Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of the multi-model partitioning theory for simultaneous order and parameter estimation of multivariate ARMA models

In this paper, a study on how to perform simultaneous order and parameter estimation of multivariate (MV) ARMA (autoregressive moving average) models under the presence of noise is addressed. The proposed method, which is computationally efficient, is an extension of a previously presented method for MV AR models and is based on the well established and widely applied multi-model partitioning theory. A series of computer simulations indicate that the method is infallible in selecting the correct model order in very few steps. The simultaneous estimation of the multivariate ARMA parameters is also another benefit of the proposed method. The results are compared with two other established order selection criteria namely Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) and Schwarz's Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). Finally, it is shown that the method is also successful in tracking model order changes, in real time.
Estimation of the parameters of two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy signals using an adapted subband decomposition

This paper presents a methodology to estimate the parameters of two-dimensional damped/undamped exponentials from high complexity noisy signals, which is the case in 2-D nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy signals. The proposed approach performs adaptive subband decomposition combined with a classical frequency estimator based on the Prony model. At each node resulting from the decomposition tree, a stopping rule is computed in order to decide whether the decomposition must be continued or not. The rule is a flatness measure applied on residuals resulting from the estimation step. The method is demonstrated using a simulated signal.
Implementation and Analysis of Sensor Security Protocols in a Home Health Care System

A Wireless Sensor Network can be used in a home health care system to monitor the elderly or patients with chronic diseases. The quality of security of the home health care system is an important requirement. If the security services or servers malfunction then the system itself may become compromised. We show that with multi--server protocols, even if one or more servers become unavailable or untrustworthy, it may still be possible for the sensor nodes to establish a good session key. We compare and contrast different multi--server protocols. We also show which protocols are more suited for our system. The protocols were implemented in TinyOS and run on mica2 motes. The time elapsed, complexity of the code, and memory requirements are analysed in detail. We show that a symmetric key implementation has advantages over an asymmetric implementation.
Uncertainties in Tidally Adjusted Estimates of Sea Level Rise Flooding (Bathtub Model) for the Greater London

Sea-level rise (SLR) from global warming may have severe consequences for coastal cities, particularly when combined with predicted increases in the strength of tidal surges. Predicting the regional impact of SLR flooding is strongly dependent on the modelling approach and accuracy of topographic data. Here, the areas under risk of sea water flooding for London boroughs were quantified based on the projected SLR scenarios reported in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report (AR5) and UK climatic projections 2009 (UKCP09) using a tidally-adjusted bathtub modelling approach. Medium- to very high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) are used to evaluate inundation extents as well as uncertainties. Depending on the SLR scenario and DEMs used, it is estimated that 3%–8% of the area of Greater London could be inundated by 2100. The boroughs with the largest areas at risk of flooding are Newham, Southwark, and Greenwich. The differences in inundation areas estimated from a digital terrain model and a digital surface model are much greater than the root mean square error differences observed between the two data types, which may be attributed to processing levels. Flood models from SRTM data underestimate the inundation extent, so their results may not be reliable for constructing flood risk maps. This analysis provides a broad-scale estimate of the potential consequences of SLR and uncertainties in the DEM-based bathtub type flood inundation modelling for London boroughs.
Aproximações do teatro do oprimido com a Psicologia e o Psicodrama

El presente articulo aborda las aproximaciones del teatro del oprimido en la modalidad del arco iris del deseo, metodo de terapia y teatro creado por Augusto Boal con la Psicologia, en especial con el psicodrama. El teatro del oprimido es frecuentemente comparado e incluso confundido con el psicodrama, de ahi la necesidad de que apuntemos algunas semejanzas y diferencias entre los dos metodos, las teorias que inspiraron a sus creadores, asi como los objetivos que procuraban alcanzar. Procuraremos problematizar el uso de las tecnicas del arco iris del deseo considerando la funcion y la preparacion del comodin para aplicarlas, su manejo, asi como el lugar de autoridad que le es conferida. Las tecnicas boalianas deben ser utilizadas con el debido cuidado, pues es necesario no perder de vista las posibles consecuencias que su uso indebido puede provocar en los participantes, puesto que son tecnicas movilizadoras de fuertes contenidos emocionales.
Layout-area models for high-level synthesis

