Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expanding Human Capabilities: Lange’s “Observations” Updated for the 21st Century

Poland has produced two of the greatest economists of the past century, namely Michal Kalecki and Oskar Lange. Both worked with a wide and penetrating view of the economy and society, more typical of the great classical economists than of those of their own time. During the post-World War II 'Golden Age of Growth', while Keynes was the patron saint of economic theory and policy in the industrialised capitalist countries, Kalecki and Lange had a similar influence and role among the developing nations and – perhaps to a lesser extent – in socialist countries. Kalecki's 'The problem of financing of economic development' (Kalecki, 1954), and Lange's 'Some observations on input-output analysis' (Lange, 1957), in particular,deeply influenced the approach to economic and social development of a whole strand of structural economics, both in terms of economic analysis and practical policy. With the end of the Golden Age and the momentous neoliberal reaction then started, they became almost forgotten. The economics of Kalecki, however, has inspired in the last few decades the renaissance of a genuine – albeit still marginal(ised) – form of Keynesianism, the so called 'post-Keynesianism' ('bastard Keynesianism', as Joan Robinson called it, being the dominant, mainstream form of Keynesianism). Oskar Lange, on the other hand, does not yet seem to have been re-discovered to inspire a similar renaissance of advanced analysis and planning of policies for modern structural change and development. This paper proposes such a re-discovery. The main concern of Lange's 'Observations' is the appropriate intersectoral allocation of investment for efficient output growth. While output growth is still one of the main objectives in most societies, the growth of human capabilities should be an increasingly relevant concern, both in its own right, and in view of the existing ecological constraints. Buzaglo (2014a; b) postulated the existence of an (aleph) matrix, describing the proportions of the different capabilities necessary for the achievement of every particular capability. The present paper is about introducing capabilities within Lange's framework of analysis. A Lange-inspired analysis investigates the appropriate structures and properties of capability-enhancing growth paths.
Model Reduction Techniques for Computing Approximately Optimal Solutions for Markov Decision Processes

We present a method for solving implicit (factored) Markov decision processes (MDPs) with very large state spaces. We introduce a property of state space partitions which we call e-homogeneity. Intuitively, an e-homogeneous partition groups together states that behave approximately the same under all or some subset of policies. Borrowing from recent work on model minimization in computer-aided software verification, we present an algorithm that takes a factored representation of an MDP and an 0 ≤ e ≤ 1 and computes a factored e-homogeneous partition of the state space. This partition defines a family of related MDPs--those MDP's with state space equal to the blocks of the partition, and transition probabilities "approximately" like those of any (original MDP) state in the source block. To formally study such families of MDPs, we introduce the new notion of a "bounded parameter MDP" (BMDP), which is a family of (traditional) MDPs defined by specifying upper and lower bounds on the transition probabilities and rewards. We describe algorithms that operate on BMDPs to find policies that are approximately optimal with respect to the original MDP. In combination, our method for reducing a large implicit MDP to a possibly much smaller BMDP using an e-homogeneous partition, and our methods for selecting actions in BMDP's constitute a new approach for analyzing large implicit MDP's. Among its advantages, this new approach provides insight into existing algorithms to solving implicit MDPs, provides useful connections to work in automata theory and model minimization, and suggests methods, which involve varying e, to trade time and space (specifically in terms of the size of the corresponding state space) for solution quality.
Wide-field and two-photon imaging of brain activity with voltage- and calcium-sensitive dyes

