Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in research on the tutor in problem-based learning: conclusions and implications for educational practice and research

The tutor role in problem-based learning (PBL) has attracted the interest of many researchers and has led to an abundance of studies. This article reports on major trends in studies investigating the tutor during the past 10 years. Three major trends were observed by the authors while analysing the studies conducted: studies on the differential influence of content expert and non-content expert tutors on student achievement, studies on process variables, and studies on the relationship between tutor characteristics and differential contextual circumstances. The aim of this article is to summarize the main findings of the studies conducted so far within the three trends observed, to provide directions for educational practitioners and policy makers, and to suggest directions for future research questions. The studies included were selected by conducting a literature search in medical journals, which was complemented with the personal archives of the authors. The results of the studies conducted within the three trends of research have led to advanced insights in tutoring. The outcomes revealed that content expert tutors tend to use their subject-matter expertise more to direct the discussion in the tutorial group, whereas non-content expert tutors tend to use their process-facilitation expertise more to direct the tutorial group. Furthermore, a tutor's performance is not a stable characteristic but is partly situation specific. It is concluded that a tutor should both know how to deal with the subject matter expertise and should know how to facilitate the learning process. Faculty and policy makers should put substantial efforts into designing curricula and cases and developing tutors' skills by faculty development strategies that stimulate reflection. The research agenda should be driven more by modern educational theories of learning in which tutoring is a process aimed at stimulating constructive, self-directed, situated and collaborative learning by students. Furthermore, more qualitative studies should be conducted to gain better insights in teachers' conceptions about the tutor role and student learning to better understand their behaviours.
Fault analysis on distribution feeders employing Solid State Transformers

This paper focuses on fault analysis of a distribution feeder which employs Solid State Transformers (SSTs) rather than magnetic transformers in order to facilitate large scale integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) into the system. To estimate the fault current profile on such a feeder, the paper proposes a new method which extends the capability of conventional short-circuit analysis method. Performance of the proposed method has been assessed by simulations on a sample distribution feeder.
Projective invariants of shapes

A major goal of computer vision is object recognition, which involves matching of images of an object, obtained from different, unknown points of view. Since there are infinitely many points of view, one is faced with the problem of a search in a multidimensional parameter space. A related problem is the stereo reconstruction of 3-D surfaces from multiple 2-d images. The author proposes to solve these fundamental problems by using geometrical properties of the visible shape that are invariant to a change in the point of view. To obtain such invariants, he starts from classical theories for differential and algebraic invariants not previously used in image understanding. As they stand, these theories are not directly applicable to vision. He suggests extensions and adaptations of these methods to the needs of machine vision. He then studies general projective transformations, which include both perspective and orthographic projections as special cases. <<ETX>>
On delay (in)dependent stability for TDS

A preliminary-study contribution to delay dependent (DDS) and independent (DIS) stability of control systems with multiple delays is focused in this paper. We first introduce some basic facts about the spectral properties of such systems and a recently developed DIS method is concisely described. Then our simple and applicable numerical gridding iterative DDS algorithm based on the finite dimensional approximation of the characteristic quasipolynomial by means of the Taylor series expansion and the Regula-Falsi method is presented. The methodologies are used and verified by a simulation example of control a delayed feedback system with an unstable plant with two delays. Since it is shown that the system is not DIS, the DDS feature with respect to delay deviations is investigated via the proposed algorithm. Numerical experiments indicate a very good correspondence between the DDS algorithm results and the searching of crossing delays by using the QuasiPolynomial matrix Rootfinder.
Relaxin production by the porcine ovarian graafian follicle in vitro.

Immunoreactive rela.xin was shown to be present in pools of porcine follicular fluid collected from individual ovaries from cyclic and pregnant sows. In the cyclic animals, the highest relaxin level was obtained from ovaries containing active corpora lutes, but at no stage during the cycle did relaxin content of follicular fluid approach that found in ovaries of pregnant sows. Fractionation of follicular fluid on Sephadex C-SO revealed at least three immunoreactive relaxin peaks of differing molecular weight: >40,000, 20,000, and one corresponding to authentic relaxin (6300). Serum of pregnant sows when fractionated in a similar fashion contained more of the highest molecular weight immunoreactive relaxin while only ‘\‘20% of the immunoreactivity was associated with 6300 relaxin. Isolated ovarian follicles and follicular tissue released relaxin throughout prolonged periods in culture. Relaxin output in vitro was significantly higher for tissue obtained from pregnant than from nonpregnant sows. Examination of the relationship between steroid hormone and relaxin release revealed that follicle wall segments, washed free of follicular fluid, released both more relaxin and steroids than did intact follicles. Of the steroids examined, the pattern of relaxin most resembled that found for progesterone, which showed an increase after 48 h of culture as the tissue underwent spontaneous luteinization. The relationship between steroid hormone and relaxin biosynthesis was further studied in these cultures by the addition of inhibitors of steroid biosynthesis. Aminoglutethimide effectively reduced production of all steroids studied without significantly reducing the total production of relaxin over the culture period. Tniostane and androstriene 3, 17-dione were only partially effective in reducing steroidogenesis but caused a significant reduction in total relaxin production. Follicular tissue therefore synthesizes and secretes relaxin in vitro, but the cellular origin, the relationship with steroidogenesis, and the routes of release remain to be established.
CEO Decision Horizon Towards Company’s Performance

