Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active Positive-Definite Matrix Completion

In many applications, e.g., recommender systems and biological data analysis, the datasets of interest are positive definite (PD) matrices. Such matrices are usually similarity matrices, obtained by the multiplication of a matrix of preferences or observations with its transpose. Oftentimes, such real-world matrices are missing many entries and a fundamental data-analysis task, known by the term PD-matrix completion, is the inference of these missing entries. In this paper, we introduce the active version of PD-matrix completion, in which we assume access to an oracle that, at a given cost, returns the value of an unobserved entry of the PD matrix. In this setting, we consider the following question: “given a fixed budget, which entries should we query so that the completion of the new matrix is much more indicative of the underlying data? ”. The main contribution of the paper is the formalization of the above question as the ActivePDCompletion problem and the design of novel and effective algorithms for solving it in practice.
Transition in Regional Capitals along the Volga

A group of researchers led by two prominent Western economists examines the experience of 10 regional capitals along the Volga River following the disintegration of the USSR, during a period of significant transition in the municipal (government) and economic functions exercised by Russian cities. The authors survey general similarities in these cities? fiscal functions, privatization, and economic development, as well as place-specific differ-ences (e.g., unique resources, strong/weak government) contributing to divergence of eco-nomic conditions among them during the post-Soviet period. The study combines official data on economic performance, employment, and municipal budgets with fieldwork-based case studies, interviews, and survey research.
Notice of RetractionCommercial enterprise's social responsibility and performance: Empirical evidence from Chinese listed commercial enterprises

Nowadays, corporate social responsibility construction is becoming the key component for the commercial enterprise's development strategy. However, why the commercial enterprises perform their social responsibility and how the economic performance will be affected are still unclear. In this paper, we just focus on the commercial enterprise's social responsibility. Based on the former researches and the statistical data of Chinese listed commercial enterprises, we empirically tested the influencing factors of commercial enterprise's social responsibility and performance. Empirical results show that the commercial enterprise's social responsibility is only affected by the external economic environment, and its economic performance won't be affect by its social responsibility neither in the capital market nor in consumer market.
Unthinking Educational Technology.

Designed to begin a feminist "unthinking" and rethinking of educational technology, this paper begins by examining some definitions of what that technology essentially is. Three characteristics of a feminist approach to science that can inform a rethinking of educational technology are then identified: (1) the theorizing of gender as a variable of consequence; (2) the valuing of women's experience as a scientific resource; and (3) the positioning of the researcher in the same critical plane as the researched. The discussion emphasizes issues that arise from an examination of educational technology in the context of three categories of technology users in schools: administrators, who impose educational technology on teachers; teachers, who impose educational technology on students; and students. It is argued that, since educational technology has been developed largely outside the domain of the teacher and without the benefit of her wisdom, the structures, standards, and schedule of the teacher's school day become out of her control, and research on the effectiveness of educational technology denies the importance of her work. It is also argued that educational technology as used by students is thoroughly saturated with the sex biases of its root disciplinos and curricular contexts. It is concluded that the contributLons of the teacher user and the female student user to the teaching-learning process are denied by the increasing use of educational technology, and a number of questions that might guide feminist rethinking of educational technology are suggested. (26 references) (BBN) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************
Collection-Independent Document-Centric Impacts

An information retrieval system employs a similarity heuristic to estimate the probability that documents and queries match each other. The heuristic is usually formulated in the context of a collection, so that the relationship between each document and the collection that contains it affects the scoring used to provide the ranked set of answers in response to a query. In this paper we continue our study of document-centric similarity measures, but seek to eliminate the reliance on collection statistics in setting the document-related components of the measure. There is a direct implementation beneﬁt of being able to do this – it means that impact-sorted inverted indexes can be built with just a single parse of the source text.
VISHARD10, a novel hyper-redundant haptic interface

This paper presents and discusses the design of a novel hyper-redundant haptic interface with 10 degrees-of-freedom (DOF). The use of additional joints allow:; a significantly larger workspace, while reducing the overall device size. Moreover, an increase in a variety of dexterity measures and a singularity robust redundancy resolution can be achieved. Numerical simulations of standard methods for inverse kinematics resolution, namely pseudo inverse control and the projection of some side criterion on the nullspace of the Jacobian are compared and evaluated.
Decidable bounded quantification