This review presents three examples of using voltage- or calcium-sensitive dyes to image the activity of the brain. Our aim is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method with particular reference to its application to the study of the brainstem. Two of the examples use wide-field (one-photon) imaging; the third uses two-photon scanning microscopy. Because the measurements have limited signal-to-noise ratio, the paper also discusses the methodological aspects that are critical for optimizing the signal. The three examples are the following. (i) An intracellularly injected voltage-sensitive dye was used to monitor membrane potential in the dendrites of neurons in in vitro preparations. These experiments were directed at understanding how individual neurons convert complex synaptic inputs into the output spike train. (ii) An extracellular, bath application of a voltage-sensitive dye was used to monitor population signals from different parts of the dorsal brainstem. We describe recordings made during respiratory activity. The population signals indicated four different regions with distinct activity correlated with inspiration. (iii) Calcium-sensitive dyes can be used to label many individual cells in the mammalian brain. This approach, combined with two-photon microscopy, made it possible to follow the spike activity in an in vitro brainstem preparation during fictive respiratory rhythms. The organic voltage- and ion-sensitive dyes used today indiscriminatively stain all of the cell types in the preparation. A major effort is underway to develop fluorescent protein sensors of activity for selectively staining individual cell types.
Teaching English Writing to Develop Creative Thinking Skills For High School Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate a method of teaching English writing to develop creative thinking skills for high school students. This research was basic descriptive qualitative research intended to describe various methods of teaching English writing to develop creative thinking skills for high school students. Five-scale rating questionnaires and open ended interview were used to investigate the teaching methods to be utilized for creative thinking development using the process of teaching writing, and classroom activities to generate creative thinking of students. The sample of the study were teachers (N=23) in three educational service areas of Chonburi province, and experts (N=15) in Educational Psychology Department at Burapha University. The result showed that the teaching methods always used in teaching English writing to generate creative thinking were: brainstorming, working in groups and pairs, and drill and practice. In the process of teaching English writing, two groups of respondents provided the same answer, but the priorities of “Encouraging students to write”, or “Providing the suitable topic” were also acceptable. The answers to the questions matched four thinking theories in creative thinking, which were: the theory of fluency, the theory of flexibility, the theory of originality and the theory of elaboration. The answers to questions also added to theories of teaching creativity with the two group sample’s suggestion and experienced opinions towards the teaching English writing with creative thinking skills. Keywords : Teaching Methods, English Writing, Creative Thinking
Group communication of multimedia objects

In distributed applications like teleconferences, a group of multiple processes cooperate, where messages exchanged among the processes are required to be causally delivered. The processes exchange types of multimedia objects. The multimedia objects are longer than traditional messages and are structured. The authors discuss novel types of causally precedent relations among multimedia objects transmitted in the network. They discuss a protocol to causally deliver multimedia objects in a group of processes. The authors also show the evaluation of the protocol.
Multi Path Multi Priority (MPMP) Scalable Video Streaming for Mobile Applications

Video is the predominant data traversing theInternet. Increase in processing power, storage and screenresolution of mobile devices coupled with advances incommunication technologies has resulted in proliferation of videoapplications. Multiple data interfaces on a mobile device cansupport parallel data streams for high bandwidth and delaysensitive video streaming application. This paper investigatescombination of rateless codes with multi priority scalable video tooptimize data flow along multiple paths in mobile devices. Theresults show improved video quality and better resourceutilization.
Evaluation of web usage mining approaches for user's next request prediction

Analysis of Web server logs is one of the important challenge to provide Web intelligent services.In this paper, we describe a framework for a recommender system that predicts the user's next requests based on their behaviour discovered from Web Logs data. We compare results from three usage mining approaches: association rules, sequential rules and generalised sequential rules. We use two selection rules criteria: highest confidence and last-subsequence. Experiments are performed on three collections of real usage data: one from an Intranet Web site and two from an Internet Web site.
Chromosome divergence during evolution of the tetraploid clawed frogs, Xenopus mellotropicalis and Xenopus epitropicalis as revealed by Zoo-FISH

Whole genome duplication (WGD) generates new species and genomic redundancy. In African clawed frogs of the genus Xenopus, this phenomenon has been especially important in that (i) all but one extant species are polyploid and (ii) whole genome sequences of some species provide an evidence for genomic rearrangements prior to or after WGD. Within Xenopus in the subgenus Silurana, at least one allotetraploidization event gave rise to three extant tetraploid (2n = 4x = 40) species–Xenopus mellotropicalis, X. epitropicalis, and X. calcaratus–but it is not yet clear the degree to which these tetraploid genomes experienced rearrangements prior to or after allotetraploidization. To explore genome evolution during diversification of these species, we performed cytogenetic analyses of X. mellotropicalis, including assessment of the localization of nucleolar organizer region, chromosome banding, and determination of the p/q arm ratios for each chromosome pair. We compared these data to a previously characterized karyotype of X. epitropicalis. Morphometric, C-banding and Zoo-FISH data support a previously hypothesized common allotetraploid predecessor of these species. Zoo-FISH with whole chromosome painting (WCP) probes derived from the closely related diploid species X. tropicalis confirmed the existence of ten chromosomal quartets in X. mellotropicalis somatic cells, as expected by its ploidy level and tetraploid ancestry. The p/q arm ratio of chromosome 2a was found to be substantially different between X. mellotropicalis (0.81) and X. epitropicalis (0.67), but no substantial difference between these two species was detected in this ratio for the homoeologous chromosome pair 2b, or for other chromosome pairs. Additionally, we identified variation between these two species in the locations of a heterochromatic block on chromosome pair 2a. These results are consistent with a dynamic history of genomic rearrangements before and/or after genome duplication, a surprising finding given the otherwise relatively conserved genomic structure of most frogs.
Weighted abduction for reactive diagnosis

