Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alternatives of Social Evolution

The present volume is an attempt of an international research team to make a complex study in the social evolution processes in prehistory in their spatial and temporal variations. The authors hope that their survey can and should also promote a better understanding of the evolution from prehistoric bands to complex states and pre-industrial empires. The volume consists of five parts and 27 chapters. The first part includes theoretical studies of non- linear evolution. Articles on the alternative pathways of the prehistoric societies' evolution form the volume's second part. The evolutionary pathways of complex societies and state origins are the topics of the volume's third and forth parts. The closing part is devoted to nomadic societies. We hope that the book has not lost its relevance since its first edition's publication in 2000 and will remain in demand by readers.
A Path Analysis Of The Concepts In Moore’s Theory Of Transactional Distance In A Videoconferencing Learning Environment

The lack of empirical testing of theories in past studies in distance education has resulted in a fragile theoretical basis of this field. Investigating 121 learners’ experiences with videoconferencing, this study used path analysis to examine the postulates of Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance. A major focus of the study was estimating the effects of the dimensions of dialogue, structure, learner autonomy, and transactional distance—the constituent concepts of Moore’s theory—on learning outcomes in such a learning environment. In-class discussion, one of the dimensions of dialogue, was found to contribute positively, directly, and indirectly to learning outcomes, whereas transactional distance between instructors and learners was inversely related to learning outcomes. None of the dimensions of structure and learner autonomy was found to have significant effects on learning outcomes. The data suggested that when learning outcomes were assessed only in terms of the student’s perception of how much he or she has learned, the relationships among the concepts in the transactional distance theory were only partly supported. Dans les etudes anterieures menees en education a distance, le peu de verifications empiriques des theories nous a legue des fondements theoriques faibles. Cette etude, qui analyse les experiences d’apprentissage par videoconference de cent vingt et un apprenants, a adopte une analyse causale des postulats de la theorie de Moore sur la distance transactionnelle. L’etude s’est attachee a evaluer les effets du dialogue, de la structure, de l’autonomie de l’apprenant et de la distance transactionnelle--concepts constituants de la theorie de Moore--sur les resultats d’apprentissage dans un tel environnement d’apprentissage. La discussion en classe, qui est l’un des aspects du dialogue, s’est revelee contribuer de maniere positive, directement et indirectement, aux resultats d’apprentissage, alors que la distance transactionnelle entre formateurs et apprenants etait en rapport inverse avec les resultats d’apprentissage. Il est apparu que ni la structure ni l’autonomie de l’apprenant n’entrainaient d’effets significatifs sur les resultats d’apprentissage. Les donnees laissent entendre que si l’on evalue les resultats d’apprentissage en s’appuyant seulement sur la perception du « combien » les etudiants ont appris, les correlations entre les concepts de la theorie de la distance transactionnelle ne sont que partiellement corroborees.
microRNAs under the microscope

Once regarded as a biological anomaly, microRNAs (miRNAs) have since been recognized as a prevalent RNA species that regulates a wide array of biological processes, from fat storage and insulin secretion, to apoptosis and cell growth. Recent studies show that miRNAs are expressed at precise times and locations in embryonic development. Moreover, disruption of miRNA processing triggers widespread developmental defects. These findings bolster the idea that miRNAs also regulate multiple aspects of embryonic development. This primer focuses on the emerging roles of miRNAs in development. The basics of miRNA biogenesis and miRNA and mRNA target identification are covered, with an emphasis on miRNA function in development. The primer also features a dialog about current topics in the field. Developmental Dynamics 235:846–853, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Watts in the basket?: Energy Analysis of a Retail Chain

Electricity accounts for a significant part of a retail store's cost-to-serve. For a retail business spread across several stores, it is important to identify the correlations between cost, energy, operations, and location. To this end, we present a measurement-based analysis of energy and operations data gathered from 201 stores of a leading retail chain over a two year period. We employ statistical techniques and unsupervised learning to understand the inter-relationships across the various dimensions. Specifically, we find that: (i) The well-known Pareto cost-benefit principle (or the eighty-twenty effect) does not hold when considering the energy consumption as cost with customers served and store area covered as the benefits; (ii) After accounting for the time-of-day effects, sales counts do not affect energy consumption statistically, while ambient temperatures do so; (iii) Stores that exhibit a greater degree of energy proportionality have larger areas; and (iv) Opportunities for improvements exist in reducing the energy cost of operations. Many stores switch their operations on well ahead of their opening times. The average annual energy savings that could potentially be achieved across 201 stores if their operations are in tune with their opening time is roughly 8.2 GWh (2.5%). These savings can be achieved with just changes in operational procedures with zero capital investment.
Wikipedia Mining for Triple Extraction Enhanced by Co-reference Resolution

