Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Risk Forecasts with Central Limits

Portfolio risk forecasts are commonly evaluated using test statistics that are sums of random variables. We study the distributional properties of these test statistics for value at risk, expected shortfall, and volatility. For a diverse collection of 74 US equity portfolios, risk forecasts based on an extreme value theory model greatly outperform a conditional normal model with a 23-day halflife. On the other hand, we show that the common assumption of asymptotic normality in test statistics for these risk measures is not always satisfied, especially for test statistics related to volatility.
Metamorphic Testing for Web Services: Framework and a Case Study

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has become a major application development paradigm. As a basic unit of SOA applications, Web services significantly affect the quality of the applications constructed from them. Since the development and consumption of Web services are completely separated under SOA environment, the consumers are normally provided with limited knowledge of the services and thus have little information about test oracles. The lack of source code and the restricted control of Web services limit the testability of Web services. To address the prominent oracle problem when testing Web services, we propose a metamorphic testing framework for Web services taking into account the unique features of SOA. We conduct a case study where the new metamorphic testing framework is employed to test a Web service that implements the electronic payment. The results of case study show the feasibility of the framework for web services, and also the efficiency of metamorphic testing. The work presented in the paper alleviates the test oracle problem when testing Web services under SOA.
Labelled pupils in the wild: a dataset for studying pupil detection in unconstrained environments

We present labelled pupils in the wild (LPW), a novel dataset of 66 high-quality, high-speed eye region videos for the development and evaluation of pupil detection algorithms. The videos in our dataset were recorded from 22 participants in everyday locations at about 95 FPS using a state-of-the-art dark-pupil head-mounted eye tracker. They cover people of different ethnicities and a diverse set of everyday indoor and outdoor illumination environments, as well as natural gaze direction distributions. The dataset also includes participants wearing glasses, contact lenses, and make-up. We benchmark five state-of-the-art pupil detection algorithms on our dataset with respect to robustness and accuracy. We further study the influence of image resolution and vision aids as well as recording location (indoor, outdoor) on pupil detection performance. Our evaluations provide valuable insights into the general pupil detection problem and allow us to identify key challenges for robust pupil detection on head-mounted eye trackers.
Clustering-based Routing Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Sink

Most of the existing data gathering strategies are based on the structure of stationary Sink in Wireless Sensor Networks, which will lead to rapidly energy consumption of sensor nodes near the sink for the reason that these nodes burden the data transmission from the whole network. This paper proposes a clustering-based routing algorithm in wireless sensor networks with mobile sink (CRA) to solve this kind of problem. In the CRA, sink node moves in a circle around the regional center and the circular area near this trajectory is set as buffer area, in which nodes are connected as backbone datalink. Data is transmitted to the annular buffer area and then reach the sink through the backbone datalink. This paper figures out the optimal location and size of the buffer area in order to minimize the average load of the nodes in the area. Furthermore, this paper proposes CRA-1, which improves the original algorithm by density controlling, for the purpose of balancing the energy consumption of the whole network
Multi-dimensional Parametric Mincuts for Constrained MAP Inference

In this paper, we propose novel algorithms for inferring the Maximum a Posteriori (MAP) solution of discrete pairwise random field models under multiple constraints. We show how this constrained discrete optimization problem can be formulated as a multi-dimensional parametric mincut problem via its Lagrangian dual, and prove that our algorithm isolates all constraint instances for which the problem can be solved exactly. These multiple solutions enable us to even deal with `soft constraints' (higher order penalty functions). Moreover, we propose two practical variants of our algorithm to solve problems with hard constraints. We also show how our method can be applied to solve various constrained discrete optimization problems such as submodular minimization and shortest path computation. Experimental evaluation using the foreground-background image segmentation problem with statistic constraints reveals that our method is faster and its results are closer to the ground truth labellings compared with the popular continuous relaxation based methods.
Changing Faculty Employment at Four-Year Colleges and Universities in the United States

We use panel data models to examine variations and changes in faculty employment at four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The share of part-time faculty among total faculty has continued to grow during the last two decades, while the share of full-time lecturers and instructors has been relatively stable. Meanwhile, the share of non-tenure track faculty among full-time faculty has been growing, especially among the professorial ranks. Dynamic panel data models suggest that employment levels of different types of faculty respond to a variety of economic and institutional factors. Colleges and universities have increasingly employed faculty whose salaries and benefits are relatively inexpensive; the slowly deteriorating financial situations at most colleges and universities have led to an increasing reliance on a contingent academic workforce. A cross-sectional comparison of the share of full-time non-tenure track faculty also reveals significant variations across institutions.
Full potential analysis and design of transonic propellers by Philip B. Poll.

