Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stochastic Population Methods in Analysis of Epidemics

Epidemics of infective diseases can be naturally regarded as a parade problem in population dynamics. Understanding the time–evolution and fundamental interactions of different subpopulations (infected, immune, carriers, etc.) is a key instrument to devise sustainable and effective treatments, as far as this is possible. In this application we will focus on vector diseases, i.e., infections (frequently viral) mediated by a carrier or vector of a different species. Typical examples are tropical viral fevers such as Dengue, Yellow Fever or Chikungunya, where the main transmission agent is a mosquito, Ædes ægypti, in all three cases, and also Ædes albopictus (the list of diseases can be made longer, e.g., West Nile Fever, malaria, tick-born diseases, .) For such diseases, an accurate understanding of the population dynamics of the vector is fundamental. There is a basic need for a stochastic treatment of the problem, which becomes clear considering just the mosquito life–cycle. The spatiotemporal distribution of mosquitos in the world varies from regions or periods with no mosquitoes (or regions with zero adult sub-populations) to regions or periods with large number of individuals. In other words it is necessary to adopt an approach that is capable of dealing with small numbers and large numbers (of individuals), within one season and along the years. For example, Ædes ægypti is permanently present in large numbers in tropical zones of Africa and America, it has a seasonal presence in colder areas of America, where in some “extreme” areas the mosquito could be present some years and absent some other years. At present, there are no reports of Ædes ægypti from Europe or Canada. However, the species Ædes albopictus (also a vector) has been reported in several European countries (mostly in the Mediterranean area but even in Belgium, Netherlands and others). To understand the extinction probability of the mosquito, or to be able to estimate the population size for the next season (especially in temperate and colder climates) is an important contribution to analyse the range of vector diseases. Other issues around epidemics whose study is imperative are, among others,
Gauge Theoretic Invariants of, Dehn Surgeries on Knots

New methods for computing a variety of gauge theoretic invariants for homology 3{spheres are developed. These invariants include the Chern{Simons invariants, the spectral flow of the odd signature operator, and the rho invariants of irreducible SU(2) representations. These quantities are calculated for flat SU(2) connections on homology 3{spheres obtained by 1=k Dehn surgery on (2;q) torus knots. The methods are then applied to compute the SU(3) gauge theoretic Casson invariant (introduced in [5]) for Dehn surgeries on (2;q ) torus knots for q =3 ; 5 ; 7a nd 9.
The change of HERS cell number and gene expression profile by occlusion during root development in rat molars

Occlusion is commenced by contact of a tooth with an opposing tooth and is the mechanical force working against the periodontal ligament (PDL). Our recent study indicated that occlusion regulated tooth root elongation occurs during root development in rat molars. Using a non-occlusal model established to directly examine the effects of the absence of occlusion in developing first molars of upper jaw, histological analysis was performed to count the number of HERS cells, with Microarray used to analyse gene expression profiles. HERS cell numbers in normal molars decreased significantly more than those in experimental molars. In microarray data, a total of 59 genes showed significant differences (fold change > 2.0). Expressions of 55 genes in the experimental molars, which included PLAP-1/asporin and periostin, were significantly decreased than those in normal molars. These data indicate that occlusion during root development leads to a decrease in the number of HERS cells, and that the aforementioned genes may play an essential role in normal root formation.
Computer Vision for determination of Fridge Content

The topic of this paper is a computer vision system for a refrigerator. A number of cameras are placed in the fridge. The system then extracts and processes information about the contents of the fridge. As a user manipulates items in the fridge, a motion-detecting system selects key-frames from the video streams. Images before and after actions are kept and analyzed. A camera mounted below the shelf is used to obtain an image of the footprints of the objects on the shelf. By analyzing difference images of the footprint, it is possible to determine the type of action that has been performed (insertion, movement, removal). Furthermore, the side view and the footprint are used to estimate the 3D shape of the object within a specific class of object shapes. As long as the true shape lies within or is sufficiently close to this class, this fast and novel method is successful.
SECOND LANGUAGE INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY RETENTION: THE EFFECT OF TEXT AND PICTURE ANNOTATION TYPES

