Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Analysis of a Competitive Marketing System

The focus of this paper is on models that accommodate dynamic phenomena and include consumer-focused and competitor-centered approaches. The consumer focus is represented in demand functions while the competitor orientation is captured in reaction functions. Although the extant literature has tended to restrict the competitive reactions to marketing decision variables, we also allow for feedback effects which model reactions to consequences of actions. These consequences may show both in own brand and in other brands' performance variables. We develop a VARX model with all relevant dynamic and interactive effects. Such a model is especially useful for situations in which causality, feedback and dynamic phenomena matter. Our model simultaneously includes all relevant individual brands, and we include lags that are brand-and variable-specific. We use Impulse Response Analysis to estimate the gross and net effects of marketing actions. To show how variables causally depend on each other, we use a Forecast Error Variance Decomposition. We apply the modeling process first to market-level tuna data, consistent with typical time series applications. Given a nonlinear model we use geometric averaging so as to avoid one source of aggregation bias. We apply the same modeling process then separately for each store so that we can also determine the heterogeneity in effects between stores. The variables of interest include two price promotion variables, one with support (feature and/or display), the other without. We find, as expected, that the nonsupported price elasticities are usually closer to zero than the supported price elasticities. Also, cumulative effects tend to be larger than the immediate effects, due to a tendency for some continuation of price discounting. Specifically, it appears that supported price cuts are often followed by non-supported price cuts. The Forecast Error Variance Decomposition results show that the variance of a supported price variable is explained largely by its own shocks, while a non-supported price variable's variance depends primarily on the same brand's supported price variable. The results based on store data show more evidence of dynamic effects than the market data do. Nevertheless, the average effects show somewhat similar magnitudes between the market and store-data. Importantly, there is a large amount of store heterogeneity in the effects. Thus, it appears that managers should consider the benefits from store-specific management of promotions relative to the costs.
Design, implementation and control of a small-scale UAV quadrotor

This paper presents a systematic approach to developing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) quadrotor systems. The system is built up based on a radio-controlled (R/C) quadrotor frame. With the careful selection of onboard hardware components, a physical avionics system is developed to interact with onboard sensors and actuators as well as perform data processing. To realize the control of the quadrotor, the values of control parameters need to be obtained in simulation prior to implementing physical hardware. Therefore, a nonlinear dynamic model is built for designing the controller in simulation. Finally, the developed control laws are performed and evaluated in both simulation and actual flight tests. The experimental results show that the designed quadrotor system exhibits a satisfactory performance and it is competent as an effective tool for conducting the further investigation of UAV research.
On analyticity with respect to the replica number in random energy models: II. Zeros on the complex plane

We characterize the breaking of analyticity with respect to the replica number which occurs in random energy models via the complex zeros of the moment of the partition function. We perturbatively evaluate the zeros in the vicinity of the transition point on the basis of an exact expression for the moment of the partition function utilizing the steepest descent method, and examine an asymptotic form of the locus of the zeros as the system size tends to infinity. The incident angle of this locus indicates that analyticity breaking is analogous to a phase transition of the second order. We also evaluate the number of zeros utilizing the argument principle of complex analysis. The actual number of zeros calculated numerically for systems of finite size agrees fairly well with the analytical results.
Genetic Diversity and Relationships of Korean Chicken Breeds Based on 30 Microsatellite Markers

The effective management of endangered animal genetic resources is one of the most important concerns of modern breeding. Evaluation of genetic diversity and relationship of local breeds is an important factor towards the identification of unique and valuable genetic resources. This study aimed to analyze the genetic diversity and population structure of six Korean native chicken breeds (n = 300), which were compared with three imported breeds in Korea (n = 150). For the analysis of genetic diversity, 30 microsatellite markers from FAO/ISAG recommended diversity panel or previously reported microsatellite markers were used. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 15 per locus, with a mean of 8.13. The average observed heterozygosity within native breeds varied between 0.46 and 0.59. The overall heterozygote deficiency (FIT) in native chicken was 0.234±0.025. Over 30.7% of FIT was contributed by within-population deficiency (FIS). Bayesian clustering analysis, using the STRUCTURE software suggested 9 clusters. This study may provide the background for future studies to identify the genetic uniqueness of the Korean native chicken breeds
Multicast tree generation in networks with asymmetric links