Since Wikipedia has become a huge scale database storing wide-range of human knowledge, it is a promising corpus for knowledge extraction. A considerable number of researches on Wikipedia mining have been conducted and the fact that Wikipedia is an invaluable corpus has been confirmed. Wikipedia’s impressive characteristics are not limited to the scale, but also include the dense link structure, URI for word sense disambiguation, well structured Infoboxes, and the category tree. In previous researches on this area, the category tree has been widely used to extract semantic relations among concepts on Wikipedia. In this paper, we try to extract triples (Subject, Predicate, Object) from Wikipedia articles, another promising resource for knowledge extraction. We propose a practical method which integrates link structure mining and parsing to enhance the extraction accuracy. The proposed method consists of two technical novelties; two parsing strategies and a co-reference resolution
Automotive Internal-Combustion-Engine Fault Detection and Classification Using Artificial Neural Network Techniques

In this paper, an engine fault detection and classification technique using vibration data in the crank angle domain is presented. These data are used in conjunction with artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are applied to detect faults in a four-stroke gasoline engine built for experimentation. A comparative study is provided between the popular backpropagation (BP) method, the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) method, the quasi-Newton (QN) method, the extended Kalman filter (EKF), and the smooth variable structure filter (SVSF). The SVSF is a relatively new estimation strategy, based on the sliding mode concept. It has been formulated to efficiently train ANNs and is consequently referred to as the SVSF-ANN. The accuracy of the proposed method is compared with the standard accuracy of the Kalman-based filters and the popular BP algorithms in an effort to validate the SVSF-ANN performance and application to engine fault detection and classification. The customizable fault diagnostic system is able to detect known engine faults with various degrees of severity, such as defective lash adjuster, piston chirp (PC), and chain tensioner (CT) problems. The technique can be used at any dealership or assembly plant to considerably reduce warranty costs for the company and manufacturer.
Natural Resource Distribution and Multiple Forms of Civil War

We examine how natural resource location, rent sharing and fighting capacities of different groups matter for ethnic conflict. A new type of bargaining failure due to multiple types of potential conflicts (and hence multiple threat points) is identified. The theory predicts conflict to be more likely when the geographical distribution of natural resources is uneven and when a minority group has better chances to win a secessionist rather than a centrist conflict. For sharing rents, resource proportionality is salient in avoiding secessions and strength proportionality in avoiding centrist civil wars. We present empirical evidence that is consistent with the model.
COMPUTING EQUILIBRIA FOR TWO-PERSON GAMES

This paper is a self-contained survey of algorithms for computing Nash equilibria of two-person games. The games may be given in strategic form or extensive form. The classical Lemke-Howson algorithm finds one equilibrium of a bimatrix game, and provides an elementary proof that a Nash equilibrium exists. It can be given a strong geometric intuition using graphs that show the subdivision of the players' mixed strategy sets into best-response regions. The Lemke-Howson algorithm is presented with these graphs, as well as algebraically in terms of complementary pivoting. Degenerate games require a refinement of the algorithm based on lexicographic perturbations. Commonly used definitions of degenerate games are shown as equivalent. The enumeration of all equilibria is expressed as the problem of finding matching vertices in pairs of polytopes. Algorithms for computing simply stable equilibria and perfect equilibria are explained. The computation of equilibria for extensive games is difficult for larger games since the reduced strategic form may be exponentially large compared to the game tree. If the players have perfect recall, the sequence form of the extensive game is a strategic description that is more suitable for computation. In the sequence form, pure strategies of a player are replaced by sequences of choices along a play in the game. The sequence form has the same size as the game tree, and can be used for computing equilibria with the same methods as the strategic form. The paper concludes with remarks on theoretical and practical issues of concern to these computational approaches.
Graphical Models for real-time capable gesture recognition

In everyday live head gestures such as head shaking or nodding and hand gestures like pointing gestures form important aspects of human-human interaction. Therefore, recent research considers integrating these intuitive communication cues into technical systems for improving and easing human-computer interaction. In this paper we present a vision-based system to recognize head gestures (nodding, shaking, neutral) and dynamic hand gestures (hand moving right/left/up/down, fist moving right/left) in real-time. The gestural input delivers a communication modality for a human-robot interaction scenario situated in an assistive household environment. The use of fast low-level image-feature extraction methods contributes to the real-time capability of the system and advanced classification approaches relying on Graphical Models provide high robustness. Graphical Models offer the possibility to group the input features in several sub-nodes resulting in a better classification than obtained via a traditional Hidden Markov Model classification. The applied grouping can regard interdependencies owing to, either physical constraints (like for the head gestures), or interrelations between shape and motion (like for the hand gestures).
Autism in Preschoolers: Does Individual Clinician's First Visit Diagnosis Agree with Final Comprehensive Diagnosis?

