Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Data-driven Travel Demand Modelling and Agent-based Traffic Simulation in

The goal of this project is the development of a large-scale agent-based traffic simulation system for Amsterdam urban area, validated on sensor data and adjusted for decision support in critical situations and for policy making in sustainable city development, emission control and electric car research. In this paper we briefly describe the agent-based simulation workflow and give the details of our datadriven approach for (1) modeling the road network of Amsterdam metropolitan area extended by major national roads, (2) recreating the car owners population distribution from municipality demographic data, (3) modeling the agent activity based on travel survey, and (4) modeling the inflow and outflow boundary conditions based on the traffic sensor data. The models are implemented in scientific Python and MATSim agent-based freeware. Simulation results of 46.5 thousand agents -with travel plans sampled from the model distributionsshow that travel demand model is consistent, but should be improved to correspond with sensor data. The next steps in our project are: extensive validation, calibration and testing of large-scale scenarios, including critical events like the major power outage in the Netherlands (doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.11.039), and modelling emissions and heat islands caused by traffic jams.
Perils and Pitfalls in Cross-Cultural Evaluation: Thoughtful Reflections on Blunt's Rejoinder

Gerald E. Fryxell Department of Management, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.A. I was initially stunned by Professor Blunt’s unmistakably personal attack on the heels of my article relating certain experiences from my year-long appointment at the Eastern and Southern African Management Training Institute (O.S. 13/1): 111-117, 118-119). I think it is without precedent in an academic journal and I certainly didn’t enjoy being its victim. While my first reaction was to pray for minimal readership, I’ve now come full circle and hope that both articles are widely read. Allow me to suggest the following order: first, read the short statement on the front inside cover of
Evaluating the Earth Mover's Distance for measuring symbolic melodic similarity

We present two variants of an algorithm for measuring melodic similarity. The algorithm is based on the Earth Mover’s Distance (EMD), which measures the amount of work one needs to transform one weighted point set into another. We describe how to represent melodies as weighted point sets and how to apply the EMD to compare them. The simpler algorithm variant first uses an evolutionary algorithm for finding a good alignment of two weighted point sets and then applies the EMD. We also present a second, more complicated algorithm which segments the query, thereby improving partial matching and making the method more robust against fluctuations of tempo or pitch within the query. The first algorithm is then used for the segments, and the results for individual segments are combined into one overall result. The more complicated algorithm was submitted to MIREX. Out of the other algorithms submitted to MIREX, three performed better than ours and three performed worse. We believe that although our result looks mediocre at first glance, our similarity measure still deserves to be developed further because of its built-in tolerance against distortions of the query and because of its continuity.
Experiments with Simple Hebbian-based Learning Rules in Pattern Classification Tasks

This report presents a neural network architecture which performs pattern classiication using a simple form of learning based on the Hebb rule. The work was motivated by the desires to decrease computational complexity and to maintain a greater degree of biological plausibility than most other networks designed to perform similar tasks. A method of pre-processing the inputs to provide a distributed representation is described. A scheme for increasing the power of the network using a layer of`feature detectors' is introduced: these use an unsupervised competitive learning scheme, again based on Hebbian learning. Simulation results from testing the networks on twòreal-world' problems are presented, and compared to those produced by other types of neural network.
Passive walking with knees

It is shown that passive dynamic walking, a phenomenon originally described for bipeds having straight legs, also works with knees. Thus, giving only a downhill slope as a source of energy, a human-like pair of legs will settle into a natural gait generated by the passive interaction of gravity and inertia. No muscular input is required. The physics is much the same as in straight-legged walking, but the knee-jointed form has two advantages: it offers a simple solution to the problem of foot clearance during the recovery phase, and, in some cases, it is more stable. <<ETX>>
Problems in supporting data base transactions in an operating system transaction manager

This paper reports on the experience of the authors in attempting to support data base transactions on top of an existing operating system transaction manager. It will be seen that significant modifications to both the example data base system and the example operating system are required to support the concept. The conclusion to be drawn is that operating system transaction managers will have to be designed more generally than is now suggested and that application programs (such as data base systems) will have to participate in the transaction management process.
[Loss of heterozygosity and microsatellite instability in the region including BRCA1 of breast cancer in Chinese].

