Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Nosql Schema Evolution and Big Data Migration at Scale

—This paper explores scalable implementation strategies for carrying out lazy schema evolution in NoSQL data stores. For decades, schema evolution has been an evergreen in database research. Yet new challenges arise in the context of cloud-hosted data backends: With all database reads and writes charged by the provider, migrating the entire data instance eagerly into a new schema can be prohibitively expensive. Thus, lazy migration may be more cost-efficient, as legacy entities are only migrated in case they are actually accessed by the application. Related work has shown that the overhead of migrating data lazily is affordable when a single evolutionary change is carried out, such as adding a new property. In this paper, we focus on long-term schema evolution, where chains of pending schema evolution operations may have to be applied. Chains occur when legacy entities written several application releases back are finally accessed by the application. We discuss strategies for dealing with chains of evolution operations, in particular, the composition into a single, equivalent composite migration that performs the required version jump. Our experiments with MongoDB focus on scalable implementation strategies. Our lineup further compares the number of write operations, and thus, the operational costs of different data migration strategies. I. INTRODUCTION With agile development, applications evolve continuously. This clashes with the tradition of declaring a fixed database schema up front. Let us consider the example of an online role playing game, with player entities stored in the production data store. Even though the data store itself may be schema-flexible, the currently serving application code expects all player entities to adhere to a certain schema. Let us assume that the upcoming application release requires that all players carry a new property points. Since the schema is about to change, the issue of legacy players already stored in the data store, and still without a points property, needs to be addressed. Traditionally, data migration is carried out eagerly, upgrading all legacy players with the new property. Yet for applications that are clients of a database-as-a-service product, eager migration can be rather costly: Commonly, cloud providers charge for the amount of data stored, as well as for all physical
The Complexity of Social Coordination

Coordination is a challenging everyday task; just think of the last time you organized a party or a meeting involving several people. As a growing part of our social and professional life goes online, an opportunity for an improved coordination process arises. Recently, Gupta et al. proposed entangled queries as a declarative abstraction for data-driven coordination, where the difficulty of the coordination task is shifted from the user to the database. Unfortunately, evaluating entangled queries is very hard, and thus previous work considered only a restricted class of queries that satisfy safety (the coordination partners are fixed) and uniqueness (all queries need to be satisfied). In this paper we significantly extend the class of feasible entangled queries beyond uniqueness and safety. First, we show that we can simply drop uniqueness and still efficiently evaluate a set of safe entangled queries. Second, we show that as long as all users coordinate on the same set of attributes, we can give an efficient algorithm for coordination even if the set of queries does not satisfy safety. In an experimental evaluation we show that our algorithms are feasible for a wide spectrum of coordination scenarios.
Learning linear threshold functions in the presence of classification noise

I show that the linear threshold functions are polynomially learnable in the presence of classification noise, i.e., polynomial in <italic>n</italic>, 1/ε, 1/δ, and 1/&sgr;, where <italic>n</italic> is the number of Boolean attributes, ε and δ are the usual accuracy and confidence parameters, and &sgr; indicates the minimum distance of any example from the target hyperplane, which is assumed to be lower than the average distance of the examples from any hyperplane. This result is achieved by modifying the Perceptron algorithm—for each update, a weighted average of a sample of misclassified examples and a correction vector is added to the current weight vector. Similar modifications are shown for the Weighted Majority algorithm. The correction vector is simply the mean of the normalized examples. In the special case of Boolean threshold functions, the modified Perceptron algorithm performs <italic>O</italic> (<italic>n</italic><supscrpt>2</supscrpt>ε<supscrpt>−2</supscrpt> ) iterations over <italic>O</italic>(<italic>n</italic><supscrpt>4</supscrpt>ε<supscrpt> −2</supscrpt>ln(<italic>n</italic>/(δε))) examples. This improves on the previous classification-noise result of Angluin and Laird to a much larger concept class with a similar number of examples, but with multiple iterations over the examples.
Re/producing the global middle class: International Baccalaureate alumni at ‘world-class’ universities in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This research investigated educational pathways into a Global Middle Class characterised by professional or managerial careers and cosmopolitan sensibilities. The focus was International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) alumni with upper-middle-class backgrounds at ‘world-class’ universities in Hong Kong. The first objective was to investigate if and how the education of IBDP alumni at Hong Kong universities shapes self-perceptions of cosmopolitan sensibilities, university experiences, and economic futures. The second objective was to investigate how the IBDP and Hong Kong universities offer an educational pathway for the existing Global Middle Class to reproduce their social position and for local families to enter the Global Middle Class. Interview findings illuminated how cosmopolitan sensibilities meant that the students may be well-positioned for careers and lifestyles of the Global Middle Class. Nevertheless, there were paradoxes of cosmopolitan sensibilities as the students perceived a lack of belonging to their universities and a disconnection with the local society.
The lexical statistics of word recognition problems caused by L2 phonetic confusion

