Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inference and analysis

This new handbook contains the most comprehensive account of sample surveys theory and practice to date. It is a second volume on sample surveys, with the goal of updating and extending the sampling volume published as volume 6 of the Handbook of Statistics in 1988. The present handbook is divided into two volumes (29A and 29B), with a total of 41 chapters, covering current developments in almost every aspect of sample surveys, with references to important contributions and available software. It can serve as a self contained guide to researchers and practitioners, with appropriate balance between theory and real life applications. Each of the two volumes is divided into three parts, with each part preceded by an introduction, summarizing the main developments in the areas covered in that part. Volume 1 deals with methods of sample selection and data processing, with the later including editing and imputation, handling of outliers and measurement errors, and methods of disclosure control. The volume contains also a large variety of applications in specialized areas such as household and business surveys, marketing research, opinion polls and censuses. Volume 2 is concerned with inference, distinguishing between design-based and model-based methods and focusing on specific problems such as small area estimation, analysis of longitudinal data, categorical data analysis and inference on distribution functions. The volume contains also chapters dealing with case-control studies, asymptotic properties of estimators and decision theoretic aspects. It offers a comprehensive account of recent developments in sample survey theory and practice. It covers a wide variety of diverse applications and includes a comprehensive bibliography.
EVALUATION OF TRAFFIC PROBE DATA PROCESSING ALTERNATIVES

One of the major potential benefits of the Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) initiative is the potential for providing traffic condition probe vehicle data of unprecedented richness and accuracy. If a large fraction of the vehicles on the road are providing probe data, and transportation agencies are depending on the probe data to support their real-time trafficucontrol applications, careful consideration must be given to the sampling and management of these data. This paper evaluates several probe sampling issues using traffic microsimulation, with particular emphasis on minimizing data latency and choosing the best aggregation strategies. For the covering abstract see ITRD E140665.
Writing about the History of Mathematics as a Means for Growth in Understanding

Abstract The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore students’ self-reported growth of mathematical understanding resulting from writing about the historical development of a mathematical concept. Using excerpts from undergraduate students’ written reflections about their experiences with the task of writing about mathematics, this study describes three emergent themes concerning how these students explicitly assessed their own learning: selfawareness of initial understanding, learning from the task of writing, and deeper understanding of mathematics. The results indicate that writing about the historical development of mathematics encouraged students to acknowledge their existing mathematical understanding as well as extend or develop new understandings. Furthermore, writing about mathematics can serve as a viable assessment of individual student learning and provide insight into what students understand independent of formal assessment based on procedural skills.
Signal separation of musical instruments: simulation-based methods for musical signal decomposition and transcription

This thesis presents techniques for the modelling of musical signals, with particular regard to monophonic and polyphonic pitch estimation. Musical signals are modelled as a set of notes, each comprising of a set of harmonically-related sinusoids. An hierarchical model is presented that is very general and applicable to any signal that can be decomposed as the sum of basis functions. Parameter estimation is posed within a Bayesian framework, allowing for the incorporation of prior information about model parameters. The resulting posterior distribution is of variable dimension and so reversible jump MCMC simulation techniques are employed for the parameter estimation task. The extension of the model to time-varying signals with high posterior correlations between model parameters is described. The parameters and hyperparameters of several frames of data are estimated jointly to achieve a more robust detection. A general model for the description of time-varying homogeneous and heterogeneous multiple component signals is developed, and then applied to the analysis of musical signals. The importance of high level musical and perceptual psychological knowledge in the formulation of the model is highlighted, and attention is drawn to the limitation of pure signal processing techniques for dealing with musical signals. Gestalt psychological grouping principles motivate the hierarchical signal model, and component identifiability is considered in terms of perceptual streaming where each component establishes its own context. A major emphasis of this thesis is the practical application of MCMC techniques, which are generally deemed to be too slow for many applications. Through the design of efficient transition kernels highly optimised for harmonic models, and by careful choice of assumptions and approximations, implementations approaching the order of realtime are viable.
N-terminal pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptides’ Prognostic Utility Is Overestimated in Meta-analyses Using Study-specific Optimal Diagnostic Thresholds

