Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sélection de modèle d'imputation à partir de modèles bayésiens hiérarchiques linéaires multivariés

The technique known as multiple imputation seems to be the most suitable technique for solving the problem of non-response. The literature mentions methods that models the nature and structure of missing values. One of the most popular methods is the PAN algorithm of Schafer and Yucel (2002). The imputations yielded by this method are based on a multivariate linear mixed-effects model for the response variable. A Bayesian hierarchical clustered and more flexible extension of PAN is given by the BHLC model of Murua et al. (2005). The main goal of this work is to study the problem of model selection for multiple imputation in terms of efficiency and accuracy of missing-value predictions. We propose a measure of performance linked to the prediction of missing values. The measure is a mean squared error, and hence in addition to the variance associated to the multiple imputations, it includes a measure of bias in the prediction. We show that this measure is more objective than the most common variance measure of Rubin. Our measure is computed by incrementing by a small proportion the number of missing values in the data and supposing that those values are also missing. The performance of the imputation model is then assessed through the prediction error associated to these pseudo missing values. In order to study the problem objectively, we have devised several simulations. Data were generated according to different explicit models that assumed particular error structures. Several missing-value prior distributions as well as error-term distributions are then hypothesized. Our study investigates if the true error structure of the data has an effect on the performance of the different hypothesized choices for the imputation model. We concluded that the answer is yes. Moreover, the choice of missing-value prior distribution seems to be the most important factor for accuracy of predictions. In general, the most effective choices for good imputations are a t-Student distribution with different cluster variances for the errorterm, and a missing-value Normal prior with data-driven mean and variance, or a missing-value regularizing Normal prior with large variance (a ridge-regression-like prior). Finally, we have applied our ideas to a real problem dealing with health outcome observations associated to a large number of countries around the world.
linguistic approach to pitch range modelling

Pitch range is currently characterised in a number of different ways across research disciplines and is often treated as a simple measurement. Pitch range has been defined as the difference between minimum and maximum fO (Cosmides 1983). This data alone conveys no information about the distribution of fO values within that range. Similarly the mean and standard deviation does not adequately capture important differences in the pitch range of different speakers (Ladd et al. 1985). Ladd (1996) describes pitch range using two partially independent dimensions of variation, that of overall level and span. This idea has been further developed by Shriberg et al. (1996), in a study based on a large corpus of Dutch speech. Given this two parameter model, it is possible to predict target fO values for when speakers raise their voices from fO values at corresponding locations in speech produced normally. This thesis reports on three studies of pitch range variation across speakers. The experiments examine the relation between a two dimensional model of pitch range based on pitch level and pitch span with the perception of various speaker characteristics. The key to our measure of pitch range is that it is based on average data taken from clearly defined linguistic targets in speech. These targets included sentence-initial peaks, accent peaks, post-accent valleys and sentence-final lows. The results show that a pitch range model based on linguistic dimensions of variation better captures variation in listeners' judgements than the well established measures based on speakers' long term distributional properties of fO, such as 4 standard deviations around the mean, 95th-5th percentile and 90th-10th percentile. Most importantly this thesis shows that pitch range can and should be treated as the same entity across various research disciplines extralinguistic, paralinguistic and linguistic rather than the current situation in which pitch range has multiple definitions depending on the particular interest of the respective research discipline.
Recognizing Plan/Goal Abandonment

In this paper we propose a system to solve a language game, called Guillotine, which requires a player with a strong cultural and linguistic background knowledge. The player observes a set of five words, generally unrelated to each other, and in one minute she has to provide a sixth word, semantically connected to the others. Several knowledge sources, such as a dictionary and a set of proverbs, have been modeled and integrated in order to realize a knowledge infusion process into the system. The main motivation for designing an artificial player for Guillotine is the challenge of providing the machine with the cultural and linguistic background knowledge which makes it similar to a human being, with the ability of interpreting natural language documents and reasoning on their content. Experiments carried out showed promising results, and both the knowledge source modeling and the reasoning mechanisms (implementing a spreading activation algorithm to find out the solution) seem to be appropriate. We are convinced that the approach has a great potential for other more practical applications besides solving a language game, such as semantic search.
An additional hadrosaurid specimen (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the marine Maastrichtian deposits of the Maastricht area

