Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obama’s 2012 Facebook Campaign: Political Communication in the Age of the Like Button

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of social media in contemporary political communication, focusing on Barack Obama’s Facebook campaign in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election. Although there is a growing body of literature on online forms of participation, little research exists on the role of social buttons on Facebook (like, comment, and share) as tools of political voice. We use these native interactive features as indicators of how citizens engage with particular political messages. A content analysis of posts published on Obama’s official Facebook page over the two months leading up to Election Day was conducted, along with a detailed measurement of all user interactions for each post. Our analysis indicates that the Obama campaign used Facebook as a tool of top-down promotion, focusing on Obama’s personality and as a means of strategically guiding followers to act, rather than as a means of bottom-up empowerment or hybridized coproduction. However, we also found that followers engaged selectively with campaign messages and often interacted more with policy-oriented posts than with promotional ones.
Geometry-aware metropolis light transport

Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) rendering utilizes a sequence of correlated path samples which is obtained by iteratively mutating the current state to the next. The efficiency of MCMC rendering depends on how well the mutation strategy is designed to adapt to the local structure of the state space. We present a novel MCMC rendering method that automatically adapts the step sizes of the mutations to the geometry of the rendered scene. Our geometry-aware path space perturbation largely avoids tentative samples with zero contribution due to occlusion. Our method limits the mutation step size by estimating the maximum opening angle of a cone, centered around a segment of a light transport path, where no geometry obstructs visibility. This geometry-aware mutation increases the acceptance rates, while not degrading the sampling quality. As this cone estimation introduces a considerable overhead if done naively, to make our approach efficient, we discuss and analyze fast approximate methods for cone angle estimation which utilize the acceleration structure already present for the ray-geometry intersection. Our new approach, integrated into the framework of Metropolis light transport, can achieve results with lower error and less artifact in equal time compared to current path space mutation techniques.
IMPACTS OF A PROGNOSTICS AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ON AIRCRAFT FLEET OPERATING COST DURING CONCEPTUAL DESIGN PHASE BY USING PARAMETRIC ESTIMATION

The scope of the study is to analyse the operating cost of an aircraft fleet, during conceptual design phase, when installing a Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) system. Part of the work is devoted to the process and related methodologies aimed at estimating the cost and the fleet operative behaviour in a very preliminary phase of the product life cycle. The cost estimation is carried out using a commercial and proprietary parametric cost estimation software in order to quantify the impact of a PHM system in terms of additional costs related to the installation of the new system (i.e. PHM system) and the benefits due to its use. These benefits are related to the reduction of maintenance hours necessary to carry out hard structural inspection and to the increment of aircraft availability. To correctly estimate the impact of these benefits, a fleet simulation model, which employs Monte Carlo methodology, has been developed within this research
An improvement to Global Tractography Using Anatomical Priors

Tractography is a visualization technique which reconstructs and models neural fibers in the white matter of the brain based on data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. It is already used locally to model parts of dominant fiber pathways but global methods are also emerging which aim to reconstruct all the brain fibers simultaneously. In this thesis we have attempted to improve the current state of the art of Global Tractography by introducing three principles: * Anatomical Priors * Introduction of fiber weights * Reduced complexity Our approach uses an optimization method based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Simulated annealing in order to fit a set of plausible initial fiber trajectories to a dataset acquired by diffusion MRI. Our method was compared to the state of the art global tractography method known as the Gibbs Tracker in a phantom study using conventional global tractography evaluation methods. In a second test, we also try the method on an in-vivo dataset of a human brain and derive the connectivity matrix with corresponding network parameters. Our approach showed considerable improvements in decreasing the amount of wrong fibers and reduced computational time. However the method still struggles to eliminate certain false but plausible connections. To remedy this, several improvements to the MCMC sampler are suggested for future work.
Testing species boundaries in Pardosa sierra (Araneae: Lycosidae) using female morphology and COI mtDNA

Abstract The wolf spider Pardosa sierra was described and illustrated by Banks in 1898 based on specimens from the Sierra de la Laguna, Baja California Sur. Later, two morphologically similar species, P. atromedia Banks 1904 from Claremont, California, and P. sura Chamberlin & Ivie 1941, also from California, were described. However, the latter two species were subsequently synonymized with P. sierra, due to similarities in male genitalia. In this study we test the species limits within this group. We suggest that the details of the epigynum are different enough among the genitalic morphs studied to consider them different species as originally designated. We conducted a morphological and genetic-distance analysis of a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences of some species of lapidicina group, as well as some sequences of Pardosa astrigera L. Koch 1878 from the GenBank database. Genetic analysis revealed greater genetic distances (GD) among haplotypes of P. sierra, P. atromedia, and P. sura (GD = 0.053–0.069) than with other species of the lapidicina group. Moreover, P. sierra was closest to P. sura (GD = 0.053), P. sura was closest to P. vadosa Barnes 1959 (GD = 0.040), and P. atromedia was closest to P. steva Barnes 1959 (GD = 0.052). Overall, morphological and genetic differences, and disjoint distributions, suggest that the synonymy of P. sierra, P. atromedia, and P. sura was in error, and that these “morphs” do indeed represent different species.
Imaging performance of a prototype scanned-slot digital mammography system

