Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vocabulary Learning During Reading: Benefits of Contextual Inferences Versus Retrieval Opportunities

Abstract Retrieval practice of isolated words (e.g., with flashcards) enhances foreign vocabulary learning. However, vocabulary is often encountered in context. We investigated whether retrieval opportunities also enhance contextualized word learning. In two within‐subjects experiments, participants encoded 24 foreign words and then read a story to further strengthen word knowledge. The story contained eight target words in a retrieval context, which required participants to recall word meaning from memory to understand the text (e.g., “She borrowed a knyga ”), and eight target words in an inference context from which meaning could be inferred (e.g., “She read a knyga ” [book]). After 1 to 2 days, a posttest measured word retention. Reading the words in either the retrieval or inference context increased retention, compared to control words not included in the story. Moreover, in Experiment 1, retention was significantly higher in the inference than in the retrieval condition. In Experiment 2, in which encoding before reading was more extensive and feedback was available, no differences in retention were found between the inference and retrieval + feedback condition (both increased retention, compared to control words). Overall, the findings suggest that the benefits of retrieval may be less pronounced during incidental, contextualized learning than during intentional exercises and that retrieval success must be considered when adding retrieval opportunities to contextualized learning. Under low retrieval success, the better comprehension afforded by an informative context may outweigh the benefits of retrieval opportunities (Exp.1). Yet even when retrieval success was enhanced and feedback was added (Exp. 2), retrieval opportunities were only as beneficial as exposure to rich contextual information.
The effect of interventions in alleviating fear of childbirth in pregnant women: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Background The Fear of Childbirth (FOC) is regarded as a general problem, which affects women’s health and well-being, justifying demanding caesarean section. Several primary studies have been performed in relation to the interventions performed to reduce the fear of childbirth, which show contradictions between the results of these studies. Objective This review aims to provide a comprehensive review of the different types of interventions used to reduce the fear of childbirth in pregnant mothers. Methods In this study, systematic review of study information related to the effect of different therapies on reducing the fear of childbirth using subject-related keywords and validated with MeSH in SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, Embase, ProQuest, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science (ISI) databases and Google Scholar Search Engine were extracted without any time limit until February 2021. Results After removing duplicates and irrelevant works from among the 5396 articles found, 63 articles remained in the study. The participants in these 63 articles were 5415 cases and 5770 controls. In addition, three studies were on epidural anesthesia, 33 on the effects of psychotherapy, 19 on the effects of education, and eight on the influence of other interventions on alleviating FOC. As shown by the results, psychotherapy intervention and education decreased FOC significantly. Conclusion According to the results of this study, to prevent the fear of childbirth, pregnancy training and prenatal preparation courses are recommended to empower pregnant women. It also seems beneficial to use psychotherapy approaches for women who are afraid of childbirth.
Therapeutic efficacy analysis of distal tibia varus syndrome with different classification and different therapy: a cross-sectional study