Work on reactive planning evolve from the fact that classical planners were unable to adapt to a changing environmnet or reason in limited time. Much work in robot planning during the late eighties concentrated on resolving these problems. A problem that has been given much less attention in literature are expert-system style diagnose system which face the same difficulties of adaptivity and time limitations. This paper coins the notion of reactive diagnosis to denote diagnose and explanation problems where time limitations and adaption to changes are important factors. The weighted abduction principle is suggested as a suitable approach to these problems, and an algorithm is given that exploits some of the proporties necessary for reactive diagnosis. The use of the algorithm is illustrated by an example application from interactive route guidence.
Towards affordable and robust remote photogrammetric sensing for early warning of fracturing and structural failure

Early warning systems are critical for saving human lives in the presence of structural failure. This is particularly relevant in mining operations in parts of the world with variable safety standards. To achieve this, affordable and robust structural health monitoring (SHM) is required. Photogrammetry is an image processing technique that can be used to measure deformation in geomechanical structures, enabling the reconstruction of displacement and strain fields with high accuracy (up to one-hundredth of a pixel). The use of standard cameras makes photogrammetry an inexpensive approach to automated SHM. However, while photogrammetric techniques have proven successful in laboratories and controlled environments, further development is needed to deal with a broader range of environments. This paper outlines recent research to overcome limitations of the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) photogrammetry technique, with the goal of achieving robust, low cost, automated SHM systems.
Reminiscing about Jan Evangelista Purkinje: a pioneer of modern experimental physiology.

This article reminisces about the life and key scientific achievements of Jan Evangelista Purkinje (1787-1869), a versatile 19th century Czech pioneer of modern experimental physiology. In 1804, after completing senior high school, Purkinje joined the Piarist monk order, but, after a 3-yr novitiate, he gave up the religious calling "to deal more freely with science. " In 1818, he earned a Medical Doctor degree from Prague University by defending a dissertation on intraocular phenomena observed in oneself. In 1823, Purkinje became a Physiology and Pathology professor at the Prussian Medical University in Breslau, where he innovated the traditional teaching methods of physiology. Purkinje's contributions to physiology were manifold: accurate descriptions of various visual phenomena (e.g., Purkinje-Sanson images, Purkinje phenomenon), discovery of the terminal network of the cardiac conduction system (Purkinje fibers), identification of cerebellar neuronal bodies (Purkinje cells), formulation of the vertigo law (Purkinje's law), discovery of criteria to classify human fingerprints, etc. In 1850, Purkinje accepted and held until his death the Physiology chair at Prague Medical Faculty. During this period, he succeeded in introducing the Czech idiom (in addition to long-established German and Latin) as a Medical Faculty teaching language. Additionally, as a zealous Czech patriot, he actively contributed to the naissance and consolidation of a national Czech identity conscience. Purkinje was a trend-setting scientist who, throughout his career, worked to pave the way for the renovation of physiology from a speculative discipline, ancilla of anatomy, into a factual, autonomous science committed to the discovery of mechanisms governing in-life functions.
Intelligent modeling of the user in interactive entertainment

A theme of the symposium is to explore ways to employ AI to make games more appealing to people who do not enjoy current genres, and to expand the market for interactive entertainment beyond the traditional niche of young male players. We suggest that AI techniques employed in the world of intelligent tutoring to model the user and adjust instruction, help and content could be fruitfully adapted to interactive entertainment. In computer-based educational tutoring, adaptivity to user behaviors and characteristics such as gender and cognitive developmental level have been shown to increase learner motivation, engagement and achievement in the area of mathematics learning. Similarly, utilizing data regarding player behaviors such as latency and errors to construct a model of the player would allow for more adaptive game play, which in turn would increase the appeal of computer games to a wider audience.
Development and preliminary validation of a behavioral task of negative reinforcement underlying risk-taking and its relation to problem alcohol use in college freshmen.

