Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decision support for strategy control

This paper presents a decision support approach that combines multiple criteria concepts with optimisation methods to assist with exploration of alternatives in strategic control. The contributions of this paper are the novel way in which different strategies may be characterised and objectives quantified, and the generation of “good” combinations of alternatives, rather than mere ranking of alternatives that is standard practice in most decision support methods. An illustrative example is provided. The paper describes how the approach can be used in the comparison of different strategies, identification of effective and efficient courses of action and recognition of emergent opportunities.
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POLYMORPHISM IN THE PROMOTER REGION (G/C-915) OF PAX9 GENE AND THIRD MOLAR AGENESIS

Purpose: Hypodontia is the congenital absence of one or more (up to six) permanent and/or deciduous teeth, being one of the most common alterations of the human dentition. Genetic polymorphisms are variations of DNA sequences occurring in a population. This study investigated whether G-915C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the PAX9 gene promoter is associated with hypodontia in humans. Material and Methods: The polymorphism in region G/C-915 of PAX9 gene (NCBI ref SNP ID: rs 2073247) of 240 patients was analyzed, being 110 controls and 130 individuals with third molar agenesis. After DNA extraction, the region of interest was amplified by PCR technique using two different primers. The significance of the differences in observed frequencies of polymorphisms in both groups was assessed by odds-ratio and chi-squared test with 95% confidence interval. Results: Genotype CC was more frequent in patients with agenesis (11.5%) compared to the control (1.8%), while GG was more prevalent in the control group (39.1%) compared to the individuals with agenesis (26.2%). Conclusion: These data showed that the allele C could be associated with the third molar agenesis.
The German Sub-National Government Bond Market: Evolution, Yields and Liquidity

The paper presents a comprehensive data set of all bonds issued by the sixteen German states (L¨ander) since 1992. It thus provides a complete picture of a capital market comparable in size to funds raised in the German fixed income market for corporations. The quantitative analysis reveals that L¨ander follow different issuing strategies: while some concentrate to a greater extend on large issues or issue joint bonds with other L¨ander (Jumbos), others rely more on comparatively small but frequent issues. Moreover, some L¨ander issue a significant volume-share of their bonds in foreign currencies. Suitable bonds are used to compute yields for the respective L¨ander at a daily frequency. In addition, we construct a measure of liquidity based on the standard deviation of yields of those bonds that are used to compute the average yield.
Reminiscence Park Interface: personal spaces to listen to songs with memories and diffusions and overlaps of their spaces

We propose Reminiscence Park Interface. This interface gives the personal spaces for listening to the favorite songs by using the original music boxes. And our interface also visualizes the diffusions and the overlaps of the users' spaces by computer graphics on the original resonance table. The users can enjoy listening to their favorite songs alone or with somebody.
TECHNOLOGICAL PARADIGM CHANGE AND THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY : THE CASE OF THE MICROMACHINE IN JAPAN

During the 1980's, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) emerged as a new technological paradigm in the United States. From early on, some Japanese private companies, who had already been engaged in a fierce technology race to develop semiconductors, decided to engage their R&D efforts in this new field. A new concept Micromachine, extending that of MEMS, was introduced in Japan in 1988, and since then an increasing number of Japanese research universities have deepened their investigations into the micromachine. The Japanese government, upon seeing the long-term potential of the micromachine at the beginning of the 1990's, implemented a 10-year program called the "Micromachine Technology Project". This was a program based on the contribution of both private companies and research universities and supported by the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology. A number of questions are examined in this study. Are Japanese private companies and research universities effectively joining efforts as planned by the government? Do they go further by forming a network of knowledge around the micromachine? JEL Classification: O32, O38, I29
Hα imaging of the local volume galaxies - I. The NGC 6946 galaxy group

We present new Hα imaging of all known dwarf irregular companions to NGC 6946: UGC 11583, KK 251, KK 252, KKR 55, KKR 56, Cepheus 1, KKR 59, and KKR 60. The galaxies span a range of blue absolute magnitudes of [-13.6, -17.6], relative gas content of [0.1, 2.5] M ○. /L ○. , current star formation activity of [0.2, 5.2] x 10 -2 M ○. yr -1 , and timescale to exhaust the current gas supply of [6, 86] Gyr.
An integrated model of workflows, e-contracts and solution implementation

Electronic-contracts (e-contracts) are structured models of business contracts. Business transactions between enterprises can be supported by inter-workflows based on standards. However, exceptions, namely problematic situations whose solutions are not specified in the workflow design, are not well supported in the proposed models. Such exceptions need to be resolved observing e-contracts. Discussion and decision-making by participants are necessary for interpreting e-contracts and agreeing on a solution. In this paper, we propose Workflow-Contract-Solution model (WCS model) to support such e-contract oriented execution of business processes.
Synapsin Controls Both Reserve and Releasable Synaptic Vesicle Pools during Neuronal Activity and Short-Term Plasticity inAplysia

