Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental Identification of the Use of Hedges in the Simplification of Numerical Expressions

Numerical information is very common in all kinds of documents from newspapers and magazines to household bills and wage slips. However, many people find it difficult to understand, particularly people with poor education and disabilities. Sometimes numerical information is presented with hedges that modify the meaning. A numerical hedge is a word or phrase employed to indicate explicitly that some loss of precision has taken place (e.g., "around") and it may also indicate the direction of approximation (e.g., "more than"). This paper presents a study of the use of numerical hedges that is part of research investigating the process of rewriting difficult numerical expressions in simpler ways. We carried out a survey in which experts in numeracy were asked to simplify a range of proportion expressions and analysed the results to obtain guidelines for automating the simplification task.
Tratamiento del trastorno mixto de ansiedad y depresión: resultados de una investigación experimental

El objetivo de esta investigacion fue poner a prueba la eficacia diferencial de la terapia cognitivo-conductual en relacion con el tratamiento farmacologico estandar utilizado en los Centros de Salud Mental y con un tratamiento combinado (farmacologico + cognitivo-conductual) en pacientes diagnosticados segun los criterios del apendice del DSM-IV de trastorno mixto de ansiedad y depresion. Se asigno a 57 pacientes a una de estas tres condiciones: 1) tratamiento cognitivo-conductual; 2) tratamiento combinado (farmacologico mas cognitivo-conductual); y 3) grupo de control con tratamiento estandar de tipo farmacologico. Se utilizo un diseno experimental multigrupo con medidas repetidas en la evaluacion (pretratamiento, postratamiento y seguimientos de 3 y 6 meses). Un 70% de los pacientes tratados en los grupos experimentales experimentaron una mejoria significativa en el seguimiento de los 6 meses, sin diferencias entre las dos modalidades terapeuticas. Los sujetos del grupo de control apenas experimentaron mejorias significativas. Los resultados de este estudio apoyan la utilidad y el beneficio que proporcionan las tecnicas cognitivo-conductuales por si solas o, en algunos casos (segun el perfil de los pacientes), en combinacion con un tratamiento farmacologico. Por ultimo, se comentan algunos temas que pueden contribuir a las futuras investigaciones en este campo
Validating the result of a quantified Boolean formula (QBF) solver: theory and practice

Despite the increasing use of QBF solvers, current QBF solvers do not provide for any mechanism to verify their results. This paper demonstrates a methodology for independently validating the results of a DLL based QBF solver using the traces generated during the solving process. It also presents a mechanism to extract small unsatisfiable subformulas, called cores, from unsatisfiable QBF instances.
MoJo: a distance metric for software clusterings

The software clustering problem has attracted much attention recently, since it is an integral part of the process of reverse engineering large software systems. A key problem in this research is the difficulty in comparing different approaches in an objective fashion. In this paper, we present a metric, called MoJo (Move-Join), that can be used in evaluating the similarity of two different decompositions of a software system. Our metric calculates a distance between two partitions of the same set of software resources. We begin by introducing the model we use. Then we present a heuristic algorithm that calculates the distance in an efficient fashion. Finally, we discuss some experiments that showcase the performance of the algorithm and the effectiveness of the metric.
Assistive teleoperation of robot arms via automatic time-optimal mode switching

Assistive robotic arms are increasingly enabling users with upper extremity disabilities to perform activities of daily living on their own. However, the increased capability and dexterity of the arms also makes them harder to control with simple, low-dimensional interfaces like joy-sticks and sip-and-puff interfaces. A common technique to control a high-dimensional system like an arm with a low-dimensional input like a joystick is through switching between multiple control modes. However, our interviews with daily users of the Kinova JACO arm identified mode switching as a key problem, both in terms of time and cognitive load. We further confirmed objectively that mode switching consumes about 17.4% of execution time even for able-bodied users controlling the JACO. Our key insight is that using even a simple model of mode switching, like time optimality, and a simple intervention, like automatically switching modes, significantly improves user satisfaction.
Customer-Specific Taste Parameters and Mixed Logit: Households' Choice of Electricity Supplier

David Revelt and Kenneth Train. JEL#: C25, D12, L94. Keywords: energy suppliers, mixed logit, taste parameters In a discrete choice situation, information about the tastes of each sampled customer is inferred from estimates of the distribution of tastes in the population. First, maximum likelihood procedures are used to estimate the distribution of tastes in the population using the pooled data for all sampled customers. Then, the distribution of tastes of each sampled customer is derived conditional on the observed data for that customer and the estimated population distribution of tastes (accounting for uncertainty in the population estimates.) We apply the method to data on residential customers' choice among energy suppliers in conjoint-type experiments. The estimated distribution of tastes provides practical information that is useful for suppliers in designing their offers. The conditioning for individual customers is found to differentiate customers effectively for marketing purposes and to improve considerably the predictions in new situations. May 2000
The Erratic Luminosity Behavior of SAX J1808.4–3658 during Its 2000 Outburst

