nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Brain Tumor Segmentation by Variability Characterization of Tumor Boundaries
Venue: BrainLes@MICCAI

Automated medical image analysis can play an important role in diagnoses and treatment assessment, but integration and interpretation across heterogeneous data sources remain significant challenges. In particular, automated estimation of tumor extent in glioblastoma patients has been challenging given the diversity of tumor shapes and appearance characteristics due to differences in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging acquisition parameters, scanner variations and heterogeneity in tumor biology. With this work, we present an approach for automated tumor segmentation using multimodal MR images. The algorithm considers the variability arising from the intrinsic tumor heterogeneity and segmentation error to derive the tumor boundary and produce an estimate of segmentation error. Using the MICCAI 2015 dataset, a Dice coefficient of 0.74 was obtained for whole tumor, 0.55 for tumor core, and 0.54 for active tumor, achieving above average performance in comparison to other approaches evaluated on the BRATS benchmark.
Effects of the Badge Mechanism on Self Efficacy and Learning Performance in a Game Based English Learning Environment

A growing number of studies have been conducted on digital game based learning (DGBL) However, there has been a lack of attention paid to individuals' self efficacy and learning performance in the implementation of DGBL. This study therefore investigated how the badge mechanism in DGBL enhanced users' self efficacy in the subject domain of English as a foreign language. In the study, a digital game based English learning environment was designed with a badge mechanism including digital badges, leaderboard ranking, and learning practice with star icons. A quasi experimental design was implemented. A total of 50 third grade elementary school students participated in this study. Hypotheses were tested, and data were analyzed using paired sample t tests, multiple regression analyses, linear regression analyses, and logistic regression analyses. The results show that the badge mechanism had a significant positive influence on the learners' self efficacy and English learning performance. The study also investigated how self efficacy could affect English learning performance, with the results revealing that it had a significant positive influence on learning performance. In addition, a subsequent analysis showed that those students with higher self efficacy performed better than those with lower self efficacy.
O Positivismo como Obstaculo Epistemologico a Producao do Conhecimento Juridico: O Dogmatismo e suas Consequencias para a Formacao do Jurista

Legal education, in Brazil, embraced a tecnical legalist attitude, in which students are trained to read and understand written law, reducing Right exclusively to this operation. Considering the epistemological obstacles identified by Gaston Bachelard, and considering how legal education happens in Brazilian academies, this essay proposed a reflexive approach of Right education through positive dogmatism, identifying the production of a non critical and technicist professional and the idealistic and simplistic training which makes difficult the resolution of social complex questions, as problems of necessary coping to reformulate legal education.
Management of landfill leachate: The legacy of European Union Directives.
Venue: Waste management

Landfill leachate is the product of water that has percolated through waste deposits and contains various pollutants, which necessitate effective treatment before it can be released into the environment. In the last 30years, there have been significant changes in landfill management practices in response to European Union (EU) Directives, which have led to changes in leachate composition, volumes produced and treatability. In this study, historic landfill data, combined with leachate characterisation data, were used to determine the impacts of EU Directives on landfill leachate management, composition and treatability. Inhibitory compounds including ammonium (NH4 N) cyanide, chromium, nickel and zinc, were present in young leachate at levels that may inhibit ammonium oxidising bacteria, while arsenic, copper and silver were present in young and intermediate age leachate at concentrations above inhibitory thresholds. In addition, the results of this study show that while young landfills produce less than 50% of total leachate by volume in the Republic of Ireland, they account for 70% of total annual leachate chemical oxygen demand (COD) load and approximately 80% of total 5 day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and NH4 N loads. These results show that there has been a decrease in the volume of leachate produced per tonne of waste landfilled since enactment of the Landfill Directive, with a trend towards increased leachate strength (particularly COD and BOD5) during the initial five years of landfill operation. These changes may be attributed to changes in landfill management practices following the implementation of the Landfill Directive. However, this study did not demonstrate the impact of decreasing inputs of biodegradable municipal waste on leachate composition. Increasingly stringent wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) emission limit values represent a significant threat to the sustainability of co treatment of leachate with municipal wastewater. In addition, the seasonal variation in leachate production poses a risk to effective co treatment in municipal WWTPs, as periods of high leachate production coincide with periods of maximum hydraulic loading in WWTPs.
An exploratory analysis on waste management in Italy: A focus on waste disposed in landfill