The authors propose a novel layout area model for quality measures in high-level synthesis. The model is proposed for two commonly used datapath and control layout architectures. Except for macrocells (PLAs), the proposed models formulate layout area as a function of transistors and routing tracks which can be computed in O(n log n) time complexity, where n is the number of nets in the netlist. This allows one to explore design space in high-level synthesis rapidly and efficiently. The authors have tested their layout models on the widely used elliptic-filter benchmark. The results show that these models can more accurately predict layout areas than models based on the number and size of registers and multiplexers. <<ETX>>
The Effects Of Message Order And Information Chunking On eWOM Persuasion

Online shoppers are increasingly relying on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), which refers to Internet-mediated opinions and recommendations on products and services from experienced consumers, to optimize their purchase decisions and reduce purchase risks. Anchored on the theories of message order effects and information chunking, this research investigates how consumers would process and respond to a large volume of review information provided by a eWOM system. The results from a laboratory experiment revealed that when consumers are interacting with online product reviews chunked by valence, the presentation order can influence their product attitude. More specifically, people high in need for cognition showed a pattern primacy effect while those low in need for cognition a pattern of recency effect. In addition, chunking reviews by valence can also benefit eWOM readers’ short-term memory so that they can recall more product attribute information mentioned in the reviews, in particular, the product attributes covered by the positive reviews. The implications of these findings for practitioners are also discussed.
Distinct Peripheral Blood RNA Responses to Salmonella in Pigs Differing in Salmonella Shedding Levels: Intersection of IFNG, TLR and miRNA Pathways

Transcriptomic analysis of the response to bacterial pathogens has been reported for several species, yet few studies have investigated the transcriptional differences in whole blood in subjects that differ in their disease response phenotypes. Salmonella species infect many vertebrate species, and pigs colonized with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (ST) are usually asymptomatic, making detection of these Salmonella-carrier pigs difficult. The variable fecal shedding of Salmonella is an important cause of foodborne illness and zoonotic disease. To investigate gene pathways and biomarkers associated with the variance in Salmonella shedding following experimental inoculation, we initiated the first analysis of the whole blood transcriptional response induced by Salmonella. A population of pigs (n = 40) was inoculated with ST and peripheral blood and fecal Salmonella counts were collected between 2 and 20 days post-inoculation (dpi). Two groups of pigs with either low shedding (LS) or persistent shedding (PS) phenotypes were identified. Global transcriptional changes in response to ST inoculation were identified by Affymetrix Genechip® analysis of peripheral blood RNA at day 0 and 2 dpi. ST inoculation triggered substantial gene expression changes in the pigs and there was differential expression of many genes between LS and PS pigs. Analysis of the differential profiles of gene expression within and between PS and LS phenotypic classes identified distinct regulatory pathways mediated by IFN-γ, TNF, NF-κB, or one of several miRNAs. We confirmed the activation of two regulatory factors, SPI1 and CEBPB, and demonstrated that expression of miR-155 was decreased specifically in the PS animals. These data provide insight into specific pathways associated with extremes in Salmonella fecal shedding that can be targeted for further exploration on why some animals develop a carrier state. This knowledge can also be used to develop rational manipulations of genetics, pharmaceuticals, nutrition or husbandry methods to decrease Salmonella colonization, shedding and spread.
Quantification of tissue self-absorption of weak beta-radiation in lyophilized whole-body sections of rats.

Whole-body autoradiography has been widely used in the investigation of the distribution of radiolabeled compounds in animals. The newly introduced radioluminography offers a reliable way of quantifying the radioactivity distribution within whole-body sections. Since the radioactivity is distributed over the entire depth of the section, self-absorption of beta-radiation in tissues is supposed to relevantly affect the detection of radioactivity at the section surface. The self-absorption of radiation energy ((14)C) was investigated in 28 organs/tissues of routinely produced lyophilized rat sections. Nonradioactive whole-body sections with different thickness between 20 and 120 microm were placed between a homogeneous (14)C source and the imaging plates to detect the transmitted radioactivity. The self-absorption was expressed in terms of percentage of transmission of the radioactivity through the sections. Transmission decreased with increasing section thickness, e.g., from 44% (20 microm) to 28% (120 microm) for blood. Comparison of three complete sets of data disclosed intertissue variations of up to about 30% (i.e., +/-15%) disregarding bone. A defined bandwidth of +/-15% around the blood transmission would cover the transmission of almost all tissues. Thus, for most organs radioactivity can be quantified by direct comparison with radioactive blood calibration samples.
Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia clients of the user modeling system BGP-MS

