Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testing for the equivalence of factor covariance and mean structures: The issue of partial measurement invariance.

Addresses issues related to partial measurement in variance using a tutorial approach based on the LISREL confirmatory factor analytic model. Specifically, we demonstrate procedures for (a) using "sensitivity analyses" to establish stable and substantively well-fitting baseline models, (b) determining partially invariant measurement parameters, and (c) testing for the invariance of factor covariance and mean structures, given partial measurement invariance. We also show, explicitly, the transformation of parameters from an all-^fto an all-y model specification, for purposes of testing mean structures. These procedures are illustrated with multidimensional self-concept data from low (« = 248) and high (n = 582) academically tracked high school adolescents. An important assumption in testing for mean differences is that the measurement (Drasgow & Kanfer, 1985; Labouvie, 1980; Rock, Werts, & Haugher, 1978) and the structure (Bejar, 1980; Labouvie, 1980; Rock etal., 1978) of the underlying construct are equivalent across groups. One methodological strategy used in testing for this equivalence is the analysis of covariance structures using the LISREL confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) model (Joreskog, 1971). Although a number of empirical investigations and didactic expositions have used this methodology in testing assumptions of factorial invariance for multiple and single parameters, the analyses have been somewhat incomplete. In particular, researchers have not considered the possibility of partial measurement invariance. The primary purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of CFA in testing for, and with, partial measurement invariance. Specifically, we illustrate (a) testing, independently, for the invariance of factor loading (i.e., measurement) parameters, (b) testing for the invariance of factor variance-covariance (i.e., structural) parameters, given partially invariant factor loadings, and (c) testing for the invariance of factor mean structures.1 Invariance testing across groups, however, assumes wellfitting single-group models; the problem here is to know when to stop fitting the model. A secondary aim of this article, then, is to demonstrate "sensitivity analyses" that can be used to establish stable and substantively meaningful baseline models.
On Bayesian analysis of mixtures with an unknown number of components. Discussion. Author's reply

New methodology for fully Bayesian mixture analysis is developed, making use of reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo methods that are capable of jumping between the parameter subspaces corresponding to different numbers of components in the mixture. A sample from the full joint distribution of all unknown variables is thereby generated, and this can be used as a basis for a thorough presentation of many aspects of the posterior distribution. The methodology is applied here to the analysis of univariate normal mixtures, using a hierarchical prior model that offers an approach to dealing with weak prior information while avoiding the mathematical pitfalls of using improper priors in the mixture context.
Sociability Heuristics for Evaluating Social Interactive Television Systems

In this chapter, the author introduces 12 heuristics for evaluating the sociability of social interactive television systems. He first introduce the social uses of television, documented by many scholars in media studies, as well as the relatively new concept of sociability in new technologies. He then explain how the heuristics are based on a thorough analysis of several user studies the author performed with several social interactive television systems, as well as of literature that reports lab studies and field studies with such systems. Finally, each heuristic is presented and explained in more detail, along with some more specific guidelines. Geerts hopes these heuristics will enable designers and evaluators of social interactive television systems to make sure they support the social uses of television and create sociable systems.
Sound transmission between absorbing parallel planes

Partially absorbing parallel surfaces can be the dominant acoustical feature of many rooms. The sound fields in such rooms are not diffuse, which causes difficulty in predicting sound pressure levels. A method is developed for predicting sound pressure levels in these rooms. It rests on the prediction of sound pressure levels caused by a nondirectional source of known sound power radiating between absorbing parallel planes. The development proceeds from a geometrical acoustics viewpoint. Good correlation has been found between predicted and measured levels in existing rooms having simple geometries.
Paths in a random digital tree: limiting distributions

We study a rule of growing a sequence {tn } of finite subtrees of an infinite m-ary tree T. Independent copies {ω (n)} of a Bernoulli-type process ω on m letters are used to trace out a sequence of paths in T. The tree tn is obtained by cutting each , at the first node such that at most σ paths out of , pass through it. Denote by Hn the length of the longest path, hn the length of the shortest path, and Ln the length of the randomly chosen path in tn. It is shown that, in probability, Hn – loga n = O(1), hn – log b (n/log n) = 0(1), (or hn – log b (n/log log n) = O(1)), and that is asymptotically normal. The parameters a, b, c depend on the distribution of ω and, in case of a, also on σ. These estimates describe respectively the worst, the best and the typical case behavior of a ‘trie’ search algorithm for a dictionary-type information retrieval system, with σ being the capacity of a page.
To Solve the Problem of the Path Dynamic Interpolation and Jitter in the Simulation of Aircraft Flight Installed Beidou

