Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workflow Management As You Like It

Workflow Management Systems (WfMS’s) offer a tremendous potential for organizations. Shorter lead times, less mistakes in work handoffs, and a better insight into process execution are some of the most notable advantages experienced in practice. At the same time, the introduction of these systems on the work floor undoubtedly results in great changes in the way that business professionals coordinate their work. If a WfMS's coordination of work is experienced as too rigid or mechanistic, it may negatively affect employees' motivation, performance, and satisfaction. In this paper, we propose a set of measures to "tune" functioning workflow systems to minimize such effects. The measures we propose do not require undue cost, time, or organizational changes, as they characteristically lie within the configurable options of a WfMS. We asked an expert panel to select and validate the 6 most promising measures, which we present in this paper. From our evaluation of three commercial WfMS products, we conclude the ease with which the 6 measures can be implemented depends on the specific WfMS product.
PKCα Is Activated But Not Required During Glucose-Induced Insulin Secretion From Rat Pancreatic Islets

The role of protein kinase C (PKC) in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) is controversial. Using recombinant adenoviruses for overexpression of PKCalpha and PKCdelta, in both wild-type (WT) and kinase-dead (KD) forms, we here demonstrate that activation of these two PKCs is neither necessary nor sufficient for GSIS from batch-incubated, rat pancreatic islets. In contrast, responses to the pharmacologic activator 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) were reciprocally modulated by overexpression of the PKCalphaWT or PKCalphaKD but not the corresponding PKCdelta adenoviruses. The kinetics of the secretory response to glucose (monitored by perifusion) were not altered in either cultured islets overexpressing PKCalphaKD or freshly isolated islets stimulated in the presence of the conventional PKC (cPKC) inhibitor Go6976. However, the latter did inhibit the secretory response to TPA. Using phosphorylation state-specific antisera for consensus PKC phosphorylation sites, we also showed that (compared with TPA) glucose causes only a modest and transient functional activation of PKC (maximal at 2-5 min). However, glucose did promote a prolonged (15 min) phosphorylation of PKC substrates in the presence of the phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid. Overall, the results demonstrate that glucose does stimulate PKCalphain pancreatic islets but that this makes little overall contribution to GSIS.
Study of the usefulness of known and new implicit indicators and their optimal combination for accurate inference of users interests

Explicit relevance feedback involves explicit ratings of documents or terms by users and disrupts their browsing and searching. The alternative non-disruptive method is implicit feedback inferring users' needs and interests by monitoring their regular interaction with the system. Some implicit indicators of interest, such as reading time, have been investigated in previous studies and were found indicative to the relevance of documents but not sufficiently accurate [1,2,3,4]. In this paper we present and examine several new relative implicit feedback indicators, and study the effect of combining several implicit indicators. The paper describes a large-scale user study on which users' searches were observed by a specially developed browser that recorded their behavior (implicit indicators) as well as their explicit ratings. We analyzed the relationship between implicit indicators and explicit ratings and found that a certain combination of implicit indicators achieved higher correlation with the explicit ratings than any of the individual indicators. We have also found that the relative indicators are more indicative to the level of interest of a user item than the non-relative indicators.
Women on Boards and Corporate Social Responsibility

A growing body of research suggests that having more women in the boardroom leads to better corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. However, much of this work views the CSR-enhancing effect of women directors as largely driven by their moral orientations and rarely considers other underlying mechanisms. Moreover, less explored are the firm-specific conditions under which such CSR-promoting roles of female directors might be performed more (or less) effectively. In this paper, we seek to bridge this gap in the literature by (1) proposing an additional account for the positive influence of female independent directors on the firm’s CSR and (2) illuminating the organizational context in which female directorship is likely to translate into good CSR performance. We argue that women independent directors might take CSR issues more seriously than their male counterparts not only because of their stronger moral orientations, but also because they have reputational reasons to do so. Further, we suggest that female directors’ concerns about CSR-relevant matters are more (less) likely to gain support from other members of the organization when their company is doing more (less) business in the product markets where reputation for CSR is more (less) vital for success. Using a sample of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 1500 index firms (2000–2009) and the data on their board composition and CSR ratings, we find strong support for our argument. We find that the number (or proportion) of women independent directors is positively associated with a firm’s CSR ratings and that the strength of this relationship depends on the level of the firm’s consumer market orientation.
Compressed Unscented Kalman filter-based SLAM

This paper proposes a real-time nonlinear filtering approach for the SLAM problem, termed as compressed Unscented Kalman filter (CUKF). A partial sampling strategy was recently proposed to make the computational complexity of the UKF quadratic with the state-vector dimension. However, the quadratic complexity remains intractable for the large-scale SLAM. To address this problem, we firstly prove the equivalence of the partial and full sampling strategies for the decoupled nonlinear system. Then a compressed form is presented by reformulating the cross-correlation items. Finally, experimental results based on simulated and practical datasets validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Adopting a Blended Learning Approach: Challenges Encountered and Lessons Learned in an Action Research Study.

