Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Balanced Category Theory II

In the first part, we further advance the study of category theory in a strong balanced factorization category C [Pisani, 2008], a finitely complete category endowed with two reciprocally stable factorization systems such that X \to 1 is in M iff it is in M'. In particular some aspects related to "internal" (co)limits and to Cauchy completeness are considered. In the second part, we maintain that also some aspects of topology can be effectively synthesized in a (weak) balanced factorization category T, whose objects should be considered as possibly "infinitesimal" and suitably "regular" topological spaces. While in C the classes M and M' play the role of discrete fibrations and opfibrations, in T they play the role of local homeomorphisms and perfect maps, so that X\to 1 is in M (resp. M') iff it is a discrete (resp. compact) space. One so gets a direct abstract link between the subjects, with mutual benefits. For example, the slice projection X/x \to X and the coslice projection x\X \to X, obtained as the second factors of x:1 \to X according to (E,M) and (E',M') in C, correspond in T to the "infinitesimal" neighborhood of x \in X and to the closure of x. Furthermore, the open-closed complementation (generalized to reciprocal stability) becomes the key tool to internally treat, in a coherent way, some categorical concepts (such as (co)limits of presheaves) which are classically related by duality.
Enhanced Traffic Light Detection Method Using Geometry Information

In this paper, we propose a method that allows faster and more accurate detection of traffic lights by a vision sensor during driving, DGPS is used to obtain physical location of a traffic light, extract from the image information of the vision sensor only the traffic light area at this location and ascertain if the sign is in operation and determine its form. This method can solve the problem in existing research where low visibility at night or reflection under bright light makes it difficult to recognize the form of traffic light, thus making driving unstable. We compared our success rate of traffic light recognition in day and night road environments. Compared to previous researches, it showed similar performance during the day but 50% improvement at night. Keywords—Traffic light, Intelligent vehicle, Night, Detection, DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System).
Assessment of microbial DNA enrichment techniques from sino-nasal swab samples for metagenomics

Methods: In this study, three techniques were assessed for microbial DNA enrichment: 1. A series of centrifugation steps, 2. Enrichment of microbial DNA using the NEBNext® Microbiome DNA Enrichment kit, and 3. Whole-genome amplification following the previous enrichment strategies. A no-treatment control and a whole-genome amplified control were also included. Swab samples from three adult patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) were collected intraoperatively for this study. Paired-end shotgun metagenome sequencing was conducted using Illumina HiSeq and bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing using Illumina MiSeq to assess bacterial community composition.
Parameter Free Policy Shaping

Policy Shaping is an algorithm that takes inputs as state-action-evaluation triples, that the learner obtains through interaction with a teacher. These triples are then used in combination with self exploration and a traditional reinforcement learning algorithm to learn a task. Policy Shaping has been experimentally shown to work well with noisy input from non-expert human teachers that are unfamiliar with the algorithm. Interactions with human teachers generate state-action-evaluation triples and, so far, the meaning of the evaluation part of the triple has always been hard coded into the algorithm. We present an algorithm that allows the learner to estimate the meaning of these labels automatically. The learner observes only unidentified evaluation labels, and then continuously re-estimates their meaning during learning and self exploration. Experiments with 30 human teachers, and several different types of simulated teachers, show that the algorithm is able to quickly understand the meaning of, and make use of: demonstrations, explicit action advice, and critique. For each of these three information sources, the parameter free algorithm strongly outperforms all static interpretations of labels when dealing with a set of teachers that have large internal variation in behavior. That is, when no single interpretation fits the full set of teachers that the learner interacts with, autonomously building an individual model for each teacher outperforms any a priori interpretation applied to the entire group.
Valuation of Discretely-sampled Variance Swaps under Correlated Stochastic Volatility and Stochastic Interest Rates

In this paper, we evaluate the price of discretely-sampled variance swaps using a equity-interest rate hybrid model. Our modeling framework extends the Heston stochastic volatility model by including the CoxIngersoll-Ross stochastic interest rates and imposes correlation between the stochastic interest rate and volatility. It is known that one limitation of the hybrid models is that the analytical pricing formula is often unavailable due to the non-affinity property of hybrid models. An efficient semi-closed form pricing formula is derived for an approximation of the fully correlated hybrid model. Our pricing formula which involves solving two phases of three-dimensional partial differential equations is evaluated through numerical implementations to confirm its accuracy. Key–Words: variance swaps, Heston-CIR hybrid model, stochastic volatility, stochastic interest rates, realized variance. 2010 MSC: 91G30, 91G20, 91B70
Mechanisms underlying increased nest predation in natural gas fields: a test of the mesopredator release hypothesis

