Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Absenteeism and the Overtime Decision

[Excerpt] Upon reading the congressional hearing on the Overtime Pay Penalty Act of 1964, one cannot fail to be impressed by the emphasis that management places on absenteeism as a primary cause of overtime. The argument given is basically quite simple: Large firms, it is claimed, attempt to account for absenteeism by hiring standby workers; however because of the stochastic nature of the absentee rate, it is impossible for them to have replacements always available. Hence overtime must be worked by existing employees in order to meet production schedules. One concludes from this argument that the randomness of absenteeism is the cause of overtime. If the absentee rate were known with certainty, then management could take account of it without recourse to additional overtime. In this note we challenge this conclusion and argue that a rational economic response to a certainty absentee rate involves increasing the amount of overtime worked per man, while the effect on the level of employment is ambiguous. Furthermore we claim that a stochastic absentee rate leads to a larger optimal employment stock and, in at least one special case, on average, to a smaller amount of overtime worked per man than in the certainty absentee rate case. Crucial to our argument is the observation that many of the labor costs which we classify as "fixed" must be paid by the employer even when an employee is absent, but overtime hourly wage payments need not be made to absentees.
A Hybrid Multi-Expert Systems for HEp-2 Staining Pattern Classification

In autoimmune diseases, HEp-2 cells are used to detect antinuclear autoantibodies through indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) method. These cells can reveal different staining patterns that are relevant to diagnostic purposes. To classify them highly specialized personnel are required, who are not always available. In this respect, a medical demand is the development of a recognition system supporting such an activity. In this paper we present a hybrid multi-expert systems (MES) based on the reduction of the multiclass learning task to several binary problems. The combination scheme, based on both classifier fusion and selection, employs reliability estimators that aim at improving the accuracy of final classification. The performance of such a hybrid system has been compared with those of a MES based only on classifier selection, showing that the hybrid approach benefits of advantages of both combination rules.
Repair costs of the IPDC/DVB-H file repair mechanism

IP datacast (IPDC) based on digital video broadcasting-handhelds (DVB-H) is one of several technology candidates for mobile television. Besides the broadcasting of audio and video streams, IPDC/DVB-H also offers the distribution of arbitrary binary data objects. This paper examines the IPDC/DVB-H specific file repair mechanism, which deals with the correction of erroneous fragments of transmitted data objects, and gives recommendations for providers concerning the setting of several transmission parameters to achieve minimal file repair costs. For this purpose, a simulation framework which integrates all relevant models and mechanisms including a state-of-the-art error model for the transmission channel has been designed and implemented. Based on the setting of different parameters such as error correction and the length of encoding symbols, comparisons of resulting financial costs of different file repair strategies have been accomplished.
Inharmonicity-Based Method for the Automatic Generation of Guitar Tablature

In this paper, a system for the extraction of the tablature of guitar musical pieces using only the audio waveform is presented. The analysis of the inharmonicity relations between the fundamentals and the partials of the notes played is the main process that allows to estimate both the notes played and the string/fret combination that was used to produce that sound. A procedure to analyze chords will also be described. This procedure will also make use of the inharmonicity analysis to find the simultaneous string/fret combinations used to play each chord. The proposed method is suitable for any guitar type: classical, acoustic and electric guitars. The system performance has been evaluated on a series of guitar samples from the RWC instruments database and our own recordings.
Business process modeling and decision model integration

Business Process Modeling (BPM) is a technique used to model business processes and helps in better understanding of these processes. BPM helps in improving organizational efficiency by either helping in making the business processes more efficient or even helps in automation of the business processes. There are many BPM techniques used till date but none of these techniques being used supports the decision making requirements for an organization. To address this problem the paper suggests a model that can help integrate decision making with the prevailing Business Process Models. The paper firstly reviews foundations of Business Process Modeling (BPM) and the Decision Model (DM) to establish the basis for the conceptual understanding of BPM and DM. With these theoretical bases, then a model has been proposed where the Decision Model has been integrated with the Business Process Model to meet the decision making needs for the decision makers. Finally, the implications of this model are discussed with directions for further research.
Dictionary-Learning-Based Reconstruction Method for Electron Tomography

