Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information-Based Neighborhood Modeling

4 Part I: Introduction, Problem Statement, Hypothesis.5 Introduction.5 Information Overload, Recommender Systems, and the Cold-Start Problem.6 Ackoff’s Definition of Data and Information.8 Hypothesis.9 Part II: Literature Review.9 Background Information.9 Content-Based Recommender Systems.9 Collaborative Filtering.10 Hybrid Systems.18 Time-Based Collaborative Filtering.19 Trust-Based Collaborative Filtering.20 Vector Space Modeling, Fuzzy Linguistic Modeling, and Other Novel Approaches to CF.22 The Cold-Start Problem.24 Part III: Information-Based Neighborhood Modeling.26 Part IV: Experimental Analysis.33 Offline Testing.34 Online Testing.34 Use-Case Scenario Testing.34 Evaluating the Information-Based Neighborhood Model.34 INFORMATION-BASED NEIGHBORHOOD MODELING 3 Procedure.35 List of Accuracy and Performance Tests.35 Single Element with User-Based Orientation.36 Two Elements with User-Based Orientation.37 Three Elements with User-Based Orientation.37 Details of User Information.37 Testing Under Cold-Start Conditions.38 System Setup and Limitations.39 Part V: Results.40 Accuracy Test Results.41 Cold-Start Test Results.48 Part VI: Discussion.65 Part VII: Conclusion.69 Part VIII: Future Work.69 References.71 Appendix A.74 Appendix B.76 Appendix C.90 Appendix D.104 INFORMATION-BASED NEIGHBORHOOD MODELING 4 Abstract Since the inception of the World Wide Web, the amount of data present on websites and internet infrastructure has grown exponentially that researchers continuously develop new and more efficient ways of sorting and presenting information to end-users. Particular websites, such as ecommerce websites, filter data with the help of recommender systems. Over the years, methods have been developed to improve recommender accuracy, yet developers face a problem when new items or users enter the system. With little to no information on user or item preferences,Since the inception of the World Wide Web, the amount of data present on websites and internet infrastructure has grown exponentially that researchers continuously develop new and more efficient ways of sorting and presenting information to end-users. Particular websites, such as ecommerce websites, filter data with the help of recommender systems. Over the years, methods have been developed to improve recommender accuracy, yet developers face a problem when new items or users enter the system. With little to no information on user or item preferences, recommender systems struggle generating accurate predictions. This is the cold-start problem. Ackoff defines information as data structured around answers to the question words: what, where, when, who and how many. This paper explores how Ackoff’s definition of information might improve accuracy and alleviate cold-start conditions when applied to the neighborhood model of collaborative filtering (Ackoff, 1989, p. 3).
Stochastic Generation of Daily Spatial Rainfall for Regional Flood Risk Assessment

Spatial rainfall is a key input into models that simulate flood behaviour at regional scale. Stochastic rainfall data provide alternative realisations that are equally likely to have occurred, and are often used to drive hydrologic models to quantify uncertainty in environmental systems associated with climatic variability. This paper describes the development and testing of a stochastic daily spatial rainfall generation approach which comprises two components. Daily temporal rainfalls in two meso-scale square regions are first generated using a bi-variate first-order transition probability matrix model. The spatial rainfall in each region is then disaggregated using a modified non-homogeneous random cascade model that utilises scaling invariance features in the historical rain field. The models are parameterised using 100 years of daily grided rainfall data across the Gippsland Lakes region in southeast Australia. The approach is used to generate 20 replicates of 100-year daily concurrent catchment average rainfall time series for the six major catchments in the region. The generated stochastic rainfalls are evaluated by comparing key spatial and temporal statistics with those in the historical data. The results indicate that the approach is suitable for regional flood risk assessment, although the simulated 1-day and 3-day rainfall AEP (annual exceedence probability) are slightly underestimated, while the simulated rainfall correlations between catchments are mostly higher than the observed spatial correlations. The main limitations of the approach are the absence of space-time correlation of rain fields on consecutive days, and problems in simulating the clustering (i.e. spatial correlation) of daily rain field during extreme storm events, both of which would require significant research to overcome.
International Business Cycle Transmissions and News Shocks