Neurotransmitter release is a highly efficient secretory process exhibiting resistance to fatigue and plasticity attributable to the existence of distinct pools of synaptic vesicles (SVs), namely a readily releasable pool and a reserve pool from which vesicles can be recruited after activity. Synaptic vesicles in the reserve pool are thought to be reversibly tethered to the actin-based cytoskeleton by the synapsins, a family of synaptic vesicle-associated phosphoproteins that have been shown to play a role in the formation, maintenance, and regulation of the reserve pool of synaptic vesicles and to operate during the post-docking step of the release process. In this paper, we have investigated the physiological effects of manipulating synapsin levels in identified cholinergic synapses of Aplysia californica. When endogenous synapsin was neutralized by the injection of specific anti-synapsin antibodies, the amount of neurotransmitter released per impulse was unaffected, but marked changes in the secretory response to high-frequency stimulation were observed, including the disappearance of post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) that was substituted by post-tetanic depression (PTD), and increased rate and extent of synaptic depression. Opposite changes on post-tetanic potentiation were observed when synapsin levels were increased by injecting exogenous synapsin I. Our data demonstrate that the presence of synapsin-dependent reserve vesicles allows the nerve terminal to release neurotransmitter at rates exceeding the synaptic vesicle recycling capacity and to dynamically change the efficiency of release in response to conditioning stimuli (e.g., post-tetanic potentiation). Moreover, synapsin-dependent regulation of the fusion competence of synaptic vesicles appears to be crucial for sustaining neurotransmitter release during short periods at rates faster than the replenishment kinetics and maintaining synchronization of quanta in evoked release.
The Divergent Dynamics of Economic Growth: The Economics of Technological Change and the Demise of the Sharecropper

The economic history of a region is determined by a complicated interaction among geological, biological, technological, social, and economic forces. A vivid portrayal of this process is found in the recent history of the rural American south; the resulting interplay of economic and social nmovements has been displayed there with irony and violence. Beginning gradually in the late 1930s, the adoption of labor
Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology with Gravitational Waves

Gravitational wave detectors are already operating at interesting sensitivity levels, and they have an upgrade path that should result in secure detections by 2014. We review the physics of gravitational waves, how they interact with detectors (bars and interferometers), and how these detectors operate. We study the most likely sources of gravitational waves and review the data analysis methods that are used to extract their signals from detector noise. Then we consider the consequences of gravitational wave detections and observations for physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.
Endogenous Growth, Capital Utilization and Depreciation

We study an extended version of the one-sector AK growth model introducing adjustment and maintenance costs. Agents are allowed to under-use the installed capital and to vary the depreciation rate. The model is analyzed using particular functional forms and is solved in closed-form. We find that adjustment and maintenance costs (efficiency) reduce (increases) investment, depreciation, capital utilization and the rate of growth; impatience reduces the rate of growth but increases depreciation and utilization, which are also negatively related to the rate of population growth; the rate of growth appears positively correlated with the depreciation rate and the rate of capital utilization.
Wheel, Deal, and Steal: Deceptive Accounting, Deceitful CEOs, and Ineffective Reforms

Global financial scandals didn't stop with Enron, WorldCom, or Tyco. In fact, they're still notover. In Wheel, Deal, and Steal, Harvard Business School professor Daniel Quinn Mills showsinvestors how imperial CEOs continue to steal from their investors - and how the rules intendedto protect investors continue to fail. Mills outlines comprehensive reforms to clean up the systemand keep it clean. Best of all, he shows small investors how to protect what's left - and maybeeven recover their losses.
Emotion Estimation in Speech Using a 3D Emotion Space Concept

