Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When does procedural justice influence perceived legitimacy? The role of standing uncertainty and group identification

Many empirical studies have shown that procedural justice is the key determinant of whether an individual perceives an authority figure as legitimate. However, based on relational models of procedural justice and the uncertainty management model, there is reason to believe that the association between procedural justice and perceived legitimacy may be stronger for individuals who are uncertain about their standing as group members (moderation); this interaction might predict group identification and, in turn, perceived legitimacy (mediation). We tested this mediated moderation model in two experiments (Studies 1a and 1b) and a field study (Study 2) using different operationalizations of standing uncertainty across studies. The results of Studies 1a and 1b demonstrated that the association between procedural justice and perceived legitimacy was stronger for participants with high (vs. low) standing uncertainty. Study 2 showed that group identification mediated the association between this interaction effect and perceived legitimacy. Together, the results of the mediated moderation analysis showed that procedural justice was positively associated with perceived legitimacy through high group identification when standing uncertainty was high. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of our findings are discussed.
The Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS): a new validated measure of anomalous perceptual experience.

The study describes the Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS), a new validated measure of perceptual anomalies. The 32-item CAPS measure is a reliable, self-report scale, which uses neutral language, demonstrates high content validity, and includes subscales that measure distress, intrusiveness, and frequency of anomalous experience. The CAPS was completed by a general population sample of 336 participants and 20 psychotic inpatients. Approximately 11% of the general population sample scored above the mean of the psychotic patient sample, although, as a group, psychotic inpatients scored significantly more than the general population on all CAPS subscales. A principal components analysis of the general population data revealed 3 components: "clinical psychosis" (largely Schneiderian first-rank symptoms), "temporal lobe disturbance" (largely related to temporal lobe epilepsy and related seizure-like disturbances) and "chemosensation" (largely olfactory and gustatory experiences), suggesting that there are multiple contributory factors underlying anomalous perceptual experience and the "psychosis continuum. "
Incentives and Resource Sharing in Spectrum Commons

It has been suggested that light regulation in the form of etiquette protocols, device design and bargaining amongst users will suffice to mitigate a tragedy of the commons in unlicensed spectrum. In this paper we propose a game theoretic model to examine this claim. In this game, each user decides whether or not to set up an access point, which operates on a particular (single) band. The effect of regulation is modeled in reduced form through transfers. A user who sets up an access point, provides payments to each neighbor who does not and suffers a disutility depending on the number of interfering access points. A user who does not set up an access point, receives payments from each neighbor that does. For a suitable model of payoffs, the game is a potential game and best response updates converge to a Nash equilibrium of the game. For any interference parameters, there is a suitable transfer resulting in a Nash equilibrium which is efficient. However, all Nash equilibria may not be efficient.
A Test of the Conditional Independence Assumption in Sample Selection Models: A TEST OF THE CONDITIONAL INDEPENDENCE ASSUMPTION

Identification in most sample selection models depends on the independence of the regressors and the error terms conditional on the selection probability. All quantile and mean functions are parallel in these models; this implies that quantile estimators cannot reveal any– per assumption non-existing– heterogeneity. Quantile estimators are nevertheless useful for testing the conditional independence assumption because they are consistent under the null hypothesis. We propose tests of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov type based on the conditional quantile regression process. Monte Carlo simulations show that their size is satisfactory and their power suffi cient to detect deviations under plausible data generating processes. We apply our procedures to female wage data from the 2011 Current Population Survey and show that homogeneity is clearly rejected.
Smartphone-based Human Activity Recognition in buildings using Locality-constrained Linear Coding

Smartphone-based Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is an active research topic in smart homes and health care. Smartphones are often carried by users in a non-intrusive way, and the sensing platform in them could provide much information about the users. By leveraging the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope in smartphones, we can design a system to distinguish the user's simple behaviors. Most of the current work did not consider feature selection, but directly fed the statistical features from both the time and frequency domains into machine learning algorithms. In this work, we proposed an approach for HAR by using Locality-constrained Linear Coding (LLC) as a feature selector to improve the performance of HAR systems. After feature selection, standard typical classifiers of Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest-Neighbor, Kernel-Extreme Learning Machine and Sparse Representation Classifier can then be applied to learn the distinctiveness of the selected features. Experiment results showed that the LLC approach achieved an average accuracy of about 90% due to a better selected dictionary for feature representation. Activities of simple actions that occupants usually perform in buildings include walking, walking upstairs and downstairs, running and static. This work on occupant behaviors could be used in energy-efficient building and health care applications.
Resonant optical propelling of microspheres: A path to selection of almost identical photonic atoms

