Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variable selection techniques for the Cox proportional hazardsmodel: A comparative study

In statistics different models are used to emulate real world processes. Variable selection refers to reduction of the number of parameters in the models in order to increase interpretability and model effectiveness. This thesis investigates performance of different variable selection methods for Cox proportional hazards models such as; all subset selection, backward elimination, best subset selections and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. Data is simulated for 5 different models with coefficients reflecting large, moderate and small effects, with different sized data sets and simulations. The result are also partly compared to earlier reported results from Tibshirani (1997), Fan & Li (2002), Zhang & Lu (2007). Our findings indicate that the best subset selection methods is faster than all subset selection but slower than least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. On the other hand best subset selection provide more accurate results than least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. We have been unable to verify all of the results reported by Tibshirani (1997), Fan & Li (2002) and Zhang & Lu (2007) probably because difference in the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator’s tuning parameter.
Effects of Intermittent Ventilation during Ethylene Treatment and Storage Temperature on Peel Color of Soft‐Ripened 'Saijo' Persimmons (Diospyros kaki Thunb.)

To obtain soft-ripened persimmons ，‘ Saijo' persimmons (Diospyros kaki Thunb') were stored for several weeks at 0 oC ， treated with 100 or 20 ppm ethylene in sealed containers for 48 h at 20 oC ， and subsequently kept for 4 days at 10 0 C or 20 o C. During the ethylene treatmen t， the containers were left open for 1 h for ventilation ， and the effects of the frequency of ventilation on peel color were examined. The persimmons treated with 100 ppm ethylene with or without ventilation reached the soft-ripened stage after 4 days at 10 0 C or 20 o C. Ventilation during the 100 and 20 ppm ethylene treatments markedly improved peel color of persimmons soft-ripened at 20 o C. In summary ， ventilation during ethylene treatment improved peel color of persimmons soft-ripened after storage for 4 weeks at OoC.
Probing Majorana-like states in quantum dots and quantum rings

Engineering chiral $p$-wave superconductivity in semiconductor structures offers fascinating ways to obtain and study Majorana modes in a condensed matter context. Here, we theoretically investigate chiral $p$-wave superconductivity in quantum dots and quantum rings. Using both analytical as well as numerical methods, we calculate the quasiparticle excitation spectra in these structures and the corresponding excitation amplitudes and charge densities. In the topological regime, we can observe the chiral edge modes localized at the boundaries and possessing finite energy in quantum dots and quantum rings. By applying a magnetic field which is expelled from the quantum ring, but which creates a flux that is an odd integer multiple of $\Phi_0/2=\pi\hbar/e$, Majorana modes, that is, (approximately) degenerate edge modes with zero energy and zero charge density, become possible in the topological regime. Furthermore, we investigate finite-size effects that split these degenerate edge modes as well as the effect of a magnetic field penetrating into the superconducting region that can under certain circumstances still support edge modes with approximately zero energy and charge.
Spectra of late type stars from 4800 to 9000 Å

We present optical spectra of 21 stars from 4800 to 8920 A, covering essentially the late spectral types, G, K, M and the luminosity classes I and III. Half of the stars are super metal rich (SMR) ones. The spectra were obtained at a resolution of 1.25 A using the Aurelie spectrograph, equipped with a linear array CCD-like detector, attached to the OHP 1.52 m telescope. Also presented are the spectra of 7 stars, covering the region 5000 9783 Aa t ar esolution of 8.5A , observed at the CFHT with the Herzberg spectrograph. The spectral types are F, G, K, M and the luminosity classes III and V. Five stars are SMR. These spectra have been obtained with the aim of extending existing libraries used for population synthesis purposes. The inclusion of SMR stars in a stellar library dedicated to the study of stellar populations in the central part of galaxies is crucial as abundance gradients have been observed in the optical range.
Control of Phomopsis Blight of Egg Plant through Fertilizer and Fungicide Management

