Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capitalization of the Quality of Local Public Schools: What Do Home Buyers Value?

The expansion of state-mandated tests in the 1990s and the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have supplied researchers with an abundance of data on test scores that can be used as measures of school quality. This paper uses the state-mandated test scores for 5th grade and 11th grade in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, to examine three issues about the capitalization of school quality into house prices: (1) At what level do prospective home buyers evaluate the quality of local public education—at the district level or the level of the neighborhood school? (2) After accounting for student achievement as reflected in test scores, are other aspects of the local public school system, such as class size or expenditures, capitalized into the value of a house? (3) Are the positive results we get for the capitalization of school quality into house prices due simply to the correlation between high test scores and other desirable neighborhood characteristics? The results of our investigation suggest that to home buyers some test-score averages are significantly better indicators of the quality of the local public school system than others. In particular, home buyers seem to evaluate the quality of public education at the district level rather than at the level of the local school. Class size at the high-school level has some independent effect on house prices, but not class size at the elementary school level. And once we account for student achievement, expenditures per pupil have no further effect on house prices. Finally, restricting our sample to similar neighborhoods along school district boundaries confirms our earlier results for high school test scores but not for elementary school scores.
A Double Cryptography Using The Keedwell Cross Inverse Quasigroup

The present study further strenghtens the use of the Keedwell CIPQ against attack on a system. This is done as follows. The holomorphic structure of AIPQs(AIPLs) and CIPQs(CIPLs) are investigated. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the holomorph of a quasigroup(loop) to be an AIPQ(AIPL) or CIPQ(CIPL) are established. It is shown that if the holomorph of a quasigroup(loop) is a AIPQ(AIPL) or CIPQ(CIPL), then the holomorph is isomorphic to the quasigroup(loop). Hence, the holomorph of a quasigroup(loop) is an AIPQ(AIPL) or CIPQ(CIPL) if and only if its automorphism group is trivial and the quasigroup(loop) is a AIPQ(AIPL) or CIPQ(CIPL). Furthermore, it is discovered that if the holomorph of a quasigroup(loop) is a CIPQ(CIPL), then the quasigroup(loop) is a flexible unipotent CIPQ(flexible CIPL of exponent 2). By constructing two isotopic quasigroups(loops) $U$ and $V$ such that their automorphism groups are not trivial, it is shown that $U$ is a AIPQ or CIPQ(AIPL or CIPL) if and only if $V$ is a AIPQ or CIPQ(AIPL or CIPL). Explanations and procedures are given on how these CIPQs can be used to double encrypt information.
Energy Consumption Characteriation of Heterogeneous Servers

Energy and cooling cost is becoming the main cost of data centers. Many studies focused on how to schedule job and migrate Virtual Machine between servers to save energy. An accurate energy consumption model is the basic of energy management. Most past studies show that energy consumption has linear relation with resource utilization. We found that different servers have different energy consumption characters even with same CPU and similar workloads. Most past models were only validated on several servers. These models did not reflect the characters of different kinds of servers in a heterogeneous data center. In this paper, we verified the accuracy of the linear model on 392 servers. The data come from the results of SPECPower_ssj2008 benchmark. The benchmark was released in 2007. There are 392 servers from 26 vendors were tested in the past six years. These servers represent most common used servers in heterogeneous data centers. We use several methods to validate the accuracy of the linear model. The results show the model does not work well for all kinds of servers. We also analyze the trend of energy consumption of last six years.
An investigation of cost variation across health care settings and the implications for economic evaluation

This thesis is concerned with the estimation of costs in economic evaluation. The thesis reviews the theoretical and applied literature on costing and highlights that studies generally ignore cost variation across health care settings. The thesis aims to assess why costs vary across health care settings, and the implications for economic evaluations. The study uses microeconomic theory to pose hypotheses for cost variation across health care settings and uses a consistent methodology to collect costs across a range of health care settings. The analysis uses multilevel models (MLMs) to test hypotheses concerning cost variation. Statistical theory suggests that MLMs accommodate the hierarchical structure of the data and may therefore be more appropriate than ordinary least squares (OLS) models for identifying reasons for cost variation across settings. The use of MLMs and OLS models for analysing reasons for cost variation are compared. The OLS models find that both patient and higher-level covariates are associated with length of hospital stay (LOS) and total cost, but these models overestimate the precision of the higher-level variables. By contrast, the MLMs show that none of the higher-level variables are associated with LOS, and the national level of spending on health care is the only higher-level variable associated with total cost. The empirical investigation also illustrates that using OLS regression analysis to report cost-effectiveness can lead to inaccurate estimates. By contrast, the MLMs recognise the structure of the data and accurately quantify mean incremental cost- effectiveness and the associated levels of uncertainty. The thesis concludes that ignoring cost variation across health care settings can lead to inaccurate estimates of cost and cost-effectiveness. Basing decision-making on inaccurate information can move the allocation of health care resources away from the target of allocative efficiency. This thesis presents a methodology for improving the conduct of cost analyses that future economic evaluations can adopt.
Design and Implementation of an Instructional Foundation Fieldbus-based Pilot Plant

