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This study examines whether Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) of lightweight, free, and open-licensed Large Language Models (LLMs) can yield tutoring assistants for introductory circuit analysis methods, while fitting the students' needs. We analyzed 260 Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) exam responses to classify and quantify frequent students' mistakes when applying the Loop Current Method (LCM). Only 28.5% solved the target problem without error, and most difficulties were conceptual (e.g., miscounting the number of independent Kirchhoff's Voltage Law (KVL) equations). Driven by this taxonomy, we assembled official course materials and curated a bilingual (Portuguese-English) pedagogical dataset. Using GTP-4o for distillation, we generated question-answer (QA) pairs for fine-tuning smaller models (Meta Llama 3.2 1B and 3.1 8B), via Quantized Low-Rank Adaptation (QLoRA) on a single commodity GPU, with an end-to-end pipeline completing in under 7 min. A blind study involving 77 first-year ECE students evaluated responses to (never seen) questions from both our tuned models and GPT-4.5, rating correctness, clarity, educational value, task coverage, and style. The 8B model scored within one point (5-point Likert) of GPT-4.5 model and both 1B and 8B were consistently preferred over untuned baseline versions for clarity and task coverage. As a complementary cross-check, 12 higher education senior professors independently evaluated model responses, largely corroborating the student-based rankings. These results provide evidence that carefully curated documents introducing electrical circuit theory, combined with smaller models optimized with PEFT, namely QLoRA, can be used in the construction of a always-available tutoring application. The proposed system features modest cost, runs on consumer-grade hardware, and paves the way for deployable front-end applications that do not involve possibly expensive, resource-hungry, remote machines.

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This paper focuses on the comprehensive assessment of regional performance in attaining the 2030 Strategic Framework for Education and Training (ET2030) established by the European Union. To this end, we propose a composite indicator framework based on robust Benefit-of-the-doubt models empirically validated through an extensive analysis of data spanning 32 countries and 101 NUTS-I level regions for 2019. We integrate contextual variables into a robust conditional model to ensure an equitable evaluation among regions grappling with distinct circumstances. Specifically, the unemployment rate and the percentage of the population holding national citizenship are considered. Moreover, the research identifies best practices from high-performing regions that can serve as benchmarks for underperforming areas. Analyzing regional-level data is crucial for understanding disparities between European regions and within countries.

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Our team previously introduced an innovative concept for an "invisible" Electrocardiography (ECG) system, incorporating electrodes and sensors into a toilet seat design to enable signal acquisition from the thighs. Building upon that work, we now present a novel dataset featuring real-world, single-lead ECG signals captured at the thighs, offering a valuable resource for advancing research on thigh-based ECG for cardiovascular disease assessment. To our knowledge, this is the first dataset of its kind. The tOLIet dataset comprises 149 ECG recordings collected from 86 individuals (50 females, 36 males) with an average age of 31.73 ± 13.11 years, a mean weight of 66.89 ± 10.70 kg, and an average height of 166.82 ± 6.07 cm. Participants were recruited through direct contact with the Principal Investigator at Centro Hospitalar Universitario de Lisboa Central (CHULC) and via clinical consultations conducted at the same institution. Each recording includes four differential signals acquired from electrode pairs embedded in the toilet seat, with reference signals obtained from a standard 12-lead hospital ECG system.