Near field optical manipulation of microparticles is usually considered a nonresonant effect determined by the momentum conservation law. In this work we study optical propelling of polystyrene microspheres with diameters from 3 to 20 μm in the evanescent field produced by water immersed tapered microfibers. We show that the velocity of propelling increases with the average diameter of the sphere reaching extraordinary high values ~ 0.4 mm/s at modest guided optical powers (43 mW) for some of the spheres with diameters around 20 μm. We show that the optical forces exerted on such transparent dielectric spheres approach the total absorption limit and far exceed estimates for conventional nonresonant effects. By using transmission spectroscopy we demonstrate efficient coupling of light to high quality (~ 103) whispering gallery modes in the spheres with diameters of 15-20 μm in range and argue that these effects can be responsible for resonant enhancement of the propelling velocities. We support our model by statistical analysis of a large number of propelling events for spheres with a broad range of mean diameters. This work opens the path for size sorting of spherical “photonic atoms” with almost identical resonant frequencies which can be used in various microphotonic applications.
Analysis methods for numerical weather prediction

Bayesian probabilistic arguments are used to derive idealized equations for finding the best analysis for numerical weather prediction. These equations are compared with those from other published methods in the light of the physical characteristics of thc NWP analysis problem; namely the predetermined nature of the basis for the analysis, the need for approximation because of large-order systems, the undcrdctcrminacy of the problem when using observations alone, and the availability of prior relationships to resolve the underdeterminacy . Prior relationships result from (1) knowledge of the time evolution of the model (which together with the use of a time distribution of observations constitutes four-dimensional data assimilation); (2) knowledge that the atmosphere varies slowly (leading to balance relationships); (3) other nonlinear relationships coupling parameters and scales in the atmosphere. Methods discussed include variational techniques, smoothing splines, Kriging, optimal interpolation, successive corrections, constrained initialization, the Kalman-Bucy filter, and adjoint model data assimilation. They are all shown to relate to the idealized analysis, and hence to each other. Opinions are given on when particular methods might he more appropriate. By comparison with the idealized method some insight is gained into appropriate choices of parameters in the practical methods.
Testing Event-Driven Business Processes

Today’s business climate requires to constantly evolve IT strategies for responding to new opportunities or threats. While the fundamentals of IT — reliability, availability, security and manageability — are still crucial, rapid results are mandatory for business success. These business challenges can be solved by acting with agility – striking the proper balance between the introduction of leading-edge technology and the pragmatic application of IT. In this paper, we introduce a testing framework for business solutions dealing with complex and dynamic IT environments. Our framework enables a test-driven development and adaptation of business processes in order to implement flexible and reliable business solutions. We compare our testing framework with model-driven development approaches and show how we applied it to an event-driven process management platform called SARI (Sense And Respond Infrastructure).
Animation System with Superimposing CG on a Physical Armature

This paper proposes a new technique to support making 3D character animations with DID (Dinosaur or Direct Input Device). The key idea is to superimpose the image of a CG model on a physical armature using video see-through HeadMounted Display (HMD). Using this technique, animators can easily recreate the posture of the physical armature. In addition, the system shows candidates of postures for animators who are not familiar with target motions. We have implemented a prototype system for making character animations using this technique.
Comparative analysis of different TCP variants in a wireless environment

TCP is being used as a highly reliable end-to-end protocol for transporting applications. TCP was originally designed for wired links where the error rate is really low and actually assumed that packet losses are due to congestion in the network. But TCP performance in wireless networks suffers from significant throughput degradation and delays. TCP uses congestion control and avoidance algorithms which degrades end-to-end performance in wireless systems. In this paper we have analyzed the performance of TCP variants, which were designed to improve performance in wireless networks. An ns-2 based simulation analysis of TCP Tahoe, TCP Reno, TCP New Reno, TCP Sack, TCP Vegas and TCP New Jersey is done. The effect of Random Packet Loss Rate and mobility on the TCP variants was studied. Experimental studies show that TCP Vegas performs better than the other variants.
An improved image denoising using wavelet transform