Background:N-terminal fragment B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) prognostic utility is commonly determined post hoc by identifying a single optimal discrimination threshold tailored to the individual study population. The authors aimed to determine how using these study-specific post hoc thresholds impacts meta-analysis results. Methods:The authors conducted a systematic review of studies reporting the ability of preoperative NT-proBNP measurements to predict the composite outcome of all-cause mortality and nonfatal myocardial infarction at 30 days after noncardiac surgery. Individual patient-level data NT-proBNP thresholds were determined using two different methodologies. First, a single combined NT-proBNP threshold was determined for the entire cohort of patients, and a meta-analysis conducted using this single threshold. Second, study-specific thresholds were determined for each individual study, with meta-analysis being conducted using these study-specific thresholds. Results:The authors obtained individual patient data from 14 studies (n = 2,196). Using a single NT-proBNP cohort threshold, the odds ratio (OR) associated with an increased NT-proBNP measurement was 3.43 (95% CI, 2.08 to 5.64). Using individual study-specific thresholds, the OR associated with an increased NT-proBNP measurement was 6.45 (95% CI, 3.98 to 10.46). In smaller studies (<100 patients) a single cohort threshold was associated with an OR of 5.4 (95% CI, 2.27 to 12.84) as compared with an OR of 14.38 (95% CI, 6.08 to 34.01) for study-specific thresholds. Conclusions:Post hoc identification of study-specific prognostic biomarker thresholds artificially maximizes biomarker predictive power, resulting in an amplification or overestimation during meta-analysis of these results. This effect is accentuated in small studies.
Do users find looking at text more useful than visual representations? A comparison of three search result interfaces

The organisation, content and presentation of document surrogates has a substantial impact on the effectiveness of web search result interfaces. Most interfaces include textual information, including for example the document title, URL, and a short query-biased summary of the content. Other interfaces include additional browsing features, such as topic clustering, or thumbnails of the web pages. In this study we analyse three search interfaces, and compare the effectiveness of textual information and additional browsing features. Our analysis indicates that most users spend a substantially larger proportion of time looking at text information, and that those interfaces that focus on text-based representations of document content tend to lead to quicker task completion times for named-page finding search tasks.
Dynamic Energy Budget Theory for Metabolic Organisation

Preface 1. Basic concepts 2. Standard DEB model in time, length and energy 3. Energy, compounds and metabolism 4. Univariate DEB models 5. Multivariate DEB models 6. Effects of compounds on budgets 7. Extensions of DEB models 8. Co-variation of DEB parameter values 9. Living together 10. Evolution 11. Evaluation Bibliography Glossary Notation and symbols Taxonomic index Subject index.
The Kourovka notebook : unsolved problems in group theory

To form an up-to-date picture of what is going on in a given area of mathematics, we usually consult a shelf of current periodicals or, to save time, the appropriate section of a reviewing journal. Thus we learn of new advances in the area, which problems have been solved, what progress has been made with others, while rarely, and then only in the context of the author's own results, do we learn which problems the author failed to solve but considers interesting. In all this, a summary of current problems has no less a place in the development of a subject than a list of achievements, though the apparent connection between the two is often deceptive. Thus, it is desirable to publish from time to time a summary of important problems with the participation of a large circle of authors.The "Kourovka" notebook is such a collection of unsolved problems in group theory. The current edition is the seventh, the first having appeared in 1965. Chapter 7 is entirely new; the first six chapters are reproduced from the sixth edition with slight editorial changes. The comments on the problems have been reviewed and augmented. Experience shows the benefits of collecting problems of interest in a given area. Of the 422 problems in the sixth edition, 151 have now been solved.
Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problems

When a vehicle routing model is cast and solved, it is normally assumed that the values of all input parameters are known with certainty. However, this is hardly the case in reallife applications where parameters such as customer demands, travel and service times, or even the information of whether a particular customer will require service or not are often incomplete, uncertain, or unknown during the route design phase (see Gounaris et al. [60]). As pointed out by Psaraftis [123], there are two important dimensions of input data, namely evolution and quality of information. The former implies that the available information is subject to change even after the routing plan is realized, while the latter reflects the possible uncertainties in the available data. What is common in both cases is that the partially known, uncertain, or unknown input parameters are revealed or updated concurrently with the execution of the routing process. Depending on the availability and quality of a priori information and other characteristics of the problem under consideration, two alternatives emerge for solving the routing problem. Assuming that sufficient information is available (e.g., all input data are known in advance with a predefined degree of uncertainty), the first option is to treat the problem as static and solve it once during the design phase. The goal in this case is to obtain a robust routing plan that will possibly be subject to relatively small changes during the actual execution. This option is named a priori optimization, for which anticipating uncertainty is crucial in order to find realizable routing plans, and to avoid hefty penalties, both economic and reputational, when one fails to provide the required level of service (see Gounaris et al. [60]). The second option is to address the problem in an ongoing and dynamic fashion as new input data arrive or are revealed in real time. While information evolves and decisions must be continuously made in a changing environment, the goal is to react to the new events as well as to anticipate future events, particularly if exploitable stochastic
Developing, Validating and Using Internal Ratings: Methodologies and Case Studies

