Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing Cost Salience and Procrastination in Projects: Compensation and Team Composition

The rising trend of projects with high‐skilled and autonomous contributors increasingly exposes managers to the risk of idiosyncratic individual behaviors. In this article, we examine the effects of an important behavioral factor, an individual's cost salience. Cost salience leads individuals to perceive the cost of immediate effort to be larger than the cost of future effort. This leads to procrastination in early stages and back‐loaded effort over the course of the project. We model the problem confronting the manager of a project whose quality is adversely impacted by such distortion of individual effort over time. Complementary to prior works focused on the planning and scheduling tasks of project management in the absence of human behavior, we find that managers should reward contributions made in earlier stages of a project. Our analysis also yields interesting insights on the project team performance: teams with diverse levels of cost salience will perform better than homogeneous teams. We also address another important facet of team composition, namely, the choice between stable and fluid teams, and find that the practice of creating fluid teams might have previously unrecognized benefits when behavioral aspects of projects are considered. We conclude with insights and organizational implications for project managers.
Achieving mobility on demand using autonomous vehicles

Easy mobility is an important capability to enhance the quality of all our lives. Self-driving cars provide mobility-on-demand anytime and anywhere. Besides the convenience, autonomous driving provides a safe and productive environment, and an efficient use of resources. This talk shares our research group's current activities in achieving mobility-on-demand using autonomous vehicles, in both pedestrian (malls, airports, parks, etc) and road environments. The current state-of-the-art will be presented together with current challenges and our approach to solving these challenges.
An Algorithm for Deployment of RFID Readers in EPC Network

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has much potential to automate business processes and improve visibility across the supply chain, especially in target tracking problems. So the deployment of RFID readers is very important. This paper focuses on the optimization of RFID readers' deployment for target tracking in Electronic Product Code (EPC) Network performed by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The simulation results show that the PSO algorithm maximizes the tracking precision and minimizes the reader consumption.
A new biologically inspired active appearance model for face age estimation by using local ordinal ranking

In this paper, a new facial feature called Biologically Inspired Active Appearance Model (BIAAM) is proposed for face age estimation by using a novel age function learning algorithm, called Local Ordinal Ranking (LOR). In BIAAM, appearance variations are encoded by extracting Bio Inspired Feature from normalized shape-free images with a mean shape mask. The proposed LOR divides the training set into several groups according to age labels and applies Ordinal Hyperplanes Ranker for each group to determine the final predicting age. A multiple linear regression function is used to decide which group a query sample belongs to. Experimental evaluation on the FG-NET aging database with mean absolute error 4.18 years demonstrates that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms.
Copy detection mechanism for documents using position based weighted scheme

Nowadays, every information is easily available in digital form as documents over the internet. So, it is very easy to copy and access those documents on the internet. When we copy someone's content or idea without permission or citation then plagiarism occurs. This is a very big problem, as it violates the sharing of important information among valid users. According to this paper, we developed a system to detect piracy or copies regarding documents using position based weighted scheme. This scheme firstly extracts all keywords from all the sentences and then applies weighting for each keyword. And, to cover the whole sentence, we used first and last position based scheme on all extracted keywords. Thereafter, assign the weight of all extracted keywords to related synonyms or antonyms of that extracted keyword with the help of Word Net dataset 2.0. Finally, we apply the cosine similarity measure for similarity detection between two documents by considering a static database. After performing experiments on Pan Plagiarism Corpus-9 datasets, the results represent better time efficiency and best performance in comparison of existing copy detection mechanisms on the basis of Precision, Recall, and F-measure.
Optimization research based on the online comment clustering of short text

On the basis of the existing research of the online comment clustering of short text, an improved text distance optimization method based on the online comment clustering of short text is proposed. The the weight factor is introduced in order to optimize the formula and the golden section method is used to optimize the experimental results in the improved method. The results of simulation experiments show that the improved method is better than the traditional method and the clustering performance has a certain improvement.
Methods for improving the quality of syllable based speech synthesis

Our earlier work [1] on speech synthesis has shown that syllables can produce reasonably natural quality speech. Nevertheless, audible artifacts are present due to discontinuities in pitch, energy, and formant trajectories at the joining point of the units. In this paper, we present some minimal signal modification techniques for reducing these artifacts.
Dynamic Detection of Deterministic Computations in Non-Deterministic Functional-Logic Programs

