Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RPOA Model-Based Optimal Resource Provisioning

Optimal utilization of resources is the core of the provisioning process in the cloud computing. Sometimes the local resources of a data center are not adequate to satisfy the users’ requirements. So, the providers need to create several data centers at different geographical area around the world and spread the users’ applications on these resources to satisfy both service providers and customers QoS requirements. By considering the expansion of the resources and applications, the transmission cost and time have to be concerned as significant factors in the allocation process. According to the work of our previous paper, a Resource Provision Optimal Algorithm (RPOA) based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has been introduced to find the near optimal resource utilization with considering the customer budget and suitable for deadline time. This paper is considered an enhancement to RPOA algorithm to find the near optimal resource utilization with considering the data transfer time and cost, in addition to the customer budget and deadline time, in the performance measurement.
Willingness-To-Pay, Compensating Variation, and the Cost of Commitment

Hicksian welfare theory is static in nature, but many decisions are made in a dynamic environment. We present a dynamic model of an agent's decision to purchase or sell a good under the realistic conditions of uncertainty, irreversibility, and learning over time. Her willingness to pay (WTP) contains both the intrinsic value of the good as in Hicksian theory plus a commitment cost associated with delaying to obtain more information. The Hicksian equivalence between WTPsWillingness to accept (WTA) and compensating and equivalent variations no longer holds. The WTP and WTA divergence may arise and observed WTP values are not always appropriate for welfare analysis. (JEL D60, D83) Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
Verifiable Encryption for P2P Block Exchange

Free-riding is an important problem in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. When peers refuse to contribute upload bandwidth, the whole network can collapse. A relatively new free-riding vulnerability in BitTorrent is the Large View Exploit, in which a peer connects to as many other peers as possible to increase the chance to get free data. This exploit can not be thwarted by tit-for-tat-like mechanisms which have traditionally been used to ban free-riding. Several approaches have been proposed to combat the Large View Exploit in fully decentralized systems, most of which rely on encryption. However, the use of regular encryption makes it impossible to verify the correctness of received data. In this paper we propose a novel encryption method which does allow verification of the plaintext data without decryption, at the expense of encryption strength. We show that a colluding peer still has to send data that is at least 40% of the size of the original data to allow decryption.
Regional income disparities: convergence or divergence within the EU-25?

The paper stresses regional income disparities, growth and convergence in European Union (EU-25) countries during the EU pre-enlargement period (1995-2002) distinguishing also the two subgroups to the EU: the EU-15 and the EU-10 (the new member states since May 2004). We explore sigma- and beta-convergence at a highly disaggregated regional level using spatial and non-spatial techniques. Furthermore, we measure the level of income inequality and decompose it by means of the Theil index into between country and within country contributions to overall income inequality. The results show that the speed of convergence among regions in the EU is painfully slow. Furthermore, there is a distinct difference between convergence processes at the regional and at the national level. Especially in the EU-10, the catching-up at the national scale seems to be driven by some growth centers, mainly capital regions. This causes tendencies to divergence at the regional scale. Tests for spatial autocorrelation reveal that regions are strongly affected in their development by neighbouring regions.
Consistency equation hierarchy in single-field inflation models

Inflationary consistency equations relate the scalar and tensor perturbations. We elucidate the infinite hierarchy of consistency equations of single-field inflation, the first of which is the well-known relation A2 T/A2 S = −nT/2 between the amplitudes and the tensor spectral index. We write a general expression for all consistency equations both to first and second-order in the slow-roll expansion. We discuss the relation to other consistency equations that have appeared in the literature, in particular demonstrating that the approximate consistency equation recently introduced by Chung and collaborators is equivalent to the second consistency equation of Lidsey et al. (1997).
Online Stochastic Planning for Taxi and Ridesharing

In this paper we consider the problem of on-line stochastic ride-sharing and taxi-sharing with time windows. We study a scenario in which people needing a taxi, or a ride, assign their source and destination points plus other restrictions (such as earlier time to departure and maximum time to reach a destination), at the same time, there are taxis or drivers interested in providing a ride (also with departure and destination points, vehicle capacity and time restrictions). We model the time window restrictions as a soft constraint (a reasonable delay might be acceptable in a realistic scenario), and consider the problem as an on-line continual planning problem, in which additional ride requests may arrive while plans for previous ride-matching are being executed. Finally, such new requests may arrive at each time step with some probability. The aim is to maximize the shared trips while minimising the expected travel delay for each trip. In this paper we propose an on-line stochastic optimization planning approach in which instead of myopically optimising for the offered trips and requested trips that are known, incorporate information that partially describes the stochastic future into the model in order to improve the quality of the solution. We prove the effectiveness of the method in a real world scenario using a number of instances extracted from a travel survey in north-eastern Illinois (USA) conducted by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
Empirical Study of a Data ow Language on the CM-51