The experiments were conducted at Laboratory of the Department of Plant Pathology and in the farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh during Rabi season of the year 2007-2008. Four fungicides viz. Bavistin 50 WP (Carbendazim), Tilt 250 EC (Propiconazole), Cupravit 50 WP (Copperoxychloride) and Dithane M-45 (Mancozeb) and micronutrients (Gypsum, ZnO and Boric acid) were evaluated against Phomopsis vexans causing Phomopsis blight and fruit rot of eggplant. The fungicides and micronutrients either applied individually or in combination showed significant effect in terms of per cent leaf infection, fruit infection, leaf area diseased and fruit area diseased in comparison to control. Effect of each fungicide applied in combination with micronutrients always showed better performance in reducing disease incidence and disease severity than the fungicides applied alone. Among the fungicides, Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) proved to be effective arresting the spore germination and mycelia growth of Phomopsis vexans assayed in in vitro test. Reduction of leaf area diseased caused by Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) in combination with micronutrients were 58.17, 67.37, 78.41 and 85.25%, respectively at preflowering, post-flowering, fruiting and fruit ripening stages while Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) alone reduced by 52.22, 58.67, 74.19 and 83.09%, respectively at those stages. Similarly reduction of fruit area diseased caused by Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) in combination with micronutrients were 57.93 and 79.79%, respectively at fruiting and fruit ripening stages while Bavistin 50WP (0.1%) alone reduced by 56.93 and 76.14%, respectively at those stages. Micronutrients had little effect against the disease but significantly better than control. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 3 (1): 66-72, June, 2013 DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/ijarit.v3i1. 16095
Anticipation , Occurrence and Magnitude of Market Crashes by Patrick Leoni Discussion

We simulate a standard Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model to analyze the sensibility of market crashes to the anticipations of endowment drops. Contrary to the commonly accepted view that market crashes are solely driven by large drops in aggregate endowments, we observe in complete markets that: 1a large and subjective anticipation of an endowment drop amplifies the magnitude of the crash regardless of the level of risk-aversion, and 2there always exists an upper-bound on the maximal anticipation of the drop so that the crash magnitude remains constant regardless of the drop level. We thus establish that the occurrence and magnitude of a crash in complete markets depend on the anticipation level of the drop, regardless of how the anticipation is formed. JEL codes: G12, G14.
(n,2)-Axonometries and the Contour of Hyperspheres

The paper deals with special axonometric mappings of ann-dimensional euclidean space onto a plane … 0 . Such an (n;2)-axonometry is given by the im- age of a cartesian n-frame in … 0 and it is especially an isocline or orthographic axonometry, if the contour of a hypershere is a circle in … 0 . The paper discusses conditions under which the image of the cartesian n-frame deflnes an orthographic axonometry. Also a recursive construction of the hyper- sphere-contour in case of an arbitrary given oblique axonometry is presented.
Tight Analyses for Non-Smooth Stochastic Gradient Descent

Consider the problem of minimizing functions that are Lipschitz and strongly convex, but not necessarily differentiable. We prove that after $T$ steps of stochastic gradient descent, the error of the final iterate is $O(\log(T)/T)$ with high probability. We also construct a function from this class for which the error of the final iterate of deterministic gradient descent is $\Omega(\log(T)/T)$. This shows that the upper bound is tight and that, in this setting, the last iterate of stochastic gradient descent has the same general error rate (with high probability) as deterministic gradient descent. This resolves both open questions posed by Shamir (2012). An intermediate step of our analysis proves that the suffix averaging method achieves error $O(1/T)$ with high probability, which is optimal (for any first-order optimization method). This improves results of Rakhlin (2012) and Hazan and Kale (2014), both of which achieved error $O(1/T)$, but only in expectation, and achieved a high probability error bound of $O(\log \log(T)/T)$, which is suboptimal. We prove analogous results for functions that are Lipschitz and convex, but not necessarily strongly convex or differentiable. After $T$ steps of stochastic gradient descent, the error of the final iterate is $O(\log(T)/\sqrt{T})$ with high probability, and there exists a function for which the error of the final iterate of deterministic gradient descent is $\Omega(\log(T)/\sqrt{T})$.
BEHAVIOR OF NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION ON MODEL PILES IN MEDIUM- PLASTICITY SILT