The aim of this paper is to analyze the waste management process with a focus on waste disposed in landfills. The results of our analysis provide guidelines for actions geared at improving the waste management. We apply cluster analysis and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) techniques to 103 Italian provinces for the year 2011. Thus we are allowed to identify spatial correlation processes and spatial clusters. The results of our investigation show a dual structure in the distribution of landfill disposal rate. Moreover, they importantly suggest that institutional quality and pro environmental behaviour are significant factors in the waste management process.
Enhancement of conventional WC Co and Inconel 625 HVOF thermal spray coatings by the addition of nanostructured WC Co for wear/corrosion applications in the oil/gas industry

Recently, economical and fast solutions for preventing failure due to wear and corrosion in oil and gas industries have been reduced through the deposition of cermets using HVOF thermal spray coatings especially tungsten carbide cobalt (Diamalloy 2004) deposits to reduce wear effects and Inconel 625 (Diamalloy 1005) to prevent corrosion. The new research trend towards the development of bimodal (mixed of nano and micro size particle) feedstock powders, through the addition of nanostructured WC Co, is showing promise and is under investigation in this research. A design of experiment software was implemented to study the influence of different powder percentage on the coating performance such as coating microstructure and coating mechanical performance, such as three point bending tests and hardness measurement. Results show that hardness, bending and yield strength of the coating increased as the composition percentage of nanostructured WC 12Co mixed in with the Diamalloy 2004/1005 (WC 12Co micro/Inconel 625, respectively) composite increased due to the strong adhesion of WC nanosize grains at the substrate/coating interface through improved mechanical interlocking and reduce the possibility of cracks initiation. The results show promise in terms of the current maintenance challenges experienced by the oil/gas industry today, in terms of possibly extending the life of components, plus providing huge economic savings.
A Fast Experimental Scanner for Proton CT: Technical Performance and First Experience With Phantom Scans
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

We report on the design, fabrication, and first tests of a tomographic scanner developed for proton computed tomography (pCT) of head sized objects. After extensive preclinical testing, pCT is intended to be employed in support of proton therapy treatment planning and pre treatment verification in patients undergoing particle beam therapy. The scanner consists of two silicon strip telescopes that track individual protons before and after the phantom, and a novel multistage scintillation detector that measures a combination of the residual energy and range of the proton, from which we derive the water equivalent path length (WEPL) of the protons in the scanned object. The set of WEPL values and the associated paths of protons passing through the object over a 360 deg angular scan are processed by an iterative, parallelizable reconstruction algorithm that runs on modern GP GPU hardware. In order to assess the performance of the scanner, we have performed tests with 200 MeV protons from the synchrotron of the Loma Linda University Medical Center and the IBA cyclotron of the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center. Our first objective was calibration of the instrument, including tracker channel maps and alignment as well as the WEPL calibration. Then we performed the first CT scans on a series of phantoms. The very high sustained rate of data acquisition, exceeding one million protons per second, allowed a full 360 deg scan to be completed in less than 10 minutes, and reconstruction of a CATPHAN 404 phantom verified accurate reconstruction of the proton relative stopping power in a variety of materials.
Efficient Exploitation of Mobile Edge Computing for Virtualized 5G in EPC Architectures
Venue: 2016 4th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering (MobileCloud)

To pave the way towards disclosing the full potential of 5G networking, emerging Mobile Edge Computing techniques are gaining momentum in both academic and industrial research as a means to enhance infrastructure scalability and reliability by moving control functions close to the edge of the network. After the promising results under achievement within the EU Mobile Cloud Networking project, we claim the suitability of deploying Evolved Packet Core (EPC) support solutions as a Service (EPCaaS) over a uniform edge cloud infrastructure of Edge Nodes, by following the concepts of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) This paper originally focuses on the support needed for efficient elasticity provisioning of EPCaaS stateful components, by proposing novel solutions for effective subscribers' state management in quality constrained 5G scenarios. In particular, to favor flexibility and high availability against network function failures, we have developed a state sharing mechanism across different data centers even in presence of firewall/network encapsulation. In addition, our solution can dynamically select which state portions should be shared and to which Edge Nodes. The reported experimental results, measured over the widely recognized Open5GCore testbed, demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach, as well as its capability to satisfy "carrier grade" quality requirements while ensuring good elasticity and scalability.
Mobile Edge Computing: Progress and Challenges
Venue: 2016 4th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering (MobileCloud)

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) provides mobile and cloud computing capabilities within the access network, and aims to unite the telco and IT at the mobile network edge. This paper presents an investigation on the progress of MEC, and proposes a platform, named WiCloud, to provide edge networking, proximate computing and data acquisition for innovative services. Furthermore, the open challenges that must be addressed before the commercial deployment of MEC are discussed.
SDMEC: Software Defined System for Mobile Edge Computing
Venue: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering Workshop (IC2EW)

