Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Infrared Spectral Classification of Oxygen-rich Dust Shells

This paper presents infrared spectral classifications for a flux-limited sample of 635 optically identified oxygen-rich variables including supergiants and sources on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Several classes of spectra from oxygen-rich dust exist, and these can be arranged in a smoothly varying sequence of spectral shapes known as the silicate dust sequence. Classification based on this sequence reveals several dependencies of the dust emission on the properties of the central star. Nearly all S stars show broad emission features from alumina dust, while most of the supergiants exhibit classic features from amorphous silicate dust. Mira variables with symmetric light curves generally show broad alumina emission, while those with more asymmetric light curves show classic silicate emission. These differences may arise from differences in the photospheric C/O ratio.
Analysis of Large Long-term Remote Sensing Image Sequence for Agricultural Yield Forecasting

Availability of detailed multi-year remote sensing image sequences allows finding a relation between the measured features of vegetation condition history and agricultural yields. The large image sequence over 10 years is used to build and compare 4 yield prediction models. The models are developed trough gradual addition of complexity. The initial model is based on linear regression using vegetation indices. The final model is non-linear and takes into consideration long-term technological advances in agricultural productivity. The accuracy of models has been estimated using cross-validation method. Further ways for model accuracy improvement have been proposed.
EFFECT OF CALCIUM ON STRUCTURAL AND MORPHOMETRIC FEATURES OF THYROID GLAND TISSUE IN MIDDLE-AGED RAT FEMALES

The aim of the present work was to study the effect of Ca supplementation therapy on structural and morphological features of the thyroid gland tissue in middle-aged female rats. Some of the findings described herein have been previously presented in an abstract form (10). Summary: The subject of these studies was the thyroid gland tissue of middle-aged (14-month-old) female rats chronically treated with calcium glucoheptonate. The peripheral and central zone of the thyroids were stere- ologically analysed and the following morphometric parameters determined: the height and volumetric density of follicular epithelium, colloid, interstitium and follicles and index of activation rate. The height of follicular epithelium, its volume density and index of activation rate were significantly reduced (by 8%, p < 0.05, 18%, p< 0.025 and 34%, p < 0.01, respectively) as compared to the controls. However, the volumetric density of colloid and interstitium were increased (by 10% and 14% respectively). These morphometric results indicate that Ca treatment expressed an inhibitory effect on thyroid follicular cells structure in middle-aged female rats.
Scalar Measures of Fit: Pseudo R 2 and Information Measures (AIC & BIC)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------income | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] -------------+---------------------------------------------------------------educ | 1.830332 . 0589651 31.04 0.000 1.714481 1.946183 _cons | 3.702833 . 8106362 4.57 0.000 2.110145 5.295522 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proteomic and Clinical Analysis of a Fine-Needle Aspirate Biopsy from a Single Cold Thyroid Nodule: A Case Study

Background: For cases where clinical and cytological data from cold thyroid nodules are ambiguous; presurgical proteomic profiling of fine-needle aspirate biopsies of cold thyroid nodules in situ can provide additional diagnostics to avoid invasive surgical intervention and thyroidectomy of benign or non-cancerous tissue. Methods: The fine-needle aspirate biopsy lysate was digested with trypsin, and analysed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry on a linear trap quadrupole Orbitrap Velos. Remaining peptides were separated by reversedphase chromatography and fractions analysed as technical duplicates. Identified proteins were analysed by Gene Ontology and protein abundance were calculated using the Top3 label-free method. The proteomic data was complemented with ultrasonography and scintigraphy of the thyroid gland; and cytology of the cold thyroid nodule fine-needle aspirate biopsy. Results: Sixty seven and 2,595 non-redundant protein groups (≥2 unique peptides) were identified from unfractionated and fractionated cold thyroid nodule fine-needle aspirate biopsy, respectively. Label-free protein abundance ranged over 6 orders of magnitude from the most abundant proteins, haemoglobin and thyroglobulin; to the low-abundance protein SON. Many previously-reported markers of thyroid cancer were in the top 23% of the identified proteins. Gene Ontology analysis revealed high-enrichment for cytoplasmic and membrane-bound organelle (cellular component); single-organism and small molecular processes (biological processes); and poly(A) ribonucleic acid, ribonucleic acid and protein-binding (molecular function). Conclusions: The cold thyroid nodule was clinically-classified as benign. Proteomic data from fine-needle aspirate biopsies can provide additional diagnostic candidates indicative of a benign or cancerous cold thyroid nodule without the need for invasive surgical intervention.
Design and early performance of IGRINS (Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer)

The Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) is a compact high-resolution near-infrared cross-dispersed spectrograph whose primary disperser is a silicon immersion grating. IGRINS covers the entire portion of the wavelength range between 1.45 and 2. 45μm that is accessible from the ground and does so in a single exposure with a resolving power of 40,000. Individual volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings serve as cross-dispersing elements for separate spectrograph arms covering the H and K bands. On the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith telescope at the McDonald Observatory, the slit size is 1ʺ x 15ʺ and the plate scale is 0. 27ʺ pixel. The spectrograph employs two 2048 x 2048 pixel Teledyne Scientific and Imaging HAWAII-2RG detectors with SIDECAR ASIC cryogenic controllers. The instrument includes four subsystems; a calibration unit, an input relay optics module, a slit-viewing camera, and nearly identical H and K spectrograph modules. The use of a silicon immersion grating and a compact white pupil design allows the spectrograph collimated beam size to be only 25mm, which permits a moderately sized (0.96m x 0.6m x 0.38m) rectangular cryostat to contain the entire spectrograph. The fabrication and assembly of the optical and mechanical components were completed in 2013. We describe the major design characteristics of the instrument including the system requirements and the technical strategy to meet them. We also present early performance test results obtained from the commissioning runs at the McDonald Observatory.
Power control and energy efficiency strategies for D2D communications underlying cellular networks

MELO, Y. V. L. Power control and energy efficiency strategies for D2D communications underlying cellular networks. 2015. 58 f. Dissertacao (Mestrado em Engenharia de Teleinformatica) – Centro de Tecnologia, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, 2015.
Human Resources and Innovation: Total Factor Productivity and Foreign Human Capital

The objective of this paper is to analyse the role of migrants in innovation in Europe. We use Total Factor Productivity as a measure of innovation and focus on the three largest European countries – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – in the years 1994-2007. Unlike previous research, which mainly employs a regional approach, we analyse the link between migration and innovation at the sectoral level. This allows us to measure the direct contribution of migrants in the sector in which they are actually employed. Moreover, it allows a distinction between the real contribution of migrants to innovation from possible inter-sectoral complementarities, which might as well foster innovation. We control for the different components of human-capital, such as age, education and diversity of origin. To address the possible endogeneity of migration we draw on an instrumental variable strategy originally devised by Card (2001) and adapt it at the sector level The results show that overall migrants are relevant in all sectors, but some important differences emerge across sectors: highly-educated migrants show a larger positive effect in the high-tech sectors, while middle- and low-educated ones are more relevant in manufacturing. The diversity of countries of origin contributes to innovation only in the services sectors, confirming that in empirical analyses at the regional or national level the diversity measure might capture the complementarity between sectors rather than the contribution of different national skills. This implies that the diversity should not guide the migration policy which instead should be linked to the specific demand for labour of firms and not to pursue a generic search for highly skilled migrants.
Industrial synthesis and characterization of nanophotocatalysts materials: titania