We report on the highly variable and erratic long-term X-ray luminosity behavior of the only known accretion-driven millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 during its 2000 outburst, as observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite. The maximum observed luminosity is ~2.5 × 1035 ergs s-1 (3-25 keV; for a distance of 2.5 kpc), which is approximately a factor of 10 lower than that observed during the 1996 and 1998 outbursts. Due to solar constraints, the source could not be observed for several months with RXTE before 2000 January 21. Therefore, the exact moment of the outburst onset is unknown, and the peak luminosity could have been significantly higher. On some occasions SAX J1808.4-3658 was observed with luminosities of ~1035 ergs s-1, but on other occasions it could not be detected with RXTE, resulting in typical upper limits of a few times 1033 ergs s-1 (3-25 keV). The nondetections of the source during its 2000 outburst obtained with the BeppoSAX satellite demonstrate that its luminosity was at times less than 1032 ergs s-1 (0.5-10 keV). However, only a few days after these BeppoSAX observations, we detected the source again with RXTE at high luminosities, giving a factor of greater than 1000 of luminosity swings in this systems on timescales of days. The last detection of SAX J1808.4-3658 with RXTE was on 2000 May 13, almost 4 months after the first detection during this outburst. Due to the lack of sensitivity and observations during the 1996 and 1998 outbursts, it cannot be excluded that after those outbursts the source remained active for months and that the source behavior during the 2000 outburst is not unique. Long duration activity at low luminosities has been observed in other transients (both neutron stars and black holes), although not with such extreme variability, which might point to a different origin for this behavior for the millisecond X-ray pulsar.
Large scale link based latent Dirichlet allocation for web document classification

In this paper we demonstrate the applicability of latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) for classifying large Web document collections. One of our main results is a novel influence model that gives a fully generative model of the document content taking linkage into account. In our setup, topics propagate along links in such a way that linked documents directly influence the words in the linking document. As another main contribution we develop LDA specific boosting of Gibbs samplers resulting in a significant speedup in our experiments. The inferred LDA model can be applied for classification as dimensionality reduction similarly to latent semantic indexing. In addition, the model yields link weights that can be applied in algorithms to process the Web graph; as an example we deploy LDA link weights in stacked graphical learning. By using Weka’s BayesNet classifier, in terms of the AUC of classification, we achieve 4% improvement over plain LDA with BayesNet and 18% over tf.idf with SVM. Our Gibbs sampling strategies yield about 5-10 times speedup with less than 1% decrease in accuracy in terms of likelihood and AUC of classification.
Savers, Spenders and Fiscal Policy in a Small Open Economy Savers, Spenders and Fiscal Policy in a Small Open Economy *

This paper extends the savers-spenders theory of Mankiw (2000) to analyze fiscal policy in a small open economy with endogenous labor supply. It is first shown that tax cuts have a short-run contractionary effect on domestic production, and increased public spending has a short-run expansionary effect. Although consistent with recent empirical work, this result contrasts with those of most other theoretical models. Transitory changes in demand have permanent real effects in our model, and we discuss the implications for real exchange rate dynamics. We also show how " rational " agents may magnify or dampen the responses of " irrational " agents, and discuss how, unlike in previous contributions, this is in our model purely a result of the shape of rational agents' utility functions. Public Economics Seminar, and our affiliated institutions for their helpful comments and suggestions. Matsen acknowledges financial support from the Research Council of Norway. The views expressed are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of Norges Bank.
Dry mergers: a crucial test for galaxy formation

We investigate the role that dry mergers play in the build-up of massive galaxies within the cold dark matter paradigm. Implementing an empirical shut-off mass scale for star formation, we find a nearly constant dry merger rate of ∼6 x 10 ―5 Mpc ―3 Gyr ―1 at z ≤ 1 and a steep decline at larger z. Less than half of these mergers are between two galaxies that are morphologically classified as early-types, and the other half is mostly between an early- and late-type galaxy. Latter are prime candidates for the origin of tidal features around red elliptical galaxies. The introduction of a transition mass scale for star formation has a strong impact on the evolution of galaxies, allowing them to grow above a characteristic mass scale of M *. c ∼ 6.3 x 10 10 M ⊙ ) by mergers only. As a consequence of this transition, we find that around M *,c, the fraction of 1:1 mergers is enhanced with respect to unequal mass major mergers. This suggests that it is possible to detect the existence of a transition mass scale by measuring the relative contribution of equal mass mergers to unequal mass mergers as a function of galaxy mass. The evolution of the high-mass end of the luminosity function is mainly driven by dry mergers at low z. We however find that only 10-20 per cent of galaxies more massive than M *,c experience dry major mergers within their last Gyr at any given redshift z ≤ 1.
Visual-Haptic Perception of Compliance: Fusion of Visual and Haptic Information

