Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revealing animal spirits of the Euro Area Debt Crisis?

This paper examines the underlying market’s preferences for euro area debt crisis. It builds on the ‘basis’, the difference between the spread over swap and Credit Default Swap (CDS) for sovereign bonds. The sample covers those euro area Member States most at risk of default, namely Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. A generalised flexible, lin-lin and quad-quad, loss function is employed to reveal market’s preferences for the first time. Having uncovered market’s preferences the paper examines whether they have shifted over time and, in particular, post the initial Greek bail out in May 2010, but also the Private Sector Involvement (PSI) in 2012. Market’s appraisal of euro area debt crisis post Greek bail out points to the direction of serious misalignment in sovereign yields fuelled by growing pessimism and thus uncertainty. The paper also explores the impact of specific market characteristics and fiscal rules on preferences. Fiscal rules appear to improve market’s perception over fiscal sustainability, whilst the 3M Euribor and the outstanding debt to GDP also shape market’s preferences.
ADROIT: Detecting Spatio-Temporal Correlated Attack-Stages in IoT Networks

As IoT devices become increasingly deployed for personal as well as commercial purposes, the cyber threat landscape is also changing with recent years witnessing attacks with higher intensity and sophistication. Attacks consists of multiple stages, such that the individual attack-stages not only happen at different times but are also dispersed spatially across large number of IoT devices residing in multiple networks. These characteristics make it challenging to detect the attackstages using solutions that are localized in space and time. This work looks into the problem of detection of attack-stages in IoT networks. We develop Adroit, a system that correlates anomalies across different networks and different time-windows, using a scalable network architecture. In Adroit, network traffic of devices is processed locally to detect potential anomalous behavior. Alerts on the anomalies are regularly sent to a security manager residing in the cloud, which employs a well-known data mining approach, FIM, to extract attack patterns. Results from our preliminary experiments conducted using an OpenStack environment are encouraging — Adroit is able to detect attackstages with high accuracy while filtering out much of false alerts.
SOME ASPECTS OF THE BIOLOGY OF JOHNIEOPS SINA

Investigations on food and feeding of Johnieops sina indicated that it feeds mainly on penaeid prawns, Acetes spp. and fishes. Penaeid prawns were found to be its preferred food item. The spawning activity was observed throughout the year with two peaks in February and August, supported by prominent peaks of gonadosomatic index in the same months. The minimum size at first maturity for females was 153 mm. The absolute fecundity ranged from 28,495 to 135,346 eggs for the ovaries weighing 1.30 to 9.49 g.
The FG 2015 Kinship Verification in the Wild Evaluation

The aim of the Kinship Verification in the Wild Evaluation (held in conjunction with the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Ljubljana, Slovenia) was to evaluate different kinship verification algorithms. For this task, two datasets were made available and three possible experimental protocols (unsupervised, image-restricted, and image-unrestricted) were designed. Five institutions submitted their results to the evaluation: (i) Politecnico di Torino, Italy; (ii) LIRIS-University of Lyon, France; (iii) Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; (iv) Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China; and (v) Bar Ilan University, Israel. Most of the participants tackled the image-restricted challenge and experimental results demonstrated better kinship verification performance than the baseline methods provided by the organizers.
Phenomic analysis and cell wall remodulation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae flor strains in the presence of different nitrogen sources

Flor yeasts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are the main actors in the biological ageing of Sherry wines by developing an air-liquid biofilm, called velum at the surface of wine at the end of fermentation. The air-liquid biofilm occurs due to a complex mechanism which is similar to many microbial biofilms. The velum phenotype is mainly regulated by the expression of a highly O-glycosylated cell wall protein Flo11 which by turn contributes to the hydrophobicity and electrostatic charge of the cell wall which are crucial for unspecific interactions and adhesion capacity of yeasts. In this study we characterized the interactions of flor yeasts with a series of nitrogen compounds known for their hydrophobicity and/or charge. We find that, different flor yeast strains characterized by different degree of functional FLO11 are diversely affected in terms of biofilm formation and adhesion capacity when interact with different nitrogen sources. The positive role of the synthetic hexapeptide PAF26 in enhancing the biofilm formation was first discovered. On the contrary, cationic amino acids were able to inhibit biofilm formation and adhesion ability. Results together highlight on the involvement of the Flo11p in hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions and open to new investigations, addressed to the control of microbial adhesion and biofilm formation.
Assessing MOOCs Discussion Forums