Jing-xin XIAO Simulation Institute Research Department, Air Force Aviation University Changchun, China Wen XU Simulation Institute Research Department, Air Force Aviation University Changchun, China Abstract—After estimated the state data of the current and future a certain number of times by the moment and a few moments before position data transferred from the aircraft equipped with Beidou navigation, to ensure that the display effect in flight simulation is needed to solve the problem of smooth interpolation and data jitter. Proposed piecewise three smoothing interpolationensure the first order, two order derivative of the connecting point between two segments of the front and back was exist, at the same time, the sum of three derivative difference’s square was minimum. By used by this method, the flight data reached the requirements of light as far as possible. And the derivation process was given. Flight simulation experiments showed that the aircraft is stable, and no major jitter, meet the visual requirements.
The Mobile Visual Search Guiding System Based on SIFT

In order to provide personal guiding service to visitors in the Picture Gallery, a mobile visual search guiding system based on SIFT(Scale Invariant Feature Transform) is proposed in this paper. The visitors can achieve the paintings’ information using the camera function of the mobile phones when they enjoy the famous paintings in the Picture Gallery. The mobile search visual system proposed in this paper can identify the paintings in the server side so there are no extra performance requirements for the mobile phones. Firstly, the mobile visual search system was introduced. Then the system was designed and realized. The classification training was based on SVM (Support Vector Machine). The SIFT feature extraction algorithm was used to enhance the recognition rate. After the image retrieval, the geometric consistency check was employed to choose the best matching image. Finally, the experimental results verified the feasibility and practicability of this system. Compared with the present guiding systems, this system can communicate with the visitors conveniently and offer abundant and all-around information to the visitors. In addition, using this guiding system, any auxiliary devices are not needed to be installed in the Picture Gallery.
Supplier certification and quality investment in supply chains

Global sourcing has made quality management a more challenging task, and supplier certification has emerged as a solution to overcome suppliers' informational advantage about their product quality. This article analyzes the impact of certification standards on the supplier's investment in quality, when a buyer outsources the production process. Based on our results, deterministic certification may lead to under‐investment in quality improvement technology for efficient suppliers, thereby leading to potential supply chain inefficiency. The introduction of noisy certification may alleviate this under‐investment problem, when the cost of information asymmetry is high. While allowing noisy certification always empowers the buyer to offer a menu to screen among heterogeneous suppliers, the buyer may optimally choose only a limited number of certification standards. Our analysis provides a clear‐cut prediction of the types of certifiers the buyer should use for heterogeneous suppliers, and we identify the conditions under which the supplier benefits from noisy certification. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013
Correlations Based Rough Set Method for Diagnosis and Drug Design using Microarray Dataset

-Databases containing huge amount of genetic information about diseases related to cancer are beyond our capability to analyze and predict the discriminative characteristics of the genes involved. But, this kind of analysis helps to find the cause and subsequent treatment for any disease. In this work, a hybrid model has been developed combining the characteristics of Rough set theory (RST) and Correlation based feature subset (CFS) selection technique which is capable of identifying discriminative genes from the microarray dataset. The model is tested with two publicly available multi-category microarray dataset such as Lung and Leukemia cancer. The study reveals that Rough set theory (RST) is capable of extracting predictive genes in the form of reducts from the subset of genes which are highly correlated with the class but having low interaction with each other. The performance of the model has been evaluated via three learning algorithms using 10-fold cross validation. This experiment has established that the hybrid supervised correlation based reduct set (CFS-RST) method is able to identify the hidden relationships among the genes which cause diseases as well as help to automate medical diagnosis. Finally, the functions of identified genes are analysed and validated with gene ontology website DAVID which shows the relationship of genes with the disease.
Markov Chain Algorithms for Planar Lattice Structures (Extended Abstract).

