Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using the population-based incremental learning algorithm with computer simulation : some applications

The integration of the population-based incremental learning (PBIL) algorithm with computer simulation shows how this particular combination can be applied to find good solutions to combinatorial optimisation problems. Two illustrative examples are used: the classical inventory problem of finding a reorder point and reorder quantity that minimises costs while achieving a required service level (a stochastic problem); and the signal timing of a complex traffic intersection. Any traffic control system must be designed to minimise the duration of interruptions at intersections while maximising traffic throughput. The duration of the phases of traffic lights is of primary importance in this regard. OPSOMMING Die integrasie van die population-based incremental learning (PBIL) algoritme met rekenaarsimulasie word bespreek, en daar word getoon hoe hierdie spesifieke kombinasie aangewend kan word om goeie oplossings vir kombinatoriese optimeringsprobleme te vind. Twee voorbeelde dien as illustrasie: die klassieke voorraadprobleem waarin ’n herbestelvlak en herbestelhoeveelheid bepaal moet word om koste te minimeer maar nogtans ’n vasgestelde diensvlak te handhaaf (’n stochastiese probleem); en die bepaling van die seintye van ’n komplekse verkeerskruising. Enige verkeerbeheerstelsel moet ontwerp word om die duur van die vloeionderbrekings by verkeerskruisings te minimeer en verkeerdeurset te maksimeer. Die tydsduur van die fases van verkeersligte is dus baie belangrik.
Development of a Micro Material Handling System

There is a need for a micro material handling system that operates over a macro range (500 mm+). The research aims at creating a micro material handling system that is accurate, user friendly and reconfigurable. A pick and place case study in which piezo ceramic rods of 250 µm by 250 µm by 10 mm are placed in 300 µm by 300 µm by 10 mm cavities (to improve base material characteristics) is used to aid this system’s development. Using a combination of systems engineering and innovation management techniques the system is designed, built and tested according to the needs of the case study. A motoman robot fitted with a high precision fine positioning system is used. The fine positioning system is in turn fitted with a micro gripper. The human interface system consists of 2D micro vision, and haptic control which scales the micro work volume to a macro work volume. This set the basis for integrating commercially available components into a micro material handling system which is able to achieve under 5 µm accuracy and repeatability over a dexterous macro range in accordance with a pick and place case study.
Institutions and the Performance of Services Funded by the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) in Kenya

We investigate the effect of institutions on the delivery of services funded by the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) in meeting constituents' needs in Kenya. Using household survey data collected by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) in 2006 from a sample of constituencies, we construct indices of voice and client power using principal component analysis. We then estimate ordered probit models regarding the rating of the performance of CDF funded projects in meeting the constituents’ needs. The estimation strategy we adopt controls for potential endogeneity of the institutional measures, potential sample selection-bias and potential unobserved heterogeneity. The results indicate that higher quality institutions are associated with better service delivery outcomes.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Degradation and analysis of synthetic polymeric materials for biomedical applications

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Chemical restraint of captive Kinkajous Potos flavus (Schreber, 1774) (Carnivora: Procyonidae) using a ketamine, xylazine and midazolam combination and reversal with yohimbine

Detailed information on the anaesthetic and cardiorespiratory effects of drug combinations used for the chemical immobilization of Kinkajous (Potos flavus) is scarce. This study assessed the effects of ketamine (2.5mg/kg), xylazine (1mg/kg) and midazolam (0.5mg/kg) combination in P. flavus. Five clinically healthy adult Kinkajous of both sexes were included. Heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure and body temperature were recorded at five-minute intervals for 25 minutes. Then, animals received 0.125mg/kg of yohimbine by intramuscular injection. Anaesthetic depth was assessed based on stimulus response and muscle tone. Induction, immobilization, and recovery periods were recorded and qualitatively assessed based on the absence of adverse effects. The durations of the induction, immobilization, and recovery periods were 9.42±1.73, 33.33±2.16, and 31.37±5.82 minutes. All periods showed good quality and adequate anaesthetic depth was achieved. Mean heart and respiratory rates were 99±20 beats/minute and 44±9 breaths/minute. Both parameters decreased over the duration of the anaesthesia but they did not reach levels suggesting either bradycardia or bradypnea. Mean body temperature was 37.1±1.5 0C and it also showed a decreasing trend over the duration of the anaesthesia. Mean oxygen saturation was 92±6% and it showed a mildly increasing trend over the duration of the anesthesia. Mean blood pressure was 129±23 mmHg and mild to moderate hypertension was observed. No mortality occurred and no adverse effects were observed in any of the individuals during the three months following immobilization. The assessed anaesthetic combination effectively immobilized the P. flavus individuals, provided good quality and acceptable duration of both induction and recovery periods. It should, however, not be used in Kinkajous with either known hypertension record or pre-existing target organ disease (e.g., renal failure, retinopathy).
12 Investments in Collective Capacity and Social Capital