Comprehensive clinical diagnosis based on all available information is considered the “gold standard” in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We examined agreement across independent assessments (clinical judgment) of 34 young children (age 24–46 months) with suspected ASD, assessed by a multidisciplinary team, and final comprehensive clinical diagnosis. Agreement across settings and between each clinician's assessment and final diagnosis was moderate. The poorest fit was found at assessment in connection with psychological evaluation and the best with preschool observation and parent interview. Some individual clinicians had good and others had poor fit with final diagnosis. Disagreement across assessments was pronounced for girls. The findings suggest that multidisciplinary assessments remain important and that comprehensive clinical diagnosis should still be regarded as the gold standard in ASD.
Multilingual Summarization Evaluation without Human Models

We study correlation of rankings of text summarization systems using evaluation methods with and without human models. We apply our comparison framework to various well-established content-based evaluation measures in text summarization such as coverage, Responsiveness, Pyramids and Rouge studying their associations in various text summarization tasks including generic and focus-based multi-document summarization in English and generic single-document summarization in French and Spanish. The research is carried out using a new content-based evaluation framework called Fresa to compute a variety of divergences among probability distributions.
CCR7 Is Critically Important for Migration of Dendritic Cells in Intestinal Lamina Propria to Mesenteric Lymph Nodes1

Although dendritic cells (DCs) located in the small intestinal lamina propria (LP-DCs) migrate to mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs) constitutively, it is unclear which chemokines regulate their trafficking to MLNs. In this study we report that LP-DCs in unperturbed mice require CCR7 to migrate to MLNs. In vitro, LP-DCs expressing CCR7 migrated toward CCL21, although the LP-DCs appeared morphologically and phenotypically immature. In MLNs, DCs bearing the unique LP-DC phenotype (CD11chighCD8αintCD11blowαLlowβ7high and CD11chighCD8α−CD11bhighαLlowβ7high) were abundant in wild-type mice, but were markedly fewer in CCL19-, CCL21-Ser-deficient plt/plt mice and were almost absent in CCR7-deficient mice, indicating the critical importance of CCR7 in LP-DC trafficking to MLNs. Interestingly, CCR7+ DCs in MLNs with the unique LP-DC phenotype had numerous vacuoles containing cellular debris in the cytoplasm, although MLN-DCs themselves were poorly phagocytic, suggesting that the debris was derived from the LP, where the LP-DCs ingested apoptotic intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). Consistent with this, LP-DCs ingested IECs vigorously in vitro. By presenting IEC-associated Ag, the LP-DCs also induce T cells to produce IL-4 and IL-10. Collectively, these results strongly suggest that LP-DCs with unique immunomodulatory activities migrate to MLNs in a CCR7-dependent manner to engage in the presentation of IEC-associated Ags acquired in the LP.
A Clustering Method Based on the Most Similar Relation Diagram of Datasets

In this paper we present a novel clustering analysis method based on the Most Similar Relation Diagram (MSRD). MSRD is a diagram in which each datum of a dataset is linked to its most similar data. By cutting off some links in the diagram a certain number of clusters are formed. A compare of the MSRD method with hierarchical method is implemented. Clustering experiences using MSRD were done and the results demonstrated the validity of the method.
Remote Sensing of Mangrove Ecosystems: A Review

Mangrove ecosystems dominate the coastal wetlands of tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. They provide various ecological and economical ecosystem services contributing to coastal erosion protection, water filtration, provision of areas for fish and shrimp breeding, provision of building material and medicinal ingredients, and the attraction of tourists, amongst many other factors. At the same time, mangroves belong to the most threatened and vulnerable ecosystems worldwide and experienced a dramatic decline during the last half century. International programs, such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands or the Kyoto Protocol, underscore the importance of immediate protection measures and conservation activities to prevent the further loss of mangroves. In this context, remote sensing is the tool of choice to provide spatio-temporal information on mangrove ecosystem distribution, species differentiation, health status, and ongoing changes of mangrove populations. Such studies can be based on various sensors, ranging from aerial photography to high- and medium-resolution optical imagery and from hyperspectral data to active microwave (SAR) data. Remote-sensing techniques have demonstrated a high potential to detect, identify, map, and monitor mangrove conditions and changes during the last two decades, which is reflected by the large number of scientific papers published on this topic. To our knowledge, a recent review paper on the remote sensing of mangroves does not exist, although mangrove ecosystems have become the focus of attention in the context of current climate change and discussions of the services provided by these ecosystems. Also, climate change-related remote-sensing studies in coastal zones have increased drastically in recent years. The aim of this review paper is to provide a comprehensive overview and sound summary of all of the work undertaken, addressing the variety of remotely sensed data applied for mangrove ecosystem mapping, as well as the numerous methods and techniques used for data analyses, and to further discuss their potential and limitations.
The cultural models in international business research: A bibliometric study of IB journals

