Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Handedness and its relationship to the retrieval of face-memory, under the conditions of elaborative and non-elaborative encoding

As the effects of increased hemispheric interaction in handedness influencing episodic memory have been found in studies investigating the effects of handedness on memory, the intention of this study was to observe the effects of handedness and its relationship to the retrieval of face-memory. This evaluated whether or not handedness would have an effect/enhance the retrieval of episodic memory on tasks that demand deeper levels of processing, and high retrieval processes; in line with theoretical predictions by Christman and Butler (2011), a memory advantage for Mixed-Handers occurs due to Mixed-Handed subjects being able to engage in deeper levels of processing, due to superior interactions between the cerebral hemispheres. A 2x2 repeated measures experimental design was used, with the within subjects variables being performance on face-name recognition tasks under the conditions of elaborative and non-elaborative learning. The between subjects variable was the handedness groups (Strongly Right-Handed vs Mixed-Handed). Analysis of the data by 2x2 mixed ANOVA found a significant main effect for coding, within the elaborative coding condition. The findings do not support the hemispheric interaction theory, as no significant main effect was observed.
Age wise distribution of high risk Human Papillomavirus in Northern Indian women.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing was introduced to compensate the poor sensitivity and specificity of the pap smear cytology often used as a diagnostic tool for borderline precancerous lesions. Digene Hybrid Capture Assay 2 (HCA-2) is the only approved test by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for evaluation and confirmation of the cytologically borderline suspected cases. 361 cervical specimens were collected for the high risk HPV analysis. Forty one cervical samples were positive. Age wise distribution showed highest prevalence in the 15-35 age groups which decreased in subsequent years. Present observations are in agreement with similar studies reported from other parts of the world including Southern India
VENTILATION CONTROL OF THE BLANKA TUNNEL : A MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING

The Blanka tunnel is a 5.7 km long highway tunnel under construction in Prague, Czech Republic. Because of its complicated topology and very strict environmental restrictions, the synthesis of ventilation control for normal conditions turns out to be fairly challenging. The air flow is restricted to leave the tunnel through traffic portals – it has to be aspirated by ventilation centers and released by exhaust shafts and chimneys. To achieve this goal, control strategy was designed based on the mathematical programming principles. The designed controller, which is inspired by model-based predictive controllers (MPC) used in heavy industry, is energy optimal by definition, adapts to changes in operational conditions and requires significantly less design time than traditional approaches.
Cholera in the Lake Kivu region (DRC): Integrating remote sensing and spatially explicit epidemiological modeling

Mathematical models of cholera dynamics can not only help in identifying environmental drivers and processes that influence disease transmission, but may also represent valuable tools for the prediction of the epidemiological patterns in time and space as well as for the allocation of health care resources. Cholera outbreaks have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the 1970s. They have been ravaging the shore of Lake Kivu in the east of the country repeatedly during the last decades. Here we employ a spatially explicit, inhomogeneous Markov chain model to describe cholera incidence in eight health zones on the shore of the lake. Remotely sensed data sets of chlorophyll a concentration in the lake, precipitation and indices of global climate anomalies are used as environmental drivers in addition to baseline seasonality. The effect of human mobility is also modelled mechanistically. We test several models on a multiyear data set of reported cholera cases. The best fourteen models, accounting for different environmental drivers, and selected using the Akaike information criterion, are formally compared via proper cross validation. Among these, the one accounting for seasonality, El Niño Southern Oscillation, precipitation and human mobility outperforms the others in cross validation. Some drivers (such as human mobility and rainfall) are retained only by a few models, possibly indicating that the mechanisms through which they influence cholera dynamics in the area will have to be investigated further.
II Jornadas Doctorales de la Universidad de Murcia EC-CO-07 Thresholds in nonlinear Taylor Rule

Introduction The contribution of John B. Taylor [Taylor,1993] about monetary policy rules initiated an extensive research field on instrument-based conduct of monetary policy. The original formulation of Taylor suggested that monetary authorities set short term interest rates taking into account how far current inflation is from its target and also how far current output is from its potential. In this framework, linearity assumption implies interest rate reaction to the inflation an output gaps should be symmetric and proportional
Right for the Job: Over-Qualified or Under-Skilled?