The present study examines the effect that annotation type has on L2 incidental vocabulary retention in a multimedia reading setting. Three annotation types were compared: text-only, picture-only, and a combination of the two. The participants were 151 adult ESL learners at beginning and intermediate language proficiency levels. The participants read a story for comprehension purposes using the Internet. Three types of instruments were used for vocabulary retention assessment: Picture recognition, Word recognition, and Definition Supply tests. The results ANOVA analyses indicate that the Combination group (annotations with text and picture) outperformed the Text-only and Picture-only groups on the immediate tests. The Combination group also outperformed the other two groups on the delayed tests, however, the differences were smaller than those for the immediate tests. There was no significant interaction between annotation type and proficiency level for either the immediate or the delayed tests. Repeated measure ANOVAs revealed no significant differences among the groups in the rate of change between the immediate test scores and delayed test scores. The participants' scores on the delayed tests, regardless of the group to which they were assigned, declined equally from those of the immediate tests.
Attractability and location of equilibrium point of cellular neural networks with time-varying delays

This paper presents new theoretical results on global exponential stability of cellular neural networks with time-varying delays. The stability conditions depend on external inputs, connection weights and delays of cellular neural networks. Using these results, global exponential stability of cellular neural networks can be derived, and the estimate for location of equilibrium point can also be obtained. Finally, the simulating results demonstrate the validity and feasibility of our proposed approach.
Collaborative development of performance indicators for IT applications

Designing performance indicators for measuring the value of IT supported processes is an important and recurring task in controlling and management. Involving different stakeholders and perspectives in the development of an evoked set of performance indicators is the key to improve the quality and acceptance of performance measures. We apply an approach for designing repeatable processes for the development of such performance indicators as high-value collaborative tasks using techniques of the collaboration engineering. We show how this collaboration engineering approach can be designed (building on the collaboration process design approach by Kolfschoten et al. (Ko06a)) and how it needs to be extended for designing a performance measurement tool for IT applications. The case describes the development process within a multinational industrial company for a reporting application. It shows that the approach is promising to avoid classical problems of the performance measurement, e.g. conflicting interests of various stakeholders. The developed concept provides a collaborative approach for companies to develop key performance indicators in a politically challenging environment and to generate a valid performance measurement tool. The results suggest that the outcome of the workshop provides a broad variety of indicators, which represent different aspects of benefits of the application. The use of collaboration engineering approaches for the field of performance measurement delivers promising results and offers interesting options for further research, i.e. standardization potentials for collaborative performance tool development and requirements of corporate environments.
Systematic Approach to Computational Design of Gene Regulatory Networks with Information Processing Capabilities

We present several measures that can be used in de novo computational design of biological systems with information processing capabilities. Their main purpose is to objectively evaluate the behavior and identify the biological information processing structures with the best dynamical properties. They can be used to define constraints that allow one to simplify the design of more complex biological systems. These measures can be applied to existent computational design approaches in synthetic biology, i.e., rational and automatic design approaches. We demonstrate their use on a) the computational models of several basic information processing structures implemented with gene regulatory networks and b) on a modular design of a synchronous toggle switch.
The Treatment of Smith's Invisible Hand

Adam Smith used the metaphor of an invisible hand to represent the instincts of human nature that direct behavior. Moderated by self-control and guided by proper institutional incentives, actions grounded in instincts can be shown to generate a beneficial social order even if not intended. Smith's concept, however, has been diluted and distorted over time through extension and misuse. Common misperceptions are that Smith unconditionally endorsed laissez-faire markets, selfish individualism, and Pareto efficiency. The author draws upon recent literature to clarify Smith's meaning and to discuss ways of improving its classroom presentation. The author argues that the invisible hand operates within a variety of institutional settings and that a number of arrangements are compatible with economic progress.
Selected Approaches to Estimation of Signal Phase

A number of approaches to parametric estimation of signal phase are addressed. The goal is to estimate the phase, or more precisely, the parameters of the phase of a signal corrupted by white Gaussian noise. Signal models are restricted to those with linear and quadratic phase, but many of the results presented are applicable to signals with higher order phase laws. Results highlight the classic trade-off between estimator complexity and estimator variance.
Coarse-to-Fine Visual Selection

We study visual selection: Detect and roughly localize all instances of a generic object class, such as a face, in a greyscale scene, measuring performance in terms of computation and false alarms. Our approach is sequential testing which is coarse-tone in both in the exploration of poses and the representation of objects. All the tests are all binary and indicate the presence or absence of loose spatial arrangements of oriented edge fragments. Starting from training examples, we recursively nd larger and larger arrangements which are "decomposable," which implies the probability of an arrangement appearing on an object decays slowly with its size. Detection means nding a suucient number of arrangements of each size along a decreasing sequence of pose cells. At the beginning, the tests are simple and universal, accommodating many poses simultaneously, but the false alarm rate is relatively high. Eventually, the tests are more discriminating, but also more complex and dedicated to speciic poses. As a result, the spatial distribution of processing is highly skewed and detection is rapid, but at the expense of (isolated) false alarms which, presumably, could be eliminated with localized, more intensive, processing.
Smart file objects: a remote file access paradigm