Abstract Despite the recent synthesis and identification of a diverse set of new nanophotocatalysts that has exploded recently, titanium dioxide (TiO2) remains among the most promising photocatalysts because it is inexpensive, non-corrosive, environmentally friendly, and stable under a wide range of conditions. TiO2 has shown excellent promise for solar cell applications and for remediation of chemical pollutants and toxins. Over the past few decades, there has been a tremendous development of nanophotocatalysts for a variety of industrial applications (i.e. for water purification and reuse, disinfection of water matrices, air purification, deodorization, sterilization of soils). This paper details traditional and new industrial routes for the preparation of nanophotocatalysts and the characterization techniques used to understand the physical chemical properties of them, like surface area, ζ potential, crystal size, and phase crystallographic, morphology, and optical transparency. Finally we present some applications of the industrial nanophotocatalysts.
Resource-based Sources of Bargaining Power and Management Control Concerns in Inter-firm Relationships: An Exploratory Study of Technology Firms

The process of inter-firm relationships often involves a rich interplay between the parties that works to take advantage of each other’s capabilities. Prior studies have shown that changing partner capabilities after the initial formation have a large impact on the subsequent development and success of the relationship. We add to this research by examining how combinations of different resource-based sources of bargaining power held by contracting parties in the supply chain drive their appropriation, coordination and cooperation concerns; and how these concerns affects the use of management control decisions. We develop a framework that contrasts the two common sources of resources-based bargaining power that describe the specific endowments of buyers and suppliers in a business to business relationship: market dominance and design dependence. Under resource-based bargaining power asymmetry we propose that the resource dominant partner will use management controls to address appropriation concerns, while the weaker partner will use the same to address coordination concerns. Under resource-based bargaining power symmetry and high interdependence relationships we propose that in addition to dealing with appropriation and coordination concerns, both partners will use management controls as a relational signal in addressing cooperation concerns. We examine this framework using case studies of five well known multinational electronics original design manufacturers, as they relate to the management of their component suppliers. We observe that the use of management control practices by buyers is different across different combinations of buyer market dominance and supplier design dependence.
Geodesic based conformal mesh parameterization

In this paper, a novel method of conformal parameterization for triangular meshes is presented. Firstly, based on geodesic on a mesh, an algorithm constructing local barycentric coordinates is proposed. Then, these local coordinates are merged via a linear system to form a global conformal parameterization of the mesh. The conformal mesh parameterization method here can be viewed as a development of the shape-preserving method proposed by M. S. Floater. It avoids error of locally approximating the so-called geodesic polar mapping and hence giving better results. Experimental results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of proposed methods.
The Impact of 'A - Day' on Executive Pensions and Pay for Performance

This paper evaluates the impact of the ‘A-day’ pensions simplification legislation introduced in the UK in 2006. This reform exogenously affected the cost of pension provision for firms whose executives had accumulated pensions benefits in excess of the prescribed limit. We find a strong reaction in the form of pension provision in a sample of UK executive directors. After A-day, many executives saw their defined benefit scheme replaced with supplementary cash payments. This had the unintended consequence of significantly decreasing the relationship between executive pay and firm performance for those executives affected by the reform.
Planner: Cost-Efficient Execution Plans Placement for Uniform Stream Analytics on Edge and Cloud

Stream processing applications handle unbounded and continuous flows of data items which are generated from multiple geographically distributed sources. Two approaches are commonly used for processing: Cloud-based analytics and Edge analytics. The first one routes the whole data set to the Cloud, incurring significant costs and late results from the high latency networks that are traversed. The latter can give timely results but forces users to manually define which part of the computation should be executed on Edge and to interconnect it with the remaining part executed in the Cloud, leading to sub-optimal placements. In this paper, we introduce Planner, a middleware for uniform and transparent stream processing across Edge and Cloud. Planner automatically selects which parts of the execution graph will be executed at the Edge in order to minimize the network cost. Real-world micro-benchmarks show that Planner reduces the network usage by 40% and the makespan (end-to-end processing time) by 15% compared to state-of-the-art.
Design and construction of a simple Knudsen Effusion Mass Spectrometer (KEMS) system for vapour pressure measurements of low volatility organics