For as long as people have managed natural resources, they have engaged in forms of collective action. Farming households have collaborated on water management, labour sharing and marketing; pastoralists have comanaged grasslands; fishing families and their communities have jointly managed aquatic resources. Such collaboration has been institutionalized in many forms of local association, through clan or kin groups, traditional leadership, water users’ groups, grazing societies, women’s self-help groups, youth clubs, farmer experimentation groups and religious groups (Pretty, 2002). Constructive resource management rules and norms have been embedded in many cultures and societies, from collective water management in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Indonesia to herders of the Andes and dryland Africa; from water harvesting in Roman North Africa and southwest North America to shifting agricultural systems. It has, however, been rare for the importance of such local groups and institutions to be recognized in recent agricultural and rural development. In both developingand industrialized-country contexts, policy and practice has tended not to focus on groups or communities as agents of change (Pretty, 2003). In some contexts, this has meant that locallevel institutions have been undermined to the point that they no longer monitor, regulate and protect local resource bases. In India, the loss of management systems for common property resources has been a critical factor in the increased overexploitation, poor maintenance and physical degradation observed over the past half century. Jodha’s (1990) now classic study of 82 villages in seven states found that only 10% of villages still regulated grazing or provided watchmen compared with the 1950s; none levied grazing taxes or had penalties for violating of local regulations; and only 16% still obliged users to maintain and repair common resources. Elsewhere in India, private ownership or the operation of surface and groundwater use for irrigation has generally replaced collective systems (Kothari et al., 1998). The future for both natural resources and the many rural households that rely on them is bleak in the absence of these disappearing institutional structures. Where access to resources is marginally regulated or not at all, the likelihood of ‘freeriding’ increases, as does the likelihood that the resource will be exploited unsustainably. Underregulated resources tend to be economically undervalued. A key reason for this is that the resource becomes non-exclusionary, with users unable to restrict other users from access. Under such circumstances, ‘tragedy of the commons’ scenarios arise, and the sustainability of the resource cannot be assured.
Testing nonlinear convergence in Malaysia,1965-2003

The purpose of the present paper is to examine income convergence in Malaysia by using the nonlinear unit root test due to Kapetanios et al. (KSS, 2003) and extended by Chong et al. (CHLL, 2008) to permit the test of long-run convergence and catching-up hypotheses. We apply the KSS-CHLL nonlinear unit root for the test of nonlinear convergence between thirteen states with respect to Wilayah Persekutuan (the riches state) of Malaysia for the period 1965 to 2003. Generally, our results suggest that out of the thirteen states, only Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Perlis and Selangor support the long-run convergence hypothesis while Johor, Kelantan, Melaka, Pahang and Penang suggest catching-up. Lastly, Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu indicate income divergence from Wilayah Persekutuan.
International coordination over emissions and R&D expenditures: What does oil scarcity change?

In this paper, we studied the problem of international coordination in climate policy using three state-variables (oil marginal extraction cost, pollution and knowledge), two asymmetric countries and a differential game. We used a Monte Carlo procedure to obtain an insight into the behaviour of the model. We discutes the importance of R&D in international agreements and the impact of economic growth in developing countries.
Landau-Zener problem with waiting at the minimum gap and related quench dynamics of a many-body system

We discuss a technique for solving the Landau-Zener (LZ) problem of finding the probability of excitation in a two-level system. The idea of time reversal for the Schrodinger equation is employed to obtain the state reached at the final time and hence the excitation probability. Using this method, which can reproduce the well-known expression for the LZ transition probability, we solve a variant of the LZ problem, which involves waiting at the minimum gap for a time t(w); we find an exact expression for the excitation probability as a function of t(w). We provide numerical results to support our analytical expressions. We then discuss the problem of waiting at the quantum critical point of a many-body system and calculate the residual energy generated by the time-dependent Hamiltonian. Finally, we discuss possible experimental realizations of this work.
When are Purely Predictive Models Best?

