Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing the Heterogeneity and Dynamism in Hybrid Mobile Applications

Today, the proliferation of mobile devices coupled with the widespread availability of the Internet is opening up new service opportunities in numerous areas. However, developing mobile applications turns out to be very challenging. Two major plagues are heterogeneity and the need for dynamic adaptation happening at runtime. Dealing with these aspects leads to several problems and impasses. In this paper, we present a service-oriented component model for the development of hybrid mobile applications. This model allows developers to produce mobile applications more rapidly and reduces maintenance costs. An in-depth evaluation on several industrial applications of this model is also presented showing its benefits.
ARBITRAGE-FREE OPTION PRICING MODELS

Abstract We describe a scheme for constructing explicitly solvable arbitrage-free models for stock price. This is used to study a model similar to one introduced by Cox and Ross, where the volatility of the stock is proportional to the square root of the stock price. We derive a formula for the value of a European call option based on this model and give a procedure for estimating parameters and for testing the validity of the model.
A gradient-based ordering for MIMO decoding

The ordering of the columns of the channel matrix has a deep impact in the performance of many decoding methods for MIMO problems. The most popular algorithms for computation of good orderings use as only input the channel matrix (such as the V-BLAST ordering). However, there are other interesting algorithms that compute the ordering as a function of the matrix and of the signal to be decoded. Here we propose a new gradient-based scheme to obtain a good ordering that uses as input the channel matrix and the signal to be decoded. In this paper, this new ordering method is compared experimentally with other algorithms, showing that it is an interesting method, specially in connection with Maximum Likelihood decoding algorithms such as Sphere Decoding algorithms.
Sloshing and slamming oscillations in a collapsible channel flow

We consider laminar high-Reynolds-number flow through a finite-length planar channel, where a portion of one wall is replaced by a thin massless elastic membrane that is held under longitudinal tension T and subject to a linear external pressure distribution. The flow is driven by a fixed pressure drop along the full length of the channel. We investigate the global stability of two-dimensional Poiseuille flow using a method of matched local eigenfunction expansions, which is compared to direct numerical simulations. We trace the neutral stability curve of the primary oscillatory instability of the system, illustrating a transition from high-frequency ‘sloshing’ oscillations at high T to vigorous ‘slamming’ motion at low T. Small-amplitude sloshing at high T can be captured using a low-order eigenmode truncation involving four surface-based modes in the compliant segment of the channel coupled to Womersley flow in the rigid segments. At lower tensions, we show that hydrodynamic modes increasingly contribute to the global instability, and we demonstrate a change in the mechanism of energy transfer from the mean flow, with viscous effects being destabilizing. Simulations of finite-amplitude oscillations at low T reveal a generic slamming motion, in which the flexible membrane is drawn close to the opposite rigid wall before recovering rapidly. A simple model is used to demonstrate how fluid inertia in the downstream rigid channel segment, coupled to membrane curvature downstream of the moving constriction, together control slamming dynamics.
Immunogenic variants obtained by mutagenesis of mouse mastocytoma P815. I. Rejection by syngeneic mice

We have reported that it is possible to obtain variants that are incapable of forming progressive tumour in syngeneic mice (tum-) by mutagenesis and cloning of a teratocarcinoma and a Lewis lung carcinoma cell line. These observations were extended to the ascitic P815 mastocytoma of mouse strain DB/2. After a treatment with the mutagen N- methyl-N"-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, we obtained a high frequency (14%) of tum- clones. A colony assay indicated that after a period of rapid multiplication extending to approximately 10 d after injection, the P815 tum- cells were rejected by a process that was usually completed by day 15. No rejection was observed in sublethally irradiated animals. The immunological nature of the rejection of the P815 variants was further inferred because, upon rejection, the mice acquired a radioresistant specific protection that could be transferred adoptively with spleen cells. Cross-immunization patterns demonstrated the presence of singular antigenic specificities on three of the five variants that were examined. In addition, a common antigen was found on all the tum- variants and the original cells that were capable of forming progressive tumors in syngeneic mice (tum+). Mice injected with tum- cells were significantly protected against a tum+ challenge, even though no significant protection was generated by irradiated tum+ cells. A study of the T lymphocyte-mediated cytolysis against the P815 variants described here is presented in the accompanying report (9).
Spiraling downward: The reciprocal relation between attitude toward political behavioral targeting and privacy concerns