Visual-haptic compliance perception demands processing of haptic position and force information as well as visual position information. In this study it was analyzed how different compliances are perceived and how single modality estimates are combined to a visual-haptic percept of compliance. Participants estimated the compliance of a virtual cube displayed by a human system interface. Thereby, psychometric functions were recorded and statistically evaluated. Results indicated that human's ability to discriminate differences relative to a standard compliance decreased as the standard compliance increased. Furthermore, in the conflicting case participants' bimodal percept was close to the modality that captured the less compliant information.
Molecular Mechanistic Insights into the Endothelial Receptor Mediated Cytoadherence of Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Erythrocytes

Cytoadherence or sequestration is essential for the pathogenesis of the most virulent human malaria species, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). Similar to leukocyte-endothelium interaction in response to inflammation, cytoadherence of P. falciparum infected red blood cells (IRBCs) to endothelium occurs under physiological shear stresses in blood vessels and involves an array of molecule complexes which cooperate to form stable binding. Here, we applied single-molecule force spectroscopy technique to quantify the dynamic force spectra and characterize the intrinsic kinetic parameters for specific ligand-receptor interactions involving two endothelial receptor proteins: thrombospondin (TSP) and CD36. It was shown that CD36 mediated interaction was much more stable than that mediated by TSP at single molecule level, although TSP-IRBC interaction appeared stronger than CD36-IRBC interaction in the high pulling rate regime. This suggests that TSP-mediated interaction may initiate cell adhesion by capturing the fast flowing IRBCs whereas CD36 functions as the ‘holder’ for providing stable binding.
The Course Experience Questionnaire as an Institutional Performance Indicator

Data from the 1996 Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) were analysed using the Rasch measurement model. This analysis indicates that 17 of the 25 CEQ items fit a unitary scale that measures course quality as perceived by graduates. Graduates are located on the interval measurement scale produced in the Rasch analysis. The interval nature of the scale renders the graduates’ scores amenable to analyses that are not wisely employed using ordered raw CEQ scores. Analysis of variance indicates that variations in graduates’ responses are attributable to field of study and institutional factors. In order to compare universities, corrections are made for the course mix of each institution to produce expected institutional scores. These are compared with observed institutional scores to determine those universities that have performed above, at, or below expectation. (Individual institutions are not identified in this analysis). Important issues relating to the educational and statistical significance of the findings have emerged. The data collected through the CEQ do not represent a simple random sample of all graduates. Instead, the data model is a hierarchical one, with individual graduates nested within courses, which are nested within institutions. This requires analysis using multilevel analytical tools. Conventional analyses substantially underestimate the standard errors of aggregated measures (such as institutional means) and therefore report institutional differences as significant when they are not. The implications of the measurement and analytical problems for policy decisions over the distribution of funding among institutions and among courses within institutions are discussed. The Course Experience Questionnaire The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a survey instrument of 25 items that is posted to recent graduates of all Australian universities. It seeks to establish graduates’ perceptions of the quality of the courses that they have completed and its results are used to compare courses and institutions. Twenty-four items are statements representing views about five main aspects (clear goals, good teaching, appropriate assessment, generic skills, and appropriate workload) of the courses that graduates have recently completed. There is also a single summary item. Graduates are asked to express their opinions about their courses by indicating the extent of their agreement with these propositions by selecting one of the five response options from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
A tutorial introduction to adaptive fractal analysis