An analysis and design method is developed for subsonic and transonic propellers. Finite element techniques are used to discretize the full potential equation on a three-dimensional domain and the Newton-Raphson iteration method is used to solve the nonlinear equations. Results are presented that demonstrate the analysis capability of the present scheme including results for a marine propeller and for the SR-3 Prop-Fan. The design method iteratively modifies an initial geometry and analysis solution to obtain the best fit to a specified target pressure distribution. The goal in developing the present method was to provide a fast way to make small changes to a propeller geometry designed using two-dimensional methods to correct for three-dimensional effects. Modifications to the design surface are restricted to combinations of a fixed set of geometric modes and the design surface displacement is modeled using wall transpi-ration. The number of global unknowns introduced for the design method is a small set of coefficients that multiply the geometric modes. Using the Newton method, mode coefficient sensitivities can be computed in about the same time required for a full direct calculation. Then, a linearly perturbed solution for a target pressure distribution can be obtained in an order of magnitude less time than a single direct calculation. Acknowledgments To my wife, Suzanne. Forgive me, but the magnitude of my appreciation is simply not expressible so I must leave these words by themselves. A thesis is hardly an individual effort. From borrowed pencils to grueling power sessions there are many ways in which others contribute. I thank you all. Of course, there are always those who deserve special mention. So, special thanks to: Dave Darmofal. For being so darned inspirational. My greatest regret in deciding not to begin a PhD program is in giving up the opportunity to work alongside someone so capable of achievement. I will miss our varied discussions. Mark Drela, my advisor. With his unwavering technical competence he tutored me in the ways of Newton and Raphson and bashing and clamping and choking and all those wonderful things that really make CFD so colorful. I would especially like to thank him for his patience with my tendency to produce somewhat persistant program bugs. Mr. Harold H. Youngren. For making me excited about being 38. Bob Haimes. For providing some occasional computational advice and the very frequent beatings on the squash court. I regret not being able to win …
Simulation of More Realistic Upper-Ocean Processes from an OGCM with a New Ocean Mixed Layer Model

A new ocean mixed layer model (OMLM) was embedded into an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) with the aim of providing an OGCM that is ideal for application to a climate model by predicting the sea surface temperature (SST) more accurately. The results from the new OMLM showed a significant improvement in the prediction of SST compared to the cases of constant vertical mixing and the vertical mixing scheme by Pacanowski and Philander. More accurate prediction of the SST from the new OMLM reduces the magnitude of the restoring term in the surface heat flux and thus provides a simulated ocean that can be coupled to the atmospheric general circulation model more naturally. The new OMLM was also shown to improve various other features of the OGCM such as the mixed layer depth and the equatorial circulation.
HST/ACS colour-magnitude diagrams of M 31 globular clusters

Aims. With the aim of increasing the sample of M 31 clusters for which a colour-magnitude diagram is available, we searched the HST archive for ACS images containing objects included in the Revised Bologna Catalogue of M 31 globular clusters***. Methods. Sixty-three such objects were found. We used the ACS images to confirm or revise their classification and were able to obtain useful CMDs for 11 old globular clusters and 6 luminous young clusters. We obtained simultaneous estimates of the distance, reddening, and metallicity of old clusters by comparing their observed field-decontaminated CMDs with a grid of template clusters of the Milky Way. We estimated the age of the young clusters by fitting with theoretical isochrones. Results. For the old clusters, we found metallicities in the range -0.4 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ -1.9. The individual estimates generally agree with existing spectroscopic estimates. At least four of them display a clear blue horizontal branch, indicating ages ≳ 10 Gyr. All six candidate young clusters are found to have ages <1 Gyr. The photometry of the clusters is made publicly available through a dedicated web page. Conclusions. With the present work the total number of M 31 GCs with reliable optical CMD increases from 35 to 44 for the old clusters, and from 7 to 11 for the young ones. The old clusters show similar characteristics to those of the MW. We discuss the case of the cluster B407, with a metallicity [Fe/H] ≃ -0.6 and located at a large projected distance from the centre of M 31 (R p = 19.8 kpc) and from the major axis of the galaxy (Y = 11.3 kpc). Metal-rich globulars at large galactocentric distances are rare both in M 31 and in the Milky Way. B407, in addition, has a velocity in stark contrast with the rotation pattern shared by the bulk of M 31 clusters of similar metallicity. This, along with other empirical evidence, supports the hypothesis that the cluster (together with B403) is physically associated with a substructure in the halo of M 31 that has been interpreted as the relic of a merging event.
Hyperelastic pressure sensing with a liquid-embedded elastomer