An isolated dinosaur vertebra from the marine deposits of the Maastrichtian type area, near the city of Maastricht (The Netherlands), collected during the 19th century and kept in the palaeontological collection of the Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin, is described as a caudal vertebra of a hadrosaurid ornithopod. Although it cannot be identified with greater accuracy, this specimen is an addition to the still scanty, but growing, record of non-avian dinosaurs from the Maastrichtian type area. This record is heavily dominated by hadrosaurs, which probably reflects a real abundance of this group of dinosaurs in the Late Maastrichtian of Europe.
Optimal allocation of cache servers and content files in content distribution networks

Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) have proliferated rapidly with the growth in network bandwidth and the variety of content files. The CDN service is one of the most popular Web services from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), since most ISPs are currently striving to provide additional services besides their original Internet access service. The Internet has seen an explosive increase in the number of users, which causes network servers to become overloaded, and we are currently facing several serious issues, such as declining reliability, increased response time, and so on. The replicated allocation of content files on cache servers for load-balancing is known as an effective solution to overcome these issues. In CDNs, one of the most important problems is how we allocate cache servers and content files while considering trade-offs between the cost, reliability, and delay. In this paper, we examine an example of the CDN service in an ISP "BBit-Japan", which is one of the biggest CDN service providers in Japan. We apply this example to the cache server and content allocation model which we have proposed. This optimization model introduces 0-1 integer programming to determine the optimal allocation of cache servers and content files. In this optimization model, we aim to maximize the reliability of the whole system subject to restrictions of cost and delay, and in considering trade-offs between reliability, cost, and delay. The use of this optimization model makes it possible to show precisely how they can properly allocate cache servers and content files at limited cost and within permissible delays to the CDN service providers.
Disfluencies in gesture: Gestural correlates to filled and unfilled speech pauses

This paper investigates the relationship between Empty and Filled pauses in speech and Simple and Augmented Holds in gesture. An Empty pause is a silent interval within the subject’s contiguous speech. A Filled pause is an interval that is occupied with some non-lexical speech element (e.g. ‘Uhm’). Holds are detected from hand motion traces extracted as flowfield clusters from video. A Simple Hold is defined as an active configured gestural state where no intended motion is perceived. An Augmented Hold occurs when a hold is perceptually judged to have occured but with detectable motion in the ‘holding’ hand. The extent to which the verbal and non-verbal modalities of communication overlap with respect to these phenomena is examined through the analysis of audio and video data. We show that Simple Holds and Empty Pauses are similarly distributed, and that they are not synchronized in speech. Both computational and psycholinguistic implications are discussed.
Making Sense of Fractions, Ratios, and Proportions: 2002 Yearbook

NCTM's 2002 Yearbook emphasises that although fractions, ratios and proportions are pivotal concepts in the middle school, their development and understandings begin in the elementary school. The companion booklet presents activities that illustrate some of the ideas in the yearbook and that go beyond the content of the yearbook itself. Teachers' notes and handouts are designed to bring the yearbook to life in the classroom.
Structural modeling of heterogeneous data with partial least squares

Alongside structural equation modeling (SEM), the complementary technique of partial least squares (PLS) path modeling helps researchers understand relations among sets of observed variables. Like SEM, PLS began with an assumption of homogeneity – one population and one model – but has developed techniques for modeling data from heterogeneous populations, consistent with a marketing emphasis on segmentation. Heterogeneity can be expressed through interactions and nonlinear terms. Additionally, researchers can use multiple group analysis and latent class methods. This chapter reviews these techniques for modeling heterogeneous data in PLS, and illustrates key developments in finite mixture modeling in PLS using the SmartPLS 2.0 package.
Monoamine Oxidase, Catechol-O-methyltransferase, and Norepinephrine Levels in Mice with the Hereditary Obese-hyperglycemic Syndrome