A prototype of a clinical scanned-slot digital mammography imaging system has been developed, which demonstrates better contrast sensitivity and latitude than current state-of-the- art film-screen mammography systems. The detector consists of a Gd2O2S:Tb phosphor screen coupled via a 2-to-1 demagnifying fiber-optic taper to two time-delay integration (TDI) charge-coupled device (CCD) image arrays. Images are obtained by scanning the 4.0 mm wide by 21 cm long detector across the image field. An 18 cm by 21 cm image contains 2900 by 4032 pixels, of dimension 62 micrometers X 52 micrometers at the detector. Currently, images are produced in 7.8 seconds using a 40 kV tungsten-target spectrum with a total heat load of 50 kJ, giving a mean glandular dose of 0.85 mGy (85 mrad) to a 5 cm thick 50% glandular, 50% adipose breast. The detector has a limiting resolution of 9.5 lp/mm. A clinical version of this prototype, which incorporates several improvements, is being constructed.
The Effect of Clil Method on Teaching Reading Comprehension to Junior High School Students

This study investigated the effect of CLIL (i.e., content and language integrated learning) on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. 60 students of junior high school in the age of 12 to 14 years who attended language institutions were selected non-randomly. They took part in Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) test to determine their level of proficiency. Based on their scores in the placement test, the students were divided into two groups: High and low achievers. Then they took a pre-test of reading comprehension. Depending on their scores in the pretest, the high level and the low level groups were divided into two subgroups of experimental and control. The experimental groups of high and low achievers were taught through CLIL and the control groups of high and low achievers were taught through intensive reading. After ten sessions of treatment, they took a post-test of reading comprehension. Data were analyzed to compare the high and low achievers with each other to examine the effectiveness of CLIL method through Independent Samples t-test. The findings showed a significant difference between the pre and post-test of high and low achievers. Implications of CLIL method could be influential for both high and low achievers in reading comprehension courses.
Multithermal-Multibaric Molecular Simulations from a Variational Principle.

We present a method for performing multithermal-multibaric molecular dynamics simulations that sample entire regions of the temperature-pressure (TP) phase diagram. The method uses a variational principle [Valsson and Parrinello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 090601 (2014)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.113. 090601] in order to construct a bias that leads to a uniform sampling in energy and volume. The intervals of temperature and pressure are taken as inputs and the relevant energy and volume regions are determined on the fly. In this way the method guarantees adequate statistics for the chosen TP region. We show that our multithermal-multibaric simulations can be used to calculate all static physical quantities for all temperatures and pressures in the targeted region of the TP plane. We illustrate our approach by studying the density anomaly of TIP4P/ice water.
A phylogeny of Urophylleae (Rubiaceae) based on rps16 intron data

This is the first study of phylogenetic relationships within the pantropical group Urophylleae. Previous studies have included few representatives from this group and little is known about its phylogeny. Here we use sequence data from the rps16 intron to address the question where the four genera Temnopteryx, Pentaloncha, Pleiocarpidia, and Poecilocalyx, which have sometimes been classified in this group, belong. By using different outgroups we show that there is conflict regarding the resolution among lineages in Rubioideae, which partly affects the support for relationships within Urophylleae. Urophylleae is shown to consist of two sister groups, one consisting of Old World taxa and one smaller including the New World genera Amphidasya and Raritebe, and as sister of these two groups the African monotypic genus Temnopteryx. Pentaloncha, Pleiocarpidia, and Poecilocalyx all belong in the large Old World clade, which only comprises taxa included in the original circumscription of Urophylleae. Relationships within this group are not completely resolved, but Poecilocalyx is found to be the sister of Stelechantha, and Pleiocarpidia to be the sister of Urophyllum leucophleum. Urophyllum is paraphyletic as it seems to include Maschalocorymbus, Pleiocarpidia, Praravinia, and Pravinaria. It is not clear from the present analysis whether Pauridiantha is monophyletic or not.
Single batch machine scheduling with deliveries

