Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The gravitational million-body problem

We review what has been learned recently using N-body simulations about the evolution of globular clusters. While simulations of star clusters have become more realistic, and now include the evolution of single and binary stars, the prospect of reaching large enough N is still a distant one. Nevertheless more restricted kinds of simulations have recently brought valuable progress for certain problems of current observational interest, including the origin and structure of tidal tails of globular clusters. In addition, such simulations have forced us to rethink some basic aspects of stellar dynamics, including, in particular, the process of escape. Finally we turn to faster, approximate methods for studying star cluster dynamics, where the role of N-body simulations is one of calibration.
Accelerating the computation of portfolios of tranched credit derivatives

Huge growth in the trading and complexity of credit derivative instruments over the past five years has driven the need for ever more computationally demanding mathematical models. This has led to massive growth in data center compute capacity, power and cooling requirements. We report the results of an on-going joint project between J.P. Morgan and specialist acceleration solutions provider Maxeler Technologies to improve the price-performance for calculating the value and risk of a large complex credit derivatives portfolio. Our results show that valuing tranches of Collateralized Default Obligations (CDOs) on Maxeler accelerated systems is over 30 times faster per cubic foot and per Watt than solutions using standard multi-core Intel Xeon processors. We also report some preliminary results of further work that extends the approach to classes of interest rate derivatives.
Some factors of success for origin labelled products in agri-food supply chains in europe: market, internal resources and institutions

This paper provides an overview of a FAIR research project into the specific conditions and institutional requirements for the development of PDO and PGI products (Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication). The research project is to be completed in 1999 and it is hoped that the assessments and recommendations made will help in harmonising the implementation of European Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92. Twenty-one supply chains in seven countries are analysed (France, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, UK, Spain and Switzerland). The primary factor in success is the capacity of a set of firms in a supply chain based in a particular area to effectively coordinate such matters as the identification of joint objectives, definition and control of quality, variety management, image promotion, and research & development. Market characteristics are secondary factors in success. Following Bouquin (1986) we draw a distinction between effectiveness and efficiency. Emphasising the crucial step of goal setting (effectiveness) may highlight the relevance of internal resources and competencies of a set of firms, according to Teece (1981). This explains why the set of firms manages not only to react to their environment but also to influence it. This approach is consistent with a number of rationality and organisation models proposed by Simon (1976). This kind of transition from individual to collective forms of management shows a possible link between an approach in terms of hybrid forms (efficiency) and an approach in terms of core competence (effectiveness). We end with an evaluation of Reg. (EEC) 2081/92 and highlight a number of problems with its implementation.
Analýza EEG signálu jako biomarker schizofrenie

Schizofrenie patři mezi komplexni onemocněni postihujici prakticky vsechny roviny lidskeho života. Diplomova prace se zaměřuje na možnosti využiti pokrocilých analýz elektroencefalografie (EEG) pro identifikaci osob trpicich schizofrenii ve smyslu biologickeho markeru. Analýza je zaměřena na emocni rozměr subjektivniho prožitku klidoveho EEG v kontextu teze frontalnich alfa asymetrii. Dale poskytuje exploracni poznatky spektralni konektivity podkorových oblasti mozku.
The Consequences of Chorioamnionitis: Preterm Birth and Effects on Development

Preterm birth is a major cause of perinatal mortality and long-term morbidity. Chorioamnionitis is a common cause of preterm birth. Clinical chorioamnionitis, characterised by maternal fever, leukocytosis, tachycardia, uterine tenderness, and preterm rupture of membranes, is less common than subclinical/histologic chorioamnionitis, which is asymptomatic and defined by inflammation of the chorion, amnion, and placenta. Chorioamnionitis is often associated with a fetal inflammatory response. The fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS) is defined by increased systemic inflammatory cytokine concentrations, funisitis, and fetal vasculitis. Clinical and epidemiological studies have demonstrated that FIRS leads to poor cardiorespiratory, neurological, and renal outcomes. These observations are further supported by experimental studies that have improved our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for these outcomes. This paper outlines clinical and experimental studies that have improved our current understanding of the mechanisms responsible for chorioamnionitis-induced preterm birth and explores the cellular and physiological mechanisms underlying poor cardiorespiratory, neural, retinal, and renal outcomes observed in preterm infants exposed to chorioamnionitis.
An Evaluation of Narrow Hybrid Zones in Vertebrates