The standard formulation of bounded quantification, system F≤, is difficult to work with and lacks important syntactic properties, such as decidability. More tractable variants have been studied, but those studied so far either exclude significant classes of useful programs or lack a compelling semantics. We propose here a simple variant of F≤ that ameliorates these difficulties. It has a natural semantic interpretation, enjoys a number of important properties that fail in F≤, and includes all of the programming examples for which F≤ has been used in practice.
No Evidence for Effects of Ecological and Behavioral Factors on Eye Size Evolution in Anurans

Eye size varies markedly among taxonomic levels, and this variation is often related to the patterns shaped by phylogeny and ecological and behavioral factors. The selective pressures underlying eye size evolution are especially studied in fishes, anurans, birds, and mammals. However, selective pressures underlying the eye size evolution in anurans have inconsistent scaling rules. Here, we investigated the links between eye size and both ecological (e.g., light availability and habitat type) and behavioral factors (e.g., activity time, foraging mobility, defensive strategy, and mating system) among 252 species of anurans by using phylogenetically controlled generalized least-squared (PGLS) regression. Results show that anuran eye size scales hypo-allometrically with body size. However, eye size was not significantly influenced by ecological and behavioral factors, including habitat type, activity time, light availability, foraging mobility, defensive strategy, and mating system. Therefore, neither ecology nor behavior plays a key role in promoting eye size evolution in frogs.
The uses of the 2 nd REBO and Lennard – Jones potentials and the Tersoff and

We investigated the mechanical properties of nitrogen-containing graphene under tensile loading via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In the MD simulation, we used three types of potential functions: the second–generation reactive empirical bond order (REBO) potential for covalent C–C bonds, the Tersoff potential for covalent C–N bonds, and the Lennard–Jones potential for the interlayer interaction of graphite. The effects of nitrogen content and different distributions of nitrogen atoms in graphene on its properties were studied. It was found that a nitrogen content of up to 4% had little effect on the mechanical properties of graphene except when two nitrogen atoms contained in graphene adjoined each other.
Ankylosing Spondylitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis: Serum Levels of TNF-α and Its Soluble Receptors during the Course of Therapy with Etanercept and Infliximab

The effects of the TNF-α blockers infliximab or etanercept on the levels of TNF-α, TNF-receptor 1 (TNF-R1), and TNF-receptor 2 (TNF-R2), as well as the levels of the inflammation markers CRP and IL-6, were measured in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving treatment with either compound. We found that RA patients tend to have higher levels of TNF-α than both healthy individuals and AS patients prior to treatment (P < 0.05). We measured greatly increased levels of TNF-α in both the AS and RA etanercept patient groups during the course of treatment, while in the infliximab treated patients, the amount of TNF-α measured remained unchanged. Elevated TNF-α in the etanercept treated patients does not appear to be a significant risk factor for the spontaneous development of further autoimmune diseases in our study group. Increased levels of TNF-R1 were determined in both AS (P < 0.05) and RA (P < 0.001) patients when compared to healthy controls. In AS patients, the levels of TNF-R1 dropped significantly when treated with either infliximab (P < 0.01) or etanercept (P < 0.001). In contrast, the levels of this receptor remained unchanged in RA patients treated with either compound.
A Comparison Between Processor Architectures for Multimedia Applications

The efficient processing of MultiMedia Applications (MMAs) is currently one of the main bottlenecks in the media processing field. Many architectures have been proposed for processing MMAs such as VLIW, superscalar (general-purpose processor enhanced with a multimedia extension such as MMX), vector architectures, SIMD architectures, and reconfigurable computing devices. The question then arises: which architecture can exploit the characteristic features of MMAs the most? In this paper, first, we explain the characteristics of MMAs, after that we discuss the different architectures that have been proposed for processing MMAs. Subsequently, they are compared based on their ability to exploit the characteristics of MMAs. Superscalar processors with dynamic out-of-order scheduling provide higher performance than VLIW processors and than superscalar processors with in-order scheduling. Because superscalar architectures include complicated control logic for out-of-order execution, and because VLIW processors have to decode every instruction slot in parallel and need a register file with multiple read and write ports, they are more complex than single-issue vector architectures.
Predictive Value of Updating Framingham Risk Scores with Novel Risk Markers in the U.S. General Population

