Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The MITLL-AFRL IWSLT 2014 MT system

This report summarizes the MITLL-AFRL MT and ASR systems and the experiments run using them during the 2014 IWSLT evaluation campaign. Our MT system is much improved over last year, owing to integration of techniques such as PRO and DREM optimization, factored language models, neural network joint model rescoring, multiple phrase tables, and development set creation. We focused our efforts this year on the tasks of translating from Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and Farsi into English, as well as translating from English to French. ASR performance also improved, partly due to increased efforts with deep neural networks for hybrid and tandem systems. Work focused on both the English and Italian ASR tasks.
A Methodology Tailoring Model for Practitioner Based Information Systems Development Informed by the Principles of General Systems Theory

Information system development practitioners tailor system development methodologies to match the specific circumstances of their software projects. This is not surprising as research has shown that information systems development is a highly circumstantial process and that no one system development methodology can be optimal for every context of every project. Several formal techniques such as the contingency factors approach and situational method engineering have been introduced to facilitate the tailoring of system development methodologies to fit the needs of a project. However, there is evidence that system development practitioners have largely neglected these techniques in favor of ad hoc methodology tailoring approaches. This paper presents a formal methodology tailoring model geared towards the practitioner. The model is based on the principles of general systems theory and is designed to provide practitioner utility, which has been shown to be a determining factor in the employment of a technological innovation.
SELF-COMPLEMENTARY CIRCULAR DISK ANTENNA FOR UWB APPLICATIONS

In this paper, the self-complementary principle has been applied to develop the traditional planar monopole antenna into a dipole antenna whose frequency range exceeds UWB requirements. The proposed design has compact, planar, and simple shape arranged in self-complementary manner connected to the (SMA) connector via rectangular microstrip line. The self-complementary structure ofiers better reduction of the imaginary part of antenna impedance, which allows matching on a wider band of frequencies. The proposed antenna showed i10dB return loss bandwidth extending from 1.86GHz up to 17.7GHz. Moreover, this antenna has a simple shape as compared with complicated and irregular shapes with curves, slots or parasitic elements. The proposed design is validated by experimental measurements. The phase of the return loss is investigated for more insight into antenna matching.
Quantitative-Morphological and Cytological Analyses in Leukemia

Leukemia, a blood cancer originating in the bone marrow, presents as a heterogeneous disease with highly variable survival rates. Leukemia is classified into major types based on the rate of cancerous cell growth and cell lineage: chronic or acute and myeloid or lymphoid leukemia. Histological and cytological analysis of the peripheral blood and the bone marrow can classify these major leukemia categories. However, histological analyses of patient biopsies and cytological microscopic assessment of blood and bone marrow smears are insufficient to diagnose leukemia subtypes and to direct therapy. Hence, more expensive and time-consuming diagnostic tools routinely complement histological-cytological analysis during a patient ’ s diagnosis. To extract more accurate and detailed information from patient tissue samples, digital pathology is emerging as a powerful tool to enhance biopsy- and smear-based decisions. Furthermore, digital pathology methods integrated with advances in machine learning enable new diagnos- tic features from leukemia patients ’ histological and cytological slides and optimize patient classification, thus providing a cheaper, more robust, and faster diagnostic tool than current standards. This review summarizes emerging approaches to automatically diagnose leukemia from morphological and cytological-histological analyses.
Virtual environments: lessons from industry transferred to distance-learning education

It is essential for construction professionals to be able to work in teams. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has significantly influenced the ways in which team members interact. The School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle is currently investigating the extent to which the three domains of People, Processes and Technology contribute to the effectiveness of virtual teams as part of a CRC Construction Innovation project.
Development of Best Management Practices for Turbidity Control during Rainfall Events at Highway Construction Sites using Polyacrylamide

In 2009, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated a national turbidity standard for runoff water leaving highway construction sites at 280 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU). Meeting this standard can be challenging as turbidities of runoff waters can exceed 15,000 NTU. The objective of this research was to assess polyacrylamide (PAM), a coagulant aid used in water treatment, to help meet the EPA turbidity regulation. Twelve commercially available PAM types were studied, selected on the basis of charge type (cationic, nonionic, anionic), charge density (0-100%), and molecular weight (0.1-28 Mg mol -1 ). Jar tests were conducted with runoff waters from AHTD construction sites and synthetically made formulations of tap water blended with bentonite, illite, kaolinite, and Arkansas Red Dirt. Jar tests were completed at PAM doses between 0.5-20 mg L -1 and the turbidity of the supernatant was measured following a quiescent settling period. Results showed that anionic PAMs with low charge densities were most effective at reducing supernatant turbidities, likely due to enhanced interparticle bridging. Hydraulic flocculation tests were done with two PAM types in lab-scale continuous flow reactors and at a controlled field site. It was concluded that anionic PAMs at a dose of 10 mg L -1 provided adequate turbidity reduction and that channel baffling induced hydraulic flocculation and further reduced effluent turbidities.
Green Pesticides in Nigeria:An Overview