A review of the literature on vertebrate hybridization reveals the existence of a number of narrow hybrid zones. Three hypotheses have been suggested to explain the occurrence of these zones. The ephemeral-zone hypothesis states that hybridization will end either in speciation or fusion of the hybridizing taxa by means of introgression. The dynamic-equilibrium hypothesis allows the possibility that narrow hybrid zones might be stable: where hybrids are confined to a small area by steep selection gradients, "crystalization" of an antihybridization mechanism might be prevented by naive immigrants from the parental populations eve though hybrids are selected against. The hybrid-superiority hypothesis states that hybrids are more fit than parental phenotypes in some environments. The ephemeral-zone hypothesis fails to explain the antiquity and apparent stability of several hybrid zones. The dynamic-equilibrium hypothesis does not adequately explain the persistence of hybrid populations that do not receive a substantial influx of genes from both parental populations. The hybrid-superiority hypothesis is consistent with the various sizes, shapes, and positions reported for stable hybrid zones because, under this hypothesis, the range of a hybrid population is determined by the range of environmental conditions within which the hybrids are superior. Although there are exceptions, most vertebrate hybrid zones are, in fact, narrow. The hybrid-superiority hypothesis must accommodate this fact. The additional hypothesis is offered that hybrids, in some cases, can succeed in environments where competition from parental phenotypes is weak. Thus, hybrid populations are often found in areas devoid of stable ecological communities. Ecotones are one such area, and I suggest that stable hybrid zones are often narrow because they tend to occur in ecotones which are themselves narrow.
Tunable, a VR reconstruction of "Listening to a Guqin" from emperor Zhao Ji

With rumors of painted by the Emperor Zhao Ji, who subjugated his nation of Song, as a portrait of himself and his corrupted courtiers Cai Jing and Tong Guan. The work of art has been highly valued not only for being a masterpiece of the painter's unique portrait painting but also for its superb skills in composition, ingenuity, shaping, depicting and tinting. With a portrait aspect ratio so tall and thin of 1:3, the painter arranged all the figure and surroundings in the bottom half and the figures themselves bottom quarter only. The composition leaves out the space for sky and ground as the skill in later ages named "blank leaving", results in an ethereal and detached individual space, the orientation of still objects and figures wraps up the space towards inside while the pine tree reaching high up to the sky extended the dimension in altitude. Thus, the consideration of space makes it suitable for being a reference of recreation in virtual reality. The Tunable laid its foundation on prior research in the background and content of the painting and then step further in textual research of objects while bringing back the core elements hidden behind the image, the music. The painter and emperor compressed the feeling of music and motion into a still image, yet we are trying to bring it back to life.
Using Machine Learning Techniques to Interpret WH-questions

We describe a set of supervised machine learning experiments centering on the construction of statistical models of WH-questions. These models, which are built from shallow linguistic features of questions, are employed to predict target variables which represent a user's informational goals. We report on different aspects of the predictive performance of our models, including the influence of various training and testing factors on predictive performance, and examine the relationships among the target variables.
T helper cell polarisation as a measure of the maturation of the immune response.

BACKGROUND: T helper cell polarisation is important under chronic immune stimulatory conditions and drives the type of the evolving immune response. Mice treated with superantigens in vivo display strong effects on Th subset differentiation. The aim of the study was to detect the intrinsic capacity of T cells to polarise under various ex vivo conditions. METHODS: Purified CD4+ T cells obtained from super-antigen-treated mice were cultured under Th polarising conditions in vitro. By combining intracellular cytokine staining and subsequent flow cytometric analysis with quantitative cytokine measurements in culture supernatants by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the differential Th polarising capacity of the treatment can be detected in a qualitative and quantitative manner. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: BALB/c mice were shown to be biased to develop strong Th2 polarised immune responses using Th0 stimulation of purified CD4+ T cells from phosphate-buffered saline-treated mice. Nevertheless, our analysis methodology convincingly showed that even in these mice, Toxic Shock Syndrome Toxin-1 treatment in vivo resulted in a significantly stronger Th1 polarising effect than control treatment. Our results indicate that populations of Th cells can be assessed individually for their differential Th1 or Th2 maturation capacity in vivo by analysing robust in vitro polarisation cultures combined with intracellular cytokine staining and ELISA.
Teamscale: software quality control in real-time

When large software systems evolve, the quality of source code is essential for successful maintenance. Controlling code quality continuously requires adequate tool support. Current quality analysis tools operate in batch-mode and run up to several hours for large systems, which hampers the integration of quality control into daily development. In this paper, we present the incremental quality analysis tool Teamscale, providing feedback to developers within seconds after a commit and thus enabling real-time software quality control. We evaluated the tool within a development team of a German insurance company. A video demonstrates our tool: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=nnuqplu75Cg.
Comparison of solution space exploration by NSGA2 and SPEA2 for Flexible Job Shop Problem