Background According to population-based cohort studies CT coronary calcium score (CTCS), carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), high-sensitivity C- reactive protein (CRP), and ankle-brachial index (ABI) are promising novel risk markers for improving cardiovascular risk assessment. Their impact in the U.S. general population is however uncertain. Our aim was to estimate the predictive value of four novel cardiovascular risk markers for the U.S. general population. Methods and Findings Risk profiles, CRP and ABI data of 3,736 asymptomatic subjects aged 40 or older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2004 exam were used along with predicted CTCS and cIMT values. For each subject, we calculated 10-year cardiovascular risks with and without each risk marker. Event rates adjusted for competing risks were obtained by microsimulation. We assessed the impact of updated 10-year risk scores by reclassification and C-statistics. In the study population (mean age 56±11 years, 48% male), 70% (80%) were at low (<10%), 19% (14%) at intermediate (≥10–<20%), and 11% (6%) at high (≥20%) 10-year CVD (CHD) risk. Net reclassification improvement was highest after updating 10-year CVD risk with CTCS: 0.10 (95%CI 0.02–0.19). The C-statistic for 10-year CVD risk increased from 0.82 by 0.02 (95%CI 0.01–0.03) with CTCS. Reclassification occurred most often in those at intermediate risk: with CTCS, 36% (38%) moved to low and 22% (30%) to high CVD (CHD) risk. Improvements with other novel risk markers were limited. Conclusions Only CTCS appeared to have significant incremental predictive value in the U.S. general population, especially in those at intermediate risk. In future research, cost-effectiveness analyses should be considered for evaluating novel cardiovascular risk assessment strategies.
Exhaled breath condensate – from an analytical point of view

Over the past three decades, the goal of many researchers is analysis of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) as noninvasively obtained sample. A total quality in laboratory diagnostic processes in EBC analysis was investigated: pre-analytical (formation, collection, storage of EBC), analytical (sensitivity of applied methods, standardization) and post-analytical (interpretation of results) phases. EBC analysis is still used as a research tool. Limitations referred to pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical phases of EBC analysis are numerous, e.g. low concentrations of EBC constituents, single-analyte methods lack in sensitivity, and multi-analyte has not been fully explored, and reference values are not established. When all, pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical requirements are met, EBC biomarkers as well as biomarker patterns can be selected and EBC analysis can hopefully be used in clinical practice, in both, the diagnosis and in the longitudinal follow-up of patients, resulting in better outcome of disease.
Musical Training and Working Memory Span in Beginners, Veterans and with no Musical Knowledge Children

Working memory and musical activity activate reciprocal and homologues brain areas. However, there is a lack of evidence if musical training can amplify the working memory span. Objective: To assess the performance of musical training on working memory in children aged 9 and 10 years old who regularly have musical training or with no musical training at all. Participants: Beginners (n=20), Veterans (n=20) and a Control Group (n=20). Materials: Computerized instruments to assess working memory. Results: Veteran children presented higher scores in BCPR (Brazilian Children’s Test of Pseudoword Repetition) and in specific tasks of AWMA (Automated Working Memory Assessment). Conclusion: Musical training seems to have contributed for working memory development in veteran children under musical training programs.
Automated Precise Liquid Dispensing System for Protein Crystallization

Recently, high throughput protein crystallization requires that the volumes of sample solution in crystallization experiments should be reduced to increase the screening chance with a given amount of sample. This leads to the developments of automated liquid handling instruments that can transfer submicroliter volumes of fluid. In this paper, an automated solenoid based liquid handling system was developed, which could dispense submicroliter reagent without touching off. Also, the non-contact liquid dispensing process was investigated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, which makes us understand the droplet breakup process more detailedly and makes dispensing droplet fall off successfully without attaching to the nozzle. The system is composed of assembled syringes, pneumatic devices, stepper motor, solenoid valve and other miscellaneous devices. The noncontact reagent dispensing is accomplished by rapidly opening and closing the solenoid valve while applying fluid pressure to it and the volume modulation is possible by altering the opening time of the valve and the flow rate. Experiments were carried out with different dispensing volumes, coefficient of variance (CV) has been shown to be below 3% at 1 mul and approach 8% at 50 nl.
Capital Account Liberalization: Theoretical and Practical Aspects

Capital account liberalization - orderly, properly sequence, and befitting the individual circumstances of countries- is an inevitable step for all countries wishing to realize the benefits of the globalized economy. This paper reviews the theories behind capital account liberalization and examines the dangers associated with free capital flows. The authors conclude that the dangers can be limited through a combination of sound macroeconomic and prudential policies.
‘Load Points’ and ‘Choke Points’ as Nodes for Prioritizing Drug Targets in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Biological pathways information has accumulated along with Genomic sequence data. These metabolic pathways help us in understanding network robustness and complex reaction networks. They also provide a framework for improved understanding of microbial physiology and for antimicrobial drug discovery. This article is an attempt to understand the local and global properties of metabolic networks in P. aeruginosa and to identify potential drug targets through ‘load point’ and ‘choke point’ analyses. In this study, we identify 25 choke point enzymes in pathways unique to P. aeruginosa and 202 choke point enzymes in the common pathways between the pathogen and the host human. We also list top 10 choke point enzymes based on the load point values and number of shortest paths and propose them as putative targets. These data underscore the utility of systems analyses methods for understanding human metabolic network in drug discovery process and in-depth understanding of the mechanism of diseases.
Terrain classification using Laser Range Finder

