Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Individual Differences in Multitasking Ability and Adaptability

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the cognitive factors that predictability and adaptability during multitasking with a flight simulator. Background: Multitasking has become increasingly prevalent as most professions require individuals to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Considerable research has been undertaken to identify the characteristics of people (i.e., individual differences) that predict multitasking ability. Although working memory is a reliable predictor of general multitasking ability (i.e., performance in normal conditions), there is the question of whether different cognitive faculties are needed to rapidly respond to changing task demands (adaptability). Method: Participants first completed a battery of cognitive individual differences tests followed by multitasking sessions with a flight simulator. After a baseline condition, difficulty of the flight simulator was incrementally increased via four experimental manipulations, and performance metrics were collected to assess multitasking ability and adaptability. Results: Scholastic aptitude and working memory predicted general multitasking ability (i.e., performance at baseline difficulty), but spatial manipulation (in conjunction with working memory) was a major predictor of adaptability (performance in difficult conditions after accounting for baseline performance). Conclusion: Multitasking ability and adaptability may be overlapping but separate constructs that draw on overlapping (but not identical) sets of cognitive abilities. Application: The results of this study are applicable to practitioners and researchers in human factors to assess multitasking performance in real-world contexts and with realistic task constraints. We also present a framework for conceptualizing multitasking adaptability on the basis of five adaptability profiles derived from performance on tasks with consistent versus increased difficulty.
Intrinsic galaxy shapes and alignments – I. Measuring and modelling COSMOS intrinsic galaxy ellipticities

The statistical properties of the ellipticities of galaxy images depend on how galaxies form and evolve, and therefore constrain models of galaxy morphology, which are key to the removal of the intrinsic alignment contamination of cosmological weak lensing surveys, as well as to the calibration of weak lensing shape measurements. We construct such models based on the halo properties of the Millennium Simulation and confront them with a sample of 90, 000 galaxies from the COSMOS Survey, covering three decades in luminosity and redshifts out to z = 2. The ellipticity measurements are corrected for effects of point spread function smearing, spurious image distortions, and measurement noise. Dividing galaxies into early, late, and irregular types, we find that early-type galaxies have up to a factor of two lower intrinsic ellipticity dispersion than late-type galaxies. None of the samples shows evidence for redshift evolution, while the ellipticity dispersion for late-type galaxies scales strongly with absolute magnitude at the bright end. The simulation-based models reproduce the main characteristics of the intrinsic ellipticity distributions although which model fares best depends on the selection criteria of the galaxy sample. We observe fewer close-to-circular late-type galaxy images in COSMOS than expected for a sample of randomly oriented circular thick disks and discuss possible explanations for this deficit.
A CYBER SECURITY RISK ASSESSMENT FOR THE DESIGN OF I&C SYSTEMS IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

The applications of computers and communication system and network technologies in nuclear power plants have expanded recently. This application of digital technologies to the instrumentation and control systems of nuclear power plants brings with it the cyber security concerns similar to other critical infrastructures. Cyber security risk assessments for digital instrumentation and control systems have become more crucial in the development of new systems and in the operation of existing systems. Although the nstrumentation and control systems of nuclear power plants are similar to industrial control systems, the former have specifications that differ from the latter in terms of architecture and function, in order to satisfy nuclear safety requirements, which need different methods for the application of cyber security risk assessment. In this paper, the characteristics of nuclear power plant instrumentation and control systems are described, and the considerations needed when conducting cyber security risk assessments in accordance with the lifecycle process of instrumentation and control systems are discussed. For cyber security risk assessments of instrumentation and control systems, the activities and considerations necessary for assessments during the system design phase or component design and equipment supply phase are presented in the following 6 steps: 1) System Identification and Cyber Security Modeling, 2) Asset and Impact Analysis, 3) Threat Analysis, 4) Vulnerability Analysis, 5) Security Control Design, and 6) Penetration test. The results from an application of the method to a digital reactor protection system are described.
Audible (normal) speech and inaudible murmur recognition using NAM microphone

In this paper, we present audible (normal) speech and inaudible murmur hidden Markov models based automatic speech recognition using NAM microphone. The NAM (Non-Audible Murmur) microphone is a special device, which can be used for capturing inaudible murmur speech. The device is based on the stethoscope, which is used in medical science. By attaching the NAM microphone behind the talker's ear, we can receive very quietly uttered speech and perform automatic speech recognition in a conventional way. Privacy, robustness to environmental, and a useful tool for sound-impaired people noise belong to the advantages of the NAM microphone. Using adaptation techniques, we created hidden Markov models for inaudible speech and we performed automatic speech recognition. The achieved results are very promising, and prove the effectiveness of NAM microphone In this paper, we also introduce our work for recognizing normal speech using NAM microphone. The idea is to take advantage of noise robustness of NAM microphone. In our experiments, we achieved a 93.8% word accuracy in clean environment, and a 93.1% word accuracy in noisy environment. In this paper, we also introduce two techniques to intergrate inaudible murmur and audible speech recognition using NAM microphone. In both cases, we achieved a 92.1% word accuracy on average, which is a very promising result.
A Disruption-Tolerant RESTful Support for the Web of Things