Abstract Can purely predictive models be useful in investigating causal systems? I argue “yes”. Moreover, in many cases not only are they useful, they are essential. The alternative is to stick to models or mechanisms drawn from well-understood theory. But a necessary condition for explanation is empirical success, and in many cases in social and field sciences such success can only be achieved by purely predictive models, not by ones drawn from theory. Alas, the attempt to use theory to achieve explanation or insight without empirical success therefore fails, leaving us with the worst of both worlds—neither prediction nor explanation. Best go with empirical success by any means necessary. I support these methodological claims via case studies of two impressive feats of predictive modelling: opinion polling of political elections, and weather forecasting.
Reliability prediction for the vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and passive safety systems (PSS)

Article history: Received 18 July 2012 Received in revised format 14 August 2012 Accepted August 15 2012 Available online 15 August 2012 The human error has been reported as a major root cause in road accidents in today’s world. The human as a driver in road vehicles composed of human, mechanical and electrical components is constantly exposed to changing surroundings (e.g., road conditions, environment)which deteriorate the driver’s capacities leading to a potential accident. The auto industries and transportation authorities have realized that similar to other complex and safety sensitive transportation systems, the road vehicles need to rely on both advanced technologies (i.e., Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)) and Passive Safety Systems (PSS) (e.g.,, seatbelts, airbags) in order to mitigate the risk of accidents and casualties. In this study, the advantages and disadvantages of ADAS as active safety systems as well as passive safety systems in road vehicles have been discussed. Also, this study proposes models that analyze the interactions between human as a driver and ADAS Warning and Crash Avoidance Systems and PSS in the design of vehicles. Thereafter, the mathematical models have been developed to make reliability prediction at any given time on the road transportation for vehicles equipped with ADAS and PSS. Finally, the implications of this study in the improvement of vehicle designs and prevention of casualties are discussed. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Financial constraints: Are there differences between manufacturing and services?

This paper is the first to explicitly explore the differences in firms' financial constraints between and within sectors of economic activity, by estimating the sensitivities of cash holdings to cash-flow upon an unique dataset of Portuguese firms. It shows that, not only there are remarkable differences between sectors and, especially, industries, but most importantly, that the commonly accepted inverse relationships between financial constraints and size and age are not robust to sectorial disaggregation.
High Inflation, Hyperinflation and Explosive Roots. The Case of Yugoslavia.

The focus is on ’explosive root VAR’ modelling of money, prices, wages, and exchange rates applied to the Jugoslav high inflation/hyperinflation transition period from a centrally planned economy to a more market oriented economy. The I(2) model, which has previously been used to estimate the Cagan model for hyperinflation, is shown to yield incorrect inference when there are explosive roots in the data. The paper develops an econometric framework for the empirical analysis of hyperinflationary episodes and illustrates the importance of exploiting the system dynamics of all the variables in the system for a full understanding of the hyperinflationary mechanisms. The empirical results suggest that excessive nominal wage claims, inflationary expectations and the rate of currency depreciation were the main causes to the Yugoslav hyperinflation rather than the financing of government debt by money printing.
The Effect of Bad‐Faith Laws on First‐Party Insurance Claims Decisions

This study sets forth the legal distinctions among bad‐faith laws and provides a theoretical foundation for our hypotheses that bad‐faith laws affect both economic and noneconomic damage amounts. We use data that include information about uninsured and underinsured “closed claims”—that is, claims that have either been settled or been paid or closed after trial—under automobile policies from over 60 insurance companies in 38 jurisdictions in 1992. While controlling for multiple other factors that are expected to be associated with the size of settlement payments, we exploit differences in state laws that govern insurer bad faith to examine empirically whether bad‐faith remedies affect the size of settlement payments and the allocation of settlement payments between economic and noneconomic damages. We find a positive correlation between the existence of a bad‐faith remedy and higher settlement payments. This correlation exists for both economic and noneconomic damages.
How music creates emotion: a multifactorial process approach

In this chapter we propose an integrated framework that links the perception and cognition of music to the production of emotion by means of psychobiological pathways recruiting various subsystems of the central and autonomous nervous systems. These pathways (which we call routes) are Appraisal, Memory, Entrainment, Empathy, and Contagion, and they permit to describe the nature and substrate of a wide variety of emotional responses to music. We focus on music characteristics, more precisely the musical structure and performance variables, as the determinant factors of emotional indication, while considering a variety of possible modulatory effects related to listener characteristics and states, the performer, and the listening context.
A many-body perturbation theory approach to the electron-phonon interaction with density-functional theory as a starting point