With Nigeria’s burgeoning population, there is an ever-increasing need to step-up agricultural productivity. There has been an overzealous application of scientific techniques, such as chemical pesticides and herbicides, bringing its own set of problems, ranging from pollution of water resources to destruction of wildlife. In a bid to maximize crop yield from available arable land, many old, non-patented, more toxic, environmentally persistent and inexpensive pesticides are used extensively in Nigeria. The fate of these pesticides has become a source of concern particularly in the developing world where they are used indiscriminately. Protecting the environment is crucial in improving the lives of poor people in developing countries, because they pay a higher price when the environment turns against them. This paper examines first, the relationship between food security, agrochemicals and the environment and highlights some strategies for sustainable use of plant protection products. It further highlights the challenges hampering the use of green pesticides in Nigeria. Keywords: agrochemicals, food security, green pesticides, sustainability
FACTORS AFFECTING THE ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL ADOPTION OF ENERGY INFORMATICS PRACTICES

Seyma Guven-Kocak University of Georgia seyma@uga.edu World energy consumption is expected to increase by 56% from 2010 to 2040. Energy efficiency improvements are needed to obtain environmental benefits, as well as economic benefits. As companies are the major consumers of energy, organizational level solutions for energy efficiency would have significant benefits both for environment and economy. Energy Informatics (EI) offers a practical solution for energy concerns and leads to both environmental and economic benefits for the companies. However, we still know little about the antecedents of the adoption of EI. Drawing on the motivation-ability framework, the research on organizational IT adoption, and specific characteristics of EI systems, this study develops a theoretical framework to examine factors that affect the adoption of EI practices by companies. In doing so, it will be the first organizational-level EI adoption study, which also provides insights for the IS adoption literature.
Surface area products for Kerr-Taub-NUT space-time

We examine properties of the inner and outer horizon thermodynamics of Taub-NUT (Newman-Unti-Tamburino) and Kerr-Taub-NUT (KTN) black hole (BH) in four-dimensional Lorentzian geometry. We compare and contrasted these properties with the properties of Reissner Nordstrøm (RN) BH and Kerr BH. We focus on “area product”, “entropy product”, “irreducible mass product” of the event horizon and Cauchy horizons. Due to mass dependence, we speculate that these products have no nice quantization feature. Nor do they have any universal property. We further observe that the first law of BH thermodynamics and Smarr-Gibbs-Duhem relations do not hold for Taub-NUT (TN) and KTN BH in Lorentzian regime. The failure of these aforementioned features are due to the presence of the non-trivial NUT charge which makes the space-time be asymptotically non-flat, in contrast with RN BH and Kerr BH. Another reason for the failure is that Lorentzian TN and Lorentzian KTN geometries contain Dirac-Misner–type singularity, which is a manifestation of a non-trivial topological twist of the manifold. The black-hole mass formula and Christodoulou-Ruffini mass formula for TN and KTN BHs are also computed. These thermodynamic product formulae give us further understanding of the nature of inner as well as outer BH entropy at the microscopic level.
Narrative Progression in the Short Story: First Steps in a Corpus Stylistic Approach

I am interested in the putative textual signalings of narrative progression, and thereafter the reader expectations that these foster; I am trying to identify such signalings (or narrative prospection, as it is also called) with new research methods, namely those of corpus linguistics. Research of this kind, blending a literary interest with use of corpus tools, is coming to be known as corpus stylistics (or more narrowly, corpus narratology). For readers of this journal I assume that neither explaining nor justifying an interest in narrative progression is necessary, so I will discuss this relatively briefly. I will spend a little more time outlining what corpus stylistics entails and what its limitations are; and then I will share some ways in which I have tried to make it useful in the pursuit of my research interest, the textualization of narrative prospection. Narrative prospection is itself only a stage in the experiential sequence of interest to me. I assume that the text's prospections cumulatively and serially guide the reader to expect the story currently being read to continue and terminate in one way rather than others (at the least, the prospections will foster probabilistic expectations). The ways in which the subsequent narrative text confirms or flouts
Growth Paradigms of Public Private Partnerships in Indian Infrastructure Development

