Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Various Optimization techniques used in Vehicle Routing Problem: A Review

In mathematics, computer science and economics, optimization, refers to choosing the finest element from some set of existing alternatives. In the simplest manner, this means solving problems in which one seeks to minimize or maximize a real function by methodically choosing the values of real or integer variables from within an acceptable set. An optimization problem is the predicament of getting the best solution from all possible solutions. In this review paper we will discuss various optimization techniques for vehicle routing problem (VRP) which is a combinatorial optimization problem seeking to serve n customers with a group of vehicles.
A distributed subsystem for design decisions optimization in the framework of organizational approach

Aiming optimization of available computing resources and creation of design systems, capable to model the devices based on new technologies (quantum computation), the method of forming of CAD systems (design decisions optimization subsystems), based on complementary design platform, is proposed. With this method, the tool (optimization subsystem) is constructed on the base of description of the design object. Variants of building of CAD meta-systems in the framework of organizational approach are discussed. The range of CAD meta-system models, providing an interoperability, are proposed.
Mid-Infrared Properties of Low-Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies from the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph

We present a Spitzer-based mid-infrared (MIR) study of a large sample of blue compact dwarfs (BCDs) using the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), including the first MIR spectrum of I Zw 18, the archetype for the BCD class and among the most metal-poor galaxies known. We show the spectra of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in a low-metallicity environment. We find that the equivalent widths (EWs) of PAHs at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.2 μm are generally weaker in BCDs than in typical starburst galaxies and that the fine-structure line ratio, [Ne III]/[Ne II], has a weak anticorrelation with the PAH EW. A much stronger anticorrelation is shown between the PAH EW and the product of the [Ne III]/[Ne II] ratio and the UV luminosity density divided by the metallicity. We conclude that the PAH EW in metal-poor high-excitation environments is determined by a combination of PAH formation and destruction effects.
SEARCH AND CLASSIFICATION OF " INTERESTING " BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN THE WORLD WIDE WEB USING A NEURAL NETWORK APPROACH

A database of business Internet applications developed at Europe University Viadrina is in the process of being filled with "interesting" WWW applications. As the number of WWW sites is huge and still growing fast, the question is how to find the right applications for the database. In this paper, a neural network approach is proposed to automate the process of searching and selecting candidate applications. 23 configurations of neural networks have been tested: 15 versions of the multi-layer perceptron, four generalized feed-forward networks and four modular networks. Results from training and testing those networks are presented and discussed.
Autonomous Mapping of Kitchen Environments and Applications

This paper investigates the problem of acquiring 3D semantic maps of indoor household environments, in particular kitchens. The objects modeled in these maps include cabinets, tables, drawers and shelves, and objects in the environment that have particular relevance for a household robotic assistant. Our mapping approach is based on point cloud representations, and a set of sophisticated interpretation methods operating on these representations. We outline the steps of our mapping approach, explain the key techniques that make it work and present their use for different applications.
A Secure IEC-61850 Toolkit for Utility Automation

This paper addresses development of an opensource Toolkit for constructing secure IEC-61850-based systems for a variety of utility automation applications. Development of the Toolkit was originally focused on control system cyber security. Subsequently, extension of the Toolkit was explored to address grid integration of wind power. It also became necessary to identify the security and other benefits of 61850 and provide tools to enable their achievement. The paper provides some background, an overview of the Toolkit, an overview of 61850 and its benefits, a description of Toolkit architecture and functionality, and a discussion of its status.
The Japanese Trade Balance: Recent History and Future Prospects

I examine the evolution of the Japanese trade balance and its relation to the terms of trade and the value of the yen. Using a vector time series model, I predict that the trade surplus will fall from a high of 3.7 percent of GNP in late 1992 to about 2.6 percent in 1995. This relatively modest decline is an indication that relative prices are not the dominant factor influencing the Japanese trade balance.
Language Courses as Potential Indicators of Translation Performance: An Exploratory Study

Linguistic competence is a key factor in the preparation of translation students. Although translation competence encompasses linguistic competence, the interaction between the two calls for empirical exploration. This study examines whether students’ performance, particularly in language skills, can be a potential indicator of the quality of their translations. A total of forty-eight translation students from a college of languages and translation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were recruited to participate in the study. Students marks in previous language skills courses were statistically correlated with their marks in the final exam of a translation course. The results indicated a significant positive association between two language skills, namely grammar and reading, and students’ competence in translation. The writing skill, however, showed no significant impact on students’ performance in translation. This study has practical implications for students in translation programmes, teachers of language skills courses in these programmes, and those in charge of curriculum.
Enhanced Replication of Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 in T Cells from Transgenic Rats Expressing Human CRM1 That Is Regulated in a Natural Manner