This paper examines how news shocks affect the business cycle comovements across countries. In the context of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with GHH preferences, I use Bayesian estimation on data for the U.S. and Mexico from 1950 to 2010. The results show that there is evidence of comovements of business cycles across the two countries. While including news shocks appear to overestimate the aggregate fluctuations, it explains the across-country comovements better than the standard covariance matrix model. It implies that news shocks as a channel of business cycle transmissions deserves further investigation, possibly through modifications on the model and expanding estimations to other country pairs.
Are antitrust fines excessive to the detriment of the companies concerned and consumers in general ?

As competition law gained more prominence over the last 10 years in South Africa, the levels of antitrust fines imposed on companies that were found in violation of competition law have also substantially increased. South African competition law, like most competition law across different jurisdictions, generally provides for sanctions (including financial penalties) to be imposed on companies that infringe the laws primarily as a deterrence mechanism. As record fines are continuously imposed on companies, questions start to arise regarding the impact of such levels of fines on the financial and/or economic viability of the companies concerned and to consumer welfare in general as companies recover the fines through charging higher prices post imposition of the fines. This paper addresses two general beliefs about fines, that is, (1) high fines lead to the bankruptcy of the companies in question, and (2) post imposition fines lead to higher prices to the detriment of consumers. This paper discusses the theory on the welfare effects of anticompetitive conduct using cartel conduct as an example, the role of fines in deterring companies from such conduct, and contemporary arguments on the effect of fines on the economic viability of the companies concerned and on consumer welfare particularly relating to price levels post imposition of the fine. The paper then uses Tiger Brands and Pioneer Foods as case studies for assessing the effects of antitrust fines on company viability and/or consumer welfare through higher prices post imposition. 1 The authors are economists at the Competition Commission. All views expressed in this paper are strictly those of the authors and should not be construed as reflecting the views of the Competition Commission or any of its divisions. We are indebted to Dr. Simon Roberts, Avias Ngwenya, Yongama Njisane, Raksha Darji and Sunel Grimbeek for some very useful comments and to Hardin Ratshisusu for his input during the initial work from which the idea to write this paper originated.
Internet Appendix for “ Implications of Return Predictability for Consumption Dynamics and Asset Pricing ”

1. Stock returns: Return data on the value-market index are obtained from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) at the University of Chicago. We use the NYSE/Amex value-weighted index with dividends as our market proxy, Rt+1. Quarterly returns are constructed by compounding their monthly counterparts. The h-horizon return is calculated as Rt+h = exp(rt,t+h) = exp(rt+1 + . . .+ rt+h) where rt+j = ln(Rt+j) is the 1-period log stock return between dates t+ j − 1 and t+ j and Rt+j is the simple gross return. 2. Portfolio returns: With regard to value portfolios, we form quintiles and use the returns on the High, Medium, and Low portfolios. We measure value using three alternative signals, which gives us a total of nine portfolios. The first measure of value is standard, and it is based on the ratio of the book value to the market value of equity, as in Fama and French (1992). Book values are observed each June and refer to the previous fiscal year-end in December to ensure data availability to investors at the time of portfolio formation. The most recent market values are used to compute the ratios following Asness and Frazzini (2013). Consistent with previous literature, we exclude financial firms: a
LEAD SHEET GENERATION AND ARRANGEMENT VIA A HYBRID GENERATIVE MODEL

Due to the popularity of using lead sheets and MIDIs to store symbolic music data, many existing models for symbolic music generation aim to generate lead sheets or multitrack pianorolls. In this demo paper, we bring up a new task called lead sheet arrangement to bridge the gap between this two data formats. Specifically, we present a new hybrid model that exploits harmonic features from unpaired lead sheets and MIDIs to learn to add arrangement to a lead sheet. Our model can generate lead sheets and their arrangements of eight-bar long.
Salmonella Senftenberg Infections and Fennel Seed Tea , Serbia

