Using digital pens to expedite the marking procedure

This is the Post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 Inderscience PublishersDigital pens have been introduced over the last six years and have demonstrated that they can be used effectively for collecting, processing and storing data. These properties make them ideal for use in education, particularly in the marking procedure of multiple-choice questions (MCQ). In this report, we present a system that was designed to expedite the marking procedure of MCQ, for use at any educational level. The main element of the system is a digital pen, i.e. given to the students prior to the examination. On return of the pen, the system immediately recognises the students' answers and produces their results. In this specific research, four groups of students were studied and a variety of data were collected, concerning issues, such as accuracy, time gained by the use of the system and the impressions of the students. The pedagogic value of the use of the system is also presented

A Fast Compiler for NetKAT

High-level programming languages play a key role in a growing number of networking platforms, streamlining application development and enabling precise formal reasoning about network behavior. Unfortunately, current compilers only handle "local" programs that specify behavior in terms of hop-by-hop forwarding behavior, or modest extensions such as simple paths. To encode richer "global" behaviors, programmers must add extra state -- something that is tricky to get right and makes programs harder to write and maintain. Making matters worse, existing compilers can take tens of minutes to generate the forwarding state for the network, even on relatively small inputs. This forces programmers to waste time working around performance issues or even revert to using hardware-level APIs. This paper presents a new compiler for the NetKAT language that handles rich features including regular paths and virtual networks, and yet is several orders of magnitude faster than previous compilers. The compiler uses symbolic automata to calculate the extra state needed to implement "global" programs, and an intermediate representation based on binary decision diagrams to dramatically improve performance. We describe the design and implementation of three essential compiler stages: from virtual programs (which specify behavior in terms of virtual topologies) to global programs (which specify network-wide behavior in terms of physical topologies), from global programs to local programs (which specify behavior in terms of single-switch behavior), and from local programs to hardware-level forwarding tables. We present results from experiments on real-world benchmarks that quantify performance in terms of compilation time and forwarding table size

ADsafety: Type-Based Verification of JavaScript Sandboxing

Web sites routinely incorporate JavaScript programs from several sources into a single page. These sources must be protected from one another, which requires robust sandboxing. The many entry-points of sandboxes and the subtleties of JavaScript demand robust verification of the actual sandbox source. We use a novel type system for JavaScript to encode and verify sandboxing properties. The resulting verifier is lightweight and efficient, and operates on actual source. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique by applying it to ADsafe, which revealed several bugs and other weaknesses.Comment: in Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium (2011

A POPULATION STUDY TO IDENTIFY FRACTURE RISK IN LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

BACKGROUND: Fractures are in most cases treated by Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments and they have a substantial financial impact on health budgets. The epidemiology of fractures in the Liverpool city region has not been systematically investigated in recent years. This study aims to address this issue by providing valuable data that could aid in the design of fracture prevention strategies. METHODS: Population fracture data was collected by the Liverpool Primary Care Trust between February 2009 and July 2010, accounting for the majority of fractures registered in the city. The data was sorted by type, age, sex and upper/lower body in order to observe patterns in different groups. RESULTS: The data highlighted a significant difference between the sexes where anatomical sites varied greatly. Females suffer from fractures of the femur and the arm bones in a higher frequency, while males exhibit their highest fracture rates in the femur, lower arm and hand and craniofacial regions. Women also tend to have fractures later in life while most men fracture bones earlier. CONCLUSION: This finding corresponds with numerous sources in the medical literature. The present work supports the development of strategies designed to reduce fractures in specific age groups

Philosophical studies as a precondition for an education of humanism and critical thinking in the university (Філософська освіта як передумова для навчання гуманізму і критичного мислення в університеті)

Modern universities are imbued by Aristotelian reason: there is the natural world and we who can explain it, knowledge is feasible, and everything has an end, nothing goes on infinitely. This is the basic understanding of their endeavor. The second basic understanding of their endeavor is the influence of the industrial world and of the liberalization of knowledge. In the meantime, practical sciences turn to be in the highlight. Philosophical studies, to bring a major example in the humanities, are considered as unnecessary among this torrent of practical and very handy sciences which know how to best invest the attributed funds. Nonetheless, Philosophy still comprises a major precondition or an education of humanism and for an education of critical thinking in the university as well as in other levels of education. Thus, Philosophy is by far the most practical and pragmatic science of all. On a level of principles when it comes to collective life, such as the life of education is, it is permissible to violate or alter these principles when this action provides us with the capability to move on to a better level of principles, not just to a different one. Philosophy, with its emphasis on the scientific method, on epistemology, on the ethical approach to every human action, to mention only a few of its functional parameters, brings better principles, principles that need to be employed in order for our species to continue to be able to reinstate our collective as well as individual thinking protocols. (Сучасні університети пронизані Арістотелівськими ідеями: існує природний світ і ми, хто може його пояснити, знання може стати реальністю, все має кінець, нічого не відбувається нескінченно. Це основне розуміння їх діяльності. Друге основне розуміння їх діяльності пов’язане із впливом індустріального світу і лібералізації знань. Водночас практичні науки виявляються в центрі уваги. Філософські дослідження, якщо подати яскравий приклад зі сфери гуманітарних науках, вважають непотрібними серед цього потоку практичних і дуже корисних наук, які знають, як краще інвестувати кошти та використати ресурси. Проте філософія як і раніше містить у собі основну передумову для навчання гуманізму і для формування критичного мислення в університеті, а також на інших рівнях освіти. Таким чином, філософія, безумовно, є найбільш практичною і прагматичною наукою серед усіх. На рівні принципів, коли йдеться про колективне життя, таке як освіта, допустимо порушувати або змінювати ці принципи, коли ця дія дає нам можливість перейти на більш високий рівень принципів, а не тільки якийсь інший. Філософія, з її акцентом на науковий метод, епістемологію, етичний підхід до кожної людської дії, якщо згадати лише деякі з її функціональних параметрів, творить кращі принципи, які повинні бути використані для того, щоб наш людський вид продовжував бути в змозі відновити наш колектив, а також окремі способи мислення.

