nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Hydrophilic Poly(vinylidene Fluoride) Film with Enhanced Inner Channels for Both Water and Ionic Liquid Driven Ion Exchange Polymer Metal Composite Actuators.
Venue: ACS applied materials interfaces
Year: 2019

This study presents a novel and facile strategy to fabricate a hydrophilic poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) electrolyte film with enhanced inner channels for a high performance and cost effective ion exchange polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuator. The resultant PVDF composite film is composed of hierarchical micro/nanoscale structures: well defined polymer grains with a diameter of ~20 mm and much finer particles with a diameter of ~390 nm, producing three dimensional interconnected, hierarchical inner channels to facilitate ion migration of IPMC. Interestingly, the electrolyte matrix film has a high porosity of 15.8% and yields a high water uptake of 44.2% and an ionic liquid (IL, [EMIm][BF4] uptake of 38.1% to make both water driven and IL driven IPMC actuators because of the introduction of polar polyvinyl pyrrolidone. Compared to the conventional PVDF/IL based IPMC, both water driven and IL driven PVDF based IPMCs exhibit high ion migration rates, thus effectively improving the actuation frequency and producing remarkably higher levels of actuation force and displacement. Specifically, the force outputs are increased by 13.4 and 3.0 folds, and the displacement outputs are increased by 2.2 and 1.9 folds. Using an identical electrolyte matrix, water driven IPMC exhibits stronger electromechanical performance, benefiting to make IPMC actuator with high levels of force and power outputs, whereas IL driven IPMC exhibits a more stable electromechanical performance, benefiting to make long lifetime IPMC actuator in air. Thus, the resultant IPMCs are promising in the design of artificial muscles with tunable electromechanical performance for flexible actuators or displacement/vibration sensors at low cost.
Prophylactic pelvic irradiation as part of primary therapy in uterine sarcomas.
Venue: International journal of oncology
Year: 2008

In a complete geographic series of 155 cases of primary uterine sarcomas, prophylactic pelvic irradiation was used as standard postoperative therapy in the majority of the cases. Vaginal brachytherapy was also added as a boost. The histology was leiomyosarcoma in 62 cases (40% carcinosarcoma in 60 (39% endometrial stromal sarcoma in 25 (16% and other types in 8 cases (5% The primary surgery was extended hysterectomy in 11 cases (7% simple hysterectomy in 110 (71% and supravaginal hysterectomy in 12 (8% In 22 cases (14% no major surgery was possible. In the complete series, 62 recurrences (40% were recorded. Local (9% regional (9% and distant recurrences (28% were the most frequent. The type of surgery was associated with the risk of tumor recurrence. Extended surgery reduced the risk of local and regional recurrences. The 5 year overall survival rate was 42% and the recurrence free survival (RFS) was 37% The number of mitoses was significantly (P=0.007) associated with survival. The locoregional RFS rate was 75% for patients treated with adjuvant irradiation and 83% for patients treated with primary surgery alone. Serious late tissue reactions from the bladder and intestine occurred in 7% of the irradiated cases. The locoregional tumor control rate was high in this series of patients, but no significant difference was found between patients treated with surgery alone and surgery plus postoperative pelvic irradiation. This was true for all histological subtypes of the uterine sarcomas. However, this was not a randomized study and selection bias cannot be ruled out.
Self Adaptive Decentralized Monitoring in Software Defined Networks
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management
Year: 2018

The software defined networking (SDN) paradigm can allow network management solutions to automatically and frequently reconfigure network resources. When developing SDN based management architectures, it is of paramount importance to design a monitoring system that can provide timely and consistent updates to heterogeneous management applications. To support such applications operating with low latency requirements, the monitoring system should scale with increasing network size and provide precise network views with minimum overhead on the available resources. In this paper, we present a novel, self adaptive, decentralized framework for resource monitoring in SDN. Our framework enables accurate statistics to be collected with limited burden on the network resources. This is realized through a self tuning, adaptive monitoring mechanism that automatically adjusts its settings based on the traffic dynamics. We evaluate our proposal based on a realistic use case scenario, where a content distribution service and an on demand gaming platform are deployed within an ISP network. The results show that reduced monitoring latencies are obtained with the proposed framework, thus enabling shorter reconfiguration control loops. In addition, the proposed adaptive monitoring method achieves significant gain in terms of monitoring overhead, while preserving the performance of the services considered.
A kernel hat matrix based rejection criterion for outlier removal in support vector regression
Venue: 2009 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks
Year: 2009

