Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Early Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills on Later Outcomes. CEE DP 92.

When describing the determinants of economic or social outcomes, economists often focus on cognitive skill. Failure to take into account other dimensions of skill may misguide policy design. In this paper, we analyse the consequences and determinants of cognitive and non-cognitive (social) skills at age 7, using data for Great Britain from the National Child Development Study. We find that an overall measure of noncognitive skills is important for a host of later outcomes, including educational attainment, employment status, wages, smoking, truancy, teenage pregnancy, involvement in crime and health. In many cases, we find that the importance of social skills is greater for individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds than it is for individuals from high socio-economic backgrounds, suggesting that investment in non-cognitive skills may reduce inequality. Finally, our work suggests that social skills may be more malleable than cognitive skills, which – if true – suggests that there may be scope for policy to affect social skills and hence outcomes. 1 We are grateful to the Department for Education and Skills (now the Department for Education) for funding this work through the Centre for the Economics of Education and for co-funding from the Economic and Social Research Council via the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at IFS (grant number RES-544-28-0001). Carneiro gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Economic and Social Research Council through the ESRC Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (grant reference RES-589-28-0001), and the hospitality of Georgetown University and the Poverty Unit of the World Bank Research Group.
Interpretable Topic Features for Post-ICU Mortality Prediction

Electronic health records provide valuable resources for understanding the correlation between various diseases and mortality. The analysis of post-discharge mortality is critical for healthcare professionals to follow up potential causes of death after a patient is discharged from the hospital and give prompt treatment. Moreover, it may reduce the cost derived from readmissions and improve the quality of healthcare. Our work focused on post-discharge ICU mortality prediction. In addition to features derived from physiological measurements, we incorporated ICD-9-CM hierarchy into Bayesian topic model learning and extracted topic features from medical notes. We achieved highest AUCs of 0.835 and 0.829 for 30-day and 6-month post-discharge mortality prediction using baseline and topic proportions derived from Labeled-LDA. Moreover, our work emphasized the interpretability of topic features derived from topic model which may facilitates the understanding and investigation of the complexity between mortality and diseases.
Energy saving efficiency comparison of transmit power control and link adaptation in BANs

The wireless channels in Body Area Networks (BANs) have significant temporal variations due to body movements. Therefore there is a potential to save energy by exploiting adaptive schemes, such as transmit power control (PC) and link adaptation (LA). This paper investigates the energy saving efficiency of PC and LA in BANs. The theoretical bounds of energy saving efficiency of PC and LA, and the condition that LA outperforms PC are derived. Generally speaking, LA is more efficient in saving energy than PC in BANs. The energy saving efficiency and packet erasure rate (PER) of PC and LA are evaluated through simulations with a large measured dataset from a BAN testbed. The simulation results show that LA can save 80-85% more energy than PC during 80% time. The increased PER due to the adaptive schemes is below 1% during 80-95% time at the different links.
Performance of RAKE reception in dense multipath channels: implications of spreading bandwidth and selection diversity order

We develop an analytical framework to quantify the effects of the spreading bandwidth (BW) on spread spectrum systems operating in dense multipath environments in terms of the receiver performance, the receiver complexity, and the multipath channel parameters. The focus of the paper is to characterize the symbol error probability (SEP) performance of a RAKE receiver tracking the L strongest multipath components in wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) Gaussian channels with frequency-selective fading. Analytical SEP expressions of the RAKE receiver are derived in terms of the number of combined paths, the spreading BW and the multipath spread of the channel. The proposed problem is made analytically tractable by transforming the physical RAKE paths, which are correlated and ordered, into the domain of a "virtual RAKE" receiver with independent virtual paths. This results in a simple derivation of the SEP for a given spreading BW and an arbitrary number of combined paths.
Magnetohydrodynamics of Population III Star Formation

Jet-driving and fragmentation processes in a collapsing primordial cloud are studied using three-dimensional MHD nested grid simulations. Starting from a rotating magnetized spherical cloud with a number density of nc≃ 103 cm−3, we follow the evolution of the cloud until the adiabatic core (or protostar) formation epoch, nc≃ 1022 cm−3. We calculate 36 models parameterizing the initial magnetic γ0 and rotational β0 energies. The evolution of collapsing primordial clouds is characterized by the ratio of the initial rotational energy to the magnetic energy, γ0/β0. The Lorentz force significantly affects cloud evolution when γ0 > β0, while the centrifugal force dominates the Lorentz force when β0 > γ0. When the cloud rotates rapidly with an angular velocity of Ω0 > 10−17(nc/103 cm −3)2/3 s−1 and β0 > γ0, fragmentation occurs before protostar formation, but no jet appears after protostar formation. On the other hand, when the initial cloud has a magnetic field of B0 > 10−9(nc/103 cm −3)2/3 G and γ0 > β0, a strong jet appears after protostar formation without fragmentation. Our results indicate that Population III protostars frequently show fragmentation and protostellar jets. Population III stars are therefore born as binary or multiple stellar systems; as in present-day star formation, they can drive strong jets that disturb the interstellar medium significantly, and thus they may induce the formation of next-generation stars.
Images for Deconstructing the Complexity and Images for Constructing the Collective Imagination in the Case of the Alpine Landscape. A Selected Overview

