Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dependence Modeling of Joint Extremes Via Copulas: A Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Perspective

Recent empirical evidence highlights the importance of asymmetries in the distribution of asset returns in both their marginal behavior in terms of skewness and their dependence structure in that assets tend to be more highly correlated during bear markets than during market upturns. In this paper we develop a model that is able to address both features of the data based on the construction of a multivariate diffusion with pre-specified stationary distribution using copula functions. The asymmetric tail dependence is captured by a mixture copula of the Elliptic and the Extreme Value families, which is isolated from the marginal behavior, modeled by the flexible Generalized Hyperbolic class of distributions that allows accounting for stylized properties of the data. We further study the effect of asymptotic extreme value dependence on portfolio choice in a complete market setup where optimal allocation rules are obtained analytically under the Martingale technique using Malliavin calculus. We compare the evolution of the intertemporal hedging terms over time induced by a data generating process that allows for asymmetric dependence in the extremes to those of an asymptotically independent model. We assess the importance of the differences in portfolio shares through the certainty equivalent cost of ignoring extreme value dependence and find that taking it into account leads to significant economic gains.
Using Logically Hierarchical Meta Web Services to Support Accountability in Mashup Services

Mashups are next generation of Web applications; they integrate and remix different sources on the Web in a creative approach to provide rich and novel experiences for users. Furthermore, mashups introduce a new class of integration technologies for implementing situational applications (i.e. applications that come together for solving some immediate business problems). While mashup services provide flexibility and speed in delivering new valuable services to consumers, the issue of accountability associated with the mashups remains largely ignored by the industry. Pushing mashups to enterprises without attention to accountability problems involves many risks. In this paper, a new model is proposed to resolve accountability issues in mashup services. The proposed model uses PKI (public key infrastructure) in conjunction with logically hierarchical meta Web services to support identification and traceability of Web services in mashups and consequently provides a trusted environment for enterprise mashups.
The view from the trenches: issues in the ontology of restricted domains

We consider the impact of strict processing limitations on thedesign of an ontology for information extraction from newswiretexts. We conclude that requiring online, real-time processingleads to a particular set of answers to fundamental issues ofrelation size and the choice of primary categories. We show how tosatisfy these requirements by using relational categories directlyduring analysis and by using a reified lattice of their partialsaturations that is annotated with the linguistic constructs usedto realize them.
Error Analysis of Verb Inflections in Spanish Translation Output

Evaluation of machine translation output is an important but difficult task. Over the last years, various automatic evaluation measures have been studied and have become widely used. However, these measures do not give any details about the nature of translation errors. Therefore some analysis of the generated output is needed in order to identify the main problems and possibilities for improvements. In this work, we present the results of automatic error analysis of Spanish verbs in statistical machine translation output generated by RWTH in the second TC-STAR evaluation. Different types of verb inflections referring to the mode, tense and person are defined. For each inflection type, PER-based precision and recall measures are calculated as well as corresponding F-measure. Additionally, a ratio between relative frequency and PER-based F-measure is defined in order to estimate significance of each verb inflection. Analysis based on the F-measure and the relative frequency has shown which verb inflections are the most difficult to translate and which are the most important to improve. Analysis of the PER-based precision-recall graph has indicated which inflections are tending to be translated wrongly and which are tending to replace other inflections.
Definition of the Escherichia coli MC4100 Genome by Use of a DNA Array

ABSTRACT We have used an Escherichia coli K-12 whole-genome array based on the DNA sequence of strain MG1655 as a tool to identify deletions in another E. coli K-12 strain, MC4100, by probing the array with labeled chromosomal DNA. Despite the continued widespread use of MC4100 as an experimental system, the specific genetic relationship of this strain to the sequenced K-12 derivative MG1655 has not been resolved. MC4100 was found to contain four deletions, ranging from 1 to 97 kb in size. The exact nature of three of the deletions was previously unresolved, and the fourth deletion was altogether unknown.
Fundamental frequency modulated multilevel inverter for three-phase stand-alone photovoltaic application

This paper presents a fundamental frequency modulated multilevel inverter scheme for use with a three-phase stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system. The system consists of four series connected PV arrays, a five-level diode-clamped multilevel inverter (DCMLI) generating fundamental modulation staircase three-phase output voltages, and a three-phase induction motor as the load. In order to validate the proposed concept, simulation studies and experimental measurements, done using a small-scale laboratory prototype, are also presented. The results show the feasibility of the fundamental switching application in three- phase stand-alone PV power systems.
Parameterized GSOR Method for a Class of Complex Symmetric Systems of Linear Equations