In this paper, we propose a kernel hat matrix based learning stage for outlier removal. In particular, we show that the gaussian kernel hat matrix have very interesting discriminative properties under the condition of choosing appropriate values for kernel parameters. Thus, we develop a practical model selection criteria in order to well separate the "outlier" distribution from the "dominant" distribution. This learning stage, beforehand applied to the training data set, offers a new answer for down weighting outliers corrupting both the response and predictor variables in regression tasks. The application to simulated and real data shows the robustness of the proposed approach.
A multi perspective study on Artificial Intelligence in Education: grants, conferences, journals, software tools, institutions, and researchers
Venue: Comput. Educ. Artif. Intell.
Year: 2020

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and a continuously growing interest in their application in educational contexts, there has been significant growth in the scientific literature in relation to the application of AI in education (AIEd) This study aims to present multiple perspectives on the development of AIEd in terms of relevant grants, conferences, journals, software tools, article trends, top issues, institutions, and researchers to provide an overview of AIEd for its further development and implementation. With this study, we contribute to the research field by enabling educators and scholars to understand the status and development of relevant grants and publications concerning AIEd. Also, findings concerning active actors can help educators and scholars identify the active researchers and institutions in the research on AIEd. Furthermore, researchers and educators are able to identify relevant journals and be more aware of major issues in AIEd studies. In addition, we also highlight the significance and necessity of the launch of the new Elsevier journal AIEd related journal named Computers  Artificial Intelligence.
Psychomorbidity, Resilience, and Exacerbating and Protective Factors During the SARS CoV 2 Pandemic.
Venue: Deutsches Arzteblatt international
Year: 2020

The SARS CoV 2 pandemic has caused mental stress in a number of ways: overstrain of the health care system, lockdown of the economy, restricted opportunities for interpersonal contact and excursions outside the home and workplace, and quarantine measures where necessary. In this article, we provide an overview of psychological distress in the current pandemic, identifying protective factors and risk factors.  The PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for relevant publications (1 January 2019 16 April 2020)  Data on mental stress and resilience in Germany were obtained from three surveys carried out on more than 1000 participants each in the framework of the COSMO study (24 March, 31 March, and 21 April 2020) RESULTS 18 studies from China and India, with a total of 79 664 participants, revealed increased stress in the general population, with manifestations of depression and anxiety, post traumatic stress, and sleep disturbances. Stress was more marked among persons working in the health care sector. Risk factors for stress included patient contact, female sex, impaired health status, worry about family members and significant others, and poor sleep quality. Protective factors included being informed about the increasing number of persons who have recovered from COVID, social support, and a lower perceived infectious risk. The COSMO study, though based on an insufficiently representative population sample because of a low questionnaire return rate <20% revealed increased rates of despondency, loneliness, and hopelessness in the German population as compared to norm data, with no change in estimated resilience.  Stress factors associated with the current pandemic probably increase stress by causing anxiety and depression. Once the protective factors and risk factors have been identified, these can be used to develop psychosocial interventions. The informativeness of the results reported here is limited by the wide variety of instruments used to acquire data and by the insufficiently representative nature of the population samples.
COMEX: A cost management expert system
Venue: Expert Syst. Appl.
Year: 2010

Understanding and using cost management is a key to success in any type of organization, because it helps managers to collect important data about the costs assigned to products, services and customers and use it for planning and control function. This paper discusses development and application of an expert system for reasonable cost related decision making and continuous cost management process improvement. The system is called COMEX (cost management expert system) This paper also shows how COMEX can be used for improvement of the billing department business processes. COMEX relies on information generated using the activity based costing (ABC) method, accounting method based on activities, created to improve cost management system by focusing on the driver costs of individual activities. Still, this paper focuses on design and implementation of the COMEX system, and only briefly surveys the ABC method.
Collaborate or Compete? How Will Multiplayers' Interaction Affect Their Learning Performance in Serious Games
Venue: HCI
Year: 2019

