Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hidden gap in agile methods adoption

The paper extends a research on agile adoption process done by the author as a dissertation thesis [1]. It investigates the success and failures of agile adoption process and offers directions on how to improve the agile adoption in different environments. Furthermore the paper suggests how to start the agile adoption process, providing a guideline defining which questions should be answered and which areas should be understood before the organization may start the adoption process. As an extension of this area, the paper investigates an agile maturity, helping organization in the iterative process improving effort. Additionally, having an appropriate company culture was identified as the most important aspect during the agile adoption process. But however, this implies the change ability and acceptance for most of the organizations. In addition to that, the paper summarizes a soft guideline on how to adopt agile methods, and defines two new frameworks on how to start adoption process and how to improve it during the adoption iteration cycle.
Do Financial Counseling Mandates Improve Mortgage Choice and Performance ? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

We explore the effects of mandatory third-party review of mortgage contracts on the terms, availability, and performance of mortgage credit. Our study is based on a natural experiment in which the State of Illinois required ‘high-risk’ mortgage applicants acquiring or refinancing properties in 10 specific zip codes to submit loan offers from state-licensed lenders to review by HUD-certified financial counselors. We document that the legislation led to declines in both the supply of and demand for credit, with statelicensed lenders and lower-quality borrowers disproportionately exiting the affected area. Controlling for the salient characteristics of the remaining borrowers and lenders, we find that the legislation succeeded in reducing ex post default rates among counseled borrowers by close to 4 percentage points (about 35% decline). We attribute this result to actions of lenders responding to the presence of external review and, to a lesser extent, to counseled borrowers renegotiating their loan terms. We also find that the legislation nudged some borrowers to choose less risky loan products in order to eschew counseling
Delay fault test generation for scan/hold circuits using Boolean expressions

A new test generation technique for path delay faults in scan/hold type circuits is presented. It uses reduced ordered binary decision diagrams to represent Boolean functions implemented by the subcircuits in a circuit, as well as to represent the constraints to be satisfied by the delay fault test. Two faults are considered for each path in the circuit under test and a pair of constraint functions, corresponding to the two time frames that constitute a transition, is evaluated for each fault. These constraints are then manipulated to obtain robust tests, if they exist; otherwise, nonrobust tests are obtained from the constraint functions, if they exist. An implementation of this technique was used to analyze delay fault testability of several ISCAS '89 benchmark circuits. <<ETX>>
Explorations in Parent-School Relations.

Abstract Grounded in Bandura's (1976, 1986) work, parent efficacy was defined as a parent's belief that he or she is capable of exerting a positive influence on children's school outcomes. Parents' sense of efficacy and its relationship to parent involvement were examined in this study. Parents (n = 390) of children in kindergarten through fourth grade in a metropolitan public school district responded to questionnaires assessing parent efficacy and parent involvement in five types of activities: help with homework, educational activities, classroom volunteering, conference participation, and telephone calls with teachers. Teachers (n = 50) from the same schools also participated, responding to questionnaires assessing teacher efficacy, perceptions of parent efficacy, and estimates of parent involvement. Findings revealed small but significant relationships between self-reported parent efficacy and three of the five indicators of parent involvement. Results for teachers revealed significant relationships .
Eleven themes of patient‐centred professionalism in community pharmacy: innovative approaches to consulting

Objectives The study aimed to clarify patient‐centred professionalism within and across community pharmacy settings; position that knowledge in a modern‐day environment, accessing the opinions and experiences of patients and professionals; inform the literature on the value of consultation workshops within this context; and develop a template of positive and challenging exemplars of patient‐centred professionalism within these contexts.
Energy efficient scheduling in data centers

The explosive growth of the Internet has resulted in tremendous growth of the data centers which primarily serve as the cloud computing backbones. We consider the practical architecture of a real data center where different types of services are implemented in different tiers. We use Model Predictive Control (MPC) based energy aware scheduling algorithms to address the resource allocation problem for deferrable jobs in such a tiered architecture, where the switching cost is accounted for in two different ways. We compare the performance of these two algorithms with respect to the important performance parameters of cumulative electricity cost, cumulative renewable usage and cumulative number of switchings. We discuss the results to provide some insightful understanding on these issues.
On the structure of speaker–auditor interaction during speaking turns