Assessing Size and Strength of the Clavicle for its usefulness for Sex Estimation in a British Medieval Sample.

The construction of the biological profile from human skeletal remains is the foundation of anthropological examination. However, remains may be fragmentary and the elements usually employed, such as the pelvis and skull, are not available. The clavicle has been successfully used for sex estimation in samples from Iran and Greece. In the present study the aim was to test the suitability of the measurements used in those previous studies on a British Medieval population. In addition, the project tested whether discrimination between sexes was due to size or clavicular strength. The sample consisted of 23 females and 25 males of pre-determined sex from two medieval collections: Poulton and Gloucester. Six measurements were taken using an osteometric board, sliding callipers and graduate tape. In addition, putty rings and bi-planar radiographs were made and robusticity measures calculated. The resulting variables were used in stepwise discriminant analyses. The linear measurements allowed correct sex classification in 89.6% of all individuals. This demonstrates the applicability of the clavicle for sex estimation in British populations. The most powerful discriminant factor was maximum clavicular length and the best combination of factors was maximum clavicular length and circumference. This result is similar to that obtained by other studies. To further investigate the extent of sexual dimorphism of the clavicle, the biomechanical properties of the polar second moment of area J and the ratio of maximum to minimum bending rigidity are included in the analysis. These were found to have little influence when entered into the discriminant function analysis

Exploring sex differences in diets and activity patterns through dental and skeletal studies in populations from ancient Corinth, Greece.

Sex and temporal differences are assessed in relation to dietary habits and activity patterns in three ancient populations from Corinth, Greece. The skeletal sample spans time from the Geometric to the Early Byzantine Period (9th c. BCE-5th c. CE). Dental caries and tooth wear have been proven to be reliable dietary indicators. Similarly, spinal osteoarthritis, spinal facet remodeling and Schmorl's nodes, have been used to infer activity patterns

Sharp Force Trauma Death in a Young Individual From Medieval Gloucester.

The authors of the present work evaluate the trauma observed on the skeletal remains of an individual from medieval Gloucester and reconstruct the events that led to his death. The almost complete skeleton was recovered from the cemetery of St Owen and dates to the late medieval period. Several methods were used to determine the sex and age of the individual. The anthropological examination showed that the remains belonged to a young male, between the ages of 17 and 19 years. The young man also had antemortem pathologies that were related to his diet and lifestyle, as he appears to have had iron-deficiency anemia and Schmorl nodes. The trauma observed on the remains consisted of 3 cut marks located on the cranium, left radius, and right scapula. The cuts seem to have been inflicted by a heavy weapon, such as a sword. The trauma pattern observed is consistent with defensive action, and the fact that this skeleton was the only one in the collection that has evidence of trauma suggests that this was a case of interpersonal violence

A Splicing Mutation in the Novel Mitochondrial Protein DNAJC11 Causes Motor Neuron Pathology Associated with Cristae Disorganization, and Lymphoid Abnormalities in Mice

Mitochondrial structure and function is emerging as a major contributor to neuromuscular disease, highlighting the need for the complete elucidation of the underlying molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms. Following a forward genetics approach with N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-mediated random mutagenesis, we identified a novel mouse model of autosomal recessive neuromuscular disease caused by a splice-site hypomorphic mutation in a novel gene of unknown function, DnaJC11. Recent findings have demonstrated that DNAJC11 protein co-immunoprecipitates with proteins of the mitochondrial contact site (MICOS) complex involved in the formation of mitochondrial cristae and cristae junctions. Homozygous mutant mice developed locomotion defects, muscle weakness, spasticity, limb tremor, leucopenia, thymic and splenic hypoplasia, general wasting and early lethality. Neuropathological analysis showed severe vacuolation of the motor neurons in the spinal cord, originating from dilatations of the endoplasmic reticulum and notably from mitochondria that had lost their proper inner membrane organization. The causal role of the identified mutation in DnaJC11 was verified in rescue experiments by overexpressing the human ortholog. The full length 63 kDa isoform of human DNAJC11 was shown to localize in the periphery of the mitochondrial outer membrane whereas putative additional isoforms displayed differential submitochondrial localization. Moreover, we showed that DNAJC11 is assembled in a high molecular weight complex, similarly to mitofilin and that downregulation of mitofilin or SAM50 affected the levels of DNAJC11 in HeLa cells. Our findings provide the first mouse mutant for a putative MICOS protein and establish a link between DNAJC11 and neuromuscular diseases

An anthropometric method for sex determination from the mandible: test on British Medieval skeletal collections

Sex determination is a vital part of the analysis of skeletal remains and the creation of biological profiles that aid in identification. The pelvis and skull are the regions usually employed by anthropologists and produce very good results. However, the mandible, being a very durable bone and frequently preserved has not received the attention that other skeletal elements have. There are some morphological methods for sexing the mandible, however metrics are considered to be more objective and easier to replicate. This study uses the measurements of the bimental breadth and the corpus thickness of the mandible. Univariate and multivariate analysis was carried out to create discriminant function equations. These equations can be used to sex a mandible with overall accuracy rates as high as 77.3%. The results of the present research are similar to those of other studies and indicate that mandibular metrics can be relied upon for sex determination, especially in cases where other elements are not preserved