Serious games have received much attention in the field of education because of its interactive and complex learning environment which involves many people, contexts, academic knowledge and learning outcomes. It is a topic of concern that how cooperative and competitive peer relationship would affects users' learning performance. This study aimed to design an online multiplayer serious game to explore the difference in learning outcomes among learners in one on one competition, one on one collaboration, and solo play. The preliminary findings suggested that participants performed better and were more satisfied within multiple player interaction modes, whether it be with collaborative partners or competitive opponents. The results of participants' flow state also supported that the existence of peers affected participants' learning experiences positively. Based on the findings of the study, practical suggestions for libraries and museums to introduce serious games to the fields were provided.
Application of Blockchain Technology in Online Education
Venue: iJET
Year: 2018

Blockchain is a data structure of data blocks arranged in chronological order. It is featured by decentralization, trustworthiness, data sharing, security, etc. It has been widely used in digital currency, smart contract, credit encryption and other fields. With the development of the Internet technology, online education, a novel education mode, has been greatly popularized. However, this education mode still faces many problems in course credibility, credit and certificate certification, stu dent privacy, and course sharing. Through literature review and case analysis, this paper discusses the basic technical principles and application features of blockchain technology, and proposes a solution to the problems of online educa tion based on blockchain technology. The blockchain technology can store learn ing records in a trusted, distributed manner, provide credible digital certificates, realize learning resource sharing with smart contract, and protect intellectual property through data encryption. The research shows that the integration of blockchain technology is a promising trend in the development of online educa tion.
Using WhatsApp to Create a Space of Language and Content for Students of International Relations
Year: 2017

For language learners of this generation, the smart phone represents a key cul tural artefact that complements the learning process. Instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp are widely used in personal, professional and, increasingly, academic circles to maintain constant contact among friends, colleagues, or classmates. This study seeks to analyze how a group of 19 International Relations students and their teacher utilized a WhatsApp chat group throughout their semester long English class. The group was conceived of as being an extension to a Community of Practice. On a basic level, the chat group was to be used as a shared space in which learners could practice their use of new phrases or vocabulary learned within the class in relation to real life issues connected to themes associated with International Relations. The space could also be interpreted as a virtual ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) in which learners were scaffolded by their teacher as well as their classmates. Finally, the group provided a space in which learners could engage dialogically and more openly in a truly collective, recip rocal, supportive, cumulative, and purposeful manner. This qualitative study analyzed both in teractions within the group and student re ections on its effectiveness, which served to indicate that such a group space can lead to effective learner scaffolding, increased learner participation, and the formation of an advantageous community of learners. doi: 10.5294/laclil.2017.10.1.4
The relationship between home based parental involvement, parental educational expectation and academic performance of middle school students in mainland China: A mediation analysis of cognitive ability
Year: 2019

As China continues to develop rapidly, Chinese parents are increasingly focused on their children's education. Previous research investigates the relationship between parental involvement and children's academic performance, in which home based involvement and parental educational expectations play an increasingly important role in secondary school. The secondary school years coincide with key changes in early adolescent development and are period of rapid cognitive development. As documented by previous research, individual cognitive ability is among the strongest contributors to academic performance. However, research on the relationship between these three variables parental involvement, academic performance and individual cognitive ability is rare. Therefore, we run an OLS regression and conduct mediation analysis using baseline data from the China Education Panel Survey to examine the association of home based parental involvement and parental educational expectations with academic performance and the mediation effect of cognitive ability. Our results show that educational expectations, tutoring, and homework supervision have the largest impact on student academic performance, while other forms of parental involvement are less influential. Using mediation analysis, we find the effect of parental involvement on academic performance is in part attributable to parental involvement's impact on student cognitive ability. Our findings can guide parents to make appropriate choices concerning their children's education and ultimately raise levels of human capital in Chinese society.
An Assessment of the Factors Causing Delays on Building Construction Projects in Uganda
Year: 2014

Building construction projects in Uganda's construction industry are experiencing a wide spread of delays. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors causing delays and their effects on building construction projects in Uganda. Eighty one (81) project delay attributes were identified through detailed literature review. Structured interviews and questionnaire survey were conducted across stakeholders that included among others; consultants, contractors and clients on four selected building projects to gather their views on causes of delay in delivery of projects. This research categorized the causes of delay under four main groups of consultant related, contractor related, client related and external related and then assessed their impacts on delay using relative importance index (RII) as a basis for analysis. The RII for all delay factors and group of categories was computed so as to rank the factors. The most significant factors of construction delays were identified as: (1) delay in assessing changes in the scope of work by the consultant; (2) financial indiscipline/dishonesty by the contractor; (3) inadequate contractor's experience; (4) design errors made by designers; (5) inadequate site investigation by the consultant. The study concluded that consultant related category had the highest impact (RII 0.745) followed by client related (RII 0.698) then contractor related (RII 0.697) and external related (RII 0.615) exhibited the least impact. Identification of the causes of potential delay factors that are likely to affect the timely delivery of projects can help to avoid extra costs through claims and disputes that arise among parties when delays are experienced.
Acceptance of a COVID 19 vaccine and associated factors among pregnant women in China: a multi center cross sectional study based on health belief model
Venue: Human vaccines immunotherapeutics
Year: 2021