With the recent popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), instructors of these courses now face the problem of having to choose from among the hundreds of posts from forums of their courses, who need more immediate response. In this thesis we use techniques from the (cid:28)elds of Sentiment Analysis and Natural Language Processing to classify / extract information from these posts, with the future goal of contributing to this choice. In a (cid:28)rst study, we developed a classi(cid:28)cation model that allows us to identify whether a message belongs to an instructor or student. The best F-measure (F1) results (80.76 % for student category and 80.38 % for instructor category) were obtained using unigrams as features and having used a stemmer on the posts. The second study aimed at implementing a classi(cid:28)er that detects the polarity of a post based on the polarity of their terms, as de(cid:28)ned in SenticNet lexicon. The best F-measure (F1) results were 74.6 % in the identi(cid:28)cation of positive terms beating the results of SentiStrength, and 38.3 % in the identi(cid:28)cation of negative terms. Finally, a third study identi(cid:28)ed the most frequently used expressions by instructors and students as well as the most common terms to the di(cid:27)erent and speci(cid:28)c courses. We concluded that there are in fact speci(cid:28)c expressions that could help in the identi(cid:28)cation of students and instructors as well as for the di(cid:27)erent courses.
Rapport Establishing Harmonious Relationships Between Robots and Humans

Autonomous agents are becoming our next companions. They may be able to oﬀer physical therapy assistance, play games and even help us treat weight loss. However, it is not enough to build agents that create strong ﬁrst impressions. They need to continuously convey such feelings and encourage user interactions, i.e., to build and maintain rapport over long periods of time. In order to manage rapport, agents need to show signs of positivity, mutual attention and co-ordination during, e.g., motivate, establish eye contact, and postural mimicry, respectively. Nowadays, social agents only tackle one of these components, and the ones that do are not robotic. For this purpose, we designed an extensible rapport model that enables robotic and virtual agents to show natural signs of rapport according to the dyadic state of the interaction. The model was implemented using the So-cially Expressive Robotics Architecture (SERA) ecosystem and tested using robot EMotive headY System (EMYS) on a novel scenario called Quick Numbers regarding likeability, intelligence, animacy, and proximity. There is no statistical signiﬁcance on the obtained results, however, from the video footage, we noticed that the participants manifested more positive reactions and emotions in the rapport condition, therefore, a sample higher than 20 might reveal the expected statistical results. Finally, researchers may integrate the rapport model on any SERA agent with low eﬀort.
Automatic Machine Translation in Broadcast News Domain

This paper describes the automatic translation system, from Portuguese into English, in broadcast news domain, developded in L 2 F, Laborat´orio de L´ıngua Falada , in INESC-ID. It presents a brief introduction about the stat of the art in automatic translation and describes the tools used during the construction of this system and all the experiences done. In the end of this paper a table resumes all this experiences, as well as the evolution of BLEU obtained values.
Consumer Products Using Triclosan as Antimicrobial Agent in the Tropical Environment: Safe or Unsafe?

The tropical environments of the world receive the highest solar radiation throughout the year with an average annual temperature of not less than 180°C. The use of triclosan as an antimicrobial agent in consumer products such as toothpastes, mouthwash, soaps, under arm deodorants, liquid dishwashing soap and household equipment like textiles materials, toys and plastic kitchenware in this environment exponentially increased over the last few decades and its ability to form low chlorinated dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans) on intense solar radiation and incineration has posed a great risk potential to human health and the aquatic environments. This article aimed to create awareness to the general public on the potentially associated risks of using Triclosan containing materials and its possible implications on human health and the aquatic environments. Humans and aquatic animals get in contact with triclosan through oral, dermal, inhalation and accidental ocular exposures. In many temperate developed countries like US, UK, Canada and Australia, risk assessments was conducted on triclosan and its associated risks to Human health and aquatic environment, despites its traces in human body fluids and aquatic animal tissues, it is concluded that triclosan entering the environment in a way that poses no threat to humanity and aquatic lives. This conclusion came up with lots of uncertainties and conservatism especially due to a lack of adequate data to fully characterize the exposure to triclosan for the representation of the general population, dose estimation and conversion of spot urine samples for all age groups, adequacy of the margin of exposure (MOEs) and spatial differences between places. Moreover, indepth research on triclosan and its potentialities to affect human health and the aquatic environment is strongly recommended especially in the developing tropical countries in order to create awareness to the general public.
EFFECT OF TOPICAL FLAVONOID FRACTION FROM ARTEMISIA ANNUA IN COMPARISON WITH TACROLIMUS ON INDUCED ATOPIC DERMATITIS IN MICE