This research aims to analyze the influence of CEO decision horizon, leverage, size, and operating profit margin on the firm’s performance using manufacturing company listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange over the period 2012-2016. This research used regression method to test the hypothesis. Firm’s performance is measured by Tobin’s Q as the dependent variable and CEO decision horizon, leverage, size, and operating profit margin as the independent variable. The results showed that CEO decision horizon affected by Tobin’s Q. Leverage has positive effect to Tobin’s Q. Size has positive significant effect to Tobin’s Q, and operating profit margin has positive insignificant effect to Tobin’s Q using 5% level of significance. Higher CEO decision horizon will increase firm performance because their experience of managing firm useful and beneficial for shareholder wealth.
Neurodevelopmental Outcome of Appropriate and Small for Gestational Age Very Low Birth Weight Infants

Prematurity and intrauterine growth restriction are associated with neurodevelopment delay. A prospective cohort study included all 96 very low birth weight infants discharged from our neonatal unit from November 2003 to June 2005. The authors compared 41 appropriate and 55 small for gestational age very low birth weight infants' neurodevelopment at 24 months corrected age. Bayley Scales were similar between both groups at 8, 12, 18, and 24 months corrected age even after adjustment for gestational age and improved from 8 to 24 months corrected age. Small for gestational age infants with and without severe intrauterine growth restriction had similar neurodevelopment outcome. Neurodevelopment delay is frequent in very low birth weight infants with no differences between appropriate and small for gestational age. The authors suggest that Bayley Scales evaluation should be performed in every very low birth weight infant at least at 24 months corrected age to detect those requiring therapeutic stimuli.
Size of the Semicircular Canals Measured by Multidetector Computed Tomography in Different Age Groups

Purpose The purpose of the study was to obtain reference values for the sizes of the semicircular canals (SCCs) on multidetector computed tomographic (CT) images in different age groups. Methods Computed tomographic images of the temporal bone of 210 patients, a total of 420 ears without inner ear pathology, have been evaluated. These patients were divided into 4 groups by age: young children (<7 years), older children and adolescents (8–17 years), adults (18–59 years), and the elderly patients (>60 years). The inner diameter, maximum height, and width of the SCCs were measured. Results There was no significant difference in the size of SCC among the 4 age groups. The inner diameter measurements of the anterior SCC, lateral SCC, and posterior SCC were 0.101 ± 0.016, 0.135 ± 0.033, and 0.124 ± 0.021 cm, respectively. The height measurements of the anterior SCC, lateral SCC, and posterior SCC were 0.535 ± 0.086, 0.349 ± 0.090, and 0.490 ± 0.109 cm, respectively. The width measurements of the anterior SCC, lateral SCC, and posterior SCC were 0.567 ± 0.080, 0.302 ± 0.082, and 0.472 ± 0.099 cm, respectively. Conclusions The size of SCCs remains constant from children to the elderly people, unlike the other human organs. The reference values provided by multidetector CT can serve as an aid for the interpretation of CT images.
Evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility using Corporate Social Performance: A case of the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is generally viewed as corporations moving beyond their primary commitment to their shareholders to contribute towards a better society. However, the extent to which the desired positive impact is felt by beneficiaries differ in relation to their needs. This study identifies corporate social performance theory as being relevant in evaluation the CSR programmes and activities of the multinational oil companies in the Niger delta region of Nigeria. The study assesses the level of commitment of the oil companies to the needs of their host communities through CSR, and how morally acceptable their CSR policies have been to the local communities. This is an exploratory research which obtained data mainly from primary sources. Using twenty-eight semi structured interviews obtained from three host communities in the Niger delta region, Nigeria. Finding suggest that the oil multinational in this region have engaged in various form of CSR programmes and activities. However, the success of any CSR initiative is positively related to an interpretation of the motives behind such gesture by beneficiaries and not merely financial contributions.
Granulosa cells inhibit the resumption of meiosis in bovine oocytes in vitro.

