Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parameter Estimation for Relational Kalman Filtering

The Kalman Filter (KF) is pervasively used to control a vast array of consumer, health and defense products. By grouping sets of symmetric state variables, the Relational Kalman Filter (RKF) enables to scale the exact KF for large-scale dynamic systems. In this paper, we provide a parameter learning algorithm for RKF, and a regrouping algorithm that prevents the degeneration of the relational structure for efficient filtering. The proposed algorithms significantly expand the applicability of the RKFs by solving the following questions: (1) how to learn parameters for RKF in partial observations; and (2) how to regroup the degenerated state variables by noisy real-world observations. We show that our new algorithms improve the efficiency of filtering the large-scale dynamic system.
Analysis of student’s geometry reasoning ability at senior high school

Each student possesses different levels of reasoning. This difference depends on students’ reasoning ability such as observing patterns, formulating conjecture, testing conjecture, constructing arguments, and describing logical conclusions. This study aims to analyze students’ reasoning ability. The students’ reasoning analysis ability play significant role assisting the teachers to improve students’ reasoning, especially in geometric reasoning ability. This study is a qualitative descriptive research on students of high school level. The subjects used in this study were 30 students of grade XI. The results showed that students’ geometrical reasoning abilities were still relatively low. Students remains having difficulties in understanding of how to formulate guesses, establish and assess mathematical arguments, and draw logical conclusions about some ideas and their relevance. The average student has difficulty in determining the size of the ribs based on properties of the geometry. Students also find it difficult to provide explanations / arguments regarding the related relationships between the constructs.
Identiﬁcation and Characterization of a Family of Mammalian Methyl-CpG Binding Proteins

Methylation at the DNA sequence 5 * -CpG is required for mouse development. MeCP2 and MBD1 (formerly PCM1) are two known proteins that bind speciﬁcally to methylated DNA via a related amino acid motif and that can repress transcription. We describe here three novel human and mouse proteins (MBD2, MBD3, and MBD4) that contain the methyl-CpG binding domain. MBD2 and MBD4 bind speciﬁcally to methylated DNA in vitro. Expression of MBD2 and MBD4 tagged with green ﬂuorescent protein in mouse cells shows that both proteins colocalize with foci of heavily methylated satellite DNA. Localization is disrupted in cells that have greatly reduced levels of CpG methylation. MBD3 does not bind methylated DNA in vivo or in vitro. MBD1, MBD2, MBD3, and MBD4 are expressed in somatic tissues, but MBD1 and MBD2 expression is reduced or absent in embryonic stem cells which are known to be deﬁcient in MeCP1 activity. The data demonstrate that MBD2 and MBD4 bind speciﬁcally to methyl-CpG in vitro and in vivo and are therefore likely to be mediators of the biological consequences of the methylation signal.
Cultural differences in game appreciation: A study of player game reviews

Do players in different cultures have different ways of appreciating games? What aspects of games do players of a particular culture like or dislike? We describe the results of a study that examined a large body of user-submitted game reviews and scores on two prominent gaming websites: one based in the US and the other in Japan. We examined the reviews by applying statistical and computational methods and manually reading selected review texts. We found that, while preferences in the both cultures are generally similar, they are sensitive to different aspects: for example, American players emphasize the replay value of a game, whereas Japanese players are less tolerant of bugs and emphasize overall polish. Also, while Japanese players rate yoge (Western) games favorably, they seem to have lower expectations of overall quality. Finally we describe some observations regarding the style and unique characteristics of user-submitted game reviews that suggest future research directions.
Optimal transient network design: A multi‐objective approach

The most advantageous way to formulate the design of a water distribution system under transient conditions is as a multi‐objective optimization problem. The first objective in such a design is a least‐cost optimization problem using pipe diameters as decision variables. The second objective is to minimize the likelihood of a damaging transient event. In this article, a new surge damage measure called surge damage potential factor is introduced. Evolutionary algorithms are applied to produce a set of Pareto‐optimal solutions in the search space of pipe cost and surge damage potential. The model was tested on the New York City tunnel system. Comparison of the proposed method with that of a conventional approach shows that the modifications of pipe size in the design process can result in an effective and inexpensive surge control strategy.
Corporate Ethics and Values: Guiding Business out of the Maelstrom