Anthropogenic activities are changing landscapes and the context in which predator–prey dynamics evolved, thereby altering key ecological processes and community structure. Yet, the specific mechanisms underlying such changes are rarely understood. We tested whether a mesopredator release explained increased rodent density and concomitant predation of songbird nests near natural gas development. From 2015 to 2016, we surveyed apex predators (coyotes, badgers, raptors, and corvids) and measured apparent survival and perceived predation risk of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus; a primary nest predator), at 12 plots spanning a gradient of surface disturbance caused by energy development in Wyoming, USA. Additionally, we measured densities of three nest predators: deer mice, least chipmunks (Tamias minimus), and thirteen-lined ground squirrels (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus). Contrary to the mesopredator release hypothesis, counts of apex predators and perceived predation risk of deer mice increased with surface disturbance from energy development, whereas apparent survival of mice decreased. Densities of mice and ground squirrels, however, increased with surface disturbance, despite increased predation pressure. We therefore rejected the mesopredator release hypothesis as a potential mechanism underlying altered trophic dynamics near energy development. Our results suggest that apex predator control measures would not benefit declining songbirds on natural gas fields. Rather, apex predator abundance may be regulated from the bottom-up by rodents in this system. Our results corroborate a pattern showing weakened effects of mesopredator release in habitats modified by humans. Understanding how predator– prey dynamics may be altered in novel environments requires an understanding of how predators and prey alike respond to habitat change under different contexts.
Should I stay or should I go? Migration and job-skills mismatch among Italian doctoral recipients

Finding a non-academic job in line with both doctoral graduates’ degree and acquired know-how can be difficult because of insufficient demand for R&D skills in public administration and private enterprise and/or because of the lack of matching between the existing demand and the Ph.D. holders’ specialization. The aim of this paper is to test whether migrating from some regions may improve job-education matching in Italy. The econometric strategy takes into account Ph.D. holders’ selfselection into non-academic employment as well as the endogeneity of the migration choice. Results demonstrate that migration seems to facilitate the possibility of finding better job opportunities. More specifically, only migration within the regions of the centre and north of Italy seems to improve jobeducation matching.
SUMER Observations of the Quiet-Sun Transition Region

We present new results from observations of the quiet Sun taken with the SUMER spectrograph on the SOHO spacecraft. This study includes line and continuum emission covering a wide range of temperatures, and the data have been used to create a number of intensity maps with a field of view of ~60''×300'' and a spatial resolution of ~1''. These maps reveal bright features that extend from ~6000 K to ~2 MK, indicating that much of the observed transition region emission arises in an atmospheric interface between the chromosphere and corona. The emission-line intensities over our field of view vary by up to 2 orders of magnitude and have lognormal distributions suggestive of small-scale magnetic fragmentation. We find empirical evidence for a power-law relationship between line emission and electron density, with an exponent in the range ~0.3-1.0. Possible temperature dependence of the exponent is reflected in the slope of the emission measure curve, which appears to change slightly with varying electron density. However, there is no major variation in the shape of the lower transition region emission measure distribution with either the intensity or the size of the area studied. This indicates that ensembles of "cool loops" (loops physically distinct from those structures which reach coronal temperatures) are unlikely to be the source of this emission unless the size of the structures is considerably less than 1''. We also find that the Li-sequence N V λ1240 emission is higher than expected, in agreement with several previous studies. It seems that this effect diminishes with intensity, suggesting that it is unlikely to be due to the omission of density dependence in dielectronic recombination calculations.
Compressive measurement for target tracking in persistent, pervasive surveillance applications

Motion tracking in persistent surveillance applications enters an interesting regime when the movers are of a size on the order of the image resolution elements or smaller. In this case, for reasonable scenes, information about the movers is a natively sparse signal - in an observation of a scene at two closely separated time-steps, only a small number of locations (those associated with the movers) will have changed dramatically. Thus, this particular application is well-suited for compressive sensing techniques that attempt to efficiently measure sparse signals. Recently, we have been investigating two different approaches to compressive measurement for this application. The first, differential Combinatorial Group Testing (dCGT), is a natural extension of group testing ideas to situations where signal differences are sparse. The second methodology is an ℓ-1-minimization based recovery approach centered on recent work in random (and designed) multiplex sensing. In this manuscript we will discuss these methods as they apply to the motion tracking problem, discuss various performance limits, present early simulation results, and discuss notional optical architectures for implementing a compressive measurement scheme.
Sparse Voltage Measurement-Based Fault Location Using Intelligent Electronic Devices

