Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Demand-Response Routing Model for Traffic Signal Maintenance Operations with Time-Dependent Travel Times

This study is aimed at planning traffic signal maintenance work using a demand-response routing model with time-dependent travel times. The routing model was able to produce timely maintenance routes for each maintenance vehicle compatible to the daily inspection plan and randomly revealed malfunctioning traffic signals. Three modules, the route-generating module, the decision-support module and the time-evolution module, constituted the model framework, and Genetic Algorithms (GAs) were used to solve for dynamic maintenance routes. Furthermore, different service strategies with different routing procedures based upon a case reconstructed from real world data were designed and tested to reflect the concerns for practical applications. Evaluation results show the routing model is flexible in structure and feasible enough for practical applications. Key-Words: Traffic Signal Maintenance Operations, Demand-Response Routing Model, Time-Dependent Travel Time, Genetic Algorithms
Mixture innovation Models

Time series subject to parameter shifts of random magnitude and timing are commonly modeled with a change-point approach using Chibs (1998) algorithm to draw the break dates. We outline some advantages of an alternative approach in which breaks come through mixture distributions in state innovations, and for which the sampler of Gerlach, Carter and Kohn (2000) allows reliable and e¢ cient inference. We show how this approach can be used to (i) model shifts in variance that occur independently of shifts in other parameters (ii) draw the break dates e¢ ciently in change-point and regime-switching models with either Markov or nonMarkov transition probabilities. We extend the proofs given in Carter and Kohn (1994) and in Gerlach, Carter and Kohn (2000) to state-space models with system matrices which are functions of lags of the dependent variables, and we further improve the algorithms in Gerlach, Carter and Kohn by introducing to the time series literature the concept of adaptive Metropolis-Hastings sampling for discrete latent variable models. We develop an easily implemented adative algorithm that promises to sizably reduce computing time in a variety of problems including mixture innovation, change-point, regime-switching, and outlier detection. Keywords: Structural breaks; Parameter instability; Change-point; State-space; Mixtures; Discrete latent variables; Adaptive MetropolisHastings. JEL Classi cation Codes: C11, C15, C22. We thank John Haywood and Gary Koop for comments. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as reecting the views of the Executive board of Sveriges Riksbank. yCorresponding author: paolo.giordani@riksbank.se
Bid-Ask Spread Dynamics

The theory of Market Microstructure Invariance proposed by Kyle and Obizhaeva (2010) is presented and tested on spread data for bond futures. The data used are transformations from over 150,000 observations of futures on German government debt securities (Schatz and Bund) and 10-year US treasury notes. To account for the possible presence of long memory processes, we perform a GPH-test that displays no long memory processes in the data. Our findings support the theory of Market Microstructure Invariance, however the results differ between futures. Acknowledgments: We would like to thank our tutor Frederik Lundtofte for his guidance and comments. We are also grateful to Filip Andersson, Niklas Westermark and Anders Bergwall for their assistance. Bid-Ask Spread Dynamics Jansson, Wilhelm and Liljefors, Bo 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . 2 MARKET MICROSTRUCTURE INVARIANCE MODEL . 5 MATHEMATICS TO SPREAD PREDICTIONS . 7 Transaction Costs . 10 Time Clock irrelevance and trading costs . 12 AS AN EMPIRICAL HYPOTHESIS . 14 LONG MEMORY . 16 FIRST STEP – ESTIMATE  d ^ . 17 SECOND STEP MODELLING LONG MEMORY . 18 DATA . 19 EMPIRICS . 21 DIFFERENCE IN ESTIMATION . 22 COMBINING WITH LONG MEMORY . 22 EMPIRICAL RESULTS . 24 GPH-TEST . 24 AR/MAPROCESSES . 25 ESTIMATION OF ALPHA . 25 COMMENTS . 26 CONCLUSION . 27 REFERENCES . 29 SOURCES . 31 APPENDIX . 32 Bid-Ask Spread Dynamics Jansson, Wilhelm and Liljefors, Bo
Sorption Properties of the Bottom Sediment of a Lake Restored by Phosphorus Inactivation Method 15 Years after the Termination of Lake Restoration Procedures

Artificial mixing and phosphorus inactivation methods using aluminum compounds are among the most popular lake restoration methods. Długie Lake (Olsztyńskie Lakeland, Poland) was restored using these two methods. Primarily, P precipitation and inactivation methods significantly increased the sorption properties of Długie Lake bottom sediment. Fifteen years after the termination of the restoration procedure, the alum-modified “active” sediment layer still has higher P adsorption abilities, which can limit P internal loading. Relatively low amounts of phosphates in the near-bottom water of Długie Lake, even in anoxia, as well as the fact that the assessed maximum sediment P sorption capacity is still higher than NH4Cl–P (labile P) and BD–P (Fe-bound P) sum (“native exchangeable P”), confirm that hypothesis. Among the tested P adsorption models for the sediment, the double Langmuir model showed the best fit to the experimental data (the highest R2 values). This may indicate that phosphorus adsorption by the tested sediments most likely occurs through phosphate binding at two types of active sorption sites. P adsorption by the studied lake sediment during experiments was significantly connected to aluminum content in sediment. The research into the adsorption properties of sediment can be used as a tool for the evaluation of lake restoration effects.
-Best-Arm Identification in Pay-Per-Reward Multi-Armed Bandits

