Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Technology Trends in Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning in Elementary Education from 2009 to 2014.

This paper analyses mobile computer supported collaborative learning in elementary education worldwide focusing on technology trends for the period from 2009 to 2014. The results present representation of device types used to support collaborative activities, their distribution per users (1:1 or 1:m) and if students are learning through or around the technology. The major findings show that in the last five years tablet computers and small handheld devices are used nearly with equal frequency as mobile learning devices, mostly in 1:1 distribution simultaneously being an instrument through which collaborative activities are performed.
Max-Cut Parameterized Above the Edwards-Erd\H{o}s Bound

We study the boundary of tractability for the Max-Cut problem in graphs. Our main result shows that Max-Cut above the Edwards-Erd\H{o}s bound is fixed-parameter tractable: we give an algorithm that for any connected graph with n vertices and m edges finds a cut of size m/2 + (n-1)/4 + k in time 2^O(k)n^4, or decides that no such cut exists. This answers a long-standing open question from parameterized complexity that has been posed several times over the past 15 years. Our algorithm is asymptotically optimal, under the Exponential Time Hypothesis, and is strengthened by a polynomial-time computable kernel of polynomial size.
Crossing Borders within the ABC Automation, Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science

While the number of available high performance but low-power embedded systems rise, new application scenarios for tailored sensor systems get in reach to be implemented. In some cases battery powered or self-powered systems are needed, e.g. in the context of wireless sensor networks. Its designer has to assure, that the system is provided with the appropriate amount of energy and always enough power to fulfil its task. Often this can only be done, when the analysis is carried out in the context of the real application. Consequently a simulation has to consider the environmental condition of this context as well. Therefore a simulation toolbox for energy and power analysis of independent sensor nodes is proposed. This presentation shows the fundaments of a new simulation toolbox, a tool for designing modular sensor systems. The focus of this tool will be on the economic and efficient use of power and energy on the level of embedded systems. The base of this toolbox is a growing number of simulation blocks modelling the power behaviour of embedded modules like energy sources, converters, storage and load. A set of tools for observing losses, energy throughput and power lags, assists the system designer to set up an economic solution. A strong emphasis lies on the modelling of modern energy harvesting principles and the embedding physical situation.
Are actuarial crop insurance rates fair?: an analysis using a penalized bivariate B‐spline method

In this paper, we investigate whether the yield insurance premium rates given by the US Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency are actuarially fair by comparing the conditional yield density inferred from premium data with the conditional yield density inferred from yield data. A procedure is developed to estimate the conditional yield density by using premium data through partial derivatives of the premium rate function, as fitted by penalized bivariate tensor product B‐splines. We study the asymptotic properties of partial derivatives of a penalized bivariate tensor product B‐spline estimator and provide variance estimates. The conditional yield density inferred from premium data and its variance estimator are evaluated through simulation studies. The procedure is also applied to a crop insurance data set from the state of Iowa to examine the actuarial fairness of the premium rates. On average, premium rates are close to our estimates and this is true for each coverage level. However, premiums for low productivity land are generally too low whereas those for high productivity land are generally too high. Even after subsidies, premiums for the more productive land are generally substantially higher than are our estimates of the corresponding actuarially fair rates.
The four-element Windkessel model

In earlier studies the authors found that the three-element windkessel, although an almost perfect load for isolated heart studies, does not lead to correct estimates of the total arterial parameters such as the aortic characteristic impedance and total arterial compliance. To overcome this problem the authors add a fourth element, the total arterial inertance, to the three-element windkessel. The three- and four-element windkessels were tested against an extended model of the systemic circulation. The four-element windkessel described arterial pressure and flow most accurately and the estimated lumped parameters were typically within 10% of the actual values of the arterial system, The three- and four element windkessel model were also fit to in vivo human aortic pressure and flow waves. Again, the four-element windkessel fitted better and the estimated arterial parameter values were closer to values obtained with standard methods.
Investigating trainee translators’ contrastive pragmalinguistic competence: a corpus-based analysis of interclausal linkage in learner translations

ABSTRACT This article aims to investigate trainee translators’ contrastive pragmalinguistic competence, starting from the assumption that – although more elusively than knowledge about culture-specific references – it represents an important subcomponent of intercultural competence, which can determine the adequacy of translated texts. The study focuses in particular on the translation of interclausal linkage, as it is a form of cohesion which displays different preferences across languages. A multi-parallel corpus of English-to-Italian learner translations of the same source text is analysed to detect regularities and variation in the language behaviour of trainee translators. The frequency of connectives in target texts is compared to both the respective source texts and comparable non-translated Italian texts, in order to determine whether translations are mainly shaped by interference or normalisation. The results of the quantitative analysis confirm previous findings that interference is predominant, with students closely reproducing source text conjunctive patterns at the risk of making translations sound unnatural; more refined qualitative observations, however, reveal that there are also attempts at normalisation. A discussion of the relevance to translator training of the insights obtained is provided, together with suggestions for inclusion in training programmes.
Some Classes of Harmonic Mapping with a Symmetric Conjecture Point Defined by Subordination