The Web of Things (WoT) extends the Internet of Things (IoT) considering that each physical object can be accessed and controlled using Web-based languages and protocols. However, due to the mobility of physical objects and to the short radio range of the wireless interfaces they are equipped with, frequent and unpredictable connectivity disruptions may occur between the physical objects and the Web clients used to control and access these objects. This paper presents a disruption-tolerant RESTful support for the WoT, in which resources offered by physical objects are identified by URIs and accessed through stateless services. Service requests and responses are forwarded using the store-carry-and-forward principle, and can be cached by intermediate nodes. A complete service invocation model is provided, allowing to perform unicast, anycast, multicast and broadcast service invocations either using HTTP or CoAP, which makes it particularly suited for the WoT. This disruption-tolerant support is illustrated by a scenario in the context of agricultural robotics.
Applications of loop group factorization to geometric soliton equations

The 1-d Schrodinger flow on S2, the Gauss�Codazzi equation for flat Lagrangian submanifolds in R2n, and the space-time monopole equation are all examples of geometric soliton equations. The linear systems with a spectral parameter (Lax pair) associated to these equations satisfy the reality condition associated to SU(n). In this article, we explain the method developed jointly with K. Uhlenbeck that uses various loop group factorizations to construct inverse scattering transforms, Backlund transformations, and solutions to Cauchy problems for these equations.
Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature at Galaxy Clusters

We have deduced the cosmic microwave background temperature in the Coma Cluster (A1656, z = 0.0231) and in A2163 (z = 0.203) from spectral measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect over four passbands at radio and microwave frequencies. The resulting temperatures at these redshifts are TComa = 2.789 K and TA2163 = 3.377 K, respectively. These values confirm the expected relation T(z) = T0(1 + z), where T0 = 2.725 ± 0.002 K is the value measured by the COBE Far Infrared Absolute Spectrometer experiment. Alternative scaling relations that are conjectured in nonstandard cosmologies can be constrained by the data; for example, if T(z) = T0(1 + z)1-a or T(z) = T0[1 + (1 + d)z], then a = -0.16 and d = 0.17 ± 0.36 (at 95% confidence). We briefly discuss future prospects for more precise SZ measurements of T(z) at higher redshifts.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Application of Big Data Analytics for Automated Estimation of Ct Image Quality

—With the increasing applications of Big Data an-alytics in medical image processing systems, there has been a growing need for quantitative medical image quality assessment techniques. Specifically for computed tomography (CT) images, quantitative image assessment can allow for benchmarking image processing methods and optimization of image acquisition parameters. In this work, large volumes of CT images from phantoms and patients are analyzed using 3 data models that vary in their implementation time complexities. The goal here is to identify the optimal method that scales across data set variabilities for predictive modeling of CT image quality (CTIQ). The first two models rely on spatial segmentation of regions-of-interest (ROIs) and estimate CTIQs in terms of segmented pixel variabilities. The third, convolutional neural network (CNN) model relies on error back-propagation from the training set of images to learn the regions indicative of CTIQ. We observe that for 70/30 data split, the average multi-class classification accuracies for CTIQ prediction using the 3 data models range from 73.6-100% and 50-100% for the phantom and patient CT images, respectively. Using variance of pixels within the segmented ROIs as a CTIQ classification parameter, the spatial segmentation data models are found to be more generalizable that the CNN model. However, the CNN model is found to be more suitable for CT image texture classification in the absence of structural variabilities. Our analysis demonstrates that spatial ROI segmentation data models are consistent CTIQ estimators while the CNN models are consistent identifiers of structural similarities for CT image data sets.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Monitoring illicit psychostimulants and related health issues

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Towards a Player Age Model

This paper proposes a Player Age (PA) model with the potential to be generalized to many different games. The model offers insight into the relationship between age and play style. Game developers can use the PA model to gain a better understanding of their target audience, and to optimize adaptive game features (i.e., AI, targeted marketing). In order to become generically applicable, the PA model is based on the literature on life-span developments in physiology and psychology. The PA model states that player age is a linear function of four factors: Speed of Play (-), Performance (-), Preference (+/-), and Time Played (+/-). The model is validated on a data set from Battlefield 3 (FPS). It explains 33.7% of the variance in age (range: 12-65 years) with a standard error of 6.743. To determine the generic quality of the PA model, future work will validate it on games of other genres.
Austerity versus Stimulus: A DSGE Political Economy Explanation

