Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paper 3768-2019 Zero-Inflated and Zero-Truncated Count Data Models with the NLMIXED Procedure

SAS/STAT® and SAS/ETS® software have several procedures for analyzing count data based on the Poisson distribution or the negative binomial distribution with a quadratic variance function (NB-2). Count data may either have an excess number of zeros (inflation) or the situation where zero is not an outcome (truncation). Zero-inflated Poisson and negative binomial models are available with the COUNTREG, GENMOD, and FMM procedures. The FMM procedure also provides options for the zero-truncated Poisson and negative binomial distributions. Other types of count data models include the restricted and unrestricted generalized Poisson, negative binomial with a linear variance function (NB-1), and Poisson-Inverse Gaussian (P-IG) and likewise may be subject to zero-inflation or zerotruncation. Programming statements entered into the NLMIXED procedure in SAS/STAT® can model zero-inflated and zero-truncated count data with these distributions and may improve model fit which can be examined with the Vuong test or by comparing various fit statistics.
Rebudgeting in Italian Municipalities : Magnitude and Drivers

Traditionally, the literature has focused on the annual budgetary process. Much less attention has been paid to rebudgeting, that is, what governments do to revise and update their budgets during the financial year. Because of its potentially large impact on appropriations, we feel that rebudgeting deserves more attention than it has been granted so far. Our paper uses data from a sample of Italian Municipalities to test some hypotheses on the main drivers for budget revisions. According to our results, rebudgeting is strongly affected by the degree of incrementalism in the initial budgeting process, as well as by several internal and external determinants such as political variables, organisational features, financial conditions, and the local socio-economic environment, appearing to be an important complement of the initial budget
Evolving principles underlying neural lineage conversion and their relevance for biomedical translation

Scientific and technological advances of the past decade have shed light on the mechanisms underlying cell fate acquisition, including its transcriptional and epigenetic regulation during embryonic development. This knowledge has enabled us to purposefully engineer cell fates in vitro by manipulating expression levels of lineage-instructing transcription factors. Here, we review the state of the art in the cell programming field with a focus on the derivation of neural cells. We reflect on what we know about the mechanisms underlying fate changes in general and on the degree of epigenetic remodeling conveyed by the distinct reprogramming and direct conversion strategies available. Moreover, we discuss the implications of residual epigenetic memory for biomedical applications such as disease modeling and neuroregeneration. Finally, we cover recent developments approaching cell fate conversion in the living brain and define questions which need to be addressed before cell programming can become an integral part of translational medicine.
1-2013 Narrative versus Nonnarrative : The Role of Identification , Transportation and Emotion in Reducing Health Disparities

This research empirically tests whether using a fictional narrative produces a greater impact on health-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intention than presenting the identical information in a more traditional, nonfiction, non-narrative format. European American, Mexican American, and African American women (N = 758) were surveyed before and after viewing either a narrative or non-narrative cervical cancer-related film. The narrative was more effective in increasing cervical cancer-related knowledge and attitudes. Moreover, in response to the narrative featuring Latinas, Mexican Americans were most transported, identified most with the characters, and experienced the strongest emotions. Regressions revealed that transportation, identification with specific characters, and emotion each contributed to shifts in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Thus, narrative formats may provide a valuable tool in reducing health disparities.
Manure Processing Technologies 3 . 7 Hydrothermal Liquefaction

3.7 Hydrothermal Liquefaction | Page 1 What Is Hydrothermal Liquefaction? Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), which is also referred to as hydropyrolysis, is a thermochemical conversion (TCC) process in which high temperatures and pressures are used to decompose complex organic material, including biomass. HTL is one of a family of thermochemical conversion processes, including pyrolysis, gasification and torrefaction, all of which use heat to chemically decompose organic material.
Personalizing crowdsourced human-robot interaction through curiosity-driven learning

Learning human-robot interaction logic from crowdsourced data is a promising approach for generating robot behaviors, but behaviors learned only from offline data can sometimes become predictable and “robotic”. For example, a shopkeeper robot might always perform the same action when repeatedly encountering the same interaction state, resulting in monotonous, boring interactions for a customer. In order to maintain engagement as a robot interacts repeatedly with a user over the long term, it is important to adapt its behavior to that user. We developed a robot whose behavior is driven by curiosity, which first learns high-level dialog and spatial behavior patterns from offline examples of human-human interaction. Then, during live interactions, it chooses among appropriate actions according to its curiosity about the customer’s expected behavior, continually updating its predictive model to learn and adapt to each individual. We present a case study where the curious robot adapts to an engaged and unengaged customer, tailoring its actions in real time in order to explore and satisfy its curiosity about the customers’ individual differences. Keywords– Data-driven social interaction; curiosity-based learning
The Impact of Reform Projects in Higher Education: The Case of Egypt