ABSTRACT The structure of speaker–auditor interaction during speaking turns was explored, using detailed transcriptions of language, paralanguage, and body-motion behaviors displayed by both participants in dyadic, face-to-face conversations. On the basis of certain observed regularities in these behaviors, three signals were hypothesized: (a) a speaker within-turn signal, (b) an auditor back-channel signal, and (c) a speaker continuation signal. These signals were composed of various behaviors in language and in body motion. It was further hypothesized that the display of appropriate ordered sequences of these signals by both participants, served to mark ‘units of interaction’ during speaking turns. (Conversational analysis; speaking turns; back-channel behaviors; interrelations of verbal and nonverbal behavior; American English (Chicago)).
On the Importance of Tonal Features for Speech Emotion Recognition

This paper describes an efficiency of chroma based tonal features for speech emotion recognition. As the tonality caused by major or minor keys affects to the perception of musical mood, so the speech tonality affects the perception of the emotional states of spoken utterances. In order to justify this assertion with respect to tonality and emotion, subjective hearing tests are carried out by using synthesized signals generated from chroma features, and consequently show that the tonality contributes especially to the perception of the negative emotion such as anger and sad. In automatic emotion recognition tests, the modified chroma-based tonal features are shown to produce noticeable improvement of accuracy when they are supplemented to the conventional log-frequency power coefficient (LFPC)-based spectral features.
Evolution in the Post-Genome Era

The advent of nucleotide sequence data has created a new era in evolutionary biology. With theoretical underpinnings derived from the work of the late Motoo Kimura, evolutionary concepts have played a key role in the development of the field of bioinformatics. However, the maturation of modern evolutionary biology has been hindered by a conception of natural selection as an all-powerful force shaping every aspect of phenotypic evolution. In new books, Joram Piatigorsky and Michael Lynch provide a corrective to some outdated views and thus provide a glimpse of what the evolutionary biology of the 21st century may look like.
Subject Preference as Related to Test Intelligence, Intended Vocation, College Expectation and Race of High School Seniors in Hawaii

High-school students commonly show considerable variation in their preferences for the subjects of the curriculum, but as to the actual causes of such differences we have little dependable information. Aptitudes, intelli gence and teacher personality have all been found to play a part, but in most instances the numbers investigated have been too small for entirely reliable conclusions. The present study, in one approach to the problem, deals with the relationship between subject preferences and test intelligence (as measured by the 1935 edition of the American Council Psychological Exam ination for High School Graduates and College Freshmen), intended future vocation, expectation as to college entrance and race of 2199 high-school seniors in the Territory of Hawaii. This represents a complete cross-section as all high schools were included.
0 Ju n 20 03 A numerical study of spectral properties of the area operator in loop quantum gravity

The lowest 37000 eigenvalues of the area operator in loop quantum gravity is calculated and studied numerically. We obtain an asymp-totical formula for the eigenvalues as a function of their sequential number. The multiplicity of the lowest few hundred eigenvalues is also determined and the smoothed spectral density is calculated. The spectral density is presented for various number of vertices, edges and SU(2) representations. A scaling form of spectral density is found, being a power law for one vertex, while following an exponential for several vertices. The latter case is explained on the basis of the one vertex spectral density.
A Multifaceted Approach to Expatriate Retention in International Assignments

Building on the commitment and adjustment literature, this article examines the degree to which dual organizational commitments and multiple facets of cross-cultural adjustment relate to expatriate retention in international assignments. In this study of 321 American expatriates assigned to four countries in the Pacific Rim and four countries in Western Europe, multiple regression analysis found that commitment to the parent company was a positive correlate of intent to stay the full duration of international assignments, whereas commitment to the local company was not related to intent to stay. Additionally, cross-cultural adjustment to interaction with host-country nationals and adjustment to the general culture were both positive correlates of intent to stay; however, adjustment to work was not associated with intent to stay. Implications of these findings for management researchers and practitioners are discussed.
Pulsed neutron generator — gamma ray spectrometer measurements of venus elemental composition

Bulk elemental composition measurements are difficult to make on the surface of Venus since all of a lander's instruments have to be housed inside a pressure vessel with sufficient thermal control systems to protect the equipment from the harsh surface conditions (462°C, 93 bars pressure) for at least one hour. The Bulk Elemental Composition Analyzer (BECA) instrument combines a Pulsed Neutron Generator (PNG) with a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) placed inside a Venus lander pressure vessel. BECA allows the measurement of the bulk elemental composition over a large volume beneath a landed probe (∼30 cm deep, ∼50 cm radius). The combination of a high intensity PNG (emitting 5×108 isotropic neutrons per second) and a scintillator GRS with a fast light-decay time (19 ns for CeBr3) allows for gamma-ray count rates in excess of 2 MHz. This extremely high gamma-ray throughput is necessary to provide the counting statistics needed for the ∼1 hour measurement times currently available for Venus landers. Preliminary results from experimental measurements of a BECA prototype in a surface configuration are presented to show the precision and accuracy possible with BECA.
Learning and inference in the presence of corrupted inputs

