Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exact analysis of a priority queue algorithm for random variate generation

Several quantities of interest in combinatorics and number theory, including the length of the largest prime factor of a random number, are distributed asymptotically according to a law discovered by Dickman in 1930. There are corresponding distributions for the second-largest length, third-largest length, and so on. To generate random variates with these distributions, one can use a simple “random bisection” process, together with a priority queue. The long-term behavior of the queue poses an interesting algorithm analysis problem. We show: 1) The expected size of the queue is bounded, and its steady state can be explicitly expressed in terms of the Riemann zeta function. 2) The expected time at which the n-th largest length is known is n + O(1). 3) With high probability, the queue will never be larger than O(logn), if the process is run for n steps. 4) The expected waiting time until the queue is empty (a renewal event) is O(1). All bounds are computed explicitly (in some cases via interesting multidimensional integrals).
Endogenous Population and Environmental Quality

This paper provides with empirical and theoretical studies of the relationship between population, economic growth and environmental quality. Using a simple endogenous growth model we obtain results close to empirical findings. We show existence of a sustainable balanced growth path (BGP) equilibrium in which perpetual economic growth goes in parallel with environmental quality preservation. At the BGP equilibrium, when all exogenous factors are controlled, a negative relationship between fertility rate and economic growth (termed neo-Malthusian relationship) and a negative relationship between population growth rate and environmental quality emerge.
Using Games to Model and Evaluate Collaborative Learning

Quantitative research in collaborative learning is difficult because it is hard to measure collaboration for a number of reasons. We have developed and tested a series of simple games designed to provide students an experience of collaborative learning -- an experience that can be quantified along key dimensions or "indexes of collaboration. " Such a game provides a useful tool for conducting controlled experiments in collaborative learning. We provide a model that specifies the experiment's initial conditions and activity structure, allowing the researcher to control these variables and quantify an interesting set of indicators.
SCORE: a scalable communication protocol for large-scale virtual environments

This paper describes and analyzes SCORE, a scalable multicast-based communication protocol for large-scale virtual environments (LSVE) on the Internet. Today, many of these applications have to handle an increasing number of participants and deal with the difficult problem of scalability. We propose an approach at the transport layer, using multiple multicast groups and multiple agents. This approach involves the dynamic partitioning of the virtual environment into spatial areas and the association of these areas with multicast groups. It uses a method based on the theory of planar point processes to determine an appropriate cell size, so that the incoming traffic at the receiver side remains with a given probability below a sufficiently low threshold. We evaluate the performance of our scheme and show that it allows to significantly improve the participants' satisfaction while adding very low overhead.
Vaccination with DNA Plasmids Expressing Gn Coupled to C3d or Alphavirus Replicons Expressing Gn Protects Mice against Rift Valley Fever Virus

Background Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an arthropod-borne viral zoonosis. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an important biological threat with the potential to spread to new susceptible areas. In addition, it is a potential biowarfare agent. Methodology/Principal Findings We developed two potential vaccines, DNA plasmids and alphavirus replicons, expressing the Gn glycoprotein of RVFV alone or fused to three copies of complement protein, C3d. Each vaccine was administered to mice in an all DNA, all replicon, or a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy and both the humoral and cellular responses were assessed. DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited high titer neutralizing antibodies that were similar to titers elicited by the live-attenuated MP12 virus. Mice vaccinated with an inactivated form of MP12 did elicit high titer antibodies, but these antibodies were unable to neutralize RVFV infection. However, only vaccine strategies incorporating alphavirus replicons elicited cellular responses to Gn. Both vaccines strategies completely prevented weight loss and morbidity and protected against lethal RVFV challenge. Passive transfer of antisera from vaccinated mice into naïve mice showed that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited antibodies that protected mice as well as sera from mice immunized with MP12. Conclusion/Significance These results show that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn administered alone or in a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy are effective RVFV vaccines. These vaccine strategies provide safer alternatives to using live-attenuated RVFV vaccines for human use.
Perspectivas e limites da pesquisa quantitativa na produção de conhecimento em Marketing: A metáfora do cadeado Prospects and limitations of quantitative research in the knowledge production in Marketing: The padlock metaphor