This paper presents terrain classification method based on the intensity readings from Laser Range Finder. The classification is performed on the feature vectors obtained using statistical descriptors or Fourier Transform computed for the patches of the intensity map for each terrain sample. As a classifier Support Vector Machines were used. For the set of 12 terrains results of classification are reaching the level of 98% of the correctly recognized terrain samples. The proposed approach has a low computational cost, which is required for its real time applications. The article begins with the description of the experimental setup followed by the presentation of the proposed feature vectors for the registered intensity maps. Next, classification results, using introduced features, are given and compared to other approaches found in literature. At the end concluding remarks are given.
Benefit of Action Naming Over Object Naming for Visualization of Subcortical Language Pathways in Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation-Based Diffusion Tensor Imaging-Fiber Tracking

Visualization of functionally significant subcortical white matter fibers is needed in neurosurgical procedures in order to avoid damage to the language network during resection. In an effort to achieve this, positive cortical points revealed during preoperative language mapping with navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) can be employed as regions of interest (ROIs) for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fiber tracking. However, the effect that the use of different language tasks has on nTMS mapping and subsequent DTI-fiber tracking remains unexplored. The visualization of ventral stream tracts with an assumed lexico-semantic role may especially benefit from ROIs delivered by the lexico-semantically demanding verb task, Action Naming. In a first step, bihemispheric nTMS language mapping was administered in 18 healthy participants using the standard task Object Naming and the novel task Action Naming to trigger verbs in a small sentence context. Cortical areas in which nTMS induced language errors were identified as language-positive cortical sites. In a second step, nTMS-based DTI-fiber tracking was conducted using solely these language-positive points as ROIs. The ability of the two tasks’ ROIs to visualize the dorsal tracts Arcuate Fascicle and Superior Longitudinal Fascicle, the ventral tracts Inferior Longitudinal Fascicle, Uncinate Fascicle, and Inferior Fronto-Occipital Fascicle, the speech-articulatory Cortico-Nuclear Tract, and interhemispheric commissural fibers was compared in both hemispheres. In the left hemisphere, ROIs of Action Naming led to a significantly higher fraction of overall visualized tracts, specifically in the ventral stream’s Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Inferior Longitudinal Fascicle. No difference was found between tracking with Action Naming vs. Object Naming seeds for dorsal stream tracts, neither for the speech-articulatory tract nor the inter-hemispheric connections. While the two tasks appeared equally demanding for phonological-articulatory processes, ROI seeding through the task Action Naming seemed to better visualize lexico-semantic tracts in the ventral stream. This distinction was not evident in the right hemisphere. However, the distribution of tracts exposed was, overall, mirrored relative to those in the left hemisphere network. In presurgical practice, mapping and tracking of language pathways may profit from these findings and should consider inclusion of the Action Naming task, particularly for lesions in ventral subcortical regions.
Effective leadership in implementing change in Arab culture : the case of the Abu Dhabi police

Leadership has a direct influence on actions in the work environment that enable changes. The present study examines the views of employees on effective leadership in implementing change in the context of the Abu Dhabi Police (ADP). Employing a mixed-methods approach comprising the use of survey instruments, interviews and documents, the study identifies strengths and weaknesses in the ADP‘s leadership. Using a random sample of 288 ADP employees, the results of the survey, interviews and documentanalysis consistently show that the ADP leadership was dominated by a top-down approach and a directive and commanding leadership style which was effective in terms of having a clear vision for change, motivating employees to change and using empowerment and delegation, but rather weak in communicating change to employees and involving them in change, due to the culture and traditions. The findings also suggest that the employees‘ perceptions of leadership varied according to education, working experience and job position. Therefore, the ADP leadership should pay attention to the demands and expectations of employees at all levels in order to implement change more efficiently. The study further demonstrates that the six characteristics of leadership were intertwined. The organizational culture, which is rooted in Arab culture and police culture, has shaped the leadership styles in the ADP. The study contributes to a better understanding of the ADP‘s leadership characteristics and highlights future directions for improvement:the ADP leadership should focus on developing a better communication strategy and making employees more involved in the implementation of change. This study can be used as a model for future studies in other similar police leadership settings.