This paper describes o new scheme for remote file access called Smart File Objects (SFO). The SF0 is an object-oriented application-specific file access paradigm designed to attack the bottleneck imposed by high Iotency low bandwidth networks such (IS wide-area and wireless networks. The SF0 uses application and network inform&on to adaptively prefetch needed data in pnmllel with the aecurion of the application. The SF0 con offer additional advantages such (IS non-blocking I/O, bulk I/O, improved& access APIs, and increased relinbiliry We describe the SF0 concept, a prototype implementation in the Mentat system, and the results obtained with o distributed gene sequence application running across the Internet and vBNS. The results show the P otential of the SF0 opprooch to improve application performance.
Bankruptcy and Voluntary Liquidation: Evidence for New Firms in East and West Germany after Unification

Exploiting the unique economic situation after German unification, I investigate how exit decisions deviate between new firms in a transition and a comparatively stable market environment. Two competing exit mechanisms are considered: entrepreneurial self-selection via voluntary liquidation and external selection based on insolvency regulation. Distinguishing between the competing exit modes proves to be crucial in semi-parametric proportional hazard-rate estimations. Comparing East and West Germany, I find distinct education and size effects and a higher share of bankruptcy-related liquidations in East Germany. These results are argued to reflect different industry structures, capital and labor market conditions in both parts of Germany.
Contribution Rate of Management Elements in Economic Growth

The contradiction between the rapid development of science and technology and the lag of management level is becoming more and more prominent. Researches illustrate that management elements should participate in distribution. In this paper, the contribution rate of management elements in economic growth is studied by a method of quantitative measuring and calculating. Management is regarded as an efficiency-promoting organizational behavior. A concept of equal efficiency curved surface production function is proposed and growth rate equation is established. Based on the equation and according to the dynamic changes of efficiency, the quantitative measuring method in management that affecting economic growth is proposed and empirical tests are carried out. The contribution rate of quantitative calculation management element in economic growth has provided theoretical basis for participation of management factor in distribution.
Social Network Construction of Entrepreneurs: Dynamic Perspective from Chinese Service Industry

After decades of rapid economy growth in China, the importance of social capital and social network for entrepreneurship has been recognized in recent years. The main purpose of this study is to explore the changing social network construction of entrepreneurs with a dynamic perspective. This paper extends earlier research with focusing on service industry and with taking the process-oriented view. By investigating 125 entrepreneurs from service industry, this study employs the method of statistical analysis to find out the difference of social network construction in three entrepreneurship stages. The results indicate that the density and scale of entrepreneur's social network does vary in different entrepreneurship stages. The results also indicate the heterogeneity of network members' professional background does vary in different entrepreneurship stages while heterogeneity of network members' social status does not. In the end of this paper, some reasons for the results are discussed.
WSReasoner: A Prototype Hybrid Reasoner for ALCHOI Ontology Classification using a Weakening and Strengthening Approach

In the ontology classification task, consequence-based reasoners are typically significantly faster while tableau-based reasoners can process more expressive DL languages. However, both of them have difficulty to classify some available large and complex ALCHOI ontologies with complete results in acceptable time. We present a prototype hybrid reasoning system WSReasoner, which is built upon and takes advantages of both types of reasoners to provide efficient classification service. In our proposed approach, we approximate the target ontology O by a weakened version Owk and a strengthened version Ostr, both are in a less expressive DL ALCH and classified by a consequence-based main reasoner. Classification of Owk produces a subset of subsumptions of ontology O and the target of the classification of Ostr is to produce a superset of subsumptions ofO. Additional subsumptions derived fromOstr may be unsound, so they are further verified by a tableau-based assistant reasoner. For theALCHOI ontologies in our experiment, except for one for which WSReasoner has not obtained the result, (1) the number of subsumptions derived from WSReasoner is no fewer than from the reasoners that could finish the classification; (2) WSReasoner takes less time than tableau-based reasoners when the ALCHOI ontologies are large and complex.
PREDICTORS OF VOCATIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ BEHAVIORAL INTENTION TO USE WEB-BASED LISTENING TEST