We consider the problem of scheduling a set of n jobs on a single batch machine, where several jobs can be processed simultaneously. Each job j has a processing time pj and a size sj. All jobs are available for processing at time 0. The batch machine has a capacity D. Several jobs can be batched together and processed simultaneously, provided that the total size of the jobs in the batch does not exceed D. The processing time of a batch is the largest processing time among all jobs in the batch. There is a single vehicle available for delivery of the finished products to the customer, and the vehicle has capacity K. We assume that K = rD, where r ≥ 2 and r is an integer. The travel time of the vehicle is T; that is, T is the time from the manufacturer to the customer. Our goal is to find a schedule of the jobs and a delivery plan so that the service span is minimized, where the service span is the time that the last job is delivered to the customer. We show that if the jobs have identical sizes, then we can find a schedule and delivery plan in O ( n log n ) time such that the service span is minimum. If the jobs have identical processing times, then we can find a schedule and delivery plan in O ( n log n ) time such that the service span is asymptotically at most 11/9 times the optimal service span. When the jobs have arbitrary processing times and arbitrary sizes, then we can find a schedule and delivery plan in O ( n log n ) time such that the service span is asymptotically at most twice the optimal service span. We also derive upper bounds of the absolute worst‐case ratios in both cases. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 470–482, 2015
Linear Convergence Analysis for General Proximal Point Algorithms Involving (H,η)- Mo notonicity Frameworks

Se desarrolla un marco general para el algoritmo de punto proximal generalizado, basado en la nocion de (H,r)- monotonia. Se examina el analisis de convergencia lineal para el algoritmo de punto proximal generalizado en el contexto de la resolucion de una clase de inclusiones no lineales variacional. Los resultados obtenidos generalizan y unifican una amplia gama de problemas en el contexto de lograr la convergencia lineal de los algoritmos punto proximal.
Cooperative neural networks (CoNN): Exploiting prior independence structure for improved classification

We propose a new approach, called cooperative neural networks (CoNN), which use a set of cooperatively trained neural networks to capture latent representations that exploit prior given independence structure. The model is more flexible than traditional graphical models based on exponential family distributions, but incorporates more domain specific prior structure than traditional deep networks or variational autoencoders. The framework is very general and can be used to exploit the independence structure of any graphical model. We illustrate the technique by showing that we can transfer the independence structure of the popular Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to a cooperative neural network, CoNN-sLDA. Empirical evaluation of CoNN-sLDA on supervised text classification tasks demonstrate that the theoretical advantages of prior independence structure can be realized in practice - we demonstrate a 23 percent reduction in error on the challenging MultiSent data set compared to state-of-the-art.
Analyzing the Efficacy of Phosphate Solubilizing Microorganisms by Enrichment Culture Techniques

Phosphate solubilizing microorganisms (PSMs) were isolated from rhizoplane, rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere of different leguminous plants. To isolate efficient phosphate solubilizers the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil samples were enriched with different phosphate sources like tricalcium and rock phosphate. PSMs were detected in all the regions, but their number gradually decreased from rhizosphere, rhizoplane and non-rhizosphere soil. When compared to fungal population, bacterial population was more in number. Tephrosia purpurea recorded the highest bacterial population of 30.15 × 106 cfu/g, 50.51 × 106 cfu/g and 21.10 × 106 cfu/g in the rhizoplane, rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere regions respectively. In enrichment culture technique, highest phosphate solubilizing bacterial population was recorded in the rhizosphere soil of Clitoria ternatea (23 × 103 cfu/g) in tricalcium phosphate containing Pikovskaya’s (PVK) medium. In a plate assay method solubilization zone diameter produced by microorganisms was varied from 0.2 cm to 1.0 cm. The phosphate solubilization ability of the isolated microorganisms in a liquid PVK medium varied from 11.85 mg to 61.96 mg P2O5. The medium turned acidic during the incubation period. The pH varied among the organisms from the initial 6.5 to the final 3.2 during 15 days of incubation. Citric acid, fumaric acid, gluconic acid, glutaric acid, glyoxalic acid, ketobutyric acid, ketoglutaric acid, malic acid, malonic acid, succinic acid and tartaric acid are produced by the isolated PSMs. Seed or soil inoculation with phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) is known to improve solubilization of fixed and applied phosphates in soil bring about higher crop yield. The PSM are effective as biofertilizers in enhancing crop yields in phosphate deficient soils. They are environmentally friendly and supply phosphate to plants in a sustainable manner.
Enhanced quantum communication over Gaussian thermal loss channels using correlated multi-mode thermal states