In this paper, we present a new metric to evaluate the meta-heuristics by studying their exploration of the solution space. We propose an efficient representation of the solution space by a one-dimensional map. To evaluate the exploration of space, relative and absolute metrics have been proposed. For the tests, we used the NSGA2 and SPEA2 on Flexible Job Shop Problem (FJSP) with the objectives to reduce the makespan (C<sub>max</sub>) and to produce the jobs just in time (Σ<sup>N</sup><sub>i=1</sub> Z<sub>i</sub>, with Z<sub>i</sub> = T<sub>i</sub> + E<sub>i</sub>, T is the tardiness and E is the earliness). The results show that the NSGA2 explore more 6.78% solutions on average than SPEA2.
Evaluation I: Recidivism outcomes from a management program for youth who have committed a sexual crime

ABSTRACT Sexual offenders are among those most feared by society. This perception often results in removing such individuals from the community. Few studies have examined the outcomes of interventions that incorporate a comprehensive, collaborative approach between treatment and supervision providers. The current project examined the impact that efforts to manage youth adjudicated for a sexual offense (N = 400) in the community had on public safety. Results revealed that youth supervised under a more comprehensive community-based model had a significantly lower rate of felony recidivism than youth supervised under a traditional approach. Implications for treatment and supervision are discussed.
Pulsar Acceleration by Asymmetric Emission of Sterile Neutrinos

A convincing explanation for the observed pulsar large peculiar velocities is still missing. We argue that any viable particle physics solution would most likely involve the resonant production of a noninteracting neutrino νs of mass m ~ 20-50 keV. We propose a model where anisotropic magnetic field configurations strongly bias the resonant spin flavor precession of tau antineutrinos into νs. For internal magnetic fields Bint ≳ 1015 G, a τ-νs transition magnetic moment of the order of 10-12 Bohr magnetons is required. The asymmetric emission of νs from the core can produce sizable natal kicks and account for recoil velocities of several hundred kilometers per second.
Constrained portfolio rebalancing with transaction costs using Evolutionary Wavelet Hopfield Network Strategy

Portfolio rebalancing problem is an extension of the basic portfolio optimization problem in which invested portfolio is rebalanced by incurring proportional transaction costs. The constraints included in this problem formulation are basic, cardinality, bounding and class constraints. Due to complex constraints, the solution to the problem has been beyond the reach of traditional methods. Hence, heuristic approaches have been sought for its solution. In this paper, the empirical covariance matrix, which is one of the primary inputs to the constrained portfolio rebalancing problem, is initially de-noised using wavelet shrinkage de-noising technique for proper estimation of risk. Secondly, cardinality constraint is eliminated by employing k-means cluster analysis. Finally, the proposed Evolutionary Wavelet Hopfield Network Strategy (EWHNS) with weight standardization procedures is employed to solve a class of portfolio rebalancing problem. EWHNS reports faster convergence and efficiently handles diversification in both large and small portfolios. Experimental studies of EWHNS on newly proposed portfolio rebalancing problem have been undertaken on the Bombay Stock Exchange, India (BSE200 index, period: July 2001 – July 2006) and Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan (Nikkei225 index: period: March 2002 – March 2007) data sets and the results are compared with those obtained using Evolutionary Hopfield Network strategy (EHNS), the only existing alternative solution strategy for this proposed model. Finally, Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is also carried out to prove the efficiency of EWHNS over EHNN.
Critical reappraisal of embryo quality as a predictive parameter for pregnancy outcome: a pilot study

Aim of the study: Pilot study to analyse the efficacy and embryo morphology using a new human embryo culture medium (GM501) versus the conventional used medium (ISM1). Methods: Over a four-month period, all patients at the Leuven Institute of Fertility and Embryology (LIFE) were randomly allocated to have their embryos cultured in either the standard sequential culture medium ISM1 (control) or in a new universal medium (GM501) (study group). Primary outcome parameters were clinical pregnancy and live birth rate. The secondary outcome parameter was the correlation of embryo fragmentation rate with pregnancy outcome. Results: We did not observe any differences between the ISM1 control group and GM501 study group with regard to fertilization, pregnancy, implantation rates, ongoing pregnancy, and babies born. The number of embryos with a minimal fragmentation rate (less than 30%) was significantly higher in the GM501 study group. Conclusion: Although a significant higher embryo fragmentation rate was seen in In vitro culture of embryos in GM501, pregnancy outcome results were comparable to those of embryos cultured in ISM1. According to our results the value of embryo morphological criteria as a parameter for pregnancy outcome should be examined and discussed again.
Designing interaction behaviour in service-oriented enterprise application integration

In this paper we present an approach for designing interaction behaviour in service-oriented enterprise application integration. The approach enables business analysts to actively participate in the design of an integration solution. In this way, we expect that the solution meets its integration goal and business requirements. The approach consists of four steps: (i) represent the existing services to be integrated in platform-independent models; (ii) derive the models of the goals and business requirements of the services; (iii) check whether an abstract interaction representing the integration goal may occur between the services; and (iv) if so, (recursively) refine the interaction into a realisable design. The approach is characterised by an early check on the possibility of an integration solution, clear expressions of the integration goal and business requirements, and explicit use of the descriptions of the existing services as bottom-up knowledge during refinement. To support the approach, we present a set of patterns of interaction refinement as guidelines in refining abstract interactions.
Reasons for sex and relational outcomes in consensually nonmonogamous and monogamous relationships

