Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of controlled and dynamic process environments in group decision making: An exploratory study

Information systems have focussed on controlling the decision-making environment, whereas in real life groups operate in an uncontrolled, asynchronous environment. In this article, we examine existing information system research on groups, analyze the role played by the process environment on the quality of group decisions, and argue the need for the design and research into information systems for uncontrolled dynamic environments. The recent growth of the Internet and Internet-mediated simulations provide unique uncontrolled environments for group decision making. We recommend that researchers in information systems and in group decision making these Internet-mediated simulations for additional research in the area of decision making in uncontrolled dynamic environments.
Are current approaches sufficient for measuring software quality?

Numerous software quality studies have been performed over the past three years-mostly sponsored by the Rome Air Development Center. It is proposed by the author that more emphasis should be placed on devising and validating quantitative metrics that are indicative of the quality of software when it is being designed and coded. Such measures could be applied effectively, as relative guidelines without formal validation. However for such measures to be predictive of the quality of the delivered software, they must be validated with actual operational error data or data gathered in a simulated operational environment. This paper includes a review of proposed metrics from the literature a report of a Hughes intramodule metric study, and recommendations for refining proposed software quality assurance criteria.
The Role of Apelin in the Retina of Diabetic Rats

Purpose Apelin is a novel adipocytokine participating in diabetes, but its role in diabetic retinopathy (DR) is unknown. Our study aimed to investigate the effect of apelin on the proliferative potential in DR along with its antagonist inhibitory effects. Principal Findings Strong staining of apelin, co-localized with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was observed in the retina of diabetic rats. Apelin, GFAP, and VEGF mRNA and protein levels were significantly increased in the sample’s retinas. Moreover, exogenous apelin promoted retinal Müller cell proliferation in vivo. Simultaneously, apelin induced GFAP and VEGF expression. F13A markedly reduced retinal gliosis caused by diabetes. Furthermore, F13A suppressed both GFAP and VEGF expression in vivo. Significance Our results strongly suggest that apelin is associated with the development of DR and contributes to changes in the retinas of diabetic rats. Apelin induced promotion of cell proliferation lends support to the possibility that apelin may play a role in the progression of DR to a proliferative phase. This possible role deserves further investigation, which may offer new perspectives in the early prevention and treatment of DR.
ON OPTIMAL LINEAR ARRANGEMENTS OF TREES

Let G be an undirected graph with vertex set V(G) and edge set E(G) (see [2] for undefined graph theory terminology). A linear arrangement n of G is a one-to-one mapping from V(G) to the set of positive integers. The weight of an edge e = {u, u} in a linear arrangement 7c is defined to be the absolute value of z(u) n(v). The cost of the linear arrangement 7~ of G, denoted by J=(C), is defined to be:
Collaborative Augmented Reality in Education

Technological advances enable the use of innovative learning tools for education. This work gives a brief insight into the potential and challenges of using collaborative Augmented Reality (AR) in education within the greater context of immersive virtual learning environments. As an example the experiences made during the development of a collaborative AR application specifically designed for mathematics and geometry education called Construct3D are summarized. Construct3D is based on the mobile collaborative AR system “Studierstube”. We describe our efforts in developing a system for the improvement of spatial abilities and maximization of transfer of learning. Means of application and integration in mathematics and geometry education at high school as well as university level are being discussed. Anecdotal evidence supports our claim that Construct3D is easy to learn, encourages experimentation with geometric constructions and improves spatial skills.
A Search Model of Centralized and Decentralized Trade

This paper presents a search model of centralized and decentralized trade. In a centralized market, trades are intermediated by market makers at publicly posted bid–ask prices. In a decentralized market, traders search counterparties. Prices are negotiated and transactions are conducted in private meetings among traders. Traders can choose which market to enter. The determinants of bid–ask spreads and liquidity are analyzed. The welfare consequence of the market fragmentation is also analyzed. It is shown that compared to the competitive market-making, monopolistic market-making may improve social welfare. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
MDA5 Induces a Stronger Interferon Response than RIG-I to GCRV Infection through a Mechanism Involving the Phosphorylation and Dimerization of IRF3 and IRF7 in CIK Cells

Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) and melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) are critical cytosolic sensors that trigger the production of interferons (IFNs). Though their recognition functions are well identified, their unique roles in the downstream signal transduction remain to be elucidated. Herein, we report the differential effect between grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) MDA5 (CiMDA5) and CiRIG-I on the production of various IFNs upon grass carp reovirus (GCRV) infection in C. idella kidney (CIK) cell line. In CIK cells, grass carp IFN1 (CiIFN1) and CiIFN3 are relatively highly expressed while CiIFN2 and CiIFN4 are relatively slightly expressed. Following GCRV infection, CiMDA5 induces a more extensive type I IFN response than CiRIG-I. Further investigation reveals that both CiMDA5 and CiRIG-I facilitate the expression and total phosphorylation levels of grass carp IFN regulatory factor (IRF) 3 (CiIRF3) and CiIRF7 upon GCRV infection or poly(I:C) stimulation. However, the difference is that CiRIG-I decreases the threonine phosphorylation level of CiIRF7. As a consequence, CiMDA5 enhances the heterodimerization of CiIRF3 and CiIRF7 and homodimerization of CiIRF7, whereas CiRIG-I facilitates the heterodimerization but attenuates homodimerization of CiIRF7. Moreover, the present study suggests that CiIRF3 and CiIRF7 heterodimers and CiIRF7 homodimers are able to induce more extensive IFN-I responses than CiIRF3 homodimers under GCRV infection. Additionally, CiMDA5 induces a stronger type II IFN (IFN-II) response against GCRV infection than CiRIG-I. Collectively, these results demonstrate that CiMDA5 plays a more potent role than CiRIG-I in IFN response to GCRV infection through differentially regulating the phosphorylation and dimerization of CiIRF3 and CiIRF7.
Total dose testing of a CMOS charged particle spectrometer

A first-generation CMOS Charged Particle Spectrometer chip was designed at JPL for flight on the STRV-2 spacecraft. These devices will collect electron and proton spectra in low Earth orbit as part of an experiment to demonstrate Active Pixel Sensor (APS) technology in space. This paper presents the results of total dose testing on these chips and, where possible, attempts to extend the results to other Active Pixel Sensors.
Lung Cancer in Never Smokers: Clinical Epidemiology and Environmental Risk Factors

More than 161,000 lung cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States in 2008. Of these, an estimated 10 to 15% will be caused by factors other than active smoking, corresponding to 16,000 to 24,000 deaths annually. Thus lung cancer in never smokers would rank among the most common causes of cancer mortality in the United States if considered as a separate category. Slightly more than half of the lung cancers caused by factors other than active smoking occur in never smokers. As summarized in the accompanying article, lung cancers that occur in never smokers differ from those that occur in smokers in their molecular profile and response to targeted therapy. These recent laboratory and clinical observations highlight the importance of defining the genetic and environmental factors responsible for the development of lung cancer in never smokers. This article summarizes available data on the clinical epidemiology of lung cancer in never smokers, and several environmental risk factors that population-based research has implicated in the etiology of these cancers. Primary factors closely tied to lung cancer in never smokers include exposure to known and suspected carcinogens including radon, second-hand tobacco smoke, and other indoor air pollutants. Several other exposures have been implicated. However, a large fraction of lung cancers occurring in never smokers cannot be definitively associated with established environmental risk factors, highlighting the need for additional epidemiologic research in this area. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(18):5626–45)
Effect of physical therapy frequency on gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy

[Purpose] This study attempted to investigate the effect of physical therapy frequency based on neurodevelopmental therapy on gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy. [Subjects and Methods] The study sample included 161 children with cerebral palsy who attended a convalescent or rehabilitation center for disabled individuals or a special school for children with physical disabilities in South Korea. Gross Motor Function Measure data were collected according to physical therapy frequency based on neurodevelopmental therapy for a period of 1 year. [Results] The correlation between physical therapy frequency and Gross Motor Function Measure scores for crawling and kneeling, standing, walking, running and jumping, and rolling, and the Gross Motor Function Measure total score was significant. The differences in gross motor function according to physical therapy frequency were significant for crawling, kneeling, standing, and Gross Motor Function Measure total score. The differences in gross motor function according to frequency of physical therapy were significant for standing in Gross Motor Function Classification System Level V. [Conclusion] Intensive physical therapy was more effective for improving gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy. In particular, crawling and kneeling, and standing ability showed greater increases with intensive physical therapy.
Preconditioned Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics for Deep Neural Networks

Effective training of deep neural networks suffers from two main issues. The first is that the parameter space of these models exhibit pathological curvature. Recent methods address this problem by using adaptive preconditioning for Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD). These methods improve convergence by adapting to the local geometry of parameter space. A second issue is overfitting, which is typically addressed by early stopping. However, recent work has demonstrated that Bayesian model averaging mitigates this problem. The posterior can be sampled by using Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (SGLD). However, the rapidly changing curvature renders default SGLD methods inefficient. Here, we propose combining adaptive preconditioners with SGLD. In support of this idea, we give theoretical properties on asymptotic convergence and predictive risk. We also provide empirical results for Logistic Regression, Feedforward Neural Nets, and Convolutional Neural Nets, demonstrating that our preconditioned SGLD method gives state-of-the-art performance on these models.
Aboveground biomass and carbon in a South African mistbelt forest and the relationships with tree species diversity and forest structures

Biomass and carbon stocks are key information criteria to understand the role of forests in regulating global climate. However, for a bio-rich continent like Africa, ground-based measurements for accurate estimation of carbon are scarce, and the variables affecting the forest carbon are not well understood. Here, we present the first biomass study conducted in South Africa Mistbelt forests. Using data from a non-destructive sampling of 59 trees of four species, we (1) evaluated the accuracy of multispecies aboveground biomass (AGB) models, using predictors such as diameter at breast height (DBH), total height (H) and wood density; (2) estimated the amount of biomass and carbon stored in the aboveground compartment of Mistbelt forests and (3) explored the variation of aboveground carbon (AGC) in relation to tree species diversity and structural variables. We found significant effects of species on wood density and AGB. Among the candidate models, the model that incorporated DBH and H as a compound variable (DBH2 × H) was the best fitting. AGB and AGC values were highly variable across all plots, with average values of 358.1 Mg·ha−1 and 179.0 Mg·C·ha−1, respectively. Few species contributed 80% of AGC stock, probably as a result of selection effect. Stand basal area, basal area of the ten most important species and basal area of the largest trees were the most influencing variables. Tree species richness was also positively correlated with AGC, but the basal area of smaller trees was not. These results enable insights into the role of biodiversity in maintaining carbon storage and the possibilities for sustainable strategies for timber harvesting without risk of significant biomass decline.
Fakta Empirik Tentang Etos Kerja Islam, Stres Kerja, Kepuasan Kerja, dan Kinerja Akuntan pada Industri Keuangan Islam di Indonesia