ABSTRACT Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). To develop a better animal model for the investigation of HTLV-1 infection, we established a transgenic (Tg) rat carrying the human CRM1 (hCRM1) gene, which encodes a viral RNA transporter that is a species-specific restriction factor. At first we found that CRM1 expression is elaborately regulated through a pathway involving protein kinase C during lymphocyte activation, initially by posttranscriptional and subsequently by transcriptional mechanisms. This fact led us to use an hCRM1-containing bacterial artificial chromosome clone, which would harbor the entire regulatory and coding regions of the CRM1 gene. The Tg rats expressed hCRM1 protein in a manner similar to expression of intrinsic rat CRM1 in various organs. HTLV-1-infected T-cell lines derived from these Tg rats produced 100- to 10,000-fold more HTLV-1 than did T cells from wild-type rats, and the absolute levels of HTLV-1 were similar to those produced by human T cells. We also observed enhancement of the dissemination of HTLV-1 to the thymus in the Tg rats after intraperitoneal inoculation, although the proviral loads were low in both wild-type and Tg rats. These results support the essential role of hCRM1 in proper HTLV-1 replication and suggest the importance of this Tg rat as an animal model for HTLV-1.
Phosphatases modulate the bistable sporulation gene expression pattern in Bacillus subtilis

Spore formation in the Gram‐positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis is a last resort adaptive response to starvation. To initiate sporulation, the key regulator in this process, Spo0A, needs to be activated by the so‐called phosphorelay. Within a sporulating culture of B. subtilis, some cells initiate this developmental program, while other cells do not. Therefore, initiation of sporulation appears to be a regulatory process with a bistable outcome. Using a single cell analytical approach, we show that the autostimulatory loop of spo0A is responsible for generating a bistable response resulting in phenotypic variation within the sporulating culture. It is demonstrated that the main function of RapA, a phosphorelay phosphatase, is to maintain the bistable sporulation gene expression. As rapA expression is quorum regulated, it follows that quorum sensing influences sporulation bistability. Deletion of spo0E, a phosphatase directly acting on Spo0A∼P, resulted in abolishment of the bistable expression pattern. Artificial induction of a heterologous Rap phosphatase restored heterogeneity in a rapA or spo0E mutant. These results demonstrate that with external phosphatases, B. subtilis can use the phosphorelay as a tuner to modulate the bistable outcome of the sporulating culture. This shows that B. subtilis employs multiple pathways to maintain the bistable nature of a sporulating culture, stressing the physiological importance of this phenomenon.
Antibody protein synthesis by lymph nodes homotransplanted to a hypogammaglobulinemic adult.

After showing that normal skin homografted upon a congenitally agammaglobulinemic child survived for a prolonged period (1), Good and Varco further demonstrated that within certain limits hypogammaglobulinemic patients might be artificially endowed with a system of active immunity through homotransplantation of a reticuloendothelial tissue (2, 3). The present study was designed both to explore the therapeutic possibilities of lymph node homotransplantation and to take advantage of the unique antibody-synthesizing defect in hypogammaglobulinemia to quantitate the immune response of human lymphoid tissue. This paper presents the results of measurements of antibody protein synthesis, during primary and secondary immune responses, by normal lymph nodes homotransplanted to a hypogammaglobulinemic adult, together with qualitative observations of the interplay of recipient and transplant during and after the 150to 160-day period of survival of the lymph nodes.
A novel method for improving the operation autonomy of SIMD processing elements

A novel method for improving the operation autonomy of the processing elements (PE) of SIMD-like machines is presented and discussed in this paper. The paper shows that it is feasible to avoid most branches and it is also possible to emulate nested if-then-else sentences on the processing elements by combining guarded instructions and pseudo branches. This prevents unnecessary intervention by the array control unit in many data-dependant computations, particularly those with short branch sections. The paper also shows that the simplicity of the method allows it to be implemented both in fine-grain and coarse-grain SIMD/ASIMD architectures because it does not require significant additional silicon area. Finally, it is shown that pseudo branches can be used to control the power saving of those processing elements that have instructions nullified.
iLauncher: an intelligent launcher for mobile apps based on individual usage patterns

The next-generation smartphones should provide a signification improvement in terms of personalization. A major challenge in smartphone personalization is how to tackle the diversity in smartphone usage. This paper presents iLauncher, an intelligent quick launch that can adapt to individual usage patterns on the fly to change apps dynamically without user intervention. The rationale behind the development process is that we collected traces of real user activity and conducted statistical analysis to derive some observations that provide useful insights into the design of our algorithm. The results of experiments conducted to evaluate the proposed algorithm are encouraging in terms of prediction accuracy. We have implemented iLauncher based on the algorithm and released it in an Android marketplace for free usage.
On Clustering Simulation Traces