Approximately 4% of individuals in North America participate in consensually nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships, wherein all partners have agreed to additional sexual and/or emotional partnerships. The CNM relationships are stigmatized and viewed as less stable and satisfying than monogamous relationships, a perception that persists despite research evidence. In our study, we assess the legitimacy of this negative perception by using a self-determination theory (SDT) framework to explore how sexual motivation impacts relational and sexual satisfaction among CNM and monogamous participants in romantic relationships. A total of 348 CNM (n = 142) and monogamous participants (n = 206) were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk. (2016). www.mturk. com) to complete a cross-sectional survey. Participants reported on their sexual motivations during their most recent sexual event, their level of sexual need fulfillment, and measures of sexual and relational satisfaction with their current (primary) partner. The CNM and monogamous participants reported similar reasons for engaging in sex, though CNM participants were significantly more likely to have sex for personal intrinsic motives. No differences in mean levels of relationship and sexual satisfaction were found between CNM and monogamous individuals. Participants who engaged in sex for more self-determined reasons reported increased relational and sexual satisfaction. This relationship was mediated by sexual need fulfillment; participants who reported more self-determined motives reported higher levels of need fulfillment and, in turn, greater relationship and sexual satisfaction. This study indicates that CNM and monogamous individuals report similar levels of satisfaction within their relationship(s) and that the mechanisms that affect relational and sexual satisfaction are similar for both CNM and monogamous individuals. Our research extends theoretical understandings of motivation within romantic relationships and suggests that SDT is a useful framework for considering the impact of sexual motivation on relational outcomes.
Attention-Gated Reinforcement Learning of Internal Representations for Classification

Animal learning is associated with changes in the efficacy of connections between neurons. The rules that govern this plasticity can be tested in neural networks. Rules that train neural networks to map stimuli onto outputs are given by supervised learning and reinforcement learning theories. Supervised learning is efficient but biologically implausible. In contrast, reinforcement learning is biologically plausible but comparatively inefficient. It lacks a mechanism that can identify units at early processing levels that play a decisive role in the stimulus-response mapping. Here we show that this so-called credit assignment problem can be solved by a new role for attention in learning. There are two factors in our new learning scheme that determine synaptic plasticity: (1) a reinforcement signal that is homogeneous across the network and depends on the amount of reward obtained after a trial, and (2) an attentional feedback signal from the output layer that limits plasticity to those units at earlier processing levels that are crucial for the stimulus-response mapping. The new scheme is called attention-gated reinforcement learning (AGREL). We show that it is as efficient as supervised learning in classification tasks. AGREL is biologically realistic and integrates the role of feedback connections, attention effects, synaptic plasticity, and reinforcement learning signals into a coherent framework.
Dirichlet Process Mixture Model with Spatial Constraints

Dirichlet process (DP) provides a nonparametric prior for the mixture model that allows for the automatic detection of the number of hidden states. Recent introduction of variational Bayesian (VB) inference as a deterministic approach makes it practical to large-scale realworld problems. However, the models proposed so far have intrinsic limitations when used on noisy datasets and in situations where spatial dependences play an important role. To overcome these limitations, in this work we incorporate spatial constraints into the Dirichlet process and model them using Markov Random Fields. The proposed model is within the original VB inference framework and therefore does not introduce additional computational complexity. The proposed model has a wide area of applications. It provides an alternative solution to the infinite hidden Markov model (even when the chain is non-homogeneous) and it can be used for 2D and 3D image segmentation and restorations. We tested our model using both artificial and real-world data sets and demonstrated that it outperforms the standard DP mixture model.
Bewegungswahrnehmung – die Illusion der Realität

Zusammenfassung Die geradlinige Bewegung eines Beobachters im Raum führt zu einer Expansion des projizierten Netzhautbildes. Bei Betrachtung der so genannten Pinna-Illusion entsteht zusätzlich zu der radialen Expansionsbewegung eine scheinbare Rotation. Das Zustandekommen dieser Scheinbewegung liefert wichtige Hinweise auf die der Bewegungswahrnehmung zugrunde liegenden neuronalen Mechanismen. Basierend auf experimentellen Daten und Berechnungsmodellen postulieren wir, dass die Rückkopplung kortikaler Erregung von höheren auf frühere Areale (hier MST auf MT) kardinale Bewegungsrichtungen (Expansion und Rotation) trennt. Diese Untersuchungen und ihre Ergebnisse können auch Grundlage für die Analyse und Interpretation der Befunde von Patienten sein, bei denen beispielsweise die räumliche Orientierungsfähigkeit beeinträchtigt ist.