There is some evidence that there are abnormalities in catecholamine metabolism in patients with obesity and diabetes mellitus. In this study we determined the tissue levels of catecholamine-metabolizing enzymes (monoamine oxidase [MAO] and catechol-O-methyltransferase [COMT]) and norepinephrine (NE) in mice with the hereditary obese-hyperglycemic syndrome (ob/ob mice). The ob/ob mice have greater MAO activity in their kidneys (+ 43 per cent), testes (+ 51 per cent), and white adipose tissue (+ 87 per cent) than their normal-weight Httermates. There is no difference in MAO activity of pancreas, liver, brain, brown fat, heart, and islets of Langerhans in ob/ob and normal mice. The ob/ob mice have less COMT activity in their liver (−39 per cent) than normal mice. There is no difference in COMT activity in the kidney, testis, pancreas, and brain between ob/ob and normal mice. The Michaelis constant of kidney MAO for the tryptamine substrate is similar in normal and obese mice, suggesting that the increased MAO activity is due to a greater amount of tissue MAO rather than an altered affinity of MAO for the tryptamine substrate. The ob/ob mice have a persistent elevation in MAO activity despite eugiycemia (older mice) and a reduction in weight (caloric restriction), suggesting that the elevated MAO activity in ob/ob mice is a primary rather than a secondary disturbance. The total NE content of kidney, white fat, and brown fat is similar in ob/ob and normal mice. The islet NE content is less than 3 pg. per islet in ob/ob and normal mice.
An Algorithm for Clustering of Web Search Results

In this thesis we propose a description-oriented algorithm for clustering of results obtained from Web search engines called LINGO. The key idea of our method is to first discover meaningful cluster labels and then, based on the labels, determine the actual content of the groups. We show how the cluster label discovery can be accomplished with the use of the Latent Semantic Indexing technique. We also discuss several factors that influence the quality of cluster description, such as input data preprocessing and language identification. As part of this thesis we prepared an implementation of our algorithm within the framework of Carrot2. To evaluate the practical performance of our algorithm we propose an expertbased scheme for assessment of clustering results.
Voortoets bestaand gebruik Noordzeekustzone - Hoofdrapport - (m.u.v. visserij en militaire activiteiten)

Een voortoets is uitgevoerd van potentiele effecten van bestaand gebruik (m.u.v. visserij en militaire activiteiten) op instandhoudingsdoelen voor soorten en habitats in de Noordzeekustzone, zoals vereist binnen de Natura 2000 systematiek. In de voortoets is bepaald of een activiteit potentieel negatieve effecten kan hebben op de instandhoudingsdoelen en om wat voor type effecten het gaat.
Computer Manual in MATLAB to Accompany Pattern Classification, Second Edition

A Second Course in Stochastic Processes. TT89) pdf free · Computer Manual in MATLAB to Accompany Pattern Classification, Second Edition book download DeMyer's The Neurologic Examination: A Programmed Text, 6th Edition book. David G. Stork and Elad Yom-Tov, Computer Manual. MATLAB to accompany Pattern Classification (WileyPrediction, Second Edition (Springer, 2009). /p/pattern-classification-2nd-edition-solution-manual-163524.pdf 201303-22 biz/education/p/php-programming-with-mysql-2nd-edition-solutions-163535.pdf 0.4 educationbooks.biz/education/p/pattern-recognition-duda-computer-. biz/education/p/palm-matlabsolutions-manual-ch-4-163753.pdf 2013-03-21.
Locating Early Film Audiences: Voluntary associations and colonial film