The 2008 financial crisis and subsequent global economic downturn has brought fiscal policy back onto the political and academic agenda. Despite the vast literature, the discussion is primarily focused upon the fiscal policy multiplier. This positive analysis omits normative consequences from policy and moreover, fails to consider political frictions to policy: something frequently observed in fiscal debates. By constructing a small scale New Keynesian DSGE model with a proportion of credit constrained (non-Ricardian) agents, this paper address these omissions. The results show that there is a normative justification of fiscal policy, in the presence of modest multipliers and the absence of progressive taxes, but on redistributive rather than aggregate grounds. Shocks impact the two agents differently and in polarising ways: countercyclical fiscal policy can be used to alleviate this divergence. However, aggregate improvements from policy are minimal as the gains of one agent are matched by the losses of another, thus giving rise to political frictions and moreover, predicting the current austerity versus stimulus debate.
Swift laboratory thermal evolution of wing shape (but not size) in Drosophila subobscura and its relationship with chromosomal inversion polymorphism

Latitudinal clinal variation in wing size and shape has evolved in North American populations of Drosophila subobscura within about 20 years since colonization. While the size cline is consistent to that found in original European populations (and globally in other Drosophila species), different parts of the wing have evolved on the two continents. This clearly suggests that ‘chance and necessity’ are simultaneously playing their roles in the process of adaptation. We report here rapid and consistent thermal evolution of wing shape (but not size) that apparently is at odds with that suggestion. Three replicated populations of D. subobscura derived from an outbred stock at Puerto Montt (Chile) were kept at each of three temperatures (13, 18 and 22 °C) for 1 year and have diverged for 27 generations at most. We used the methods of geometric morphometrics to study wing shape variation in both females and males from the thermal stocks, and rates of genetic divergence for wing shape were found to be as fast or even faster than those previously estimated for wing size on a continental scale. These shape changes did not follow a neat linear trend with temperature, and are associated with localized shifts of particular landmarks with some differences between sexes. Wing shape variables were found to differ in response to male genetic constitution for polymorphic chromosomal inversions, which strongly suggests that changes in gene arrangement frequencies as a response to temperature underlie the correlated changes in wing shape because of gene‐inversion linkage disequilibria. In fact, we also suggest that the shape cline in North America likely predated the size cline and is consistent with the quite different evolutionary rates between inversion and size clines. These findings cast strong doubts on the supposed ‘unpredictability’ of the geographical cline for wing traits in D. subobscura North American colonizing populations.
The effect of mapping function on the accuracy of a video-based eye tracker

In a video-based eye tracker the pupil-glint vector changes as the eyes move. Using an appropriate model, the pupil-glint vector can be mapped to coordinates of the point of regard (PoR). Using a simple hardware configuration with one camera and one infrared source, the accuracy that can be achieved with various mapping models is compared with one another. No single model proved to be the best for all participants. It was also found that the arrangement and number of calibration targets has a significant effect on the accuracy that can be achieved with the said hardware configuration. A mapping model is proposed that provides reasonably good results for all participants provided that a calibration set with at least 8 targets is used. It was shown that although a large number of calibration targets (18) provide slightly better accuracy than a smaller number of targets (8), the improvement might not be worth the extra effort during a calibration session.
Servant leadership: A theoretical model

This paper introduces a servant leadership theoretical model that specifically addresses phenomena not fully explained in the literature, leaving room for a new theory based on Kuhn’s (1996) structure of scientific revolutionary approach. The theory of servant leadership is defined along with a presentation of a mode, which includes the following virtuous constructs: (a) love, (b) humility, (c) altruism, (d) vision, (e) trust, (f) empowerment, and (g) service. Concurrent research is discussed and further investigation is called for.
International Financial Linkages of Latin American Banks: The Effects of Political Risk and Deposit Dollarisation