We consider a model where given an uncorrupted input an adversary can corrupt it to one out of m corrupted inputs. We model the classification and inference problems as a zero-sum game between a learner, minimizing the expected error, and an adversary, maximizing the expected error. The value of this game is the optimal error rate achievable. For learning using a limited hypothesis class H over corrupted inputs, we give an efficient algorithm that given an uncorrupted sample returns a hypothesis h ∈ H whose error on adversarially corrupted inputs is near optimal. Our algorithm uses as a blackbox an oracle that solves the ERM problem for the hypothesis class H. We provide a generalization bound for our setting, showing that for a sufficiently large sample, the performance on the sample and on future unseen corrupted inputs will be similar. This gives an efficient learning algorithm for our adversarial setting, based on an ERM oracle. We also consider an inference related setting of the problem, where given a corrupted input, the learner queries the target function on various uncorrupted inputs and generates a prediction regarding the given corrupted input. There is no limitation on the prediction function the learner may generate, so implicitly the hypothesis class includes all possible hypotheses. In this setting we characterize the optimal learner policy as a minimum vertex cover in a given bipartite graph, and the optimal adversary policy as a maximum matching in the same bipartite graph. We design efficient local algorithms for approximating minimum vertex cover in bipartite graphs, which implies an efficient near optimal algorithm for the learner.
When Rational Sellers Face Nonrational Buyers: Evidence from Herding on eBay

P often observe others’ decisions before deciding themselves. Using eBay data for DVD auctions we explore the consequences of neglecting nonsalient information when making such inferences. We show that bidders herd into auctions with more existing bids, even if these are a signal of no-longer-available lower starting prices rather than of higher quality. Bidders bidding a given dollar amount are less likely to win low starting price auctions, and pay more for them when they do win. Experienced bidders are less likely to bid on low starting price auctions. Remarkably, the seller side of the market is in equilibrium, because expected revenues are nearly identical for high and low starting prices.
Experimental system and results for distributed VHF radar

To solve the shortcomings of the Very High Frequency (VHF) radar, such as wide beam-width, low angular resolution and weak transportability, we propose a novel distributed VHF radar which consists of two identical VHF digital array radars. The system scheme of the experimental system and the main functions of the subsystems are given in this paper. We also design the signal processing method for the real data of the distributed VHF radar. The results of the real data show that the beam width of the distributed array is much narrower than that of the sub-arrays. And the accuracy of the angle estimation is around 1/10 that of the sub-arrays. Therefore, the proposed system can reach a high angle estimation accuracy with a relatively low cost and high transportability.
Identification of hemizygous and homozygous transgenic rice plants in T1 generation by DNA blot analysis

Southern hybridization-based zygosity analysis was done in a transgenic rice plant (Oryza sativa L. cv Pusa Basmati 1) generated by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation with a rice chitinase (chi11) gene. A T0 plant with two unlinked T-DNA insertions (A and A′), was chosen for the application of Southern hybridization analysis to study genetic separation of the two loci by segregation and to identify the homozygous and hemizygous plants in T1- generation. The T1 plants showed differences in band intensities that reflected the homozygous and hemizygous status of each of the two integration events. The predictions of zygosity of T1 plants were confirmed by analyzing segregation in T2 plants. Southern hybridization analysis is demonstrated as a simple and effective method to distinguish hemizygous and homozygous plants in the T1 generation itself.
The hospital survey on patient safety culture in Portuguese hospitals: instrument validity and reliability.

PURPOSE Quantitative instruments to assess patient safety culture have been developed recently and a few review articles have been published. Measuring safety culture enables healthcare managers and staff to improve safety behaviours and outcomes for patients and staff. The study aims to determine the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) Portuguese version's validity and reliability. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH A missing-value analysis and item analysis was performed to identify problematic items. Reliability analysis, inter-item correlations and inter-scale correlations were done to check internal consistency, composite scores. Inter-correlations were examined to assess construct validity. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to investigate the observed data's fit to the dimensional structure proposed in the AHRQ HSPSC Portuguese version. To analyse differences between hospitals concerning composites scores, an ANOVA analysis and multiple comparisons were done. FINDINGS Eight of 12 dimensions had Cronbach's alphas higher than 0.7. The instrument as a whole achieved a high Cronbach's alpha (0.91). Inter-correlations showed that there is no dimension with redundant items, however dimension 10 increased its internal consistency when one item is removed. ORIGINALITY/VALUE This study is the first to evaluate an American patient safety culture survey using Portuguese data. The survey has satisfactory reliability and construct validity.
Small-signal analysis of boost converter, including parasitics, operating in CCM