The oocytes of cattle are not as sensitive as those of laboratory animals to purines, cAMP, or follicular extracts. To study the resumption of meiosis, a method is needed that is capable of inhibiting meiosis completely for a minimum of 24 h. This study was designed to evaluate interrelationships in granulosa-oocyte-cumulus complexes using fresh granulosa cells aspirated from small follicles (1-5 mm) in which the cumulus is normally firmly attached. Selected oocyte-cumulus complexes obtained from a slaughterhouse (n = 2,236) were co-incubated with one of the following: various concentrations of fresh granulosa cells in tissue cultures medium (TCM) 199 or bovine follicular fluid (BFF) either without or after one washing and/or freezing; resuspended granulosa cells previously cultured for 7 days; blood cells; or medium alone. Additionally, oocyte-cumulus complexes were embedded in agar cylinders before incubation with or without cells. The rate of maintenance of intact germinal vesicles (GV) in oocytes after 24 h ranged from 40-77% when 5-100 x 10(6) unwashed cells/ml BFF were used, compared to only 16% in oocytes cultured in BFF alone. The pattern was the same when washed cells were used (30-77%, using 5-100 x 10(6) cells/ml BFF), but they were not as effective as unwashed cells. With TCM-199 and the same five concentrations of cells (5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 x 10(6)/ml), a similar inhibition was obtained with greater than or equal to 25 but not with 5 (3%) or 10 (5%) x 10(6)/ml. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Centromeric protein B null mice are viable with no apparent abnormalities.

The centromere protein B (CENP-B) is a centromeric DNA/binding protein. It recognizes a 17-bp sequence motif called the CENP-B box, which is found in the centromeric region of most chromosomes. It binds DNA through its amino terminus and dimerizes through its carboxy terminus. CENP-B protein has been proposed to perform a vital role in organizing chromatin structures at centromeres. However, other evidence does not agree with this view. For example, CENP-B is found at inactive centromeres on stable dicentric chromosomes, and also mitotically stable chromosomes lacking alpha-satellite DNA have been reported. To address the biological function of CENP-B, we generated mouse null mutants of CENP-B by homologous recombination. Mice lacking CENP-B were viable and fertile, indicating that mice without CENP-B undergo normal somatic and germline development. Thus, both mitosis and meiosis are able to proceed normally in the absence of CENP-B.
A Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Latency-Associated Transcript Mutant with Increased Virulence and Reduced Spontaneous Reactivation

ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene is essential for efficient spontaneous reactivation of HSV-1 from latency. We previously reported that insertion of the LAT promoter and just the first 1.5 kb of the 8.3-kb LAT gene into an ectopic location in the virus restored wild-type spontaneous reactivation to a LAT null mutant. This mutant, LAT3.3A (previously designated LAT1.5a), thus showed that the expression of just the first 1.5 kb of LAT is sufficient for wild-type spontaneous reactivation. We also showed that in the context of the entire LAT gene, deletion of LAT nucleotides 76 to 447 (LAT mutantdLAT371) had no effect on spontaneous reactivation or virulence. We report here on a LAT mutant designated LAT2.9A. This mutant is similar to LAT3.3A, except that the ectopic LAT insert contains the same 371-nucleotide deletion found in dLAT371. We found that LAT2.9A had a significantly reduced rate of spontaneous reactivation compared to marker-rescued and wild-type viruses. This was unexpected, since the combined results of dLAT371 and LAT3.3A predicted that spontaneous reactivation of LAT2.9A would be wild type. We also found that LAT2.9A was more virulent than wild-type or marker-rescued viruses after ocular infection of rabbits. This was unexpected, since LAT null mutants and LAT3.3A have wild-type virulence. These results suggest for the first time (i) that regions past the first 1.5 kb of LAT can compensate for deletions in the first 1.5kb of LAT and may therefore play a role in LAT dependent spontaneous reactivation and (ii) that regions of LAT affect viral virulence.
Transglycosylation Activity of Dictyoglomus thermophilum Amylase A

Amylase A from Dictyoglomus thermophilum is a thermophilic enzyme and has about 40% identity with 4-α-glucanotransferase (GTase) from Thermococcus litoralis, and both of these enzymes belong to family 57 glycosyl hydrolase. Since the transglycosylation activity of T. litoralis GTase has been well characterized, the substrate specificity and reaction products of amylase A from D. thermophilum were examined. α-1,4 Glucan was produced from maltooligosaccharides, and glucoamylase-resistant molecules (cycloamyloses) were produced from longer chain amylose (average molecular mass 200 kDa). It has been reported that amylase A from D. thermophilum hydrolyzes starch, but in this study it was found that the enzyme was also able to use maltooligosaccharides and long chain amylose as substrate and has transglycosylation activity.
A Dual-Linearly-Polarized MEMS-Reconfigurable Antenna for Narrowband MIMO Communication Systems