Egypt has been engaged in a major system-wide reform of its higher education system over the past decade based on a dynamic long-term strategic reform plan that caters for, and is adaptable to, any changes as needs arise. The outcomes of the implementation efforts made by all concerned stakeholders involved in the reform process is starting to pay back and flourish, influencing the overall performance of Egyptian higher education institutions. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the Egyptian higher education reform initiative the first phase of which has been ongoing for the past six years, focusing on the efforts made to measure the impact of the reform projects, individually and collectively, at different levels. A review of the three phases of piloting, developing and implementing the impact assessment framework is presented. A review of one of the pilot projects developed and implemented in one of the Egyptian Public Universities to measure its impact, is presented and discussed. The assignment for this pilot project was further extended to develop an impact assessment framework for universities and higher education institutions to use as a guide to implement it in their own institutions. Results of the impact assessment studies conducted by the seventeen public universities based on this framework are also reviewed and discussed. In addition, the World Bank has selected the Higher Education Enhancement Project (HEEP), as one of its most successful projects implemented worldwide, as stipulated in their biannual project performance assessment reports (Aide Mémoire), to develop for the first time what they call a learning ICR (Implementation Completion Report) in which impact assessment is a mandatory portion. Preliminary results of the ICR impact assessment studies conducted by the Projects management Unit (PMU) at the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in collaboration with the World Bank on a pilot scale applied to three public universities selected to establish baseline data for the second phase of reform, is also reviewed and discussed. Lessons drawn from implementing the overall Higher Education Reform Strategy (HERS), together with those drawn from the impact assessment studies are followed by concluding remarks. 1 Professor of Applied Mechanics, Mechanical Design & Production Department, Faculty of Engineering – Cairo University, Giza Egypt; Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science & Technology, London University, UK (1976); and the Executive Director of the Projects Management Unit (PMU), Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Cairo – Egypt. saidme@eun.eg.
REMINERALIZATION EFFECT OF FLUORIDE VARNISH CONTAINING CASEIN PHOSPHOPEPTIDE AMORPHOUS CALCIUM PHOSPHATE ON CARIES-LIKE LESIONS IN PRIMARY TEETH (IN VITRO STUDY)

INTRODUCTION: Fluoride containing casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) varnishes are now available as (MI Varnish). It has an effect on the remineralization process of demineralized enamel, since it has the highest release of calcium and fluoride ions. OBJECTIVES: To study the remineralizing effect of fluoride varnish containing casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate (MI varnish) on the remineralization of caries-like lesions in primary teeth compared to sodium fluoride varnish. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four freshly extracted primary maxillary incisors with standardized 4x4 windows were immersed in demineralizing solution for four days. Teeth were divided into two groups, group I (n=12 teeth); MI varnish and group II (n=12 teeth); Prevident varnish. They were sectioned into two halves in a buccolingual direction (48 specimens). One half was treated with the remineralizing agent and the other half remained untreated and served as its control. Specimens were assigned into subgroup I A (MI varnish) n=12 specimens, subgroup I B (untreated) n=12 specimens, subgroup II A (Prevident varnish) n=12 specimens and subgroup II B (untreated) n=12 specimens. Specimens were subjected to pH cycling for ten days. The specimens were evaluated quantitatively using energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer (EDX). RESULTS: MI varnish treated specimens (subgroup I A) showed significant high mean Ca, Ca/P ratio than the untreated specimens. Also, Prevident varnish treated specimens showed significant high mean Ca, Ca/P ratio than the untreated specimens. Median percent change of Ca/P ratio of MI varnish treated specimens was significantly higher than Prevident varnish treated specimens. CONCLUSIONS: Fluoride varnish containing CPP-ACP has a higher remineralization potential of the caries-like lesion in primary teeth in comparison to sodium fluoride varnish.
2 Efficient Decision Making : Fundamentals 2 . 1 Simplified Decision Problems