Background:Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammation of skin disease that is characterized by recurrent acute pruritus and dry skin. Mostly, atopic dermatitis is predominant in young children. The problems of increasing prevalence and high impact of disease on quality of patients and family's life, necessities identifying many atopic dermatitis prevention planes. Objective:To determine the effect of Artemisia annua flavonoids fraction in comparison with tacrolimus in atopic dermatitis like mice model. Methods:This study is a prospective, randomized, placebo and controlled animal designed. Thirty-two male Albino mice that six weeks age included in this study. The mice were randomly divided into four groups. Group I without treatment (Healthy). Group II only inducer, phthalic anhydride used. Groups II, III, and IV subjected to phthalic anhydride solution, which was applied on the dorsum of the back skin at 9 A.M. three times a week for four weeks. After three hours of phthalic anhydride application, treatment is used for group III (Tacrolimus 0.03% ointment), and group IV (flavonoids fraction 1.2 mg /kg ointment) topically once daily at 12 P.M. for three times a week for four weeks). Serum IgE and immunohistochemistry of skin tissue IL-4 score, and IL-13 score were measured. Results:High significant decrease in immunohistochemistry of skin tissue IL-4, and IL-13 in flavonoid fraction group were found. Conclusion:The flavonoid fraction has an effect on the skin immunohistochemistry parameters and probably on atopic dermatitis like mice model. Keywords:Atopic dermatitis, Artemisia annua, flavonoids Citation:Hameed MF, Abu-Raghif AR, Kadhim EJ. Effect of topical flavonoid fraction from Artemisia annua in comparison with tacrolimus on induced atopic dermatitis in mice. Iraqi JMS. 2019; 17(3&4): 231-237. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.17. 3&4.10
Rel/NF-?B and I?B proteins: an overview

Rel/NF-kappa B proteins constitute a family of structurally-related transcription factors that are regulated by interaction with a family of regulatory proteins, the I kappa B proteins. In this review, we will familiarize the reader with the known Rel/NF-kappa B and I kappa B molecules, and will discuss the types of interactions that occur between these proteins to regulate their function. In addition, we will describe what is known about the structure of Rel/NF-kappa B transcription complexes on DNA. Lastly, we will discuss the wide variety of biological stimuli and conditions which activate NF-kappa B and the genes whose expression are regulated by this family of transcription factors.
Comparative Study for Data Hiding Method using RDH Algorithms

: Data Hiding is the process of hiding data in back of images or videos. The data hiding techniques mainly used in Military, Government and Medical Areas. Hiding process can be done in different types of algorithms. Mainly we are considering the RDH algorithm to hide the data. In this paper mainly focused on various works of Reversible data hiding algorithm and techniques.
Methods to Increase ITIL Adoption

—Besides the many beneﬁts Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) can provide to companies there is still lack of its adoption. The difﬁculty on its implementation lead companies to make mistakes and to abandon it. Critical Success Factors (CSFs), adoption models and road-map are representative of the increased effort to solve this problem, but they are still high-level solutions. Using Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), two methods that contribute to increase ITIL adoption through technology and evaluation, focused on people and processes, by improving the effects of two CSFs are proposed. To assess their relevance, these methods were demonstrated in two companies: one from the bank sector and the other from the Information Technology (IT) consulting area. Using ¨Osterle principles, critical analysis and Moody and Shanks quality framework, the methods were validated and evaluated, showing their effective potential to increase ITIL adoption.
GDPR Personal Files Scanner - Automatic classiﬁcation of ﬁles in accordance with the GDPR

—The General Data Protection Regulation [1] (GDPR) is the European regulation on the protection of natural persons with respect to the processing and free movement of personal ﬁles and was fully enforced in May 2018. According to chapter 2, article 5, paragraph 2 of the GDPR, controllers are accountable for all the life cycle of the personal data collected so far. The auditing and further accountability of the data transfer requires the development of tools that track document and data exchanges done by the various actors of the process. This thesis presents the ﬁrst system that automatically processes documents and determines if such documents contain information that can be considered personal in the light of the GDPR. It uses Decision Trees, complemented by a series of heuristics for the creation of feature vectors. To train the system a new data-set of documents was developed. These documents are either synthetic of real and represent various classes of documents that can contain personal information. The system was implemented using Weka, validated against real documents and integrated into a mail server and keeping track of ﬁle’s transference to USB drives. The algorithm achieves an accuracy of 83.3% and 87.4% on different sets of documents. The use this system, integrated into companies’ electronic communication infrastructures (mail server, document repositories) will help companies fulﬁll parts of the GDPR requirements, with respect to the control and traceability of the data transfers.
Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Model through Variational Inference

Dirichlet Mixture Model is a nonparametric model that can automatically infer the number of mixture components in data set. Currently, the most famous inference method is the one based on stick-breaking representation of Dirichlet Process and variational inference, which was (cid:12)rst proposed by Blei and Jordan in 2006 [1]. However, it misses lots of derivation details in the original paper and it does not provide any concrete example. One of important application of this model is to assume that each mixture component is a multivariate Gaussian. In this report, we provide a general background of Dirichlet Process and variational inference. Further, we re-construct all the missing derivation details in original paper with any necessary preliminaries. Finally, we apply the results to Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Model and compare it with the normal Gaussian Mixture Model.
Understand My Steps - Using Edge-bundling to Visualize GPS Tracks