Image is one of the most important part of multi-media that is used in several areas from simple photography to medical and satellite imaging. In each field its usage and requirements are very different. So, an image required to be clean and free from artifacts to convey better information. But, acquisition is always associated with some sort of degradation that may be due to atmospheric conditions, camera sensors and/or lighting conditions. In this paper we are considering the degradation only due to noise and in specific additive Gaussian noise. Here, we are proposing to use a dual step approach for denoising. In the first step it uses stationary wavelet based denoising and in continuation to second step, a spatial domain method, Non-local means, is used to remove the artifacts. The simulation is done on both real and synthetic images and it shows an improvement over existing methods. Image is one of the most important part of multi- media that is used in several areas from simple photography to medical and satellite imaging. In each field its usage and requirements are very different. So, an image required to be clean and free from artifacts to convey better information. But, acquisition is always associated with some sort of degradation that may be due to atmospheric conditions, camera sensors and/or lighting conditions. In this paper we are considering the degradation only due to noise and in specific additive Gaussian noise. Here, we are proposing to use a dual step approach for denoising. In the first step it uses stationary wavelet based denoising and in continuation to second step, a spatial domain method, Non-local means, is used to remove the artifacts. The simulation is done on both real and synthetic images and it shows an improvement over existing methods.
eAnt-Miner : An Ensemble Ant-Miner to Improve the ACO Classification

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) has been applied in supervised learning in order to induce classification rules as well as decision trees, named Ant-Miners. Although these are competitive classifiers, the stability of these classifiers is an important concern that owes to their stochastic nature. In this paper, to address this issue, an acclaimed machine learning technique named, ensemble of classifiers is applied, where an ACO classifier is used as a base classifier to prepare the ensemble. The main trade-off is, the predictions in the new approach are determined by discovering a group of models as opposed to the single model classification. In essence, we prepare multiple models from the randomly replaced samples of training data from which, a unique model is prepared by aggregating the models to test the unseen data points. The main objective of this new approach is to increase the stability of the Ant-Miner results there by improving the performance of ACO classification. We found that the ensemble Ant-Miners significantly improved the stability by reducing the classification error on unseen data.
Lattice BLEU oracles in machine translation

The search space of Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PBSMT) systems can be represented as a directed acyclic graph (lattice). By exploring this search space, it is possible to analyze and understand the failures of PBSMT systems. Indeed, useful diagnoses can be obtained by computing the so-called oracle hypotheses, which are hypotheses in the search space that have the highest quality score. For standard SMT metrics, this problem is, however, NP-hard and can only be solved approximately. In this work, we present two new methods for efficiently computing oracles on lattices: the first one is based on a linear approximation of the corpus bleu score and is solved using generic shortest distance algorithms; the second one relies on an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation of the oracle decoding that incorporates count clipping constraints. It can either be solved directly using a standard ILP solver or using Lagrangian relaxation techniques. These new decoders are evaluated and compared with several alternatives from the literature for three language pairs, using lattices produced by two PBSMT systems.
RDP: detection of recombination amongst aligned sequences

SUMMARY Recombination Detection Program (RDP) is a program that applies a pairwise scanning approach to the detection of recombination amongst a group of aligned DNA sequences. The software runs under Windows95 and combines highly automated screening of large numbers of sequences with a highly interactive interface for examining the results of the analyses.
In Vivo Imaging of Endogenous Pancreatic β-Cell Mass in Healthy and Type 1 Diabetic Subjects Using 18F-Fluoropropyl-Dihydrotetrabenazine and PET

The ability to noninvasively measure endogenous pancreatic β-cell mass (BCM) would accelerate research on the pathophysiology of diabetes and revolutionize the preclinical development of new treatments, the clinical assessment of therapeutic efficacy, and the early diagnosis and subsequent monitoring of disease progression. The vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 (VMAT2) is coexpressed with insulin in β-cells and represents a promising target for BCM imaging. Methods: We evaluated the VMAT2 radiotracer 18F-fluoropropyl-dihydrotetrabenazine (18F-FP-(+)-DTBZ, also known as 18F-AV-133) for quantitative PET of BCM in healthy control subjects and patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Standardized uptake value was calculated as the net tracer uptake in the pancreas normalized by injected dose and body weight. Total volume of distribution, the equilibrium ratio of tracer concentration in tissue relative to plasma, was estimated by kinetic modeling with arterial input functions. Binding potential, the steady-state ratio of specific binding to nondisplaceable uptake, was calculated using the renal cortex as a reference tissue devoid of specific VMAT2 binding. Results: Mean pancreatic standardized uptake value, total volume of distribution, and binding potential were reduced by 38%, 20%, and 40%, respectively, in type 1 diabetes mellitus. The radiotracer binding parameters correlated with insulin secretion capacity as determined by arginine-stimulus tests. Group differences and correlations with β-cell function were enhanced for total pancreas binding parameters that accounted for tracer binding density and organ volume. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that quantitative evaluation of islet β-cell density and aggregate BCM can be performed clinically with 18F-FP-(+)-DTBZ PET.
Image Watermarking Using LSB (Least Significant Bit)