This paper proposes a fault-section location method based on sparse measurements, aimed at asymmetrical faults. A virtual current vector is defined to indicate the faulted section, which is sufficiently sparse except that the fault position corresponding entries are nonzero. To simplify the algorithm, the virtual vector is fixed by amplitudes of voltages and impedances and the feasibility is demonstrated. The Bayesian Compressive Sensing theory is introduced to reduce the number of required intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). In addition, the minimal number of IEDs and their allocation are discussed. The performance of the proposed method is validated in a 69-bus, 12.66-kV distribution system with six distributed generations (DGs) in response to various fault scenarios. The simulation results show that the method is robust for single-phase, double-phase, and double-phase to ground faults with high resistance under noisy condition. Furthermore, the method is applicable for networks with inverter interfaced DGs.
The Holocene Prehistory of Upper Nubia until the Rise of the Kerma Kingdom

The Holocene prehistory of Upper Nubia has long been poorly known due to the few research projects focused on this period. In comparison, Lower Nubia and the Central Sudan have been much better studied. In Lower Nubia the sequence of Nab­ ta Playa 200 km west of the Nile (WENDORF/SCHILD 2001), complemented by the results of the High Dam campaign of the 1960s (WENDORF 1968), covers all of the Holocene from 8400 BC to historical times (GATTO 2011a). In the south, Central Su­ dan is rich in sites from the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (from 7000 to 3500 BC) even if there is still a chronological gap between the end of the Neolithic and the 2 millennium BC (USAI 2016). Between these two aforementioned regions of the Nile Valley, more than 700 km apart, few studies concentrated on the prehistory of Upper Nubia until recently. This area, particularly its chronological and cultural sequence, remains poorly known even if some research has been or still is ongoing at different sites. Some of the research projects focused on Neolithic cemeteries of the 5 millennium that were identified south of the Kerma basin in Kadruka (REr­ NOLD 2001; 2006), in the Northern Dongola Reach (WELSBY 2001; SALVATORI/USA! 2008) or between Debba and Korti (PERESSINOTTO ET AL. 2004). Along the Fourth Cataract, the construction of a new dam between 2004 and 2008 led to the discovery of Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, which are available in preliminary publications for the time being (OSYPINSKI 2014). In the north, between the Second and the Third Cataracts, the excavations on Sai Island have revealed evidence of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Pre-Kerma (GARCEA/HILDEBRAND 2009). Despite these discoveries, the picture is patchy and does not allow for a clear understanding of the cultural dy­ namics in this part of the valley. For this reason, a programme of surveys and exca­ vations has been conducted since 2000 in the area of Kerma, south of the Third Cataract, in order to build a chronological framework and to follow the evolution of human societies during the Holocene Period from the Mesolithic to the beginning of the Kerma civilisation. It has produced a large volume of new data that substantially modifies our perception of prehistory in Upper Nubia. The obtained results and the exceptional sites that were discovered are less due to the particularity of the re­ gion rich in remains due to its geographical location than a consequence of long term research.
Engineered morphologic material structures: physical/chemical properties and applications

Engineered morphologic material structures: physical/chemical properties and applications Xiangbiao Liao Morphologies include the study of shape, size and structure for materials from atomic scale to macroscales. Properties/functions of material structures in general are dependent on morphologies, and thus tunable properties in chemistry and physics can be realized through changing morphologies on surfaces and in bulk systems of materials. For lowdimensional materials, atomic modification or crystal lattice can introduce varieties of fascinating phenomena and unconventional intrinsic properties in electric, mechanics chemistry and etc. The reason behind such controllability is that morphological undulation usually is consistent with the mapping of strain, which is related to atomic structures of materials. For micro/macro scale materials, interactions of surface tension, mechanical stress, etc. dominate morphological evolutions. Structural design and morphological control can achieve desirable functionalities, for example mechanical flexibility and liquid wettability for practical applications. Herein, strain-engineering strategies including mechanical loading and atomic engineering are applied to modify and control morphologies in materials with different length scales. We firstly investigate the fundamental mechanism of morphological evolution through various load strategies, and the relationship between morphologies and the properties of material structures across from nanoscale, microscale to macroscale, including graphene, phosphorene, core-shell microparticles and soft materials/bilayers, etc. Furthermore, we demonstrate two applications of utilizing designed morphologies, which
Dynamic Parametric and Nonparametric Hedging: Evidence from the Arab Gulf Equity Markets