In the paper, we introduce some subclasses of harmonic mapping, the analytic part of which is related to general starlike (or convex) functions with a symmetric conjecture point defined by subordination. Using the conditions satisfied by the analytic part, we obtain the integral expressions, the coefficient estimates, distortion estimates and the growth estimates of the co-analytic part g, and Jacobian estimates, the growth estimates and covering theorem of the harmonic function f. Through the above research, the geometric properties of the classes are obtained. In particular, we draw figures of extremum functions to better reflect the geometric properties of the classes. For the first time, we introduce and obtain the properties of harmonic univalent functions with respect to symmetric conjugate points. The conclusion of this paper extends the original research.
Barycentric shaders: art directed shading using control images

In this paper, we present Barycentric Shaders, a shading framework based on barycentric algebra, for the development of shader functions providing intuitive art-directed control. The framework guarantees that whatever style is desired will be consistently obtained regardless of the underlying rendering method and illumination model, since our shaders are used only to compute colors based on the incoming illumination. This property of our framework allows our shaders to be included in any rendering pipeline without major changes. We define barycentric operations over positive real colors to guarantee that results will always be positive real colors. With this formalization, we redefine shader functions as parametric functions that satisfy the partition of unity. This property supports an intuitive interaction mechanism for obtaining desired styles by guaranteeing that colors will always stay inside of the convex hull of a set of control colors. To obtain colored light effects, we extend our barycentric methods by allowing computation separately along each color channel, providing the convex hull property for each dimension independently. This results in a more relaxed rectangular box property without significantly changing visual style. This formalism can be particularly helpful to artists, who may not have mathematical training, by simplifying shader development to obtain a desired expressive style. This new approach also suggests a new rendering and shading architecture that provides a clear distinction between illumination and shading.
REGULARIZING FACE NET FOR DISCRETE-VALUED PAIN REGRESSION

Limited annotated data is available for the research of estimating facial expression intensities. For example, the ability to train deep CNNs for automated pain assessment is limited by small datasets associated with labels of patient-reported pain intensities. Fortunately, fine-tuning from a data-extensive pre-trained domain such as face verification can alleviate the problem. In this paper, we propose a regularized network that fine-tunes a state-of-the-art face verification network using expression-intensity labeled data with a regression layer. In this way, the expression regression task can benefit from the rich feature representations trained on a huge amount of data for face verification. The proposed regularizered deep regressor is applied in estimating the intensity of pain intensity estimation (Shoulder-Pain dataset). It achieves the stateof-the-art performance on Shoulder-Pain dataset. Particularly for Shoulder-Pain with the imbalance issue of different pain intensities, a novel weighted evaluation metric is proposed.
Monotonicity and conformality in multicommodity network‐flow problems

The objective of this paper is to develop a monotonicity theory for the important class of minimum convex‐cost parametric multicommodity network‐flow problems defined over directed graphs. The results allow us to determine when it is possible to predict, without numerical computations, the direction of change of optimal multicommodity flows resulting from changes in arc‐commodity parameters. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions that for every cost function satisfying some convexity and submodularity assumptions there always exists an optimal multicommodity flow for which the flow of a commodity in a given arc a is nondecreasing (resp., nonincreasing) in the parameter of a distinct commodity in arc b. These conditions are that either (1) there are only two commodities and the underlying undirected graph is series‐parallel or (2) there are three or more commodities and the graph is 2‐isomorphic to a suspension graph. A characterization of the precise pairs of arcs for which the above monotonicity result holds is also provided.
Optimización geométrica de un MEMS tipo Hot-Arm