In this work, we introduce a new approach for the efficient solution of autonomous decision and planning problems, with a special focus on decision making under uncertainty and belief space planning (BSP) in high-dimensional state spaces. Usually, to solve the decision problem, we identify the optimal action, according to some objective function. Instead, we claim that we can sometimes generate and solve an analogous yet simplified decision problem, which can be solved more efficiently. Furthermore, a wise simplification method can lead to the same action selection, or one for which the maximal loss can be guaranteed. This simplification is separated from the state inference, and does not compromise its accuracy, as the selected action would finally be applied on the original state. At first, we develop the concept for general decision problems, and provide a theoretical framework of definitions to allow a coherent discussion. We then practically apply these ideas to BSP problems, in which the problem is simplified by considering a sparse approximation of the initial belief. The scalable sparsification algorithm we provide is able to yield solutions which are guaranteed to be consistent with the original problem. We demonstrate the benefits of the approach in the solution of a highly realistic active-SLAM problem, and manage to significantly reduce computation time, with practically no loss in the quality of solution. This rigorous and fundamental work is conceptually novel, and holds numerous possible extensions.
One Sense Per Discourse for Synonym Detection

In this paper, we present a new methodology for synonym detection based on the combination of global and local distributional similarities of pairs of words. The methodology is evaluated on the noun space of the 50 multiple-choice synonym questions taken from the ESL and reaches 91.30% accuracy using a conditional probabilistic model associated with the cosine similarity measure.
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Guillaume Verdon, 2, 3 Michael Broughton, and Jacob Biamonte Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 2Y5, Canada Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada Deep Quantum Laboratory, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143026, Russia
REAL TIME VEHICLE LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION USING MY RIO KIT

In today’s era security and safety becomes the most important things. Automatic number plate recognition used in many field like parking area, access control, traffic control, tolling etc. Here in this paper an efficient approach to recognize the license plate of vehicle is presented. LabView is used as a basic software and National Instruments myRIO board is used as a hardware module. For image processing vision development module (VDM) and vision acquisition software (VAS) is used. Image segmentation and basic morphological image processing is used to localize the plate region. Here the color image is convert in binary image. The grayscale image is converted into binary thorough Niblack thresholding. After that doing erosion and applying particle filter the final ROI is visible. Finally filling the holes of image and masking with original image gets exact license plate region. Optical character recognition (OCR) is used to read the characters from image. OCR is built in tool available in LabView. The Microsoft LifeCam HD camera is interfaced with myRIO board. The LCD is interfaced to show the output license plate number.
2 Direct comparison between tissue Doppler imaging and velocity-encoded magnetic resonance imaging for the assessment of performance and temporal activation of the right ventricle in corrected tetralogy of Fallot patients

Materials and Methods: Local institutional review board approval was obtained, and patients or their parents gave informed consent. Thirty-three patients (20 male, 13 female; median age 12 years (11-15) [inter-quartile range]; range 8-18 years) and 19 controls (12 male, 7 female, median age 14 years (12-16), range 8-18 years) underwent VE-MRI and TDI. Peak systolic velocity and time to peak systolic velocity (expressed as percentage of cardiac cycle) were assessed at the RV free wall (RVFW) and RV outflow tract (RVOT). Data were analyzed using linear regression, paired and unpaired tests and Bland-Altman plots.
Assessment of Preterm Infants ’ Behavior ( APB ) : Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Behavioral Constructs ELSAJ

Confirmatory analysis was used to specify behavioral domains from results of the Assessment for Preterm Infants’ Behavior (APIB). The APIB measures both task performance and quality of performance, which theoretically improves the possibility of discriminating infant functional capacity beyond that obtained by measuring task perfomusnce exclusively. We hypothesized that the APIB measures six behavioral domains, including overall modulation of behavior, availability for examination, motor competency, sociability, habituation, and reactivity. The subjects were a medically heterogeneous group of 145 infants who required neonatal intensive care. Data from 157 behavioral and 41 reflex items, out of a possible 280 items, were used. The model was highly acceptable by several practical indices of lit (Bentler-Bonett Nomted Fit Index = ,994; Bentler-Bonett NOMO~IW~ Fit Index = .999; Comparative Fit Index = 999). The six behavioral constructs am clinically understandable and parsimonious with respect to the behavioral measures included. The results suggest that prerequisites for social interaction of infants requiring neonatal intensive care inciude both overall modulation and availability, which are unique and distinct from each other and from motor competency and habituation.
A Automated text analysis : Extracting data on political ideology in popular books