The design and characterization is described of a compact dual-linearly-polarized reconfigurable 2-port antenna. The antenna can operate in two different selectable linear polarization bases, thus being capable of reconfiguring/rotating its polarization base from vertical/horizontal (0°/90°), to slant ±45°. The antenna has been implemented on a quartz substrate, and uses monolithically integrated micro-electromechanical (MEM) switches to select between the two aforementioned polarization bases. The antenna operates at 3.8 GHz and presents a fractional bandwidth of 1.7%. The interest of the proposed antenna is two-fold. First, in LOS scenarios, the antenna enables polarization tracking in polarization-sensitive communication schemes. Second, there are the gains of using it in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system employing orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC) to improve the diversity order/gain of the system in NLOS conditions. These benefits were verified through channel measurements conducted in LOS and NLOS propagation scenarios. Despite the simplicity of the antenna, the achievable polarization matching gains (in LOS scenarios) and diversity gains (in NLOS scenarios) are remarkable. These gains come at no expenses of introducing additional receive ports to the system (increasing the number of radio-frequency (RF) transceivers), rather as a result of the reconfigurable capabilities of the proposed antenna.
Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymphadenectomy for Early-Stage Melanoma: Therapeutic Utility and Implications of Nodal Microanatomy and Molecular Staging for Improving the Accuracy of Detection of Nodal Micrometastases

Objective: Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy (LM/SL) have been applied to virtually all solid neoplasms since our original description of LM/SL for melanoma. Our objectives were to determine the diagnostic and therapeutic utility of LM/SL, investigate carbon dye for mapping the microanatomy of lymphatic flow within the sentinel node (SN), and determine the prognostic accuracy of molecular assessment of the SN. Methods: Since 1985, 1599 patients with AJCC Stage I/II melanoma have been treated by LM/SL at our institution and 4590 have been treated by wide excision (WE) without nodal staging. We examined the incidence of clinical nodal recurrence after WE alone, the incidence of subclinical nodal metastases found by LM/SL, and the incidence of nodal recurrence in basins with histopathology-negative SNs. Results: In 1514 LM/SL patients with a primary of known Breslow thickness, the incidence of metastasis in nodes claimed to be sentinel was 7.3%, 19.7%, 33.2%, and 39.7% for primary lesions ≤1.0, 1.01–2.0, 2.01–4.0, and >4.0 mm, respectively. In 3652 WE-only patients, the corresponding rates of nodal recurrence were 12.0%, 32.0%, 34.4%, and 30.1%. Thus, LM/SL detected only 60% of expected nodal metastases from primary melanomas <2.01 mm. Forty of 1599 (3.1%) patients developed recurrence in basins with immunohistochemistry (IH)-negative SNs. To determine whether nonrandom intranodal distribution of tumor cells could explain missed SN metastases, we coinjected carbon particles and blue dye during LM/SL in 166 patients: 25 (16%) patients had nodal metastases, all of which were found only in nodal subsectors containing carbon particles. When paraffin-embedded SNs from a subset of 162 IH-negative patients were re-examined by quantitative multimarker reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT) assay, 49 (30%) gave positive signals. These patients had a significantly higher risk of disease recurrence and death than did patients whose IH and qRT results were negative (p < 0.0001). Comparison of 287 prognostically matched pairs of patients who underwent immediate (after LM/SL) versus delayed (after observation) dissection of nodal metastases revealed 5-, 10-, and 15-year survival rates of 73%, 69%, and 69% versus 51%, 37%, and 32%, respectively (P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions: SN assessment based on intranodal compartmentalization of lymphatic flow (carbon dye mapping) should increase the accuracy of IH and, in combination with multimarker qRT assessment, will allow confident identification of most patients for whom surgery alone is curative. Our data suggest a significant therapeutic benefit for immediate dissection based on identification of a tumor-involved SN.
Literature Review On The Determinants Of Insurers’ Financial Performance

The main objective of our paper is to analyze the profitability of insurance companies and to determine the factors that influence it. In this regard, we have analyzed and compared fifteen articles from the literature on the performance of insurance companies. The first step in our research was to go througheach of the scientific articles. Then, following certain aspects, we created a database with the information of interest for each of the fifteen articles analyzed. The information gathered helped us to make a comparison between them. Most articles focus on determining the factors that influence the profitability of general insurance. Ten of the fifteen articles have as a dependent variable of multiple regression the return on assets. As far as independent variables are concerned, company size and financial leverage are the most used and the most significant from a statistical point of view. In general, the most appropriate model of multiple regression is the fixed effects model. The main sources of data used by the authors in their research are the or loss account, annual reports or databases of insurance regulatory and supervisory authorities, National Banks or company websites.
Algorithm optimization framework for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

With the rapid technology development of systems that assist drivers, the lack of uniform support for efficient algorithm development has emerged. We propose a universal Software Development Kit (SDK) concept with common optimization routines that can be applied to typical Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) algorithms. The evaluation confirmed that the SDK decreased execution time for ADAS algorithms and works seamlessly across different embedded architectures.