We study -best-arm identification, in a setting where during the exploration phase, the cost of each arm pull is proportional to the expected future reward of that arm. We term this setting Pay-Per-Reward. We provide an algorithm for this setting, that with a high probability returns an -best arm, while incurring a cost that depends only linearly on the total expected reward of all arms, and does not depend at all on the number of arms. Under mild assumptions, the algorithm can be applied also to problems with infinitely many arms.
Use of ozone therapy together to low power laser in osteonecrosis induced bisphosphonates - Clinical case

Considering the probable causal association between the use of bisphosphonates and osteonecrosis of the jaw, as well as the high number of prescriptions and use these drugs every year, this paper aims to show different treatment. The combined use of ozone therapy and laser therapy in tissue regeneration and bone repair in patients with osteonecrosis induced by bisphosphonates, held by the discipline of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology, Paulista State University "Julio de Mesquita Filho". Female patient, white, 53 years after a breast cancer had an evolution for bone metastases throughout the body, and start the chemotherapy treatment using intra-venous pamidronate 90 mg monthly from 2007 which has been used to the present day, due to disease stabilization. The patient sought the institution complaining of painful symptoms in the mandible and maxilla, and the clinical examination and CT were diagnosed initial sites suggestive of osteonecrosis induced by bisphosphonates. In seeking to reduce the symptoms and clinical signs, to prevent progress in the lesions, we recommend treatment by ozone therapy together to infrared low-power laser, which showed satisfactory reduction in bone necrosis sites. Although there are wide variations and difficulties in treatments for osteonecrosis induced by bisphosphonates, it was possible regression of the lesions through the joint processing applied, and the improvement in life expectancy of the patient.
Deconstructing Supertagging into Multi-Task Sequence Prediction

Supertagging is a sequence prediction task where each word is assigned a piece of complex syntactic structure called a supertag. We provide a novel approach to multi-task learning for Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG) supertagging by deconstructing these complex supertags in order to define a set of related but auxiliary sequence prediction tasks. Our multi-task prediction framework is trained over the exactly same training data used to train the original supertagger where each auxiliary task provides an alternative view on the original prediction task. Our experimental results show that our multi-task approach significantly improves TAG supertagging with a new state-of-the-art accuracy score of 91.39% on the Penn Treebank supertagging dataset.
Working Papers / Documents de travail

We address the question of the measurement of pure health inequalities and achievement in the context of welfare decreasing variables. We adopt a general framework whereby the health variable is reported on an interval, from an optimum level m to a critical survival threshold b. There are two problems that require some departures from the usual framework used to measure inequality and social welfare. Firstly, we show that for welfare decreasing variables, the equally distributed equivalent value is decreasing in progressive transfers (instead of being increasing). Accordingly, appropriate achievement and inequality indices for welfare decreasing variables are introduced. Secondly, because the Lorenz curve and the associated inequality indices are not robust to alternative values of the survival threshold, we argue that the family of translation invariant social welfare functions and related absolute Lorenz curve allow us to undertake inequality comparisons between distributions that are robust to the chosen level of the survival threshold. An illustrative application of the methodology is provided.
In vitro antibacterial and synergistic effects of some plant extracts against Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae

Discovery of new antibacterial agent represents a revolution in the world of antimicrobials to face increase of bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics. Plants considered an important potential source of new antibacterial agents. There fore, the growth inhibitory effect of water and ethanolic extracts of Syzygium aromaticum, Commiphora molmol and Allium sativum and their synergism with antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae were evaluated. Agar well diffusion method and disk diffusion technique were used for antimicrobial assay and evaluation of synergistic effect respectively. Ethanolic extracts of the three tested plants exhibited growth inhibitory effect against tested bacteria. The results indicated that water extract of Syzygium aromaticum presented greater inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus than water extract of Allium sativum whereas water extract of Commiphora molmol did not show any antibacterial activity. The growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae was not inhibited by the water extracts of all tested plants. Synergistic effect against tested bacteria was showed when water and ethanolic plant extracts combined with antibiotics. We are of the opinion that ethanolic extracts of Syzygium aromaticum, Commiphora molmol and Allium sativum alone and in combination with antibiotics presented a new choice for treatment of microbial infection especially the tested bacteria. Further work is needed to isolate, identify and characterize the active principles from plants and test their antibacterial and synergistic effects with antibiotics against microorganisms. Citation: Gouda H.A. , Masoud E.A. , 2014. In vitro antibacterial and synergistic effects of some plant extracts against Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Journal of Antimicrobials. Photon 129, 338-346.
Microbial Growth and Biogenic Amine Production in a Balkan-Style Fresh Sausage during Refrigerated Storage under a CO2-Containing Anaerobic Atmosphere: Effect of the Addition of Zataria multiflora Essential Oil and Hops Extract