Abstract. A design of and initial results from a Knudsen Effusion Mass Spectrometer (KEMS) are presented. The design was adapted from high temperature alloy studies with a view to using it to measure vapour pressures for low volatility organics. The system uses a temperature controlled cell with an effusive orifice. This produces a molecular beam which is sampled by a quadropole mass spectrometer with electron impact ionization calibrated to a known vapour pressure. We have determined P(298 K) and ΔHsub of the first 5 saturated straight chain dicarboxylic acids: 2.15±1.19×10-2 Pa and 75±19 KJ mol−1 respectively for oxalic acid, 5.73±1.14×10-4 Pa and 91±4 KJ mol−1 for Malonic acid, 1.13±0.47×10-4 Pa and 93±6 KJ mol−1 for Succinic acid, 4.21±1.66×10-4 Pa and 123±22 KJ mol−1 for Glutaric acid and 6.09±3.85×10-6 Pa and 125±40 KJ mol−1 for Adipic acid.
PROGNOSIS AND PROGRESSION IN CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON RISK FACTORS FOR DISEASE, DECLINE IN ESTIMATED RENAL FUNCTION AND MORTALITY

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a life threatening condition with high risk of pre-term death and need for dialysis. The population prevalence of CKD has been estimated to 10-13% for both Europe and the USA. We investigated if analgesic use, occupational lead exposure and other patient characteristics were related to decline in kidney function in a population-based cohort of 920 patients with CKD. We also studied how survival related to timing of dialysis initiation. The inclusion took place in Sweden between May 2
Imitation Learning for Accelerating Iterative Computation of Fixed Points in Quantum Chemistry

Many computational methods in science and engineering work by fixed-point iteration— repeatedly applying a given update function until convergence. Unfortunately, this sort of iterative computation can be expensive: the update function itself may be costly to compute, and we may need many updates before we reach the desired fixed point. So, we explore a means to accelerate fixed-point iteration via imitation learning. Our approach is simple and appealing, and needs only black-box access to the original update function. We show in experiments that our approach successfully accelerates a central algorithm from quantum chemistry: the Hartree-Fock method for calculating the electronic structure and energy of a molecular system. Our results indicate that policies trained on one set of molecules transfer successfully to other molecules of the same general class. They also indicate that imitation learning leads to more-robust transfer compared to alternative methods that do not take into account the distribution of states induced by our learned policies.
CS 221 Project Final Report : Facial Expression Automatic Recognition

Facial expression conveys important non-verbal communication cues in interpersonal relationship. For thousands of years, people have been learning to do facial expression recognition based on their social experience. Although learning facial expressions seems like a trivial activity in our lives, this task has always been a challenge to machines[1]. Reliable automatic facial expression recognition technique would benefit us in various aspects. For example, automatic facial expression recognition can be applied in behavioral science and clinical practice to capture micro-expressions of the service users such as criminals and patients to obtain their subconscious. It can also enhance the human-machine interfaces so that the machines are able to have a better appreciation of the emotion of the service users. Motivated by these promising applications, our group would like to develop an automatic facial expression recognition technique with relatively high accuracy. We trained several Multiple-layer Perception (MLP) models and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify the expression images and finally achieve 69.0% recognition accuracy on the test split, approaching the state of the art 71.2% reported as in [6] and is significantly higher than our human oracle results 46.5%. We also provided extensive analysis and visualization over our proposed best model. The training data we used for supervise learning is Kaggle Dataset, which is a collection containing 35888 unique 48x48 pixel grayscale images of facial expression. The faces in the images have been automatically registered so that they occupy the same amount of space. Each image in the dataset has already been labeled as one of the seven categories: 0=Angry, 1=Disgust, 2=Fear, 3=Happy, 4=Sad, 5=Surprise, 6=Neutral. We used the official train-test split given from the Kaggle website where the data is split into Train (28,709 images), Validation (3,589 images) and Test (3,589 images) sets. We only used the Train split to train our models and Validation split to validate them. Our evaluation metric for success is the accuracy of correctly predicting the facial expression in test data. In order to create a standard of accuracy and experiment expectation, we manually labeled 200 images and used the accuracy rate as oracle. Since it is our intention to train our model to be better at recognizing expressions than humans, we considered this oracle a reasonable way to evaluate our training success. Our oracle by Yun and Yuxin, achieved 46.5% accuracy in those 200 images.
Word-Embedding based Content Features for Automated Oral Proficiency Scoring