A parameterized generalized successive overrelaxation (PGSOR) method for a class of block two-by-two linear system is established in this paper. The convergence theorem of the method is proved under suitable assumptions on iteration parameters. Besides, we obtain a functional equation between the parameters and the eigenvalues of the iteration matrix for this method. Furthermore, an accelerated variant of the PGSOR (APGSOR) method is also presented in order to raise the convergence rate. Finally, numerical experiments are carried out to confirm the theoretical analysis as well as the feasibility and the efficiency of the PGSOR method and its variant. AMS subject classifications: 65F10, 65F50, 65F08
THE IMPACTS OF FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION ON INCOME INEQUALITY IN INDONESIA

Fiscal decentralization provides local governments with authority and fiscal resources to exercise decentralized functions, mostly public service functions. Income redistribution, as suggested by t h e classic theory in fiscal federalism, should remain as central government’s domain. Some recent findings and experiences provide different insight, arguing that in fiscal decentralization, local governments’ policies can also have distributive consequences reflected in income inequality. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether fiscal decentralization significantly affects income inequality in Indonesia. Empirical analysis is conducted using ordinary least square and panel data estimation fixed effect and random effect, with fixed effect considered as the best fitted model. The proxy for fiscal decentralization is revenue sharing funds (DBH), a component of intergovernmental grants which local governments can utilize according to local priorities. The proxy for inequality is Gini coefficient. Empirical result shows that fiscal decentralization has positive and significant effect on income inequality, suggesting that a greater degree of fiscal decentralization tends to increase income inequality. In fiscal decentralization, the objective of local governments is public service delivery; besides, local finances are insufficient to deal with major distributive issues. For these reasons, the central government ideally leads the attempts to address income inequality. The findings of this paper suggest the potential of local policies to support redistributive programs led by the central government. With the increasing role of local governments in fiscal decentralization, the impacts of local policies should also be considered in programs with nation-wide coverage such as the redistributive programs.
Probabilistic aggregation strategies in swarm robotic systems

In this study, a systematic analysis of probabilistic aggregation strategies in swarm robotic systems is presented. A generic aggregation behavior is proposed as a combination of four basic behaviors: obstacle avoidance, approach, repel, and wait. The latter three basic behaviors are combined using a three-state finite state machine with two probabilistic transitions among them. Two different metrics were used to compare performance of strategies. Through systematic experiments, how the aggregation performance, as measured by these two metrics, change 1) with transition probabilities, 2) with number of simulation steps, and 3) with arena size, is studied.
Pruning discovered sequential patterns using minimum improvement threshold

Discovery of sequential patterns is an important data mining problem with numerous applications. Sequential patterns are subsequences frequently occurring in a database of sequences of sets of items. In a basic scenario, the goal of sequential pattern mining is discovery of all patterns whose frequency exceeds a user-specified frequency threshold. The problem with such an approach is a huge number of sequential patterns which are likely to be returned for reasonable frequency thresholds. One possible solution to this problem is excluding the patterns which do not provide significantly more information than some other patterns in the result set. Two approaches falling into that category have been studied in the context of sequential patterns: discovery of maximal patterns and closed patterns. Unfortunately, the set of maximal patterns may not contain many important patterns with high frequency, and discovery of closed patterns may not reduce the number of resulting patterns for sparse datasets. Therefore, in this paper we propose and experimentally evaluate the minimum improvement criterion to be used in the post-processing phase to reduce the number of sequential patterns returned to the user. Our method is an adaptation of one of the methods previously proposed for association rules.
XPA A23G polymorphism and risk of digestive system cancers: a meta-analysis

Background Several studies have reported an association between the A23G polymorphism (rs 1800975) in the xeroderma pigmentosum group A (XPA) gene and risk of digestive system cancers. However, the results are inconsistent. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the association between XPA A23G polymorphism and the risk of digestive system cancers. Methods Relevant studies were identified using the PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, and VIP databases up to August 30, 2014. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated using the fixed or random effects model. Results A total of 18 case-control studies from 16 publications with 4,170 patients and 6,929 controls were included. Overall, no significant association was found between XPA A23G polymorphism and the risk of digestive system cancers (dominant model: GA + AA versus GG, OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.74–1.08; recessive model: AA versus GA + GG, OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.74–1.20; GA versus GG, OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.77–1.03; and AA versus GG, OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.64–1.19). When the analysis was stratified by ethnicity, similar results were observed among Asians and Caucasians in all genetic models. In stratified analysis based on tumor type, we also failed to detect any association between XPA A23G polymorphism and the risk of esophageal, gastric, or colorectal cancers. Conclusion This meta-analysis indicates that the XPA A23G polymorphism is not associated with a risk of digestive system cancers.
Machine-Learning Based Co-adaptive Calibration : Towards a Cure for BCI illiteracy