Vaccine hesitancy has been recognized as an urgent public health issue. We aimed to explore the acceptance of a COVID 19 vaccine and related factors among pregnant women, a vulnerable population for vaccine preventable diseases.  A multi center cross sectional study among pregnant women was conducted in five provinces of mainland China from November 13 to 27, 2020. We collected sociodemographic characteristics, attitude, knowledge, and health beliefs on COVID 19 vaccination. Locally weighted scatterplot smoothing regression analysis was used to assess the trends of vaccination acceptance. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors related to vaccination acceptance.  Among the 1392 pregnant women, the acceptance rate of a COVID 19 vaccine were 77.4% (95%CI 75.1 79.5% In the multivariable regression model, the acceptance rate was associated with young age (aOR 1.87, 95% CI: 1.20 2.93) western region (aOR 2.73, 95% CI: 1.72 4.32) low level of education (aOR 2.49, 95% CI: 1.13 5.51) late pregnancy (aOR 1.49, 95% CI: 1.03 2.16) high knowledge score on COVID 19 (aOR 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01 1.10) high level of perceived susceptibility (aOR 2.18, 95% CI: 1.36 3.49) low level of perceived barriers (aOR 4.76, 95% CI: 2.23 10.18) high level of perceived benefit (aOR 2.18, 95% CI: 1.36 3.49) and high level of perceived cues to action (aOR 15.70, 95% CI: 8.28 29.80)  About one quarters of pregnant women have vaccine hesitancy. Our findings highlight that targeted and multipronged efforts are needed to build vaccine literacy and confidence to increase the acceptance of a COVID 19 vaccine during the COVID 19 pandemic, especially for vulnerable populations.
Exploring competency requirements towards superior managerial performance: A theoretical construct
Year: 2012

The purpose of this paper is to identify the broad work based competencies for executives, required to carry out a particular job as well as to distinguish superior from average performers. The paper reviews the employee based competencies and parameters in existing literature which explains the factors essential to improve efficiency and effectiveness of management executives in translating corporate values into meaningful performance objectives. This research revealed essential competency parameters which aids in driving individual and organizational performance. The paper improves understanding of the different competency parameters which are to be utilized to enhance the performance of executives in an organizational setup.
The Classification of Mammogram Using Convolutional Neural Network with Specific Image Preprocessing for Breast Cancer Detection
Venue: 2019 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data (ICAIBD)
Year: 2019

The incidence rate of breast cancer continued to rise in the last few decades. Current screening strategy of breast cancer is based on classic X ray imaging. The sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis are largely depend on the experiences of the radiologists, and uncertain diagnosis is quite frequent because of resolution limitations and the concerns of lawsuits arisen from wrong diagnosis or undetected lesions. The convolutional neural network is an effective technique for classification in deep learning model. In this study, we utilized median filter, contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization, and data augmentation to preprocess over 9,000 mammograms, and trained a classified model by using convolutional neural network. The experiment results demonstrated that the accuracy of model with preprocessed images significantly outperformed the model without preprocessed images.
Catch 'Em All and Let Man Sort 'Em Out: Animals and Extinction in the World of Pokemon GO
Year: 2018

As we enter what scientists are referring to as the 6th mass extinction of life on this planet, we increasingly find ourselves in a world without animals. Despite the disappearance of animals in the wake of such ecotastrophe, however, animals proliferate in the popular imaginary of the Anthropocene. This chapter argues that such proliferation conspires in another mode of disappearance through which animality is purged of monstrosity and habituated according to the ambit of human desire. In an attempt to articulate the double disappearance of animality, this essay attempts to engage with the worldwide phenomenon of Pokemon GO as it seemingly constitutes both an index of our contemporary relationship with nonhumans and a mode of responding to the threat of extinction in the Anthropocene era.