Purpose – To integrate agency and stakeholder theories with the Jacobs Value Distinction (JVD) thus presenting a micro and macro reconsideration of the JVD for a finer grained perception of the values underpinning corporate and global governance initiatives.Design/methodology/approach – By extrapolating the JVD – commercial and guardian – this chapter examines the roots of moral malaise in the modern global firm. Examples and a theoretical rationale are given for identifying why and how ethical – moral problems continue to occur.Findings – A metaphorical maelstrom is discernible in the global business environment and more turmoil, especially in balancing business values, is emerging for the managers of today’s corporations. Application of the JVD predicts that under certain conditions the hybrid nature of the firm causes managers and shareholders to engage in morally risky behaviour. In further exploring the value basis of the 10 principles of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, it is found that similar values conflict, which intensifies the need for international business managers to beware the moral risks.Research implications – This viewpoint draws upon sound theoretical analysis and future studies should collate case analysis and practitioner interview data to further consolidate the findings. The viewpoint gives managers a useful tool for identifying conflicts of values underlying decisions and forms the basis for continuous improvement in the context of operational and strategic actions in international business.Originality/value of chapter – The integration of the JVD with agency and stakeholder theories is new and critique of the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact via the JVD has not happened previously.
Reward Shaping in the Ant Colony System: Lessons for the Design of Collective Intelligence Systems

The problem-oriented design of collective intelligence systems (CIS) is in itself an open problem. Previous research draws upon findings from biological swarm intelligence to derive guiding design principles but also highlights the importance of evaluating the system’s state with respect to the given problem. We investigate this evaluation task on the individual and the global level within the framework inspired by reinforcement learning. We map different modes of evaluation to different schemes of rewarding agents, thereby illustrating that designer of CIS face the task of reward shaping. We simulate several reward schemes as variations of the well-known ant colony system (ACS). We show that rewards in the ACS, although they consist only of a single value, the metaphorical pheromone concentration, have complex semantics, and coordinate the distribution of information and allocation of work within the system. This makes the ACS a valuable source of inspiration for CIS with human
Price Linkages in Asian Equity Markets and the Asian Economic, Currency and Financial Crises

A facsimile apparatus uses a single memory in a facsimile system and a printer system without using an interface between the two systems. In the facsimile apparatus, a FAX controller stores data received via a communication line. A recording control circuit fetches data from the memory via a data bus, and records an image based on the fetched data. A memory intervention circuit outputs a data bus selection signal, and switches an address of access to the recording medium and a connection of the data bus. Thus, a single memory is shared between a facsimile system and printer system.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Characterization of Basal Variation and Heritability of Systemic Microfibrillar-Associated Protein 4

Background Microfibrillar-associated protein 4 (MFAP4) is a systemic biomarker that is significantly elevated in samples from patients suffering from hepatic cirrhosis. The protein is generally localized to elastic fibers and other connective tissue fibers in the extracellular matrix (ECM), and variation in systemic MFAP4 (sMFAP4) has the potential to reflect diverse diseases with increased ECM turnover. Here, we aimed to validate an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the measurement of sMFAP4 with an emphasis on the robustness of the assay. Moreover, we aimed to determine confounders influencing the basal sMFAP4 variability and the genetic contribution to the basal variation. Methods The sandwich ELISA was based on two monoclonal anti-MFAP4 antibodies and was optimized and calibrated with a standard of recombinant MFAP4. The importance of pre-analytical sample handling was evaluated regarding sample tube type, time, and temperature conditions. The mean value structure and variance structure was determined in a twin cohort including 1,417 Danish twins (age 18-67 years) by mixed-effect linear regression modeling. Results The practical working range of the sandwich ELISA was estimated to be 4-75 U/ml. The maximum intra- and inter-assay variation was estimated to be 8.7% and 6.6%, respectively. Sample handling and processing appeared to influence MFAP4 measurements only marginally. The average concentration of sMFAP4 in the serum was 18.9 ± 8.4 (SD) U/ml in the twin cohort (95% CI: 18.5-19.4, median sMFAP4 17.3 U/ml). The mean structure model was demonstrated to include waist-hip ratio, age, and cigarette smoking status in interactions with gender. A relatively low heritability of h2 = 0.24 was found after applying a model including additive genetic factors and shared and non-shared environmental factors. Conclusions The described ELISA provides robust measures of the liver fibrosis marker sMFAP4. The low heritability and the relatively limited basal variation suggest that increased sMFAP4 reflects disease-induced processes.
QualEvS4Geo: A peer-to-peer system architecture for semi-automated quality evaluation of geo-data in SDI