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow users to control a computer application by brain activity as acquired, e.g., by EEG. In our classic Machine Learning approach to BCIs, the participants undertake a calibration measurement without feedback to acquire data to train the BCI system. After the training, the user can control a BCI and improve the operation through some type of feedback. However, not all BCI users are able to perform sufficiently well during feedback operation. In fact, a non-negligible portion of participants (estimated 15%–30%) cannot control the system (BCI illiteracy problem, generic to all motor imagery based BCIs). We hypothesize that one main difficulty for a BCI-user is the transition from off-line calibration to on-line feedback. In this work we therefore investigate adaptive machine learning methods to eliminate offline calibration and analyze the performance of 11 volunteers in a BCI based on the modulation of sensorimotor rhythms. We present an adaptation scheme that individually guides the user initially starting from a subject-independent classifier operating on simple features to a subject-optimized state-of-the-art classifier within one session, while the user interacts continuously. These initial runs use supervised techniques for robust co-adaptive learning of user and machine. Subsequent runs use unsupervised adaptation to track the features’ drift during the session and provide an unbiased measure of BCI performance. Using this approach, without any off-line calibration measurement, good performance was obtained by six users (also one novice) after 3-6 minutes of adaptation. More importantly, this novel guided learning allows also participants suffering from BCI illiteracy to gain significant control with the BCI in less than 60 minutes. Additionally, one volunteer without sensory motor idle rhythm peak in the
SMARTENERGY.KOM: An intelligent system for energy saving in smart home

Over the last twenty years, energy conservation has always been of great importance to individuals, societies and decision makers around the globe. As a result, IT researchers have shown a great interest in providing efficient, reliable and easy-to-use IT services which help users saving energy at home by making use of the current advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Driven by the aforementioned motivation, we developed SMARTENERGY.KOM, our framework for realizing energy efficient smart homes based on wireless sensor networks and human activity detection. Our work is based on the idea that most of the user activities at home are related to a set of electrical appliances which are necessary to perform these activities. Therefore, we show how it is possible to detect the user's current activity by monitoring his fine-grained appliance-level energy consumption. This relation between activities and electrical appliances makes it possible to detect appliances which could be wasting energy at home. Our framework is organized in two components. On one hand, the activity detection framework which is responsible for detecting the user's current activity based on his energy consumption. On the other hand, the EnergyAdvisor framework which utilizes the activity detection for the purpose of recognizing the appliances which are wasting energy at home and informing the user about optimization potential.
Global online marketplace: a cross‐cultural comparison of website quality

This study used Loiacono’s WebQual TM scale to compare 278 US and 347 Korean Internet users in terms of their perceptions of retail website quality. The results of the study suggested that the dimensionality of website quality was not consistent across the two samples. This study also examined which dimensions of website quality influenced shoppers’ satisfaction with the site and purchase intention. The findings indicated that the relationship between website quality dimensions and the two dependent variables varied between the two groups.
Teachers' Practical Knowledge: Obtaining and Using Knowledge of Students.

An exploratory study was conducted at the University of Southern Queensland (Australia) to document the knowledge of students held by a small number of highly effective primary school teachers and to identify the ways these teachers acquired their knowledge and used it during classroom instruction. This paper presents the findings of the investigation with one highly effective teacher who participated in the project. This teacher's knowledge of the class, student groups, and individual students was analyzed in terms of personality, interests, abilities, work habits, attributes, and behaviors. The teacher gathered knowledge about a student Zrom parents, other students, classroom observation, working with the students, talking with her cooperative teaching partner, and reviewing formal school records. The teacher used this knowledge of students to develop students' social skills, to improve their work habits, to assist them with academic problems, and to direct their personality development. It is concluded that the teacher's teaching effectiveness might stem from the knowledge of her students, specifically the scope and depth of that knowledge, the classroom relevance, validity, integration and consistency, importance attached to knowledge of individual students, and ability to clearly articulate personal teaching philosophy. (Contains 19 references.)
Est10: A Novel Alkaline Esterase Isolated from Bovine Rumen Belonging to the New Family XV of Lipolytic Enzymes