Culture has been a widely researched topic in the International Business (IB) literature over the last decades. To better understand what culture actually means and its implication in firms? IB operations, several cultural models and taxonomies have been put forward. In this paper we seek to scrutinize the use of three well known cultural models - Hall? s (1976), Hofstede? s (1980a) and Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner? s (1993) - in the extant research. Using bibliometric techniques of the papers published in the top ranked IB journals, we performed a citation and co-citation analysis to find out the most influential model and to examine the possible linkages between models and to the issues being researched. We conclude that Hofstede? s (1980a) taxonomy is the most cited and his taxonomy has strong linkages to several streams of research. Nonetheless, we also find that there are noticeable differences on how research in different journals make use of the cultural models, probably reflecting not surprising disciplinary emphases.
A Prospective Evaluation of a Second-Trimester Screening Test for Fetal Down Syndrome Using Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein, hCG, and Unconjugated Estriol

Objective: To test the efficacy of a screening protocol using a combination of maternal age plus three biochemical markers —maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP), hCG, and unconjugated estriol (E3)—for the antenatal detection of fetal Down syndrome. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 7718 women who underwent the triple-marker analysis between weeks 15-18 of pregnancy. A second-trimester risk for Down syndrome of 1:195 or greater was considered positive. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. We evaluated test performance for various maternal age groups and screen-positive cutoffs, as well as the relative screening efficacies of maternal age and MSAFP, MSAFP plus hCG, and MSAFP, hCG, and unconjugated E3. Results: Four hundred sixty-one of the 7718 women screened (6%) were identified as positive; 319 women chose amniocentesis, for an overall amniocentesis rate of 4.1%. Twenty of 22 pregnancies affected with Down syndrome' were correctly identified, as were 7255 of 7696 unaffected pregnancies, yielding a sensitivity and specificity of 91% (95% CI 79-100%) and 94% (95% CI 93.8-94.8%), respectively. The use of maternal age plus all three analytes improved test performance compared with maternal age plus MSAFP and hCG, but either had a significantly improved detection rate compared with that for maternal age and MSAFP alone. Conclusion: The triple-marker screen appears to be an effective method of detecting Down syndrome pregnancies while maintaining an acceptable amniocentesis rate. (Obstet Gynecol 1993;81:72-7)
Automatic Mapping of Remote Crowd Gaze to Stimuli in the Classroom

Students’ attention is a key prerequisite for classroom learning. Tracking this attention offers not only meaningful insights on the cognitive process of learning, but doing so in real-time provides a valuable tool for educators to become aware of the students’ attentional focus and thereby to improve classroom management on the fly. Whereas eye tracking provides a straightforward method for overt attention assessment, simultaneously tracking the gaze of multiple subjects (i.e., a crowd) remains an open challenge. In this paper, we propose and discuss a novel technical approach to track students’ (overt) attention in a classroom.
Molecular epidemiology of norovirus gastroenteritis outbreaks in New Zealand from 2002–2009

Noroviruses are the most common cause of acute non‐bacterial gastroenteritis outbreaks worldwide, including New Zealand. New Zealand has a population of 4.4 million, which allows for centralized outbreak surveillance and a Norovirus Reference Laboratory, which facilitates efficient diagnosis, surveillance, and tracking of norovirus outbreaks. Norovirus outbreak strains are identified, sequenced, and compared with international reference strains. Between January 2002 and December 2009, 1,206 laboratory‐confirmed norovirus outbreaks were recorded. The predominant outbreak settings were healthcare institutions for the elderly and acute care patients. Other outbreak settings included catering establishments, cruise ships, homes, community events, school camps, child‐related settings, and consumption of contaminated shellfish. Of the 1,206 outbreaks, 105 (8.7%) were caused by norovirus genogroup I (GI) strains, 1,085 (89.9%) were caused by genogroup II (GII) strains, and both GI and GII strains were detected in 9 (0.8%) outbreaks. The genogroup was not identified in 7 (0.6%) outbreaks. A range of norovirus genotypes, including GI genotypes 1–6, GII genotypes 2–8, and GII.12, were associated with these outbreaks. The predominant genotype was GII.4, which was identified in 825 (68.4%) outbreaks. Norovirus GII.4 variant strains, including 2002 (Farmington Hills), 2004 (Hunter), 2006a (Laurens, Yerseke), 2006b (Minerva), and 2010 (New Orleans) implicated in overseas outbreaks also occurred in New Zealand, providing evidence of global spread. J. Med. Virol. 84:1449–1458, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.