Adopting a new teaching approach is often a daunting task especially if one is an early adopter in a limited-resource environment. This article describes the challenges encountered and the strategies used in pilot testing a blended instructional method in a large size class within the college of education at a medium-sized university. The main reasons for using the hybrid method were to improve student participation, preparation, and understanding as well as to encourage a more active rather than passive approach to learning which can be particularly difficult in large-sized, undergraduate courses. An action research study was used to document the adoption process and to measure the impact of the blended approach. The results of the action research study and the issues and barriers encountered when implementing a new instructional strategy are discussed as well as ideas for motivating and helping faculty when there is limited funding, training, and support available.
ECVP '07 Abstracts

Observers perceive sinusoidal shading patterns as being due to sinusoidally corrugated surfaces, and perceive surface peaks to be offset from luminance maxima by between zero and 1/4 wavelength. This offset varies with grating orientation. Physically, the shading profile of a sinusoidal surface will be approximately sinusoidal, with the same spatial frequency as the surface, only when: (A) it is lit suitably obliquely by a point source, or (B) the light source is diffuse and hemispherical--the 'dark is deep' rule applies. For A, surface peaks will be offset by 1/4 wavelength from the luminance maxima; for B, this offset will be zero. As the sum of two same-frequency sinusoids with different phases is a sinusoid of intermediate phase, our results suggest that observers assume a mixture of two light sources whose relative strength varies with grating orientation. The perceived surface offsets imply that gratings close to horizontal are taken to be lit by a point source; those close to vertical by a diffuse source. [Supported by EPSRC grants to AJS and MAG].
Can cloud computing reach the top500?

Computing as a utility has reached the mainstream. Scientists can now rent time on large commercial clusters through several vendors. The cloud computing model provides flexible support for "pay as you go" systems. In addition to no upfront investment in large clusters or supercomputers, such systems incur no maintenance costs. Furthermore, they can be expanded and reduced on-demand in real-time. Current cloud computing performance falls short of systems specifically designed for scientific applications. Scientific computing needs are quite different from those of web applications--composed primarily of database queries--that have been the focus of cloud computing vendors. In this paper we investigate the use of cloud computing for high-performance numerical applications. In particular, we assume unlimited monetary resources to answer the question, "How high can a cloud computing service get in the TOP500 list? " We show results for the Linpack benchmark on different allocations on Amazon EC2.
The Impact of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility on Frontline Employee’s Emotional Labor Strategies

This study explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility and emotional labor strategies of frontline employees. In particular, the research focuses on the impact of perceived motives of corporate social responsibility on the cynicism, authenticity, and subsequently, the effect of cynicism and authenticity on surface acting and deep acting of frontline employees. Based on the online survey of 258 frontline employees in South Korea and structural equation modeling of the data, the findings show that the selfish motives of corporate social responsibility (CSR) increase cynicism whereas the altruistic motives of corporate social responsibility increase authenticity and decrease cynicism of frontline employees. In addition, this study reveals that CSR-cynicism leads to surface acting and reduces deep acting whereas CSR-authenticity increases deep acting and does not significantly affect surface acting of frontline employees.
BSP Shapes

We discuss a shape representation based on a set of disconnected (planar) polygons. The polygons are computed by creating a BSP that contains approximately linear surface patches in each cell. This is achieved by employing two heuristics for finding appropriate split planes in each cell. Leaf nodes in the BSP tree represent either polygonal surface approximations or empty (clip) cells rather than split planes. We show that the resulting set of disconnected primitives typically leads to a better two-sided Hausdorff error for a given number of primitives than meshes. The BSP cells can be coded with few bits and, consequently, the tree is a compact shape representation. The special properties of BSPs are very useful in applications that need to perform spatial queries on the primitives, such as for occlusion and view frustum culling, and proximity or collision tests
PRICING COMMODITY DERIVATIVES WITH BASIS RISK AND PARTIAL OBSERVATIONS