A hyperelastic pressure transducer is fabricated by embedding silicone rubber with microchannels of conductive liquid eutectic gallium–indium. Pressing the surface of the elastomer with pressures in the range of 0–100 kPa will deform the cross-section of underlying channels and change their electric resistance by as much as 50%. Microchannels with dimensions as small as 25 µm are obtained with a maskless, soft lithography process that utilizes direct laser exposure. Change in electrical resistance is measured as a function of the magnitude and area of the surface pressure as well as the cross-sectional geometry, depth and relative lateral position of the embedded channel. These experimentally measured values closely match closed-form theoretical predictions derived from plane strain elasticity and contact mechanics.
Targeted Gene-Silencing Reveals the Functional Significance of Myocardin Signaling in the Failing Heart

Background Myocardin (MYOCD), a potent transcriptional coactivator of smooth muscle (SM) and cardiac genes, is upregulated in failing myocardium in animal models and human end-stage heart failure (HF). However, the molecular and functional consequences of myocd upregulation in HF are still unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings The goal of the present study was to investigate if targeted inhibition of upregulated expression of myocd could influence failing heart gene expression and function. To this end, we used the doxorubicin (Dox)-induced diastolic HF (DHF) model in neonatal piglets, in which, as we show, not only myocd but also myocd-dependent SM-marker genes are highly activated in failing left ventricular (LV) myocardium. In this model, intra-myocardial delivery of short-hairpin RNAs, designed to target myocd variants expressed in porcine heart, leads on day 2 post-delivery to: (1) a decrease in the activated expression of myocd and myocd-dependent SM-marker genes in failing myocardium to levels seen in healthy control animals, (2) amelioration of impaired diastolic dysfunction, and (3) higher survival rates of DHF piglets. The posterior restoration of elevated myocd expression (on day 7 post-delivery) led to overexpression of myocd-dependent SM-marker genes in failing LV-myocardium that was associated with a return to altered diastolic function. Conclusions/Significance These data provide the first evidence that a moderate inhibition (e.g., normalization) of the activated MYOCD signaling in the diseased heart may be promising from a therapeutic point of view.
An accelerated momentum based gradient projection method for image deblurring

Linear inverse problems (LIP) have been widely employed in wavelet-based image deblurring problems. The standard way is to minimize L2-L1 norm by gradient descent search in the solution space, which is typically suffered from poor convergence and unwanted local optima. In this paper, an accelerated image deblurring method is proposed by using momentum based gradient search scheme combined with the projected step technique. By adding a momentum term to the typical negative gradient direction, iterative steps will be effectively enlarged in favorable directions and some specific local optimal points can be avoided. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms its competitors, both in time efficiency and image restored quality.
Englishization and the Politics of Knowledge Production in Management Studies

Concerns have been voiced in recent years about the widespread use of U.S.-dominated journal rankings in business schools. Such practice is seen to have the effect of spreading globally a U.S.-style scholarly monoculture and reconstituting other forms of scholarship as marginal and inferior. In this essay, we explore the ways in which the English language is implicated in these processes. Drawing on language-sensitive studies of academic work and our own experiences as nonnative speakers of English, we argue that the use of U.S.-dominated rankings is not just hierarchizing and homogenizing the global field of management but also contributing to its Englishization. This, we contend, furthers the homogenization of the field while also producing significant language-based inequalities and inducing demanding quasi-colonial forms of identity work by those being Englishized.
Cardiovascular Neural Regulation Explored in the Frequency Domain

A consistent link appears to exist between predominance of vagal or sympathetic activity and predominance of HF or LF oscillations, respectively: RR variability contains both of these rhythms, and their relative powers appear to subserve a reciprocal relation like that commonly found in sympathovagal balance. In this respect, it is our opinion that rhythms and neural components always interact, just like flexor and extensor tones or excitatory and inhibitory cardiovascular reflexes, and that it is misleading to separately consider vagal and sympathetic modulations of heart rate. In humans and experimental animals, functional states likely to be accompanied by an increased sympathetic activity are characterized by a shift of the LF-HF balance in favor of the LF component; the opposite occurs during presumed increases in vagal activity. In addition, LF oscillation evaluated from SAP variability appears to be a convenient marker of the sympathetic modulation of vasomotor activity. Although based on indirect markers, the exploration in the frequency domain of cardiovascular neural regulation might disclose a unitary vision hard to reach through the assemblage of more specific but fragmented pieces of information.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Truthcore: Non-parametric Estimation of Truth from a Collection of Authoritative Sources

—Truth Finding is the problem of determining correct information from several conflicting sources and is required for data aggregation. Existing algorithms solve the problem by simultaneously estimating source qualities and fact confidences, working on either numeric or non-numeric data. However, in practice, datasets are a mixture of several different data types. In this work we present a unified framework for finding truth from a collection of conflicting, authoritative sources. We assume that a small subset of independent reliable sources are selected by a preprocessing step. We formulate truth finding as an outlier removal problem, by modeling the similarities between the values reported by these sources. Our algorithm works in two stages: it first models the similarity graph between the sources and then finds the truth by invoking an outlier removal algorithm. We report experiments on several datasets including results for fixing records in Open Library; an open, editable library catalog.
Is Self-Management a Right Buzzword for Modern Management Challenges?

