Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
1ES 1927+654: Persistent and rapid X-ray variability in an AGN with low intrinsic neutral X-ray absorption and narrow optical emission lines

We present X-ray and optical observations of the X-ray bright AGN I ES 1927+654. The X-ray observations obtained with ROSAT and Chandra reveal persistent, rapid and large scale variations, as well as steep 0.1-2.4 keV (Γ = 2.6 ′ 0.3) and 0.3-7.0 keV (F = 2.7 ′ 0.2) spectra. The measured intrinsic neutral X-ray column density is approximately 7 x 10 2 0 cm - 2 . The X-ray timing properties indicate that the strong variations originate from a region, a few hundred light seconds from the central black hole, typical for type 1 AGN. High quality optical spectroscopy reveals a typical Seyfert 2 spectrum with some host galaxy contamination and no evidence of Fe II multiplets or broad hydrogen Balmer wings. The intrinsic optical extinction derived from the BLR and NLR are A v > 3.7 and A v = 1.7, respectively. The X-ray observations give an A v value of less than 0.58, in contrast to the optical extinction values. We discuss several ideas to explain this apparent difference in classification including partial covering, an underluminous BLR or a high dust to gas ratio.
Automated fuzzy classification with combinatorial refinement

In modern industrial applications driven by Cyber-physical systems (CPS) it is a challenging task to model and optimize processes such as machine analysis and diagnosis. Since the CPS have to act autonomously, a procedure for automated decision making has to be designed. In our work we concentrate on the design of a decision procedure by a fuzzy classifier approach. For our application on decision making in an industrial environment, a fuzzy approach was picked as convenient classification technique regarding balance between accuracy and computational time. We present a supervised learning method called FUZZY-ComRef which combines fuzzy classification and our combinatorial refinement method, called ComRef [1]. Due to the fact that fuzzy classification might behave inaccurately for some datasets, the aim of our approach is to improve the results provided by the (stand-alone) fuzzy classification. We show the performance of FUZZY-ComRef evaluated on the samples from the UCI Repository and on our real-world dataset Motor Drive Diagnosis. In addition, we discuss the quadratic computational time problem arising from the combinatorial nature of ComRef. Furthermore, we show based on real-time evaluations that within parallelisation the proposed FUZZY-ComRef is suitable to many applications in CPS.
Psychological Study of Perceived Religious Discrimination and Its Consequences for a Muslim Population

This study focuses on the consequences of perceived religious discrimination on a Muslim population. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to assess the impact of perceived religious discrimination in the news media on a number of individual variables (self-esteem and perceived stress). It was also aimed at studying identification as a coping mechanism. A total of 88 Muslim participants took part in this study. The mediation analyses carried out confirm that group identification plays a mediating role in the indirect relationship between perceived religious discrimination in the news media and perceived stress. This discussion highlights the benefits of social support against the deleterious effects of discrimination.
Improved cluster center adaption for image classification

The feature coding algorithm, “Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors (VLAD)”, can be used effectively for large scale object instance retrieval. Despite its effectiveness and excellent performance, the existence of ambiguous cluster centers can reduce the performance. Though an idea to this problem has been proposed, it is not practical in fact. In this paper, we analyze possible situations that cause effect on the results and propose a novel approach to improve the VLAD method. The proposed method mainly focuses on the similarity measure between each two images. For each two images, we adapt the original cluster center to VLAD vectors. As we illustrate, our method has promising results with small vocabulary size on both datasets of 15 Scenes and VOC2007.
Evaluating performance among different TCP flows in a differentiated services enabled network

This paper examines the interaction among shortlived and long-lived TCP flows in a test network that can be operated as an ordinary best effort or as a differentiated services (DS) enabled network, and shows how TCP service can be improved by isolating TCP flows based on their different characteristics. The target of the measurements was to investigate the interaction among TCP flows having similar priority classification but different traffic volume. The flows are originating from a single customer network and destined to the ISPs (Internet service providers) DS enabled network. With our measurements, we have shown the benefits resulting from the separation of such TCP flows into two categories: large-volume long-lived FTP-type flows and small-volume short-lived interactive (e.g. HTTP-type) flows. For FTP flows goodput was increased and for HTTP flows decreased transfer time was obtained.
Iterative refinement of specification for component based embedded systems

The current practice of component based engineering raises concerns in industry when the specification of proprietary components suffers from inaccuracy and incompleteness. Engineers face difficulties in producing quality systems when they lack knowledge of the interoperability of components. In order to address this issue, we present a novel framework for iterative refinement of specification for component based systems. The novelty is the use of a preliminary behavioral model as a source for triggering refinement iterations. Moreover, it exploits rigorous formal techniques to achieve high-level system validation as an integral part of the refinement procedure. The framework has been evaluated on an automotive system in which the embedded software control units were developed by third-party vendors. The final results produced an improved formal system specification that identified several behaviors that were previously unknown.
Caring about Success: Students' Perceptions of Professors' Caring Matters More than Grit.