Ensuring a good match between skills acquired in education and on the job and those required in the labour market is essential to make the most of investments in human capital and promote strong and inclusive growth. Unfortunately, in the OECD on average, about one in four workers are over-qualified – i.e. they possess higher qualifications than those required by their job – and just over one in five are under-qualified – i.e. they possess lower qualifications than those required by their job. In addition, some socio-demographic groups are more likely than others to be over-qualified – notably, immigrants and new labour market entrants who take some time to sort themselves into appropriate jobs – or under-qualified – notably, experienced workers lacking a formal qualification for the skills acquired on the labour market…
Alzheimer's disease: The right drug, the right time

Lessons from failed clinical trials can improve the development of Alzheimer's disease–modifying therapies Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-associated neurodegenerative disease that is reaching epidemic proportions as a result of the aging of the world's population. Impressive gains in our understanding of AD pathogenesis have not yet translated into disease-modifying therapies that benefit patients. Is this because the knowledge that guides target identification and, hence, therapeutics, is insufficient? Are current clinical trial designs not optimal? Or are other factors contributing? Here, we highlight the challenges of developing effective AD therapies and discuss how lessons learned from failed trials must be implemented to increase the likelihood of success.
MICROMECHANICAL MODELING OF THE ELASTIC MODULUS OF THE ITZ OF CONCRETE

The knowledge of the elastic modulus of concrete is important when it is applied as a structural material. The concrete has been assumed as a composite material of three phases, when the interfacial transition zone is considered as a phase of concrete. Concrete can be modeled and its elastic modulus is determined from the elastic properties of the components, as well as their respective volume fractions. The study was developed by analyzing the evolution of the elastic modulus of the ITZ over time, and these curves were obtained from experimental data. For modeling, we used the three phase sphere model [Chr79]. The properties of the interfacial transition zone are determined by inverse analysis. The presented results of the analysis with consideration of the time variation of elastic modulus of ITZ are shown to be agreement with the experimental data, wheras the analysis based on a two phase model, ignoring the ITZ, disagreed.
'Que bé, tu!' ('That's great, you!'): An emerging emphatic use of the second person singular pronoun tu (you) in spoken Catalan

The Catalan second person singular (2sg) pronoun tu (you) has acquired a wide range of pragmatic values in spoken registers that have received little or no attention from scholars in the field. The aim of the present article is to analyse a particular emerging use of the 2sg pronoun tu from a corpus-based perspective. In the light of Grammaticalisation Theory, it is argued that whereas in some contexts this pronoun maintains all or part of its referential function (e.g. as subject or as a vocative, respectively), in other contexts its use is very similar to that of an emphatic pragmatic marker. Data drawn from three spoken corpora suggest that the pronoun has consolidated this new use. Prosodic evidence is also provided to show the semantic and pragmatic changes undergone by the pronoun.
Mechanistic explanations of community structure

Lepš, J., Goldberg, D.E. , Herben, T. & Palmer, M. — Mechanistic explanations of community structure: Introduction Stampfli, A. & Zeiter, M. — Plant species decline due to abandonment of meadows cannot easily be reversed by mowing. A case study from the southern Alps Brewer, S.W. & Rejmánek, M. — Small rodents as significant dispersers of tree seeds in a Neotropical forest Kotorová, I. & Lepš, J. — Comparative ecology of seedling recruitment in an oligotrophic wet meadow Braakhekke, W.G. & Hooftman, D.A. P. — The resource balance hypothesis of plant species diversity in grassland Lejeune, O. & Tlidi, M. — A model for the explanation of vegetation stripes (tiger bush) Klimeš, L. — Small-scale plant mobility in a species-rich grassland Lepš, J. — Nutrient status, disturbance and competition: an experimental test of relationships in a wet meadow Based on contributions presented at the session ‘Experimental tests of mechanistic hypotheses of community patterns’ at the 40th IAVS Symposium held in České Budějovice, 18 – 23 August, 1997.
Formalizing Design Rules Appearing in Early Design: An Application of Agglomerative Clustering

The overall goal of this experiment was the identification of expert design rules, taking into account the natural cognitive process of the designers. More specifically, the protocol aimed to define how designers link semantic adjectives to formal attributes and to other semantic adjectives. Previous studies of the cognitive activity of the designers allowed us to describe particular features of the design activity. The categorization of design information is a major part of this activity, involving a both highly structured and creative manner of organizing design information. Our hypothesis was that the use of the agglomerative clustering could be a relevant way of formalization of the expertise of the designers because it mimics closely the cognitive processes entailed in the framework of the design activity. Moreover this approach does not require a huge sample of subjects and data in order to extract relevant algorithms. Therefore we experimented agglomerative clustering in order to develop design rules between semantic concepts, semantic adjectives and the low level dimensions of design: colours, textures and shape descriptors. These design rules characterize the expertise of the designers in the early stages of the shoe design process, where the product has yet to be defined.
Discussion of Crystallization temperatures of tholeiite parental liquids : Implications for the existence of thermally driven mantle plumes by