A good physical infrastructure facilitates key economic services in an efficient manner, improves the competitiveness, gives crucial support to productive sectors, resulting in high productivity and propels strong economic growth. The contribution of infrastructure to economic growth and development is well recognized both in academic and policy debates. The Government envisages that PPPs play a significant role in bridging this gap. There exist sectoral and regional disparities in distribution of PPPs in India. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the leading states in terms of number and value of PPP. At the central level, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is the leading user of the PPP model. The first objective is to study the Government policy regarding the legal, regulatory and institutional framework for Public private Partnerships in India. The second objective is to study the theoretical underpinnings for PPPs internationally. The third objective is to assess the efficacy of PPP model in achieving the much needed development in infrastructure. For this we need to revisit the experience in developed countries in terms of PPPs. The fourth objective is to study the lopsided growth due to PPPs with sectoral and regional disparities accentuating rather than converging. There exists significant untapped potential for the use of the PPP model in e-governance, health and education sectors. The paper focuses on highlighting the regional disparities that may result if the PPPs are not distributed in an efficient manner. It also explores the repercussions of such a development strategy.
Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D in Duopoly with Spillovers

Contrary to the usual assumption made in most oligopoly models, relations among firms are seldom of a wholly cooperative or noncooperative type: in many situations, they compete in some fields, while they cooperate in others. An important example is the case of cooperative research efforts bringing fierce competitors together. Two types of agreement are observed. First R&D cooperation can take place at the so-called “precompetitive stage”: companies share basic information and efforts in the R&D stage but remain rivals in the market-place.1 A second type of agreement involves an extended collusion between partners, creating common policies at the product level. The usual justifications of this extension are the difficulties of protecting intellectual property. The idea is then to allow partners who have achieved inventions together, to also control together the processes and products which embody the results of their collaboration, in order to recuperate jointly their R&D investments.2 What could be expected from these types of agreement is a reduction in R&D expenditures, because of less wasteful duplication, and a reduction of total production, because of more ∗Reprinted from The American Economic Review, 78(5), 1133-1137, 1988. †Center for Operations Research & Econometrics, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. We are grateful to Jean
Large Eddy Simulation of Pressure Distribution of Fluid Flow Over Ridges of Circular, Parabolic and Rectangular Shapes

This paper presents modeling and large eddy simulation of pressure coefficient distribution of the flow of air over ridges of circular, parabolic and rectangular shapes at different Reynolds numbers using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT. The simulated results are compared and discussed with the experimentally measured pressure distributions. The experiments were done in an open circuit blower type wind tunnel. This study found that the pressure coefficient distributions over the three ridges are not unique in character at zero angle of attack for same Reynolds number and its magnitude depends on the geometry of the ridges. The typical potential flow equations are not applicable to predict the distance of pressure dissipation in the downstream direction of the flow.
On the archimedean theory of Rankin-Selberg convolutions for SO2l+1GLn

In this paper, we study the local theory over an archimedean field F of certain Rankin-Selberg convolutions for pairs of generic representations (TT, r) of SOay+i (F) and GLn (F). The corresponding local integrals involve Whittaker functions of TT and sections of the representation pr,s of S02n (F), induced from T <g) [ det •I"/, viewed as a representation of the "Siegel" parabolic subgroup. The integrals converge absolutely for Re(«) large enough and are shown to have a meromorphic continuation in s to the whole plane, to a continuous bilinear form on TT x p r , s ^ which satisfies certain equivariance properties. These properties determine such bilinear forms in an essentially unique way. An important ingredient here is an application of Wallach's results on asymptotics of matrix coefficients (and variations). Using all this, we compute the corresponding gamma factors which turn to be, by results of Shahidi, the Artin gamma factors. 0. Introduction In this paper we study the local theory over an archimedean field of certain RankinSelberg convolutions for SOs^+i x GLn. The initial steps were already taken in [S], where the analogous theory over a nonarchimedean field is presented in great detail. Let F be a local field, and let TT and r be finitely generated admissible representations of GI = SO^^(F) and GL^(F) respectively, each assumed to be generic, i.e. with a TT unique Whittaker model. Let s G C and pr,s == Iiid n Tg, where Hn = SO^n(F), Qn is the Siegel parabolic subgroup and r-s ( * ) = \^m\~T(m]. (The induction Y V-' l l V j ( 1 ^ is unitary. Here m C GLn(F) and m* = JnVn"^, where Jn = . ) v / In [S], we studied certain bilinear forms A(W,^r,s}. where W is in the Whittaker model 0 This research was supported by the Basic Research Foundation administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. ANNALES SCIENTIFIQUES DE L'ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE. 0012-9593/95/027$ 4.00/© Gauthier-Villars
Age-associated features of oxidative stress as marker of vascular aging in comorbid course of hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Aim: To evaluate activity of oxidative stress (OS) as marker of vascular aging in different age groups of patients with combined course of arterial hypertension (HT) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: 126 patients (average age 57.8 ± 6.2 years) with stage II HT and compensated T2DM were divided into 2 subgroups: 2a (n = 59) aged 45-60 years; 2b (n = 97) aged 61-75 years; 30 patients with isolated stage II HT (comparison group), 20 practically healthy individuals (control group). The activity of antioxidative [glutathione peroxidase, sulfhydryl groups (SH-groups)] and oxidative [malonic dialdehyde (MDA)], 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) systems in blood serum, were studied. Results: A significant increase in MDA levels (P < 0.05) and SH-groups (P < 0.05) compared with healthy volunteers was observed. Patients in 2b group had lower MDA values than in 2a (6.25 ± 0.33 μmol/L, 7.07 ± 0.44 μmol/L, respectively, P > 0.05). In the 2b group, in comparison with 2a patients, a decrease in thiol status was observed (P > 0.05). The level of 8-OH-dG was increased in patients with HT and T2DM, but there was also an age-associated increase in the average 8-OH-dG in the 2b group. Conclusion: The age-associated changes in the OS in comorbid course of HT and T2DM did not have significant differences. Nevertheless, the presence of correlations between various indexes that are included in the concept of “vascular aging” and indicators of oxidant-antioxidant systems in different age groups allows us to make an assumption about the significant influence of the oxidative status on the status of vascular age, especially in the older age group persons.
Fitness Estimation Based Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Layout Design of Truss Structures