This paper presents empirical data on the behavior of large dataaow programs on a distributed memory multiprocessor. The programs, written in the dataaow language Id90, are compiled via a Threaded Abstract Machine (TAM) for the CM-5. TAM reenes dataaow execution models by addressing critical constraints that modern parallel architectures place on the compilation of general-purpose parallel programming languages. It exposes synchronization, scheduling, and network access so that the compiler can optimize against the cost of these operations. The data presented in this paper evaluates the TAM approach in compiling dataaow languages on stock hardware. We present data on the instruction mix, speedup, scheduling behavior, and locality of large ID90 programs. It is shown that the TAM scheduling hierarchy is able to tolerate long communication latencies, especially when some degree of I-structure locality is present. We investigate how frame allocation strategies, k-bounded loops, and I-structure caching and distribution together aaect the overall eeciency. Finally we document some scheduling anomalies.
Recovering Surfaces from the Gauss Map

This paper studies 3D surface integration from novel angle. The authors consider the construction to the multiple surface patches, not one surface, from the Gauss map. The algorithm takes as its input a 2D field of surface normal estimates, delivered, for instance, by a shape-from-shading or shape-from-texture procedure. The authors disintegrate the Gauss map into two functions by the spherical coordinates, and then borrow the ideas from routine image processing theory to filter the two functions and to segment the space surface into several subsurface, at last the authors use the integrability to recover the subsurface individually. The method only exploits the general techniques in image processing, but can supply better results than the previous researches, which are only based on one function model, especially in the preservence the edges between different surfaces. The method is evaluated on synthetic and real data delivered by a shape-from-shading algorithm. The approach provides an actually way to use the normal maps of the surface.
Growing network model for community with group structure.

We propose a growing network model for a community with a group structure. The community consists of individual members and groups, gatherings of members. The community grows as a new member is introduced by an existing member at each time step. The new member then creates a new group or joins one of the groups of the introducer. We investigate the emerging community structure analytically and numerically. The group size distribution shows a power-law distribution for a variety of growth rules, while the activity distribution follows an exponential or a power law depending on the details of the growth rule. We also present an analysis of empirical data from online communities the "Groups" in http://www.yahoo. com and the "Cafe" in http://www.daum. net, which show a power-law distribution for a wide range of group sizes.
An Egalitarist Fusion of Incommensurable Ranked Belief Bases under Constraints

In the last decade, several approaches have been proposed for merging multiple and potentially conflicting pieces of information. Egalitarist fusion modes privilege solutions that minimize the (local) dissatisfaction of each agent (source, expert) who is involved in the fusion process. This paper proposes useful strategies for an egalitarist fusion of incommensurable ranked belief bases under constraints. We show that the fusion process can equivalently be characterized either by means of the notion of compatible ranked bases, or by means of a Pareto-like ordering on the set of possible solutions. Lastly, rational postulates for our merging operator are studied.
Semiring Parsing

We synthesize work on parsing algorithms, deductive parsing, and the theory of algebra applied to formal languages into a general system for describing parsers. Each parser performs abstract computations using the operations of a semiring. The system allows a single, simple representation to be used for describing parsers that compute recognition, derivation forests, Viterbi, n-best, inside values, and other values, simply by substituting the operations of different semirings. We also show how to use the same representation, interpreted differently, to compute outside values. The system can be used to describe a wide variety of parsers, including Earley's algorithm, tree adjoining grammar parsing, Graham Harrison Ruzzo parsing, and prefix value computation.
Cell to Cell Variability of Radiation-Induced Foci: Relation between Observed Damage and Energy Deposition