THE MOBILIZATION OF NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION (DRAGDOWN) ON DEEP FOUNDATIONS CAN BE SO LARGE THAT EITHER FAILURE OR EXCESSIVE DEFORMATION OF THE STRUCTURE FOUNDED THEREON CAN OCCUR. YET LITTLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE DRAGDOWN PHENOMENON IS KNOWN. SINCE FULL-SCALE TESTING OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE LARGE NUMBER OF VARIABLES INVOLVED IS ECONOMICALLY PROHIBITIVE, A SIMULATED LABORATORY EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED. RESULTS OF NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION DISTRIBUTION WITH INCREASING SOIL DEFORMATION CONFIRM THE VALIDITY OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP. THE INFLUENCE OF PILE BATTER, PILE GROUP SPACING, SOIL-WATER CONTENT, AND PILE MATERIAL ON AVERAGE NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION IS INVESTIGATED. FROM THESE TEST SEQUENCES, GENERALIZED CONCLUSIONS ARE DRAWN. VARIOUS MEANS OF PREVENTING NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION FROM OCCURRING HAVE ALSO BEEN EXAMINED, AND THE USE OF ASPHALT COATINGS ON THE PILE IS SHOWN TO BE QUITE SUCCESSFUL. THE INFLUENCE OF ASPHALT COATING VISCOSITY AND THICKNESS ON AVERAGE NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION IS PRESENTED. THESE CURVES FORM THE BASIS FOR A DESIGN METHOD TO ELIMINATE THE MAJOR PORTION OF DRAGDOWN ON PILE FOUNDATIONS. /AUTHOR/
Effect of initial configuration on network-based recommendation

In this paper, based on a weighted object network, we propose a recommendation algorithm, which is sensitive to the configuration of initial resource distribution. Even under the simplest case with binary resource, the current algorithm has remarkably higher accuracy than the widely applied global ranking method and collaborative filtering. Furthermore, we introduce a free parameter β to regulate the initial configuration of resource. The numerical results indicate that decreasing the initial resource located on popular objects can further improve the algorithmic accuracy. More significantly, we argue that a better algorithm should simultaneously have higher accuracy and be more personal. According to a newly proposed measure about the degree of personalization, we demonstrate that a degree-dependent initial configuration can outperform the uniform case for both accuracy and personalization strength.
The Effects of Optimal Time of Day on Persuasion Processes in Older Adults

Past research demonstrates that the majority of older adults (60 years and older) perform resource-demanding tasks better in the morning than in the afternoon or evening. The authors ask whether this time-of-day effect also impacts persuasion processes performed under relatively high involvement. The data show that the attitudes of older adults are more strongly affected by an easy-to-process criterion, picturerelatedness, at their non-optimal time of day (afternoon) and by a more-difficult-to-process criterion, argument strength, at their optimal time of day (morning). In contrast, the attitudes of younger adults are affected primarily by argument strength at both their optimal (afternoon) and non-optimal (morning) times of day. Process-level evidence that accords with these results is provided. The results accentuate the need for matching marketing communications to the processing styles and abilities of older adults. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Mining Students’ Messages to Discover Problems Associated with Academic Learning

WhatsApp has become the preferred choice of students for sending messages in developing countries. Due to its privacy and the ability to create groups, students are able to express their “feelings” to peers without fear. To obtain immediate feedback on problems hindering effective learning, supervised learning algorithms were applied to mine the sentiments in WhatsApp group messages of University students. An ensemble classifier made up of Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machines, and Decision Trees outperformed the individual classifiers in predicting the mood of students with an accuracy of 0.76, 0.92 recall, 0.72 precision and 0.80 F-score. These results show that we can predict the mood and emotions of students towards academic learning from their private messages. The method is therefore proposed as one of the effective ways by which educational authorities can cost effectively monitor issues hindering students’ academic learning and by extension their academic progress. Keywords: WhatsApp; Sentiments; Ensemble; Classification; Naive Bayes; Support Vector Machines.
Metaheuristic approach to sequence product families in reconfigurable manufacturing systems