This paper presents the various principles of statespace averaged modeling of DC-DC Boost converters operating in the continuous conduction mode (CCM). The average model technique, the time average algorithm, and the energy conservation laws are used. Also, the output transfer function of a Boost converter is derived which can be used for designing a robust controller. Furthermore, the effects of parasitic elements and losses are included based on the state-space averaging technique. The open loop transfer functions of the proposed models are derived and the behavior of the converter is verified by the transient step responses.
Spatial Pyramid Pooling in Structured Sparse Representation for Flame Detection

Although the object detection and recognition has received growing attention for decades, a robust fire and flame detection method is rarely explored. This paper presents a novel solid solution based on sparse representation with spatial pyramid pooling. Traditional sparse representation, as one of prevalent feature learning methods, is successfully applied for object detection. But it has some intrinsic defects. Firstly, it requires fixed input image size. Secondly, the accuracy of detection heavily depends on discriminative dictionary learning and feature coding. At last, it is usually very time-consuming. In this paper, we have proposed a novel dictionary learning method with the structure sparsity constraint to train a discriminative dictionary. In feature coding stage, we compute sparse codes of each patch with dictionaries learned from data and pool them to form local histogram in spatial pyramid manner. At lat, the feature vector is pipelined into a linear SVM classifier to train the model. For improving the efficiency, we also adopt the selective search approach to generate the candidate region proposals in the preprocessing stage. In processing test images, our method achieved better or comparable accuracy to the state-of-the-art on FlameDetection2010 Dataset.
Genetic and biochemical analysis of the role of Egfr in the morphogenetic furrow of the developing Drosophila eye

A key event in patterning the developing Drosophila compound eye is the progressive restriction of the transcription factor Atonal in the morphogenetic furrow. The Atonal pattern evolves from expression in all cells to an over-dispersed pattern of single founder cells (the future R8 photoreceptors). This restriction involves Notch-mediated lateral inhibition. However, there have been inconsistent data on a similar proposed role for the Egf receptor (Egfr). Experiments using a conditional Egfr mutation (Egfrtsla) suggested that Egfr does not regulate Atonal restriction, whereas experiments using Egfr-null mosaic Minute+ clones suggested that it does. Here, we have re-examined both approaches. We report that the lesion in Egfrtsla is a serine to phenylalanine change in a conserved extracellular ligand-binding domain. We show by biochemical and genetic approaches that the Egfrtsla protein is rapidly and completely inactivated upon shift to the non-permissive temperature. We also find that on temperature shift the protein moves from the cell surface into the cell. Finally, we report a flaw in the Egfr-null mosaic Minute+ clone approach. Thus, we demonstrate that Egfr does not play a role in the initial specification or spacing of ommatidial founder cells.
The Relationship between Religious Orientation and Coping Styles among Older Adults and Young Adults

Religion and spirituality play an especially important role in the lives of older adults and may have a positive impact on their mental health. Despite historically tense relationships between religion and psychology, there has been an increase in research concerning the intersection of these topics. Specifically, the relationship between religion and coping has been a major theme. Previous research has indicated that differing religious orientations (i.e., intrinsic versus extrinsic) can influence coping style. Other research has shown differences in coping among older versus younger adults. Research investigating impact of religious orientation and coping among older versus younger adults, however, remains sparse. This is especially important given the developmental changes that occur in adulthood with regards to coping. In order to evaluate relationships between religious orientation and coping among older versus younger adults, we compared two age cohorts and found differential patterns of correlations. Seemingly contradictory results for how one’s religious orientation may influence coping styles emerged. The theory of acceptance and commitment therapy and anunderstandingof differences between specific stressors and life events, however,may explain these differences. These results have implications for working with older adults.
Computer-Mediated Communication with Distant Friends: Relations with Adjustment during Students' First Semester in College

Because of recent technological innovations, college freshmen can readily communicate with friends who they see infrequently (e.g., friends from home). The current study addressed whether computer-mediated communication with these distant friends can compensate for a lack of high-quality on-campus friendships during students' first semester of college. Data were collected from 242 freshmen (140 female, Mage = 18.4) at midsemester and 1 month later. At low levels of face-to-face friendship quality, computer-mediated communication with distant friends predicted lower levels of emotional distress. Furthermore, when face-to-face friendship quality was low, depressive affect predicted higher levels of subsequent computer-mediated communication with distant friends. Relations with adjustment also depended on the quality of distant friendships. Implications for helping students transition to college are addressed.