Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Dual-Wavelength Polarimetric Analysis of the 16 May 2010 Oklahoma City Extreme Hailstorm

AbstractA comparative analysis of a supercell hailstorm using simultaneous observations with S-band and C-band polarimetric radars supported by abundant ground-truth reports is presented in this study. The storm occurred on 16 May 2010 and produced a swath of extremely damaging hail across a large portion of the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, metro area. Hail sizes over 10 cm in diameter and hail drifts upward of 1.5 m in height were reported. Both S-band (KOUN) and C-band [University of Oklahoma Polarimetric Radar for Innovations in Meteorology and Engineering (OU-PRIME)] polarimetric radars in Norman, Oklahoma, sampled the storm at ranges less than 60 km, so that high-resolution dual-wavelength polarimetric data were obtained. At C band, this analysis mostly presents raw Z and ZDR (due to problems with differential phase resulting from an incorrect censoring threshold in the examined case) while taking into account the possibility of attenuation in the interpretation of these data. Among the issues investigat.
Determinantes de la demanda de empleo en el sector manufacturero colombiano, 2000-2010

RESUMEN: En este articulo se estudian los determinantes de la demanda de empleo del personal profesional, administrativo y obrero en el sector manufacturero colombiano. Los resultados muestran que la demanda de personal obrero presenta el tiempo medio de ajuste mas elevado y es la mas sensible a cambios en los costos laborales totales. Estos resultados indican que el gobierno, por medio de politicas que reduzcan los costos laborales no salariales, puede incentivar la demanda de empleo poco calificado. Finalmente, se encuentra que en el corto (largo) plazo la demanda de personal profesional (administrativo) es la mas sensible a cambios en la produccion.
Life Cycle versus Annual Perspectives on the Incidence of a Value Added Tax

This paper analyzes the steady-state distribution of tax burdens of a Value Added Tax (VAT) in the United States using a lifetime perspective. In contrast to an annual snapshot perspective, I find that a VAT on total expenditures would be proportional over the lifetime. Various modifications to the VAT (zero rating necessities or lump-sum household rebates) would increase the progressivity of the tax substantially. However, the additional progressivity comes at the cost of substantial tax revenue.
The BigDAWG Architecture

BigDAWG is a polystore system designed to work on complex problems that naturally span across different processing or storage engines. BigDAWG provides an architecture that supports diverse database systems working with different data models, support for the competing notions of location transparency and semantic completeness via islands of information and a middleware that provides a uniform multi-island interface. In this article, we describe the current architecture of BigDAWG, its application on the MIMIC II medical dataset, and our plans for the mechanics of cross-system queries. During the presentation, we will also deliver a brief demonstration of the current version of BigDAWG.
Impulsive Control Bifurcation and Chaos in Internet TCP-RED Congestion Control System

In this paper, to stabilize TCP-RED system (TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) network with RED (Random Early Detection) queue management) that can loss stabilities caused by bifurcations and chaos, we proposes an impulsive control method for controlling bifurcations and chaos in the Internet congestion control system. We demonstrate that the control scheme can be used to considerably increase the stable operating regime of the system and enhance the stability of the operating point.
Impact Mitigation for Emergency Events: Their Effects on Day-ahead and Real-time Market Locationlal Based Marginal Pricing at the New York ISO

The New York based electricity wholesale market (the New York Independent System Operator; NYISO), recently introduced a couple of measures that have the potential to mitigate the price impacts from a sudden and unforeseen event in a deregulated electricity market: the Price Response Load (PRL) programs. This paper tests whether the PRL programs reduced the risk premium in the electricity prices by searching for structural breaks in the di#erence between the forward and expected spot prices. We find that the risk premium significantly decreased with the commencement of these programs, which provides additional evidence for structural breaks in the mean of the forward discount.
Numerical Techniques for Optimization of 3 D Induction Heating Systems

Transverse Flux Heating (TFH) is one of the most effective induction heating technologies in the field of flat metal products. However, to take all the advantages of TFH concept is only possible by optimal design of the heating installations. The paper is devoted to application of automatic optimization techniques including Genetic Algorithms (GA) for optimal shape design of TFH systems. Special attention is paid to couple the different optimization algorithms with extremely time consuming 3D numerical models. A multilevel shape design optimisation of TFH system using the GA is described as an example.
Runtime Support for Human-in-the-Loop Feature Engineering System