Discrete event simulation is widely used in performance and dependability analysis of systems, often in a way that many replica of a model are simulated. Those replica may reveal substantially different dynamic behavior of the simulation model. Recognizing if this is the case and what different classes of behavior are present can be of relevance to gain more insight in the system under study but also to recognize errors that may be present in a simulation model. Trace analysis is a classic technique to figure out what happens in a single simulation run. In this paper, we discuss work in progress on clustering a set of simulation traces. The outcome helps a modeler to select traces that suggest themselves for an individual and detailed analysis either as being representative for a whole class of traces or being an outstanding extraordinary case.
Software Rejuvenation and Replicated Rejuvenated Services

In this paper, the software rejuvenation model, designed for a continuously running non-replicated application, is extended for the case of distributed systems with rejuvenated replicated services. It identifies to which extent an increase in availability can be achieved and how the cost associated with downtime can be reduced using software rejuvenation combined with replication. Based on two representative situations in a case study, it can be concluded that replica rejuvenation improves the service availability and reduces the cost associated with downtime. In general, replica rejuvenation improves the availability even in the cases where, in the original model, rejuvenation is not recommended.
Components of Economic Freedom and Growth: An Empirical Study

The present study is an attempt to quantify relationships between economic development and disaggregated factors that constitute elements of "economic freedom" in current terminology. The three main objectives of this paper are (1) to verify that the currently spreading belief that economic freedom helps (some would even say is essential for) economic growth has empirical foundations; (2) to identify those elements of economic freedom for which sufficient analyzable data exist that demonstrate a statistically significant relationship to economic growth; and (3) to indicate desirable directions for further research and policy implications. This attempt is now feasible owing to the meticulous work of the Fraser Institute team for over a decade, the results of which were recently published in Economic Freedom of the World 1975-1995, by James D. Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Walter Block. ' In that volume they identified, classified, assembled, and indexed data on economic freedom between the years 1975 and 1995. We fully agree with Gary S. Becker, the 1992 Nobel laureate, that research on the contribution of economic freedom to "economic prosperity and growth . has been hampered by incomplete and inadequate measures of freedom in economic life. This book helps fill the void with detailed measures. "2 Reports from around the world strongly suggest that countries that have reduced the direct involvement of governments in economic activities show rising rates of growth. These reports often connect such an alleged relationship to policies of privatization and changes in laws that make the relevant countries more accommodating to foreign and domestic private business, as well as to other
Genotype-Phenotype Characterization of Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome Confirmed by FISH: Case Reports

The Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a multiple malformation and contiguous gene syndrome resulting from the deletion encompassing a 4p16.3 region. A microscopically visible terminal deletion on chromosome 4p (4p16→pter) was detected in Case 1 with full blown features of WHS. The second case which had an interstitial microdeletion encompassing WHSC 1 and WHSC 2 genes at 4p16.3 presented with less striking clinical features of WHS and had an apparently “normal” karyotype. The severity of the clinical presentation was as a result of haploinsufficiency and interaction with surrounding genes as well as mutations in modifier genes located outside the WHSCR regions. The study emphasized that an individual with a strong clinical suspicion of chromosomal abnormality and a normal conventional cytogenetic study should be further investigated using molecular cytogenetic techniques such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or array-comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH).
The Life Space Interview in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention: An Action Research Study on Its Implementation in a Suburban High School

Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities experience less school success than any other subgroup of students. The educational system is the only institution mandated to serve children and youth with emotional disabilities; however, for approximately 51% of these students, the educational experience ends with the decision to drop out of school. For novice teachers, an early experience with a disruptive student can end their career, while even experienced teachers may feel daunted by student behavior. Educators are searching for more effective means of working with students with emotional needs whose unresolved conflicts can escalate into classroom disruption, lack of student success, increased discipline referrals, and potentially aggressive or violent incidents. This mixed-methods study in a suburban school district in Western New York explored whether, after receiving training in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, teachers utilized the Life Space Interview with fidelity, and whether the use of the Life Space Interview by teachers minimized student time out of class. Incidents of in-school suspension, outof-school suspension, tardiness, and unexcused absence for students with disabilities in small classroom settings were compared preand post-intervention. Teachers and students who participated in the study were interviewed to share their perceptions of the use of the Life Space Interview. The research participants included 15 high school students with disabilities who attended small classes of eight students or less for their core academic subjects and three tenured special education teachers. Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Education (EdD) Department Executive Leadership First Supervisor Michael Wischnowski Second Supervisor Marie Cianca Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at Fisher Digital Publications: https://fisherpub.sjfc. edu/education_etd/61 The Life Space Interview in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention: An Action Research Study on Its Implementation in a Suburban High School
Accelerated Approximation for Stochastic Reachability Games