Retention in higher education has become an important area of focus in recent years; however, much of the research has been conducted on large, research-intensive universities, leading to questions of whether these findings apply to institutions with different characteristics. In the current study, fortyfour students at a small, teaching-focused university completed self-report measures on their academic success (performance and commitment), sense of belonging, and grit. Participants were classified as belonging to one of four groups: HPHC (high performing, high commitment), HPLC (high performing, low commitment), LPHC (low performing, high commitment), or LPLC (low performing, low commitment). ANOVAs and post-hoc tests revealed that LPLC students were significantly lower than all other groups on self-reported professors’ pedagogical caring. Interestingly, no group differences emerged for grit, social acceptance, or global university belonging. Implications for prevention and intervention programs are discussed.
Light field based digital refocusing using a DSLR camera with a pinhole array mask

In this paper, a computational photography system is utilized to sample 4D light fields. The system is implemented using a normal DSLR camera with a mask printed using Kodak LVT technique. We reconfigure the camera by inserting a pinhole array mask in front of the sensors. The mask blocks part of light and samples the rest that passes through the pinholes. With these 4D light field data, the refocused images are obtained by rearranging the captured sub-images. The range of refocusing is also studied to avoid diffraction blurring effect in the refocused images.
A heuristic for the automatic parameterization of the spectral clustering algorithm

Finding the optimal number of groups in the context of a clustering algorithm is a known as a diﬃcult problem. In this article, we describe and evaluate a heuristic thereof for the spectral clustering algorithm. Our method is deterministic, and remarkable by its low computational burden. We show its eﬀectiveness in most cases. Some limits are identiﬁed though, and serve to the formulation of perspectives to this work.
Simulation of particulate systems using the concept of the interval of quiescence

A simulation procedure is presented in this work which can analyze the behavior of any dispersed phase system consisting of particles whose random behavior is specified in terms of probability functions. The procedure distinguishes itself from its predecessors in being free from arbitrary discretization of time or any other parameter along which the system evolves, and its ability to predict the behavior of randomly behaving small populations. Where population balance equations, which describe the behavior of particulate systems, cannot be readily solved, the simulation technique presented herein represents an efficient alternative to the modeling of such systems. Tables and a flow chart are given which would enable the use of the method for any system with specified particle behavior.
Visualization of complicated objects for hydraulic engineering based on OpenGL

Construction and visualization of three-dimensional (3D) complicated objects has become an important task in many GIS and their applications. Main process to construct a true 3D virtual scene with the programmable visualization environment OpenGL for water conservancy works is introduced. A simulation system developed by the authors is presented for importing, filtering and visualizing of complex geographical related data. Culling, lighting, shading and antialiasing were introduced to enhance the 3D visualization effects of the objects. Aspects like presentations of data with spatial dependence, virtual roaming in the terrain and geographical frame of reference and in time, interaction techniques are presented.
Navigation of mobile robot in dynamic environments

The main goal of mobile robot navigation is the steering of a robot in any direction, in particularly towards the goal, and to know its precise location in the environment. The existing path finding methods are basically based on potential field method, vector field histogram and A* methods. Using these methods the finding of feasible path will not complete in reasonable short time for real-time operation. This paper is devoted to the development and implementation of path finding algorithm that obtains the path in required short time. A rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm that quickly finds a feasible solution is basically used to solve this problem. However, the RRT algorithm alone does not return better results. Here the integration of RRT with path smoothing techniques is considered. Through simulation it was shown that this algorithm has efficiently finds desirable and near optimal solutions in short time.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY, ANTI-ARTHRITIC AND ANALGESIC ACTIVITY OF THE ALCOHOLIC EXTRACT OF THE PLANT URGINEA INDICA KUNTH