A machine learning system is only as good as its features, the representative properties of a phenomenon that are used as input to a machine learning algorithm. Developing features, or feature engineering, can be a lengthy, human-in-the-loop process, requiring many time-consuming cycles of writing feature code, extracting features from raw data, and model training. However, many opportunities exist to improve this workﬂow, such as assisting feature code development and speeding up feature extraction. In this paper, we discuss two projects that take different approaches to accelerate feature engineering, allowing the engineer to spend more time doing what humans do best: applying domain insight to engineer high-impact features. Z OMBIE is a general-purpose system that reduces the amount of time needed to extract features. R ACCOON DB is a system that helps users quickly extract features for nowcasting, or using social media to estimate real-world phenomenon. We also discuss several opportunities for future research that would improve the experience and output of feature engineers.
Targeting immune co-stimulatory effects of PD-L1 and PD-L2 might represent an effective therapeutic strategy in stroke

Stroke outcome is worsened by the infiltration of inflammatory immune cells into ischemic brains. Our recent study demonstrated that PD-L1- and to a lesser extent PD-L2-deficient mice had smaller brain infarcts and fewer brain-infiltrating cells vs. wild-type (WT) mice, suggesting a pathogenic role for PD-ligands in experimental stroke. We sought to ascertain PD-L1 and PD-L2-expressing cell types that affect T-cell activation, post-stroke in the context of other known co-stimulatory molecules. Thus, cells from male WT and PD-L-deficient mice undergoing 60 min of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) followed by 96 h of reperfusion were treated with neutralizing antibodies to study co-stimulatory and co-inhibitory interactions between CD80, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), PD-1, and PD-Ls that regulate CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell activation. We found that antibody neutralization of PD-1 and CTLA-4 signaling post-MCAO resulted in higher proliferation in WT CD8+ and CD4+ T-cells, confirming an inhibitory role of PD-1 and CTLA-4 on T-cell activation. Also, CD80/CD28 interactions played a prominent regulatory role for the CD8+ T-cells and the PD-1/PD-L2 interactions were dominant in controlling the CD4+ T-cell responses in WT mice after stroke. A suppressive phenotype in PD-L1-deficient mice was attributed to CD80/CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L2 interactions. PD-L2 was crucial in modulating CD4+ T-cell responses, whereas PD-L1 regulated both CD8+ and CD4+ T-cells. To establish the contribution of PD-L1 and PD-L2 on regulatory B-cells (Bregs), infarct volumes were evaluated in male PD-L1- and PD-L2-deficient mice receiving IL-10+ B-cells 4h post-MCAO. PD-L2- but not PD-L1-deficient recipients of IL-10+ B-cells had markedly reduced infarct volumes, indicating a regulatory role of PD-L2 on Bregs. These results imply that PD-L1 and PD-L2 differentially control induction of T- and Breg-cell responses after MCAO, thus suggesting that selective targeting of PD-L1 and PD-L2 might represent a valuable therapeutic strategy in stroke.
Learning Models for a Curious Place

A Curious Place is modelled on the concept of an intelligent room, with an added capacity for behaving in a curious manner. Intelligent rooms are responsive physical spaces in which human activities are monitored and responses generated which facilitate or augment these activities. Recent trends in intelligent agent research towards intrinsically motivated learning agents allow physical places to respond with curiosity and exhibit adaptive learning behaviour. This paper presents learning models for curious places for modelling curiosity, curious agents, and curious agent societies. These models are demonstrated with reference to a Curious Research Space as an example of a Curious Place.
Fpga Implementation Of A Marginalized Particle Filter For Delineation Of P And T Waves Of Ecg Signal

The ECG signal provides important clinical information which could be used to pretend the diseases related with heart. So delineation of ECG signal is an important task. Whereas Delineation of P and T waves is a complex task.This paper deals with the Study of ECG signal and analysis of signal by means of Verilog Design of efficient Filters and MATLAB tool effectively. It includes generation & simulation of ECG signal, by means of real time ECG data, ECG signal filtering & processing by analysis of different algorithms & techniques. In this paper we design a basic particle filter which generates a dynamic model depending upon the present and past input samples and then produces the desired output . then the output will be processed by MATLAB environment to get the actual shape and accurate values of the ranges of P-wave and T-wave of ECG signal. In this paper Questasim a tool of mentor graphics is for simulation and functional verification. The same design is again verified using Xilinx ISE which will be also used for synthesis, mapping and bit file generation. Xilinx FPGA board will be used for implementation of system. The final results of FPGA shall be verified with ChipScope Pro where the output data can be observed.
Models for the Analysis of Labor Force Dynamics