The electron-phonon interaction plays a crucial role in many fields of physics and chemistry. Nevertheless, its actual calculation by means of modern many-body perturbation theory is weakened by the use of model Hamiltonians that are based on parameters difficult to extract from the experiments. Such shortcoming can be bypassed by using density-functional theory to evaluate the electron-phonon scattering amplitudes, phonon frequencies and electronic bare energies. In this work, we discuss how a consistent many-body diagrammatic expansion can be constructed on top of density-functional theory. In that context, the role played by screening and self-consistency when all the components of the electron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions are taken into account is paramount. A way to avoid over-screening is notably presented. Finally, we derive cancellations rules as well as internal consistency constraints in order to draw a clear, sound and practical scheme to merge many-body perturbation and density-functional theory.
Efficient Algorithms for Stream Compaction on GPUs 2 Background and Related Work

Stream compaction, also known as stream filtering or selection, produces a smaller output array which contains the indices of the only wanted elements from the input array for further processing. With the tremendous amount of data elements to be filtered, the performance of selection is of great concern. Recently, modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been increasingly used to accelerate the execution of massively large, data parallel applications. In this paper, we designed and implemented two new algorithms for stream compaction on GPU. The first algorithm, which can preserve the relative order of the input elements, uses a multi-level prefix-sum approach. The second algorithm, which is non-order-preserving, is based the hybrid use of the prefix-sum and the atomics approaches. We compared their performance with other parallel selection algorithms on the current generation of NVIDIA GPUs. The experimental results show that both algorithms run faster than Thrust, an open-source parallel algorithms library. Furthermore, the hybrid method performs the best among all existing selection algorithms on GPU and can be two orders of magnitude faster than the sequential selection on CPU, especially when the data size is large.
Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film

Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Structured Absence and Token Presence Chapter 2. Bad Blood: Fear of Racial Contamination Chapter 3. The Black Body: Figures of Distortion Chapter 4. Humans Unite! Race, Class, and Postindustrial Aliens Chapter 5. White Narratives, Black Allegories Chapter 6. Subverting the Genre: The Mothership Connection Notes Bibliography Index
A dynamic electro-thermal model for the IGBT

A physics-based dynamic electrothermal model is developed for the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) by coupling a temperature-dependent IGBT electrical model with dynamic thermal models for the IGBT silicon chip, packages, and heatsinks. The temperature-dependent IGBT electrical model describes the instantaneous electrical behavior in terms of the instantaneous temperature of the IGBT silicon chip surface. The thermal models determine the evolution of the temperature distribution within the thermal network and thus the instantaneous value of the silicon chip surface temperature used by the electrical model. The model is implemented in the Saber circuit simulator. The IGBT dynamic electrothermal model and the thermal network component models are verified for the range of temperature and power dissipation levels (heating rates) that are important for power electronic systems. <<ETX>>
Uniform energy and density distribution: diblock copolymers' functional

We study a nonlocal variational problem arising in diblock copolymers models, whose energy is given by the Cahn‐Hilliard functional plus a long-range interaction term. We prove that minimizers develop uniform energy and density distributions, thus justifying partially the highly regular microphase separation observed in diblock copolymers’ melts. We also give a new proof of the scaling law for the minimum energy. This work extends the techniques introduced in [1] where analogous results are proved for the sharp interface limit of the functional considered.
A Hierarchical Possibilistic Clustering

In this paper we propose to combine two clustering approaches, namely fuzzy and possibilistic c-means. While fuzzy c-means algorithm finds suitable clusters for groups of data points, obtained memberships of data, however, encounters a major deficiency caused by misinterpretation of membership values of data points. Therefore, membership values cannot correctly interpret compatibility or degree to which data points belong to clusters. As a result, noisy data will be misinterpreted by incorrect memberships assigned, as sum of memberships of each noisy data to all clusters is constrained to be equal to 1. To overcome this, a possibilistic approach has been proposed which removes this constraint. It has, however, caused another shortcoming as cluster centers converge to an identical point. Therefore, possibilities cannot correctly interpret the degrees of compatibilities. To correct this problem, a number of works have been carried out which all try to change possibilistic objective function proposed by Krishnapuram and James M. Keller. In this work, a hierarchical approach has been proposed based on properties of both fuzzy and possibilistic approaches to overcome this deficiency. Sensitivities of both methods have been studied together with analyzing results obtained by both methods. Superiority of the proposed method as opposed to conventional possibilistic c-means is shown to be conspicuous.