Emilie Altenloh’s dissertation Zur Soziologe des Kinos (Sociology of the Cinema), completed in 1914 is one of the few contemporary studies providing us with information on the Wilhelmine  lm audience [1]. Interested in the spectator strati cation of the  lm-going public ‘Altenloh recognized the cinema as a public sphere in its own right, constituted by people who had previously been indifferent to spectacles of any degree of absorption, people who had never been perceived as an audience in the proper sense of the German word ‘Publikum’ [2]. In her discussion of the  lm program’s repertoire non- ction  lms are not excluded, but they also seem to play no signi cant role in it. Altenloh acknowledges in general the educational value of non- ction  lms, but considers for instance views of nature, Naturaufnahmen, as the  lm industry’s ‘problem child’, living an ignored and Cinderella-like existence in the cinemas [3]. For decades Emilie Altenloh’s observations have marked the understanding of early non- ction  lm in  lm studies, and only recently has there been renewed scholarly interest in the  lms’ historical meaning [4]. In this article I want to explore the possibilities of approaching the relation between non- ction  lms and the early  lm audience by focusing on  lms that were shot in the German colonies. Colonial  lms were mainly non- ction productions such as travelogues, views of nature or ethnographic studies;  ctional narratives constituted a very small part in colonial  lmmaking and played a signi cant role only during the last years of German colonialism. Germany’s colonial past appears as a very short and quite unimpressive period in German history. In comparison with the overseas possessions of Britain and France, German colonialism was small-scale, economically unpro table and highly unsuccessful [5]. The number of colonial  lm productions until the  rst World War seems to con rm the marginal signi cance of non- ction for the  lm-viewing public. Films about the colonies were not exclusively shot by German companies, in fact Pathé Frères produced several ‘German colonial  lms’. But there never existed something like a colonial  lm Schlager, nor was colonial  lmmaking ever discussed in any of the German  lm journals. However, colonial  lms were not exclusively shown in commercial venues. I would like to focus on colonial  lm screenings organized by the German Colonial Society, Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft in the years between, roughly, 1905 and 1908. Examining the  lm screenings in the local branches of the Society, I want to draw attention to an alternative exhibition context that existed in parallel to the  lm-viewing practice in public cinemas and was represented by the network of voluntary associations in Wilhelmine Germany. In a revisionist approach to Jürgen Habermas’s concept of the public sphere as a
What is a Soundscape Composition

Soundscape composition is a genre of electroacoustic music that flourished during the late seventies as a direct consequence of the World Soundscape Project, a pedagogical oriented research group harbored at Simon Fraser University, in Canada. The main interests of this interdisciplinary group were firstly centered in the ecological noise pollution issues and, afterwards, expanded to other activities, such as the creation of soundscape compositions. The study of the soundscape composition thematic implies an analysis of the argumentative determinations and constituent elements of this particular area of electroacoustic composition. Throughout this paper we will seek to show, on the one hand, the basic principles of this compositional art, historically contextualizing them and, on the other hand, revealing conceptual issues relating both to theory and practice of soundscape composition. Firstly, we will contextualize the soundscape concept, synthetically revealing the genesis of this genre, while highlighting the role of its founders, in the World Soundscape Project context. Secondly, we will present a clear distinction between the analytical foundations of the soundscape concept (its features and goals) as suggested by the World Soundscape Project and Schafer, and the postulates coined by Barry Truax regarding the soundscape composition concept. The aforementioned distinction will mainly refer to the roles and definitions of perception (as listening), environment (as a medium of interrelationships) and sound (as the mediator between subject and environment). Finally, we will examine some conceptual constraints concerning the principles of soundscape composition, pointing as well to the explicitly ecological, ethical and social character to which the theory and practice of this kind of composition is subjected, exposing the aesthetical and creative limitations which can result from this character.
Razones para emigrar y retornar: Trayectorias internacionales del personal directivo y emprendedor de industrias innovadoras en España