Background We often attribute the lateral ankle impingement to the valgus calcaneus, while ignoring the varus distal tibia. The diagnostic criteria, severity and treatment of distal tibia varus syndrome (DTVS) have not been reported. This retrospective study sought to propose a diagnosis and classification system for DTVS based on patients’ clinical symptoms and imaging findings. Methods A total of 76 symptomatic patients with varus distal tibia and congruent ankle examined between 2010 and 2018 were involved to evaluate clinically based on their SF-36 scores, AOFAS ankle-hindfoot scores, and VAS scores. Each patient’s history, symptoms, and MRI images were analyzed retrospectively, and their weight-bearing ankle radiographs were observed to measure the tibial anterior surface angle (TAS) and tibial tilt angle (TTA). Paired t-test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare the results above. Results Forty-three men and 33 women with an average age of 46 years (range, 28−68 years) included. Besides the same symptom of intermittent subfibular pain, 3 types of DTVS were defined: (I) Type I: a sloped surface of the distal tibia with the congruent tibiotalar joint on radiographs; (II) Type II: a sloped surface of the distal tibia with the congruent tibiotalar joint on radiographs, and soft-tissue edema inferior to the lateral malleolus on MRI images; and (III) Type III: the same symptoms as Type II, plus osteochondral lesions of the talus on MRI images. Under our proposed classification system, 26 patients were classified as Type I, requiring conservative treatment, 22 as Type II, and 28 as Type III under supramalleolar valgus osteotomy. The ankle functional evaluation scores, such as the SF-36 (74.14±12.50 preoperatively and 85.22±8.83 postoperatively), AOFAS (71.14±15.19 preoperatively and 87.53±8.62 postoperatively), and VAS (5.41±1.10 preoperatively and 1.82±1.08 postoperatively) scores for all types were significantly improved (P<0.01). The TAS (80.38°±4.80° preoperatively and 90.44°±3.96° postoperatively) and TTA (13.02°±3.41° preoperatively and 0.62°±2.67° postoperatively) of all the patients on the weight-bearing ankle radiographs were significantly improved (P<0.01). Conclusions DTVS, causing lateral ankle impingement, can be diagnosed based on clinical manifestations and imaging findings. Our classification system can aid in the decision-making process in relation to the appropriate form of conservative or surgical treatments.
Malic enzyme 2 as a therapeutic target for cancer: comments on ‘Malic enzyme 2 maintains protein stability of mutant p53 through 2-hydroxyglutarate’

In mammalian cells, there are three isoforms of malic enzymes (MEs): a cytosolic nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate + (NADP + )-dependent isoform (ME1), a mitochondrial NAD(P) + -dependent isoform (ME2), and a mitochondrial NADP + -dependent isoform (ME3), of which ME1 and ME2 are the major isoforms. As essential modulators of metabolism and aging, MEs have been reported to be targets for wild-type p53 (wtp53), which can transcriptionally repress their expression. Reciprocally, downregulation of ME1 and ME2 leads to wtp53 activation via distinct mechanisms (Jiang The TP53 most frequently mutated in with more than of this of p53 much in many cells, and high levels of mutp53 usually an increased oncogenic capacity. it is crucial to determine the mechanisms by which mutp53 stabilization/degradation is regulated, to identify therapeutic strategies that destabilize
Preliminary assessment of intra-clonal variability in Indian banana varieties for sucker production

Banana, the plant of virtues, is known for its multifaceted uses. Suckers, apart from being used for propagation, are known to have special significance during various religious ceremonies in India. Also, in the absence of commercially viable tissue culture protocols, vegetative propagation through suckers is the only option for conserving and multiplying the native banana varieties. Efforts were thus made to assess the variability amongst two native-export suited varieties and their clones for sucker production. Of the 24 and 37 lines of ‘Nanjanagud Rasabale’ and ‘Elakki Bale’ studied, five and nine lines, respectively were found to be promising in terms of their sucker production capacity. Maximum numbers of suckers were produced in the plants during 8 to 10 months of age; thus, farmers may adjust the planting timing so as to get maximum suckers for selling either as planting material or for other uses. This could be a boon for many farmers even in the condition of accidental crop loss due to various biotic or abiotic factors. Further, it may serve as an impetus for export of these varieties.
Quantitative information flow of side-channel leakages in web applications

It is not a secret that communications between client sides and server sides in web applications can leak user confidential data through side-channel attacks. The lowerlever traffic features, such as packet sizes, packet lengths, timings, etc., are public to attackers. Attackers can infer a user’s web activities including web browsing histories and user sensitive information by analysing web traffic generated during communications, even when the traffic is encrypted. There has been an increasing public concern about the disclosure of user privacy through side-channel attacks in web applications. A large amount of work has been proposed to analyse and evaluate this kind of security threat in the real world. This dissertation addresses side-channel vulnerabilities from different perspectives. First, a new approach based on verification and quantitative information flow is proposed to perform a fully automated analysis of side-channel leakages in web applications. Core to this aim is the generation of test cases without developers’ manual work. Techniques are implemented into a tool, called SideAuto, which targets at the Apache Struts web
Approaches to Enable Demand Response by Industrial Loads for Ancillary Services Provision