Tujuan penelitian ini untuk memperoleh bukti empiris tentang pengaruh lingkungan beretos kerja Islam terhadap kepuasan kerja dan kinerja akuntan, dengan stres kerja sebagai variabel moderating. Populasi penelitian ini adalah profesi akuntan manajemen yang bekerja pada institusi keuangan berbasis Islam di Indonesia. Pemilihan sampel menggunakan metode purposive sampling. Data primer dikumpulkan menggunakan kuesioner. Pengujian data untuk menjawab hipotesis menggunakan metoda simple regression dan moderated regression Analysis. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bukti empiris antara lain: Pertama, etos kerja Islam berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan. Kedua, stres kerja dapat memoderasi pengaruh etos kerja Islam terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan. Ketiga, etos kerja Islam tidak berpengaruh terhadap kinerja akuntan. Terakhir, stres kerja tidak dapat memoderasi pengaruh etos kerja Islam terhadap kinerja akuntan. Hasil penelitian ini penting bagi para pimpinan organisasi khususnya bagian SDM sebagai salah satu referensi dalam melakukan pembinaan dan pemberdayaan pegawai untuk mencapai tujuan dan sasaran organisasi.
Fast Construction of Polar Codes

The construction of polar codes for channels other than BECs requires sorting of all bit channels and then selecting the best $K$ of them for a block length $N=2^n$. The sorting algorithms, be it density evolution or Tal-Vardy's algorithm, typically require intense computations. In this paper, two types of partial orders (PO) of polar codes are incorporated in the construction process to decrease the required computations. Three sets, corresponding to the good bit channels ($\mathcal{I}$), the frozen bit channels ($\mathcal{F}$), and the undetermined bit channels ($\mathcal{U}$), are selected by applying PO relations. A new process, called Dimension Reduction (DR), is proposed in this paper to further reduce the size of $\mathcal{U}$. Our studies show that for $N=10$ and the code rate $R=0.5$ (being the worst code rate), incorporating PO relations alone can determine 50\% of the bit channels ($|\mathcal{I}| + |\mathcal{F}| \approx N/2$), resulting in only 50\% of the sorting calculations. With our proposed DR, this number of the determined bit channels goes up to 75\%, which brings a significant reduction of computations in the construction of polar codes.
Structure and Star Formation in Galaxies out to z = 3: Evidence for Surface Density Dependent Evolution and Upsizing

We present an analysis of galaxies in the CDF-South. We find a tight relation to z = 3 between color and size at a given mass, with red galaxies being small, and blue galaxies being large. We show that the relation is driven by stellar surface density or inferred velocity dispersion: galaxies with high surface density are red and have low specific star formation rates, and galaxies with low surface density are blue and have high specific star formation rates. Surface density and inferred velocity dispersion are better correlated with specific star formation rate and color than stellar mass. Hence stellar mass by itself is not a good predictor of the star formation history of galaxies. In general, galaxies at a given surface density have higher specific star formation rates at higher redshift. Specifically, galaxies with a surface density of (1–3) × 109 M☉ kpc−2 are “red and dead” at low redshift, approximately 50% are forming stars at z = 1, and almost all are forming stars by z = 2. This provides direct additional evidence for the late evolution of galaxies onto the red sequence. The sizes of galaxies at a given mass evolve like 1/(1 + z)0.59 ± 0.10. Hence galaxies undergo significant upsizing in their history. The size evolution is fastest for the highest mass galaxies and quiescent galaxies. The persistence of the structural relations from z = 0 to z = 2.5, and the upsizing of galaxies imply that a relation analogous to the Hubble sequence exists out to z = 2.5, and possibly beyond. The star-forming galaxies at z ⩾ 1.5 are quite different from star-forming galaxies at z = 0, as they have likely very high gas fractions, and star formation timescales comparable to the orbital time.
Antioxidant Strategies and Respiratory Disease of the Preterm Newborn: An Update

Preterm newborns are challenged by an excessive oxidative burden, as a result of several perinatal stimuli, as intrauterine infections, resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, and postnatal complications, in the presence of immature antioxidant capacities. “Oxygen radical disease of neonatology” comprises a wide range of conditions sharing a common pathway of pathogenesis and includes bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and other main complications of prematurity. Antioxidant strategies may be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of oxidative stress- (OS-) related lung disease of the preterm newborn. Endotracheal supplementation or lung-targeted overexpression of superoxide dismutase was proved to reduce lung damage in several models; however, the supplementation in preterm newborn failed to reduce the risk of BPD, although long-term respiratory outcomes were improved. Also melatonin administration to small cohorts of preterm newborns suggested beneficial effects on lung OS. The possibility to identify single nucleotide polymorphism affecting the risk of BPD may help to identify specific populations with particularly high risk of OS-related diseases and may pose the basis for individually targeted treatments. Finally, surfactant replacement may lead to local anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, thanks to specific enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants naturally present in animal surfactants.
New Approach to Mixed Filtering for Polytopic Discrete-Time Systems