El presente trabajo analiza la experiencia migratoria de personas directivas y empresarias en sectores innovadores. El objetivo consiste, en primer lugar, en identificar los factores explicativos de la movilidad internacional del personal altamente cualificado. En segundo lugar, se analiza la influencia que tiene la movilidad internacional en las carreras profesionales del personal altamente cualificado. Este analisis sera abordado desde una perspectiva de genero, es decir, comparando las diferencias existentes entre hombres y mujeres en sus estrategias de movilidad y de desarrollo profesional. La metodologia esta basada en entrevistas realizadas a directivas y directivos y empresarias y empresarios nacionales y extranjeros con una experiencia internacional significativa en cuanto a su duracion y a las funciones cumplidas. Los resultados demuestran que las razones de ida estan relacionadas con motivaciones de mejora formativa, aunque con un proposito muy determinado hacia la internacionalizacion de su perfil profesional. Una vez completado este ciclo, la mayoria decide volver por razones personales y/o profesionales. El analisis de genero refleja la agencia de las mujeres en las estrategias de movilidad, pero tambien que los factores familiares tienen mayor peso que entre los hombres.
Integration of the DiLAS Annotation Service into Digital Library Infrastructures

In this paper we present DiLAS, a dedicated service for the management of annotations, supporting complex collaborative applications in distributed environments. The mission of DiLAS is to foster change in users’ interaction with digital libaries (DL) and contribute to developing services for social infrastructures in DLs. We thus introduce a new independent annotation service for interactive knowledge creation and sharing, ready to be plugged into existing DL systems. As a show case, we discuss the integration of the DiLAS annotation service into DAFFODIL, an existing digital library management framework. As a future show case, the service is going to be integrated into the BRICKS infrastructure.
Non-Photorealistic Rendering with Pixel and Vertex Shaders

Development of cutting-edge graphics techniques like programmable pixel and vertex shaders are often motivated by a desire to achieve photorealistic renderings for gaming or simulation. In this paper, we apply vertex and pixel shaders to NonPhotorealistic Rendering (NPR). In many types of images such as cartoons and technical drawings, photorealism is not desirable. In the case of technical illustrations, nonphotorealistic rendering techniques are used to enhance understanding of the scene or object being drawn without obscuring important features such as outlines. In other cases, we simply hope to simulate other media such as cel-shaded cartoons, wood-block prints or hatched line drawings for stylistic purposes. In the following sections, we will apply Direct3D pixel and vertex shaders to implement and extend recent research efforts in non-photorealistic rendering.
Small is Beautiful: Near Minimal Evolutionary Neurocontrollers Obtained With Self-Organizing Compressed Encoding

This paper presents a novel method for evolution of artificial autonomous agents. It is based on adaptive, self-organizing compressed genotypic encoding (SOCE) of the phenotypic synaptic efficacies of the agent's neurocontroller. The SOCE encoding implements a parallal evolutionary search for neurocontroller solutions in a dynamically varying and reduced subspace of the original synaptic space. It leads to the robust emergence of compact, near minimal successful neurocontrollers starting, from arbitrarily large networks. This is important since on practice the network size needed to solve the problem is unknown beforehand. The SOCE method may also serve to estimate the network size needed to solve a given task, and to delineate the-relative importance of the neurons composing the agent's controller network.
Un système de traduction automatique paramétré par des atlas dialectologiques

Contrairement à la plupart des systèmes de traitement du langage, qui s’appliquent à des langues écrites et standardisées, nous présentons ici un système de traduction automatique qui prend en compte les spécificités des dialectes. En général, les dialectes se caractérisent par une variation continue et un manque de données textuelles en qualité et quantité suffisantes. En même temps, du moins en Europe, les dialectologues ont étudié en détail les caractéristiques linguistiques des dialectes. Nous soutenons que des données provenant d’atlas dialectologiques peuvent être utilisées pour paramétrer un système de traduction automatique. Nous illustrons cette idée avec le prototype d’un système de traduction basé sur des règles, qui traduit de l’allemand standard vers les différents dialectes de Suisse allemande. Quelques exemples linguistiquement motivés serviront à exposer l’architecture de ce système.