Fresh sausages are highly perishable, and the preservatives allowed in these types of meat preparations are limited. Balkan-style fresh sausages were prepared in triplicate without antimicrobials (Control), with an aqueous hops extract (30 mL/kg), with Zataria multiflora Boiss essential oil (1 mL/kg), or a combination of both (15 and 0.5 mL/kg, respectively), and refrigerator-stored under a 20% CO2 and 80% N2 atmosphere. The spoilage microbial growth, i.e., lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Brochothrix thermosphacta, Enterobacteriaceae, Micrococcaceae, molds and yeasts, the pH value, and the production of biogenic amines in the sausages were monitored weekly and compared with a control sausage during a 35-day storage period. Furthermore, 349 colonies of presumptive LAB (isolated from the De Mann, Rogose-Sharpe agar plates) were identified using a MALDI-TOF-based method. Growth levels to ≈ 9 Log colony forming units (CFU) per g were reached by LAB, with a predominance of Lactobacillus sakei. Enterobacteriaceae and B. thermosphacta also showed significant growth (up to 6 Log CFU/g). Biogenic amine levels increased, and tyramine values overcame 250 mg/kg. The study could not demonstrate a significant effect of antimicrobial source treatments in any of the characteristics studied, and thus, the shelf-life of sausages.
Sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation

This paper aims to systematise existing conceptual approaches of sustainable entrepreneurship and to outline the role sustainable entrepreneurs can play for the implementation of innovations in the context of sustainable development. Based on a review of existing literature on ecopreneurship, social entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurship the first section gives an overview of existing conceptual approaches of entrepreneurship in the context of sustainable development. Having a closer look on this context, the second section outlines the discussion about sustainable development and analyses the role of innovation for sustainable development by reviewing the relevant literature. Founded on this analysis the process of implementing sustainable development is defined as a multi innovation process. From this perspective the implementation of sustainable development is a problem of successful innovation management. Therefore, in the third section the promoter model – a model of innovation management – is suggested to identify the role of sustainable entrepreneurs for sustainable development. Promoters are – similarly to entrepreneurs – persons who actively foster innovation. In a fourth step the role of sustainable entrepreneurs for implementing sustainable development is compared to the role of promoters for successful innovation processes. The profiles of technological promoters, power promoters, process promoters and relationship promoters are applied to the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship. Finally, it is concluded that a concept of sustainable entrepreneurship should consider factors that provide an innovative environment and thus foster the appearance of promoters and facilitate entrepreneurial behaviour.
Memories of Sir Michael Atiyah

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to study with Michael for two months in Oxford in 1968 and for two years (1969–71) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he arranged forme to be invited. Michael Atiyah is famous for his work in algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, index theory, and, later, physics, but on the side he had important contributions to representation theory. I will try to explain some of them here. Michael’s 1967 paper with Bott contains a proof of the holomorphic Lefschetz fixed point formula that provides a wonderfully simple explanation for Weyl’s character formula for tr(g,V) (g is a regular semisimple element, and V is an irreducible rational representation of a complex semisimple groupG). The explanation was in terms of the (finite) fixed point set of the automorphism defined by g on the flag manifold of G. This was a model for me when I later worked with Deligne on representation theory of finite reductive groups, where the holomorphic Lefschetz fixed point formula was replaced by a Lefschetz fixed point formula in l-adic cohomology for certain automorphisms of finite order of a flag manifold and certain subvarieties
Antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of phenolic compounds extracted from Populus nigra and Populus alba buds (Algeria)

The interest of this work is the discovery of new antimicrobial agents of plant origin to inhibit the formation of microbial biofilms. The present research was conducted to identify and quantify the phenolic compounds extracted from Populus nigra and Populus alba buds harvested in the area of TiziOuzou (Algeria), and to evaluate their antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was performed to identify the phenolic compounds in the ethyl acetate fraction of P. nigra and the methanolic extracts of P. nigra and P. alba. The antimicrobial activity of the crude extracts and the fractions of these two species was tested against 11 microorganisms, using the disk diffusion method, while the antibiofilm effect of certain extracts was carried out in a 96-well microplate and on a biomaterial (catheter). HPLC analysis revealed the presence of 10 bioactive compounds. The main phenolic compounds identified in the three extracts were p-coumaric acid, ellagic acid, and Kaempferol. This study was able to demonstrate that the extracts of P. nigra and P. alba buds have interesting antimicrobial properties, with diameters ranging from 6.6 to 21.3 mm. In addition, extracts of P. nigra exhibited antibiofilm effects greater than 70%. Our results provide evidence for the antimicrobial and antibiofilm potential of bud extracts from both poplar species. Thus, these results will pave the way for further research on these two plants.
A view from the field: Urban special education directors' perceptions of essential competencies for newly appointed special education administrators