Ability and at the same time the simplicity, has significantly enhanced the applications of fieldbus technology in the industrial activities especially in process automation. The ultimate purpose of the enforcement of this project is to display the ability and efficiency of the foundation fieldbus technology in the planning, installation, maintenance and renovation phases of the process automation projects in the framework of designing, implementing and execution on an instructional pilot plant. Having an instructional plant at one's disposal in order to carry out the standard tests and the training directions related to the above technology for the purpose of proving the above claims is amongst other objectives for fulfillment of this project. In this paper, it is demonstrated that by taking advantage of the products of the Smar company under the names of System302 Enterprise Edition, Series302 Fieldbus Instruments, DFI302 Universal Bridge, DF65 Coproccessor and applying them on an instructional pilot plant, the above purposes can be realized
Digital restoration of damaged mural images

Patch-based techniques are proven to generate promising results and outperform many of the existing state-of-art techniques for most of the applications in digital image processing. In this work we develop a patch based coherent texture synthesis technique. A patch-based anisotropic diffusion techniques combined with a novel high-frequency generating technique that can enhance line/brush strokes is also proposed. Though these techniques can be applied to many different image processing applications, here we have limited ourselves in the application to interactive digital mural painting recovery/restoration. Some empirical and practical evidence for its high quality texture synthesis and restoration for mural paintings are also presented. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Sequence features and chromatin structure around the genomic regions bound by 119 human transcription factors

Chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) has become the dominant technique for mapping the transcription factor (TF) binding regions genome-wide. We performed an integrative analysis centered around 457 ChIP-seq data sets on 119 human TFs generated by the ENCODE Consortium. We identified highly enriched sequence motifs in most data sets, revealing new motifs and validating known ones. The motif sites (TF binding sites) are evolutionarily highly conserved and show distinct footprints upon DNase I digestion. We frequently detected secondary motifs in addition to the canonical motifs of the TFs, indicating tethered binding and cobinding between multiple TFs. We observed significant position and orientation preferences between many cobinding TFs. Genes specifically expressed in a cell line are often associated with a greater occurrence of nearby TF binding in that cell line. We observed cell-line-specific secondary motifs that mediate the binding of the histone deacetylase HDAC2 and the enhancer-binding protein EP300. TF binding sites are located in GC-rich, nucleosome-depleted, and DNase I sensitive regions, flanked by well-positioned nucleosomes, and many of these features show cell type specificity. The GC-richness may be beneficial for regulating TF binding, because, when unoccupied by a TF, these regions are occupied by nucleosomes in vivo. We present the results of our analysis in a TF-centric web repository Factorbook (http://factorbook.org) and will continually update this repository as more ENCODE data are generated.
Robust Control of Robot Manipulator based on QFT and H ∞

 Abstract — In this paper robust controllers have been obtained by using QFT and H ∞ control techniques, to control movements of waist, shoulder and elbow of a 6-DOF manipulator. An uncertain experimental linear model of the robot, that represents the non-linearity of the dynamics system, was used to design the controllers. First, H ∞ controllers were obtained by using weighting functions and then robust PID-controllers and pre-filters for each link of the robot were obtained by using QFT control methodology, in order to compare the dynamical performance of both types of robust controllers.
Social acceptability of forest management systems