This study was designed to present the observation of the pharmacological properties to the bulb of the plant. The extract of the bulb of Urginea indica Kunth. were collected by using of alcoholic extraction. The anti-inflammatory action of the alcoholic Extract of the bulb of the plant Urginea indica was evaluated in rats (female) against carrageenan induced edema i.e., using plethysmographic method. Besides this method, this extract was also assessed for Cotton pellet test and Hot plate test for anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects respectively. The effects of the extract were compared with the classical anti-inflammatory drug Ibuprofen. The crude extract and the standard drug were orally administered. A significant anti-inflammatory effect was produced with the Alcoholic Extract of the plant part. This effect was then compared with the effect from the classical anti-inflammatory drug. INTRODUCTION: Urginea indica Kunth. , Fam: Liliaceae (bengali: banpiaaj, janglipiaaj), is a perennial plant with fibrous roots proceeding from the base of a large, tunicated, nearly globular bulb, 4 to 6 inches long, the outer scales of which are thin and papery, red or orange-brown in color. It is also known as Maritime Squill, Scilla maritima (Linn.), Urginea maritime, Whitesquill, Red-squill . The flowers are in bloom in April and May and are followed by oblong capsules. It is a very variable plant, the bulb differing greatly in size and color, and the leaves of the flower presenting similar varieties, which has led to the formation of several species, about twenty-five species having been described. Two varieties of Squill, termed respectively white and red, are distinguished by druggists. In the first named, the bulb scales are whitish or yellowish in color, whereas the red species has deep, reddish brown outer scales and yellowish white inner scales, covered with a pinkish epidermis, intermediate forms also occurring. No essential difference exists in the medicinal properties of the two kinds. Merck, in 1879, separated the three bitter glucosidal substances Scillitoxin, Scillipicrin and Scillin. Other constituents are mucilaginous and saccharine matter, including a peculiar mucilaginous carbohydrate named Sinistrin, an Inulin-like substance. The bulb has antifungal 2, , antiangiogenic and proapoptotic activity , asthma , emmenagogue, antihelmintic, purgative, alexiteric, useful in paralysis, bronchitis, dropsy, rheumatism, renal calculi, leprosy, skin diseases, headache, disease of nose, internal pains, scabies . Three novel flavonoid glycosides, 5,6-dimethyoxy-3', 4''dioxymethylene7O(6''betaDglucopyranosyl
Stimulating physical and social play through open-ended play

In this paper, we describe our design research on tangible play objects that stimulate social and physical play. We illustrate our work by describing a design case about an open-ended play object for children called the ColorFlare. The ColorFlare is an object that detects the player’s movements and provides light feedback and that can communicate with other ColorFlares. A user test is described that examined how children use the ColorFlare to collaboratively create various (physical) games. We relate our research to definitions of embodied interaction: e.g. how do children allocate meaning to the interaction behaviour of the play objects and jointly create diverse games during the play sessions.
The Influence of Self-worth on the Burnout of Health Care Teachers in Primary and Secondary Schools in Shanghai

Purpose: To explore the status of self-worth and job burnout of health care teachers in primary and secondary schools in Shanghai, and to analyze the relationship between them. Method: In this study, 227 health care teachers in primary and secondary schools from 16 districts of Shanghai were selected by random sampling. Questionnaires on Self-Worth of Primary and Secondary School Teachers, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire and Job Burnout Scale of Primary and Secondary School Teachers were used to conduct the survey. Results: The job burnout of health care teachers in primary and secondary schools in Shanghai was at a medium level, and the overall coping style was more positive. There was a significant difference in self-worth and burnout among full-time and part-time primary and secondary health care teachers. The self-worth value of full-time health care teachers was significantly higher than that of part-time health care teachers, and the burnout was significantly lower than that of part-time health care teachers. The coping styles of health care teachers in primary and secondary schools have a mediating effect in self-worth and burnout. Conclusion: The job burnout of health care teachers in primary and secondary schools was not obvious, and the coping style can predict the degree of job burnout of health care teachers.
A classifier-based association test for imbalanced data derived from prediction theory

How can we test for group differences in multidimensional input patterns, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging measurements or gene expression values? One solution is to split the available data into training and test set, and to estimate the generalization accuracy of a classifier that predicts the group variable from the input pattern. If this lies significantly above chance level, we can reject the null hypothesis of no association. This test is straightforward for balanced data, where all groups are equally frequent in the data set. However, data sets collected in observational studies are often imbalanced. Then accuracy is no longer a suitable measure of performance, and balanced accuracy should be used instead. In this paper, we give an overview on existing analytical tests and use the framework of prediction theory to derive a new test for the balanced accuracy of a classifier. We then use numerical simulations to evaluate the type I error rate and the power of two tests for imbalanced data.
Durata della disoccupazione e probabilità di reimpiego in presenza di incentivi all'assunzione: l'evidenza empirica della lista di mobilità della regione Umbria