A metagenomic fosmid library from bovine rumen was used to identify clones with lipolytic activity. One positive clone was isolated. The gene responsible for the observed phenotype was identified by in vitro transposon mutagenesis and sequencing and was named est10. The 367 amino acids sequence harbors a signal peptide, the conserved secondary structure arrangement of alpha/beta hydrolases, and a GHSQG pentapeptide which is characteristic of esterases and lipases. Homology based 3D-modelling confirmed the conserved spatial orientation of the serine in a nucleophilic elbow. By sequence comparison, Est10 is related to hydrolases that are grouped into the non-specific Pfam family DUF3089 and to other characterized esterases that were recently classified into the new family XV of lipolytic enzymes. Est10 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli as a His-tagged fusion protein, purified and biochemically characterized. Est10 showed maximum activity towards C4 aliphatic chains and undetectable activity towards C10 and longer chains which prompted its classification as an esterase. However, it was able to efficiently catalyze the hydrolysis of aryl esters such as methyl phenylacetate and phenyl acetate. The optimum pH of this enzyme is 9.0, which is uncommon for esterases, and it exhibits an optimal temperature at 40°C. The activity of Est10 was inhibited by metal ions, detergents, chelating agents and additives. We have characterized an alkaline esterase produced by a still unidentified bacterium belonging to a recently proposed new family of esterases.
Intuitive Web-Based Experimental Design for High-Throughput Biomedical Data

Big data bioinformatics aims at drawing biological conclusions from huge and complex biological datasets. Added value from the analysis of big data, however, is only possible if the data is accompanied by accurate metadata annotation. Particularly in high-throughput experiments intelligent approaches are needed to keep track of the experimental design, including the conditions that are studied as well as information that might be interesting for failure analysis or further experiments in the future. In addition to the management of this information, means for an integrated design and interfaces for structured data annotation are urgently needed by researchers. Here, we propose a factor-based experimental design approach that enables scientists to easily create large-scale experiments with the help of a web-based system. We present a novel implementation of a web-based interface allowing the collection of arbitrary metadata. To exchange and edit information we provide a spreadsheet-based, humanly readable format. Subsequently, sample sheets with identifiers and metainformation for data generation facilities can be created. Data files created after measurement of the samples can be uploaded to a datastore, where they are automatically linked to the previously created experimental design model.
Serpentine motion control of snake robots for curvature and heading based trajectory - parameterization

The control problem for the serpentine motion of a planar snake under the assumption of a trajectory characterized by its curvature and heading is examined in this article. The time varying curvature and heading attributes of the trajectory result in a sinusoidal reference signal for the joint angles. An inner loop PD-controller is used for trajectory tracking by compensating the effects of the snake's dynamics, while an outer loop first-order controller is used for the formation of the reference joint angles by tracking the desired heading and velocity. Simulation studies on spiral curves are included to investigate the efficiency of the controller.
Measurement of ATP in Single Oocytes: Impact of Maturation and Cumulus Cells on Levels and Consumption

Mitochondria provide the primary source of ATP in the oocyte and early embryo and mitochondrial dysfunction and deficit of mitochondria‐derived ATP has been linked to suboptimal developmental competence. We have undertaken a study of ATP in the maturing mouse oocyte using a novel recombinant FRET based probe, AT1.03. We show that AT1.03 can be successfully used to monitor cytosolic ATP levels in single live oocytes over extended time periods. We find that ATP levels undergo dynamic changes associated with specific maturational events and that oocytes display altered rates of ATP consumption at different stages of maturation. Cumulus enclosed oocytes have a higher ATP level during maturation than denuded oocytes and this can be abolished by inhibition of gap junctional communication between the oocyte and cumulus cells. Our work uses a new approach to shed light on regulation of ATP levels and ATP consumption during oocyte maturation. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 353–361, 2014. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Cellular Physiology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Relation of Problem-Solving Styles and Moral Development to Life Satisfaction 35 Full Length Research Paper The Relation of Problem-Solving Styles and Moral Development to Life Satisfaction

ED/ INDEXED IN: ISC, Directory Of Research Journal Indexing (DRJI), J-Gate, Electronic Journals Library (EZB), EBSCO, SCIRUS, Eyesourse, SSRN eLibrary, Global Impact Factor (GIF), Google Scholar, Library System University of Hamburg (ZDB). The Relation of Problem-Solving Styles and Moral Development to Life Satisfaction 35 Full Length Research Paper The Relation of Problem-Solving Styles and Moral Development to Life Satisfaction Maryam Asheri Department of psychology, central Tehran_branch, Islamic azad University, Tehran, Iran