This paper presents new econometric methods for the empirical analysis of individual labor market histories. The techniques developed here extend previous work on continuous time models in four ways: (1) A structural economic interpretation of these models is presented. (2) Time varying explanatory variables are introduced into the analysis in a general way. (3) Unobserved heterogeneity components are permitted to be correlated across spells. (4) A flexible model of duration dependence is presented that accommodates many previous models as a special case and that permits tests among competing specifications within a unified framework. We contrast our methods with more conventional discrete time and regression procedures. The parameters of continuous time models are in- variant to the sampling time unit used to record observations. Problems plague the regression approach to analyzing duration data which do not plague the likelihood approach advocated in this paper. The regression approach cannot be readily adopted to accommodate time varying explanatory variables. The functional forms of regression functions depend on the time paths of the explanatory variables. Ad hoc solutions to this problem can make exogenous variables endogenous to the model and so can induce simultaneous equations bias. Two sets of empirical results are presented. A major conclusion of the first analysis is that the discrete time Markov model widely used in labor market analysis is inconsistent with the data. The second set of empirical results is a test of the hypothesis that "unemployment" and "out of the labor force" are behaviorally different labor market states. Contrary to recent claims, we find that they are separate states for our sample of young men.
The changing role of China in the transformation of corporate Japan

This conclusion to the special issue, ‘Cross-cultural Management Practices in East Asia: Lessons for Japanese MNEs’, examines how Japanese firms are responding to, and are affected by, increasing engagement with the Chinese economy. In addition to the three specific themes identified a priori to be of greatest concern to the transformation of corporate Japan (namely marketing and distribution, inter-corporate networks and human resources management), two additional themes can be discerned. These relate to institutional evolution and the challenges of localization. It is concluded that Japanese firms can be shown to demonstrate flexibility in their engagement with China within this analytical framework.
The Value of Political Connections in China: Government Officials on the Board of Directors

Understanding the value of political connections is important for firm decision-making and for social efficiency analysis. I examine this question by estimating the effect of having a politician on the board of directors on a firm’s stock price. A new policy in China (Regulation No.18) forced politicians to resign as directors, providing an exogenous shock to firms’ political connectedness. I create an original data set with the political positions of all independent directors who resigned after 2013. A regression discontinuity design reveals no immediate impact after the announcement of the regulation. However, a difference-in-difference design shows that the loss of high level politicians causes a firm’s stock price to fall in the long run. The analysis exploits heterogeneity in both the number and importance of politicians across firms to identify short-run and long-run effects.
On fractional Tikhonov regularization

Abstract It is well known that Tikhonov regularization in standard form may determine approximate solutions that are too smooth, i.e., the approximate solution may lack many details that the desired exact solution might possess. Two different approaches, both referred to as fractional Tikhonov methods have been introduced to remedy this shortcoming. This paper investigates the convergence properties of these methods by reviewing results published previously by various authors. We show that both methods are order optimal when the regularization parameter is chosen according to the discrepancy principle. The theory developed suggests situations in which the fractional methods yield approximate solutions of higher quality than Tikhonov regularization in standard form. Computed examples that illustrate the behavior of the methods are presented.
A mono-instrumental approach to high-quality 3D reality-based semantic models application on the PALLADIO library

The paper presents a new workflow to build geo-3D models able to populate a wide information system organizing and managing Palladio's works documentation. Main goal is to smooth the integration of data from different sources and promote a more profound understanding of Palladio's works. Starting from an integrated survey approach (laser scanner and Multi-Image Spherical Photogrammetry), reality-based 3D models are robustly constructed and semantically segmented from point cloud features based on Palladio treatise architectural semantics. The 3D models outputs are exported into a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS) to facilitate the visualization of Palladio's works with reference to topography. At the end, an evaluation mechanism is employed to control the quality of 3D models. The workflow could be easily generalized to other architects documentation systems both because Palladian case is a superset of most of other architect documentation dataset, allowing to focus and to solve all existing problems and because techniques and methods are general and appropriate for most part of historical architectures.
Towards a model for analyzing the impact of macroeconomic adjustment policies on households : a review of empirical household models in the Philippines

The paper has two objectives, namely: (a) determine and assess how existing empirical household models are able to capture the effects of changes in the macroeconomic variables on the welfare of the Filipino household, and (b) identify research gaps in the literature and suggest possible ways of modifying some of the models so as to be able to capture the effects of changes in macroeconomic variables on household welfare. [DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES NO. 94-05]. URL:[http://dirp4.pids. gov.ph/ris/dps/pidsdps9405.pdf].
Improving Timbre Similarity : How high’s the sky ?

