Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parallel Greedy Approximation on Large-Scale Combinatorial Auctions

Combinatorial auctions (Cramton et al., 2006) are auctions that allow bidders to place bids for a set of items. Combinatorial auctions provide suitable mechanisms for efficient allocation of resources to self-interested attendees (Cramton et al., 2006). Therefore, many works have been done to utilize combinatorial auction mechanisms for efficient resource allocation. For example, the FCC tried to employ combinatorial auction mechanisms for assigning spectrums to companies (McMillan, 1994). On the other hand, efficient resource allocation is also becoming crucial in many computer systems that should manage resources efficiently, and combinatorial auction mechanisms are suitable for this situation. For example, considering a ubiquitous computing scenario, there is typically a limited amount of resources (sensors, devices, etc.) that may not cover all needs for all users. Due to certain reasons (physical limitations, privacy, etc.), most of the resources cannot be shared with other users. Furthermore, software agents will use two or more resources at a time to achieve desirable services for users. Of course, each software agent provides services to its own user, and the agent may be self-interested. Tremendous research efforts have been done to improve many parts of combinatorial auctions. An example is recent efforts for winner determination problem. In general, the optimal winner determination problem of a combinatorial auction is NP-hard (Cramton et al., 2006) for the number of bids. Thus, much work focuses on tackling the computational costs for winner determination (Fujishima et al., 1999); (Cramton et al., 2006); (Sandholm et al., 2005). Also many efforts have been done for generic problem solvers that can be applied to solve winner determination problems. However, in such ubiquitous computing scenarios, there is strong demand for completing an auction within a fine-grained time period without loss of allocation efficiency. In a ubiquitous computing scenario, the physical location of users may always be changing and that could be handled by the system. Also, each user may have multiple goals with different contexts, and those contexts are also dynamically changing. Therefore, resources should be re-allocated in a certain fine-grained period to keep up with those changes in a timely manner. For better usability, the time period of resource reallocation will be 0.1 to several
Biolinguistics: Facts, Fiction, and Forecast

Biolinguistics, as I understand it, refers to a branch of the cognitive sciences that seeks to uncover the biological underpinnings of the human capacity to support language acquisition (the development of an I-language, where ‘I-’ is meant as ‘internal’, ‘individual’, and ‘intensional’, following Chomsky 1986). That language acquisition requires a (possibly complex and multi-faceted) biological foundation cannot be seriously put into doubt, and biolinguistics, in the wake of early works by Chomsky and Lenneberg, takes that fundamental facet of human biology as its subject matter. In his ‘discussion note’, in which he reviews The Biolinguistic Enterprise, which I co-edited with Anna Maria Di Sciullo (Di Sciullo and Boeckx 2011), Jackendoff (2011) goes through a series of important issues conceding the field, and makes several points worth highlighting, but he also commits several errors worth pointing out. This is the object of the present piece. Specifically, my aim in the pages that follow is to tease apart the real issues (‘fact’), from the rhetoric (‘fiction’) and from the different bets various researchers make concerning the future (‘forecast’). Ray Jackendoff is eminently well placed to speak about biolinguistics, since he has made seminal contributions to the field. Indeed, he is among the most committed theoretical linguists I know when it comes to establishing interdisciplinary bridges (a necessary step towards a productive biolinguistics), and has been for many years before other biolinguists joined forces (witness Jackendoff 1983, 1987, 2007). Given his stature in the field, Jackendoff’s opinion cannot be ignored. Inaccuracies, if any, should be corrected, lest beginning students of the field receive a distorted picture of the enterprise. As the title of his paper indicates, Jackendoff contrasts two views of the language faculty. As he puts it in the abstract, his aim is to “compare the theoretical stance of biolinguistics” with a constraint-based Parallel Architecture of the sort he has been advocating for decades (see the pieces collected in Jackendoff 2010, and especially Jackendoff 1997, 2002, Culicover and Jackendoff 2005). As we will see shortly, however, the contrast between his approach and “biolinguistics” conflates ‘biolinguistics’, ‘minimalism’ and ‘Chomsky’s specific proposals within minimalism and biolinguistics’, which are related, but nonetheless distinct targets.1 This I
PROGNOSTIC FACTORS OF NON-HODGKIN LYMPHOMA: RETROSPECTIVE STUDY IN UNIT BLOOD SERVICE OF THE INTERNAL MEDICINE DANTEC IN DAKAR (SENEGAL)