Demand response has gained significant attention in recent years as it demonstrates potentials to enhance the power system’s operational flexibility in a cost-effective way. Industrial loads such as aluminum smelters, steel manufacturers, cement plants, and air separation units demonstrate advantages in supporting power system operation through demand response programs, because of their intensive power consumption, already existing advanced monitoring and control infrastructure, and the strong economic incentive due to the high energy costs. In this thesis, we study the three aforementioned manufacturing processes each with its own capabilities and constraints. We provide approaches to efficiently integrate each of these types of manufacturing processes as demand response resources. Aluminum smelting is an energy-intensive electrolytic process that is widely used to produce aluminum. The electricity cost thereby constitutes a significant portion of the total operation cost. At the same time, the smelting process is able to change its power consumption both accurately and quickly by controlling the pots’ DC voltage, without affecting the production quality. Hence, an aluminum smelter has both the motivation and the ability to participate in demand response. First, we focus on determining the optimal regulation capacity that such a manufacturing plant should provide to maximize the combined profit from producing aluminum and providing regulation. The approach is based on stochastic programming and the stochastic variable is the regulation signal sent to the smelter. Next, we focus on determining the optimal bidding strategy in the day-ahead energy and spinning reserve markets for an aluminum smelter. By bidding into the electricity market, the smelter provides flexibility to the power system operator and gets compensation which reduces the overall electricity cost. Finally, we focus on industrial loads which provide both energy and regulation service and study the optimal bidding strategy to maximize their revenues in the day-ahead markets. The approach is based on stochastic programming with a set of possible price curves as input, which represents the possible price scenarios for the next day. We also use a recently proposed method called the Multiple Quantile Graphical Model to represent the price distributions and use Gibbs sampling to sample the price curves. Electric arc furnaces (EAFs) in steel manufacturing consume a large amount of electric energy, and the energy cost constitutes a significant proportion of the total costs of producing steel. However, a steel plant can take advantage of time-based electricity prices by optimally arranging energy-consuming activities to avoid peak hours. Besides, the EAFs’ power rate can be adjusted by switching transformers’ taps, which offers additional flexibility for arranging energy consumption and minimizing the cost of electricity. We first propose scheduling methods that incorporate the EAFs’ flexibilities to reduce the electricity cost. However, the scheduling of steel plants is very
A rad-hard, 60µm pixel sensor optimized for the direct detection of electrons

— Today CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) are the solution of choice for the direct detection of electrons for Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM). Existing CIS products are optimized for relatively high energy electrons, normally around 300 keV. In this paper we describe the design and performance of a prototype designed for lower energy, around 100 keV. The prototype was designed with a pitch of 60 µm and manufactured with substrates with different thicknesses of the epitaxial layer. The prototype sensor of 70x70 pixels was manufactured in a 180 nm CIS process. The measured detective quantum efficiency at zero spatial frequency DQE(0) is 98±3%. The sensor was irradiated with 9.6*10 9 electrons per pixel: at this dose some minor degradation occurred which was fully recovered after two days of annealing at room temperature.
Design, fabrication and testing of a sugarcane farm furrower