A method of communicating between first and second processes running on a plurality of host processors that are connected to a data storage system, the method including the steps of establishing a connection between the first and second processes through the data storage system; and by using the connection established through the data storage system, sending information between the first and second processes.
Entropy-Based Study of the Management of Humanization Design of Software

The studies of the application of thermodynamics entropy variation theory show that the decrease of entropy in one system is a necessary condition for improvement of organization extent; if we put entropy theory into the management of software humanization design project, then we can find that also there is entropy existing in software humanized design, of which complementary action of positive and negative entropy influences humanization design of software. The significance of positive and negative entropy implies that humanization design has more important effects than technology in the management of software development project. Research has been done to show that the controlling of entropy value to improve human and cultural care of design team and staff is a significant way to improve humanization design of software.
Extension of Incomplete 3D for Arbitrary Multi-View-Synthesis

The proposed approach is motivated by applications which allow user navigation and individual viewpoint specification in shared virtual environments with telepresence quality. In this context, we present a synthesis method for arbitrary virtual views in a multi-view camera set-up. This method generates a close to realtime, view adaptable reconstruction of a 3dimensional, (3D), object taken from at least two cameras. In this method, we use the recently developed Incomplete 3D, (IC3D), technique, a disparity-based multiview representation for a weakly convergent camera setup in combination with the trilinear warping functions to describe new virtual camera positions. Previously, only virtual views inside the baseline could be described by IC3D. Hence, user movement in virtual environments (VE) was restricted. In order to create a virtual camera position and orientation outside the baseline we apply point correspondences across the two reference images to a trilinear tensor, built from the fundamental matrix between the reference views. The trilinearities provide a general warping function from the reference images to virtual view that is governed directly by the virtual camera parameters.
Self-learning fuzzy controllers based on temporal backpropagation

A generalized control strategy that enhances fuzzy controllers with self-learning capability for achieving prescribed control objectives in a near-optimal manner is presented. This methodology, termed temporal backpropagation, is model-sensitive in the sense that it can deal with plants that can be represented in a piecewise-differentiable format, such as difference equations, neural networks, GMDH structures, and fuzzy models. Regardless of the numbers of inputs and outputs of the plants under consideration, the proposed approach can either refine the fuzzy if-then rules of human experts or automatically derive the fuzzy if-then rules if human experts are not available. The inverted pendulum system is employed as a testbed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme and the robustness of the acquired fuzzy controller.
Tobacco Smoking Is Not Associated With Accelerated Liver Disease in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Hepatitis C Coinfection: A Longitudinal Cohort Analysis

Background. Tobacco smoking has been shown to be an independent risk factor for liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in some cross-sectional studies. No longitudinal study has confirmed this relationship, and the effect of tobacco exposure on liver fibrosis in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-HCV coinfected individuals is unknown. Methods. The study population consisted of participants from the Canadian Co-infection Cohort study (CTN 222), a multicenter longitudinal study of HIV-HCV coinfected individuals from 2003 to 2014. Data were analyzed for all participants who did not have significant fibrosis or end-stage liver disease (ESLD) at baseline. The association between time-updated tobacco exposure (ever vs nonsmokers and pack-years) and progression to significant liver fibrosis (defined as an aspartate-to-platelet ratio index [APRI] ≥1.5) or ESLD was assessed by pooled logistic regression. Results. Of 1072 participants included in the study, 978 (91%) had ever smoked, 817 (76%) were current smokers, and 161 (15%) were previous smokers. Tobacco exposure was not associated with accelerated progression to significant liver fibrosis nor with ESLD when comparing ever vs never smokers (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43–1.69 and OR = 1.20, 95% CI, 0.21–2.18, respectively) or increases in pack-years smoked (OR = 1.05, 95% CI, 0.97–1.14 and OR = 0.94, 95% CI, 0.83–1.05, respectively). Both time-updated alcohol use in the previous 6 months and presence of detectable HCV ribonucleic acid were associated with APRI score ≥1.5. Conclusions. Tobacco exposure does not appear to be associated with accelerated progression of liver disease in this prospective study of HIV-HCV coinfected individuals.