We study the problem of pricing claims written on an over-the-counter energy contract. Because the underlying is illiquid, we work with an indifference pricing framework based on a liquid reference contract. Extending current convenience yield frameworks we propose a two-factor partially observed model for the benchmark asset. Moreover, we incorporate direct modeling of the unhedgeable basis. We then study the value function corresponding to utility pricing with exponential utility. After performing filtering this leads to an infinite-dimensional Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. We show that if the basis is totally independent, the indifference price of the claim is equal to its certainty equivalent. In the more interesting case where the basis depends on the unobserved factor we obtain a reduced-form expression for the price in terms of a conditional expectation. We show how to numerically compute this expectation using a Kalman or particle filter. Our basic model may be generalized to include nonlinear dynamics and further dependencies. Date: July 2006.
Message Passing Interface support for the runtime adaptive multi-processor system-on-chip RAMPSoC

Parallel processor architectures are a promising solution to provide the required computing performance for current and future high performance applications. Certainly, the impact on the computational power of such a parallel computer system is related to the inherent parallelism of the algorithm to be implemented. The implementation of an algorithm onto a parallel computer architecture, requires from the developers a good knowledge of the underlying hardware in order to exploit the effect of the parallelization most beneficial. In order to hide as good as possible the complexity of the hardware from the developers, novel programming languages for parallel computers were developed. For example the programming models CUDA, OpenMP, OpenCL, Open GL and MPI are targeting novel multiprocessor system-on-chip architectures like the Intel Single Chip Cloud Computer with 48 cores or the Nvidia Tesla processors with hundreds of processor cores. If a new hardware architecture is invented and developed, it is always beneficial to follow standards in programming models in order to keep a compatibility to already developed programs. A novel runtime adaptive multiprocessor system-on-chip is the RAMPSoC. RAMPSoC combines the benefits of multiprocessors and reconfigurable hardware in one system and is therefore of high importance for future system design. In order to align the RAMPSoC approach to current standards, a support for Message Passing Interface (MPI) was included recently. This important step allows now to re-use already existing source code written with MPI extensions on a runtime adaptive platform.
A Novel Chimeric Avidin with Increased Thermal Stability Using DNA Shuffling

Avidins are a family of proteins widely employed in biotechnology. We have previously shown that functional chimeric mutant proteins can be created from avidin and avidin-related protein 2 using a methodology combining random mutagenesis by recombination and selection by a tailored biopanning protocol (phage display). Here, we report the crystal structure of one of the previously selected and characterized chimeric avidin forms, A/A2-1. The structure was solved at 1.8 Å resolution and revealed that the protein fold was not affected by the shuffled sequences. The structure also supports the previously observed physicochemical properties of the mutant. Furthermore, we improved the selection and screening methodology to select for chimeric avidins with slower dissociation rate from biotin than were selected earlier. This resulted in the chimeric mutant A/A2-B, which showed increased thermal stability as compared to A/A2-1 and the parental proteins. The increased stability was especially evident at conditions of extreme pH as characterized using differential scanning calorimetry. In addition, amino acid sequence and structural comparison of the chimeric mutants and the parental proteins led to the rational design of A/A2-B I109K. This mutation further decreased the dissociation rate from biotin and yielded an increase in the thermal stability.
Weak Affine Light Typing is complete with respect to Safe Recursion on Notation

Weak affine light typing (WALT) assigns light affine linear formulae as types to a subset of lambda-terms of System F. WALT is poly-time sound: if a lambda-term M has type in WALT, M can be evaluated with a polynomial cost in the dimension of the derivation that gives it a type. The evaluation proceeds under any strategy of a rewriting relation which is a mix of both call-by-name and call-by-value beta-reductions. WALT weakens, namely generalizes, the notion of "stratification of deductions", common to some Light Systems -- those logical systems, derived from Linear logic, to characterize the set of Polynomial functions -- . A weaker stratification allows to define a compositional embedding of Safe recursion on notation (SRN) into WALT. It turns out that the expressivity of WALT is strictly stronger than the one of the known Light Systems. The embedding passes through the representation of a subsystem of SRN. It is obtained by restricting the composition scheme of SRN to one that can only use its safe variables linearly. On one side, this suggests that SRN, in fact, can be redefined in terms of more primitive constructs. On the other, the embedding of SRN into WALT enjoys the two following remarkable aspects. Every datatype, required by the embedding, is represented from scratch, showing the strong structural proof-theoretical roots of WALT. Moreover, the embedding highlights a stratification structure of the normal and safe arguments, normally hidden inside the world of SRN-normal/safe variables: the less an argument is "polyomially impredicative", the deeper, in a formal, proof-theoretical sense, it is represented inside WALT. Finally, since WALT is SRN-complete it is also polynomial-time complete since SRN is.
A Transformational Approach for the Hardening of Region-Adherent Algorithms