INTRODUCTION: The non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is the monoclonal proliferation of B and T lymphocyte cells, responsible for the development of tumors in lymphoid organs. The objective of this study was to describe the prognostic factors for NHL and their impact in the care of patients METHODOLOGY: This is a descriptive retrospective study on patients hospitalized files Medical Clinic I of the Aristide Le Dantec Hospital from January 2005 to December 2009. Were included in the study, patients for whom diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma was made on the basis of the results of histological and / or immuno-phenotypic examination of the biopsy specimen. Prognostic factors were studied and classified according to the prognostic scores in order to assess their impact on patient survival. Data analysis was done thanks to the IPSS software and the significance level was set at p ≤ 5%. RESULTS: NHL 44 cases represented on all patients hospitalized for haematological malignancies during this period, a prevalence of 45.4%. We have noted an increase in the incidence of NHL 2005 to 2009. The sex ratio was 2.6 / 1 and the mean age was 46.77 years [17-78 years]. Among the general symptoms, fever and weight loss were in the forefront (61.4% of patients) and lymph nodes were the most frequent physical signs (75%) followed by splenomegaly (47.7%). anemia was found in 72.7% of cases, leukocytosis in 45.5% of cases and thrombocytopenia in 47.7% of patients. Thirty-seven point four percent of patients were classified stage IV Ann Arbor at diagnosis. The presence of general signs scalability B was observed in 70% of patients. Regarding the prognostic factors, the International Prognostic Index (IPI) was studied in 43.2% of patients (n = 19) patients showed that 16% (n = 3) were IPI 1; 37% (n = 7) had an intermediate risk (IPI 3 and 4) and the remaining 10% were high risk (IPI 4). The IPI adjusted for age (aaIPI), noted a correlation of the IPI with certain age groups (50 and 60 years, p = 0.00001, 60 and 70, p = 0.00001). All patients were classified LLC Binet stage C and FLIPI was low (1-2). Evolution were marked by a 100% survival for low-risk patients (with a statistically significant correlation between survival and IPI 1: p <0.00001) and a death rate of 100% for high-risk patients (p <0.00001). The evolution was marked by a prolonged clinical and laboratory remission in 61.3% of cases, 11.4% of patients lost to 27.4% of deceased patients. CONCLUSION: Poor prognostic factors for lymphomas are mainly represented by the advanced Ann Arbor, international prognostic index (IPI) high and the presence of clinical signs of disease progression of the dice inclusion.
Do Political Stability and Democracy Increase National Growth? Evidencefrom African Countries Using the GMM Method

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between political stability, democracy, and economic growth for 31 African countries covering the 1986/2014 period. To achieve this goal, first, the impact of political stability on economic growth was first investigated. Second, the transmission channels between democracy and economic growth were described. Finally, through a panel estimation using the GMM method, the positive and statistically significant impact of democracy and political stability on these countries economic growth was confirmed.
Effects of Silica Nanoparticles on Some Indicators of Fertility and Histological Changes in Male Rats