Este articulo presenta la optimizacion experimental de la geometria de un actuador termico MEMS tipo hot-arm. Empleando simulacion numerica de la transferencia de calor y la expansion mecanica que ocurre en la microestructura, se evaluan diferentes parametros de diseno y caracteristicas geometricas con la finalidad de ilustrar el impacto de dichas variables en la distribucion termica y sobre todo en el rendimiento del actuador. Para fundamentar el analisis se presentaran algunos modelos analiticos existentes y las tecnicas propuestas para el estudio y diseno de actuadores termicos. Mediante el uso de herramientas computacionales, el presente trabajo de investigacion muestra la utilidad del empleo de analisis por elemento finito aplicado en particular a la transferencia de calor para determinar las dimensiones mas adecuadas en la arquitectura de un dispositivo. La tecnica presentada en este articulo puede ser aplicada en forma general a la optimizacion del diseno de cualquier otro dispositivo MEMS ya existente o incluso para la creacion de nuevos dispositivos. Palabra(s) Clave(s): hot-arm, MEMS, metodo de elemento finito, optimizacion, simulacion numerica.
FROM X-RAY DIPS TO ECLIPSE: WITNESSING DISK REFORMATION IN THE RECURRENT NOVA U Sco

The tenth recorded outburst of the recurrent eclipsing nova U Sco was observed simultaneously in X-ray, UV, and optical by XMM-Newton on days 22.9 and 34.9 after the outburst. Two full passages of the companion in front of the nova ejecta were observed, as was the reformation of the accretion disk. On day 22.9, we observed smooth eclipses in UV and optical but deep dips in the X-ray light curve that disappeared by day 34.9, yielding clean eclipses in all bands. X-ray dips can be caused by clumpy absorbing material that intersects the line of sight while moving along highly elliptical trajectories. Cold material from the companion could explain the absence of dips in UV and optical light. The disappearance of X-ray dips before day 34.9 implies significant progress in the formation of the disk. The X-ray spectra contain photospheric continuum emission plus strong emission lines, but no clear absorption lines. Both continuum and emission lines in the X-ray spectra indicate a temperature increase from day 22.9 to day 34.9. We find clear evidence in the spectra and light curves for Thompson scattering of the photospheric emission from the white dwarf. Photospheric absorption lines can be smeared out during scattering in a plasma of fast electrons. We also find spectral signatures of resonant line scattering that lead to the observation of the strong emission lines. Their dominance could be a general phenomenon in high-inclination systems such as Cal 87.
Observations of spatiotemporal instabilities of temporal cavity solitons

Temporal cavity solitons (CSs) are pulses of light that can persist in coherently driven passive resonators, such as fiber ring resonators and monolithic microresonators. It has been theoretically predicted that they can exhibit rich instability dynamics, yet experimental observations have remained scarce. Here, we report on the observations of complex spatiotemporal instabilities of temporal CSs in a synchronously driven fiber ring resonator. Through continuous variation of a single control parameter, we observe a string of predicted instabilities, including irregular oscillations (breathing) and chaotic collapses. Beyond a critical point, we find behavior reminiscent of a phase transition: CSs trigger localized domains of spatiotemporal chaos that invade the surrounding continuous wave background. Our findings directly confirm a number of theoretical predictions, and they highlight that complex CS instabilities can play a role in experimental systems.
Real-time monitoring of the structure of ultra thin Fe$_3$O$_4$ films during growth on Nb-doped SrTiO$_3$(001)

In this work thin magnetite films were deposited on SrTiO$_3$ via reactive molecular beam epitaxy at different substrate temperatures. The growth process was monitored in-situ during deposition by means of x-ray diffraction. While the magnetite film grown at 400$^\circ$C shows a fully relaxed vertical lattice constant already in the early growth stages, the film deposited at 270$^\circ$C exhibits a strong vertical compressive strain and relaxes towards the bulk value with increasing film thickness. Furthermore, a lateral tensile strain was observed under these growth conditions although the inverse behavior is expected due to the lattice mismatch of -7.5%. Additionally, the occupancy of the A and B sublattices of magnetite with tetrahedral and octahedral sites was investigated showing a lower occupancy of the A sites compared to an ideal inverse spinel structure. The occupation of A sites decreases for a higher growth temperature. Thus, we assume a relocation of the iron ions from tetrahedral sites to octahedral vacancies forming a deficient rock salt lattice.
Shapley Value Regression and the Resolution of Multicollinearity

Multicollinearity in empirical data violates the assumption of independence among the regressors in a linear regression model that often leads to failure in rejecting a false null hypothesis. It also may assign wrong sign to coefficients. Shapley value regression is perhaps the best methods to combat this problem. The present paper simplifies the algorithm of Shapley value decomposition of R2 and provides a computer program that executes it. However, Shapley value regression becomes increasingly impracticable as the number of regressor variables exceeds 10, although, in practice, a good regression model may not have more than ten regressors.
Effect of in-bag carcass decontamination method on shelf life of whole chicken carcasses packaged in plastic bags

