Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expanding Southwest Pacific mitochondrial haplogroups

In the report of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup variation in Near Oceania, the section on the calculation of expansion times from control region sequences was incorrect, producing elevated estimates. The authors’ attempt to expand the area of the control region used to estimate the coalescence time as a modification of the method of Forster et al. (1996), which was based on variation only across nps 16090-16365 of HVS1, was flawed by some tenuous assumptions. Replacement Table 1 presents the estimated expansion times for haplogroups P1, Q1, and Q2, using the identical method of Forster et al. (1996) for HVS1. The comparable RFLP estimate for P1 (Forster et al. 2001) is not significantly different, but the RFLP estimate for Q1 remains significantly younger than ours, presumably because of our five-fold increase in sample size. Newly identified Q2 has the most recent expansion estimate. The coding region estimated divergence time for Q1 and Q2 (combined) is 36,500 6 7,100 YBP, and for Q as a whole, 44,500 6 7,400 YBP, compared to 42,800 6 7,000 YBP for P1. These coding region estimates were calculated employing the commonly used technique of Saillard et al. (2000) with the estimated mutation rate of Mishmar et al. (2003). Therefore, P1 and Q remain excellent founding lineage candidates for ancient Near Oceania, which was settled by 42,000 YBP.
Mean-variance Portfolio Selection Problem with Vasicek Stochastic Interest Rates

This paper studies a continuous-time mean-variance portfolio selection problem with Vasicek stochastic interest rates. Compared with the mean-variance model with deterministic interest rate, a verification theorem without the classical Lipschitz and growth conditions is required to solve our portfolio selection problem. By using the stochastic dynamic programming principle and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation approach, the optimal investment strategy, the value function and the efficient frontier are derived in closed-form.
Word meaning and concept expressed

The concept expressed by the use of a word in a context often diverges from its lexically encoded context-independent meaning: it may be more specific or more general (or a combination of both) than the lexical meaning. Grasping the intended concept involves a pragmatic process of relevance-driven adjustment or modulation of the lexical meaning in interaction with the rest of the utterance and with contextual information. The issue addressed here is the nature of the input to the pragmatic process of meaning adjustment, that is, the nature of the standing (encoded) meaning of the word type. The widespread assumption that lexical meaning is conceptual, hence directly expressible, is challenged and a case made for the merits of an account of word type meaning in non-conceptual terms.
Impact of Implementation of Goods and Services Tax on Nifty 50 Index of National Stock Exchange of India

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of implementation of goods and services tax on national stock exchange (NSE) of India by considering nifty 50 index of NSE India and by applying event study technique. India embarked upon a new era of global practices by embracing and implementing goods and services tax on 1st July 2017 which was considered as the “event” for this study. Nifty 50 index daily data from 12th June 2017 to 21st July 2017 (t ± 14 days) are used for the study. The result of the study suggests that implementation of GST impacted nifty 50 index of NSE in a positive way resulting in abnormal returns which is statistically significant. The results of the study provide fresh evidences on our understanding about impact of structural changes on stock market in short-run to regulators, potential investors and high net worth individuals, fund managers, hedge funds and policymakers.
Anonymity and Language Usage : A Natural Experiment of Social Network Integration Research-in-Progress

The Internet creates an anonymous and non-authoritarian environment where people do not have social inhibitions and can express opinions freely. However, such disinhibition at times leads to abusive use of language and uncivil behavior in the online environment. This paper leverages data from a natural experiment on an online review platform that integrated social network platform personalization features, which exposes users in an anonymous environment to a social environment. Interestingly, our preliminary findings show that after the social network platform integration, users express more emotions (specifically, they become more positive but less negative), are less likely to use inappropriate language that include sexually explicit words or words that shows rage. Further, users are less egocentric and more social in their language use. We discuss the implication of this study for creating a civil online environment.
BUYER-SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP AND SUPPLIER RESPONSIVENESS: A CASE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS LISTED IN NAIROBI STOCK EXCHANGE, KENYA