This research aims at the development of a heuristic approach to select the best set of product families and their production scheduling in Reconfi gurable Manufacturing Systems when exact methodologies cannot offer a solution, due to the complexity of the instances may requires an excessive computing time. For tackling the problem, a specifi c and quick heuristic variant of the Nearest Neighbour method has been developed and implemented. Solutions to the problem are signifi cantly improved when they are used as part of a tabu search algorithm, within a reasonable computing time. These results have been improved applying a diversifi cation rule to the tabu search procedure.
Quality analysis algorithms research of 4G nmobile network

In terms of network operating QoS analysis, we propose a cascading network QoS analyzing algorithm based on K-means and C4.5 algorithm. The algorithm was testified to be suitable for multiple analyze requirements. Also based on the monitoring data captured from the real Internet, the algorithm was proved to be effective and efficient The algorithm processes the data captured from the project User-oriented Active 4G Network Measurement System. The system is deployed at multiple wireless network accessing points, conducting 4G network QoS monitoring 24 hours. The paper covers experiments to find a proper K and C4.5 discrete value, and use the KKZ algorithm to initialize the cluster center values. Based on the six traces of monitoring data, we compared the performances of cascading network QoS analyzing algorithm, K-mean algorithm and C4.5 algorithm. As a result, the cascading algorithm was highly efficient and reduces the noise of single algorithm; also it proved to be suitable to several types of monitoring data
Earthworm Populations, Microbial Biomass and Coffee Production in Different Experimental Agroforestry Management Systems in Costa Rica

Coffee management systems are diverse and can have significant impacts on soil biota. Earthworms are important members of the soil biotic community and may enhance soil fertility in agricul- tural soils. The impact of coffee management on earthworms and other factors related to productivity are not well known. Our main objective was to determine the impact of coffee management on earthworm popu- lations, microbial biomass, and coffee production in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Three experimental coffee (Coffea arabica 'Caturra') management systems were studied: full sun, shade with Erythrina poepiggiana and shade with Terminalia amazonia. Within these systems there were three sub-treatments with different levels of inputs: high conventional or medium conventional sub-treatments with chemical fertilizer, herbicide and fungicide additions, and organic inputs in the shade systems. We found the earthworms Pontoscolex core- thrurus and Metaphire californica in shade treatments, but M. californica was absent from sun systems and Terminalia high conventional systems. Mean earthworm density was lowest in the sun high conventional treatment (63 ind. m �2 ), higher in medium conventional treatments (from 108 ind. m �2 to 225 ind. m �2 ), and highest in Terminalia organic systems (334 ind. m �2 ). In 2003, coffee production was highest in sun high conventional treatments (17.6 Mg ha �1 ), but in 2004 it was highest in the Terminalia organic treatments (9.2 Mg ha �1 ). Microbial biomass was not different among treatments, but was correlated with total earthworm density and biomass. Results indicate that shade organic management favors high earthworm density and biomass and that coffee yields under organic management can equal those of conventional systems.
Nutrient utilisation and blood chemistry of Red Sokoto bucks fed on diets with different inclusion levels of raw and soaked roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) seeds

This study evaluated nutrient utilisation and blood chemistry of Red Sokoto bucks fed a 10 and 20 % inclusion level of raw, water- and lime-soaked Hibiscus sabdariffa L. seeds in rice bran based diets. 21 Red Sokoto bucks aged 8–10 months and weighing 9–13 kg were randomly allotted into six treatments with three bucks each, while a seventh dietary treatment with zero inclusion of seeds served as control in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement using a complete randomised design. The results indicated that increase in dietary inclusion levels of soaked H. sabdariffa seeds increased (P < 0.05) the nutrient utilisation of bucks as compared to the control, while a decrease was observed with increasing dietary inclusion levels of raw seeds. Dietary inclusion of both raw and water-soaked H. sabdariffa seeds increased (P < 0.05) the packed cell volume. Soaking also influenced the white blood cell value which increased with increasing inclusion levels of H. sabdariffa seeds. However, values of haemoglobin and red blood cells were only affected by 20 % inclusion of raw and water-soaked H. sabdariffa seeds (P < 0.05) compared to control. Inclusion of H. sabdariffa seeds furthermore reduced serum protein, albumin, globulin, glucose and urea levels compared to control. It is therefore concluded that H. sabdariffa seeds support haematopoiesis in Red Sokoto bucks. While both inclusion levels of water-soaked and 10 % raw H. sabdariffa seeds improved nutrient utilisation compared to control and 20 % inclusion of raw seeds, the 20 % inclusion of water-soaked H. sabdariffa seeds recorded the best nitrogen utilisation efficiency.
A Simple Population Model for Phage Reproduction