This paper empirically investigates the extent to which the financial linkages of Latin American banks with the exterior are influenced by political risk and deposit dollarisation. We find that the sum of banks’ foreign assets and liabilities is a function of risk-return considerations and excess domestic credit demand. An increase in political risk is shown to be associated with a build-up of foreign positions by the banking sector, but this adverse effect on the banking system is mitigated in economies with a high share of dollarised deposits. These relationships largely hold when the determinants of foreign assets and liabilities are estimated separately, with risk-induced capital flight being moderated by a high degree of deposit dollarisation. While changes in overall country risk including the risk of macro collapse drive official capital outflows, for a wider measure of capital flight including informal flows only changes in political risk matter. In each case, deposit dollarisation is shown to possess a risk-mitigating property. The results suggest caution with active dedollarisation strategies in highly dollarised economies where political instability remains an issue. JEL Classification: E42, F36, G21
A memetic analysis of a phrase by Beethoven: Calvinian perspectives on similarity and lexicon-abstraction

This article discusses some general issues arising from the study of similarity in music, both human-conducted and computer-aided, and then progresses to a consideration of similarity relationships between patterns in a phrase by Beethoven, from the first movement of the Piano Sonata in A flat major op. 110 (1821), and various potential memetic precursors. This analysis is followed by a consideration of how the kinds of similarity identified in the Beethoven phrase might be understood in psychological/conceptual and then neurobiological terms, the latter by means of William Calvin’s Hexagonal Cloning Theory. This theory offers a mechanism for the operation of David Cope’s concept of the lexicon, conceived here as a museme allele-class. I conclude by attempting to correlate and map the various spaces within which memetic replication occurs.
A study on using pulse generators to design a ring-VCO based bang-bang PLL/CDR with a consistent loop bandwidth

A technique making the loop bandwidth consistent against PVT variations in the ring-VCO based bang-bang PLL/CDR is proposed. Pulse generators are used to implement this technique by cancelling out PVT sensitivity of the ring-VCO. Simulation results show that the loop bandwidth variation is reduced by half with the proposed technique. Also, by using the pulse generators, the loop filter capacitor area is reduced.
[Comparison of outpatient and inpatient costs of moderate and severe exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Poland].

INTRODUCTION The aim of the study was to examine the direct and indirect costs of COPD exacerbations under usual clinical practice in primary and secondary care from a societal perspective in Poland. MATERIAL AND METHODS An observational, prospective study was conducted among patients with exacerbation of moderate or severe COPD. Seventy-three patients were included in the study - 39 treated in hospital (HC) and 34 treated in ambulatory care (AC). The direct costs included the cost of drugs, diagnostic tests, in-hospital and outpatient care. The indirect costs included costs of transportation to the health-care provider and work days lost. RESULTS The mean duration of COPD exacerbation did not differ significantly between the groups [HC: 11.2 (CI 95%: 9.6-12.8) days; AC: 10.8 (CI 95%: 9.1-12.1); p > 0.05]. The total health-care cost per exacerbation was EUR 1197 (4137.9 PLN) in secondary care (the HC group), and it was 6 times higher than the total cost of exacerbation in primary care (the AC group) - EUR 199.8 (446.9 PLN). The costs of drugs and diagnostic tests were significantly higher in the HC group than in the AC group; however, it was the cost of in-hospital stay and medical visits in the HC group that most influenced expenditure related to COPD exacerbations, as they were 27 times higher than in the AC group. CONCLUSIONS In Poland the costs of COPD exacerbation managed in secondary care are 6-fold higher than in primary care. Therefore, the decisions about admission of patients with COPD exacerbation to hospital should be made carefully.
An Evaluation of a School-Based Savings Program and Its Effect on Sexual Risk Behaviors and Victimization Among Young Ghanaians

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a financial inclusion project on youth’s sexual risk behaviors and victimization. The project occurred in Ghana, where 100 schools were assigned to either a school-based savings program (SBSP), a marketing campaign, or a control group. Pretest and posttest data were collected in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Given our study objective, we restricted our sample to sexually experienced youth (n = 957). Using doubly robust methods to estimate treatment effects, the overall financial inclusion project was not associated with positive changes in sexual risk behaviors and victimization. In contrast, SBSP was significantly associated with higher likelihood of condom use and lower probability of sexual victimization. SBSP may be another promising tool that may help young people accumulate material and nonmaterial resources to reduce sexual risk taking and victimization.
Progress and prospects for engineered T cell therapies

Proof‐of‐concept studies have demonstrated the therapeutic potential of engineered T cells. Transfer of recombinant antigen‐specific T cell receptors (TCR) and chimaeric antigen receptors (CARs) against tumour and viral antigens are under investigation by multiple approaches, including viral‐ and nonviral‐mediated gene transfer into both autologous and allogeneic T cell populations. There have been notable successes recently using viral vector‐mediated transfer of CARs specific for B cell antigens, but also reports of anticipated and unanticipated complications in these and other studies. We review progress in this promising area of cellular therapy, and consider developments in antigen receptor therapies including the application of emerging gene‐editing technologies.