provided in C++ and Object Pascal. You will also learn how to:. Design efficient, maintainable object-oriented programs. Design for portablility to other computers. Communicate object-oriented designs effectively to both programmers and non-programmers. Control projects from initial requirements through the development process. Developing Object-Oriented software for the Macintosh is essential reading for all Macintosh software professionals.
Are Malaysian Teachers Ready to Assume the Duties of Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect

Mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting laws apply to teachers in many countries of the world. However, such laws have not yet been introduced for teachers in Malaysia, and there is debate about whether the laws should be extended to teachers at all. This paper aimed to investigate the level of support among teachers to assume mandatory reporting duties and to identify factors determining this support in Malaysia. A total of 668 teachers from 14 randomly selected public primary schools completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Results showed that 44.4 per cent of the respondents supported legislation requiring teachers to report child abuse. Teachers of Indian ethnicity, those with a shorter duration of service in teaching ( Language: en
Die Entwicklung der Radiofrequenzablation von Vorhofflimmern in den Jahren 2000 bis 2009 am Beispiel der Elektrophysiologie der Elisabethinen Linz

Evolution of Radiofrequency Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation through the Years 2000 to 2009 on the Example of the Electrophysiology Unit of the Elisabethinen Hospital Linz. Introduction: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for Atrial Fibrillation (AF) has successfully been applied for 10 years at the electrophysiology unit of the Elisabethinen hospital Linz. This overview aims to characterize the development of this method in the years after the initial description and to discuss “landmark” studies with their impact on daily clinical practice in our electrophysiology laboratory. In addition we illustrate improvements of methods which led to a significant decline of procedurerelated complications and which served as top-
Pleiotropic Effects of GLP-1 and Analogs on Cell Signaling, Metabolism, and Function

The incretin hormone Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) is best known for its “incretin effect” in restoring glucose homeostasis in diabetics, however, it is now apparent that it has a broader range of physiological effects in the body. Both in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that GLP-1 mimetics alleviate endoplasmic reticulum stress, regulate autophagy, promote metabolic reprogramming, stimulate anti-inflammatory signaling, alter gene expression, and influence neuroprotective pathways. A substantial body of evidence has accumulated with respect to how GLP-1 and its analogs act to restore and maintain normal cellular functions. These findings have prompted several clinical trials which have reported GLP-1 analogs improve cardiac function, restore lung function and reduce mortality in patients with obstructive lung disease, influence blood pressure and lipid storage, and even prevent synaptic loss and neurodegeneration. Mechanistically, GLP-1 elicits its effects via acute elevation in cAMP levels, and subsequent protein kinase(s) activation, pathways well-defined in pancreatic β-cells which stimulate insulin secretion in conjunction with elevated Ca2+ and ATP. More recently, new studies have shed light on additional downstream pathways stimulated by chronic GLP-1 exposure, findings which have direct relevance to our understanding of the potential therapeutic effects of longer lasting analogs recently developed for clinical use. In this review, we provide a comprehensive description of the diverse roles for GLP-1 across multiple tissues, describe downstream pathways stimulated by acute and chronic exposure, and discuss novel pleiotropic applications of GLP-1 mimetics in the treatment of human disease.
Chemistry, Pharmacology and Medicinal Property of Sage as a Viable Agent in the Treatment of Prostate, Pancreatic or other Types of Cancer

Sage (Salvia) species is known as the Functional Novel Natural Medicine, Salvia Extract are considered important for drug development, because they are reported to have Pharmacological activity in the Asia, Middle East especially China and India. For a long time Salvia has been used in traditional medicine for the relief of pain, protecting the body against oxidative stress, free radical damages, angiogenesis, inflammation, bacterial and virus infection, etc. Several studies suggest that sage might potentially provide novel natural treatments for the relief or cure of many serious and life threatening diseases in addition to treating minor common illnesses such as depression, dementia, obesity, diabetes, lupus, heart disease and cancer. This plant is used as Medicine in Asia, Africa, Middle East, South America, and some Countries in Europe. This article presents comprehensive analysis information on botanical, chemical and Pharmacological aspect of Sage (Saliva).
Using Alice 2.0 as a first language

This paper describes how Alice 2.0 is being used in an introductory programming course, the first in a three course sequence that meets the description of the object-oriented sequence described in the CC2001 report. The modifications to the syllabi to accommodate an Alice-Java-Java sequence are described. Issues caused by using Alice for an introduction programming in the first course for both computing majors and liberal studies students are explored. Retention data and percentage of women enrolled when using Alice for the first semester is compared to data for C++.
REMOVING THE DYNAMIC LINKER FROM THE SECURITY KERNEL OF A COMPUTING UTILITY

In order to enforce the security of the information stored in a computing utility, it is necessary to certify that the protection mechanism is correctly implemented so that there exist no uncontrolled access path to the stored information. Certification requires that the security kernel be much smaller and simpler than the supervisor of present general purpose operating systems. This thesis explores one aspect of improving the certifiability of a computing utility by designing a dynamic linker that runs outside the security kernel domain. The dynamic linker is designed to run in any user protection domain of a multidomain computing utility. It is shown that the dynamic linker never needs the privileges of the security kernel to properly operate. In particular, the thesis demonstrates the ability of the dynamic linker to link programs together across domain boundaries without violating the protection of either domain involved in the operation.