The only unequivocal magma composition is one that is produced from a direct analysis of a glass. The validity of calculated compositions, such as those produced by Falloon et al. (this volume) is always dependent on a series of assumptions. Despite thousands of microprobe analyses of MORB glasses, no compositions that show a trend of olivine-controlled crystallization have ever been reported, either from “normal” ridge segments or Iceland (over 400 glass analyses just from Iceland). This is in contrast to the situation at Kilauea, Hawaii, where direct analyses have shown the existence of a clear trend of olivine-controlled crystallization (Clague et al., 1991; 1995). MORB generation (including Iceland) at low and relatively uniform pressures (0.9-1.5 GPa) and potential temperatures (~1240-1260 ̊C) (Presnall et al., 1979; 2002; Presnall and Gudfinnsson, submitted) explains both the inverse and positive Na8-Fe8 correlations as direct melts from a heterogeneous mantle. In addition, it avoids the conundrum of the complete absence of olivine-controlled fractionation.
Experiments in automatic extracting and indexing . Information Storage and Retrieval

This article reports on several experiments in automatic extracting and on one experiment in automatic indexing. Nine chapters, each from a different technical book, were used as the text corpus for all the experiments. In the first experiment, an attempt was made to construct a sentence dictionary of syntactic sentence types, for distinguishing extract-worthy sentences, but it proved unrewarding. Nevertheless, the results indicated that sentence typing might be used in a screening process in conjunction with other extracting techniques. The later attempts to combine syntactic and statistical criteria in the choice of extract sentences and index phrases proved more rewarding. The sentences selected by the extracting algorithm were representative and are presented for the reader to peruse. The noun phrases selected by the indexing algorithm compared favorably with the back-of-the-book index phrases. There is every indication that satisfactory back-of-the-book indexes could be produced automatically, with post-editing to delete superfluous items. Purchase Export
Interpreting Non-Anthropomorphic Robots’ Social Gestures

In this paper we report on two studies analyzing the factors that determine whether and how the behavior of non-anthropomorphic robots is interpreted in a social context. Non-anthropomorphic robots have several advantages: they have no human features and therefore are less likely to raise unrealistic expectations by people. In addition their simple design and low number of parts allows them to be smaller, cheaper, and a better fit for home or office adoption. At the same time, they present a challenge for social interaction due to their inability to mimic human social communication with restricted movement and a limited gesture space. We present the systematic exploration of two different non-anthropomorphic robots designed for social interaction. The first was designed to perform gestures during opening encounters (greetings). The second was designed to perform gestures that convey the robot’s emotional state, toward affecting behavior change. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we demonstrate that the gestures of these non-anthropomorphic robots were consistently perceived by the participants and were interpreted as conveying social intent and emotions. We further find that specific movement components—specifically the vertical component and the approach vs. avoid component— were the most salient factors in participants’ perception of their interaction with the robots, leading to design implications for robot gesture designers.
Interactive search through iterative refinement

In this paper we describe a means for disambiguating vague search queries by automatically asking users a series of clarifying questions. We demonstrate how a structure of appropriate questions can be generated by greedily choosing those that will yield the maximum information gain when answered. Data are manually annotated with indicator variables of interest to train a classifier that achieves 96% precision on our test set. We then use a modified version of the ID3 algorithm to select clarifying questions and present a functional prototype that employs our algorithm for query disambiguation within the context of caregiving in healthcare.
Hierarchies of Values in China’s Emerging University Student Generation: Application for Global Business and Sharing the Gospel

Christians doing business in China need to build guanxi, or relationships, with Chinese business leaders and customers. They need to affirm the values their Chinese business associates and customers embrace that are consistent with the Gospel. Both traditional values and those of the new generation are important, and the emerging gender values are particularly significant. This study, conducted in a major Chinese university, uncovers contemporary Chinese values helpful in building trust and in forming a credible and appealing foundation for conducting business and presenting the gospel in China.
An agent-based simulation of the opportunity creation process

Entrepreneurial opportunities lie in the process of decision-making under uncertainty; in a world of perfect information, there is no entrepreneurship (Kirzner, 1979). However, the specific effectuation process that underlies the transformation of dispersed information or knowledge components into an entrepreneurial opportunity is yet to be tested (Read and Sarasvathy, 2005, Sarasvathy et al., 2003a). This paper describes a complex adaptive system (CAS) approach to simulate how entrepreneurial opportunities are created. New opportunities and markets emerge from the interactive learning behaviours of heterogeneous entities such as entrepreneurs and customers. An agent-based model is synthesized from theories on entrepreneurial opportunity and cognition to code the individual agents and observe how opportunities for new market creation emerge. The findings from the model indicate that “who they are, what they know, and who they know” significantly influenced entrepreneurs’ performances in opportunity creation. The effects of individual agents’ attributes, their decisions along the learning journey, large environmental condition and constraints can be further studied based on this model. These implications are explored and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Constructability in industrial plants construction: a BIM-Lean approach using the Digital Obeya Room framework