Due to the fact that vastly different variables and constraints are simultaneously considered, truss layout optimization is a typical difficult constrained mixed-integer nonlinear program. Moreover, the computational cost of truss analysis is often quite expensive. In this paper, a novel fitness estimation based particle swarm optimization algorithm with an adaptive penalty function approach (FEPSO-AP) is proposed to handle this problem. FEPSO-AP adopts a special fitness estimate strategy to evaluate the similar particles in the current population, with the purpose to reduce the computational cost. Further more, a laconic adaptive penalty function is employed by FEPSO-AP, which can handle multiple constraints effectively by making good use of historical iteration information. Four benchmark examples with fixed topologies and up to 44 design dimensions were studied to verify the generality and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Numerical results of the present work compared with results of other state-of-the-art hybrid algorithms shown in the literature demonstrate that the convergence rate and the solution quality of FEPSO-AP are essentially competitive.
Good Practices as International Norms? The Modalities of the Global Fight against Transnational Organised Crime and Terrorism. CEPS Special Report, 2 March 2009

Since the 90's, the alleged threat of transnational organised crime has led to numerous discourses on the urgency of cooperation at the international level, contributing to the establishment of many international experts groups. This intensification of working groups has created professional networks of expertise in the field of the fight against transnational organised crime, and more recently, terrorism, and has generated numerous recommendations and so-called best practices. This paper is an attempt to highlight the dynamics of this expertise, looking at the modalities of this transnational exchange and the circulation of norms at the global level.
Does the Japanese Governance System Enhance Shareholder Wealth? Evidence from the Stock-price Effects of Top Management Turnover

This article examines the stock-price effects of top management turnover announcements for 432 Japanese corporations from 1985 to 1990. We find that these announcements are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns. The returns are greater when turnover is forced than when turnover represents normal succession. The stock-price effects are also significantly positive when turnover is forced and the successor is appointed from outside the firm. We find that large shareholders play an important role during outside succession. This evidence suggests that the disciplinary decisions of Japanese governance mechanisms are consistent with shareholder wealth maximization. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Inverse Problems Using Reduced Basis Method

Inverse Problems is a field of great interest for many applications, such as parameter identification and image reconstruction. The underlying models of inverse problems in many applications often involve Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). A Reduced Basis (RB) method for solving PDE based inverse problems is introduced in this thesis. The RB has been rigorously established as an efficient approach for solving PDEs in recent years. In this work, we investigate whether the RB method can be used as a regularization for solving ill-posed and nonlinear inverse problems using iterative methods. We rigorously analyze the RB method and prove convergence of the RB approximation to the exact solution. Furthermore, an iterative algorithm is proposed based on gradient method with RB regularization. We also implement the proposed method numerically and apply the algorithm to the inverse problem of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) which is known to be a notoriously ill-posed and nonlinear. For the EIT example, we provide all necessary details and carefully explain each step of the RB method. We also investigate the limitations of the RB method for solving nonlinear inverse problems in general. We conclude that the RB method can be used to solve nonlinear inverse problems with appropriate assumptions however the assumptions are somewhat restrictive and may not be applicable for a wide range of problems.