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) promises a paradigm shift in enabling efficient Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) services by providing storage and processing capacity within the access range of the mobile devices. In MEC, Mobile Edge (ME) servers are placed at the edge of the mobile networks eliminating the need to offload compute /storage intensive tasks of the mobile devices to the core of the network (the centralized cloud data center) This reduces the network latency and enhances the quality of service provided for the mobile end users. Different applications can benefit from the large scale deployments of ME servers such as smart grid applications, content delivery networks, content sharing, traffic management, and E health applications. This promising paradigm comes with its own downside related to the management complexity of large scale deployments that offers hundreds of applications to millions of users. In this paper, we introduce a software defined based framework to enable efficient MCC services through the integration of different software defined system components with the MEC system.
Seamless Support of Low Latency Mobile Applications with NFV Enabled Mobile Edge Cloud
Venue: 2016 5th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Networking (Cloudnet)

Emerging mobile multimedia applications, such as augmented reality, have stringent latency requirements and high computational cost. To address this, mobile edge cloud (MEC) has been proposed as an approach to bring resources closer to users. Recently, in contrast to conventional fixed cloud locations, the advent of network function virtualization (NFV) has, with some added cost due to the necessary decentralization, enhanced MEC with new flexibility in placing MEC services to any nodes capable of virtualizing their resources. In this work, we address the question on how to optimally place resources among NFV enabled nodes to support mobile multimedia applications with low latency requirement and when to adapt the current resource placements to address workload changes. We first show that the placement optimization problem is NP hard and propose an online dynamic resource allocation scheme that consists of an adaptive greedy heuristic algorithm and a detection mechanism to identify the time when the system will no longer be able to satisfy the applications' delay requirement. Our scheme takes into account the effect of current existing techniques (i.e. auto scaling and load balancing) We design and implement a realistic NFV enabled MEC simulated framework and show through extensive simulations that our proposal always manages to allocate sufficient resources on time to guarantee continuous satisfaction of the application latency requirements under changing workload while incurring up to 40% less cost in comparison to existing overprovisioning approaches.
Comprehension des comportements electrique et optique des modules photovoltaiques a haute concentration, et developpement d'outils de caracterisations adaptes

Le travail de these effectue a pour objectif d'amener vers une meilleure comprehension des comportements electrique et optique des modules CPV, dans des conditions environnantes variables. La premiere partie est consacree a l'etude de la performance des modules en conditions reelles de fonctionnement. Quatre technologies de module, toutes equipees de cellules triple jonctions, mais de concentrateurs optiques differents, ont ete testees en exterieur sur des periodes de un mois a deux ans. Les resultats montrent que la sensibilite a la temperature de lentille, la temperature de cellule et au spectre incident varie selon le type d'architecture optique. La sensibilite la plus importante a la temperature de lentille a ete obtenue pour un dispositif sans optique secondaire. Le coefficient en temperature de la tension Voc a ete calcule et varie entre les technologies. Enfin, les variations importantes de facteur de forme avec le spectre incident observees pour une technologie, mettent en evidence la necessite d'etudier les phenomenes de non uniformites d'irradiance sur la cellule. Dans une deuxieme partie, le developpement d'un banc de test en interieur permettant de mesurer les performances electriques et optiques est presente. Ce banc a pour objectif de permettre la reproduction des conditions reelles de fonctionnement des modules de facon controlee en interieur. Un systeme d'imagerie est utilise pour determiner la distribution spatiale et spectrale d'irradiance sur la cellule. Associe a un traceur de courbes IV, il vise a caracteriser les effets de flux non uniformes sur la cellule. Le banc de mesure a pour avantage de decoupler les parametres d'etudes, telles que la temperature de la lentille et la temperature de la cellule, et permet ainsi de decorreler leurs effets respectifs sur l'ensemble optique cellule, ce qui n'est que difficilement possible sur des mesures en exterieur. Le procede de calibration et la validation du dispositif sont detailles dans le manuscrit. Enfin, dans une derniere partie, le banc developpe est utilise pour caracteriser trois differents dispositifs CPV un sans optique secondaire, et deux avec des optiques secondaires differentes. Les impacts de la distance lentille cellule et de la temperature de lentille sur les performances de la cellule sont quantifies optiquement et electriquement. Les resultats montrent comment ces parametres modifient la distribution de densites de courant des sous cellules, et donc le comportement electrique du dispositif. Ils soulignent plus specifiquement comment les non uniformites spectrales et spatiales affectent les performances de la cellule pour les differents concentrateurs. Le dispositif sans optique secondaire montre une sensibilite importante a la temperature de la lentille et la distance optique primaire cellule, qui se traduit par une perte de production d'energie dans des conditions reelles de fonctionnement.
Challenges Experienced by Japanese Students With Oral Communication Skills in Australian Universities