This study was undertaken to investigate the changes in the microbiological and sensorial attributes of fresh chicken carcasses immersed in decontamination solutions, followed by packaging in plastic bags in which decontamination solution was added during storage at 4 °C. The samples were taken on days 0, 3, 7, and 10 for microbiological and sensory attributes. Results showed that there was a limited antimicrobial effect on microbial flora in the treatment groups within the first 3 days of storage compared to the control group. However, the difference between the groups completely disappeared on days 7 and 10. The changes in the numbers of the microflora between days 0 and 10 varied between 4.5-7.9 log$_{10}$ CFU/mL for total aerobic mesophiles, 3.6? 8.58 log10 CFU/mL for psychrotrophic bacteria, 2.7-6.7 log$_{10}$ CFU/mL for coliforms, and 2.2-5.9 log$_{10}$ CFU/mL for yeast and molds. Sensory evaluation of the cooked breast meat of the carcasses indicated that there was no appreciable difference between the groups between days 0 and 7. It was concluded that the in-pack decontamination method described here should be improved for antimicrobial effect and has potential to be used without affecting sensory attributes of the carcasses in poultry.
Development of an efficient laser grid mapping technique: P-SLAM

ABSTRACT Occupancy grid mapping in the field of mobile robotics is an integrative and promising solution for the various prerequisite such as path planning, autonomous navigation, localization, SLAM (Simultaneously Localization And Mapping) etc. The reliability of the occupancy grid mapping depends upon diverse parameters such as sensor accuracy, size of a grid cell, intrinsic and extrinsic parameters, sensor registration, sensor modelling, scanning angle, ambient conditions, etc. This research reveals the uncertainty in the generation of the laser occupancy grid map with the implementation of conventional laser geometry technique when the detected obstacle/target is on the perimeter of the grid cell. During autonomous navigation, the obstacle and the mobile robot are in a dynamic state that consequence in the wrong perception of the environment by identifying the wrong grid cell as occupied in the occupancy grid map when the obstacle is on the perimeter of the grid cell. The examined error is reduced by a newly designed Perimeter-based SLAM (P-SLAM) technique based on the vector algebra, laser geometry, Inverse Sensor Model and coordinate system. The obtained results with the implementation of P-SLAM are validated w.r. t conventional approaches with qualitative and quantitative analysis by performing real-world experiments.
Optimal investment-reinsurance policy with regime switching and value-at-risk constraint

This paper studies an optimal investment-reinsurance problem for an insurance company which is subject to a dynamic Value-at-Risk (VaR) constraint in a Markovian regime-switching environment. Our goal is to minimize its ruin probability and control its market risk simultaneously. We formulate the problem as an infinite horizontal stochastic control problem with the constrained strategies. The dynamic programming technique is applied to derive the coupled Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations and the Lagrange multiplier method is used to tackle the dynamic VaR constraint. Furthermore, we propose an efficient numerical method to solve those HJB equations. Finally, we employ a practical example from the Korean market to verify the numerical method and analyze the optimal strategies under different VaR constraints.
Finite-Difference Time-Domain Analysis and Design of Transition Interconnects in Microstrip-to-Microstrip Package

In this paper, a new transition between GaAs chip (Microstrip) and Aluminum motherboard (Microstrip) with a single interconnect and one common ground has been analyzed and investigated using Finite-Difference Time-Domain method. The objective is to optimize the package performance over a wide frequency band up to 50 GHz. This is carried out by performing a parametric analysis to study the effects of the transition interconnect (discontinuity) on the overall package performance. The scattering parameters of interconnect are used as a performance measure of package under investigation. Good results have been obtained up 50 GHz; S12/ S21 and S11/S22 are about -0.4 and -20 dB respectively.
Time aware topic based recommender system

News recommender systems efficiently handle the overwhelming number of news articles, simplify navigations, and retrieve relevant information. Many conventional news recommender systems use collaborative filtering to make recommendations based on the behavior of users in the system. In this approach, the introduction of new users or new items can cause the cold start problem, as there will be insufficient data on these new entries for the collaborative filtering to draw any inferences for new users or items. Content-based news recommender systems emerged to address the cold start problem. However, many content-based news recommender systems consider documents as a bag-of-words neglecting the hidden themes of the news articles. In this paper, we propose a news recommender system leveraging topic models and time spent on each article. We build an automated recommender system that is able to filter news articles and make recommendations based on users' preferences. We use topic models to identify the thematic structure of the corpus. These themes are incorporated into a content-based recommender system to filter news articles that contain themes that are of less interest to users and to recommend articles that are thematically similar to users' preferences. Our experimental studies show that utilizing topic modeling and spent time on a single article can outperform the state of the arts recommendation techniques. The resulting recommender system based on the proposed method is currently operational at The Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/).