Phonemic confusions in L2 listening lead to three types of problem at the lexical level: inability to distinguish minimal pairs (e.g. write, light), spurious activation of embedded words (e.g. write in delighted) and delay in resolution of ambiguity (e.g. distinction between register and legislate at the sixth instead of the first phoneme) The statistics of each of these, computed from a 70,000+ word English lexicon backed by frequency statistics from a 17.9 million word corpus, establish that each causes substantial addded difficulty for L2 listeners.
Scope Management of Non-Functional Requirements

In order to meet commitments in software projects, a realistic assessment must be made of project scope. Such an assessment relies on the availability of knowledge on the user-defined project requirements and their effort estimates and priorities, as well as their risk. This knowledge enables analysts, managers and software engineers to identify the most significant requirements from the list of requirements initially defined by the user. In practice, this scope assessment is applied to the functional requirements (FRs) provided by users who are unaware of, or ignore, the non-functional requirements (NFRs). This paper presents ongoing research which aims at managing NFRs during the software development process. Establishing the relative priority of each NFR, and obtaining a rough estimate of the effort and risk associated with it, is integral to the software development process and to resource management. Our work extends the taxonomy of the NFR framework by integrating the concept of the "hardgoal". A functional size measure of NFRs is applied to facilitate the effort estimation process. The functional size measurement method we have chosen is COSMIC-FFP, which is theoretically sound and the de facto standard in the software industry.
Syntaxin 11 marks a distinct intracellular compartment recruited to the immunological synapse of NK cells to colocalize with cytotoxic granules

The syntaxin 11 (STX11) gene is mutated in a proportion of patients with familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL) and exocytosis of cytotoxic granules is impaired in STX11‐deficient NK cells. However, the subcellular localization, regulation of expression and molecular function of STX11 in NK cells and other cytotoxic lymphocytes remain unknown. Here we demonstrate that STX11 expression is strictly controlled by several mechanisms in a cell‐type‐specific manner and that the enzymatic activity of the proteasome is required for STX11 expression in NK cells. In resting NKL cells, STX11 was localized in the cation‐dependent mannose‐6‐phosphate receptor (CD‐M6PR)‐containing compartment, which was clearly distinct from cytotoxic granules or Rab27a‐expressing vesicles. These subcellular structures appeared to fuse at the contact area with NK‐sensitive target cells as demonstrated by partial colocalization of STX11 with perforin and Rab27a. Although STX11‐deficent allo‐specific cytotoxic T‐lymphocytes efficiently lysed target cells and released cytotoxic granules, they exhibited a significantly lower extent of spontaneous association of perforin with Rab27a as compared with STX11‐expressing T cells. Thus, our results suggest that STX11 promotes the fusion of Rab27a‐expressing vesicles with cytotoxic granules and reveal an additional level of complexity in the spatial/temporal segregation of subcellular structures participating in the process of granule‐mediated cytotoxicity.
Immunopotentiators Improve the Efficacy of Oil-Emulsion-Inactivated Avian Influenza Vaccine in Chickens, Ducks and Geese

Combination of CVCVA5 adjuvant and commercial avian influenza (AI) vaccine has been previously demonstrated to provide good protection against different AI viruses in chickens. In this study, we further investigated the protective immunity of CVCVA5-adjuvanted oil-emulsion inactivated AI vaccine in chickens, ducks and geese. Compared to the commercial H5 inactivated vaccine, the H5-CVCVA5 vaccine induced significantly higher titers of hemaglutinin inhibitory antibodies in three lines of broiler chickens and ducks, elongated the antibody persistence periods in geese, elevated the levels of cross serum neutralization antibody against different clade and subclade H5 AI viruses in chicken embryos. High levels of mucosal antibody were detected in chickens injected with the H5 or H9-CVCA5 vaccine. Furthermore, cellular immune response was markedly improved in terms of increasing the serum levels of cytokine interferon-γ and interleukine 4, promoting proliferation of splenocytes and upregulating cytotoxicity activity in both H5- and H9-CVCVA5 vaccinated chickens. Together, these results provide evidence that AI vaccines supplemented with CVCVA5 adjuvant is a promising approach for overcoming the limitation of vaccine strain specificity of protection.
Primary auditory cortex activation by visual speech: an fMRI study at 3 T

