Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal bidding of plug-in electric vehicles in a market-based control setup

This paper presents a market-based control approach to minimize the charging costs of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) without impacting their end-use. In the proposed framework, vehicles are modeled as agents actively placing bids to purchase electricity in the spot market. Their bids depend on status variables which represent the urgency to charge. To ensure scalability, the bids of large numbers of PEVs are aggregated. Then, they are cleared with the remaining market supply and demand bids. In this paper we focus on determining the optimal bidding strategies of individual PEVs, taking into account the uncertainty related to market bids and to driving behavior. For this purpose, we formulate a learning process based on Q-learning, where each vehicle adapts its bidding strategy over time according to the market outcomes. We perform simulations with historical market bid data, and realistic vehicle driving patterns from an agent-based transport simulation. Results show that the costs of charging can be significantly reduced compared with an uncontrolled charging approach. Moreover, we compare the results with those of a centralized aggregator-based approach, where an aggregator directly manages charging and purchases electricity on behalf of PEVs on the spot market. We show that the results of the decentralized market-based control approach are just slightly higher than those of the centralized approach.
A derivation of the excess mean square error for affine projection algorithms using the condition number

This paper presents a numerical expression for the excess mean-square error (EMSE) of affine projection(AP) algorithms, and the expression is proportional to the data reuse factor and the condition number of the input data. For the condition number, a recently reported technique developed by using E-norm is adopted instead of L2-norm. The proposed expression offers an insight into the mechanics of the AP algorithm by including the condition number in the EMSE. Our simulation results show a relatively good match between the proposed expression and the practice.
A study of writing mechanisms in Spanish primary education children / Estudio de los mecanismos de escritura en niños españoles de Educación Primaria

Abstract Several studies performed on deep orthography systems reveal variables that influence writing latencies that occur over the course of learning. In transparent orthographies such as Spanish there are very few studies on writing that measure latencies and duration. The aim of this present study was to take a more in-depth look at knowledge of the writing mechanisms used by Spanish children in primary education, by studying the errors, latencies and duration of the writing of words. To do this, sixty children performed a copying task and a dictation task with regular words of different frequency and length. The obtained results show changes in the writing mechanisms used by the children as they became more expert, as indicated by the greater effect of word length in the first years of primary. This word length effect is a more determining factor with regard to the number of letters in words than for the number of syllables. These results hold important implications for the teaching of writing in Spanish.
Continuum modeling of implantation and thermal processes for advanced devices formation

Technology Computer-Aided Design is widely used for the development and optimization of advanced device formation. Ion implantation and thermal annealing are the main focus of dopant profile simulation for process technologies. In this paper, we review the current continuum modeling capabilities and calibration for ion implantation and thermal processes, including Monte Carlo ion implantation, co-implantation, amorphization, recrystallization, damage evolution, and dopant diffusion and activation. In addition, modeling of alternative doping techniques such as thermal implantation, plasma doping, and melt laser annealing will be addressed. Continuum front-end process simulation of Si-based devices including advanced CMOS, memory, power, and optoelectronic devices is considered to be mature. With the introduction of new channel materials, the models and calibration of alternative materials such as SiGe, Ge, and III-V are also required and their current status is discussed.
Can Structural Models Price Default Risk? New Evidence from Bond and Credit Derivative Markets

Using a set of structural models, we evaluate the price of default protection for a sample of US corporations. In contrast to previous evidence from corporate bond data, credit default swap (CDS) premia are not systematically underestimated. In fact, one of our studied models has little difficulty on average in predicting their level. For robustness, we perform the same exercise for bond spreads by the same issuers on the same trading date. As expected, bond spreads relative to the treasury curve are systematically underestimated. This is not the case when the swap curve is used as a benchmark, suggesting that previously documented underestimation results may be sensitive to the choice of risk-free rate.
The environments and clustering properties of 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey selected starburst galaxies

We investigate the environments and clustering properties of starburst galaxies selected from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) in order to determine which, if any, environmental factors play a role in triggering a starburst. We quantify the local environments, clustering properties and luminosity functions of our starburst galaxies and compare to random control samples. The starburst galaxies are also classified morphologically in terms of their broad Hubble type and evidence of tidal merger/interaction signatures. We find the starburst galaxies to be much less clustered on large (5-15 Mpc) scales compared to the overall 2dFGRS galaxy population. In terms of their environments, we find just over half of the starburst galaxies to reside in low to intermediate luminosity groups, and a further ∼30 per cent residing in the outskirts and infall regions of rich clusters. Their luminosity functions also differ significantly from that of the overall 2dFGRS galaxy population, with the sense of the difference being critically dependent on the way their star formation rates are measured. In terms of pin-pointing what might trigger the starburst, it would appear that factors relating to their local environment are most germane. Specifically, we find clear evidence that the presence of a near neighbour of comparable luminosity/mass within 20 kpc is likely to be important in triggering a starburst. We also find that a significant fraction (20-30 per cent) of the galaxies in our starburst samples have morphologies indicative of either an ongoing or a recent tidal interaction and/or merger. These findings notwithstanding, there remain a significant portion of starburst galaxies where such local environmental influences are not in any obvious way playing a triggering role, leading us to conclude that starbursts can also be internally driven.
Nocardia brasiliensis Infection Complicating Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia

Pulmonary nocardiosis is a severe and uncommon opportunistic infection caused by Nocardia species. We present a patient with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia who was receiving long-term immunosuppressive therapy, whose treatment course was complicated by cutaneous and pulmonary nocardiosis. Tissue cultures confirmed Nocardia brasiliensis. Nocardiosis should be a diagnostic consideration for patients treated with long-term immunosuppression who have worsening pulmonary symptoms and relapsing pustular skin lesions.
Assessing Situated Reading Motivations Across Content Areas: A Dynamic Literacy Motivation Instrument

While educators and researchers agree on the crucial role of literacy motivation for performance, research on methods for accurately assessing adolescent reading motivation is still uncommon. The most used reading motivation instruments do not attend to the multiple content areas in which adolescents read. The present study examines a new content-area sensitive measure of reading motivation. One hundred forty middle school students across content-area classrooms participated. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the factor structure of this measure, and associations among existing measures, social aspects of literacy events, and teacher-rated content-area reading performance were explored to examine the validity and utility of this measure for classroom practice. Educational implications include the potential for teachers to adapt instruction based on students’ content-area-specific reading motivations.
Evidence for two populations of Galactic globular clusters from the ratio of their half-mass to Jacobi radii

We investigate the ratio between the half-mass radii r(h) of Galactic globular clusters and their Jacobi radii r(J) given by the potential of the Milky Way and show that clusters with galactocentric distances R(GC) > 8 kpc fall into two distinct groups: one group of compact, tidally underfilling clusterswith r(h)/r(J) < 0.05 and another group of tidally filling clusters which have 0.1 < r(h)/r(J) < 0.3. We find no correlation between the membership of a particular cluster in one of these groups and its membership in the old or younger halo population. Based on the relaxation times and orbits of the clusters, we argue that compact clusters and most clusters in the inner Milky Way were born compact with half-mass radii r(h) < 1 pc. Some of the tidally filling clusters might have formed compact as well, but the majority likely formed with large half-mass radii. Galactic globular clusters therefore show a similar dichotomy as was recently found for globular clusters in dwarf galaxies and for young star clusters in the Milky Way. It seems likely that some of the tidally filling clusters are evolving along the main-sequence line of clusters recently discovered by Kupper et al. (2008) and are in the process of dissolution.
Hippocampal Involvement in Spatial and Working Memory: A Structural MRI Analysis of Patients with Unilateral Mesial Temporal Lobe Sclerosis

Forty-seven patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) were investigated on the Nine-Box Maze. The task was designed to compare working memory and spatial mapping theories of the functions of the hippocampus and provide measures of spatial, object, working, and reference memory. The results extended our previous findings in a larger group of patients. Spatial memory deficits across both working and reference memory conditions were found in patients with a right epileptogenic focus. There was no evidence of an object working memory deficit, but a nonlateralized impairment in object reference memory was revealed, which is consistent with our previous findings. The pattern of results was confirmed in a subgroup of 33 patients with unilateral atrophy localized to the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, as verified by volumetric analysis of magnetic resonance images. In addition spatial memory errors significantly correlated with volumetric measures of mesial temporal lobe structures and not with measures of the remaining temporal cortex. In contrast, object reference memory errors correlated with volumetric measures of the temporal cortex and not with mesial temporal lobe structures. These findings support a specialized role for the right hippocampal region in spatial memory.
Dynamics of Cooperation: At the Brink of Irrelevance

Alliances have become commonplace. This has led to a considerable number of academic and professional publications on alliances and, more recently, on the dynamics of cooperation. However, the body of knowledge on the dynamics of cooperation developed so far is characterized by fragmentation, lack of coherence and non-comparable research output. There is no consensus on paradigmatic beliefs, which hampers theoretical progress. As a result, there is what we call an academic gap. Moreover, the literature on the dynamics of cooperation often studies research questions that are irrelevant to managers' needs. As a consequence, there is also a managerial relevance gap. The emergence of these two gaps is primarily due to the choice of assumptions, the emphasis on originality, and the use of a variety of methodological approaches. Nevertheless, we believe it is still possible to reverse the trend and make the literature on the dynamics of cooperation more relevant.
Measuring Empathizing and Systemizing with a Large US Sample