Evaluating the quality of geospatial dataset is an important aspect that needs to be considered in order to improve the quality of results in any project. This issue has become even more critical these days due to the ever growing platforms and services that produce and share Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in the world wide domain. In this paper, we introduce the architecture of QualEvS4Geo; a web processing service for evaluating the quality of geo-data in Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). QualEvS4Geo is supposed to utilize a wide range of technologies, tools and knowledge bases in order to hamper interoperability between various services, each of which evaluating geo-datasets based on a certain data quality element and sub-element. This paper proposes a peer-to-peer infrastructure for enabling a universal geo-data quality evaluation service, which will enable end-users with different needs in various application domains to evaluate their geo-datasets through a single interface. Requirements are derived, the system architecture is proposed and implementation aspects are discussed.
A Combined Transcriptomics and Lipidomics Analysis of Subcutaneous, Epididymal and Mesenteric Adipose Tissue Reveals Marked Functional Differences

Depot-dependent differences in adipose tissue physiology may reflect specialized functions and local interactions between adipocytes and surrounding tissues. We combined time-resolved microarray analyses of mesenteric- (MWAT), subcutaneous- (SWAT) and epididymal adipose tissue (EWAT) during high-fat feeding of male transgenic ApoE3Leiden mice with histology, targeted lipidomics and biochemical analyses of metabolic pathways to identify differentially regulated processes and site-specific functions. EWAT was found to exhibit physiological zonation. De novo lipogenesis in fat proximal to epididymis was stably low, whereas de novo lipogenesis distal to epididymis and at other locations was down-regulated in response to high-fat diet. The contents of linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid in EWAT were increased compared to other depots. Expression of the androgen receptor (Ar) was higher in EWAT than in MWAT and SWAT. We suggest that Ar may mediate depot-dependent differences in de novo lipogenesis rate and propose that accumulation of linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid in EWAT is favored by testosterone-mediated inhibition of de novo lipogenesis and may promote further elongation and desaturation of these polyunsaturated fatty acids during spermatogenesis.
Occupational Therapy Assistant Students’ Perspectives About the Development of Clinical Reasoning

A mandatory component of the training of occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students is the development of their clinical reasoning skills. As the demand for OTAs continues to increase in response to the growing need for occupational therapy services, the number of academic programs to prepare these future therapists has expanded. Unfortunately, there is no empirical literature addressing the preparation of OTA students, specifically the development of their clinical reasoning skills. Artifact analysis, focus groups, and questionnaires were used to explore OTA students’ perceptions of what Level II fieldwork learning experiences facilitated the development of their clinical reasoning skills. The results suggest OTA students develop clinical reasoning skills during Level II fieldwork by engaging in a variety of learning experiences with support from fieldwork educators who are welcoming and approachable. Learning experiences that students perceived as most helpful to the development of clinical reasoning included hands-on learning, opportunities to witness best practice, receipt of clear expectations and regular feedback, gradual responsibility for caseload management, and opportunities for collaboration. This study adds to the profession’s body of knowledge and has implications for OTA educators, fieldwork educators, OTA students, and future consumers of occupational therapy services. Comments The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Difference Antenna Selection and Power Allocation for Wireless Cognitive Systems

In this paper, we propose an antenna selection method in a wireless cognitive radio (CR) system, which we term difference selection, whereby a single transmit antenna is selected at the secondary transmitter out of M possible antennas such that the weighted difference between the channel gains of the data link and the interference link is maximized. We analyze the mutual information and the outage probability of the secondary transmission in a CR system with difference antenna selection, and propose a method of optimizing these performance metrics subject to practical constraints on the peak secondary transmit power and the average interference power as seen by the primary receiver. The optimization is performed over two parameters: the peak secondary transmit power and the difference selection weight δ∈[0,1]. Furthermore, we show that the diversity gain of a CR system employing difference selection is an impulsive function of δ, in that a value of δ=1 yields the full diversity order of M and any other value of δ gives no diversity benefit. Finally, we demonstrate through extensive simulations that, in many cases of interest, difference selection using the optimal values of these two parameters is superior to the so-called ratio selection method disclosed in the literature.
Why We Are.

We are an integrated structural engineering and construction firm, based in Golden, Colorado with 4 offices throughout the Rocky Mountain Region, with 100 employees. We are a firm built around the idea that structural engineers should return to a master builder role by taking ownership of the design of structural systems, cost estimating, and at-risk construction, and now – environmental impacts. Our mission to “revolutionize the way structures are designed and built” is exactly why we have prioritized the modernization of our practice to address the climate and environmental impacts of our design and construction. Additionally, we are excited in our belief that structural engineers can and will step into a role of leadership and education for our architect and owner clients to create new avenues and priorities of decision making and design.
Toddlers’ play in ECEC institutions from a gender perspective