This paper examines the optimal hedging strategies in the Arab Gulf equity markets using a parametric and a nonparametric dynamic approaches in modeling the conditional variances and covariances of equity returns. The parametric approach is based on a multivariate VAR-GARCH model of daily returns, with BEKK specification of Engle and Kroner (1995), and the nonparametric approach adopts a dynamic system based on Filtered Historical Simulation (FHS) of Barone-Adesi et al. (1999) and nonparametric regression. These approaches are then used to calculate optimal portfolio weights and optimal ratios of hedging long and short positions in the Gulf Cooperation Council major sectors, namely, Service, Financial and Industrial. The results show that the nonparametric approach provides higher hedging effectiveness and hence superior hedging strategies.
The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2: understanding mobile device use at festivals

ABSTRACT This research advances understanding of mobile device use in a leisure context by applying and expanding the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) to festival settings. Through on-site surveys at three festivals the UTAUT2 model and an adapted version for mobile device use at a festival were examined using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Results reveal that the modified UTAUT2 demonstrates good fit, and the main factors affecting device use at festivals are performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit and age. The findings suggest that the festival context plays an important role in understanding use and should be included in future research. By knowing factors that affect use, practitioners can design experiences where technology enhances the festival and does not interfere with attendees’ experiences.
FLUVIAL DIKE BREACHING INDUCED BY OVERTOPPING: LESSONS FROM EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STUDIES

Overtopping of fluvial dikes can lead to its breaching and failure and cause devastating inundations in the areas protected. Flood risk management and prevention require a precise quantification of the hazard. The accurate estimate of the flow across the breach is paramount, requiring a detailed understanding of the breach expansion. Existing approaches are often the result of investigations on overtopping of embankment dams. The application of such approaches to fluvial dikes is not reliable, and processes underpinning the breach expansion are still under research. An experimental program was conducted to fill this gap by investigating the physical processes involved in fluvial gradual dike breaching induced by overtopping. Experiments were conducted in two laboratory setups. The focus pointed at the spatial erosion of homogenous, non-cohesive fluvial dikes. Measurements included the continuous scanning of the dike geometry by a non-intrusive Laser Profilometry Technique. Tests conducted under controlled flow and dike configurations allowed for assessing the effects of the channel inflow discharge, downstream channel regulation system, and floodplain confinement on the breach development and outflow. Effects of main channel size, dike material size, apparent cohesion, and bottom erodibility were studied as well. The present research highlights the most important findings. The flow and dike breaching features were additionally simulated using a two-dimensional morphodynamic numerical code.
New Concepts & Semi-Empirical Fittings in Understanding SUSY & the Four Cosmological Interactions

Even though SUSY is having excellent theoretical support and in-depth mathematical back ground, no single SUSY boson could be detected in the Large Hadron Collider so far based on SUSY concepts. This puzzling issue casts doubt on the continued existence of SUSY. It forces some of the particle physicists to relinquish or review the basic concepts of SUSY. In our earlier published papers we proposed and established ‘integral charge quark super symmetry’ and ‘integral charge Higgs super symmetry’. In this paper, the authors make an attempt to fit the SUSY fermion-boson mass ratio, SUSY Higgs rest masses, charged lepton rest masses, electron and proton rest masses and nuclear binding energy coefficients in a cosmological approach. The concepts proposed herein and the results obtained thereof seem to indicate that the Higgs boson of rest energy 125 GeV may be a compound particle.
Lateral velocity variations in southern California. I. Results for the upper crust from Pg waves

The plate boundary and major crustal blocks in southern California are imaged by a tomographic backprojection of the Pg first arrivals recorded by the Southern California Array. The method, formulated specifically for local earthquake arrival times, is a fast, iterative alternative to direct least-squares techniques. With it, we solve the combined problem of determining refractor velocity perturbations and source and station delays. Resolution and variance are found empirically by using synthetic examples. A map showing lateral velocity variations at a depth of approximately 10 km is presented. The results show a strong correlation with surface tectonic features. Clear velocity contrasts exist across the San Andreas, the San Jacinto, and the Garlock faults. The Mojave region has the slowest velocities while the Peninsula Ranges have the highest. The San Jacinto block has velocities intermediate between Mojave and Peninsula Range velocities, and also has early station delays. This may indicate that the San Jacinto block has overridden Mojave material on a shallow detachment surface. No velocity variations are found associated with the Transverse Ranges, which we interpret to mean that the surface batholithic rocks in this area do not extend to Pg depths.