1. Perry RD, Fetherston JD. Yersinia pestis— etiologic agent of plague. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1997;10:35–66. 2. Drancourt M, Houhamdi L, Raoult D. Yersinia pestis as a telluric, human ectoparasite–borne organism. Lancet Infect Dis. 2006;6:234–41. DOI: 10.1016/S14733099(06)70438-8 3. Blanc G, Baltazard M. Recherches expérimentales sur la peste. L’infection du pou de l’homme, Pediculus corporis de Geer. CR Acad Sci. 1941;213:849–51. 4. Houhamdi L, Lepidi H, Drancourt M, Raoult D. Experimental model to evaluate the human body louse as a vector of plague. J Infect Dis. 2006;194:1589–96. DOI: 10.1086/508995 5. Drancourt M, Signoli M, La Vu D, Bizot B, Roux V, Tzortzis S, et al. Yersinia pestis Orientalis in remains of ancient plague patients. Emerg Infect Dis. 2007;13:332–3. DOI: 10.3201/eid1302.060197 6. Buckland PC, Sadler JP. A biogeography of the human fl ea, Pulux irritans L. (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae). J Biogeogr. 1989;16:115–20. DOI: 10.2307/2845085 7. Lorange EA, Race BL, Sebbane F, Hinnebusch JB. Poor vector competence of fl eas and the evolution of hypervirulence in Yersinia pestis. J Infect Dis. 2005;191:1907–12. DOI: 10.1086/429931 8. Foucault C, Ranque S, Badiaga S, Rovery C, Raoult D, Brouqui P. Oral ivermectin in the treatment of body lice. J Infect Dis. 2006;193:474–6. DOI: 10.1086/499279 9. Devignat R. Variétés de l’espèce Pasteurella pestis. Nouvelle hypothèse. Bull OMS. 1951;4:247–63. 10. Guiyoule A, Grimont F, Iteman I, Grimont PA, Lefévre M, Carniel E. Plague pandemics investigated by ribotyping of Yersinia pestis strains. J Clin Microbiol. 1994;32:634–41. Address for correspondence: Michel Drancourt, Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, Unité de Mixte de Recherche, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que, 6236 – Institut de Recherche et de Développement 198, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Blvd Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille Cedex 5, France; email: michel.drancourt@univmed.fr
Stockholm University Linnaeus Center on Social Policy and Family Dynamics in Europe, SPaDE Parental Wealth and First-time Homeownership: A Cohort Study of Family Background and Young Adults’ Housing Situation

This paper investigates (1) whether a cohort effect can be found in the tenure decision of young adults and (2) whether parental wealth seems to influence first-time homeownership and (3) if this influence seems to be of greater importance in time periods when it can be argued that young adults have had difficulties in having access to housing. On basis of the result from this study we may conclude that there is a cohort effect in the tenure decision and young adults‟ first time homeownership. A significant change between the cohorts is that parental wealth as well as young adults‟ earnings capacity have become increasingly more important during time periods when young adults have faced increasing difficulties, not only in becoming established on the housing market but also in financing the purchase of a house suitable as a family residence.
BIROn-Birkbeck Institutional Research Online Johnson, Mark H. and Senju, Atsushi and Tomalski, Przemyslaw (2015) The two-process theory of face processing: modifications based on two decades

Johnson and Morton (1991. Biology and Cognitive Development: The Case of Face Recognition. Blackwell, Oxford) used Gabriel Horn’s work on the filial imprinting model to inspire a two-process theory of the development of face processing in humans. In this paper we review evidence accrued over the past two decades from infants and adults, and from other primates, that informs this two-process model. While work with newborns and infants has been broadly consistent with predictions from the model, further refinements and questions have been raised. With regard to adults, we discuss more recent evidence on the extension of the model to eye contact detection, and to subcortical face processing, reviewing functional imaging and patient studies. We conclude with discussion of outstanding caveats and future directions of research in this field. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Scientific Communication Allelopathic influence of Ipomoea batatas ( L . ) Lam . commercial clone ' CEMSA 78-354 ' on weeds