The process of touristic exploitation of the Alps is strictly correlated to the collective imagination that have been constructed in the last two centuries. In this process images have been and are used for deconstructing the complexity of the Alpine environment (e.g., the orography) and for constructing the collective imagination. The article propose a selected overview of graphic modes developed specifically for the deconstruction of the complex alpine morphology, modes that led to some stereotyped images which are useful to understand the material transformation of the Alpine territory.
Supporting debates with a real-time feedback system

Feedback systems can improve collaborative working and learning. We investigate a novel real-time feedback system that enables a subtle and unobtrusive interaction between learners and trainers in the context of debates. Novices to structured debates practiced in debate clubs need to learn fundamental rhetorical skills. The argumentation follows a well-defined structure: claim, explanation and example. Learners receive feedback about their rhetorical performance in the end of debates which complicates the immediate adaptation. We introduce a real-time feedback system enabling an unobtrusive teacher-student dialog. Teachers virtually communicate their assessment about the presented performance using a smart phone; students adapt the structure of their debate according to the visual feedback that is presented on a tablet. We tested our prototype in the field and applied it to two debates. We found that participants that used our feedback system valued the immediate feedback and stated high satisfaction about their own performance.
High dynamic range imaging for stereoscopic scene representation

This paper presents a method for generating high dynamic range and disparity images by simultaneously capturing the high and low exposure images using a pair of cameras. The proposed stereoscopic high dynamic range imaging technique is able to record multiple exposures without any time delay, and thus suitable for high dynamic range video synthesis. We have demonstrated that it is possible to construct the camera response function using a pair of images with different amount of exposure. The intensities of the stereo images can then be normalized for correspondence matching. Experiments using the Middlebury stereo datasets are presented.
Computing Optimal Policies for Partially Observable Decision Processes Using Compact Representations

Partially-observable Markov decision processes provide a general model for decision theoretic planning problems, allowing trade-offs between various courses of actions to be determined under conditions of uncertainty, and incorporating partial observations made by an agent. Dynamic programming algorithms based on the belief state of an agent can be used to construct optimal policies without explicit consideration of past history, but at high computational cost. In this paper, we discuss how structured representations of system dynamics can be incorporated in classic POMDP solution algorithms. We use Bayesian networks with structured conditional probability matrices to represent POMDPs, and use this model to structure the belief space for POMDP algorithms, allowing irrelevant distinctions to be ignored. Apart from speeding up optimal policy construction, we suggest that such representations can be exploited in the development of useful approximation methods.
Optimizing the Fuzzy Closed-Loop Supply Chain for Electrical and Electronic Equipments

The rapid development of electrical and electronic equipment (EEEs) market in recent years creates both positive and negative impacts on the environment and human. In order to achieve the sustainable development, the most critically negative impact, i.e., waste EEEs (WEEEs) must be properly handled such as disposed, remanufactured, recycled to name a few. Among suggested solutions for resolving this issue, closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) management has been proved as a highly potential candidate due to its efficiency, effectiveness and economics. This paper presents a model of multi EEEs CLSC systems with fuzzy parameters. The proposed model is transformed into the equivalent auxiliary crisp model by an appropriate approach, and the final preferred compromise solutions are also found. Finally, a numerical example is conducted to illustrate the applicability and provide better insights about the proposed model.
Calculation Methods for Mobile Antenna Systems at Higher Frequencies

This contribution addresses the efficient numerical analysis and optimisation of mobile antenna systems operating at higher frequencies, where the typical geometrical dimensions exceed one wavelength. Traditional calculation methods are briefly reviewed and compared. The main emphasis of the paper is on the method of moments (MoM), and several extensions are discussed in order to obtain a fast and memory efficient method also for higher frequencies: Parallelisation, acceleration by fast methods, hybridisation with asymptotic techniques, and the combination with analytical methods for specific problems.
University of Dundee Antigenic variation in African trypanosomes