The detection of deterministic computations at run-time can be used to introduce dynamic cuts pruning the search space and thus increasing the efficiency of Functional-Logic systems. This idea was introduced in an early work of R. Loogen and S. Winkler. However the proposal of these authors cannot be used in current implementations because it did not consider non-deterministic functions and was not oriented to the demand driven strategy. Our work adapts and extends the technique, both showing how to deal with non-deterministic computations and how definitional trees can be employed to locate the places where the cuts will be introduced. An implementation based on a Prolog-translation is proposed, making the technique easy to implement in current systems generating Prolog code. Some experiments showing the effectiveness of the cut are presented.
Microstructure and texture of fresh and smoked Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., fillets from fish reared and slaughtered under different conditions

This study was carried out to examine differences in microstructure and texture of fresh and smoked farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. fillets with different biological characteristics. The left fillet was analysed fresh and compared with the salted and smoked right fillet from each individual fish. Light microscopy and image analysing techniques were used to study both transversal and longitudinal sections of the muscle. The fish muscle fibres shrank during the salting and smoking process, but sarcomere length did not change. After smoking, a considerable number of fat globules were dispersed among the muscle fibres. The biological characteristics studied were based upon diploid and triploid fish held in both sea cages and land-based tanks. Different starvation times were used and one group was stressed during slaughter. The cross-sectional area of muscle fibres from triploid fish was found to be larger than from diploid fish, both in fresh and smoked fillets.
Towards a measuring framework for security properties of software

Among the different quality attributes of software artifacts, security has lately gained a lot of interest. However, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess security are still missing. This is possibly due to the lack of knowledge about which properties must be considered when it comes to evaluate security. The above-mentioned gap is even larger when one considers key software development phases such as architectural and detailed design. This position paper highlights the fundamental questions that need to be answered in order to bridge the gap and proposes an initial approach.
When Do Targets Benefit From Negotiations? Evidence from Auctions and Negotiations

Recent research suggests that target shareholders’ wealth effects from auctions do not differ from their wealth effects in single-bidder negotiations (Boone and Mulherin, 2007b). We find this result puzzling and contend that an analysis of the method of sale decision and the wealth effects outcome must address the self-selection bias resulting from target management’s private information inherent in the decision. Using a self-selection framework, we hypothesize that adverse selection risk (i.e., an anticipated risk) and the uncertainty of future cash flows (i.e., an unknown risk) impact the target’s decision to sell through an auction, as well as the wealth accruing to target shareholders. We find that when target managers initiate the sale of the firm, they are more likely to choose an auction as the method of sale. Our results suggest that the method of sale (i.e., selling the firm through an auction or negotiating with a single bidder) is not random and has a significant impact on the wealth of target shareholders. Specifically, both under a self-selection framework and in deal initiator subsample analysis, we find that adverse selection risk, including a lack of transparency in financial reporting and the uncertainty of future cash flows, impacts the target’s decision to sell through an auction as well as the wealth accrued to target shareholders. Auctions are associated with both higher target cumulative abnormal returns and offer premiums than negotiations, but only if the transaction is not initiated by the target. The target can self-select itself and choose an auction (vs. negotiation) to increase target wealth effects. We also show that controlling for both simultaneity and self-selection biases enriches our understanding of the corporate takeover process.
Wild Chimpanzees Exchange Meat for Sex on a Long-Term Basis

Humans and chimpanzees are unusual among primates in that they frequently perform group hunts of mammalian prey and share meat with conspecifics. Especially interesting are cases in which males give meat to unrelated females. The meat-for-sex hypothesis aims at explaining these cases by proposing that males and females exchange meat for sex, which would result in males increasing their mating success and females increasing their caloric intake without suffering the energetic costs and potential risk of injury related to hunting. Although chimpanzees have been shown to share meat extensively with females, there has not been much direct evidence in this species to support the meat-for-sex hypothesis. Here we show that female wild chimpanzees copulate more frequently with those males who, over a period of 22 months, share meat with them. We excluded other alternative hypotheses to exchanging meat for sex, by statistically controlling for rank of the male, age, rank and gregariousness of the female, association patterns of each male-female dyad and meat begging frequency of each female. Although males were more likely to share meat with estrous than anestrous females given their proportional representation in hunting parties, the relationship between mating success and sharing meat remained significant after excluding from the analysis sharing episodes with estrous females. These results strongly suggest that wild chimpanzees exchange meat for sex, and do so on a long-term basis. Similar studies on humans will determine if the direct nutritional benefits that women receive from hunters in foraging societies could also be driving the relationship between reproductive success and good hunting skills.
The development and piloting of electronic standardized measures on nursing work: combining engineering and nursing knowledge.