The authors present a tutorial description of adaptive fractal analysis (AFA). AFA utilizes an adaptive detrending algorithm to extract globally smooth trend signals from the data and then analyzes the scaling of the residuals to the fit as a function of the time scale at which the fit is computed. The authors present applications to synthetic mathematical signals to verify the accuracy of AFA and demonstrate the basic steps of the analysis. The authors then present results from applying AFA to time series from a cognitive psychology experiment on repeated estimation of durations of time to illustrate some of the complexities of real-world data. AFA shows promise in dealing with many types of signals, but like any fractal analysis method there are special challenges and considerations to take into account, such as determining the presence of linear scaling regions.
The diagnostic values of UCH-L1 in traumatic brain injury: A meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health concern. The purpose of this study is to identify the diagnostic accuracy of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1)—a protein biomarker—in comparison with CT-scan findings post-TBI. Accordingly, we conducted a systematic review of eligible studies and assessed the risk of bias according to the QUADAS-2 checklist. A total of 13 reports from 10 original studies were included. Based on our analysis, serum UCH-L1 has a high accuracy in predicting CT findings in mild to moderate TBI. Based on the QUADAS-2 checklist, this result has a high risk of bias affecting its applicability. The plasma level of UCH-L1 has moderate accuracy in predicting CT findings when assessed in all GCS levels. This result has a low risk of bias and low concerns regarding applicability. Pooled analysis suggests that the plasma/serum UCH-L1 level has high accuracy in predicting CT findings in a wide range of GCS in patients with TBI. This result has a high risk of bias and high concern about its applicability. The heterogeneity in approaching TBI biomarker interferes with drawing a definitive conclusion. Therefore, although UCH-L1 is a promising blood-based diagnostic biomarker for TBI, but due to differences in reported diagnostic accuracy, further studies are needed to recommend UCH-L1 as an alternative to CT scanning.
Industrial Growth in Kerala: Trends and Explanations

The study traces the trends in industrial growth against the backdrop of the overall economic growth in Kerala under the influence of the ongoing economic reforms and evaluates it against the performance of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and all-India. The analysis reveals that a phase of growth revival has set in the overall economy since the late eighties. Though the manufacturing industry has improved its growth performance over time, the growth rates recorded during the nineties are not higher than the corresponding figures for the eighties. The relatively low growth profile of the manufacturing industry, when the general economy is growing remarkably well, appears a riddle of the recent growth trends under the reform process in Kerala. It is argued that inadequate growth of investment has constrained the pace of modernisation of old units and establishment of new units based on `state-of-art' technology needed for the survival and growth of industries in a globally competitive environment. The study suggests that the lack of a clear and pragmatic approach of the state in its response to the reform process and a positive attitude in its own policies for encouraging private investment makes Kerala a less investor friendly location for manufacturing industry. It underlines the need for a new vision and strategy, which could fully utilise Kerala's comparative advantage in human resources, and place greater emphasis on developing knowledge-based and service industries, for accelerating the growth of income and employment in industry.
Growth and Survival Rate of Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) Larvae from Fertilized Eggs to Artificial Feeding

Fertilized eggs of Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) were brought from the Krasnodar Research Institute of Fisheries in 12.01. 2001 to the University of Istanbul, Fisheries Faculty, Sapanca Inland Water Fish Culture Research and Applied Station on January 13 th. 5 kg fertilized eggs were put on 13 plates (size of each plate; 65 x 40 x 15 cm). Fertilized eggs were incubated in waving system (model designed according to modified Yushenko apparatus) at 14-15°C by means of water paddles continuously in action. The mass hatching was completed in 7 days after fertilization. The larvae were taken from the moving plates and were put to the fibreglass rectangular tanks (2.9 x 0.2 x 0.4 m size). From 8 to 11 days post-hatching, the larvae were fed by Artemia nauplius five times a day. At this period, the gill filaments were clearly red and covered by the operculum, and the anal fins were shaped. Between 12-16 days post-hatching larvae had been fed with both Artemia and tubifex. Between 17-18 days post-hatching, the larvae fed with artemia, tubifex and artificial diets. The tubifex were minced before they were given to the larvae. 19-32 days post-hatching, tubifex and artificial diets were used. At the end of the feeding trial, sturgeon larvae had reached to 12 cm of length and 5.25 g of weight. During the 33-75 days, the larvae were fed by only commercial trout diets five times a day (containing 52% protein, 14% lipid and 13% ash; BioAqua, Turkey). The artificial granule feed size increased from 80 μm to 1200 μm parallel to the growth of the larvae size. At the end of 75 days, the survival rate of Russian sturgeon was 27%. During the first 7 days of incubation, mortality rate of fertilized eggs was approximately 69% of the total number.
Protection, Productivity and Pleasure in the Smart Home: Emerging Expectations and Gendered Insights from Australian Early Adopters

Interest and uptake of smart home technologies has been lower than anticipated, particularly among women. Reporting on an academic-industry partnership, we present findings from an ethnographic study with 31 Australian smart home early adopters. The paper analyses these households' experiences in relation to three concepts central to Intel's ambient computing vision for the home: protection, productivity and pleasure, or 'the 3Ps'. We find that protection is a form of caregiving; productivity provides 'small conveniences', energy savings and multi-tasking possibilities; and pleasure is derived from ambient and aesthetic features, and the joy of 'playing around' with tech. Our analysis identifies three design challenges and opportunities for the smart home: internal threats to household protection; feminine desires for the smart home; and increased 'digital housekeeping'. We conclude by suggesting how HCI designers can and should respond to these gendered challenges.