Recent studies have yielded contradictory evidence on whether visual speech perception (watching articulatory gestures) can activate the human primary auditory cortex. To circumvent confounds due to inter-individual anatomical variation, we defined our subjects' Heschl's gyri and assessed blood oxygenation-dependent signal changes at 3 T within this confined region during visual speech perception and observation of moving circles. Visual speech perception activated Heschl's gyri in nine subjects, with activation in seven of them extending to the area of primary auditory cortex. Activation was significantly stronger during visual speech perception than during observation of the moving circles. Further, a significant hemisphere by stimulus interaction occurred, suggesting left Heschl's gyrus specialization for visual speech processing.
Virtual restoration of vintage photographic prints affected by foxing and water blotches

We propose a new algorithm to digitally restore vintage photographic prints affected by foxing and water blotches. It semi- automatically recovers the defects utilizing the features of the stains. The restoration process enhances the residual image information still present in the area. It is composed of three different steps: in- painting, additive-multiplicative (A-M) modeling, and interpolation.
DISCRETE TORSION, ORBIFOLD ELLIPTIC GENERA, AND THE CHIRAL DE RHAM COMPLEX

Given a compact complex algebraic variety with an effective action of a finite group G, and a class � 2 H 2 (G,U(1)), we introduce an orbifold elliptic genus with discrete torsion �, denoted Ell �(X,G,q,y). We give an interpretation of this genus in terms of the chiral de Rham complex attached to the orbifold (X/G). If X is Calabi-Yau and G preserves the volume form, Ell �(X,G,q,y) is a weak Jacobi form. We also obtain a formula for the generating function of the elliptic genera of symmetric products with discrete torsion.
Activity-dependent Synaptic Wnt Release Regulates Hippocampal Long Term Potentiation*

Wnts are important for various developmental and oncogenic processes. Here we show that Wnt signaling functions at synapses in hippocampal neurons. Tetanic stimulations induce N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-dependent synaptic Wnt3a release, nuclear β-catenin accumulations, and the activation of Wnt target genes. Suppression of Wnt signaling impairs long term potentiation. Conversely, activation of Wnt signaling facilitates long term potentiation. These findings suggest that Wnt signaling plays a critical role in regulating synaptic plasticity.
Welfare effects of biofuel policies in the presence of environmental externalities and pre-existing distortions

Policy intervention in the biofuel market has led to a significant increase in biofuel production and use in the past several years. However, the welfare effect of biofuel policies, specifically the ethanol tax credit for corn ethanol, ethanol import tariff and renewable fuel standard (RFS) mandate has not been adequately examined. Moreover, the environmental impact of these policies, and their impact on fuel taxation has not been sufficiently addressed in the literature. This dissertation examines the market and welfare effects of biofuel policies in the US, specifically those relating to corn and sugarcane ethanol, with the aim of determining the welfare implications of existing policies, and designing second-best optimal policies. In measuring welfare effects, changes in social surplus, as well as environmental externalities are taken into account. In addition, the interaction of fuel and biofuel policies with the broader fiscal system is also considered. This dissertation consists of three papers. In the first paper, a stylized model of the US miles and fuel market, including ethanol trade is developed to quantify the market and welfare effects of biofuel policies in the US. In order to examine the effect of the ethanol tax credit and import tariff, several market scenarios are simulated. The market outcome with the two policies in place are compared to a non-intervention scenario, and an optimal baseline where Pigouvian taxes are levied on fuel and miles. Results show that the effect of the tax credit on social surplus is clearly negative, while the impact of the tariff depends on the ability of the US to influence ethanol prices in the world market. Numerical simulations show that the existing ethanol tax credit and import tariff increase miles externalities and GHG
The DES Science Verification weak lensing shear catalogues

We present weak lensing shear catalogues for 139 square degrees of data taken during the Science Verification (SV) time for the new Dark Energy Camera (DECam) being used for the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We describe our object selection, point spread function estimation and shear measurement procedures using two independent shear pipelines, IM3SHAPE and NGMIX, which produce catalogues of 2.12 million and 3.44 million galaxies respectively. We detail a set of null tests for the shear measurements and find that they pass the requirements for systematic errors at the level necessary for weak lensing science applications using the SV data. We also discuss some of the planned algorithmic improvements that will be necessary to produce sufficiently accurate shear catalogues for the full 5-year DES, which is expected to cover 5000 square degrees.
Adaptive Waveform Design for Improved Detection of Low-RCS Targets in Heavy Sea Clutter