AIMS This paper describes the development and piloting of electronic standardized measures on nursing work (e-SMNW) for rich data gathering on the work and work environment of registered nurses (RNs) and practical nurses (PNs). BACKGROUND Efficient and valid methods are needed to measure nursing work to enhance the optimal use of the nursing workforce for safe patient care. METHODS The study combined human factors engineering (HFE) and nursing knowledge to develop electronic standardized measures for observational studies on nursing work in acute care. RESULTS The work and work environment of RNs and PNs in acute care medical and surgical inpatient units was successfully measured using e-SMNW. With predetermined items of work activities and influencing factors in the work of nurses, and full use of computer technology, multi-layered rich standardized data were gathered, analysed and displayed. CONCLUSIONS The combination of nursing knowledge, HFE and computer technology enables observational data collection for a rich picture of the complex work of nursing. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Information collected by standardized and multi-layered measures makes it easier to identify potential improvements, with regard to influencing factors and management of the work and work environment of nurses. Further use of computer technology in health services research is encouraged.
An implicit method for hazard-free two-level logic minimization

None of the available minimizers for exact 2-level hazard-free logic minimization can synthesize very large circuits. This limitation has forced researchers to resort to heuristic minimization, or to manual and automated circuit partitioning techniques. This paper introduces a new implicit 2-level logic minimizer, IMPYMIN, which is able to solve very large multi-output hazard-free minimization problems exactly. The minimizer is based on a novel theoretical approach: it incorporates hazard-freedom constraints within a synchronous function by adding new variables. In particular, the generation of dynamic-hazard-free prime implicants is cast as a synchronous prime implicant generation problem. The minimizer can exactly solve all currently available examples, which range up to 32 inputs and 33 outputs, in less than 813 seconds. These include examples that have never been exactly solved before.
Opportunities and challenges in deriving phytoplankton diversity measures from individual trait-based data obtained by scanning flow-cytometry

In the context of understanding and predicting the effects of human-induced environmental change (EC) on biodiversity (BD), and the consequences of BD change for ecosystem functioning (EF), microbial ecologists face the challenge of linking individual level variability in functional traits to larger-scale ecosystem processes. Since lower level BD at genetic, individual, and population levels largely determines the functionality and resilience of natural populations and communities, individual level measures promise to link EC-induced physiological, ecological, and evolutionary responses to EF. Intraspecific trait differences, while representing among the least-understood aspects of natural microbial communities, have recently become easier to measure due to new technology. For example, recent advance in scanning flow-cytometry (SCF), automation of phytoplankton sampling and integration with environmental sensors allow to measure morphological and physiological traits of individual algae with high spatial and temporal resolution. Here we present emerging features of automated SFC data from natural phytoplankton communities and the opportunities that they provide for understanding the functioning of complex aquatic microbial communities. We highlight some current limitations and future needs, particularly focusing on the large amount of individual level data that, for the purpose of understanding the EC-BD-EF link, need to be translated into meaningful BD indices. We review the available functional diversity (FD) indices that, despite having been designed for mean trait values at the species level, can be adapted to individual-based trait data and provide links to ecological theory. We conclude that, considering some computational, mathematical and ecological issues, a set of multi-dimensional indices that address richness, evenness and divergence in overall community trait space represent the most promising BD metrics to study EC-BD-EF using individual level data.
A Cluster-Based Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

—Reduction of overhead is essential in increasing the scalability and power efficiency of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems for mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). Previously researchers mainly focused on reducing overhead of query process, and paid little attention to file transfer process. This paper presents a cluster-based P2P file sharing protocol for MANET, focusing on file transfer process. This protocol uses the concept of cluster to reduce overhead and applies a three-way handshaking process to form a cluster. Within a cluster, a request agent transmits requests on behalf of other nodes in the cluster, and a provider provides data packets for the cluster at the request of the request agent. By confining the request-response process between the request agent and the provider, protocol overhead can be effectively decreased. Moreover, this protocol utilizes request suppression to effectively reduce the number of requests. Simulation results show that this protocol outperforms a traditional P2P file sharing protocol in terms of overhead, power efficiency, and downloading speed.
Higher reliability redundant disk arrays: Organization, operation, and coding