This study sought to examine the influence of buyer-supplier relationships on the supplier responsiveness. The population of this study was manufacturing firms in Kenya, forming a total of 90 respondents. The sample size resulted to 48 respondents. Questionnaires were issued out to the respondents in their respective departmental functions. Stratified random sampling technique was used. Primary data was collected using the questionnaires and analyzed using both descriptive analysis and correlation techniques. Findings from the study revealed that buyer and suppliers in the manufacturing sector are in collaborative relationships which have enhanced the ability to respond fast and in conformance to the products and service requirements of the buyer. The study recommended that all firms in other sectors should embrace this nature of relationships. Also all firms should try to optimize their information systems in order to enjoy the full benefits of sharing information and hence improved supplier’s ability to respond to needs.
Geographical patterns for relict and young species of birds in Africa and South America and implications for conservation priorities

By comparing geographical patterns of old and new species with historical and ecological processes, interpretations can be made about time patterns of diversification. Such interpretations can form a basis for developing rationales for ranking biodiversity conservation priorities. The results of the comprehensive study of avian DNA were used to compare geographical distributions in Africa and South America of species of strong Plio-Pleistocene radiations and species representing older monophyletic branches. Striking patterns, some of them overlooked so far, were found. Most old species are widespread across a physiognomic and climatic domain, such as lowland rainforests, and therefore, are not specific conservation targets. In contrast, new species have evolved in well defined places with a special local environment, in particular in ecologically equable places inside geologically complex ecotonal regions. High species richness and taxonomic diversity, where maintained over wide areas by steady habitat alteration through patch dynamics, may be easiest to protect by general reforms that integrate regional development and protection of ecosystem services, rather than by strictly site-oriented projects. Areas of active speciation, although small, may have important regulatory functions and a critical role for maintaining 'evolutionary fronts'. The Tropical Andes Region includes a dozen such places. There is a congruence between the occurrence of old species which have relictual distributions and aggregates of limited-range component species of recent vicariance patterns, indicating that vicariance events take place mainly by isolation in extremely ecologically stable areas. Although these places do not necessarily have the highest taxic diversity, they should be top priorities for rapid and concentrated conserTvation action.
Transcending hardware limits with software out-of-order execution

Reducing the widening gap between processor and memory speed has been steering processors’ design over the last decade, as memory accesses became the main performance bottleneck. Out-of-order architectures attempt to hide memory latency by dynamically reordering instructions, while inorder architectures are restricted to static instruction schedules. We propose a software-hardware co-design to break out of the hardware limits of existing architectures and attain increased memory and instruction level parallelism by orchestrating coarse-grain out-of-program-order execution in software (SWOOP). On in-order architectures, SWOOP acts as a virtual reorder buffer (ROB) while out-of-order architectures are endowed with the ability to jump ahead to independent code, far beyond the reach of the ROB. We build upon the decoupled access-execute model, however, executed in a single superscalar pipeline and within a single thread of control. The compiler generates the Access and Execute code slices and orchestrates their execution out-of-order, with the support of frugal microarchitectural enhancements to maximize efficiency. SWOOP significantly improves the performance of memory-bound applications by 42% on in-order cores, and by 43% on out-of-order architectures. Furthermore, not only is SWOOP competitive with out-of-order cores which benefit from double-sized reorder buffers, but it is also considerably more energy efficient.
Marginal Noise Removal of Camera-Captured Label Images

This study is motivated by a project from a textile distributor, where printed labels are pasted on rolls of textiles for tracking purpose. Text information on the labels is to be read by human operators in various logistic operations. To improve the work efficiency, we would like to automate the information extraction process by first capturing an image of the label and then extracting text information using off-the-self Optical Character Recognition software package. In a typical label image, a label is surrounded by complex pattern corresponding to the texture of textile products and includes noise introduced by other factors of the environment such as lighting condition, reflection of the material. A vital step in achieving high accuracy is to effectively remove such noise. We propose to remove the noise in three steps. We prepared a large set of 190 label images from production environment and identified their corresponding ground truth manually to evaluate the performance of our method. Experimental results suggest that our method is very robust and produces good results on this set of test data and outperforms existing methods. Marginal Noise Removal of Camera-Captured Label Images Mengyang Liu, Wenbin Zhu, Chongshou Li, Andrew Lim aDepartment of Management Sciences, College of Business City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Ave, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong S.A. R bDepartment of Logistics and Maritime Studies, Faculty of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong S.A. R, Tel: +852 64067667, Fax: +852 34420189
Optimized lifting schemes based on ENO stencils for image approximation