The dynamic adaptation of waveforms for transmission by active radar has been facilitated by the availability of waveform-agile sensors. In this paper, we propose a method to employ waveform agility to improve the detection of low radar-cross section (RCS) targets on the ocean surface that present low signal-to-clutter ratios due to high sea states and low grazing angles. Employing the expectation-maximization algorithm to estimate the time-varying parameters for compound-Gaussian sea clutter, we develop a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) detector and identify a range bin of interest. The clutter estimates are then used to dynamically design a phase-modulated waveform that minimizes the out-of-bin clutter contributions to this range bin. A simulation based on parameters derived from real sea clutter data demonstrates that our approach provides around 10 dB improvement in detection performance over a nonadaptive system
FACTORS AFFECTING THE THAI NATURAL RUBBER MARKET EQUILIBRIUM: DEMAND AND SUPPLY RESPONSE ANALYSIS USING TWO-STAGE LEAST SQUARES APPROACH

Natural rubber is a major export crop and the sector is an important source of employment in Thailand. Very few rubber studies in the past have examined the demand and supply equations simultaneously and the previously results are dated. The objectives of this study was to estimate the econometric model of demand and supply of natural rubber in Thailand and determine if a relationship exists between the supply of rubber and its determinants. The data contained in the study are secondary time series annual data from 1977-2012. The instrumental variables estimation by two-stage least squares was used to solve and analyze the demand and supply of rubber. Results were statistically significant at 0.01 level, which showed that the U.S. GDP per capita, the estimated price, rainfall and rice price have a significant effect on quantity of rubber production in Thailand with an estimated elasticity of 1.4, 3.3, -3.6 and -2.6, respectively. The implications of the results are assessed through the lens of rubber producers, rubber consumers and agricultural policy makers.
The Measurement of Strategic Orientation and Its Efficacy In Predicting Financial Performance

For decades, the strategic management literature has recognized strategicorientation as an important cultural attribute in the investigation of the link betweenorganizational culture and firm performance. Using three studies, we develop a surveymeasure of strategic orientation that is unidimensional, reliable, and predictiveof financial performance. Our final study uses a sample of 779 respondents from 20companies and empirically demonstrates a positive relationship between strategicorientation and firm performance. Our results support the notion that managersshould both encourage and support behaviors and execute actions that are consistentwith our measure of strategic orientation to create a coherent strategic approach,resulting in improved financial performance.
Dynamic Legislative Bargaining with Veto Power

In many domains, committees bargain over a sequence of policies and a policy remains in effect until a new agreement is reached. In this paper, I argue that, in order to assess the consequences of veto power, it is important to take into account this dynamic aspect. I analyze an infinitely repeated divide-the-dollar game with an endogenous status quo policy. I show that, irrespective of legislators' patience, the initial division of resources policy eventually gets arbitrarily close to full appropriation by the veto player; that increasing legislators' patience or decreasing the veto player's ability to set the agenda makes convergence to this outcome slower and the power to veto less valuable; and that the veto player supports reforms that decrease his allocation. These results stand in sharp contrast to the properties of models where committees bargain over a single policy.
ROAD SAFETY MASS MEDIA CAMPAIGNS: A META ANALYSIS

This report details the use of a scientific approach to synthesize the results of a large number (87) of evaluated road safety mass media campaigns. The approach adopted involved the use of meta analysis techniques which provides a means of reconciling conflicting findings and allows for a more rigorous approach to synthesis by statistically attempting to develop generalisations across all categories of interest. The analysis found that the average impact across all campaigns and all outcome measures combined (awareness, knowledge, attitudes, behaviour) was 7.56% (i.e. a campaign is expected to achieve an improvement of 7.56% on the pre campaign measure). A range of other key findings relating to the effectiveness of various campaign types and strategies is also documented. It is hoped that the findings from this study can be used to encourage new mass media campaigns to be developed on the basis of the lessons learnt from previous campaigns. (a)
A Fast and Symmetric DUST Implementation to Mask Low-Complexity DNA Sequences

The DUST module has been used within BLAST for many years to mask low-complexity sequences. In this paper, we present a new implementation of the DUST module that uses the same function to assign a complexity score to a sequence, but uses a different rule by which high-scoring sequences are masked. The new rule masks every nucleotide masked by the old rule and occasionally masks more. The new masking rule corrects two related deficiencies with the old rule. First, the new rule is symmetric with respect to reversing the sequence. Second, the new rule is not context sensitive; the decision to mask a subsequence does not depend on what sequences flank it. The new implementation is at least four times faster than the old on the human genome. We show that both the percentage of additional bases masked and the effect on MegaBLAST outputs are very small.