Quantum capacity of a noisy quantum channel characterizes the channel's maximum achievable quantum communication rate (upon optimal quantum error correction or one-way entanglement distillation) and is equal to the regularized coherent information of the channel maximized over all input states. We consider Gaussian thermal loss channels which model loss and gain errors in realistic optical communication channels and microwave cavity modes. The best known lower bound of the quantum capacity of a Gaussian thermal loss channel is the channel's coherent information with respect to a single-mode thermal input state. Here, we provide an improved lower bound of the Gaussian thermal loss channel capacity. Specifically, we introduce a family of correlated multi-mode thermal states which can be efficiently generated by Gaussian Fourier transformation and two-mode squeezing operations. We then show that, in the high loss probability and low input energy regime, such correlated multi-mode thermal states yield larger achievable rates of Gaussian thermal loss channels than the corresponding single-mode thermal state subject to the same average photon number constraint.
Global solvability of the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation (DNLS) iqt = qxx ± (q*q2)x, <I = q(x,t), i = A77xr< ? *(z) _ Jffjt was first derived by plasma physicists (9, 10). This equation was used to in- terpret the propagation of circular polarized nonlinear Alfven waves in plasma. Kaup and Newell obtained the soliton solutions of DNLS in 1978 (5). The au- thor obtained the local solvability of DNLS in his dissertation (6). In this paper we obtain global existence (in time /) of Schwartz class solutions of DNLS if the Z.2-norm of the generic initial data q(x, 0) is bounded.
Sum-frequency generation in on-chip lithium niobate microdisk resonators

We report the first observation, to the best of our knowledge, of sum-frequency generation in on-chip lithium niobate microdisk resonators. The sum-frequency signal in the 780 nm band, distinct in wavelength from second-harmonic signals, was obtained in lithium niobate microresonators under the pump of two individual 1550 nm band lasers. The sum-frequency conversion efficiency was measured to be 1.4×10−7 mW−1. The dependence of the intensities of the nonlinear signals on the total pump power and the wavelength of one pump laser was investigated while fixing the wavelength of the other. This work paves the way for applications of on-chip lithium niobate microdisk resonators ranging from infrared single-photon detection to infrared spectroscopy.
Super- and subradiance of clock atoms in multimode optical waveguides

The transversely confined propagating modes of an optical fiber mediate virtually infinite range energy exchanges among atoms placed within their field, which adds to the inherent free space dipole–dipole coupling. Typically, the single atom free space decay rate largely surpasses the emission rate into the guided fiber modes. However, scaling up the atom number as well as the system size amounts to entering a collective emission regime, where fiber-induced superradiant spontaneous emission dominates over free space decay. We numerically study this super- and subradiant decay of highly excited atomic states for one or several transverse fiber modes as present in hollow core fibers. As particular excitation scenarios we compare the decay of a totally inverted state to the case of π/2 pulses applied transversely or along the fiber axis as in standard Ramsey or Rabi interferometry. While a mean field approach fails to correctly describe the initiation of superradiance, a second-order approximation accounting for pairwise atom–atom quantum correlations generally proves sufficient to reliably describe superradiance of ensembles from two to a few hundred particles. In contrast, a full account of subradiance requires the inclusion of all higher order quantum correlations. Considering multiple guided modes introduces a natural effective cut-off for the interaction range emerging from the dephasing of different fiber contributions.
Incidence and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Staphylococcus aureus amongst patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) in UBTH Benin City, Nigeria

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most widely spread human pathogen. Considering the havoc it causes on life and subsequently on the economy, it became necessary to determine its incidence and antibiogram in our environment for adequate control and treatment. Records of microbial cultures and antibiotic sensitivity test results of suspected cases of urinary tract infection (UTI) of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin City from January 1st to 31st December, 2005 were retrieved and statistically analyzed. Two thousand, one hundred and twelve (2,112) early morning mid-stream, urine samples were cultured and seven different microbial agents were isolated and identified. Staphylococuus aureus was found to be the most common organism isolated presenting 22.8%, closely followed by Klebsiella spp. (10.1%), Escherichia coli(8.2%), Proteus mirabilis (4.8%), Enteronacter spp. (4.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.0%) and Candida albican (1.0%). No growth was recorded in 46.6% of cultures. The occurrence of S. aureus was found to be significantly higher (65.8%) in females compared to males (34.2%) (P>0.05). 35% of cases were observed between the ages of 21 to 30 years and the majority were female (46.7%). The S. aureus strains were sensitive to augmentin (83%), oxfloxacin (75.9%), nitrofurantion (63.5%) and gentamycine (50.2%). S. aureus was found to be highly resistant to tetracycline (80.9%), naladixic acid (79.3%) and contrimoxazole (87.3%). It was observed that S. aureus, among other organisms isolated, is the leading cause of UTI in our environment. Augmentin and oxfloxacin could be the drug of choice in the treatment of S. aureus. Key words: Microbial agents, Staphylococcus aureus, significance level, resistance, urinary tract infection.