The current study has been designed to evaluate the effect of silica Oxide nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) exposure on the reproductive performance of male rats. Forty adult Wistar male rats ( aged 60-70 days with body weight130-140 g), were randomly divided into four equal groups , 10 rats per group : control group were received physiological saline, and three treated groups were administered by gavage at dose (1 mg , 10 mg and 100 mg/kg Body weight) of SiO2NPs suspension daily for 22 days, Body weight , some characters of sperms (sperm count, percentage of motility , abnormality , sperms viability ) and histological changes in testis and epididymis were investigated. The results showed insignificant decrease (p ≥ 0.05) in body weight of three treated groups in comparison with control group. Experimental results obtained from SiO2NPs treated male rats showed significant decrease (p<0.05) in sperm count , percentage of motility and viability sperms , while a significant increase (p<0.05) in percentage of dead and abnormality sperms compared to control group, histopathological results revealed changes in tissues of testes such as atrophy in some seminiferous tubules with expanded lining . Also noted tubules in both testis and epididymis are empty from sperms with hyperplasia and damage in stereocilia of tubules lining cells of epididymis. Keywords: SiO2NPs, Rats, Reproductive, Sperm, Testis, Epididymis.
Is DevOps another Project Management Methodology

In this paper, the authors aim to present the concept of DevOps (Development & Operations), considering its degree of novelty in the area of project management. Firstly, the authors will bring theoretical arguments to support the idea that DevOps is an early-stage methodology, built on the Agile principles, but coming with its own contributions in project management for software development and implementation. Therefore, we believe that after a short time, DevOps will replace its predecessors. Secondly, we experienced this methodology by developing a small project in academic environment by three teams of master students, using VersionOne software. The Conclusions will emphasize the relevance and the future expected effects of DevOps methodology in the project management domain.
Energy-efficient MAC in Wireless Body Area Networks

Recently wireless body area network (WBAN) draws more and more attentions because of its benefits especially in health monitoring. As the sensor nodes in WBAN are batterypowered, energy efficiency is the top concern in the medium access control (MAC) protocol design. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an Enhanced MAC (EMAC) protocol which integrates relay with dynamic power control mechanism to save energy consumption. On one hand, the protocol selects a relaying node for the node which may be energy shortage to prolong its lifetime, and then the network topology is switched from one-hop to multi-hop. Accordingly, the superframe structure is modified. On the other hand, for further energy saving, dynamic power control algorithm is performed whenever sensor nodes have data packets to transmit. Performance evaluations are conducted and the simulation results show that the EMAC significantly prolongs the network lifetime compared with IEEE 802.15. 4 MAC. Keywords-WBAN; MAC; relay; power control; energy efficiency
Does Government Expenditure Multiply Output and Employment in Australia

The debate on the use of fiscal policy as a tool of macroeconomic stabilization is quite vehement in Australia and abroad. This paper contributes to the discussion by estimating the response of Australian GDP and employment to government consumption shocks. Using a SVAR approach, the paper produces three key findings: (i) the cumulative government expenditure multiplier is greater than one, (ii) full time employment positively responds to a spending stimulus, and (iii) the multiplying effect of government expenditure has somewhat weakened after the Global Financial Crisis. The central policy implication is that counter-cyclical fiscal policy is an effective stabilization tool in Australia. In this regard, the fiscal stimulus of the Australian government in 2008-09 helped shield the economy from the effects of the GFC. However, a counter-cyclical pattern would have required a more significant reversal of this stimulus in the post-GFC phase.
THE HST EXTREME DEEP FIELD (XDF): COMBINING ALL ACS AND WFC3/IR DATA ON THE HUDF REGION INTO THE DEEPEST FIELD EVER

The eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) combines data from 10 years of observations with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide-Field Camera 3 Infra-Red (WFC3/IR) into the deepest image of the sky ever in the optical/near-IR. Since the initial observations of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) in 2003, numerous surveys and programs, including supernovae follow-up, HUDF09, CANDELS, and HUDF12, have contributed additional imaging data across this region. However, these images have never been combined and made available as one complete ultra-deep image dataset. We combine them now with the XDF program. Our new and improved processing techniques provide higher quality reductions of the total dataset. All WFC3/IR and optical ACS data sets have been fully combined and accurately matched, resulting in the deepest imaging ever taken at these wavelengths, ranging from 29.1 to 30.3 AB mag (5σ in a 0.″35 diameter aperture) in 9 filters. The combined image therefore reaches to 31.2 AB mag 5σ (32.9 at 1σ) for a flat fν source. The gains in the optical for the four filters done in the original ACS HUDF correspond to a typical improvement of 0.15 mag, with gains of 0.25 mag in the deepest areas. Such gains are equivalent to adding ∼130 to ∼240 orbits of ACS data to the HUDF. Improved processing alone results in a typical gain of ∼0.1 mag. Our 5σ (optical+near-IR) SExtractor catalogs reveal about 14,140 sources in the full field and about 7121 galaxies in the deepest part of the XDF.
A Study of HbA1c, fasting and 2 hour plasma glucose levels in current smokers presenting at a tertiary care hospital in North India