1 Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas (UCLV), Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Camajuaní Road km 6 1⁄2 Santa Clara.VC. Cuba. 54 830. 2 Agrobiothenology Center. Fitozoo Group. Emiliano Zapata 10, Int. 3. 59430. Texcoco, Mexico State. 56220. 3 Superior School Studies Xalostoc, Cuautla. Mor. Autonomous University of Morelos, Street Nicolas, Bravo s/n, Industrial Park, Cuautla, Xalostoc, Ayala, Morelos, Mexico. 62740.
Sustaining quality, nutrient uptake and soil fertility through integrated nutrient management in food-forage cropping system.

A field experiment was carried out at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana for five consecutive years (2005-06 to 2009-10) to find out the effect of integrated nutrient management (INM) on quality, nutrient uptake and soil fertility in mung (Phaseolus aureus)-oats (Avena sativa) fodderbajra (Pennisetum glaucum)+cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) fodder cropping system. The highest crude protein (28.3 q/ha) and lowest crude fiber (78.4 q/ha) were observed with 100 per cent RDF in all the crops. The highest total N uptake (466.4 kg/ha) of the cropping system was also recorded with 75 per cent RDF+25 per cent N through FYM as compared to 453.4 kg/ha with 50 per cent RDF+50 per cent N through FYM and 438.5 kg/ha with 100 per cent RDF. At the end of two years’ cropping system, the soil organic carbon, available N, P and K decreased in control, maintained in inorganic fertilizer treatments and improved in INM treatments. The highest values were observed with 50 per cent RDF+50 per cent FYM closely followed by 75 per cent RDF+25 per cent FYM.
A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM APPROACH TO ANALYZING FINANCIAL STABILITY IN COLOMBIA

Central banks have achieved positive results for inflation during the last two decades. At the same time, their concern for financial stability has increased, particularly after the late nineties, when they experienced the high costs that come with financial crisis.1 Moreover, it now seems clear that, under extreme circumstances, financial stability can pose a constraint to the normal operation of monetary policy (See Vargas et al., (32006)).
Local distribution patterns of harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones) in a Northern temperate Biosphere Reserve landscape: influence of orientation and soil richness

The study at a local scale of the fauna in a natural mountain landscape provides insights regarding the patterns and the factors influencing distribution. We test if each type of natural forest and some open habitats in the Muniellos Biosphere Reserve have their own unique harvestmen assemblages. We further investigate the presence of groups of sites sharing harvestmen assemblages and the factors and indicator species involved. Nineteen sites with well-known phytosociological association were sampled during nine surveys from late 2001 to 2002 by means of three sampling protocols. The quality of the inventories was assessed via the corresponding species accumulation curves. The cluster analysis using the Bray Curtis similarity index showed the presence of two main distinct groups of sites. One group consisted of seven lower forest sites, while the second group contained samples from more open sites and lighter forests. IndVal analyses show the first group has six characteristic species and the second group has one. ANOSIM analyses revealed that the harvestmen community composition was significantly different between the two clusters. Orientation appears to be one main driver of harvestmen assemblages on Mount Muniellos: a clear distinction between the two clusters appears along the boundary of shady to sunny habitats. The vegetal associations that house the higher harvestmen species richness have the higher soil richness. Seven rare and infrequent species were found in forests with richer soil.
Risk assessment using a generalized Pareto-based bivariate model

In hydrology, one often has to study the joint probabilistic behavior of two or more variables characterizing a water system. A model constructed from generalized-Pareto-distributed (GPD) marginals is presented in the present paper to study the relation between two variables, The GPD model is the most popular one used in the ‘Peaks-Ove~-Threshold’(POT) approach for studying hydrological extremes, and is also applicable in the ‘Dejicit-Below-Threshold’ (DBT) approach for modeling low extremes. The bivariate model presented herein, allows for risk assessments and calculations associated with each hydrological variable separately, with one variable conditioned by the other, or with both variables taken together, It will be used to model the joint distribution of the duration (XJ and the peak discharge above a threshold (X2) of a real flood series derived from hydrometric data of the Little Southwest Miramichi River, in New Brunswick, Canada.
Devanagari Words using Recurrent Neural Network : A Review