This paper first describes the hypertext system KN-AHS which adapts to users’ presumed domain knowledge, and discusses the support that the user modeling shell system BGP-MS can provide for this adaptation. The aim of constructing KN-AHS was to demonstrate the feasibility of user modeling with BGP-MS in a “normal” hardware and software environment that is frequently found in the workplace. Basic hypertext concepts will be introduced and reasons given for why hypertext should adapt to the current user (especially to his/her state of knowledge). A brief overview of those representation and inference components of BGP-MS that are used by KNAHS will be provided, followed by a description of its adaptive user interface. The interaction between the adaptive hypertext system and the user modeling system will be investigated in detail based on a possible dialog with a user. The inter-process communication between KN-AHS and BGP-MS will then be described and related work discussed. A final section discusses recent research that extends the approach of KN-AHS to a hypermedia information system in a the World Wide Web which additionally adapts its presentation to users’ interests, preferences and abilities (including possible handicaps).
Generation of Human Antigen-Specific Monoclonal IgM Antibodies Using Vaccinated “Human Immune System” Mice

Background Passive transfer of antibodies not only provides immediate short-term protection against disease, but also can be exploited as a therapeutic tool. However, the ‘humanization’ of murine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is a time-consuming and expensive process that has the inherent drawback of potentially altering antigenic specificity and/or affinity. The immortalization of human B cells represents an alternative for obtaining human mAbs, but relies on the availability of biological samples from vaccinated individuals or convalescent patients. In this work we describe a novel approach to generate fully human mAbs by combining a humanized mouse model with a new B cell immortalization technique. Methodology/Principal Findings After transplantation with CD34+CD38− human hematopoietic progenitor cells, BALB/c Rag2−/−IL-2Rγc−/− mice acquire a human immune system and harbor B cells with a diverse IgM repertoire. “Human Immune System” mice were then immunized with two commercial vaccine antigens, tetanus toxoid and hepatitis B surface antigen. Sorted human CD19+CD27+ B cells were retrovirally transduced with the human B cell lymphoma (BCL)-6 and BCL-XL genes, and subsequently cultured in the presence of CD40-ligand and IL-21. This procedure allows generating stable B cell receptor-positive B cells that secrete immunoglobulins. We recovered stable B cell clones that produced IgM specific for tetanus toxoid and the hepatitis B surface antigen, respectively. Conclusion/Significance This work provides the proof-of-concept for the usefulness of this novel method based on the immunization of humanized mice for the rapid generation of human mAbs against a wide range of antigens.
FDI and the labor share in developing countries: a theory and some evidence

This paper addresses the impact of FDI on the labor share of income in developing countries. We propose a theory that relies on the impacts of FDI on productive heterogeneity between firms in a frictional labor market. We argue that FDI have two opposite effects on the labor share: a negative force originated by market power and technological advance, and a positive force due to increased labor market competition between firms. Then, we test this theory on aggregate panel data through fixed effects and system-GMM estimations. We find a quantitatively meaningful U- shaped relationship between the labor share in the manufacturing sector and the ratio of FDI stock to GDP. However, most of the countries are stuck in the decreasing part of the curve, which we relate to multinationals' location choices.
Enhancing credibility judgment of web search results

In this paper, we propose a system for helping users to judge the credibility of Web search results and to search for credible Web pages. Conventional Web search engines present only titles, snippets, and URLs for users, which give few clues to judge the credibility of Web search results. Moreover, ranking algorithms of the conventional Web search engines are often based on relevance and popularity of Web pages. Towards credibility-oriented Web search, our proposed system provides users with the following three functions: (1) calculation and visualization of several scores of Web search results on the main credibility aspects, (2) prediction of user's credibility judgment model through user's credibility feedback for Web search results, and (3) re-ranking of Web search results based on user's predicted credibility model. Experimental results suggest that our system enables users - in particular, users with knowledge about search topics - to find credible Web pages from a list of Web search results more efficiently than conventional Web search interfaces.
Risk Matters: A Comment

Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Pablo A. Guerron-Quintana, Juan F. Rubio-Ramirez and Martin Uribe (2011) find that risk shocks are an important factor in explaining emerging market business cycles. We show that their model needs to be recalibrated because it underpredicts the targeted business cycle moments by a factor of three once a time aggregation error is corrected. Recalibrating the corrected model for the benchmark case of Argentina, the peak response of output after an interest rate risk shock increases by 63 percent and the contribution of interest rate risk shocks to business cycle volatility more than doubles. Hence, risk matters more in the recalibrated model. However, the recalibrated model does worse in capturing the business cycle properties of net exports once an additional error in the computation of net exports is corrected.
Linking Racial Identity, Ethnic Identity, and Racial-Ethnic Socialization: A Tale of Three Race-Ethnicities