Electron tomography usually suffers from so-called “missing wedge” artifacts caused by limited tilt angle range. An equally sloped tomography (EST) acquisition scheme (which should be called the linogram sampling scheme) was recently applied to achieve 2.4-angstrom resolution. On the other hand, a compressive sensing inspired reconstruction algorithm, known as adaptive dictionary based statistical iterative reconstruction (ADSIR), has been reported for X-ray computed tomography. In this paper, we evaluate the EST, ADSIR, and an ordered-subset simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (OS-SART), and compare the ES and equally angled (EA) data acquisition modes. Our results show that OS-SART is comparable to EST, and the ADSIR outperforms EST and OS-SART. Furthermore, the equally sloped projection data acquisition mode has no advantage over the conventional equally angled mode in this context.
Multi-objective optimization using hybrid genetic algorithm and cellular learning automata applying to graph partitioning problem

Graph partitioning is a NP-hard problem with multiple conflicting objectives. The graph partitioning should minimize the inter-partition relationship while maximizing the intra-partition relationship. Furthermore, the partition load should be evenly distributed over the respective partitions. Therefore this is a multi-objective optimization problem (MOO). There are two approaches to MOO using genetic algorithms: weighted cost functions and finding the Pareto front. We have combined Pareto front method and cellular learning automata to exploit the potentiality of both in the hybridized algorithm. The proposed methods of this paper used to improve the performance addition to hybridization, are using an optimized method in generating reinforcement signal vector and considering the solutions of each non-dominated set as neighbours. These improvements make the search more efficient and increase the probability of finding more optimal solutions, also changing neighbour set at each generation, prevent the neighbours from getting stuck in the neighbourhood local optima. Finally, a simulation research is carried out to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid algorithm. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
A Priori Trust Vulnerabilities in EigenTrust

We review the motivations underlying the design of the EigenTrust [4] algorithm for trust management in P2P file sharing networks, then illustrate through a simulated P2P network how EigenTrust’s reliance on pre-trusted peers undermines its other security requirements and can lead to severely compromised networks. We then explore a potential alternative to the use of pre-trusted peers, and demonstrate that EigenTrust can work without these vulnerable authorities.
Numerical Solution of Diffusion Models in Biomedical Imaging on Multicore Processors

In this paper, we consider nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) of diffusion/advection type underlying most problems in image analysis. As case study, we address the segmentation of medical structures. We perform a comparative study of numerical algorithms arising from using the semi-implicit and the fully implicit discretization schemes. Comparison criteria take into account both the accuracy and the efficiency of the algorithms. As measure of accuracy, we consider the Hausdorff distance and the residuals of numerical solvers, while as measure of efficiency we consider convergence history, execution time, speedup, and parallel efficiency. This analysis is carried out in a multicore-based parallel computing environment.
Estimated glomerular filtration rate as an end point in kidney transplant trial: where do we stand?

Over the past two decades, substantial improvements in short-term kidney transplant outcome have greatly limited our ability to assess the efficacy of newer therapeutic strategies according to conventional short-term end points, namely the 1-year graft/patient survival and the 1-year acute rejection rate. For instance, with current figures, of less than 15% of patients experiencing an acute rejection episode over the first year post-transplant, it has become logistically challenging (if not clinically questionable) to test a new treatment on its ability to further prevent acute rejection (Table 1). Meanwhile, these traditional end points have failed to predict long-term survival, which is at present a major challenge in renal transplantation. Identification of new, short-term end points capable of correlating with long-term graft outcome is thus necessary. Among other candidates, post-transplant graft function seems to be an attractive alternative end point for clinical trials [1], even though its use as a true surrogate marker for allograft loss has been disputed [2,3]. Comparison of renal graft function is already largely reported as the primary criterion for the evaluation of novel immunosuppressive strategies [4,5]. Of course, before qualifying graft function as a valid end point, one must first make sure to use a valid measure of renal function. The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is considered as the best overall index of renal function and inulin clearance, the gold standard for its measurement [6]. Other exogenous markers have been advocated for a direct GFR determination, such as radiolabeled isotopes (51Cr EDTA, 99mTc DTPA or 125I Iothalamate) and non-radioactive contrast agents (Iothalamate or Iohexol). Although definitive
Tree trunk detection using contrast templates

We propose a simple contrast-based method for tree detection and shape estimation from ground-plane perspective images for purposes of counting, classification, modeling, or robotic obstacle avoidance. Under the assumption that tree trunks are relatively narrow and vertical shapes which strongly differ in appearance from the scene background and have boundaries of opposite contrast, we apply a bank of bar filters parametrized from camera intrinsics combined with trunk location and diameter limits, and integrate results vertically. Non-maximum suppression is applied to candidates in the resulting trunk likelihood image. We present results demonstrating the effectiveness of our tree detection algorithm on a variety of forested images obtained directly from our robot as well as sampled from the web, and quantify performance using ground truth on a subset of those images. We also compare the results of our method with several related published approaches.
Effect of viruses UMV, UVC, PapMV-U, and PLRV on ulluco production and their control.