Most studies that aim to understand the interactions between different types of photon radiation and cellular DNA assume homogeneous cell irradiation, with all cells receiving the same amount of energy. The level of DNA damage is therefore generally determined by averaging it over the entire population of exposed cells. However, evaluating the molecular consequences of a stochastic phenomenon such as energy deposition of ionizing radiation by measuring only an average effect may not be sufficient for understanding some aspects of the cellular response to this radiation. The variance among the cells associated with this average effect may also be important for the behaviour of irradiated tissue. In this study, we accurately estimated the distribution of the number of radiation-induced γH2AX foci (RIF) per cell nucleus in a large population of endothelial cells exposed to 3 macroscopic doses of gamma rays from 60Co. The number of RIF varied significantly and reproducibly from cell to cell, with its relative standard deviation ranging from 36% to 18% depending on the macroscopic dose delivered. Interestingly, this relative cell-to-cell variability increased as the dose decreased, contrary to the mean RIF count per cell. This result shows that the dose effect, in terms of the number of DNA lesions indicated by RIF is not as simple as a purely proportional relation in which relative SD is constant with dose. To analyse the origins of this observed variability, we calculated the spread of the specific energy distribution for the different target volumes and subvolumes in which RIF can be generated. Variances, standard deviations and relative standard deviations all changed similarly from dose to dose for biological and calculated microdosimetric values. This similarity is an important argument that supports the hypothesis of the conservation of the association between the number of RIF per nucleus and the specific energy per DNA molecule. This comparison allowed us to calculate a volume of 1.6 μm3 for which the spread of the specific energy distribution could explain the entire variability of RIF counts per cell in an exposed cell population. The definition of this volume may allow to use a microdosimetric quantity to predict heterogeneity in DNA damage. Moreover, this value is consistent with the order of magnitude of the volume occupied by the hydrated sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA molecule, which is the part of the DNA molecule responsible for strand breaks.
Influence of Principals role in setting direction on academic performance: Perceptions in Public Secondary Schools in Kisumu County, Kenya.

Principals play a vital role in providing leadership for delivery of quality education in schools, they are continually held accountable for their schools’ performance in national examinations. Some schools have experienced conflicts between stakeholders and principals over the same. Due to this 5% (10 out of 204) principals in Kisumu County have been deployed as classroom teachers while 24.5% have been transferred. This study established the influence of setting direction as an aspect of transformational leadership practices by principals on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Kisumu County. The objective of the study was: to determine perceptions of teachers and students on the influence of principals’role in setting directions on academic performance in public secondary schools in Kisumu County. The study used a descriptive survey research design. The target population was 204 public secondary schools, 204 principals, 2196 teachers’ and 13,213 form 3 students. The sample comprised 152 schools selected through stratified sampling, purposive sampling was used to select 152 principals and form 3 classes. Simple random was used to select 333teachers and 378 students. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, direct observation and document analysis. Validity of the instruments was done by expert opinion, a test retest was done to determine the reliability of the instruments and a reliability index of 0.833 was reported. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically, while quantitative data analyzed descriptively using percentages, frequencies, mean and standard deviation. Hypothesis was tested at α= . 05 level of significance, The level of significance used was 95% (α= 0.05) and where p ˂ 0.05, one hypothesis was formulated; ( 16H01"> : There is no significant influence on principals setting directions on students’ academic performance, it was concluded that setting directions by the principals had a significant influence on the academic performance p = .002, p ˂=0.05), The study concluded that principal role in setting direction has a significant influence on academic performance of students. Key words ; Setting direction, Academic performance DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-2-14
A Pitch-Synchronous Extension of Fractal Additive Synthesis via Time-Varying Cosine Modulated Filter Banks

Fractal additive synthesis (FAS) is a method for the synthesis-by-analysis of voiced-sounds. FAS is based on a harmonic version of the wavelet transform (WT), and it allows to define two different parametric models for the deterministic and the stochastic components of sounds, respectively. In this letter, we introduce a pitch-synchronous (PS) extension of FAS. By adapting an already existing method for the design of time-varying cosine modulated filter banks (TV-CMFB), we are now able to deal with a much wider class of voiced-sounds, i.e., any voiced-sound showing a variable pitch as in the case, for example, of glissando or vibrato effects.
Rethinking ‘Rational Imitation’ in 14-Month-Old Infants: A Perceptual Distraction Approach

In their widely noticed study, Gergely, Bekkering, and Király (2002) showed that 14-month-old infants imitated an unusual action only if the model freely chose to perform this action and not if the choice of the action could be ascribed to external constraints. They attributed this kind of selective imitation to the infants' capacity of understanding the principle of rational action. In the current paper, we present evidence that a simpler approach of perceptual distraction may be more appropriate to explain their results. When we manipulated the saliency of context stimuli in the two original conditions, the results were exactly opposite to what rational imitation predicts. Based on these findings, we reject the claim that the notion of rational action plays a key role in selective imitation in 14-month-olds.
New Extremophilic Lipases and Esterases from Metagenomics