In this paper, we propose to improve the classical lifting-based wavelet transforms by defining three classes of pixels which will be predicted differently. More specifically, the proposed idea is inspired by the Essentially Non-Oscillatory (ENO) transform and consists in shifting the stencil used for prediction in order to reduce the error near image singularities. Moreover, the different filters associated with these classes will be optimized in order to design a multiresolution representation well adapted to image characteristics. Our simulations show that the resulting multiscale representation leads to much lower amplitudes of the detail coefficients and improves the linear approximation properties.
Head-Initial Constructions in Japanese

Japanese is often taken to be strictly head-final in its syntax. In our work on a broad-coverage, precision implemented HPSG for Japanese, we have found that while this is generally true, there are nonetheless a few minor exceptions to the broad trend. In this paper, we describe the grammar engineering project, present the exceptions we have found, and conclude that this kind of phenomenon motivates on the one hand the HPSG type hierarchical approach which allows for the statement of both broad generalizations and exceptions to those generalizations and on the other hand the usefulness of grammar engineering as a means of testing linguistic hypotheses.
Nanoparticle-allergen interactions mediate human allergic responses

Background: Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) interact with different biomolecules as soon as they are in contact, resulting in the formation of a biomolecule ‘corona’. Hence, the ‘corona’ defines the biological identity of the ENMs and could affect the response of the immune system to ENM exposure. With up to 40 % of the world population suffering from type I allergy, a possible modulation of allergen effects by binding to ENMs is highly relevant with respect to work place and consumer safety. Therefore, the aim of this present study was to gain an insight into the interactions of gold nanoparticles with different seasonally and perennially occurring outdoor and indoor allergens. Methods: Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were conjugated with the major allergens of birch pollen (Bet v 1), timothy grass pollen (Phl p 5) and house dust mite (Der p 1). The AuNP-allergen conjugates were characterized by means of TEM negative staining, dynamic light scattering (DLS), z-potential measurements and hyperspectral imaging. Furthermore, 3D models were constructed, based on the characterization data, to visualize the interaction between the allergens and the AuNPs surface. Differences in the activation of human basophil cells derived from birch/grass pollenand house dust mite-allergic patients in response to free allergen and AuNP-allergen conjugates were determined using the basophil activation assay (BAT). Potential allergen corona replacement during BAT was controlled for using Western blotting. The protease activity of AuNP-Der p 1 conjugates compared to free Der p 1 was assessed, by an enzymatic activity assay and a cellular assay pertaining to lung type II alveolar epithelial cell tight junction integrity. Results: The formation of a stable corona was found for all three allergens used. Our data suggest, that depending on the allergen, different effects are observed after binding to ENMs, including enhanced allergic responses against Der p 1 and also, for some patients, against Bet v 1. Moreover elevated protease activity of AuNP-Der p 1 conjugates compared to free Der p 1 was found. Conclusion: In summary, this study presents that conjugation of allergens to ENMs can modulate the human allergic response, and that protease activity can be increased.
Decentralised Runtime Monitoring for Access Control Systems in Cloud Federations

Cloud federation is an emergent cloud-computing paradigm where partner organisations share data and services hosted on their own cloud platforms. In this context, it is crucial to enforce access control policies that satisfy data protection and privacy requirements of partner organisations. However, due to the distributed nature of cloud federations, the access control system alone does not guarantee that its deployed components cannot be circumvented while processing access requests. In order to promote accountability and reliability of a distributed access control system, we present a decentralised runtime monitoring architecture based on blockchain technology.
Bridging the gap between cognitive neuroscience and education: psychophysiological and behavioral data collection in authentic contexts

Psychophysiological correlates of learning and performance are currently viewed as an important source of information for the improvement of many spheres of human activity, including the field of education. Studies in neuroeducation are likely to benefit from the concomitant analysis of different levels in the cognitive architecture (psychophysiological, cognitive, and social cognitive). The case study reported herein is concerned with the psychophysiological and cognitive levels. The objective is to test a methodology permitting, on the one hand, to relate data from EEG and data from a thinkaloud procedure collected simultaneously during the performance of a problemsolving task in a semantically-complex domain and, on the other hand, to test hypotheses regarding functional relationships between those levels. During a two-hour experiment, a single participant planned remedial reading activities on the basis of a description of a student having reading difficulties. The procedure for data preparation is presented. Then, as an illustration of the methodology, hypotheses involving both levels are tested. Results show that the methodology can establish correlational relations between targeted levels in terms of cooccurrence of cognitive and psychophysiological states. They also show that an EEG trace transformed into 1-second intervals characterizing brain states is not sufficiently fine-grained to test causal relationships based on the temporality of the data. This study stresses the need to explore the phenomenon of rapidlytransitioning psychophysiological microstates in the context of neuroeducational research.
Hybrid Intelligent System for Face Recognition from Surveillance Camera