Due to ever increasing demands to acquire effective communicative abilities in the English language, increasing numbers of international students choose to study in Western tertiary institutions; however, they frequently encounter difficulties in performing satisfactorily in English. This study aims to identify specific challenges that Japanese students face with oral communication skills while studying in Australian universities. Results from questionnaire data collected from 33 undergraduate and postgraduate Japanese students in Australia and interview data from five TESOL postgraduate students indicate that Japanese students have greater difficulty with speaking than with listening and pronunciation. It also sheds additional insight into two areas of major concern in Japan education: inadequate practice of oral communication skills in the Japanese education system and Japanese English teachers' difficulties using English in class. The article concludes by proposing several potential solutions for improving Japanese English education based on the recommendations of Japanese postgraduate students in a TESOL program.
A real time biofeedback using Kinect and Wii to improve gait for post total knee replacement rehabilitation: a case study report
Venue: Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology

This study aimed to develop a low cost real time biofeedback system to assist with rehabilitation for patients following total knee replacement (TKR) and to assess its feasibility of use in a post TKR patient case study design with a comparison group.  The biofeedback system consisted of Microsoft KinectTM and Nintendo Wii balance board with a dedicated software. A six week inpatient rehabilitation program was augmented by biofeedback and tested in a single patient following TKR. Three patients underwent a six weeks standard rehabilitation with no biofeedback and served as a control group. Gait, function and pain were assessed and compared before and after the rehabilitation.  The biofeedback software incorporated real time visual feedback to correct limb alignment, movement pattern and weight distribution. Improvements in pain, function and quality of life were observed in both groups. The strong improvement in the knee moment pattern demonstrated in the case study indicates feasibility of the biofeedback augmented intervention.  This novel biofeedback software has used simple commercially accessible equipment that can be feasibly incorporated to augment a post TKR rehabilitation program. Our preliminary results indicate the potential of this biofeedback assisted rehabilitation to improve knee function during gait. Research is required to test this hypothesis.  The real time biofeedback system developed integrated custom made software and simple low cost commercially accessible equipment such as Kinect and Wii board to provide augmented information during rehabilitation following TKR. The software incorporated key rehabilitation principles and visual feedback to correct alignment of the lower legs, pelvic and trunk as well as providing feedback on limbs weight distribution. The case study patient demonstrated greater improvement in their knee function where a more normal biphasic knee moment was achieved following the six week biofeedback intervention.
Isolation of yeast and acetic acid bacteria from palmyra palm fruit pulp (Borassus flabellifer Linn.

The isolation and identification of yeast and acetic acid bacteria from palmyra palm fruit pulp were investigated. Twenty yeast isolates were selected from palmyra palm fruit sample. Ten yeast isolates showed the highest tolerant ability to 10 and 15% (w/v) glucose. To screening for ethanol tolerance with 6 and 8% (v/v) ethanol, the cell viability was obtained at 6% (v/v) ethanol than 8% (v/v) with a range 6.86 7.67 log CFU/ml and 2.20 4.00 log CFU/ml, respectively. The isolate Y15 produced the highest ethanol content about 7.4% at 15% (w/v) glucose within 4 days. This isolate was Candida stellimalicola with identification method of rRNA region and sequence of D1/D2 domain of rDNA. The isolates of acetic acid bacteria from palmyra palm fruit pulp were studied by the biochemistry test. The catalase test showed positive and oxidase test as negative. Microscopic examinations confirmed that the strains were gram negative rod to coccobacilli. All of strains showed negative overoxidation and cellulose formation. For ethanol tolerance, twenty acetic acid bacteria isolates were cultured in 6 and 8% (v/v) ethanol. Ten acetic acid bacteria isolates and tolerant ability to ethanol were subsequently screened with 6 and 8% (v/v) ethanol for acetic acid production. The isolate A10 produced the highest acetic acid content with 5.64% within 55 days at 6% (v/v) ethanol as compared with the other isolates. This isolate was identified as Acetobacter ghanensis, a new acetic acid bacteria for using native acetic acid bacteria strain as starter culture for palmyra palm fruit vinegar production.