—The number of devices capable of recording GPS data is growing, and so more people are interested in collecting and analysing their geospatial data. However, GPS analysis and visualization techniques are not simple and easy to use, specially when one needs to deal with large quantities of geospatial data. Time is a relevant parameter when analysing movement, and having it together with geospatial data in the same visualization is what we aimed for this work. We wanted to explore a solution to visualize sets of geospatial data featuring temporal information. In order to make it easier to analyse big amounts of GPS data, we developed and studied a set of prototypes as proof of concept of trajectories visualization, also presenting time, and using edge-bundling techniques. We also developed an algorithm to process collected GPS data and prepare it to be visualized. Weestablished that we wanted our prototypes to be able to show multiple trajectories, allowing to understand the start, end and intermediary points of each one, including points that different trajectories had in common, as well as presenting temporal information about each trajectory. Prototypes were tested with users and the results’ evaluation showed that users were able to use and understand information presented by the visualizations, hence, our goal to this work was achieved.
Synthetic Characters for Creative Child-Computer Interaction

Creativity is known as an ability that can be developed and improved. Since creative abilities are desired in most nowadays societies, it becomes important to develop activities that stimulate creativity at a very young age. It seems, however, there is a lack of tools to support creative activities for children. We present Cubus, a tool that uses autonomous synthetic characters to stimulate idea generation in groups of children during a storytelling activity. With Cubus, children can invent a story and use the stop-motion technique to create a movie depicting it. This work yielded a useful methodology that we consider can aid the design of tools which assist users in their task. This methodology consists in an iterative development where several user studies are carried out to inform and validate design choices during a tool’s different development stages. Additionally, a methodology to evaluate the different aspects of creativity is also presented and implemented during our creativity evaluation with Cubus. To evaluate how Cubus supports creativity, we investigated the number of ideas generated by groups of children during their creative process of creating and recording a story and the creativity of the product this process originated, a stop-motion movie. Results showed that the embodied synthetic characters with autonomous behavior of Cubus contributed to the generation of more ideas in children, a key aspect of creativity. Regarding the creative product, results suggest that Cubus agents’ autonomous behaviors were unable to influence children’s creative products, the stop-motion movies.
Brainiac: a Graph-Based Literature Visualization

Nowadays, users face the problem of too much information available. A user trying to research into a new topic will face a collection of context-specific documents, and exploring this collection may require knowledge on specific concepts that is only available with more experienced users. In this work, we address this problem, in the neuroscience context, creating a visualization, in collaboration with Instituto de Biofı́sica e Engenharia Biomédica (IBEB), that helps users analyzing a collection of documents, indicating documents that may be similar. The developed visualization has potential to help users in this context, by interacting with different views, it allows to combine a document search by similarity and by different topics. We conducted an evaluation, to measure the usability of the developed application, and its utility, to validate the data visualized. The results from the usability test were very good, with no obvious interface problem. Validation of the processed data also show good results, with room for improvement with some errors detected in text processing.
Quantifying Long-term Adjustment to Environmental Change: Evidence from the American Dust Bowl

This paper analyzes the impact of the 1930’s American Dust Bowl and, in particular, investigates how much the short-term costs from erosion were mitigated by long-term adjustments. Exploiting new data collected to identify low, medium, and high erosion counties, estimates indicate that the Dust Bowl led to substantial immediate decreases in agricultural land values and revenues. Until at least the 1950’s, however, there was limited reallocation of farmland away from activities that became relatively less productive due to erosion. Relative changes in agricultural land values and revenues indicate that the annualized long-term cost (in present discounted value) was 86% of the short-term cost to agriculture. Labor was reallocated, primarily through immediate migration and continued population declines into the 1950’s. Substantial migration reflects the large cost of the Dust Bowl, and was an important channel through which short-term costs were partly mitigated. JEL: J6, N32, N52, O1, Q1, Q5 ∗I thank my advisors Michael Greenstone, Esther Duflo, Daron Acemoglu, and Peter Temin. I also thank David Autor, Abhijit Banerjee, Geoff Cunfer, Joe Doyle, Greg Fischer, Price Fishback, Claudia Goldin, Raymond Guiteras, Gary Libecap, Bob Margo, Ben Olken, Paul Rhode, Claudia Rei, Cate Rosenthal, Tavneet Suri, Rob Townsend, John Wallis, and Noam Yuchtman for their comments, suggestions, and/or generosity with data. I am grateful to Lisa Sweeney, Daniel Sheehan, and the GIS Lab at MIT for their assistance with GIS software; as well as to Christopher Compean, Lillian Fine, Phoebe Holtzman, Paul Nikandrou, and Praveen Rathinavelu for their valuable research assistance. For supporting research expenses, I thank the MIT Schultz Fund, the World Economy Lab, and UROP program. hornbeck@mit.edu