Este ensaio aborda topicos relacionados a pesquisa quantitativa e sua contribuicao para o avanco do conhecimento em marketing no Brasil. Para tanto, propoe a metafora do cadeado, discutindo de maneira leve aspectos relevantes da abordagem quantitativa de investigacao na area do marketing, e revelando que, por vezes, a seguranca dos numeros pode ocultar os limites deste tipo de pesquisa. No inicio dos anos 90 esta abordagem dominou as publicacoes e a formacao de pesquisadores nos programas de pos-graduacao em administracao e ainda hoje e maioria nos artigos apresentados em congressos e revistas academicas no pais. A contribuicao da pesquisa quantitativa na producao do conhecimento em marketing e clara considerando o levantamento feito por pesquisadores brasileiros; no entanto, os limites da abordagem nao podem ser negligenciados. O texto caracteriza-se como uma reflexao e nao se propoe a ser prescritivo, mas apenas instigar o leitor a repensar os limites e as perspectivas da pesquisa quantitativa no marketing.
Random Forests for Ordinal Response Data: Prediction and Variable Selection

The random forest method is a commonly used tool for classification with high-dimensional data that is able to rank candidate predictors through its inbuilt variable importance measures (VIMs). It can be applied to various kinds of regression problems including nominal, metric and survival response variables. While classification and regression problems using random forest methodology have been extensively investigated in the past, there seems to be a lack of literature on handling ordinal regression problems, that is if response categories have an inherent ordering. The classical random forest version of Breiman ignores the ordering in the levels and implements standard classification trees. Or if the variable is treated like a metric variable, regression trees are used which, however, are not appropriate for ordinal response data. Further compounding the difficulties the currently existing VIMs for nominal or metric responses have not proven to be appropriate for ordinal response. The random forest version of Hothorn et al. utilizes a permutation test framework that is applicable to problems where both predictors and response are measured on arbitrary scales. It is therefore a promising tool for handling ordinal regression problems. However, for this random forest version there is also no specific VIM for ordinal response variables and the appropriateness of the error rate based VIM computed by default in the case of ordinal responses has to date not been investigated in the literature. We performed simulation studies using random forest based on conditional inference trees to explore whether incorporating the ordering information yields any improvement in prediction performance or variable selection. We present two novel permutation VIMs that are reasonable alternatives to the currently implemented VIM which was developed for nominal response and makes no use of the ordering in the levels of an ordinal response variable. Results based on simulated and real data suggest that predictor rankings can be improved by using our new permutation VIMs that explicitly use the ordering in the response levels in combination with the ordinal regression trees suggested by Hothorn et al. With respect to prediction accuracy in our studies, the performance of ordinal regression trees was similar to and in most settings even slightly better than that of classification trees. An explanation for the greater performance is that in ordinal regression trees there is a higher probability of selecting relevant variables for a split. The codes implementing our studies and our novel permutation VIMs for the statistical software R are available at http://www.ibe. med.uni-muenchen.de/organisation/mitarbeiter/070_drittmittel/janitza/index.html.
A Holistic View of Employee Coaching

This study uses regulatory focus theory to take a holistic perspective on employee coaching. The contrasting effects of facilitative versus pressure-based coaching on changes in team effectiveness were examined over a 54-month period of time. Results of growth curve analysis on a sample of 714 managers and their teams indicated that facilitative and pressure-based coaching had opposing direct and indirect effects on long-term changes in team performance, with team commitment playing a critical role in this process. Specifically, facilitative coaching positively influenced team commitment and, in turn, team effectiveness. In contrast, pressure-based coaching hindered team functioning by negatively influencing team commitment through heightened levels of tension within the team. Limitations and areas for future research are discussed.
Perceptually optimized subspace estimation for missing texture reconstruction

This paper presents a perceptually optimized subspace estimation method for missing texture reconstruction. The proposed method calculates the optimal subspace of known patches within a target image based on structural similarity (SSIM) index instead of calculating mean square error (MSE)-based eigenspace. Furthermore, from the obtained subspace, missing texture reconstruction whose results maximize the SSIM index is performed. In this approach, the non-convex maximization problem is reformulated as a quasi convex problem, and the reconstruction of the missing textures becomes feasible. Experimental results show that our method overcomes previously reported MSE-based reconstruction methods.
Investigation of LRTOMT gene (locus DFNB63) mutations in Iranian patients with autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss

Hearing loss (HL) is the most frequent sensory defect affecting 1 in 1000 neonates. This can occur due to genetic or environmental causes or both. The genetic causes are very heterogenous and over 100 loci have been identified to cause autosomal recessive non - syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL). The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of the LRTOMT gene mutations in causing ARNSHL. One hundred fifty seven pupils affected with ARNSHL from Azarbaijan Sharghi, Kordestan, Gilan and Golestan provinces, north and west of Iran, were ascertained. In this descriptive - laboratory study, the presence of LRTOMT mutations were initially checked using PCR – Single - strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and heteroduplex analysis (HA) strategy. Samples with shifted bands on the gel were confirmed by DNA sequencing method. The PCR-SSCP/HA and the subsequent direct DNA sequencing showed no mutation in the population studied. We conclude that LRTOMT mutations have no role in causing sporadic deafness in the studied population. Further studies on other populations and samples could clarify the exact role of LRTOMT mutations.
Genomic Distribution of Short Motifs Involved In DNA Repair in Pathogenic and Non Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Isabelle Bourgait, Hélène Chiapello, Christelle Hennequet-Antier, Stéphane Robin, Sophie SchbathAlexandra Gruss and Meriem El Karoui Unité Mathématique Informatique et Génome, INRA Domaine de Vilvert 78352 Jouy en Josas cedex Département Organisation et Modélisation de l’Information et des Processus INA-PG 16, rue Claude Bernard 75231 Paris cedex 05 Unité de Recherche Laitières et Génétique Appliquée. INRA Domaine de Vilvert 78352 Jouy en Josas cedex. France. meriem@jouy.inra. fr
Casual Interaction: Scaling Interaction for Multiple Levels of Engagement

In the focused-casual continuum, users are given a choice of how much they wish to engage with an interface. In situations where they are, e.g., physically encumbered, they may wish to trade some control for the convenience of interacting at all. Currently, most devices only offer focused interaction capabilities or restrict users to binary foreground/background interaction choices. In casual interactions, users consciously pick a way to interact that is suitable for their desired engagement level. Users will be expecting devices to offer several ways for control along the engagement scale.
Emotional vision emotional vision

The perception of a stimulus can result in an emotional response, as we all know, but modulation of perception by emotion has been more difficult to demonstrate. A new study combines imaging and patient data to point to an anatomical substrate for such an effect, raising important implications regarding how sensory-processing impairments might arise in affective disorders.
An examination of the metabolic processes underpinning critical swimming in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) using in vivo 31P-NMR spectroscopy

SUMMARY Traditionally, critical swimming speed has been defined as the speed when a fish can no longer propel itself forward, and is exhausted. To gain a better understanding of the metabolic processes at work during a Ucrit swim test, and that lead to fatigue, we developed a method using in vivo 31P-NMR spectroscopy in combination with a Brett-type swim tunnel. Our data showed that a metabolic transition point is reached when the fish change from using steady state aerobic metabolism to non-steady state anaerobic metabolism, as indicated by a significant increase in inorganic phosphate levels from 0.3±0.3 to 9.5±3.4 mol g–1, and a drop in intracellular pH from 7.48±0.03 to 6.81±0.05 in muscle. This coincides with the point when the fish change gait from subcarangiform swimming to kick-and-glide bursts. As the number of kicks increased, so too did the Pi concentration, and the pHi dropped. Both changes were maximal at Ucrit. A significant drop in Gibbs free energy change of ATP hydrolysis from –55.6±1.4 to –49.8±0.7 kJ mol–1 is argued to have been involved in fatigue. This confirms earlier findings that the traditional definition of Ucrit, unlike other critical points that are typically marked by a transition from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism, is the point of complete exhaustion of both aerobic and anaerobic resources.
El perfil del votante anulista en la elección federal de 2009 en México: independencia partidista y movilidad cognitiva

La eleccion de diputados federales de 2009 en Mexico presento un fenomeno sin precedente en el pais, pues hubo un incremento sustantivo del porcentaje de votos anulados. A diferencia de otras investigaciones a nivel agregado, este estudio se centra en el analisis individual de los votantes y muestra el perfil del elector que anulo su sufragio en dichas elecciones. El articulo enfatiza que el votante anulista se caracteriza por su independencia partidista y alto nivel de movilidad cognitiva. Asimismo se evalua el efecto diferenciado que tiene esta ultima variable en el comportamiento electoral de los independientes. Se concluye argumentando sobre la necesidad de incluir la independencia partidista y la movilidad cognitiva en los estudios electorales.
Robust nanopatterning by laser-induced dewetting of metal nanofilms

We have observed nanopattern formation with robust and controllable spatial ordering by laser-induced dewetting in nanoscopic metal films. Pattern evolution in Co film of thickness 1≤h≤8 nm on SiO2 was achieved under multiple pulse irradiation using a 9 ns pulse laser. Dewetting leads to the formation of cellular patterns which evolve into polygons that eventually break up into nanoparticles with unimodal size distribution and short range ordering in nearest neighbour spacing R. Spatial ordering was attributed to a hydrodynamic thin film instability and resulted in a predictable variation of R and particle diameter D with h. The length scales R and D were found to be independent of the laser energy. These results suggest that spatially ordered metal nanoparticles can be robustly assembled by laser-induced dewetting.
Techniques for effective integration, maintenance and evolution of species databases