A large number of people completed one of two versions of the empathizing quotient (EQ) and systemizing quotient (SQ). One version had the negatively phrased items all re-worded. These re-worded items were answered more rapidly than the original items, and for the SQ produced a more reliable scale. Subjects gave self-assessments of empathizing and systemizing, and these were moderately correlated, r≈. 6, with their respective quotients. Females had on average higher empathizing scores and males had on average higher systemizing scores. If a female-male pair was chosen at random, the female would have the higher empathizing score about two-thirds of the time, and the males would have the higher systemizing score about two-thirds of the time.
In Vivo–Activated Cd4 T Cells Upregulate Cxc Chemokine Receptor 5 and Reprogram Their Response to Lymphoid Chemokines

Migration of antigen-activated CD4 T cells to B cell areas of lymphoid tissues is important for mounting T cell–dependent antibody responses. Here we show that CXC chemokine receptor (CXCR)5, the receptor for B lymphocyte chemoattractant (BLC), is upregulated on antigen-specific CD4 T cells in vivo when animals are immunized under conditions that promote T cell migration to follicles. In situ hybridization of secondary follicles for BLC showed high expression in mantle zones and low expression in germinal centers. When tested directly ex vivo, CXCR5hi T cells exhibited a vigorous chemotactic response to BLC. At the same time, the CXCR5hi cells showed reduced responsiveness to the T zone chemokines, Epstein-Barr virus–induced molecule 1 (EBI-1) ligand chemokine (ELC) and secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine (SLC). After adoptive transfer, CXCR5hi CD4 T cells did not migrate to follicles, indicating that additional changes may occur after immunization that help direct T cells to follicles. To further explore whether T cells could acquire an intrinsic ability to migrate to follicles, CD4−CD8− double negative (DN) T cells from MRL-lpr mice were studied. These T cells normally accumulate within follicles of MRL-lpr mice. Upon transfer to wild-type recipients, DN T cells migrated to follicle proximal regions in all secondary lymphoid tissues. Taken together, our findings indicate that reprogramming of responsiveness to constitutively expressed lymphoid tissue chemokines plays an important role in T cell migration to the B cell compartment of lymphoid tissues.
Multiple minorities as multiply marginalized: Applying the minority stress theory to LGBTQ people of color

ABSTRACT The evidence is now overwhelming that discrimination negatively impacts both the physical and mental health of minority groups. Members of multiple-minority groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer people of color (LGBTQ-POC), are more likely to be exposed to experiences of stigmatization, discrimination, and fear of rejection. However, whether the stress of having these unfavorable experiences translates into increased risk for negative health outcomes is unanswered by the literature. Research to date attempts to address the relationship of stress as a minority and health outcomes through examining the role of microaggressions, exploring the concepts of risk and resilience, and most notably the creation of the minority stress model. The model analyzes the complex relationship between external (discrimination/prejudice) and internal (self-doubt/rumination) stressors that shape the experience of multiple-minority groups, which helps us understand the lived experiences of LGBTQ-POC. LGBTQ-POC are adversely affected by cumulative discrimination and social exclusion, including racism from the LGBTQ community, and homophobia and heterosexism within their racial/ethnic community. In this way, they are a multiply marginalized group, which has implications not only for their risk of mental illness, but also for their access to mental health care, and the quality of care they receive. Using the minority stress model as a frame of reference, we will discuss current approaches to capturing the toll that stress as an LGBTQ-POC has on mental health consequences.
Sums of twisted GL(2) L-functions over function fields

Let K be a function field of odd characteristic, and let π (resp.,η) be a cuspidal automorphic representation of GL2(AK ) (resp.,GL1(AK )). Then we show that a weighted sum of the twists of L (s, π) by quadratic charactersχD, ∑ D L(s, π ⊗ χD)a0(s, π, D) η(D) |D|, is a rational function and has a finite, nonabelian group of functional equations. A similar construction in the noncuspidal case gives a rational function of three variables. We specify the possible denominators and the degrees of the numerators of these rational functions. By rewriting this object as a multiple Dirichlet series, we also give a new description of the weight functions a 0( , π, D) originally considered by D. Bump, S. Friedberg, and J. Hoffstein. 0. Introduction Let π be an automorphic representation on GL 2(AK ), whereK is a number field. Then it is a remarkable fact that a weighted sum of the L-functions of quadratic twists of π , ∑ a0(s, π,n) L(s, π, χn) |n| , (0.1) is a meromorphic function of two complex variables and satisfies a group of functional equations. (The sum is best described as a sum over the quadratic twists χn at ached to divisorsn, as formulated by B. Fisher and S. Friedberg in [ FF].) Indeed, this was demonstrated by Friedberg and J. Hoffstein [ FH] using a Rankin-Selberg construction, following earlier work of Bump, Friedberg, and Hoffstein [ BFH1] – [BFH3] giving a different Rankin-Selberg construction. In this paper we present an entirely different way to understand and analyze the series (0.1). We use this method to establish the properties of (0.1) in the function field case, which are rather striking; moreover, the approach applies equally well in the number field case and leads to a substantial simplification of the argument of [ FH]. We also study a three-variable analogue of (0.1), whereπ on GL2(AK ) is replaced by(π1, π2) on GL1(AK )× GL1(AK ). DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL Vol. 117, No. 3, c © 2003 Received 6 February 2002. 2000Mathematics Subject Classification . Primary 11F66; Secondary 11F70, 11G20, 11M38. Friedberg’s research supported by National Science Foundation grant number DMS-9970118.
The efficacy of phenomenography as a cross-cultural methodology for educational research