In this study, we develop content features for an automated scoring system of non-native English speakers’ spontaneous speech. The features calculate the lexical similarity between the question text and the ASR word hypothesis of the spoken response, based on traditional word vector models or word embeddings. The proposed features do not require any sample training responses for each question, and this is a strong advantage since collecting question-specific data is an expensive task, and sometimes even impossible due to concerns about question exposure. We explore the impact of these new features on the automated scoring of two different question types: (a) providing opinions on familiar topics and (b) answering a question about a stimulus material. The proposed features showed statistically significant correlations with the oral proficiency scores, and the combination of new features with the speech-driven features achieved a small but significant further improvement for the latter question type. Further analyses suggested that the new features were effective in assigning more accurate scores for responses with serious content issues.
Release of a New Faba Bean Variety "Chourouk" Resistant to the Parasitic Plants Orobanche foetida Poir. and Orobanche crenata Forsk. in Tunisia

Chourouk is a new faba bean variety (Vicia faba L. var. Minor) selected for resistance to broomrapes. It was developed from a cross between orobanche resistant breeding line selected by INRAT “XBJ90.03-20-1-1-1-1-1-1-D” and “19TB”, selected by INRA France for its resistance to Ascochyta blight and low tannin content and registered in the Tunisian plant variety catalogue. In field highly infested with Orobanche foetida, Chourouk produced 1.71 t/ha grain yield, representing 4.2 and 6.5 times the yield recorded on the susceptible checks Bachaar (0.41 t/ha) and Badi (0.26 t/ha) cultivars. It is more productive (42.5%) than the resistant check Najeh cultivar (1.2 t/ha). In non-infested field, O. foetida caused only 31.8% average yield losses for Chourouk against 55.5%, 86.2% and 87.3% for the resistant check Najeh and the susceptible ones Bachaar and Badi, respectively. It showed also good resistance level against O. crenata and O. foetida under controlled conditions. A maximum of 11.3% of O. foetida seeds germination rate was recorded for Chourouk against 71.6% for Badi and 6% for Najeh. The difference in the behavior recorded for Chourouk under field and controlled conditions compared to Najeh suggests that other resistance mechanisms are involved in the resistance and merit to be studied in the future. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers
Humor Styles, Social Competence and Loneliness: A Study among 337 Youngsters in Hong Kong and Hangzhou

In this study, associations among humor styles, social competence and loneliness were examined among a sample of 159 youngsters (72 males, 87 females) in Hong Kong and 178 youngsters in Hangzhou (74 males, 104 females). The sampled youngsters completed a questionnaire consisting of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003), the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenberg, & Reis, 1988), and the Emotional and Social Loneliness Scales (Wittenberg, 1986). The results showed that youngsters in Hong Kong used more maladaptive humor styles and less adaptive humor styles than did their counterparts in Hangzhou. In regard to gender, males used more maladaptive humor styles than did females. Adaptive styles of humor were positively associated with social competence and were negatively associated with loneliness, while maladaptive styles of humor were negatively associated with social competence and were positively associated with loneliness. Use of affiliative and self-defeating styles partially mediated the relationship between social competence and loneliness. Self-defeating humor served as a moderator to the effect of social competence on loneliness. Implications of these findings for future research are noted.