The LITCHI project is concerned with the integration and maintenance of databases of biological knowledge organised by species. We use constraints pertaining to good taxonomic practice in order to identify taxonomix conflicts in individual species databases and in databases formed by merging species databases from distinct sources. The LITCHI system can be used to resolve such conflicts incrementally. As the project has progressed, we have identified a number of distinctive features of the problem domain, and needs of the intended users, which have had a significant impact on the techniques and modes of operation that we found to be appropriate, especially in contrast with applications that handle rapidly-accumulating 'raw' data. It is upon these aspects of LITCHI that we concentrate in the present paper viewing LITCHI as an example of the more general problem of merging scientific data sets in which conflicts between the terminology used can occur.
26 / NYQUIST-RATE CONVERTERS / 26 . 5 26 . 5 A 5 . 5 mW 6 b 5 GS / s 4 ×-Interleaved 3 b / cycle SAR ADC in 65 nm CMOS

Communication devices such as 60GHz-band receivers and serial links demand power-efficient low-resolution gigahertz-sampling-rate ADCs. However, the energy efficiency of ADCs is degraded by scaling up transistor widths in the building blocks for high speed, thus increasing the impact of intrinsic parasitics. Parallel schemes like multi-bit processing and interleaving [1], can ease the problems caused by scaling and lead to better efficiency if the hardware overhead is wisely reduced [2]. This paper presents a combination of 4× time interleaving and 3b/cycle multi-bit SAR ADC in 65nm CMOS, achieving a Nyquist FoM of 39fJ/conv-step for 5GS/s at 1V supply.
A cooperative stochastic differential game of knowledge technology development

The development of knowledge-based capital constitutes a classic case of market failure which calls for cooperative optimization. However, cooperation cannot be sustainable unless there is guarantee that the agreed-upon optimality principle can be maintained throughout the planning duration. This paper derives subgame consistent cooperative solutions for the development of knowledge technology in a stochastic differential game framework. In particular, subgame consistency ensures that as the game proceeds firms are guided by the same optimality principle and hence they do not possess incentives to deviate from the previously adopted optimal behavior. A “payoff distribution procedure” leading to subgameconsistent solutions is derived and a numerical example is presented. This is the first time that subgame consistent cooperative development of knowledge technology is analyzed. Keywords-knowledge technology; stochastic differential games; dynamic cooperation; subgame consistency
The Loch Ness Model : Can ICTs Bridge the Accountability Gap?

Can information and communication technologies (ICTs) empower through participation, transparency, and accountability and if so, under which conditions? Theory and practice demonstrate that technologies can empower citizens to hold governments and international donors accountable, but true accountability will only result from recognizing the gap between supply (governments, international donors, service providers) and demand (citizens, civil society organizations, communities) and considering how to bridge it from both sides. ICT-enabled initiatives have contributed to shrinking this accountability gap, yet in many cases, it remains open. In this paper, the authors develop a framework for analyzing how technologies can accelerate efforts to close the gap, which the authors call the loch ness model. The authors offer reasons why the gap remains open and put forth recommendations for closing it.
Companionship is an emotional business

This is written from the perspective of someone who was trained as a psychologist, and has been working for a decade on emotion-oriented/affective computing. That background highlights two kinds of issue: how emotion enters into the Companion scenario, and how computing can relate to emotion. In both areas, there is a difference between the intuitions of people who are not deeply involved, and the realities as they appear to people working in the area. The goal of this paper is to consider how the realities of emotion and emotion-oriented technology impact on the prospects for artificial Companions. The concern behind it is that otherwise, we may misjudge both the prospects and the risks. In particular, ability to address the emotional side of Companionship may play a key part in acceptance; and the necessary resources, conceptual as well as technical, cannot be taken for granted. We should be concerned about inserting Companions into emotionally sensitive roles without engineering them to take that into account.
Process Patterns for MDA-Based Software Development

Information systems are expected to satisfy increasingly ambitious requirements, while reducing time–to–market has become a primary objective. This trend has necessitated the advent of development approaches that are better equipped and flexible enough to cope with modern challenges. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) and Situational Method Engineering (SME) are approaches addressing this requirement: MDA provides promising means for automating the software process, and revitalizes the role of modeling in software development, SME focuses on project-specific methodology construction, mainly through assembling reusable method fragments (process patterns) retrieved from a method base. We provide a set of high-level process patterns for model-driven development which have been derived from a study of six prominent MDAbased methodologies, and which form the basis for a proposed generic MDA Software Process (MDASP). These process patterns can promote SME by providing classes of common process components which can be used for assembling, tailoring, and extending MDA-based methodologies.