Automated recognition of emotions conveyed in the speech is an important research topic that has emerged in recent years with a number of possible applications (Picard, 1997). The most important one is probably the improvement of the man-machine interface, knowing that human communication contains a large amount of emotional messages which should be recognized by machines such as robot assistants in the household, computer tutors, or automatic speech recognition (ASR) units in call-centers. Most research on recognizing emotions in the speech focuses on a small number of emotion categories (Dellaert et al., 1996; Lee et al., 2001; Yu et al., 2004; Vidrascu & Devillers, 2005; Schuller et al., 2005). However, such categorization is a strong restriction if we think of the continuum in the expression of human emotions. In particular, if we want to resolve moderate emotions in spontaneous utterances in addition to the stereotype portrayal of exaggerated emotions, several questions must be asked: • How can we estimate the emotion conveyed in the speech signal more detailed than in the state-of-the-art categorization? • How many features are necessary for such estimation, and which method is suitable for selection? • Which estimation methods are suitable, and what are the pros and the cons of each method? In this contribution we intend to give some answers to these questions, building upon our previous work reported in (Grimm et al., 2007a; 2007b). We propose a generalized framework using a continuous-valued, three-dimensional emotion space method. This method defines emotions as points in a three-dimensional emotion space spanned by the three basic attributes (“primitives”) valence (positive-negative axis), activation (calm-excited axis), and dominance (weak-strong axis) (see Kehrein, 2002). Figure 1 shows a schematic sketch of this emotion space. Anger, e.g., would be represented by negative valence, high excitation level on the activation axis, and strong dominance. Such real-valued notion was shown to be transferable to emotion categories, if desired (Grimm et al., 2006). At the same time, it lends itself to a gradual description of emotion which is helpful to describe intensity changes over time or speaker-dependent emotion expression behaviors, for example.
An ON-OFF multi-rate loss model with a mixture of service-classes of finite and infinite number of sources

We consider an ON-OFF traffic model of a single link which accommodates service-classes of finite population. Calls arrive according to a quasi-random process and, if accepted, enter the system via state ON; then calls may alternate between ON-OFF states. When a call is transferred to state OFF, it releases the bandwidth held in state ON, while when it tries to return to state ON it re-requests its bandwidth. If it is available a new ON-period (burst) begins; otherwise burst blocking occurs and the call remains in state OFF. We prove that the proposed finite source ON-OFF model (f-ON-OFF) has a product form solution and provide an accurate recursive formula for the call blocking probabilities calculation. For the burst blocking probabilities calculation we propose an approximate formula. Finally, we generalize the f-ON-OFF model to include a mixture of service-classes of finite and infinite number of sources. Simulation results validate our analytical methodology.
An Update on the Distribution of Primates of the Tapajós-Xingu Interfluvium, Central Amazonia

The first records of the primate fauna in the Tapajós-Xingu interfluvium date from the beginning of the 20 century. Snethlage (1912) listed Chiropotes albinasus and Ateles marginatus as the most conspicuous species of the region, and also cited the presence of Saimiri sciureus, Cebus sp. , Callicebus sp. and Alouatta sp. Almost a century later, this region remains poorly studied, and our knowledge of the local primate species and their distribution is still incomplete. This paper updates the list of primate species in the TapajósXingu interfluvium, and adds new records for the southern part of this region. We emphasize the need to conserve the primate fauna of this region, as this portion of Amazonia is a target for development projects and is subject to strong pressures from logging and ranching activities.
Globalization and Chagas Disease

Globalization and Chagas Disease reflect several historic and social situations in Latin America (LA), with important influences and repercussions in the general society and between themselves. Originally, the disease was restricted to LA, with a socio-political context strongly marked by poverty, migration and the progressive enfeeblement of the State. (CNBB 2003, Macedo 1997, Schmunis 1997, Schmunis & Dias, 2000). In general, Chagas Disease emerges from a bio ecological context, deeply engaged with the people way of living and with the natural history of its etiological agent, the protozoan Trypanosoma (Schizotrypanum) cruzi (T.cruzi), circulating among several mammalian reservoirs and intermediate vectors, occurring in different sylvan sceneries of the Continent. Later on, this trypanosomiasis began to affect the human being in the so called domestic cycle, involving man invasion of natural environment, people migration, very poor dwellings and multiple situations of anthropic character (Dias & Coura, 1997, WHO, 2002). In the last Century, the globalization phenomena influenced important changes in the endemic landscape of the Region, as well as the “urbanization” and the international migration of infected individuals, so increasing the risk of human Chagas Disease (HCD transmitted by blood transfusion or congenital route in endemic and non endemic countries.
A Survey on TCP Protocol and RTT Estimation

There are several versions of TCP protocol: TCP Tahoe, TCP Reno, NewReno, SACK and Vegas. Reno algorithm which bases on loss detection is widely used in Internet, while TCP Vegas adjusts transmission rate basing on RTT of packets. Although Vegas is improved in every aspect, when it coexists with Reno, it can not share bandwidth fairly. Precise estimation of RTT is important for improving the performance of TCP Vegas. Exiting estimation methods have advantages and disadvantages. Systemic overview of development of TCP protocol and RTT estimation are basis to farther research on TCP protocol and RTT estimation
Simulation of fire based on improved particle system and texture rendering