Preface 1 Introduction 2 Classifications and key concepts of credit risk 2.1 A classification 2.2 Key concepts 3 Rating assignment methodologies 3.1 Experts based approaches 3.2 Statistical based models 3.3 Heuristic and numerical approaches 3.4 Involving qualitative information 4 Developing a statistical based rating system 4.1 The process 4.2 Setting model's objectives and generating the dataset 4.3 Case study: dataset and preliminary analysis 4.4 Defining an analysis sample 4.5 Univariate and bivariate analyses 4.6 Estimating a model and assessing its discriminatory power 4.7 From scores to ratings and from ratings to probabilities of default 5 Validating rating models 5.1 Validation profiles 5.2 Roles of internal validation units 5.3 Qualitative and quantitative validation 6 Case Study. Validating PanalpBank's statistical based rating system for Financial Institutions 211 6.1 Case study objectives and context 6.2 The 'Development report' for the validation unit 6.3 The 'Validation report' by the validation unit 7 Conclusions. Ratings usage opportunities and warnings. 7.1 Internal ratings are critical to credit risk management 7.2 Internal ratings assignment trends 7.3 Statistical based ratings and regulation: conflicting objectives? 7.4 Statistical based ratings and customers: needs and fears 7.5 Limits of statistical based ratings 7.6 Statistical based ratings and the theory of financial intermediation 7.7 Statistical based ratings usage: guidelines Bibliography Subject Index
Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition: The Switch between Statistical and Grammatical Learning

With a particular focus on the morphosyntactic features of second language, this book discusses the idea that language acquisition is a discontinuous and 'quantized' process and thus that some items might be learned twice, statistically and grammatically. It argues that the switch from one way of learning to another is statistically-driven and grammatically motivated. The volume brings together and discusses insights and evidence from learner corpora analysis and electrophysiological data in an attempt to provide the reader with a unified outlook and it suggests a new, developmentally-oriented interpretation of findings. The topics discussed will be of interest to researchers working in the field of psycho- and neurolinguistics and SLA.
Protein Structure Prediction Using Parallel Linkage Investigating Genetic Algorithms

Abstract : AFIT has had a long-standing interest in solving the protein structure prediction (PSP) problem. The PSP problem is an intractable problem that if "solved" can lead to revolutionary new techniques for everything from the development of new medicines to optical computer switches. The challenge is to find a reliable and consistent method of predicting the 3-dimensional structure of a protein given its defining sequence of amino acids. PSP is primarily concerned with predicting the tertiary protein structure without regards to how the protein came to this folded state. The tertiary structure determines the protein's functionality.
Comparison of Human and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) Judgements of Pairwise Document Similarities for a News Corpus

Abstract : Pairwise similarity judgement correlations between humans and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) were explored on a set of 50 news documents. LSA is a modern and commonly used technique for automatic determination of document similarity. LSA users must choose local and global weighting schemes, the number of factors to be retained, stop word lists and whether to background. Global weighting schemes had more effect than local weighting schemes. Use of a stop word list almost always improved performance. Introduction of a background set of similar documents increased larger correlations and reduced smaller ones The correlations ranged between approximately 0 and 0.6 depending on the LSA settings indicating the importance of correct settings The low maximum correlation indicates that information presentation schemes based on LSA may often be at variance with visualisations based on human decisions even using the best settings for a data set.
A sword from Gdańsk – a technological revolution or a pageant replica?

This paper focuses on a sword discovered during post-1945 archaeological excavations in Gdansk, now stored as a deposit in the Castle Museum in Malbork (Dep. 76). The weapon underwent technological examinations by J. Piaskowski, who said that the sword was an example of Late Medieval mass manufacture of cheap and low quality weaponry with the use of cast refined iron. This assumption was maintained in later scholarship. As doubts concerning the authenticity of the sword were raised by visual examination, it was decided to repeat technological examinations. It was found out that the metal in the blade was in fact cast. However, qualitative EDS analysis of slag inclusions demonstrated a very high presence of S and Mn, which testifies to the fact that the metal in the blade was obtained with the use of one of late 19th or early 20th c. steelmaking processes (the Bessemer or Martin process). Based on this and on some external features of the sword (traces of lathe processing, punched typescript letters on the tang), it was assumed beyond doubt that the sword was a pre-1945 replica
Readability and Responsibility.