This paper revisits the problem of mixed filtering for polytopic discrete-time systems. Differing from pre- vious results in the quadratic framework, the filter design makes full use of the parameter-dependent stability idea: Not only is the filter dependent of the parameters (which are assumed to reside in a polytope and be measurable online), but in addition, the Lya- punov matrices are different for the entire polytope domain, as well as for different channels with respect to the mixed performances. These ideas are realized by introducing additional slack variables to the well-established performance conditions and by employing new bounding techniques, which results in a much less conserva- tive filter design method. A numerical example is presented to illus- trate the effectiveness and advantage of the developed filter design method. Index Terms—Discrete-time systems, linear matrix inequality, mixed filtering, polytopic systems.
Valuation of Multiple Exercise Options

Multiple exercise options may be considered as generalizations of American-style options as they provide the holder more than one exercise right. Examples of financial derivatives and real options with these properties have become more prevalent over the past decade and appear in sectors ranging from insurance to energy industries. Throughout the thesis particular attention is paid to swing options although the methods described are equally applicable to other types of multiple exercise options. This thesis presents two novel methods for pricing multiple exercise option by simulation; the forest of stochastic trees and the forest of stochastic meshes. The proposed methods are of particular use in cases where there is potentially a large number (≥3) of assets underlying the contract and/or if a number of risk factors are desirable for modelling the underlying price process. These valuation methods result in positivelyand negatively-biased estimators for the true option value. We prove the sign of the estimator bias and show that these estimators are consistent for the true option value. A confidence interval for the true option value is easily constructed. Examples confirm that the implementation of these methods is correct and consistent with the theoretical properties of the estimators. This thesis also explores in detail a number of methods meant to enhance the effectiveness of the proposed simulation methods. These include using high performance computing techniques which include both parallel computing techniques on CPU-clusters and General purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) that take advantage of relatively inexpensive processors. Additionally we explore bias-corrected estimators for the option values which attempt to estimate the bias introduced at each time step by the estimator and then subtract this result. These improvements are desirable due to the computationally intensive nature of both methods.
Cross-Cultural Communication: Saudi, Ukrainian, and Russian Students Online.

This paper describes a cross-cultural online writing project in which three English-as-a foreign language (EFL) college instructors in Ukraine, Russia and Saudi Arabia and their undergraduate students participated. The aim of the project was to develop students’ writing skills in EFL, to develop their awareness of local and global cultural issues and events, and develop their ability to communicate and interact with students from other cultures. Thirteen discussion threads, twenty external links, nine documents, three assignments, a photo gallery and Powerpoint presentations were posted in the Nicenet course-site. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the students’ messages and reactions are reported.
Diagnostic Colors Mediate Scene Recognition

In this research, we aim to ground scene recognition on information other than the identity of component objects. Specifically we seek to understand the structure of color cues that allows the express recognition of scene gists. Using the L*a*b* color space we examined the conditions under which chromatic cues concur with brightness to allow a viewer to recognize scenes at a glance. Using different methods, Experiments 1 and 2 tested the hypothesis that colors do contribute when they are diagnostic (i.e., predictive) of a scene category. Experiment 3 examined the structure of colored cues at different spatial scales that are responsible for the effects of color diagnosticity reported in Experiments 1 and 2. Together, the results suggest that colored blobs at a coarse spatial scale concur with luminance cues to form the relevant spatial layout that mediates express scene recognition.