Under an important scheme in the Italian system of income support for the unemployed, the "indennita di mobilita" (introduced in 1991), this benefit is transerable to any employer who would hire the beneficiary. This is the core of the benefit transfer program proposed by Snower, which has received much attention in the debate on reforming unemployment insurance in Europe. We use survival analysis to estimate the effect of such a scheme on unemployment duration and re-employment probabilities, for a sample of unemployed workers enrolled in the mobility list in the Region of Umbria. We find that the benefit transfer does not seem to be effective in redistributing employment opportunities. In particular, re-employment probabilities are lower for older workers, who are entitled to a benefit of longer duration: apparently the effect of a higher reservation wage dominates the incentive of a larger subsidy for potential employers.
The explore of the Case Study activities with a Web-based Environment

This article is to introduce the explore method of case study activities with a web-based environment (WebCASE), including the learning object, the study proposal and the conclusion’s discussion. In this paper the research mainly concerns problems from two levels: one is how to organize case study activities and the other is how to use effective web-based study environment to support case study activities. We develop two sections of research work: prototype implementing section and practice research section. In prototype implementing section, we study the current popular case databases all over the world and the requirement for web-based case study environment of users by literature review, questionnaire statistics, and personal interviews. Based on the initial requirement, we design and implement a prototype system of Web-based Case Assisted Study Environment, WebCASE. Research work and results of prototype system implementation can be found in. In practice research section, we study the case study activities supported by WebCASE prototype system, with the course “Industry System Introduction” as our reference.
Research on Mechanism of Agricultural FAQ Retrieval Based on Ontology

In this paper, an ontology-based system for the agricultural FAQ retrieval was presented. A small pool of candidate question-answering pairs and sentence similarity were obtained using ontology-based automatic classification. The best performance was got based on splitted vector space model and semantic concept. The experiment was made to test the effect of the system. The satisfying results were obtained which proved that the system could effectively improve the performance of the agricultural domain FAQ retrieval system comparing with the baseline keyword FAQ system.
Quantifying the Bimodal Color-Magnitude Distribution of Galaxies

We analyze the bivariate distribution, in color versus absolute magnitude (u-r vs. Mr), of a low-redshift sample of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (2400 deg2, 0.004 < z < 0.08, -23.5 < Mr < -15.5). We trace the bimodality of the distribution from luminous to faint galaxies by fitting double Gaussians to the color functions separated in absolute magnitude bins. Color-magnitude (CM) relations are obtained for red and blue distributions (early- and late-type, predominantly field, galaxies) without using any cut in morphology. Instead, the analysis is based on the assumption of normal Gaussian distributions in color. We find that the CM relations are well fitted by a straight line plus a tanh function. Both relations can be described by a shallow CM trend (slopes of about -0.04, -0.05) plus a steeper transition in the average galaxy properties over about 2 mag. The midpoints of the transitions (Mr = -19.8 and -20.8 for the red and blue distributions, respectively) occur around 2 × 1010 ℳ☉ after converting luminosities to stellar mass. Separate luminosity functions are obtained for the two distributions. The red distribution has a more luminous characteristic magnitude and a shallower faint-end slope (M* = -21.5, α = -0.8) compared to the blue distribution (α ≈ -1.3, depending on the parameterization). These are approximately converted to galaxy stellar mass functions. The red distribution galaxies have a higher number density per magnitude for masses greater than about 3 × 1010 ℳ☉. Using a simple merger model, we show that the differences between the two functions are consistent with the red distribution being formed from major galaxy mergers.
Performance of a queuing model With Pareto input traffic for wireless network nodes

In the past few years, packet traffic from various sources - Ethernet, ISDN, CCSN and VBR video - has been shown to exhibit self-similarity and related properties of long range correlation. Recent research has shown that self-similar nature of traffic still exists in the traffic of wireless networks. Since Pareto process generates self-similar arrivals, we analyzed the queue behavior with Pareto interarrival and exponential service time distribution via phase-type (PH) distributions fitting technique and matrix geometric solution approach. Average queue length and loss probability were derived and verified via extensive simulations and the results can provide a practical insight into the buffer dimensioning and admission control as well as QoS providing for wireless network.
What Are Ethics in Doctoral Supervision, and How Do They Matter? Doctoral Students’ Perspective

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine ethics in doctoral supervision, and to analyse whether ethical issues in doctoral supervision relate to doctoral experience, and if they do, how. It focused on doctoral students and explored the relationships between ethical issues in doctoral supervision and attrition intentions, research engagement, satisfaction with supervision and with doctoral studies, and burnout. The study provides a tool for analyzing ethical issues in doctoral supervision. The respondents were 236 doctoral students in behavioral sciences. Ethics in supervision predicted both positive outcome variables (engagement, satisfaction with doctoral studies and supervision) and negative ones (burnout, attrition intentions). Autonomy and beneficence were essential components for engagement, while fidelity, justice, and non-maleficence were vital for satisfaction.