Readability has been variously defined as a text's legibility, power to interest, ease of understanding or any combination of these factors. Gray and Leary (1935) identified as many as 288 characteristics affecting readability, 20of which werethoughtto be significant, classified in four broad categories: format, general features of organization, style of expression and presentation, and content. The goal of readability research is to match reader and text. Prior to
Multivariate statistical process monitoring using classical multidimensional scaling

A new Multivariate Statistical Process Monitoring (MSPM) system, which comprises of three main frameworks, is proposed where the system utilizes Classical Multidimensional Scaling (CMDS) as the main multivariate data compression technique instead of using the linearbased Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The conventional method which usually applies variance-covariance or correlation measure in developing the multivariate scores is found to be inappropriately used especially in modelling nonlinear processes, where a high number of principal components will be typically required. Alternatively, the proposed method utilizes the inter-dissimilarity scales in describing the relationships among the monitored variables instead of variance-covariance measure for the multivariate scores development. However, the scores are plotted in terms of variable structure, thus providing different formulation of statistics for monitoring. Nonetheless, the proposed statistics still correspond to the conceptual objective of Hotelling’s T2 and Squared Prediction Errors (SPE). The first framework corresponds to the original CMDS framework, whereas the second utilizes Procrustes Analysis (PA) functions which is analogous to the concept of loading factors in PCA for score projection. Lastly, the final framework employs dynamic mechanism of PA functions as an alternative for enhancing the procedures of the second approach. A simulated system of Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor with Recycle (CSTRwR) has been chosen for the demonstration and the fault detection results were comparatively analyzed to the outcomes of PCA on the grounds of false alarm rates, total number of detected cases and also total number of fastest detection cases. The last two performance factors are obtained through fault detection time. The overall outcomes show that the three CMDS-based systems give almost comparable performances to the linear PCA based monitoring systemwhen dealing the abrupt fault events, whereas the new systems have demonstrated significant improvement over the conventional method in detecting incipient fault cases. More importantly, this monitoring accomplishment can be efficiently executed based on lower compressed dimensional space compared to the PCA technique, thus providing much simpler solution. All of these evidences verified that the proposed approaches are successfully developed conceptually as well as practically for monitoring while complying fundamentally with the principles and technical steps of the conventional MSPM system.
Enhancing the Mathematics Skills of Students Enrolled in Introductory Engineering Courses: Eliminating the Gap in Incoming Academic Preparation

Several studies strongly support the relationship between mathematics performance and retention of engineering students. There is also substantial evidence that nationally almost half of college freshmen could benefit from some mathematics remediation. The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of WeBWorK as an instructional technology enhanced the mathematics skills of students enrolled in introductory engineering and engineering technology courses. Differences in mathematics performance of three intact groups were investigated with predicted freshman year grade point average as the covariate. Results suggest that WeBWorK helped eliminate the gap in incoming academic preparation between engineering and engineering technology users. Feedback from students indicates that WeBWorK is a valuable tool for refreshing basic mathematics skills and enhancing mathematics self-confidence.
A Description of Individual Practice Sessions of Four Ninth-Grade String Students

The purpose of this study was to examine four ninth grade students’ and teacherresearcher descriptions of student practice sessions. Research questions for this study were (a) How do students describe their home practice sessions in a journal, in response to a videotape, and in an interview? ; (b) How does the teacher-researcher describe the students’ home practice sessions? ; and (c) What is the qualitative comparison between the teacher and students’ descriptions? Data included participant interviews, video recorded practice sessions, journal entries of the participants’ perceptions of what they did while individual practicing, and participant/researcher observations/field notes of the practice sessions and procedures taken. Findings are presented as profiles of each of the participants and suggest that these four participants can articulate and demonstrate practice strategies, find enjoyment in playing their respective instrument, and understand the importance of practice in their musical education. Findings also suggested that the participants’ practice strategies were apparent in their practice sessions; however, the lack of organization and variety of practice strategies used jeopardized their progress of musical achievement.