BACKGROUND A long line of theoretical and empirical evidence implicates negative reinforcement as a process underlying the etiology and maintenance of risky alcohol use behaviors from adolescence through emerging adulthood. However, the bulk of this literature has relied on self-report measures, and there is a notable absence of behavioral modes of assessments of negative reinforcement-based alcohol-related risk-taking. To address this clear gap in the literature, the current study presents the first published data on the reliability and validity of the Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS), which is a modified version of the positive reinforcement-based Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). METHODS Participants included a convenience sample of 116 college freshmen ever regular drinkers (aged 18 to 19) who completed both behavioral tasks; self-report measures of negative reinforcement/avoidance constructs and of positive reinforcement/appetitive constructs to examine convergent validity and discriminant validity, respectively; and self-report measures of alcohol use, problems, and motives to examine criterion validity. RESULTS The MRBURNS evidenced sound experimental properties and reliability across task trials. In support of convergent validity, risk-taking on the MRBURNS correlated significantly with negative urgency, difficulties in emotion regulation, and depressive and anxiety-related symptoms. In support of discriminant validity, performance on the MRBURNS was unrelated to risk-taking on the BART, sensation seeking, and trait impulsivity. Finally, pertaining to criterion validity, risk-taking on the MRBURNS was related to alcohol-related problems but not heavy episodic alcohol use. Notably, risk-taking on the MRBURNS was associated with negative reinforcement-based but not with positive reinforcement-based drinking motives. CONCLUSIONS Data from this initial investigation suggest the utility of the MRBURNS as a behavioral measure of negative reinforcement-based risk-taking that can provide a useful complement to existing self-report measures to improve our understanding of the relationship between avoidant reinforcement processes and risky alcohol use.
Effect of a resident physician educational program on pediatric emergency department pharmacy interventions and medication errors.

PURPOSE To determine the effects of a resident physician educational program in a pediatric emergency department (ED) on pharmacy interventions and medication errors, particularly dose adjustments, order clarifications, and adverse drug events (ADE). METHODS The ED pharmacist recorded all interventions and medication errors on weekdays from 3 to 11 pm during a 9-month period, consisting of a preobservational (Quarter 1), observational (Quarter 2), and interventional (Quarter 3) phases. Program implementation occurred in Quarter 3, with an initial 3-hour lecture during the ED orientation, followed by daily patient case discussions. Weekly interventions and errors were analyzed using statistical process control u-chart analyses. Chi-square analyses of independence were also performed. Resident and ED staff feedback on the program was obtained through anonymous internet-based surveys. RESULTS A total of 3507 interventions were recorded during the 9-month period. Chi-square approximation and interval estimation of odds ratio showed a statistically significant decrease between Quarters 1 and 3 in the number of dose adjustments (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.324-0.689) and order clarifications (95% CI, 0.137 to 0.382) after initiation of the program. The decline in ADE, while not as substantial (95% CI, 0.003 to 1.078), still achieved a level of significance (90% CI, 0.006 to 0.674). Survey results were positive toward the program. CONCLUSIONS The implementation of a resident physician educational program in our pediatric ED significantly decreased the number of medication errors, increased resident physician awareness of the potential for errors, and increased ED pharmacist utilization.
Efficient resource allocation in mobile-edge computation offloading: Completion time minimization

Mobile-edge computation offloading (MECO) is a promising solution for enhancing the capabilities of mobile devices. For an optimal usage of the offloading, a joint consideration of radio resources and computation resources is important, especially in multiuser scenarios where the resources must be shared between multiple users. We consider a multi-user MECO system with a base station equipped with a single cloudlet server. Each user can offload its entire task or part of its task. We consider parallel sharing of the cloudlet, where each user is allocated a certain fraction of the total computation power. The objective is to minimize the completion time of users' tasks. Two different access schemes for the radio channel are considered: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA). For each access scheme, we formulate the corresponding joint optimization problem and propose efficient algorithms to solve it. Both algorithms use the bisection-search method, where each step requires solving a feasibility problem. For TDMA, the feasibility problem has a closed-form solution. Numerical results show that the performance of offloading is higher than of local computing. In particular, MECO with FDMA outperforms MECO with TDMA, but with a small margin.