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine what competencies urban directors of special education perceived to be essential for newly appointed urban special education administrators. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were generated to investigate the underlying factors in competencies perceived by urban special education directors to be essential for newly appointed special education administrators and to investigate the relationship between years of experience as a director of special education and these underlying factors. A factor analysis revealed that there were three underlying factors reported to be essential for newly appointed special education administrators. A multiple regression analysis indicated that the relationship between the years of experience as a director of special education and the underlying factors (Management, Instruction and Change; Supervision of Faculty; and Team Building Skills) was not statistically significant. A post hoc test was conducted to further detect differences in years of experience as an urban director of special education and the underlying factors. The results were sufficient to reject the null hypotheses in both cases.
Topic Segmentation in Spoken Dialogue through Convergence in Utterance Complexity

We present a simple incremental model for stable topic segmentation in spoken dialogue. The model is based on the principle of Uniform Information Density and only utilises differences in syntactic complexity of the interlocutors to predict topic shifts in upcoming turns. While this simple set of features is not sufficient to reproduce segmentations of more involved methods, we show that it produces coherent and intuitively sound topic segments even for noisy dialogue transcripts.
WST 48.10 ROM 25 corr

Continuous (hourly) measurements of dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll (determined by fluorimetry) were made for an inter-linked lowland river and canal system. The dissolved oxygen data were used to estimate daily rates of re-aeration, photosynthesis and respiration, using a process-based analytical technique (the Delta method). In-situ fluorimeter measurements of chlorophyll were ground-truthed on a fortnightly basis using laboratory methanol extraction of chlorophyll and spectrophotometric analysis. Water samples were also analysed for algal species on a fortnightly basis. The river and canal exhibited very similar rates of photosynthesis and respiration during the summer of 2001, despite much higher chlorophyll concentrations and total algal counts, indicating that benthic algae and/or aquatic macrophytes may be making an important contribution to photosynthesis rates in the river. Suspended algal populations in the canal are dominated by planktonic species, whereas the river has a higher proportion of species which are predominantly benthic in habitat. The river exhibited higher rates of respiration, reflecting a higher organic loading from external (e.g. sewage effluent) sources.
MIGRANT ACHIEVEMENT PENALTIES IN WESTERN EUROPE. FOR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS?

This paper presents a comparative examination of educational underachievement of second-generation immigrants in Western Europe near the end of compulsory schooling, based on the 2006-2009 waves of the PISA survey. We propose a measure for migrant educational penalty revealing the relative position of migrant children within the achievement distribution of natives with the same socio-economic background. We find that migrant specific disadvantage is severe in most Western European countries. We then analyze how this measure varies across countries and find it negatively related to the effect of socioeconomic background on natives’ achievement. Hence, migrant penalties and socio-economic penalties come forth as two distinct dimensions of educational inequalities. By means of recursive partitioning methods, we explore whether features of educational systems account for cross-country differences in migrant-specific penalties. We find that institutional dimensions theoretically related to educational careers of children of immigrants – entry age into (pre)school and degree of marginalization in low-performing schools –matter, in spite of the more or less comprehensive character of the secondary school systems.
Treatment of progressive neurofibromatosis type 2-related vestibular schwannoma with erlotinib

2045 Background: Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is a tumor-suppressor syndrome characterized by the presence of bilateral vestibular schwannomas (VS), which cause hearing loss, tinnitus, and imbalance. Hearing preservation rates after surgery and radiation are low (<40%). New alternatives are needed for NF2 patients with progressive tumors. Preclinical data suggests that EGFR inhibitors restore contact-dependent inhibition of growth in NF2-deficient cell lines. Methods: We performed a retrospective IRB-approved analysis on 8 NF2 patients with progressive VS who were treated with erlotinib150 mg daily. Volumetric MRI analysis was used to measure the annualized growth rate before and after erlotinib therapy and was correlated with changes in pure tone audiometry. Results: There were 5 women and 3 men with a median age of 24.5 years (range, 16 to 63 years). At baseline, 6 of 8 patients had unilateral anacusis with progressive hearing loss in the contralateral (hearing) ear due to tumor growth. Two patients w.