ABSTRACT This article examines how 1043 toddlers (534 boys and 509 girls) aged 33 months cope with various play activities, from a gender perspective. Data were collected through structured observation using the authentic assessment material Alle Med (Everyone Included). Each child was assessed independently by two staff members familiar with the child in informal situations in ECEC institutions over a period of three months. The results show gender differences favouring girls in most play activities: tries out toys, has a varied play repertoire, emerging pretend play, plays with other children, initiates play on their own, stays in play, turn-taking in play, engages in construction play, active in pretend play, participates in play like hide-and-seek, and gets carried away in pretend play. However, there were no gender differences found in solitary and parallel play, engages in rule-based play, advanced construction play, and independent in rule-based play.
“Cool! Bikini and lingerie instead of Burka!” – the discursive representation of Muslim women in Austrian women’s magazines

ABSTRACT Within “Western” controversies, the headscarf is stylised as a symbol of “oppression” and “backwardness” while “unveiling” is simultaneously associated with “self-determination” and “modernity”. As object of a critical discourse analysis, this dichotomisation was also found in Austrian women’s magazines; “the veiled” Muslim woman was constructed as “traditional” and appeared mostly as an “object” of speech. “The unveiled” woman, however, was more frequently featured directly in interviews, typically thematising “modern”—i.e., “Western” assimilated—lifestyles and ways of dressing. Strikingly however, by drawing on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s concept of subalternity, we conclude that also the more “visible” or “hearable” discourse position—even if it seems to provide Muslim women with agency at first glance—similarly colludes in a further silencing of Muslim women.
HLA-B*1301 as a Biomarker for Genetic Susceptibility to Hypersensitivity Dermatitis Induced by Trichloroethylene among Workers in China

Background Trichloroethylene (TCE) is used extensively as an industrial solvent and has been recognized as one of the major environmental pollutants. To date, > 200 cases of TCE-induced hypersensitivity dermatitis among exposed workers have been reported worldwide, and TCE exposure has become one of the critical occupational health issues in Asia. Objectives The study aimed to identify genetic susceptible biomarkers associated with the TCE-induced hypersensitivity dermatitis in genes located in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region. Methods From 1998 to 2006, 121 cases with TCE-induced hypersensitivity dermatitis and 142 tolerant controls were recruited into the population-based case–control study. We determined HLA alleles B, DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1, by sequence-based typing. p-Values were corrected for comparisons of multiple HLA alleles. In addition, we compared and analyzed the structure character of amino acid residues of HLA molecules found in participants. Results We obtained complete genotyping data of 113 cases and 142 controls. The allele HLA-B*1301 was present in 83 (73.5%) of 113 patients compared with 13 (9.2%) of 142 tolerant workers (odds ratio = 27.5; 95% confidence interval, 13.5–55.7; corrected p = 1.48 × 10−21). In addition, the HLA-B*44 alleles were present in 6.2% (7/113) of patients, but were absent in TCE-tolerant workers. Residue 95 shared by HLA-B*1301 and HLA-B*44 molecules formed a different pocket F than other residues. Conclusions The allele HLA-B*1301 is strongly associated with TCE-induced hypersensitivity dermatitis among exposed workers and might be used as a biomarker to predict high risk individuals to TCE.
Arctic climate response to forcing from light-absorbing particles in snow and sea ice in CESM

Abstract. The presence of light-absorbing aerosol particles deposited on arctic snow and sea ice influences the surface albedo, causing greater shortwave absorption, warming, and loss of snow and sea ice, lowering the albedo further. The Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1) now includes the radiative effects of light-absorbing particles in snow on land and sea ice and in sea ice itself. We investigate the model response to the deposition of black carbon and dust to both snow and sea ice. For these purposes we employ a slab ocean version of CESM1, using the Community Atmosphere Model version 4 (CAM4), run to equilibrium for year 2000 levels of CO2 and fixed aerosol deposition. We construct experiments with and without aerosol deposition, with dust or black carbon deposition alone, and with varying quantities of black carbon and dust to approximate year 1850 and 2000 deposition fluxes. The year 2000 deposition fluxes of both dust and black carbon cause 1–2 °C of surface warming over large areas of the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas in autumn and winter and in patches of Northern land in every season. Atmospheric circulation changes are a key component of the surface-warming pattern. Arctic sea ice thins by on average about 30 cm. Simulations with year 1850 aerosol deposition are not substantially different from those with year 2000 deposition, given constant levels of CO2. The climatic impact of particulate impurities deposited over land exceeds that of particles deposited over sea ice. Even the surface warming over the sea ice and sea ice thinning depends more upon light-absorbing particles deposited over land. For CO2 doubled relative to year 2000 levels, the climate impact of particulate impurities in snow and sea ice is substantially lower than for the year 2000 equilibrium simulation.