We formulate the problem of multicast tree generation as one of computing a directed Steiner tree of minimal cost. In this context, we present a polynomial-time algorithm that provides for trade-off selection, using a single parameter /spl kappa/, between the tree-cost (Steiner cost) and the run time efficiency. Further, the same algorithm may be used for delay optimization or tree-cost minimization simply by configuring the value of /spl kappa/ appropriately. We present theoretical and experimental analysis characterizing the problem and the performance of our algorithm. Theoretically, we show that it is highly unlikely that there exists a polynomial-time algorithm with a performance guarantee of constant times optimum cost, introduce metrics for measuring the asymmetry of graphs, and show that the worst-case cost of the tree produced by our algorithm is, at most, twice the optimum cost times the asymmetry, for two of these asymmetry metrics. For graphs with bounded asymmetry, this gives constant times optimum performance guarantee. We also show that three well-known algorithms for (undirected) Steiner trees are but particular cases of our algorithm. Our experimental study shows that operating at a low /spl kappa/ gives nearly best possible expected tree cost while maintaining acceptable run-time efficiency.
An experimental investigation of indoor localization by unsupervised Wi-Fi signal clustering

Indoor localization is an important research challenge for context aware computing. Although various solutions and products are developed based on Wi-Fi received signal strength indicator (RSSI) fingerprinting-based indoor localization, the construction of a complete and high quality database of fingerprints is a challenge, because in particular human involvement is usually required in such methods. We have developed the unsupervised Density-based Clustering Combined Localization Algorithm (DCCLA) to address this problem. The fingerprints of meaningful locations in people's daily lives can be automatically learned without requiring explicit data labelling from users. In this paper an extensive experimental investigation of the performance of DCCLA is presented. These experiments focus on Wi-Fi signal propagation conditions, including the distance to an Access Point (AP), the damping of the signal, and Fast Fading. The parameters used in DCCLA are determined based on these performance analysis and evaluation.
Semi-supervised probabilistic sentiment analysis: Merging labeled sentences with unlabeled reviews to identify sentiment

Document level sentiment analysis, the task of determining whether the sentiment expressed in a document is positive or negative, is commonly performed by supervised methods. As with all supervised tasks, obtaining training data for these methods can be expensive and time-consuming. Some semi-supervised approaches have been proposed that rely on sentiment lexicons. We propose a novel supervised and a novel semi-supervised sentiment analysis method that are both based on a probabilistic graphical model, without requiring any lexicon. Our semi-supervised method takes advantage of the numerical ratings that are often included in online reviews (e.g., 4 out of 5 stars). While these numerical ratings are related to sentiment, they are noisy and hence, by themselves, they are an imperfect indicator of reviews' sentiments. We incorporate unlabeled user reviews as training data by treating the reviews' numerical ratings as sentiment labels while modeling the ratings' noisy nature. Our empirical results, utilizing a corpus of labeled sentences from hotel reviews and unlabeled hotel reviews with numerical ratings, show that treating reviews' ratings as noisy and utilizing them to augment a small amount of labeled sentences outperforms strong existing supervised and semi-supervised classification-based and lexicon-based approaches.
Jarzynski Relations for Quantum Systems and Some Applications

We derive quantum analogues of Jarzynski's relations, and discuss two applications, namely, a derivation of the law of entropy increase for general compound systems, and a preliminary analysis of heat transfer between two quantum systems at different temperatures. We believe that the derivation of the law of entropy increase is new and of importance.
Are Firm- and Country-Specific Governance Substitutes? Evidence from Financial Contracts in Emerging Markets

We investigate how borrowers’ corporate governance influences bank loan contracting terms in emerging markets and how this relation varies across countries with different country-level governance. We find that borrowers with stronger corporate governance obtain favorable contracting terms with respect to loan amount, maturity, collateral requirements, and spread. Firm-level and country-level corporate governance are substitutes in writing and enforcing financial contracts. We also find that the distinctiveness of borrowers’ characteristics affect the relation between firm-level corporate governance and loan contracting terms. Our findings are robust, irrespective of types of regression methods and specifications.
Dynamics of fingertip contact during the onset of tangential slip

Through highly precise perceptual and sensorimotor activities, the human tactile system continuously acquires information about the environment. Mechanical interactions between the skin at the point of contact and a touched surface serve as the source of this tactile information. Using a dedicated custom robotic platform, we imaged skin deformation at the contact area between the finger and a flat surface during the onset of tangential sliding movements in four different directions (proximal, distal, radial and ulnar) and with varying normal force and tangential speeds. This simple tactile event evidenced complex mechanics. We observed a reduction of the contact area while increasing the tangential force and proposed to explain this phenomenon by nonlinear stiffening of the skin. The deformation's shape and amplitude were highly dependent on stimulation direction. We conclude that the complex, but highly patterned and reproducible, deformations measured in this study are a potential source of information for the central nervous system and that further mechanical measurement are needed to better understand tactile perceptual and motor performances.
Multimedia ready handoff scheme for 802.11 networks