Parity is a popular form of data protection in redundant arrays of inexpensive/independent disks (RAID). RAID5 dedicates one out of N disks to parity to mask single disk failures, that is, the contents of a block on a failed disk can be reconstructed by exclusive-ORing the corresponding blocks on surviving disks. RAID5 can mask a single disk failure, and it is vulnerable to data loss if a second disk failure occurs. The RAID5 rebuild process systematically reconstructs the contents of a failed disk on a spare disk, returning the system to its original state, but the rebuild process may be unsuccessful due to unreadable sectors. This has led to two disk failure tolerant arrays (2DFTs), such as RAID6 based on Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. EVENODD, RDP (Row-Diagonal-Parity), the X-code, and RM2 (Row-Matrix) are 2DFTs with parity coding. RM2 incurs a higher level of redundancy than two disks, while the X-code is limited to a prime number of disks. RDP is optimal with respect to the number of XOR operations at the encoding, but not for short write operations. For small symbol sizes EVENODD and RDP have the same disk access pattern as RAID6, while RM2 and the X-code incur a high recovery cost with two failed disks. We describe variations to RAID5 and RAID6 organizations, including clustered RAID, different methods to update parities, rebuild processing, disk scrubbing to eliminate sector errors, and the intra-disk redundancy (IDR) method to deal with sector errors. We summarize the results of recent studies of failures in hard disk drives. We describe Markov chain reliability models to estimate RAID mean time to data loss (MTTDL) taking into account sector errors and the effect of disk scrubbing. Numerical results show that RAID5 plus IDR attains the same MTTDL level as RAID6, while incurring a lower performance penalty. We conclude with a survey of analytic and simulation studies of RAID performance and tools and benchmarks for RAID performance evaluation.
Molecular-line and continuum study of the W40 cloud

The dense cloud associated with W40, which is one of the nearby H ii regions, has been studied in millimetre-wave molecular lines and in the 1.2-mm continuum. Moreover, 1280- and 610-MHz interferometric observations have been carried out. The cloud has a complex morphological and kinematical structure, including a clumpy dust ring and an extended dense core. The ring has probably been formed by the 'collect and collapse' process as a result of the expansion of the neighbouring H ii region. Nine dust clumps in the ring have been deconvolved. Their sizes, masses and peak hydrogen column densities are similar to 0.02-0.11 pc, similar to 0.4-8.1 M-circle dot and similar to(2.5-11) x 10(22) cm(-2), respectively. Molecular lines are observed at two different velocities and have different spatial distributions, which implies that there is strong chemical differentiation over the region. The CS abundance is enhanced towards the eastern dust clump 2, while the NH3, N2H+ and (HCO+)-C-13 abundances are enhanced towards the western clumps. HCN and HCO+ do not correlate with the dust, probably tracing the surrounding gas. The number densities derived towards selected positions are similar to(0.3-3.2) x 10(6) cm(-3). The two western clumps have kinetic temperatures of 21 and 16 K and are close to virial equilibrium. The eastern clumps 2 and 3 are more massive, have a higher extent of turbulence and are probably more evolved than the western clumps. They show asymmetric CS(2-1) line profiles because of infalling motions, which is confirmed by model calculations. An interaction between ionized and neutral material is taking place in the vicinity of the eastern branch of the ring and probably triggers star formation.
Morphologically-aware elimination of flat edges from a TIN

We propose a new technique for eliminating flat edges from a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) in a morphologically consistent way. The algorithm is meant to be a preprocessing step for performing morphological computations on a terrain. Terrain morphology is rooted in Morse theory for smooth functions. Segmentation algorithms have been defined for TINs, mostly based on discrete versions of Morse theory, and under the assumption that the terrain model does not include flat edges. On the other hand, flat edges often occur in real data, and thus either they are eliminated through data perturbation, or the segmentation algorithms must be able to deal with them. In both cases, the resulting Morse segmentations are highly affected by the presence of flat edges. The new technique we propose provides a better solution, as it preserves the set of maxima and minima of the original terrain, and improves consistency among the terrain decompositions produced by different segmentation algorithms.