Studies on Variant Surface Glycoproteins (VSGs) and antigenic variation in the African trypanosome, Trypanosoma brucei, have yielded a remarkable range of novel and important insights. The features first identified in T. brucei extend from unique to conserved-among-trypanosomatids to conserved-amongeukaryotes. Consequently, much of what we now know about trypanosomatid biology and much of the technology available has its origin in studies related to VSGs. T. brucei is now probably the most advanced early branched eukaryote in terms of experimental tractability and can be approached as a pathogen, as a model for studies on fundamental processes, as a model for studies on eukaryotic evolution or often all of the above. In terms of antigenic variation itself, substantial progress has been made in understanding the expression and switching of the VSG coat, while outstanding questions continue to stimulate innovative new approaches. There are large numbers of VSG genes in the genome but only one is expressed at a time, always immediately adjacent to a telomere. DNA repair processes allow a new VSG to be copied into the single transcribed locus. A coordinated transcriptional switch can also allow a new VSG gene to be activated without any detectable change in the DNA sequence, thereby maintaining singular expression, also known as allelic exclusion. I review the story behind VSGs; the genes, their expression and switching, their central role in T. brucei virulence, the discoveries that emerged along the way and the persistent questions relating to allelic exclusion in particular. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Towards persistence-based reconstruction in euclidean spaces

Manifold reconstruction has been extensively studied for the last decade or so, especially in two and three dimensions. Recent advances in higher dimensions have led to new methods to reconstruct large classes of compact subsets of Rd. However, the complexities of these methods scale up exponentially with d, making them impractical in medium or high dimensions, even on data sets of low intrinsic dimensionality. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach that stands in-between classical reconstruction and topological estimation, and whose complexity scales up with the intrinsic dimension of the data. Our algorithm combines two paradigms: greedy refinement, and topological persistence. Given a point cloud in Rd, we build a set of landmarks iteratively, while maintaining a nested pair of abstract complexes, whose images in Rd lie close to the data, and whose persistent homology eventually coincides with the homology of the underlying shape. When the data points are densely sampled from a smooth m-submanifold X of Rd, our method retrieves the homology of X in time at most c(m)n5, where n is the size of the input and c(m) is a constant depending solely on m. To prove the correctness of our algorithm, we investigate on Čech, Rips, and witness complex filtrations in Euclidean spaces. More precisely, we show how previous results on unions of balls can be transposed to Čech filtrations, and from there to Rips and witness complex filtrations. Finally, investigating further on witness complexes, we quantify a conjecture of Carlsson and de Silva, which states that witness complex filtrations should have cleaner persistence barcodes than Čech or Rips filtrations, at least on smooth submanifolds of Euclidean spaces.
Issues in Exploiting GermaNet as a Resource in Real Applications

This paper reports about experiments with GermaNet as a resource within domain specific document analysis. The main question to be answered is: How is the coverage of GermaNet in a specific domain? We report about results of a field test of GermaNet for analyses of autopsy protocols and present a sketch about the integration of GermaNet inside XDOC. Our remarks will contribute to a GermaNet user's wish list.
of Birmingham Implementing a Hidden Markov Model Speech Recognition System in Programmable Logic

Performing Viterbi decoding for continuous real-time speech recognition is a highly computationally-demanding task, but is one which can take good advantage of a parallel processing architecture. To this end, we describe a system which uses an FPGA for the decoding and a PC for pre-and post-processing, taking advantage of the properties of this kind of programmable logic device, specifically its ability to perform in parallel the large number of additions and comparisons required. We compare the performance of the FPGA decoder to a software equivalent, and discuss issues related to this implementation.
On the Bit-Complexity of Lempel-Ziv Compression

One of the most famous and investigated lossless data-compression schemes is the one introduced by Lempel and Ziv about 30 years ago [37]. This compression scheme is known as "dictionary-based compressor" and consists of squeezing an input string by replacing some of its substrings with (shorter) codewords which are actually pointers to a dictionary of phrases built as the string is processed. Surprisingly enough, although many fundamental results are nowadays known about the speed and effectiveness of this compression process (see e.g. [23, 28] and references therein), "we are not aware of any parsing scheme that achieves optimality when the LZ77-dictionary is in use under any constraint on the codewords other than being of equal length" [28, pag. 159]. Here optimality means to achieve the minimum number of bits in compressing each individual input string, without any assumption on its generating source. In this paper we investigate three issues pertaining to the bit-complexity of LZ-based compressors, and we design algorithms which achieve bit-optimality in the compressed output size by taking efficient/optimal time and optimal space. These theoretical results will be sustained by some experiments that will compare our novel LZ-based compressors against the most popular compression tools (like gzip, bzip2) and state-of-the-art compressors (like the booster of [14, 13]).
Graphical User Interface Variability Architecture Pattern