Tailored political messages are increasingly prevalent in election time, but we know little about how people perceive such data-driven and potentially privacy-infringing techniques. This article examines how demographics relate to privacy concerns and attitudes toward “political behavioral targeting” (PBT), how privacy concerns and attitudes toward PBT relate over time, and explore their relation with autonomy, electoral deliberation, and chilling effects. Using a three-wave panel study, administered in the Netherlands (N = 879), we examine a potential reciprocal relation between attitude toward PBT and privacy concerns, which may form a negative reinforcing spiral dynamic over time. This dynamic could result in undesirable behavior of the voter from a democratic viewpoint (e.g. chilling effects). We find that demographics fall short in explaining privacy concerns. More importantly, we find evidence for a reinforcing spiral dynamic and, by doing so, contribute to the discussion about the threats and promises of PBT to society.
MCL-1-independent mechanisms of synergy between dual PI3K/mTOR and BCL-2 inhibition in diffuse large B cell lymphoma

The PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis promotes survival and is a frequently mutated pathway in cancer. Yet, inhibitors targeting this pathway are insufficient to induce cancer cell death as single agents in some contexts, including diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In these situations, combinations with inhibitors targeting BCL-2 survival proteins (ABT-199 and ABT-263) may hold potential. Indeed, studies have demonstrated marked synergy in contexts where PI3K/mTOR inhibitors suppress expression of the pro-survival protein, MCL-1. In this study, we use BH3 profiling to confirm that BCL-2 and BCL-XL support survival following PI3K pathway inhibition, and that the dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor BEZ235 strongly synergizes with BCL-2 antagonists in DLBCL. However, we identify an alternative mechanism of synergy between PI3K/mTOR and BCL-2 inhibitors, independent of MCL-1 down-regulation. Instead, we show that suppression of AKT activation by BEZ235 can induce the mitochondrial accumulation of pro-apoptotic BAD and BIM, and that expression of a constitutively active form of AKT prevents sensitization to BCL-2 antagonism. Thus, our work identifies an additional mechanism of synergy between PI3K pathway inhibitors and BCL-2 antagonists that strengthens the rationale for testing this combination in DLBCL.
Data aggregation using spatial and temporal data correlation

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the major challenge for sensor nodes is to send sensed data to sink in an energy efficient way due to limited energy of sensor nodes. Data Aggregation protocols are applied to maximize lifetime of sensor nodes and hence of wireless sensor networks. The approach of normal routing protocols relies only on sending data to sink from sensors without considering energy available with nodes. This means that lot of redundant transmissions occur in WSNs. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a novel Spatial and Temporal Data Correlation algorithm for Data Aggregation (DASTDC). Our algorithm uses the features of spatial relationship in data along with the time based prediction of data to minimize the loss of energy by less number of transmissions. This algorithm improves the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks and almost eliminates the redundancy due to forwarding of essential data to nodes.
Killing spectroscopy of closed timelike curves

We analyse the existence of closed timelike curves in spacetimes which possess an isometry. In particular we check which discrete quotients of such spaces lead to closed timelike curves. As a by-product of our analysis, we prove that the notion of existence or non-existence of closed timelike curves is a T-duality invariant notion, whenever the direction along which we apply such transformations is everywhere spacelike. Our formalism is straightforwardly applied to supersymmetric theories. We provide some new examples in the context of D-branes and generalized pp-waves.
Statistical Properties of the Site-Frequency Spectrum Associated with Λ-Coalescents

Statistical properties of the site-frequency spectrum associated with Λ-coalescents are our objects of study. In particular, we derive recursions for the expected value, variance, and covariance of the spectrum, extending earlier results of Fu (1995) for the classical Kingman coalescent. Estimating coalescent parameters introduced by certain Λ-coalescents for data sets too large for full-likelihood methods is our focus. The recursions for the expected values we obtain can be used to find the parameter values that give the best fit to the observed frequency spectrum. The expected values are also used to approximate the probability a (derived) mutation arises on a branch subtending a given number of leaves (DNA sequences), allowing us to apply a pseudolikelihood inference to estimate coalescence parameters associated with certain subclasses of Λ-coalescents. The properties of the pseudolikelihood approach are investigated on simulated as well as real mtDNA data sets for the high-fecundity Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Our results for two subclasses of Λ-coalescents show that one can distinguish these subclasses from the Kingman coalescent, as well as between the Λ-subclasses, even for a moderate (maybe a few hundred) sample size.
Lessons learned with ACME an environment integration experiment

ACME is an integration experiment with Marvel (a process centered environment) and ConversationBuilder (a CSCW system). Scrutiny, a collaborative software inspection system built with ConversationBuilder, is the subject application that operates in the integrated environment. The integration methodologies used by ACME are control integration, data integration, and tool integration. This paper describes the components and conceptual design of ACME and the effect that ACME has on the operation of Scrutiny. It also describes the lessons learned during this project. These lessons are categorized into those concerned with concept validation, integration issues, system design issues, software agent integration, and implementation and testing issues.
Scaling laws for diamond chemical‐vapor deposition. I. Diamond surface chemistry