Fast and multimedia ready handoffs are the prime requirement as IEEE 802.11 wireless networks are increasingly being deployed for providing voice and other real time services at public places like airports, hotels and university campuses. We have proposed and implemented a multimedia ready handoff technique aimed at reducing handoff latency to less than 10ms. Handoff latency has been reduced by decoupling scanning from handoff execution process. Mobile nodes continuously gather the neighbour information using optimized Background Scanning. This scheme has been implemented in the form of client side application with modifications to open source Madwifi driver. Performance of this handoff scheme has been evaluated on experimental Testbed for finding its suitability for real time applications. Effect of the proposed scheme on commercial VoIP client, Skype has been evaluated. Effect of the proposed handoff and optimized Background Scan on audio and video streaming has also been investigated. Results show that the proposed handoff and optimized background scanning cast minimal effect on real time VoIP and audio/video streaming traffic and are multimedia ready.
A Downscaling Approach for SMOS Land Observations: Evaluation of High-Resolution Soil Moisture Maps Over the Iberian Peninsula

The ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is the first satellite devoted to measure the Earth's surface soil moisture. It has a spatial resolution of ~ 40 km and a 3-day revisit. In this paper, a downscaling algorithm is presented as a new ability to obtain multiresolution soil moisture estimates from SMOS using visible-to-infrared remotely sensed observations. This algorithm is applied to combine 2 years of SMOS and MODIS Terra/Aqua data over the Iberian Peninsula into fine-scale (1 km) soil moisture estimates. Disaggregated soil moisture maps are compared to 0-5 cm ground-based measurements from the REMEDHUS network. Three matching strategies are employed: 1) a comparison at 40 km spatial resolution is undertaken to ensure SMOS sensitivity is preserved in the downscaled maps; 2) the spatio-temporal correlation of downscaled maps is analyzed through comparison with point-scale observations; and 3) high-resolution maps and ground-based observations are aggregated per land-use to identify spatial patterns related with vegetation activity and soil type. Results show that the downscaling method improves the spatial representation of SMOS coarse soil moisture estimates while maintaining temporal correlation and root mean squared differences with ground-based measurements. The dynamic range of in situ soil moisture measurements is reproduced in the high-resolution maps, including stations with different mean soil wetness conditions. Downscaled maps capture the soil moisture dynamics of general land uses, with the exception of irrigated crops. This evaluation study supports the use of this downscaling approach to enhance the spatial resolution of SMOS observations over semi-arid regions such as the Iberian Peninsula.
Time-varying Beta Risk of Pan-European Sectors: A Comparison of Alternative Modeling Techniques

This paper investigates the time-varying behavior of systematic risk for eighteen pan-European industry portfolios. Using weekly data over the period 1987-2005, three different modeling techniques in addition to the standard constant coefficient model are employed: a bivariate t- GARCH(1,1) model, two Kalman filter based approaches as well as a bivariate stochastic volatility model estimated via the efficient Monte Carlo likelihood technique. A comparison of the different models' ex- ante forecast performances indicates that the random-walk process in connection with the Kalman filter is the preferred model to describe and forecast the time-varying behavior of sector betas in a European context.
Metamodel and Workflow Management System for Object-Oriented Business Processes Metamodel i system zarządzania przepływem pracy dla procesów biznesowych zorientowanych obiektowo Student

This thesis proposes a new approach to workflows and business process management, where processes and activities are objects capable of infinite nesting. This new model, built around the concepts of StackBased Approach (SBA), involves inherently parallel execution, dynamic process changes at run time, error handling, and resource management. Throughout this work, the author proposes extension to the SBA object store, which would enable it to store information about workflows. Complementary to this augmentation is the Stack-Based Query Language enhancement, which proposes introducing several new keywords for creating and manipulating business processes. It consists of special operations that will be performed on process definitions, process instances, activity definitions, and activity instances. The presented approach is not bound to any existing notation, so processes may be depicted more flexibly, and without focusing on notation-specific aspects or constraints. Within this thesis, there has also been developed a prototype implementation of the proposed workflow handling mechanism, written in Java and using XML files for storage.
A Novel Highly Potent Therapeutic Antibody Neutralizes Multiple Human Chemokines and Mimics Viral Immune Modulation