Eight viruses infect ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus Caldus), an Andean tuber crop. Three of them, potato leafroll virus (PLRV), Andean potato latent virus, and potato virus T, also infect potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Arracacha virus A and papaya mosaic virus, ulluco isolate (PapMV-U) infect other crops. PLRV, one of the most damaging potato viruses, was detected in healthy potato plants growing in the field next to PLRV-infected ulluco plants, indicating that viruses can be disseminated among different Andean tuber crops under natural conditions. The viruses with the highest incidence were PapMV-U and three others, ullucus virus C, ullucus mild mottle virus, and ullucus mosaic virus. In two field experiments in Junín, Peru, ulluco plants of accession MH290 infected with ullucus virus C or ullucus mosaic virus, and ulluco plants of native variety Jaspeado infected with PLRV or PapMV-U yielded about 30% less than the healthy control plants. Also, during field exposures, only a low percentage of healthy plants were reinfected with viruses. These results indicate that the production and use of virus-free ulluco seed tubers is justified in this environment and, therefore, the use of better seed by farmers has been promoted, particularly in the La Libertad community in Junín, Huancayo Department.
Semantic Aspects of Parallelism for SuperCollider Tim BLECHMANN Vienna

Supernova is a new implementation of the SuperCollider server scsynth, with a multi-threaded audio synthesis engine. To make use of this thread-level parallelism, two extensions have been introduced to the concept of the SuperCollider node graph, exposing parallelism explicitly to the user. This paper discusses the semantic inplications of these extensions.
Critical Evaluation of Validation Rules Automated Extraction from Data

The goal of this article is to critically evaluate a possibility of automatic extraction of such kind of rules which could be later used within a Data Quality Management process for validation of records newly incoming to Information System. For practical demonstration the 4FT-Miner procedure implemented in LISpMiner System was chosen. A motivation for this task is the potential simplification of projects focused on Data Quality Management. Initially, this article is going to critically evaluate a possibility of fully automated extraction with the aim to identify strengths and weaknesses of this approach in comparison to its alternative, when at least some a priori knowledge is available. As a result of practical implementation, this article provides design of recommended process which would be used as a guideline for future projects. Also the question of how to store and maintain extracted rules and how to integrate them with existing tools supporting Data Quality Management is discussed.
Use of linear transverse equalisers and channel state information in combined OFDM-equalisation

The efficiency of a coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) receiver can be improved by use of a pre-FFT equaliser (PFE). This technique is known as combined OFDM-equalisation. This paper considers the noise amplification effect of the PFE and its effect on the performance of a combined COFDM-equalisation modem and proposes a method to improve this performance. It first reviews and compares the conventional COFDM and combined COFDM-equalisation techniques. The PFE is then described and the conditions required to allow it to take the form of a decision feedback equaliser (DFE) are discussed. It is shown that these conditions often cannot be met. In these cases the PFE must take the form of a linear transversal equaliser (LTE). The performance of the LTE is inferior to that of the DFE due to significant noise amplification. Hence, if the performance of combined COFDM-equalisation is to match that of conventional COFDM, a method for mitigating the noise amplifying effect of an LTE type PFE is required. One such method is proposed. This technique exploits channel state information (CSI) available in a COFDM receiver in order to enhance the performance of a Viterbi convolutional decoder. This 'CSI modified' Viterbi algorithm is capable of mitigating the noise amplification occurring in the equaliser. To demonstrate this, the performance of conventional COFDM and combined COFDM-equalisation are compared by means of software simulation using both standard and CSI modified Viterbi decoding. The results for the standard Viterbi decoding illustrate the performance penalty due to noise amplification. The results for the CSI modified Viterbi algorithm demonstrate the effective mitigation of noise amplification and the comparable performance of conventional COFDM and combined COFDM-equalisation.
Delphi: A Software Controller for Mobile Network Selection