A simplified model of the gas-surface chemistry occurring during chemical-vapor deposition of diamond thin films is presented. The model results in simple scaling relations, useful for process scale-up and optimization, for growth rate and defect density in terms of the local chemical environment at the substrate. A simple two-parameter expression for growth rate is obtained, which with suitable parameter choices reproduces the results of more detailed mechanisms and experiment over two orders of magnitude in growth rate. The defect formation model suggests that the achievable growth rate at specified defect density scales approximately quadratically with the atomic hydrogen concentration at the substrate.
Semi-Explicit Parallel Programming in a Purely Functional Style: GpH

Declarative programming languages can play an important role in the process of designing and implementing parallel systems. They bridge the gap between a high-level specification, with proven properties of the overall system, and the execution of the system on real hardware. Efficiently exploiting parallelism on a wide range of architectures is a challenging task and should in our view be handled by a sophisticated runtime environment. Based on this design philosophy we have developed and formalised Glasgow parallel Haskell (GpH), and implemented it as a conservative extension of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler. The high-level nature of declarative languages eases the task of mapping an algebraic specification down to executable code. In fact, the operational components of the specification can already be considered an implementation, with the associated properties acting as assertions in the program. Based on a formal model of the declarative language, the validity of these properties can be established by manual proof, which works on a level of detail similar to the specification language itself. Many operational aspects, usually complicating a proof of an implementation, do not come into the picture at this level. Most importantly, unnecessary sequentialisation of the code is avoided. However, the goal of implicit parallelism has proven an elusive one. Often the automatically generated parallelism is too fine-grained to be efficient. In other cases the data-dependencies between expressions prohibit the generation of a sufficient amount of parallelism. Thus, we employ an approach of semiexplicit parallelism, where only potential parallelism has to be annotated in a program, and all aspects of coordination are delegated to the runtime environment. A corresponding formal model, in the form of a structured operational semantics, handling pools of both realised and potential parallelism, is used to establish the correctness of programs employing semi-explicit parallelism. The runtime environment itself is capable of synchronising parallelism, using automatic blocking on data under evaluation, and by simulating virtual shared memory across networks of machines. Being embedded into the optimised runtime environment for a sequential language, we achieve efficient execution of a high-level language, close to the original specification language, while minimising the programmer effort in parallelising the code and being scalable to large-scale applications that can be executed on heterogeneous networks and computational Grids.
Etude comparative des effets du caractère social des conduites sur l'acceptabilité des services de maintien à domicile chez les personnes âgées

This paper examines usage acceptance of "aging in place" services dedicated to elderly people. The aim of this study is to investigate causal link between behaviour prediction and service intention to use. Besides direct effects of utility and usability on behaviour intention, we expected that prescriptive behaviour would be best predict by social determinants rather than other behaviours. We tested our hypothesis with 157 elderly people (M: 75, 1 years old; SD: 6, 5). Using Partial Least Square path modelling approach (SmartPLS software), our findings tend to demonstrate on the one hand that utility and usability have direct link with behaviour intention. On the other hand, subjective norms and attitudes influence alternately intention when service behaviour imply prescription.
Size Matters: Why Managers Should Pursue Corporate Growth, Even at the Expense of Shareholder Value

The fact that managers pursue corporate growth and diversification as a primary objective, and that this objective might be contrary to other corporate goals, is well established. For example, Adams and Brock in The Bigness Complex note that “America’s corporate giants have not performed well over the last fifteen years.Bigness has not delivered the goods, and thus fact is no longer a secret” (1986, p. xi). Recent evidence to support this claim is provided in an extensive empirical study by Ramezani, Soenen, and Jung who analyze several thousand firms over a period of eleven years from 1990 through 2000. They define corporate growth in terms of the growth rate in sales, and shareholder value in terms of both economic value added (EVA) and abnormal stock-market returns. (These definitions of corporate growth and shareholder value are used throughout this paper.) They conclude that “although the corporate profitability measures generally rise with earnings and sales growth, an optimal point exists beyond which further growth and sales growth, an optimal point exists beyond which further growth destroys shareholder value. ” (2002, p. 56). They note that many firms go beyond this optimal point and conclude that “corporate managers need to abandon the habit of blindly increasing company size” (p. 65).
Pathways and Networks-Based Analysis of Candidate Genes Associated with Nicotine Addiction