DESIGN, FABRICATION AND TESTING OF A SUGARCANE FARM FURROWER By: MICHAEL G. MUTHINI KITUU, BSc (Hon. Nairobi), Agricultural Engineering Department. University of Nairobi Field studies were carried out to evaluate the performance of two furrowers that were in use for furrowing at Mumias sugar company: a double mouldboard furrower and a flat-plate furrower. using an undamped spring dynamometer. The results were utilised for guidance towards the design o f a prototype furrower for Mumias Sugar Company. The prototype furrower was designed for better operational and power performance and tested relative to the mouldboard furrower and the flat-plate furrower. The goal was to minimise power requirements and maximise furrower performance, while improv ing workmanship and standardising the fabrication process. Future local manufacture at Mumias Sugar Company was the goal, for increased availability and lower cost of sugarcane farm furrowers. A detailed standardised furrower manufacture process, with working drawings was developed. The furrower and its jigs were designed and fabricated. The furrower was tested for furrow formation and energy requirements. The tests were carried out against the Mumias sugar company mouldboard furrower and the Busia sugar company flat-plate furrower. The mean draft for the prototype furrower was 1135.60N. for the mouldboard 1202.13 N and for the flat-plate it was 1287.38 N. Thus the prototype had least mean draft and the flat-plate had the highest mean draft. The mean moment for the prototype was 126.69Nm, for the mouldboard ! 22.40Nm and the flat-plate l36.12Nm. The prototype had a mean vertical force of 869.9 N. The same parameter for the mouldboard was 825.26N and for the flat-plate it was 819.99 N. The unit power consumption for the prototype lied between 0.92 Wcm ' and 1.78 Wcm :. The same parameter for the flat-plate lied between 0.68 W/cnrand 1.72 W'/cm3 while for the mouldboard it lied between 0.77 W /cnr and 1.41 W/cm3.
Project control in multi-project environment in Sri Lanka

Managing several projects simultaneously within an organization is common phenomena faced by managers in construction organizations. However, the conflicts are being usually occurred in managing of more than one project simultaneously within an organization due to constrain in sharing resources. Responsibility of managing more than one project usually is entrusted on the middle management of the organizations. This can be considered a multi project environment. This research is aimed to investigate and discuss the status of the management in multi-project environment in the construction industry. Various researchers try to address the issue with different approaches. According to the literature available and the initial study carried out by the researcher in this regard conclude, that the above specific situation is close to the Project Management Office Concept (PMO) described by the experts. This paper attempts to discuss project management status of the middle managements in construction organizations with cross reference to the PMO features. Project Management Office is defined as an organizational entity established to assist project managers and teams throughout the organization in implementing project management principles, practises, methodologies, tools and techniques. The features of the Project Management Office were distilled from the literature reviewed. The presence of the PMO in the middle management level was statically analysed by using the t test. Furthermore, the status of the industry was analysed and discussed with the rating of the PMO features in the organizations. The questionnaire was designed to take response from the mangers who handled more than one projects in the Grade1 category of the Contractors. The findings reflect that the middle management divisions of the organisations may not give adequate support to the Project Management at implementation level. The results were discussed with the field experts to find out reasons and suggestions for improvements.
Volumetric Measurement of Ground-Glass Opacity Nodules using Expectation-Maximization Algorithm

In this paper, this study proposes Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to segment pure Ground-Glass Opacity (GGO) nodules and solid part in part-solid GGO nodules and obtain their volumes as the features of GGO nodules. The features of GGO nodules are helpful to determine whether the GGO nodule is malignant. EM algorithm is used to segment pure GGO nodules and solid part in part-solid GGO nodules with different parameters. Experiments show EM algorithm can quickly segment solid part in part-solid GGO nodules and pure GGO nodules to reduce the burden of doctors.
Investigate failings in survey method for improving business research