The relationship between racial and ethnic identity, as well as that between racial-ethnic socialization and racial and ethnic identity development, has become increasingly important to researchers as the proportion of children and young adults of color grows in the U.S. population. Parents’ racial-ethnic socialization messages are important for the ways in which children and young adults develop a sense of self as members of their racial or ethnic group. This article examined the racial identity, ethnic identity, and racial-ethnic socialization of 90 African American, 224 Asian American, and 216 Latino American college students. There were many strong associations between the measures of racial identity and ethnic identity as well as between racial-ethnic socialization and each measure of identity. Different patterns of relationships emerged among the three groups depending on whether the outcome variable was racial identity or ethnic identity. In the majority of instances where the three groups were not the same, Latino and Asian Americans were more similar to each other than to African Americans. In a few instances, the three groups exhibited different patterns of relationship among the constructs. Findings are discussed in terms of the sociocultural histories of the three groups.
Gender and Serious Violence

Applying insights from social influence literature, in combination with key elements of gender organization and socialization, the effect of friendship sex composition and exposure to peer violence on girls' and boys' involvement in serious violence is examined. It is hypothesized that the impact of opposite-sex friendships on violence will differ for female youth compared to male youth. The exceptionally detailed friendship network data available in the Add Health for a sample of adolescents (N = 14,044) is used to examine these hypotheses. Findings are supportive of hypotheses and indicate that exposure to opposite-sex friends increases females' odds of engaging in serious violence but operate to reduce males' involvement in serious violence. In addition, among females, peer influence is magnified as the proportion of opposite sex friends increases in their friendship network. In contrast, among males, exposure to opposite sex friends does not operate to suppress (or magnify) the effect of peer exposure to violence.
Design and analysis of a highly-integrated CMOS power amplifier for RFID readers

To implement a fully-integrated on-chip CMOS power amplifier (PA) for RFID readers, the resonant frequency of each matching network is derived in detail. The highlight of the design is the adoption of a bonding wire as the output-stage inductor. Compared with the on-chip inductors in a CMOS process, the merit of the bondwire inductor is its high quality factor, leading to a higher output power and efficiency. The disadvantage of the bondwire inductor is that it is hard to control. A highly integrated class-E PA is implemented with 0.18-μm CMOS process. It can provide a maximum output power of 20 dBm and a 1 dB output power of 14.5 dBm. The maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) is 32.1%. Also, the spectral performance of the PA is analyzed for the specified RFID protocol.
Clustering search engine query log containing noisy clickthroughs

Query clustering is a technique for discovering similar queries on a search engine. In this paper, we present a query clustering method based on the agglomerative clustering algorithm. We first present an overview of the agglomerative clustering algorithm proposed by Beeferman and Berger (2000). We point out a weakness of the method caused by noisy user clicks and propose an improved clustering algorithm. Our results show that in general the agglomerative clustering algorithm can cluster similar queries effectively and that our improved algorithm can successful eliminate noisy clicks and produce cleaner query clusters.
Description of the LTG System Used for MUC-7

The basic building blocks in our muc system are reusable text handling tools which we have been developing and using for a number of years at the Language Technology Group. They are modular tools with stream input/output; each tool does a very speci c job, but can be combined with other tools in a unix pipeline. Di erent combinations of the same tools can thus be used in a pipeline for completing di erent tasks.
Human Communication: The Basic Course

Part 1. Foundations of Human Communication Chapter 1. Preliminaries to Human Communication Chapter 2. Culture and Communication Chapter 3. The Self and Perception Chapter 4. Listening in Human Communication Chapter 5. Verbal Messages Chapter 6. Nonverbal Messages Part 2. Interpersonal, Small Group, and Organizational Communication Chapter 7. Interpersonal Communication: Conversation Chapter 8. Interpersonal Relationship Stages and Theories Chapter 9. Friends, Lovers, and Families Chapter 10. Small Group Communication Chapter 11. Members and Leaders Chapter 12. Human Communication in the Workplace: Organizational Communication Chapter 13. Interpersonal, Group, and Workplace Conflict Part 3. Public Speaking Chapter 14. Public Speaking Topics, Audiences, and Research Chapter 15. Supporting and Organizing Your Speech Chapter 16. Style and Delivery in Public Speaking Chapter 17. The Informative Speech Chapter 18. The Persuasive Speech Appendix: Public Speaking Sample Assistants