Nicotine is the addictive substance in tobacco and it has a broad impact on both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Over the past decades, an increasing number of genes potentially involved in nicotine addiction have been identified by different technical approaches. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying nicotine addiction remain largely unclear. Under such situation, a comprehensive analysis focusing on the overall functional characteristics of these genes, as well as how they interact with each other will provide us valuable information to understand nicotine addiction. In this study, we presented a systematic analysis on nicotine addiction-related genes to identify the major underlying biological themes. Functional analysis revealed that biological processes and biochemical pathways related to neurodevelopment, immune system and metabolism were significantly enriched in the nicotine addiction-related genes. By extracting the nicotine addiction-specific subnetwork, a number of novel genes associated with addiction were identified. Moreover, we constructed a schematic molecular network for nicotine addiction via integrating the pathways and network, providing an intuitional view to understand the development of nicotine addiction. Pathway and network analysis indicated that the biological processes related to nicotine addiction were complex. Results from our work may have important implications for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying nicotine addiction.
Discovery of an Escherichia coli channel with High voltage Dependence and Cooperativity

Title of dissertation: DISCOVERY OF AN ESCHERICHIA COLI CHANNEL WITH HIGH VOLTAGE DEPENDENCE AND COOPERATIVITY. Shang-Hsuan Lin, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Professor Marco Colombini Department of Biology Channels are essential for controlling the permeability of cellular membranes. The regulation of channel gating therefore plays an important role physiologically. Voltage-gating is one of the regulations that cells utilize wherein the change in transmembrane potential cause conformational changes in channels. Here a novel bacterial channel from Escherichia coli with remarkable voltage-gating properties is reported. When the channel-forming protein was reconstituted into a planar phospholipid membrane, two different types of channel activities were observed. Type A is weakly cation-selective, with a single channel conductance about 1.5 nS (in 1M KCl solution), corresponding to a pore size of 0.9 nm. High positive voltages cause step-wise closures. Type B is voltage-independent, with much larger and noisier conductance. When LaCl3 was added, Type B channels first showed a decrease in conductance, and the residual conductance became voltage-gated, indistinguishable from Type A channels. Under triangular voltage waves, more interesting voltage-gating behaviors were revealed. The single conducting unit seems to be composed of three channels, each with the identical 1.5 nS conductance (namely channel ○1E A, channel A○2E A, and channel A○3E A). Based on the voltages at which they close/reopen, and the sequence of their closure/reopening, a model was proposed as follows. All three channels are proposed to be molecularly identical but, channel A○1E A and channel A○3E A have the same orientation, which is opposite to that of channel A○2E A. Altogether these three channels form the conducting unit in a linear array. The voltage sensor domain of each channel is proposed to take the form of a dipole moment. The interaction between dipole moments of the channels, each with an opposite orientation with its neighbor(s), leads to the impressively high cooperativity between channels. Although the physiological roles of these channels are not clear yet, the remarkably steep voltage dependence (n~14) rivals that of the channels in excitable membranes. DISCOVERY OF AN ESCHERICHIA COLI CHANNEL WITH HIGH VOLTAGE DEPENDENCE AND COOPERATIVITY.
Mapping queries to questions: towards understanding users' information needs

In this paper, for the first time, we study the problem of mapping keyword queries to questions on community-based question answering (CQA) sites. Mapping general web queries to questions enables search engines not only to discover explicit and specific information needs (questions) behind keywords queries, but also to find high quality information (answers) for answering keyword queries. In order to map queries to questions, we propose a ranking algorithm containing three steps: Candidate Question Selection, Candidate Question Ranking, and Candidate Question Grouping. Preliminary experimental results using 60 queries from search logs of a commercial engine show that the presented approach can efficiently find the questions which capture user's information needs explicitly.
The temporal nature of affordance: an investigation using EEG and TMS

Affordances play a part in how we prepare to handle objects. Tools and other manipulable objects are said to automatically “afford” various actions depending upon the motor repertoire of the actor. Evidence obtained through behavioural experiments, fMRI, EEG and TMS has proven that this is the case but, as yet, the temporal evolution of affordances has not been fully investigated. Determining the critical time-scale may have significance to patients with brain damage or motor disorders when attempting object manipulation. There are many other factors involved in therapy but it is worth considering that there could be an optimum period of time to view an object before the benefit of an automatic affordance is no longer available. In a series of experiments using the novel approach of positioning the participant’s dominant hand closer to or further from the object being viewed, together with use of three dimensional stimuli, and through application of behavioural assays, TMS pulses and EEG recordings, this research examined temporal properties of affordances in young healthy control subjects. Verification of this motoric activity by EEG led to investigating chronic phase stroke survivors with remaining upper limb deficits and comparing their brain activity with age-matched control participants. As EEG and TMS both have good temporal properties, they are ideal converging methodologies for this kind of investigation. By mapping how affordances develop and dissipate, this work has yielded pure scientific advances in the field of motor decision making. Further, it has resulted in suggestions for future research relating to a possible method to improve rehabilitation interventions for patients who are neurologically impaired by stroke.