OBJECTIVE To shed light on the relationship between BRCA1 gene and breast cancer in Chinese Han women. METHODS Four microsatellites DNA (D17S855, D17S579, D17S1327 and THRA1) within the BRCA1 gene were used as polymorphic markers. A study of loss of heterozygosity(LOH) and microsatellite instability(MSI) at the above- mentioned 4 microsatellites of 50 breast cancer patients was conducted by using PCR -PAUGE-DNA silver staining (polymerase chain reaction-polyacrylamide urea gel electrophoresis) method. RESULTS Twenty-nine or 58% of the informative cases showed LOH; 35.71%, 15. 38%, 18.18%, and 26.19% of the informative cases showed positive LOH at the D17S855, D17S579, D17S1327 and THRA1 loci respectively. The rate of MSI was 46%, and the rates of MSI at the four loci were 16%, 18%, 18% and 12% respectively. Further study on the associations between the phenomena of LOH and MSI and different clinical stages revealed that MSI was an early event in mammary tumorigenesis while LOH occurred at a later stage. CONCLUSION All of these suggest that breast cancer in Chinese be somehow linked to BRCA1.
When L1 becomes an L3: Do heritage speakers make better L3 learners?*

Heritage speakers who re-learn their childhood language in adulthood are an important group for the study of L3 acquisition. Such re-learners have selective advantages over other L2/L3 learners in phonetics/phonology, but lack a global advantage at re-learning the prestige variety of their L1. These learners show asymmetrical transfer effects in morphosyntax: transfer occurs only from the dominant language. Two tentative explanations for this asymmetry are suggested. First, re-learners may deploy the skills acquired in a classroom setting, where they have used only their dominant language. Second, re-learners may implicitly strive to increase the typological distance between their childhood language and the language of classroom instruction. These findings have implications for models of L3/Ln learning: the Cumulative Enhancement Model, the Typological Proximity Model, and the L2 Status Factor Model. The data discussed in this paper are most consistent with the latter model, but they also highlight the significance of the typological distance between languages under acquisition.
Attack and Response in Political Campaigns: An Experimental Study in Two Parts

Although there is evidence that negative advertising “works” at least some of the time, little is known about how candidates should respond when they are attacked. In this study, we proceed from the assumption that hard-hitting attacks on relevant topics (those that speak to how someone will perform in office), if well-crafted and credible, are most likely to have the desired outcome and, hence, are the ones that targeted candidates can least afford to ignore. We use data from two experiments, first, to confirm this assumption and, second, to assess the relative effectiveness of five response types: counterattacks, denials, counterimaging, justifications, and charges of mudslinging. Our results suggest that while some responses work better than others, there are a variety of ways, both positive and negative, to “reframe” a campaign attack so as to diminish its potential impact on voters.
Tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica

An uncommon case of tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica in a 52-year-old woman is reported, the fifth example of this condition to be published in the British literature. The bronchoscopic feature of bony hardness of the bronchial wall was initially suggestive of bronchial neoplasm. The histological feature of bony deposits (containing marrow showing active haemopoiesis) in the submucosa of the lower trachea and major bronchi was superimposed on a background of primary localized amyloid infiltration, and yet the bronchoscopic findings and the naked-eye morbid anatomical appearance suggested tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica. A study of the reported cases of tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica on the one hand, and of primary localized tracheobronchial amyloidosis on the other, reveals considerable similarity and overlap between the two conditions. It is postulated that some, if not all, cases of tracheobronchopathia osteoplastica are merely the advanced ossified stage of primary localized amyloidosis of the lower respiratory tract.
Can undergraduates script their own refactorings?

We present a status report on a project to build a refactoring engine whose primary goal is to allow undergraduate students to write classical and neo-classical refactorings (pull-up, class partitioning) and design patterns (visitor, framework) as parameterized refactoring scripts in Java. We explain the first step of our work that creates a reflection-like interface to expose the structure of an Eclipse JDT application as Java objects; methods of these objects are refactorings. Doing so hides the complexity of JDT refactoring code and tools, so that refactoring scripts can be written as compact Java methods. We present preliminary performance results of scripting JDT refactorings and sketch the next steps of our work.
High-pressure neutron diffraction study of L-serine-I and L-serine-II, and the structure of L-serine-III at 8.1 GPa.

The hydrostatic compression of L-serine-d(7) has been studied to 8.1 GPa by neutron powder diffraction. Over the course of this pressure range the compound undergoes two phase transitions, the first between 4.6 and 5.2 GPa, yielding L-serine-II, and the second between 7.3 and 8.1 GPa, yielding L-serine-III. All three polymorphs are orthorhombic, P2(1)2(1)2(1), and feature chains of serine molecules connected via head-to-tail ND.O hydrogen bonds formed between ammonium and carboxylate groups. The chains are linked into a ribbon by a second set of ND.O hydrogen bonds. The hydroxyl moieties are distributed along the outer edges of the ribbon and in phase I they connect the ribbons into a layer by chains of OD.OD hydrogen bonds. The layers are connected together by a third set of ND.O hydrogen bonds, forming R;3_4(14) rings with substantial voids at their centres. In the transition from phase I to II these voids begin to close up, but at the cost of breaking the OD.OD chains. The OD.OD hydrogen bonds are replaced by shorter OD.O hydrogen bonds to carboxylate groups. At 7.3 GPa the O.O distance in the OD.O hydrogen bonds measures only 2.516 (17) A, which is short, and we propose that the phase transition to phase III that occurs between 7.3 and 8.1 GPa relieves the strain that has built up in this region of the structure. The hydroxyl D atom now bifurcates between the OD.O contact that had been present in phase II and a new OD.O contact formed to a carboxylate in another layer. Hirshfeld surface fingerprint plots show that D.D interactions become more numerous, while hydrogen bonds actually begin to lengthen in the transition from phase II to III.
DoublePlay: parallelizing sequential logging and replay