AbstractOne of the main problems the construction industry faces is the high cost and slow execution time due to inadequate planning, which results in poor use of human resources. A common solution for reducing time and costs is the adoption of prefabricated components (prefabs). This paper proposes a novel methodology for interdisciplinary management of construction projects by integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Lean Thinking to improve the production planning and control of pipe-rack modules in an industrial facility. The article first presents a literature review to assess the key synergies between BIM and Lean Thinking. These led to the development of a new integrated work methodology named Digital Obeya Room. This model focuses on the required workflows, the analysis of collected data, and the visual management of construction planning and control. A real-world empirical study in the Oil and Gas industry evaluated how the newly devised practices could improve prefabrication and preas.
The role of the ‘Suthasinobon’ complex in introgressive hybridization

Introgressive hybridization or introgression is the transfer of gene between two distinct species by the production of viable fertile hybrids. ‘Suthasinobon’ is an introduced day-blooming waterlily identified as Nymphaea capensis var. zanzibariensis. Together with its selections and hybrids, they are known as ‘Suthsinobon’ complex. Both ‘Suthasinobon’ and its complex are beautiful, aggressive plants and are popular among Thai waterlily growers. They hybridize readily with other Nymphaea species in the subgenus Brachyceras , including the only native day-blooming species, Nymphaea nouchali, known in Thai as ‘Bua Phan’ and ‘Bua Phuean’ which are two forms of N. nouchali, and ‘Bua Khap’ - N. nouchali var. cyanea. Evidences of introgression involving ‘Suthasinobon’ complex have been accumulated in the present study. The consequences of introgression are the breakdown of reproductive isolation, the loss of Thai native species of day-blooming waterlily, and the predominance of mongrels of partially hybrid ancestry closely resemble ‘Suthasinobon’ parent.
Parallel and Distributed Software Assessment in Multi-Attribute Decision Making Paradigm

Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) theory is a way to obtain good quality assessment for parallel and distributed software. It provides adequate tools to compute a synthetic characterization, named High Performance Computing (HPC) merit, which may be used in operations like software comparisons / rankings / optimizations. The paper presents the general assessment model with its associated assessment problems and a terse and telling case study. The assessment model is described and solved by the Internet mathematical service named OPTCHOICE (MADM modeling and optimal choice problem solving). It provides a multitude of normalization and solving methods generating diverse assessments, but always a global assessment is delivered.
Rapid Evaluation of Salmonella pullorum Contamination in Chicken Based on a Portable Amperometric Sensor

In this study, anti-Salmonella polyclonal antibodies immobilized on cellulose nitrate membrane were used to capture Salmonella pullorum (S. pullorum) in biological samples. The rapid evaluation of S. pullorum contamination was based on the analysis of the activities of catalase, a biomarker of this bacterium. After a screen printed electrode (SPE) modified with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCN)-chitosan-peroxidase was connected to a portable selfmade amperometric sensor, the determination of S. pullorum contamination was carried out by adding the reaction product, which was obtained from the hydrogen peroxide dismutation catalyzed by the bacterial catalase, to the reacting area of the SPEs. A working potential of 0.55 V was applied in the sensing system and the current value displayed on the amperometric sensor was used as the detection signal. This method allowed the quantification of S. pullorum with the detection limit of 100cfu mL-1 in culture media and chicken samples. The stability, reproducibility and sensitivity of the modified SPE were also investigated. Moreover, successive analysis was conveniently accomplished by replacing the one-off SPE. This portable sensing system is a rapid, cost-effective and straightforward approach for screening S. pullorum contamination in food samples.
Investigating and evaluating the influence of supply chain structure on supply chain risk

Supply chains are exposed to disruptions resulting from internal or external factors that hinder the performance of one or more of their constituent entities. An exploratory study was conducted to determine whether supply chain structure (SCS) influences supply chain risk (SCR), in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa. Thematic content analysis was applied to the case data of four Gauteng-based manufacturing SMEs (SMMEs), and summarised in a literature-developed, conceptual structure-risk framework. Results indicate that SCS does influence SCR. Investment in facility infrastructure and supplier relationships appear to be the most influential features. SCS also affects the operational and financial risk of an enterprise. These risks drive the SMEs’ strategy and reputation, and consequently drive the corresponding risk dimensions (i.e., strategic and reputation risks). These findings are limited, and should not be generalised to all South African SMEs.
Wissenschaftlicher Übersichtsartikel Polytopes and Optimization : Recent Progress and Some Challenges 1

A large part of this article is adapted, with permission, from the author’s paper “Recent Progress on Polytopes,” in: Proc. “Discrete and Computational Geometry: Ten Years Later,” Mt. Holyoke, July 1996 (B. Chazelle, J.E. Goodman, R. Pollack, eds.), Contemporary Mathematics, Amer. Math. Soc. , to appear. Dept. Math. MA 6-1, TU Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany, ziegler@math.tu-berlin.de Supported by a DFG Gerhard-Hess-Forschungsförderungspreis and by the German Israeli Foundation (G.I.F.) grant I-0309-146.06/93.