We present new findings for a new class of fault-tolerant distributed algorithms based on a concept called region adherence. A region-adherent algorithm upper-bounds the violation of safety due to faults in space. Region adherence counter-poses the concept of self-stabilization which upper-bounds a violation of safety in time. We report on a way to systematically tighten the lower bounds of service quality known of a region-adherent algorithm. Additionally, we present a technique - which we call hardening - for transforming a region-adherent algorithm into a region-adherent algorithm that compensates n+1 times as many faults as the input algorithm where n can freely be chosen. We explain how the technique works, what its underlying concepts are, its limitations, and prove its correctness. Finally, we compare the region adherence property of a hardened algorithm with its original, un-hardened counterpart by an example, thereby quantifying the beneficial impact of the transformation.
Wideband Rectangular Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) with Slot-Fed Design

A novel wideband rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is proposed in this paper. A hybrid structure with an isolated dielectric resonator (DR) and an equivalent air-dielectric DR is introduced by lifting the resonator from the ground plane. The hybrid structure is excited by a slot-fed mechanism to obtain a smooth transition between each resonant mode. The resonant modes of the isolated DR and the equivalent DR are merged together to form a wideband impedance bandwidth. It is found that the bandwidth of the proposed antenna can be greatly enhanced by using the hybrid DRA structure instead of the case mounted on the ground plane. A detailed parametric study is carried out to analyze the characteristics of the proposed antenna. Measured results show that the proposed DRA has a 10dB impedance bandwidth of 61% from 2.4GHz to 4.5GHz and the radiation pattern is stable through the operating frequency.
Testing Sphinx's Language Model Fault-Tolerance for the Holy Quran

The Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Sphinx framework is increasingly used for the Arabic speech recognition in general and applied to the Holy Quran in particular. Generating the language model includes a tedious task of preparing the transcriptions for all the data. In this paper, we investigate the fault-tolerance of the automatically generated language model as compared to a corrected and uncorrected transcription with and without silence tagging. This editing addresses the different repetitions and pauses encountered during recitations. Experiments show that the average difference between the lowest and highest Word Error Rate (WER) for each configuration of the number of Senones is 0.6% when using all files for the training and 1.6% when using 80% of the files for training the language model of 17 chapters of the Holy Quran. Results show that the performance of trained models without any correction can be close to when all required rectifications of transcriptions are performed.
The development of an Ada front end for small computers

This paper concerns the design of an Ada front end that was required to be hosted on small computers. The paper discusses the special problems to be solved when implementing a compiler for a large language, like Ada, on machines with limited resources and capabilities, such as 16 bits for storage addressing. We also outline various possible solutions to these problems and describe in some detail the actual solutions applied in the Ada front end developed by Dansk Datamatik Center (DDC) as part of the Portable Ada Programming System.
Vertebrate Ancient-Long Opsin: A Green-Sensitive Photoreceptive Molecule Present in Zebrafish Deep Brain and Retinal Horizontal Cells

Nonretinal/nonpineal photosensitivity has been found in the brain of vertebrates, but the molecular basis for such a “deep brain” photoreception system remains unclear. We conducted an extensive search for brain opsin cDNAs of the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a useful animal model for genetic studies, and we have isolated a partial cDNA clone encoding an ortholog of vertebrate ancient (VA) opsin, the function of which is unknown. Subsequent characterization revealed the occurrence of two kinds of mRNAs encoding putative splicing variants, VA and VA-Long (VAL) opsin, the latter of which is a novel variant of the former. Both opsins shared a common core sequence in the membrane-spanning domains, but VAL-opsin had a C-terminal tail much longer than that of VA-opsin. Functional reconstitution experiments on the recombinant proteins showed that VAL-opsin with bound 11-cis-retinal is a green-sensitive pigment (λmax ∼500 nm), whereas VA-opsin exhibited no photosensitivity even in the presence of 11-cis-retinal. Immunoreactivity specific to this functionally active VAL-opsin was localized at a limited number of cells surrounding the diencephalic ventricle of central thalamus, and these cells were distributed over ∼200 μm along the rostrocaudal axis. Taken together with the previous study on the locus of the teleost brain photosensitivity (von Frisch K, 1911), it is strongly suggested that the VAL-positive cells in the zebrafish brain represent the deep brain photoreceptors. The VAL-specific immunoreactivity was also detected in a subset of non-GABAergic horizontal cells in the zebrafish retina. The existence of VAL-opsin, a new member of the rhodopsin superfamily, in these tissues may indicate its multiple roles in visual and nonvisual photosensory physiology.