The simulation of the irregular objects is a difficult and attractive problem in computer graphics. Flame simulation is of a great challenge because of the variability of the shape of fire. A new method of flame simulation based on the improved particle system and texture rendering is proposed in this paper. This model is introduced to study structured particle and the performance of the random process of wind. It can generate flames with different details. To reduce the number of the particles in the calculation process, we use the multi-texture technology. This overcomes the defects of large calculation scale for particle system. Experimental results show that the proposed method can meet the requirements of real time and reality.
Intrusion Detection Based on Simulated Annealing and Fuzzy C-means Clustering

An intrusion detection method based on simulated annealing and fuzzy c-means clustering is proposed against the problems of sensitivity to initialization and local optimal solution caused by fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. The ability of simulated annealing algorithm jumping out of the local optimal solution combined with fuzzy c-means clustering is firstly used in order to get global optimal clustering, and normal and anomaly data are identified by normal cluster ratio. Then the identified clusters can be used in the detection of intruding action. The experiment in the KDDCUP99 data set indicates that the method has a better detecting effect than traditional fuzzy c-means algorithm.
The Value of MFN Treatment

We discuss most favoured nation (MFN) treatment in trade agreements, suggesting that its value to individual countries depends critically on the relevant model solution concept used to evaluate it. We analyze both rights to MFN treatment in foreign markets, and the obligation to grant MFN treatment in home markets; the heart of the post-war GATT/WTO multilateral trading system. In a traditional competitive equilibrium framework, MFN gives benefits to small countries in being able to free ride on bilateral tariff concessions exchanged between larger countries in GATT/WTO negotiating rounds. In a non-cooperative Nash equilibrium framework, MFN restrains retaliatory actions to be non-discriminatory. In a co-operative bargaining framework in which trade policies are jointly set, MFN changes the threat point and hence affects the bargaining solution. We use a calibrated numerical model of global trade in which we compute all three solution concepts and compare MFN and non MFN equilibria for each. We use the GTAP (1992) data base, concluding that quantitatively the most significant effect of MFN seems to be in its impact on bargaining rather than on competitive and Nash equilibrium solutions; being beneficial to smaller countries.
First Long-Term Behavioral Records from Cuvier’s Beaked Whales (Ziphius cavirostris) Reveal Record-Breaking Dives

Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) are known as extreme divers, though behavioral data from this difficult-to-study species have been limited. They are also the species most often stranded in association with Mid-Frequency Active (MFA) sonar use, a relationship that remains poorly understood. We used satellite-linked tags to record the diving behavior and locations of eight Ziphius off the Southern California coast for periods up to three months. The effort resulted in 3732 hr of dive data with associated regional movements – the first dataset of its kind for any beaked whale – and included dives to 2992 m depth and lasting 137.5 min, both new mammalian dive records. Deep dives had a group mean depth of 1401 m (s.d. = 137.8, n = 1142) and duration of 67.4 min (s.d. = 6.9). The group mean time between deep dives was 102.3 min (s.d. = 30.8, n = 783). While the previously described stereotypic pattern of deep and shallow dives was apparent, there was considerable inter- and intra-individual variability in most parameters. There was significant diel behavioral variation, including increased time near the surface and decreased shallow diving at night. However, maximum depth and the proportion of time spent on deep dives (presumed foraging), varied little from day to night. Surprisingly, tagged whales were present within an MFA sonar training range for 38% of days locations were received, and though comprehensive records of sonar use during tag deployments were not available, we discuss the effects frequent acoustic disturbance may have had on the observed behaviors. These data better characterize the true behavioral range of this species, and suggest caution should be exercised when drawing conclusions about behavior using short-term datasets.
An Attack Graph Based Risk Management Approach of an Enterprise LAN

In today’s large complex enterprise network, security is a challenging task for most of the administrators. The typical means by which an attacker breaks into a network is through a series of exploits, where each exploit in the series satisfies the precondition for subsequent exploits and makes a causal relationship among them. Such a series of exploits constitutes an attack path and the set of all possible attack paths form an attack graph. Even the well administered networks are susceptible to such attacks as present day vulnerability scanners are only able to identify the vulnerabilities in isolation but there is a need for logical formalism and correlation among these vulnerabilities within a host or across multiple hosts to identify overall risk of the network. In this paper we propose a novel approach by map this problem in artificial intelligence domain and find out an attack path consisting of logically connected exploits, which essentially shows the minimum number of exploits required to gain access over a critical network resource. The solution is further extended to form an attack graph and find out the set of vulnerabilities which are the root cause for overall security threat towards enterprise network. The inherent time and scalability problem of attack graph generation is also taken care of in this approach. Once the set of vulnerabilities has been identified for rectification, the network administrator can then prioritize the vulnerability rectification procedure to make the network secure.