In a recent paper on phage crosses, Hershey (1958) has raised a number of interesting problems in population and genetic processes. A very simplified model of phage reproduction may be imagined as follows : at time t= 0 let n phage particles be released in a medium containing N>n bacteria, and penetrate (infect) some bacteria, each with a probability O g>0 ; meanwhile in any infected bacterium, the number of phages may be considered to grow in a birth process with parameter a. When exactly r phages are produced, the bacterium dies, and releases these particles ; they immediately infect more bacteria, and the process continues until all bacteria are killed. We are interested in the time of extinction T of the bacteria. We adopt as our basic time unit r the mean time taken by an infected bacterium to break open. In the phage birth process, the probability that an r-th phage is produced in the interval t, t+Ot is Pr_, (t) (r —1) a Ot, where Pr-i(t) = e-t(1—e-c")7*--2 is the probability that there are r— 1 phages at time t. Thus the mean time r for a bacterium to break open is
AN IMPROVED FUZZY CLUSTERING ALGORITHM FOR MICROARRAY IMAGE SPOTS SEGMENTATION

An automatic cDNA microarray image processing using an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm is presented in this paper. The spot segmentation algorithm proposed uses the gridding technique developed by the authors earlier, for finding the co-ordinates of each spot in an image. Automatic cropping of spots from microarray image is done using these co-ordinates. The present paper proposes an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm Possibility fuzzy local information c means (PFLICM) to segment the spot foreground (FG) from background (BG). The PFLICM improves fuzzy local information c means (FLICM) algorithm by incorporating typicality of a pixel along with gray level information and local spatial information. The performance of the algorithm is validated using a set of simulated cDNA microarray images added with different levels of AWGN noise. The strength of the algorithm is tested by computing the parameters such as the Segmentation matching factor (SMF), Probability of error (pe), Discrepancy distance (D) and Normal mean square error (NMSE). SMF value obtained for PFLICM algorithm shows an improvement of 0.9 % and 0.7 % for high noise and low noise microarray images respectively compared to FLICM algorithm. The PFLICM algorithm is also applied on real microarray images and gene expression values are computed.
On the Tuning Parameter for the Adaptive Bonferroni Procedure under Positive Dependence

Guo introduced an adaptive Bonferroni procedure and he proved that his adaptive Bonferroni procedure controls the familywise error rate under a conditional dependence model. However, how to choose the tuning parameter λ to control the familywise error rate in the procedure under positive dependence is not clear in his paper. In this paper, we suggest that λ = α . Simulation studies are provided.
An Examination of Consumer Willingness to Pay for Local Products

We use data from hypothetical and nonhypothetical choice-based conjoint analysis to estimate willingness to pay for local food products. The survey was administered to three groups: consumers from a buying club with experience with local and grass-fed production markets, a random sample of Maryland residents, and shoppers at a nonspecialty Maryland supermarket. We find that random-sample and supermarket shoppers are willing to pay a premium for local products but view local and grass-fed production as substitutes. Conversely, buying-club members are less willing to pay for local production than the other groups but do not conflate local and grass-fed production.
Patent Protection, Technological Change and Wage Inequality

We develop a directed-technological-change model to address the issue of the optimal patent system and investigate how the optimal patent system influences the direction of technological change and the inequality of wage, where patents are categorized as skill- and labor-complementary. The major results are: (i) Finite patent breadth maximizes the social welfare level; (ii) Optimal patent breadth increases with the amount of skilled (unskilled) workers; (iii) Optimal patent protection is skill-biased, because an increase in the amount of skilled workers increases the dynamic benefits of the protection for skill-complementary patents via the economy of scale of skill-complementary technology; (iv) Skill-biased patent protection skews inventions towards skills, thus increasing wage inequality; And, (v) international trade leads to strong protection for skill-complementary patents, hence increasing skill premia.