The purposive nature of business research is the underpinning of the decision making process of managers. In order to make the right decision, the business manager seeks to reduce uncertainty. To that end the decision maker may be informed by descriptive research which identifies the nature of the decision context and may even identify and analyse decision options. Both qualitative and quantitative research can be helpful in informing the decision maker. The Case Study Method is an example of the former while the Survey Method is common in the latter typically administered via mail-out or the internet. It is the veritable ubiquity of the Survey Method in business research that is addressed here. We are a group of researchers currently researching in the field of IT Outsourcing. In our review of the literature in this field we were struck with failings either in the reporting or in the analysis of surveys and even by both failings occurring in the one article. This paper, in documenting these failings, seeks to improve the use of the Survey Method – one of the most common research methods in business research – so as to improve the overall quality of business research. Field of Research: Business Research, Survey Method ____________________________ *Dr Bulend Terzioglu, School of Business, Australian Catholic University email: bulend.terzioglu@acu.edu. au **Dr Peter Schmidt, Faculty of Business, Holmes Institute email: pschmidt@holmes.edu. au ***Dr Elsie S K Chan, School of Business, Australian Catholic University email: elsie.chan@acu.edu. au
3D object reconstruction using multiple views

3D object modelling from multiple view images has recently been of increasing interest in computer vision. Two techniques, Visual Hull and Photo Hull, have been extensively studied in the hope of developing 3D shape from multiple views. These early methods have the advantage that they do not require pre-processing procedures such as feature selection and matching, which fail when images are of low resolution. One drawback of these two methods is their discrete formulation, which is demanding of memory and limits the type of optimisation methods that can be used. This study proposes a continuous formulation in contrast to the discrete formulations typical of these earlier methods, and aims to robustly reconstruct the 3D shape and colour of an object seen in a multi-view system. The use of a continuous formulation based on kernel density estimates enables us to define a gradient ascent algorithm (e.g. a mean shift algorithm) to recover the 3D shape and colour. Moreover, we propose to include prior information in this continuous modelling to improve the quality of the reconstruction. The proposed approach has several advantages: it is less memory demanding, the resulting algorithm is suitable for parallel processing, and it recovers concavities that are usually lost when estimating shape from silhouettes with the standard visual hull method.
Cytotoxicity of green-synthesized silver nanoparticles by Adansonia digitata fruit extract against HTC116 and SW480 human colon cancer cell lines

Abstract Nanoparticles synthesized from plants are being explored for cancer treatment therapies all over the world. This study reported the eco-friendly and low-cost method for the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Adansonia digitata fruit as a reducing and capping agent. The anti-cancer potential of synthesized particles was explored against HTC116 and SW480 colon cancer cell lines. Prepared AgNPs were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, zeta potential, transmission electronic microscopy, scanning electronic microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, and energy-dispersive spectrum. The cytotoxicity was determined with the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and expression levels of four genes (CTNNB1, APC, LRP5, and LRP6) were checked by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The sharp peak of surface plasmon resonance at 400 nm confirms the formation of AgNPs. Dynamic light scattering showed average sizes of 16.34 nm with a polydispersity index of 0.193. A. digitata AgNPs were spherical with slight aggregated. AgNPs were more cytotoxic than A. digitata extract and decrease the expression of CTNNB1 and LRP6 genes while LRP5 gene expression was increased in both cell lines. APC gene expression was decreased in SW480 but increased in HTC116 with treatment. Overall, this study suggested that AgNPs synthesized by A. digitata fruit extract can be an attractive candidate for anticancer applications.
Towards Underwater Augmented Reality Interfaces to Improve the Navigation Experience

In this paper, we present initial work towards evaluating augmented reality interfaces to enhance underwater navigation. We propose a conceptual framework that combines real-time GPS coordinates fetched from an Aqua-Fi module with computer vision approach to overlay a first-person view (FPV) rendering real-time AR-generated arrows pointing in the direction of the exit point of the dive. The system will allow the diver to trace the progression of the dive and easily find the way out in low visibility and high turbidity conditions. We present an initial requirements analysis based on test dives of the researchers to understand the problem domain better and an initial proposed system with early feasibility tests. We are testing an integrated AR system (inertial motion sensing, GPS and Computer Vision, DolphinSLAM [6]) with visual feedback for a first test, yet are considering also haptic and other modalities for interaction.