Deterministic replay systems record and reproduce the execution of a hardware or software system. In contrast to replaying execution on uniprocessors, deterministic replay on multiprocessors is very challenging to implement efficiently because of the need to reproduce the order or values read by shared memory operations performed by multiple threads. In this paper, we present DoublePlay, a new way to efficiently guarantee replay on commodity multiprocessors. Our key insight is that one can use the simpler and faster mechanisms of single-processor record and replay, yet still achieve the scalability offered by multiple cores, by using an additional execution to parallelize the record and replay of an application. DoublePlay timeslices multiple threads on a single processor, then runs multiple time intervals (epochs) of the program concurrently on separate processors. This strategy, which we call uniparallelism, makes logging much easier because each epoch runs on a single processor (so threads in an epoch never simultaneously access the same memory) and different epochs operate on different copies of the memory. Thus, rather than logging the order of shared-memory accesses, we need only log the order in which threads in an epoch are timesliced on the processor. DoublePlay runs an additional execution of the program on multiple processors to generate checkpoints so that epochs run in parallel. We evaluate DoublePlay on a variety of client, server, and scientific parallel benchmarks; with spare cores, DoublePlay reduces logging overhead to an average of 15% with two worker threads and 28% with four threads.
Mental Models of Groups as Social Systems

The concept of a mental model is described with regard to the way that individuals interact with social systems such as groups. Important considerations are described for identifying the attributes of a system (group) and the attributes of the individual's interaction with a system (group). These attributes then are considered in relation to the individual's mental model, which reflects beliefs an individual has about the way that states of the system lead to outcomes of the system (group), as well as the manner in which the individual's specific interactions with the system (group) lead to the states of the system, and the system (group) outcomes. The key notion of beliefs is used to describe methodsfor analyzing and identifying the attributes of mental models. One approach for assessing mental models, the belief association matrix, is described to illustrate the conceptualization provided here. An empirical assessment using the belief association matrix is demonstrated Issues related to the reliability and validity of mental models are discussed. It is suggested that valid and reliable measures of mental models can provide a substantialfoundation for understanding the way that individuals perceive the relation between their interactions with social systems such as groups, and the outcomes derivedfrom theirinteractions with social systems. Implications of mental models for understanding group interaction and performance are highlighted.
Role of interferon during viremia. I. Production of circulating interferon.

Summary Mice, chickens, hamsters, rats and monkeys were studied for induction of circulating interferon following viremias resulting from infection or intravenous injection of diverse viruses. Most combinations of animal species and virus types resulted in early production of serum interferon, although not all such combinations were successful. These results indicate that circulating interferon is a rather general response by animals during the viremic phase of virus infection. Interferon was observed to leave the serum in vivo at a rate of about thirtyfold/hr. Using this rate it can be conservatively estimated that a total of 100,000 units of circulating interferon are produced during many of the viremias of mice.
Haemoproteus infected birds have increased lifetime reproductive success

SUMMARY The impact of haematozoan infection on host fitness has received substantial attention since Hamilton and Zuk posited that parasites are important drivers of sexual selection. However, short-term studies testing the assumption that these parasites consistently reduce host fitness in the wild have produced contradictory results. To address this complex issue, we conducted a long-term study examining the relationship between naturally occurring infection with Haemoproteus and Plasmodium, and lifetime reproductive success and survival of Mountain White-crowned Sparrows. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that birds infected with haematozoan parasites have reduced survival (as determined by overwinter return rates) and reproductive success. Contrary to expectation, there was no relationship between Haemoproteus and Plasmodium infection and reproduction or survival in males, nor was there a relationship between Plasmodium infection and reproduction in females. Interestingly, Haemoproteus-infected females had significantly higher overwinter return rates and these females fledged more than twice as many chicks during their lifetimes as did uninfected females. We discuss the impact of parasitic infections on host fitness in light of these findings and suggest that, in the case of less virulent pathogens, investment in excessive immune defence may decrease lifetime reproduction.
Accurate modeling of field singularities at metal edges diagonal to the FD-TD grid