Higher Education Institutions extensively use web-based testing applications to support their teaching and learning activities. Despite myriad benefits of these applications, students and institutions do not take full advantage of web-based testing applications due to a number of factors influencing behavioral intention. The purpose of this study was to examine vocational college students’ behavioral intention of a web-based listening test administered in a vocational collage. The participants of the study comprised 929 post-secondary students enrolled in an “English Foreign Language” course during 2015-2016 fall semester. Computer Based Assessment Acceptance Model was adopted to determine predictors of participants’ behavioral intention to use web-based listening test. The data were collected via an online questionnaire and analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients and linear regression analyses. The results of the study revealed that students’ behavioral intention to use web-based listening test had significantly positive relationship with their computer self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, social influence, goal expectancy, content of the test, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived playfulness. Results also showed that social influence, goal expectancy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived playfulness exerted a direct influence on behavioral intention to use web-based listening test. Students’ perceived playfulness appeared to be the strongest predictor of their behavioral intention to use within the web-based listening test.
Approximation of boundary control problems on curved domains

The boundary control problems associated to a semilinear elliptic equation defined in a curved domain Ω are considered. The Dirichlet and Neumann cases are analyzed. To deal with the numerical analysis of these problems, the approximation of Ω by an appropriate domain Ω<inf>h</inf> (typically polygonal) is required. Here, we do not consider the numerical approximation of the control problems. Instead of it, we formulate the corresponding infinite dimensional control problems in Ω<inf>h</inf> and we study the influence of the replacement of Ω by Ω<inf>h</inf> on the solutions of the control problems. Our goal is to compare the optimal controls defined on Γ = δΩ with those defined on Γ<inf>h</inf> = δΩ<inf>h</inf> and to derive some error estimates. The use of a convenient parametrization of the boundary is needed for such estimates. The results for convex domains are given in [1], the results for nonconvex domains are included in a work in progress.
MapReduce Based Skyline Services Selection for QoS-aware Composition

Service selection is an important issue of Service-oriented computing (SOC), which is a fundamental step to the composition of complex and large-grained services from single-function components. Skyline operation is recently adopted to select candidate services for composition, as skyline services have better QoS. However, the fast increasing web services, multiple quality attributes to be considered, and dynamic service environment pose a big challenge to skyline service selection. In this paper, we present a parallel skyline service selection method to improve the efficiency by upgrading the MapReduce paradigm. In particular, an angle-based data space partitioning approach is employed in our MapReduce based skyline service selection. To handle the dynamic nature of service environment, we employ Paper-Tape (PT) Model which is used to rapidly locate varying services, and present a dynamic skyline service selection algorithm based on PT model. By experimenting over 10,000 web services along 10 quality attributes, we demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed methods.
On the X-ray and optical properties of the Be star HD 110432 : a very hard-thermal X-ray emitter

HD 110432 is the first proposed, and best studied, member of a growing group of Be stars with X-ray properties similar to γ Cas. These stars exhibit hard-thermal X-rays that are variable on all measurable timescales. This emission contrasts with the soft emission of “normal" massive stars and with the non-thermal emission of all well known Be/X-ray binaries – so far, all Be + neutron star systems. In this work we present X-ray spectral and timing properties of HD 110432 from three XMM-Newton observations in addition to new optical spectroscopic observations. Like γ Cas, the X-rays of HD 110432 appear to have a thermal origin, as supported by strongly ionized Fe xxv and Fe xxvi lines detected in emission. A fluorescent iron feature at 6.4 keV is present in all observations, while the Fe xxvi Lyβ line is present in two of them. Its X-ray spectrum, complex and time variable, is well described in each observation by three thermal plasmas with temperatures ranging between 0.2–0.7, 3–6, and 16–37 keV. Thus, HD 110432 has the hottest thermal plasma of any known Be star. A sub-solar iron abundance (∼0.3–0.5×ZFe,� ) is derived for the hottest plasma, while lines of less excited ions at longer wavelengths are consistent with solar abundances. The star has a moderate 0.2–12 keV luminosity of ∼5 × 10 32 erg s −1 . The intensity of the X-ray emission is strongly variable. Recurrent flare-like events on time scales as short as ∼10 s are superimposed over a basal flux which varies on timescales of ∼5–10 × 10 3 s, followed by similarly rapid hardness variabilities. There is no evidence for coherent oscillations, and an upper limit of ∼2.5% is derived on the pulsed fraction for short pulsations from 0.005 to 2.5 Hz. In the optical region the strong and quasi-symmetrical profile of the Hα line (EW ∼− 60 A) as well as the detection of several metallic lines in emission strongly suggest a dense and/or large circumstellar disk. Also, the double-peaked profiles of metallic lines confirm the nearly edge-on projection of that disk noted recently by Smith & Balona. HD 110432 has several properties reminiscent of the cataclysmic variables such as a very hot X-ray temperature and some of its detailed spectral features. This suggests that it might be a Be star harbouring an accreting white dwarf. On the other hand, recent evidence of magnetic activity reported in the literature of HD 110432 suggests an interaction between the surface of the Be star and its disk can produce the X-rays.