Background: There is a concern that smokers are at increased risk of diabetes and this association has received surprisingly little attention. This study aims to study the relationship of smoking with three glycaemic variables (HbA1c, fasting and 2 hour post prandial plasma glucose levels) in current smokers and describe the potential impact of smoking in the context of screening for diabetes by using one of these glycaemic variables. Methods: 150 patients attending the OPD of Santosh Medical College were part of this Cross sectional population based study. One hundred were smokers and fifty non-smokers and non-diabetics. All participants were subjected to fasting plasma glucose level, 2 hour plasma glucose level and HbA1c testing. Results: Mean values of all three variables are substantially higher in smokers as compared to non-smokers. HbA1c levels show an increasing trend with increasing age among both groups. Mean plasma glucose levels show increasing values with increasing age but the trend is not uniform. Among females, only HbA1c levels whereas among males all three variables show a strong correlation with smoking. No correlation was observed between the number of cigarettes smoked daily or smoking index and the glycaemic variables. All variables show an increasing trend as the number of years of smoking increases. Conclusions: A higher prevalence of diabetes is seen in current smokers when we consider HbA1c levels indicating the beneficial effect of using HbA1c levels for identifying current smokers at risk of diabetes mellitus.
Impact of DER integration on the cyber security of SCADA systems — The Medium Voltage regulation case study

The operation of active distribution grids with high penetration of Distributed Energy Resources, connected to Medium Voltage bars and feeders, requires the implementation of new Medium Voltage regulation functions. Assuming that this control function is best positioned in the primary substations of the control hierarchy, the paper presents the architectural changes occurring at both the centre and the substation control levels. Possible cyber risk scenarios and mitigation countermeasures of the new SCADA architecture are discussed, in compliance with the IEC communication standards and the IEC/NIST cyber security technical recommendations related to the smart grid sector. (4 pages)
Multilateral Comparisons of Productivity, Terms-of-Trade and Factor Accumulation

This paper proposes a new approach for multilateral comparisons using index numbers. The new approach combines two recently-proposed innovative techniques to examine differences among economies at various levels. The Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm, based on the idea of minimizing substitution bias of bilateral comparisons, provides a possible ordering for panel data. Making use of the suggested ordering, bilateral Tornqvist price and quantity indexes are calculated and multilateral indexes are obtained by chaining. An index-number based approach is then used to decompose the differences in GDP at the bilateral level. Different sources that contribute to the differences in GDP are considered: productivity differences, terms of trade differences, factor endowments differences and domestic output price differences. The newly formed indexes are base-invariant which provides strong support for using the technique for multilateral comparisons. An illustration of the technique using data from China and four OECD countries is included.
From Standardization to Resilience: How Day-To-Day Life in Healthcare Organizations Shapes Safety

This paper focuses on the working strategies nurses develop and employ in their day-to-day routine in an attempt to identify "red alerts" which enable them to maintain patient safety despite the load and interruptions characterizing their work environment. Based on insights gained from three studies (focusing on nurses’ medication administration, use of protective measures and transferring information during handover) we develop a theoretical model that describes how understanding aspects of the day-to-day life in healthcare organizations, and the system of meaning that guides everyday life, can inform our understanding of workplace safety. The model illustrates how the chaotic, turbulent, and complex environment characterizing the nurses' workplace prevents them from fully complying with the declared safety goals practices and procedures. Yet even under these near-impossible circumstances, the nurses’ main mission is to maintain patients' safety. Embracing a resilience strategy allows nurses to actively prevent something bad from happening or becoming worse, and to repair something bad once it has occurred, which of course contribute to patient’s safety. Otherwise, nurses might rely on an implicit theories strategy, limiting the likelihood that they will discover their misperceptions, thereby putting patients' safety at risk. The model further describes how each of these two strategies is reinforced by positive feedback loops on the individual, ward, and organizational levels. Practical implications for managers include work practices that can encourage nurses’ resilience by creating a work environment of professionalism, mindfulness and awareness of errors.
Production of blackleg inoculum from stubble of different Brassica species.