Using the knowledge of quasi-static electromagnetic fields near a sharp metal edge, new FD-TD update equations are derived for nodes close to an edge that runs diagonally across the faces of cubic Yee cells. With this enhancement to the standard FD-TD method, the field singularities at the metal edge can be properly modeled using a coarse mesh. An analysis of a homogeneous strip line shows that the new field-enhanced FD-TD equations dramatically improve the accuracy of the computed effective dielectric constant, when compared with the shape-enhanced (conformal) FD-TD equations and the staircase approximation. There is no noticeable increase in the computing time or memory.
The Hindsight of ADR Listing – An Empirical Study on M&A Activities for Acquirers Before-and-After ADR Listing

This paper finds that after ADRs were issued, the companies average abnormal return generated through merger activities increased significantly, and the average abnormal returns generated through cross-border merger activities increased from 2.3% to 2.9% compared to before the issuance of ADRs. This is because the issuance of ADRs not only strengthens the level of supervision, and reduces the directors' motives for their own self-interest during merger activities, it also reduces the costs caused by market segmentation and information asymmetry.
Phenomenal Variability and Introspective Reliability

There is surprising evidence that introspection of our phenomenal states varies greatly between individuals and within the same individual over time. This puts pressure on the notion that introspection gives reliable access to our own phenomenology: introspective unreliability would explain the variability, while assuming that the underlying phenomenology is stable. I appeal to a body of neurocomputational, Bayesian theory and neuroimaging findings to provide an alternative explanation of the evidence: though some limited testing conditions can cause introspection to be unreliable, mostly it is our phenomenology itself that is variable. With this account of phenomenal variability, the occurrence of the surprising evidence can be explained while generally retaining introspective reliability.
The Effects of Siblings on the Life Satisfaction of the Rural Elderly.

Although previous studies suggest that siblings are an important source of social and emotional support in old age, no link has been established between more frequent sibling interaction and higher morale or life satisfaction among the elderly. Employing data from a sample of 231 rural elderly, this study tests the hypothesis that geographic proximity of same-sex siblings exerts a positive influence on life satisfaction. Regression analysis revealed that the importance of a sister's availability was second only to physical mobility in predicting higher life satisfaction among older rural women. Among men, availability of a brother also was positively associated with life satisfaction, but the effect was negligible. The effects of cross-sex siblings and sibling interaction on the life satisfaction of older men and women were relatively minor. The results indicate a need forfurther study to explore the meaning of sibling relations in old age, especially the bonds between sisters.
The effect of herpes simplex virus virion host shutoff gene- a new suicide gene- on tumor cells.

BACKGROUND The herpes simplex virus (HSV) UL41 gene product, virion host shutoff (Vhs) protein, mediates the rapid degradation of both viral and cellular mRNA. This ability suggests that Vhs protein can be used as a suicide gene in cancer gene therapy applications. The recent reports have shown that the degradation of cellular mRNA during herpes simplex infection is selective. RNA containing AU-rich elements (ARE) in their 3' untranslated ends are the targets for the Vhs protein. RNA that are not subject to Vhs protein-dependent degradation are up-regulated during HSV infection. ARE are frequently found in mRNA that encode proto-oncogenes, nuclear transcription factors, and cytokines. In many human cancers, the AU-rich stretch of proto-oncogenes and regulatory genes has impaired. METHODS To investigate whether Vhs protein might be useful for inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, a eukaryotic expression vector containing Vhs protein gene was constructed. Cell degradation and RNA content of HeLa and MRC-5 tumor cells after transfection with the constructed vector were studied. RESULTS The results showed a strong inhibitory activity in proliferation of transfected tumor cells and a sharp decrease in their RNA content. CONCLUSION These data suggest that Vhs protein can be considered as a candidate for suicide cancer gene therapy.
Genetic Landscape of Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes From Turkey: Novel Mutations and Clinical Insights

Congenital myasthenic syndromes are clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorders of neuromuscular transmission. Most are treatable, but certain subtypes worsen with cholinesterase inhibitors. This underlines the importance of genetic diagnosis. Here, the authors report on cases with genetically proven congenital myasthenic syndromes from Turkey. The authors retrospectively reviewed their experience of all patients with congenital myasthenic syndromes, referred over a 5-year period (2011-2016) to the Child Neurology Department of Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey. In addition, PubMed was searched for published cases of genetically proven congenital myasthenic syndromes originating from Turkey. In total, the authors identified 43 (8 new patients, 35 recently published patients) cases. Defects in the acetylcholine receptor (n = 15; 35%) were the most common type, followed by synaptic basal-lamina associated (n = 14; 33%) and presynaptic syndromes (n = 10; 23%). The authors had only 3 cases (7%) who had defects in endplate development. One patient had mutation GFPT1 gene (n = 1; 2%). Knowledge on congenital myasthenic syndromes and related genes in Turkey will lead to prompt diagnosis and treatment of these rare neuromuscular disorders.