This paper presents Delphi, a mobile software controller that helps applications select the best network among available choices for their data transfers. Delphi optimizes a specified objective such as transfer completion time, or energy per byte transferred, or the monetary cost of a transfer. It has four components: a performance predictor that uses features gathered by a network monitor, and a traffic profiler to estimate transfer sizes near the start of a transfer, all fed into a network selector that uses the prediction and transfer size estimate to optimize an objective. For each transfer, Delphi either recommends the “best” single network to use, or recommends Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), but crucially selects the network for MPTCP’s “primary subflow”. The choice of primary subflow has a strong impact on the transfer completion time, especially for short transfers. We designed and implemented Delphi in Linux. It requires no application modifications. Our evaluation shows that Delphi reduces application network transfer time by 46% for Web browsing and by 49% for video streaming, compared with Android’s default policy of always using Wi-Fi when it is available. Delphi can also be configured to achieve high throughput while being battery-efficient: in this configuration, it achieves 1.9x the throughput of Android’s default policy while only consuming 6% more energy.
FOCUS: 50 YEARS OF DNA REPAiR: ThE YALE SYMPOSiUM REPORTS dna damage tolerance and a web of connections with dna repair at Yale

This short article summarizes some of the research carried out recently by my laboratory colleagues on the function of DNA polymerase zeta (polζ†) in mammalian cells. Some personal background is also described, relevant to research associations with Yale University and its continuing influence. Polζ is involved in the bypass of many DNA lesions by translesion DNA synthesis and is responsible for the majority of DNA damage-induced point mutagenesis in mammalian cells (including human cells), as well as in yeast. We also found that the absence of this enzyme leads to gross chromosomal instability in mammalian cells and increased spontaneous tumorigenesis in mice. Recently, we discovered a further unexpectedly critical role for polζ: it plays an essential role in allowing continued rapid proliferation of cells and tissues. These observations and others indicate that polζ engages frequently during DNA replication to bypass and tolerate DNA lesions or unusual DNA structures that are barriers for the normal DNA replication machinery.
Mitochondrial Control Region Alterations and Breast Cancer Risk: A Study in South Indian Population

Background Mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop) is the hot spot for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) alterations which influence the generation of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Association of D-loop alterations with breast cancer has been reported in few ethnic groups; however none of the reports were documented from Indian subcontinent. Methodology We screened the entire mitochondrial D-loop region (1124 bp) of breast cancer patients (n = 213) and controls (n = 207) of south Indian origin by PCR-sequencing analysis. Haplotype frequencies for significant loci, the standardized disequilibrium coefficient (D′) for pair-wise linkage disequilibrium (LD) were assessed by Haploview Software. Principal Findings We identified 7 novel mutations and 170 reported polymorphisms in the D-loop region of patients and/or controls. Polymorphisms were predominantly located in hypervariable region I (60%) than in II (30%) of D-loop region. The frequencies of 310‘C’ insertion (P = 0.018), T16189C (P = 0.0019) variants and 310‘C’ins/16189C (P = 0.00019) haplotype were significantly higher in cases than in controls. Furthermore, strong LD was observed between nucleotide position 310 and 16189 in controls (D′ = 0.49) as compared to patients (D′ = 0.14). Conclusions Mitochondrial D-loop alterations may constitute inherent risk factors for breast cancer development. The analysis of genetic alterations in the D-loop region might help to identify patients at high risk for bad progression, thereby helping to refine therapeutic decisions in breast cancer.
Abstract security patterns for requirements specification and analysis of secure systems

security patterns for requirements specification and analysis of secure systems Eduardo B. Fernandez 1 , Nobukazu Yoshioka 2 , Hironori Washizaki 3 , and Joseph Yoder 4 Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, USA ed@cse.fau. edu GRACE Center, National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan nobukazu@nii.ac. jp Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan washizaki@waseda.jp The Refactory, Inc, Urbana, IL, USA joe@joeyoder.com Abstract. During the requirements and analysis stages of software developDuring the requirements and analysis stages of software development, the primary goal is to define precise requirements rather than being concerned with the details of software realizations. Security is a semantic aspect of applications and their constraints on the application should de described at this moment. From a security point of view we only want to indicate which specific security controls are needed, rather than getting involved with low-level design and implementation details. Therefore, at these stages, it is useful to have a set of patterns which define abstract security mechanisms. These patterns should specify only the fundamental characteristics of the security mechanism or service, not specific software aspects. We present the concept of Abstract Security Pattern (ASP), which describes a conceptual security mechanism that realizes one or more security policies able to handle a threat or comply with a securityrelated regulation or institutional policy. We present a detailed example of an ASP. We relate ASPs to each other using pattern diagrams as well as to Security Solution Frames and tactics. Finally, we discuss their value for defining security requirements and for building secure systems.