Ascospores of Leptosphaeria maculans are the primary source of blackleg inoculum and are released from pseudothecia present on infected canola stubble. Stubble from a number of oilseed Brassica species as well as from Australian B. napus (canola) cultivars with a range of blackleg resistance ratings was assessed for the density of L. maculans pseudothecia and its potential to release ascospores. The density of pseudothecia and ascospore discharge were lower on stubble from B. carinata, B. nigra, Sinapis alba and the B. napus cultivar Surpass 400, which contains resistance genes from B. sylvestris, than on the stubble of other B. napus cultivars. In comparison, stubble from B. juncea and the B. napus cultivars Karoo, Dunkeld, Emblem and Oscar had a greater density of pseudothecia and discharged high numbers of ascospores. A low level of ascospore production was strongly correlated with low densities of pseudothecia but not with the blackleg resistance rating of the species or cultivar. These findings suggest that the genotype of the species or cultivar influences the development of pseudothecia on stubble and the subsequent discharge of ascospores.
Avalanches in the Bean critical state: a characteristic of the random pinning potential

We report on two-dimensional simulations of the avalanche response of vortices in the Bean critical state of type-II superconductors. Two different kinds of repulsive-particle models are considered in order to make the findings generic. We use repulsive two-body potentials to represent the vortex-vortex interaction and an attractive two-body potential to represent the interaction between the static pinning wells and the vortices. We find that a collection of very short-ranged dense pinning centres leads to a broad distribution of response avalanches, whereas broader and less dense pinning centres produce a narrow distribution of responses.
SUPPLYRESPONSE OF KENYANCOFFEE IN THE WORLD MARKET STEPHEN GITHAE NJARAMBA A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ECONOMICS DEGREE OF KENYATTAUNIVERSITY

The drastic drop in Kenya coffee supply in the last twenty years has severely affected the country's export revenues as well as the livelihoods of two million small scale producers and over six million people who directly or indirectly depend on coffee. In spite of the central role which coffee has played in the county's development, Coffee production has shown a steady decline over the last two decades. Coffee production declined from an all time high of about 130,000 metric tons in 1987/88 to a low of about 42,000 metric tons in the 2010 coffee
Synchronization of Intermittently Coupled Dynamical Networks

This paper investigates the synchronization phenomenon of an intermittently coupled dynamical network in which the coupling among nodes can occur only at discrete instants and the coupling configuration of the network is time varying. A model of intermittently coupled dynamical network consisting of identical nodes is introduced. Based on the stability theory for impulsive differential equations, some synchronization criteria for intermittently coupled dynamical networks are derived. The network synchronizability is shown to be related to the second largest and the smallest eigenvalues of the coupling matrix, the coupling strength, and the impulsive intervals. Using the chaotic Chua system and Lorenz system as nodes of a dynamical network for simulation, respectively, the theoretical results are verified and illustrated.
An incremental loop closure detection method based on depth information for indoor dynamic scenes

—We present a RGB-D based place recognition algo-rithm methods for large-scale dynamic indoor environment. In contrast with other methods, our methods focus on the scene that dynamic objects are remarkable and avoid the unnecessary calculate expenses on the whole image sequences. In order to prohibit the inﬂuence of dynamic object, the depth information was applied to discriminate the image foreground information and ﬁlter it out. We conducted our methods on the public dataset and tested on the real environment. The results demonstrate that the proposed methods can effectively improve the loop-closure system in indoor dynamic environments