Designing software applications for multiple tenants is challenging. The task is even harder when designing pure multi-tenancy applications that must support different customers using a single codebase and data store. One of the most common problems when developing these systems is to support different graphical user interface not only for different users but also tenants. This critical requirement also applies to context-aware applications in which different graphical user interface should be presented to each user according to the user's context or software components and platforms that should allow developers easily to create different looks and feel for their applications. In this paper, we propose an architecture pattern for modeling graphical user interface that support different customizations and configurations. The modularity, the reusability and the maintainability of the pattern were evaluated by qualitative analysis based on well-known patterns used in the proposed architecture pattern. Real world systems were built to validate the applicability, the correctness, the security and the performance of the pattern. We believe that our pattern will be useful for software providers as well as normal organizations when building software components or software systems for different customers or creating multi-tenancy applications in a cloud-based environment or building context-aware applications.
Impact of Extraction Methods on the Detectable Protein Complement of Metaproteomic Analyses of Marine Sediments

Metaproteomic analysis targets proteins, the catalytic entities in the habitat, thereby providing direct insights into the metabolic activity of the community studied. A major challenge still remaining for metaproteomics is the effective and comprehensive extraction of proteins from environmental samples, due to their high complexity with respect to organismic diversity and abundance range. Moreover, in certain habitats, the inherent matrix may interfere with protein extraction. In recent years, several studies reported different protein extraction methods for soils known for their complex geochemistry, but only three analyzed marine sediments that generally comprise different though similarly complex geochemistry. In this study, the impact of four different extraction methods was investigated for coastal North Sea and deep sea Pacific Ocean sediments. The extraction methods comprised (i) phenol, (ii) SDS, (iii) a mixture of SDS and phenol, and (iv) urea and thiourea. Prior to extraction, a cell and protein standard (CPS) was added to the sediment samples to trace recovery of proteins from different subcellular locations as well as dissolved BSA. While each extraction method detected distinct peptide complements, SDS‐phenol extraction generally achieved highest protein yield and most comprehensive CPS protein identification. Application of two different methods was shown to further improve proteome coverage.
Phonological Pun-derstanding

Many puns create humor through the relationship between a pun and its phonologically similar target. For example, in “Don’t take ge-ologists for granite” the word “granite” is a pun with the target “granted”. The recovery of the target in the mind of the listener is essential to the success of the pun. This work introduces a new model for automatic target recovery and provides the ﬁrst empirical test for this task. The model draws upon techniques for automatic speech recognition using weighted ﬁnite-state transducers, and leverages automatically learned phone edit probabilities that give insight into how people perceive sounds and into what makes a good pun. The model is evaluated on a small corpus where it is able to automatically recover a large fraction of the pun targets.
NUTRITIONAL MANIPULATION OF HEAT STRESS IN BROILERS

Introduction Birds in hot environments reduce feed consumption naturally, reducing heat from metabolism. Feed conversion efficiency and growth rate is also reduced. Techniques that increase activity or stimulate food consumption may be counterproductive. Feed removal prior to the hottest part of the day has been shown to be beneficial in reducing mortality. The advantages are reduced metabolic heat output, and where feeds systems can be lifted, increased floor space and improved air distribution over the floor. Where feed consumption is decreased due to spells of hot weather, dietary adjustments can help maintain a good supply of nutrients. Protein contributes more metabolic heat than fats and carbohydrates, so a correct energy: protein ratio is important. Dietary vitamins and minerals can be reformulated. Comfort zone of temperature in poultry: Birds perform well within a relatively wide range of temperatures. Whether they are broilers, layers or turkeys, this range extends between 10 and 27° C. The highest growth rate of broilers occurs in the range of 10-22° C while maximum feed efficiency is at about 27° C (Kampen, 1984). The optimum temperature for performance of growing broilers is 18-22° C (Charles, 2002). It is known, however, that what is ideal for growth is not ideal for feed efficiency. The most important factor affecting performance in broilers subjected to high temperature is reduced feed intake. However, only part of the reduced performance of broilers is due to reduced feed intake and the rest is due to high temperature per se. In broilers 63% of the reduction in growth is due to reduced feed intake (Dale and Fuller, 1979). Nutritional manipulation: Environmental interventions available for reducing the temperature are not economically feasible for many broiler producers to modify the environment. Hence, reducing the heat stress on broilers through nutritional manipulation would be valuable. International Journal of Science, Environment ISSN 2278-3687 (O) and Technology, Vol. 5, No 6, 2016, 3939 – 42 2277-663X (P)