Chemokines play a key role in leukocyte recruitment during inflammation and are implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of autoimmune diseases. As such, inhibiting chemokine signaling has been of keen interest for the development of therapeutic agents. This endeavor, however, has been hampered due to complexities in the chemokine system. Many chemokines have been shown to signal through multiple receptors and, conversely, most chemokine receptors bind to more than one chemokine. One approach to overcoming this complexity is to develop a single therapeutic agent that binds and inactivates multiple chemokines, similar to an immune evasion strategy utilized by a number of viruses. Here, we describe the development and characterization of a novel therapeutic antibody that targets a subset of human CC chemokines, specifically CCL3, CCL4, and CCL5, involved in chronic inflammatory diseases. Using a sequential immunization approach, followed by humanization and phage display affinity maturation, a therapeutic antibody was developed that displays high binding affinity towards the three targeted chemokines. In vitro, this antibody potently inhibits chemotaxis and chemokine-mediated signaling through CCR1 and CCR5, primary chemokine receptors for the targeted chemokines. Furthermore, we have demonstrated in vivo efficacy of the antibody in a SCID-hu mouse model of skin leukocyte migration, thus confirming its potential as a novel therapeutic chemokine antagonist. We anticipate that this antibody will have broad therapeutic utility in the treatment of a number of autoimmune diseases due to its ability to simultaneously neutralize multiple chemokines implicated in disease pathogenesis.
Enhancing a Free-Text Adaptive Computer Assisted Assessment System with Self-Assessment Features

Willow is a Web-based application which automatically and adaptively assesses students' free-text answers written in Spanish and English. It is intended to help students review concepts outside of class, and provides an alternative assessment method. However, students tend to be greatly concerned by computer generated scores and, although they have been told that the system is not intended for summativepurposes and their teachers will not have access to that scores, they remain worried that the machine could make a mistake and this mistake could have a negative impact on their final course grade. Given that automatic scoring cannot assure 100% approximation to a human teacher's assessment, we have introduced self-assessment features in Willow. Thanks to the combination of automatic free-text scoring and self-assessment, students have more control over their evaluation and, whenever they do not agree with the automatic score assigned by the system, they can change it. This new feature has been tested by 22 students reviewing a course with Willow in the 2007-2008 academic year. We observed that the students did not abuse the self-assessment feature, only modifying the score assigned in 5% of answered questions.
Noise Robust Novel Approach to Speech Recognition

Most practical methods of the speech recognition (SR) are dependent on the feature extraction schemes used in the implementation. The performances of these SR systems are highly affected by the presence of noise. By passing speech signal through cochlear filter bank (CFB) prior to the feature extraction reduces the impact of the noise on the system. In this paper, noise robust approach of feature extraction, cochlear filter bank with zero crossing as a feature is discussed. The comparative analysis of CFB with Mel frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) approach of feature extraction in terms of recognition accuracy (RA) is discussed. It may be implied that former approach gave a good fit to the experimentation in presence of noise.
Pamidronate in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced bone loss in premenopausal women with breast cancer: a randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE Mortality from breast cancer has decreased in large part because of adjuvant chemotherapy. Sequelae of therapy include ovarian failure and bone loss, loss that would increase these patients' risk of fracture with aging. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of pamidronate in preventing such loss. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study was a 1-yr randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing pamidronate 60 mg iv every 3 months with placebo in 40 premenopausal women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. Bone mineral density (BMD) of the spine and hip and remodeling markers were monitored over 1 yr. RESULTS Over half of the subjects became amenorrheic, and those who did were 4 yr older than those who did not (P = 0.02). The mean difference in percent change in BMD at 12 months between the two treatment groups was 5.1% at the lumbar spine (P = 0.002) in the overall study group and 5% at the lumbar spine and 5.2% at the total hip in the amenorrheic subgroup (P < 0.03). Biochemical markers of bone remodeling did not differ between the two treatment groups, and treatment was well tolerated. CONCLUSION Chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea is common with ensuing bone loss at the spine and hip. Pamidronate prevented bone loss at the spine and hip and was well tolerated.
A view of program verification

One person's perspectives of program verification and its relation to some aspects of reliable software are presented. The main verification method of inductive assertions is illustrated with several variations of one detailed example; a second example shows a surprisingly simple inductive assertion proof of an iterative tree traversal example. Briefly discussed also are the implicit assumptions of most verifications, proving termination, the creating of assertions, and languages in which to write assertions. An abstract overview is given of existing program verification systems together with a sample list of verified programs. A short bibliography is included.