Intelligent systems have been widely used for face recognition. Among them Support Vector Machine (SVM) was recognized as a powerful recognition model. However, handling the problem of recognizing a faces from surveillance camera is difficult task due to that it encounter a variation in pose, resolution, as well as illumination. In this work, evolutionary constructed SVM-based intelligent system will be developed. Particularly, the developed system comprises the hybridization of Gray Wolfe Optimizer (GWO) [1] with SVM. DE is used to construct an efficient SVM recognition model by performing simulations parameters tuning, training instances selection, and features selection. To evaluate the performances of the presented model, a number of benchmarks for surveillance-based face recognition problem will be used such as ChokePoint, UCSD/Honda, CMU, and YouTube Faces (YTF) database. Keywords— Intellgient system, gray wolfe optimization, support vector machine, hybrid system, face recognition, surveillance camera.
Do triglycerides provide meaningful information about heart disease risk?

BACKGROUND Prior research suggests that adding triglyceride determinations to measurements of total cholesterol and cholesterol subfractions may improve the prediction of coronary heart disease (CHD). OBJECTIVE To determine the additional value of measuring triglyceride levels, in addition to cholesterol levels and subfractions, for predicting CHD. STUDY DESIGN A set of secondary analyses of previously reported studies. METHODS We performed secondary analyses of data from the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial, and the Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence and Mortality Follow-Up Study. Predictor variables included the levels of fasting triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose; age; blood pressure; cigarette smoking; body mass index; and postmenopausal estrogen use. Analytic methods included Cox proportional hazards models, calculation of stratified crude incidence rates, and measurement of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Outcome variables were fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarctions. RESULTS With few exceptions, no significant interactions between cholesterol subfractions and triglyceride levels were found and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed that triglyceride measurements did not improve discrimination between those subjects who did and did not suffer CHD events. In men, categorical analyses employing both triglyceride and cholesterol levels were similar to those using cholesterol categories alone. In the one study of women, those subjects with both a high-risk cholesterol profile and high triglyceride levels were more likely to have a CHD event, though this finding was based on fewer subjects and CHD events. CONCLUSION These data suggest that, in men, measurement of serum triglyceride levels does not provide clinically meaningful information about CHD risk beyond that obtainable by measurement of serum cholesterol subfractions alone.
Classification Model Based on Kohonen Maps

The standard Kohonen map uses unsupervised learning and single Kohonen layer, which allows the usage for clustering and visualization. The number of model parameters is relatively small and their settings are therefore not so complicated. The aim of this paper is to introduce three modifications of this basic model so that it can be used for classification tasks. The first change is the transition to supervised learning by adding input data about the required outputs. The second modification is the implementation of the hierarchical model structure to improve the classification results. The third extension is the implementation of an optimization mechanism for setting the parameters of the model because the number of model parameters was extended and their adjustment was more difficult. The results of the experiments with modified model will be presented too.
∑ Conventional Survey Installation : 4 Implementation : 8 Testing : 4 16 Design : 1 Implementation : 4 Testing : 1 6 Re-usable Gamification Design : 14 Implementation : 28 Testing

Gamification of online surveys has been shown to be effective for improving user experience and data quality. However, the precise effects of isolated game elements is unknown and survey gamification requires a lot of effort. This work proposes the use of just a single game element as a novel low-cost approach. It presents evaluation results from a case study where an existing survey was gamified using the popular game element of achievement badges. Results show that the badges improved the user experience but did not influence the respondents’ behavior. These benefits are similar to related work but have been achieved with a lower effort. In summary, the case study indicates our low-cost approach to be viable and efficient for survey gamification, and achievement badges to be well-suited for gamified online surveys.
Molecular characterization of Candida in the oral cavity and factors involved in biofilm formation and virulence

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