Consider the following Markov chain, whose states are all domino tilings of a 2n x 2n chessboard: starting from some arbitrary tiling, pick a 2 x 2 window uniformly at random. If the four squares appearing in this window are covered by two parallel dominoes, rotate the dominoes in place. Repeat many times. This process is used in practice to generate a random tiling, and is a key tool in the study of the combinatorics of tilings and the behavior of dimer systems an statistical physics. Analogous Markov chains are used to randomly generate other structures on various twodimensional lattices. This paper presents techniques which prove for the first time that, in many interesting cases, a small number of random moves suffice to obtain a uniform distribution.
Reliable and Efficient Multi rate Aware Proactive Routing Protocol for IEEE 802.11 based MANETs

Most existing mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing protocols use the minimum number of hops as a routing metric. These paths tend to contain long range links that may lower both throughput and reliability. Higher throughput can be achieved by using short but effective links. A few protocols have been proposed to address this issue. The main problem with these protocols is that they use receiver signal strength indicator (RSSI) value to assess the link states. In realistic networks, RSSI value is not always accurate and hence using it can result in inaccurate decisions which will degrade the reliability of paths. We propose a reliable and efficient multi-rate aware proactive (REMAP) routing protocol for MANETs. REMAP does not make routing decisions based on RSSI value and hence provides more reliable paths. REMAP also decreases the overhead caused by periodic hello messages in other protocols. Simulation results show that our proposed protocol can approximately increase the throughput by 300 %, decrease the network delay by 250 % and overhead by 150 %.
Higher-order unification via explicit substitutions Extended Abstract

Higher-order unification is equational unification for pq-conversion. But it is not first-order equational unification, as substitution has to avoid capture. In this paper higher-order unification is reduced to first- order equational unification in a suitable theory: the Aa-calculus of explicit substitutions. Introduction Unification is the kernel of deduction processes used in theorem provers and programming languages. Syn- tactic unification initiated by Herbrand and developed by Robinson has been extended in two ways: equa- tional unification and higher-order unification. The same idea is at the root of both extensions. It consists in incorporating in the unification process some knowl- edge about the underlying theory, in the higher-order case, ,&-conversion (2) and in the case of a first-order theory, some equational axioms, such as associativ- ity 1121. Nevertheless although the goal is the same, the unification processes designed so far are fairly dif- ferent. In this paper, we show that higher-order uni- fication can be reduced to first-order equational unifi- cation in a suitable theory. Higher-order unification is equational unification for pq-conversion. But it is not first-order equational unification. This is due to some particularities of the substitution in A-calculus. Let us first develop this point, in order to present the framework of the paper. The well-known A-calculus is defined as follows. Let V be a set of variables, written x, y, etc. The terms of A(V), the A-calculus with names, are inductively defined by: a ::= z I (a a) I Az.a
Motion Planning and Control of Non-Redundant Manipulators at Singularities.

The problem of moiion planning and control of nonredundant manipulators through singularities is investigated. It is recognized that several well known control schemes, such as resolved accelemtion control and operational space control will fail at singularities. In ihis work we invesiigate feasible motions of manipulators at singularities by introducing the accessible space coordinates. We derive constraints on the accessible space velociiy and acceleruiions which must be satisfied at singularities. Using these constraints, we demonstrate that there exist a class of irajeciories which are feasible for motions at singularities. We then use these ideas to control the motions of manipulators along the feasible irajectories through singularities. Several examples of motion planning and control through singularities demonstrate the effectiveness of ihis theory.
Mathematical Development and Verification of a Finite Volume Model for Morphodynamic Flow Applications

The accuracy and efficiency of a class of finite volume methods are investigated for numerical solution of morphodynamic problems in one space dimension. The governing equations consist of two components, namely a hydraulic part described by the shallow water equations and a sediment part described by the Exner equation. Based on different formulations of the morphodynamic equations, we propose a family of three finite volume methods. The numerical fluxes are reconstructed using a modified Roe’s scheme that incorporates, in its reconstruction, the sign of the Jacobian matrix in the morphodynamic system. A well-balanced discretization is used for the treatment of the source terms. The method is well-balanced, non-oscillatory and suitable for both slow and rapid interactions between hydraulic flow and sediment transport. The obtained results for several morphodynamic problems are considered to be representative, and might be helpful for a fair rating of finite volume solution schemes, particularly in long time computations.
Disrupted upregulation of salience network connectivity during acute stress in siblings of schizophrenia patients