We report on experiments done in an attempt to improve the performance of a music similarity measure which we introduced in [2]. The technique aims at comparing music titles on the basis of their global “timbre”, which has many applications in the field of Music Information Retrieval. Such measures of timbre similarity have seen a growing interest lately, and every contribution (including ours) is yet another instantiation of the same basic pattern recognition architecture, only with different algorithm variants and parameters. Most give encouraging results with a little effort, and imply that nearperfect results would just extrapolate by fine-tuning the algorithms’ parameters. However, such systematic testing over large, inter-dependent parameter spaces is both difficult and costly, as it requires to work on a whole general meta-database architecture. This paper contributes in two ways to the current state of the art. We report on extensive tests over very many parameters and algorithmic variants, either already envisioned in the literature or not. This leads to an improvement over existing algorithms of about 15% R-precision. But most importantly, we describe many variants that surprisingly do not lead to any substancial improvement. Moreover, our simulations suggest the existence of a “glass ceiling” at R-precision about 65% which cannot probably be overcome by pursuing such variations on the same theme.
Robust fault estimation of nonlinear systems using SOS approach

This paper proposes a new method of robust fault estimation (FE) for a class of nonlinear systems represented by polynomial fuzzy models. Existing results on these systems essentially focus on fault detection and isolation (FDI) approach. The sufficient conditions for designing gains of the estimator are established via Lyapunov theory, which are formulated in terms of polynomial matrix inequalities (PLMIs). These PLMIs are solved using sum of squares (SOS) approach and estimator gains are calculated using SOSTOOLS toolbox in Matlab. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been illustrated considering a numerical example and has been found to be satisfactory.
Static Detection of Redundant Test Cases: An Initial Study

As software systems evolve, the size of their test suites grow due to added functionality and customer-detected defects. Many of these tests may contain redundant elements with previous tests. Existing techniques to minimize test suite size generally require dynamic execution data, but this is sometimes unavailable. We present a static technique that identifies test cases with redundant instruction sequences, allowing them to be merged or eliminated. Initial results at ABB show that 7%-23% of one test suite may be redundant.
Real-time flash memory storage with Janus-FTL

Janus-FTL, a recently proposed Flash Translation Layer (FTL) software layer for flash memory storage, has the potential to reduce the worst case write time of flash memory storage by keeping hot data in the page mapping area and cold data in the block mapping area. In this paper, we present the design of the real-time Janus-FTL that guarantees worst case garbage collection cost and write response time. In the proposed FTL, each task needs to decide whether to place its data either in the page mapping area or the block mapping area. A naive optimal placement algorithm, which minimizes the worst case write time, has O(2N) time complexity for N tasks. We propose an algorithm reducing the time complexity from O(2N) to O(N log N). Through experiments, we verify that the real-time Janus-FTL reduces the worst case write time and, as a result, accommodates more real-time tasks than the previous state-of-the-art realtime page mapping FTL.
The Different Effects of Intravenous Propofol and Midazolam Sedation on Hemodynamic and Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate (HR) and arterial blood pressure (BP) changes have been reported during conscious sedation with propofol and midazolam. One potential mechanism to explain these changes is that propofol and midazolam affect HR and BP via changes in the cardiac autonomic nervous system. Two specific hypotheses were tested by HR variability analysis: 1) propofol induces predominance of parasympathetic activity, leading to decreased HR and BP, and 2) midazolam induces predominance of sympathetic activity, leading to increased HR and decreased BP. Thirty dental patients were included in a prospective, randomized study. HR, BP, low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), and entropy were monitored during the awake, sedation, and recovery periods and depth of sedation was assessed using the Observer’s Assessment of Alertness/Sedation score. Propofol induced a significant decrease in total power (503 ± 209 ms2/Hz versus 162 ± 92 ms2/Hz) and LF/HF ratio (2.5 ± 1.2 versus 1.0 ± 0.4), despite the absence of any change in HR during the sedation period compared with baseline. Midazolam decreased normalized HF (34 ± 10% versus 10 ± 4%) but did not significantly change LF/HF ratio (2.3 ± 1.1 versus 2.2 ± 1.4) and increased HR in the sedation period. Compared with baseline, propofol was associated with a significant increase in normalized HF in the recovery period (34 ± 11% versus 44 ± 12%) and a significant decrease in HR, whereas midazolam was associated with an increase in LF/HF ratio (2.3 ± 1.1 versus 3.7 ± 1.8) with no change in HR. These results indicated a dominant parasympathetic effect of propofol and a dominant sympathetic effect of midazolam in both periods. These results should be considered during conscious sedation, especially in patients at risk of cardiovascular complications.
Reasoning with portions of precedents

This paper argues that the task of matching in case-based reasoning can often be improved by comparing new cases to portions of precedents. An example is presented that illustrates how combining portions of multiple precedents can permit new cases to be resolved that would be indeterminate if new cases could only be compared to entire precedents. A system that uses of portions of precedents for legal analysis in the domain of Texas worker’s compensation law, GREBE, is described, and examples of GREBE’s analysis that combine reasoning steps from multiple precedents are presented.