ABSTRACT This paper demonstrates that the phenomenographic methodology – the study of variations of lived experience – has the capacity to manage cultural and paradigmatic differences between researchers and participants in cross-cultural research. The process of cross-cultural research presented herein makes a contribution to the existing body of knowledge about the efficacy of phenomenography. This process was developed from a phenomenographic research project in Northern Uganda and from due consideration of other cross-cultural phenomenographic studies. The study of experience in cross-cultural education projects provides an opportunity to understand participants’ conceptions of inner (psychological) and outer (sociocultural) learning processes. A phenomenographic methodology necessitates the organization of categories of description into a holistic ‘mental model’, which may comprise metaphoric representation. The use of metaphor in phenomenography to depict the categories of description as a whole was found to be particularly powerful in this cross-cultural research study as metaphor helped to establish common understandings between researchers and participants. Furthermore, phenomenography also has the potential to help manage the influences of internationalization in local contexts as its methods give primacy to local participants’ experiences.
Coming home to the arts: theatre with military veterans and families

Purpose A significant number of military veterans and family members are living with post-traumatic stress, unmet mental health needs and isolation. There is growing interest in the potential of theatre and the expressive arts as a positive intervention with this population. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Coming Home programme which aims to create opportunities for military veterans and families to develop an ongoing engagement with the arts and through that engagement to access new ways of regulating and expressing complex emotions. Design/methodology/approach This case study shares reflections from Re-Live’s current theatre programme, Coming Home. The programme methodology uses reflective writing, theatre and choral singing to develop participants wellbeing and reduce isolation. Findings Initial feedback suggests that this programme has significant potential as a way of reconnecting veterans and families with their community and improving their wellbeing. The emotional release of group singing and performing together has been powerful. Participants report that the Coming Home programme is connecting them with parts of themselves they thought had gone forever: humour, spontaneity, fun – and having a positive impact on their wellbeing. Originality/value This case study contributes to the literature from the exciting and emerging field of the use of the creative arts with military veterans and families.
The effect of Bikram yoga on arterial stiffness in young and older adults.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Bikram yoga is the most popular form of hot yoga, despite the limited information available on its cardiovascular benefits. This study sought to determine the effect of Bikram yoga on arterial stiffness and insulin resistance in young and older adults. METHODS Twenty-four young (mean age±standard deviation, 30±1 years) and 18 middle-aged and older (mean age, 53±2 years) adults completed an 8-week Bikram yoga intervention. Bikram yoga classes were performed for 90 minutes per session, three times per week, in a room heated to 40.5°C with 40%--60% relative humidity. RESULTS Body mass, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose and triglyceride concentrations did not significantly change as a result of the intervention in either the young or the older group. Trunk flexibility, as measured by the sit-and-reach test, increased in both groups (p<0.01). Total (p<0.05) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p<0.05) levels, plasma insulin concentrations (p<0.01), and scores on the homeostatic model of the assessment of insulin resistance (p<0.01) decreased in older adults, whereas total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were reduced in young adults (all p<0.05). Carotid artery compliance (p<0.05) was increased and β-stiffness index decreased in young (p<0.05) but not in older adults. Carotid pulse pressure did not significantly change in either group. CONCLUSION A relatively short-term Bikram yoga intervention improved arterial stiffness in young but not older adults and significantly reduced insulin resistance index in older but not young adults.
06 Index Session / Séance 28A Area-Normalized Thematic Views

Thematic variables are commonly used to encode additional information such as population density within the spatial layout of a map. Such «themes» are typically encoded using colour-maps. We will explore techniques for using this thematic information to directly define spatial transformations so that areas of map regions are proportional to their thematic variables, thus making the view more consistent with the thematic encodings. Our method emphasizes interactivity as a primary mechanism for allowing the user to better realize the distribution of the thematic variable, rather than relying on static views of the map.