With the rapid development and wide use of Internet, information transmission faces a big challenge of security. People need a safe and secured way to transmit information. Digital watermarking is a technique of data hiding, which provide security of data. This paper presents a watermarking technique which least significant bits (LSB), its steps and its process with matlab images.
Enhancing Topology Control Algorithms in Wireless Sensor Network using Non-Isotropic Radio Models

In reality, radio range of any wireless communication device does not emulate an isotropic behavior or as modeled by theory. An isotropic antenna is a hypothetical lossless antenna having equal energy being radiated or transmitted in all directions. Along with wireless sensor networks, any wireless network suffered propagation complications including multipath propagation, shadowing and path loss to name a few which are vital factors to consider in a wireless environment. Radio irregularity is ubiquitous in every wireless sensor network that it should be constituted in every protocol or algorithm design. As per some other studies, radio propagation can be evaluated by statistical means therefore, making it an easier and general way to characterize radio irregularity without being dependent to any specific environment. Furthermore, it could be very flexible in varying network conditions like mobility. In this paper, we develop both linear and non-linear models to capture radio irregularity using regression analysis on distance and received signal strength. These models are assessed by implementing a simple middleware to be added to topology control algorithms.
Evaluation of spore wall chemistry as a novel biochemical proxy for UV·B radiation

The stratospheric ozone layer provides protection for Earth's land-based organisms against harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, but the past century has seen the ozone layer compromised as a result of human activity, resulting in commensurate variations in surface UV -B flux. Despite the importance of UV radiation to the well-being of life, reliable records of surface UV-B flux only exist for a short period of time (20-30 years). In order to gain a deeper understanding of the behaviour of ozone and UV-B flux in the past, an alternative method of determining UV-B is required. Changes in spore chemistry have been proposed as a palaeo-monitor of UV-B flux, which can then be related to stratospheric ozone abundance. By employing the rapid and inexpensive technique of FTIR microspectroscopy to investigate changes in spore chemistry, a large dataset spanning seven different spatial and temporal UV regimes has been generated in order to evaluate the feasibility of routine usage of a spore-based UV-B proxy. Exploring contemporary samples grown under controlled UV conditions and spores preserved in historical archives reveals that modem-day and recent spore chemistry show a positive relationship with known and calculated UV-B flux, with additional environmental factors such as cloudiness and vegetation canopy cover superimposed on these results. Examination of fossil spores obtained from sediments and experimentally matured specimens provides an insight into the chemical changes that occur in organic matter after incorporation into sediments, even under mild burial conditions. This thesis explores the potential of spore chemistry to act as a proxy monitor of past UV-B flux and is the first concerted attempt at applying FTIR spectroscopy to the investigation of spore chemistry in this way.
Determining Homophobic Attitudes of Nursing Students in Turkey and the Factors Affecting Them

Objective: The investigation of homophobic attitudes of nursing students is an important issue as it may result in homosexual individuals’ refraining from health services. The study was carried out to determine the homophobic approaches of nursing students and factors affecting them. Methods: In this descriptive study (n:295), the data were collected using a personal information form developed by the researchers and a homophobic scale developed by Hudson and Rickett, which is called as Hudson and Rickett Homophobic Scale (HRHS). Frequency and percentage calculations, sample T-test, one-way Anova analysis and Tukey HSD test were also used for the statistical analysis. Results: In the light of the findings of the research, it was revealed that 87.8 % of the students had no homosexual friends, and 71.9 % said their family would not approve a homosexual friend. 98.6% of the students has had no experience of caring a homosexual patient yet. 74.6% of them reported that their attitudes towards a patient would not change when the patient was homosexual; however, the mean HRHS score (91.83±23.83) indicates the opposite. In addition, mothers’ having a higher education level, taking sexual health courses, having a homosexual friend, and the approval of the family were the effective parameters in reducing homophobic attitudes (p<0.05). Conclusion: In the study, nursing students have a negative attitude towards homosexuality. Homophobic attitudes are one of the factors affecting the health care of homosexual individuals. It is therefore important to plan initiatives to reduce negative attitudes.