Abstract Background An adaptive neural stress response is essential to adequately cope with a changing environment. It was previously argued that sympathetic/noradrenergic activity during acute stress increases salience network (SN) connectivity and reduces executive control network (ECN) connectivity in healthy controls, with opposing effects in the late aftermath of stress. Altered temporal dynamics of these networks in response to stress are thought to play a role in the development of psychopathology in vulnerable individuals. Methods We exposed male healthy controls (n = 40, mean age = 33.9) and unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients (n = 39, mean age = 33.2) to the stress or control condition of the trier social stress test and subsequently investigated resting state functional connectivity of the SN and ECN directly after and 1.5 h after stress. Results Acute stress resulted in increased functional connectivity within the SN in healthy controls, but not in siblings (group × stress interaction pfwe < 0.05). In the late aftermath of stress, stress reduced functional connectivity within the SN in both groups. Moreover, we found increased functional connectivity between the ECN and the cerebellum in the aftermath of stress in both healthy controls and siblings of schizophrenia patients. Conclusions The results show profound differences between siblings of schizophrenia patients and controls during acute stress. Siblings lacked the upregulation of neural resources necessary to quickly and adequately cope with a stressor. This points to a reduced dynamic range in the sympathetic response, and may constitute a vulnerability factor for the development of psychopathology in this at-risk group.
On Sets of Distances of n Points

1. The function f(n). Let [P. ] be the class of all planar subsets P. of n points and denote by f(n) the minimum number of different distances determined by its n points for P,, an element of { P. }. Clearly, f(3) = 1 (with the three points forming the vertices of an equilateral triangle) f(4) = 2, f(5) = 2. The following theorem establishes rough bounds for arbitrary n. Though I have sought to improve this result for many years, I have not been able to do so.
Roadmap for Cryptographic Authentication of Routing Protocol Packets on the Wire

In the March of 2006 the IAB held a workshop on the topic of "Unwanted Internet Traffic". The report from that workshop is documented in RFC 4948 [RFC4948]. Section 8.2 of RFC 4948 calls for "[t]ightening the security of the core routing infrastructure. " Four main steps were identified for improving the security of the routing infrastructure. One of those steps was "securing the routing protocols' packets on the wire. " One mechanism for securing routing protocol packets on the wire is the use of per-packet cryptographic message authentication, providing both peer authentication and message integrity. Many different routing protocols exist and they employ a range of different transport subsystems. Therefore there must necessarily be various methods defined for applying cryptographic authentication to these varying protocols. Many routing protocols already have some method for accomplishing cryptographic message authentication. However, in many cases the existing methods are dated, vulnerable to attack, and/or employ cryptographic algorithms that have been deprecated. This document creates a roadmap of protocol specification work for the use of modern cryptogrpahic mechanisms and algorithms for message authentication in routing protocols. It also defines the framework for a key management protocol that may be used to create and manage session keys for message authentication and integrity. This roadmap reflects the input of both the security area and routing area in order to form a jointly agreed upon and prioritized work list for the effort.
Student data: data is knowledge – putting the knowledge back in the students’ hands

Learning Management Systems are integral technologies within higher education institutions. These tools automatically amass large amounts of log data relating to student activities. The field of learning analytics uses data from learning management systems (LMSs) and student information systems to track student progress and predict future performance in order to enhance learning environments (Siemens, 2011). The aim of this paper is to describe a project where we utilized a system developed in Dublin City University to use information about student engagement with our LMS, Moodle, to create a model predicting pass or failure in certain modules. The project is divided into three distinct phases. An initial investigation was completed analyzing Moodle activity for the last six years. The purpose of this exercise was to determine automatically if “trends” could be identified linking Moodle engagement with student attainment. This was done by training a machine learning classifier to map student online behaviour, against outcomes. Once the classifier was trained, several modules were identified as suitable for building a predictor of student exam success.Ten modules were identified for semester 1 with a further seven identified for semester 2. The second phase involved analyzing current students’ engagement with these modules and sending students information about the predictions of their attainment for the module, based on their Moodle engagement. At this stage concerns were raised within the university that the data that we share with the students could actually have the opposite effect to what we are after, i.e. the student may look at the data and think that there is no point in putting in more effort as ‘I’m too far behind already’. Dietz-Uhler and Hurn refer to this as “instead of being a constructive tool, feedback becomes a prophet of failure” (Dietz-Uhler, 2013). This contention was addressed by conducting an online survey with students in an effort to explore their experiences of being provided with feedback regarding their engagement with the LMS. The third and final phase of this project was the development of a dashboard for lecturers to enable monitoring of their students’ engagement with their module on Moodle. This enables lecturers to have an overview of how students are engaging with their course on Moodle and quickly identify students who are not engaging with the LMS and who are potentially at risk of failure or non-completion. There are numerous examples of the use of learning analytics in higher education. This study focuses on the provision of data obtained through learning analytics to the student and qualitative analysis that was conducted in relation to this data. This research adds to the existing research into learning analytics being used for student retention.