Lipolytic enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of ester bonds in the presence of water. In media with low water content or in organic solvents, they can catalyze synthetic reactions such as esterification and transesterification. Lipases and esterases, in particular those from extremophilic origin, are robust enzymes, functional under the harsh conditions of industrial processes owing to their inherent thermostability and resistance towards organic solvents, which combined with their high chemo-, regio- and enantioselectivity make them very attractive biocatalysts for a variety of industrial applications. Likewise, enzymes from extremophile sources can provide additional features such as activity at extreme temperatures, extreme pH values or high salinity levels, which could be interesting for certain purposes. New lipases and esterases have traditionally been discovered by the isolation of microbial strains producing lipolytic activity. The Genome Projects Era allowed genome mining, exploiting homology with known lipases and esterases, to be used in the search for new enzymes. The Metagenomic Era meant a step forward in this field with the study of the metagenome, the pool of genomes in an environmental microbial community. Current molecular biology techniques make it possible to construct total environmental DNA libraries, including the genomes of unculturable organisms, opening a new window to a vast field of unknown enzymes with new and unique properties. Here, we review the latest advances and findings from research into new extremophilic lipases and esterases, using metagenomic approaches, and their potential industrial and biotechnological applications.
What Do We Know About the Effects of Macroprudential Policy?

The literature on the effectiveness of macroprudential policy tools is still in its infancy and has so far provided only limited guidance for policy decisions. In recent years, however, increasing efforts have been made to fill this gap. Progress has been made in embedding macroprudential policy in theoretical models. There is increasing empirical work on the effect of some macroprudential tools on a range of target variables, such as quantities and prices of credit, asset prices, and on the amplitude of the financial cycle and financial stability. In this paper we review recent progress in theoretical and empirical research on the effectiveness of macroprudential instruments.
Power-delay analysis of an ABACUS parallel integer multiplier VLSI implementation

ABACUS parallel architecture was previously proposed as an alternate integer multiplication approach with column compression and parallel carry futures. This paper presents a VLSI implementation for ABACUS and benchmarks it against the conventional Wallace Tree Multiplier (WTM). Simulations are conducted with UMC180nm technology in Cadence environment. Although WTM implementation results in 26.6% fewer devices, ABACUS implementation has 8.6% less power dissipation with matched delay performance, due to 27.8% lower average activity.
Information practices of teen content creators : the intersection of action and experiences a grounded theory study

What are the information practices of teen content creators? In the United States over two thirds of teens have participated in creating and sharing content in online communities that are developed for the purpose of allowing users to be producers of content. This study investigates how teens participating in digital participatory communities find and use information as well as how they experience the information. From this investigation emerged a model of their information practices while creating and sharing content such as film-making, visual art work, story telling, music, programming, and web site design in digital participatory communities. The research uses grounded theory methodology in a social constructionist framework to investigate the research problem: what are the information practices of teen content creators? Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and observation of teen’s digital communities. Analysis occurred concurrently with data collection, and the principle of constant comparison was applied in analysis. As findings were constructed from the data, additional data was collected until a substantive theory was constructed and no new information emerged from data collection. The theory that was constructed from the data describes five information practices of teen content creators. The five information practices are learning community, negotiating aesthetic, negotiating control, negotiating capacity, and representing knowledge. In describing the five information practices there are three necessary descriptive components, the community of practice, the experiences of information and the information actions. The experiences of information include information as participation, inspiration, collaboration, process, and artifact. Information actions include activities that occur in the categories of gathering, thinking and creating. The experiences of information and information actions intersect in the information practices, which are situated within the specific community of practice, such as a digital participatory community. Finally, the information practices interact and build upon one another and this is represented in a graphic model and explanation.
Machine Ethics: Creating an Ethical Intelligent Agent

The newly emerging field of machine ethics (Anderson and Anderson 2006) is concerned with adding an ethical dimension to machines. Unlike computer ethics -- which has traditionally focused on ethical issues surrounding humans' use of machines -- machine ethics is concerned with ensuring that the behavior of machines toward human users, and perhaps other machines as well, is ethically acceptable. In this article we discuss the importance of machine ethics, the need for machines that represent ethical principles explicitly, and the challenges facing those working on machine ethics. We also give an example of current research in the field that shows that it is possible, at least in a limited domain, for a machine to abstract an ethical principle from examples of correct ethical judgments and use that principle to guide its own behavior.