Summary Aims Tasmania’s wet Eucalypt forests are currently harvested by a clearfell, burn and sow system. Clearfelling is considered by the forestry industry to be a safe and efficient way to extract timber, but it concerns many people. This research aimed to find out whether alternative harvest systems that retain some trees on felled areas would be more or less acceptable to the community than clearfelling. Within this aim, we sought to find out whether information about the consequences of harvesting had any effect on acceptability judgements. A second aim was to investigate some of the underlying bases for differences of view about clearfelling in Tasmanian society, in particular people’s values in relation to the natural environment and their beliefs about clearfelling. Methods The project used computer-simulated pictures of forests to show different forest management systems superimposed on the same patch of forest. Harvest systems shown included clearfelling, selective logging, aggregated retention and dispersed retention systems similar to those being trialled by Forestry Tasmania at the Warra Long Term Ecological Research site. A small side study investigated a wider range of systems which included a no-harvest option and conversion to bluegum plantation. To understand the underlying factors beneath people’s views about clearfelling and the other harvest systems, the research drew on psychological theories that relate people’s deeply held values to their attitudes to management of the environment. A questionnaire was developed to measure peoples’ values, beliefs about consequences and acceptance of the harvest systems. The questionnaire measured three kinds of social values for the natural environment. Use values relate to the value that humans directly extract from natural areas such as timber. Intrinsic value involves valuing aspect of the natural environment for it’s own sake, rather than for any human benefit. Non-use value includes benefits to humans from not using natural areas, which includes the ecosystem services thought to be provided by forests, such as clean air. The early phases of the project focussed on development of the computer simulations, information about the consequences of harvesting and the questionnaire. These research tools were tested several times with small groups of participants to ensure that they were valid and would result in meaningful data. For the main part of the study we surveyed about 550 people in groups. We found participants by inviting a wide range of organizations to come to group sessions. These organizations ranged from environmental groups to all kinds of clubs and societies to forest industry organizations. The groups that agreed to participate were shown the simulated pictures on an 8 metre wide screen, to maximise their sense of being in the forest. These participants filled in the questionnaire as they viewed the pictures. About half the participants also viewed information about the consequences of harvesting for a wide range of outcomes including fauna, forest products and other forest values.
Homogenization and characterization of piezoelectric stack actuators by means of the inverse method

Numerical simulations of piezoelectric stack actuators are suitable to predict the mechanical and electrical performance in actuator applications in advance. The major conditions for reliable numerical simulations are a detailed knowledge regarding internal structure of the actuators as well as precise material parameters of all involved materials. Complex actuator structures and a composition of various materials, however, lead to challenging preparatory work and elaborate numerical simulations. In this contribution, we present an innovative and novel top-down approach, which simplifies the actuator structure by means of a homogenized, uniform model for only one fictive piezoelectric material with effective material parameters. These material parameters are determined through the inverse method, a simulation-based approach for identifying all small signal parameters of piezoelectric materials. In doing so, frequencyresolved electrical impedance and mechanical displacement measurements of the piezoelectric stack actuator serve as input quantities. Thus, all small signal parameters of the fictive material are determined in a very efficient way, which leads to excellent numerical simulation results with minimal effort.
Mining Object Usage Models

Programs usually follow many implicit programming rules or patterns, violations of which frequently lead to failures. This thesis proposes a novel approach to statically mine object usage models representing such patterns for objects used in a program. Additionally, we will describe how object usage models can be used to automatically detect defects, increase program understanding and support programmers by providing code templates. In preliminary experiments the proposed method detected two previously unknown bugs in open source software.
Dielectric effects in electromagnetic compatibility experiments for automotive vehicles

This work aims to analyze the effects of dielectric materials and its characteristics in electric fields. Considering the field propagation inside the dielectrics and its permittivity dependency, were done experimental tests, in order to observe the electric fields perturbations in a presence of wood. The tests were done in half anechoic chamber of Fiat Automveis, and the results pointed to a field raise in the measure point, in detriment to the field measured in absence of this material. Finally, were done simulations which could confirm the dielectric expected influences. Also, here were discussed the impacts due to the field alterations in the electromagnetic compatibility experiments.
Drug exposure in a metastatic human lung adenocarcinoma cell line gives rise to cells with differing adhesion, proliferation, and gene expression: Implications for cancer chemotherapy