Handwritten Word Recognition is an important problem of Pattern Recognition. In India, more than 300 million people use Devanagari script for documentation. There has been a significant improvement in the research related to the recognition of printed as well as handwritten Devanagari text in the past few years. Though Devanagari is the script for Hindi, which is the official language of India, its character and word recognition pose great challenges due to large variety of symbols and their proximity in appearance. Offline handwritten recognition system for Devanagari words is still in developing stage and becoming challenging due to the large complexity involvement. The difficulty of segmenting overlapping characters, combined with the need to exploit surrounding context, has led to low recognition rates for even the best current recognizers. Most recent progress in the field has been made either through improved pre-processing or through advances in language modelling. Recurrent neural networks, specifically designed for sequence labelling tasks where the data is hard to segment and contains long-range bidirectional interdependencies. In addition, to demonstrate the network’s robustness to lexicon size, measure the individual influence of its hidden layers, and analyse its use of context. Keywords—Devanagari script, Offline handwritten recognition, Online handwritten recognition, Recurrent Neural Network
Title Evidence-based effect size estimation : An illustration using the case of acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue

Background: Estimating a realistic effect size is an important issue in the planning of clinical studies of complementary and alternative medicine therapies. When a minimally important difference is not available, researchers may estimate effect size using the published literature. This evidence-based effect size estimation may be used to produce a range of empirically-informed effect size and consequent sample size estimates. We provide an illustration of deriving plausible effect size ranges for a study of acupuncture in the relief of post-chemotherapy fatigue in breast cancer patients. Methods: A PubMed search identified three uncontrolled studies reporting the effect of acupuncture in relieving fatigue. A separate search identified five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a wait-list control of breast cancer patients receiving standard care that reported data on fatigue. We use these published data to produce best, average, and worst-case effect size estimates and related sample size estimates for a trial of acupuncture in the relief of cancer-related fatigue relative to a wait-list control receiving standard care. Results: Use of evidence-based effect size estimation to calculate sample size requirements for a study of acupuncture in relieving fatigue in breast cancer survivors relative to a wait-list control receiving standard care suggests that an adequately-powered phase III randomized controlled trial comprised of two arms would require at least 101 subjects (52 per arm) if a strong effect is assumed for acupuncture and 235 (118 per arm) if a moderate effect is assumed. Conclusion: Evidence-based effect size estimation helps justify assumptions in light of empirical evidence and can lead to more realistic sample size calculations, an outcome that would be of great benefit for the field of complementary and alternative medicine. Background In their content analysis of all scientific reviews of grant applications submitted by the Community Clinical Oncology Program for clinical trials of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to the National Cancer Institute, Buchanan and colleagues (p. 6685) indicated that one of the five major concerns raised by reviewers has been "justifying the anticipated effect sizes used to determine sample size. "[1] With regards to published research studies, meta-analytic and systematic reviews regularly point to sample size as a troubling issue. [2] Often, the treatment effects are positive and non-trivial in size, but Published: 13 January 2009 BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2009, 9:1 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-9-1 Received: 18 June 2008 Accepted: 13 January 2009 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1472-6882/9/1 © 2009 Johnston et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
BookBuddy: Turning Digital Materials Into Interactive Foreign Language Lessons Through a Voice Chatbot

Digitization of education has brought a tremendous amount of online materials that are potentially useful for language learners to practice their reading skills. However, these digital materials rarely help with conversational practice, a key component of foreign language learning. Leveraging recent advances in chatbot technologies, we developed BookBuddy, a scalable virtual reading companion that can turn any reading material into an interactive conversation-based English lesson. We piloted our virtual tutor with five 6-year-old native Chinese-speaking children currently learning English. Preliminary results suggest that children enjoyed speaking English with our virtual tutoring chatbot and were highly engaged during the interaction.