In this paper new algorithms for finding optimal values and st rategies in turn-based stochastic games with reachability objectives ar presented, whose special case are the simple stochastic games consider ed elsewhere [4, 11]. The general idea of these algorithms is to acce lerat the successive approximation scheme for solving stochastic ga mes [13] in which node values are updated in each iteration so that they c onverge to the optimal values of the game. This scheme is extended wit h a pair of positional strategies which are updated to remain greedy with respect to the current approximation. This way optimal strategies c an be discovered before the current values get close to the optimal on es. The approximation process is accelerated, by predicting an appro ximate result of several updates of the current valuation and jumping dire ctly to the predicted values. New algorithms are based on three different acceleration te chniques: iterative squaring, linear extrapolation, and linear prog ramming; with different difficulty of performing single iteration and dif ferent acceleration level achieved by each of them. For each of these algori thms the complexity of a single iteration is polynomial. It is shown that accelerated algorithms will never perform w orse than the basic, non-accelerated one and exponential upper b ounds on the number of iterations required to solve a game in the worst ca e is given. It is also proven that new algorithms increase the fre quency with which the greedy strategies are updated. The more often stra tegies are updated, the higher chances that the algorithm will termina te early. It is proven that the algorithm based on linear programming upd ates the greedy strategies in every iteration, which makes it simila r to the strategy improvement method, where also a new strategy is found i n each iteration and this also at the cost of solving linear constra in problems ∗Extended version of paper New algorithms for solving simple stochastic games publised in Proceedings of the Workshop on Games in Design and Verificati on (GDV 2004) , volume 119 of Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science , pages 51–65. Elsevier. †Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University .
A Method for Spatial Deconvolution of Spectra

A method for spatial deconvolution of spectra is presented. It follows the same fundamental principles as the "MCS image deconvolution algorithm" recently developed by Magain, Courbin, & Sohy and uses information contained in the spectrum of a reference point-spread function to spatially deconvolve spectra of very blended sources. An improved resolution rather than an infinite one is aimed at, overcoming the well-known problem of "deconvolution artifacts. " As in the MCS algorithm, the data are decomposed into a sum of analytical point sources and a numerically deconvolved background so that the spectrum of extended sources in the immediate vicinity of bright point sources may be accurately extracted and sharpened. The algorithm has been tested on simulated data including seeing variation as a function of wavelength and atmospheric refraction. It is shown that the spectra of severely blended point sources can be resolved while fully preserving the spectrophotometric properties of the data. Extended objects "hidden" by bright point sources (up to 4-5 mag brighter) can be accurately recovered as well, provided the data have a sufficiently high total signal-to-noise ratio (200-300 per spectral resolution element). Such spectra are relatively easy to obtain, even down to faint magnitudes, within a few hours of integration time with 10 m class telescopes.
An official systematic review of the European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society: measurement properties of field walking tests in chronic respiratory disease

This systematic review examined the measurement properties of the 6-min walk test (6MWT), incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) and endurance shuttle walk test (ESWT) in adults with chronic respiratory disease. Studies that report the evaluation or use of the 6MWT, ISWT or ESWT were included. We searched electronic databases for studies published between January 2000 and September 2013. The 6-min walking distance (6MWD) is a reliable measure (intra-class correlation coefficients ranged from 0.82 to 0.99 in seven studies). There is a learning effect, with greater distance walked on the second test (pooled mean improvement of 26 m in 13 studies). Reliability was similar for ISWT and ESWT, with a learning effect also evident for ISWT (pooled mean improvement of 20 m in six studies). The 6MWD correlates more strongly with peak work capacity (r=0.59–0.93) and physical activity (r=0.40–0.85) than with respiratory function (r=0.10–0.59). Methodological factors affecting 6MWD include track length, encouragement, supplemental oxygen and walking aids. Supplemental oxygen also affects ISWT and ESWT performance. Responsiveness was moderate to high for all tests, with greater responsiveness to interventions that included exercise training. The findings of this review demonstrate that the 6MWT, ISWT and ESWT are robust tests of functional exercise capacity in adults with chronic respiratory disease. Systematic review: support for use of the 6MWT, ISWT and ESWT in adults with chronic respiratory disease http://ow.ly/Bq2Mz