The Am1010 cell line was previously established from a metastatic deposit in an arm muscle from a patient with lung adenocarcinoma who had undergone four cycles of chemotherapy with cisplatin and taxol. Am1010 cells were labeled with red fluorescent protein or green fluorescent protein. A total of eight sublines were isolated following in vitro exposure to cisplatin or taxol. The sublines differed with regard to their adhesion and proliferation properties, with certain sublines exhibiting an increased proliferation rate and/or decreased surface adhesion. Gene expression assays demonstrated that tenascin C; cyclin D1; collagen, type 1, α2; integrin α1; related RAS viral (r-ras) oncogene homolog 2; platelet-derived growth factor C; and Src homolog 2 domain containing in the focal adhesion pathway, and intercellular adhesion molecule 1, F11 receptor, claudin 7 and cadherin 1 in the cell adhesion pathway, varied in expression among the sublines. The results of the present study suggested that drug exposure may alter the aggressiveness and metastatic potential of cancer cells, which has important implications for cancer chemotherapy.
Comparison of positive sequence detectors for shunt active filter control

The influence of using different methods to detect the positive sequence of the grid voltage fundamental component on shunt active filter control is analyzed in this work. Three kind of positive sequence detectors are considered: detectors based on the pq Teory, EPLL-based detectors and those based on SOGI. Shunt active filter behavior is analyzed through simulation results using each one of these positive sequence detectors on balanced grid voltage, unbalanced grid voltage and unbalanced and distorted grid voltage conditions.
Machine learning-based energy management in a hybrid electric vehicle to minimize total operating cost

This paper investigates the energy management problem in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) focusing on the minimization of the operating cost of an HEV, including both fuel and battery replacement cost. More precisely, the paper presents a nested learning framework in which both the optimal actions (which include the gear ratio selection and the use of internal combustion engine versus the electric motor to drive the vehicle) and limits on the range of the state-of-charge of the battery are learned on the fly. The inner-loop learning process is the key to minimization of the fuel usage whereas the outer-loop learning process is critical to minimization of the amortized battery replacement cost. Experimental results demonstrate a maximum of 48% operating cost reduction by the proposed HEV energy management policy.
Subgraph Densities in Signed Graphons and the Local Simonovits-Sidorenko Conjecture

We prove inequalities between the densities of various bipartite subgraphs in signed graphs. One of the main inequalities is that the density of any bipartite graph with girth $2r$ cannot exceed the density of the $2r$-cycle. This study is motivated by the Simonovits–Sidorenko conjecture, which states that the density of a bipartite graph $F$ with $m$ edges in any graph $G$ is at least the $m$-th power of the edge density of $G$. Another way of stating this is that the graph $G$ with given edge density minimizing the number of copies of $F$ is, asymptotically, a random graph. We prove that this is true locally, i.e., for graphs $G$ that are "close" to a random graph. Both kinds of results are treated in the framework of graphons (2-variable functions serving as limit objects for graph sequences), which in this context was already used by Sidorenko.
Knowledge-based semantic clustering

Users of the web are increasingly interested in tracking the appearance of new postings rather than locating existing knowledge. Coupled with this is the emergence of the Web 2.0 movement (where everyone effectively publishes and subscribes), and the concept of the "Internet of Things". These trends bring into sharp focus the need for efficient distribution of information. However to date there has been few examples of applying ontology-based techniques to achieve this. Knowledge-based networking (KBN) involves the forwarding of messages across a network based not just on the contents of the messages but also on the semantics of the associated metadata. In this paper we examine the scalability problems of such a network that would meet the needs of Internet-scale semantic-based event feeds. This examination is conducted by evaluating an implemented extension to an existing pub-sub content-based networking (CBN) algorithm to support matching of notification messages to client subscription filters using ontology-based reasoning. We also demonstrate how the clustering of ontologies leads to increased efficiencies in the subscription forwarding tables used, which in turn results in increased scalability of the network.
IPA: improved phone modelling with recurrent neural networks

This paper describes phone modelling improvements to the hybrid connectionist-hidden Markov model speech recognition system developed at Cambridge University. These improvements are applied to phone recognition from the TIMIT task and word recognition from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) task. A recurrent net is used to map acoustic vectors to posterior probabilities of phone classes. The maximum likelihood phone or word string is then extracted using Markov models. The paper describes three improvements: connectionist model merging; explicit presentation of acoustic context; and improved duration modelling. The first is shown to provide a significant improvement in the TIMIT phone recognition rate and all three provide an improvement in the WSJ word recognition rate. <<ETX>>