A Automated text analysis: Extracting data on political ideology in popular books 3 A.1 Textual sources . 3 A.2 Selection of books into the Google N-gram corpus . 4 A.3 Textual pre-processing of Hebrew words . 8 A.4 Generating a comprehensive dataset of political phrases in Israeli books . 9 A.5 Mapping phrases to the ideology of political parties . 9 A.6 Measuring phrases’ yearly frequency in Google N-gram . 10 A.7 Summary statistics . 13
The Big Idea : The New M & A Playbook

hen a CEO wants to boost corporate performance or jump-start long-term growth, the thought of acquiring another company can be extraordinarily seductive. Indeed, companies spend more than $2 trillion on acquisitions every year. Yet study after study puts the failure rate of mergers and acquisitions somewhere between 70% and 90%. A lot of researchers have tried to explain those abysmal statistics, usually by analyzing the attributes of deals that worked and those that didn’t. What’s lacking, we believe, is a robust theory that identifies the causes of those successes and failures.
On Spectrum of unperturbed Second Derivative Operator

from ) ( 2 2 R W vanishing in a neighborhood of the point n x  is explained in [5] and they using Bloch's theorem in their work. In [2] they described periodic one dimensional Schrödinger operators, with the property that the widths of the forbidden gaps increase and the gap to band ratio is not Small. Such systems can be realized by periodic array of geometric scatterers. In [4] They show that the spectrum of the generalized kroingBenny model has always infinitely many gaps.
Exploring algorithms for finding low-stretch spanning trees

The performance of the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm to find low-stretch spanning trees is analyzed on a special family of graphs. The construction of this graph family is described in the report, and we show that it is possible to force a group of edges to be removed with high probability. On this graph family, running the RRT algorithm gives a spanning tree with one group of edges that has expected stretch O(nc), c < 1. Adding multi-edges to the graph will lead to a counter example for the RRT algorithm because there exists at least one graph family such that running the RRT algorithm on this graph family gives a spanning tree of average stretch O(nc). Several ways to modify the algorithm are proposed. The idea of using random walk in the algorithm was proposed in Fall 2017 and a generalization of a random-walk step is investigated in this project. However, experimental evidence shows that a generalized random walk version of Rapidly-exploring Random Tree algorithm does not give trees with average stretch lower than O(log n). Another idea for changing the RRT algorithm by sampling vertices based on weighted degree also does not give trees with low average stretch. We also present another modified version of the RRT algorithm that may lead to a promising approach to find low-stretch trees. The new algorithm relies on the interpretation of graphs as systems of resistors or as flow networks, and the Laplacian of the graph is used to determine the sampling distribution on vertices.
THE ROLE OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INTEGRATION ON THE MANUFACTURING FIRM REACTION TO SUPPLY RELATED PROBLEMS

Lack of functional integration, as well as weak integration with direct suppliers, may result in ineffective processes for a manufacturing firm. Considering supplies of critical parts, internal integration of functional areas such as purchasing and operations unifies the firm position about supply related problems. In addition to that, external integration with direct suppliers delivering these parts, have an important role to mitigate the impact of supply problems on the firm business. Thus, when purchasing and operations, as well as direct suppliers, are in the same page concerning a supply problem, chances are better for a more effective problemsolving process and consequently, for more satisfied customers inside and outside the firm. Based on a multi-case study, we explore conditionings of internal integration between purchasing and operations in situations of potential supply problems in four North-American manufacturing companies. Interview data suggest that internal as well external integration may have a critical role on the manufacturing firm reaction to supply related problems.
LigniOx lignins – High performance concrete plasticizers and versatile dispersants

A simple and economic alkali-O2 oxidation (LigniOx) process has been developed for the production of concrete plasticizers and versatile dispersants from technical lignins. Previously, soda and kraft lignin based LigniOx lignins have been shown to have great potential to serve the traditional lignosulfonate markets, and to compete even with more expensive synthetic products. Here, the latest results of successful use of kraft, organosolv and hydrolysis lignin based LigniOx solutions for mortar plasticization in comparison to several commercial lignosulfonates and synthetic superplasticizers are presented. To widen the range of applications of LigniOx lignins, high performance for dispersing of special carbon black into aqueous solutions, used e.g. in paints, inks and various coatings is demonstrated.
Neural sequence models as automata computations

In recent years, neural network architectures for sequence modeling have been applied with great success to a variety of NLP tasks. What neural networks provide in performance, however, they lack in interpretability and theoretical motivation. This work attempts to explain the types of computation that neural models are able to perform by relating neural architectures to automata-theoretic classes from classical theoretical computer science. My first contribution is to develop a notion of what it means for a real-time, finiteprecision neural network to accept a language. A measure of the effective memory capacity for neural networks models follows from this definition. This can be used to derive upper bounds on the generative capacity of any neural network. I also further characterize the classes of languages acceptable by LSTMs, ConvNets, and other architecture by relating them to automata. In particular, I prove that the LSTMs have equivalent generative capacity to counter machines, and the convolutional networks sit somewhere in the subregular hierarchy. Overall, this work attempts to increase our understanding and ability to interpret neural network models through the lens of theory. The theoretical insights I develop help us understand neural network computation, as well as the relationships between neural networks and natural language grammar.