A bootstrap detection for operational determinism.

We propose a bootstrap detection for operationally deterministic versus stochastic nonlinear modelling and illustrate the method with both simulated and real data sets.

Algorithm Portfolio for Individual-based Surrogate-Assisted Evolutionary Algorithms

Surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithms (SAEAs) are powerful optimisation tools for computationally expensive problems (CEPs). However, a randomly selected algorithm may fail in solving unknown problems due to no free lunch theorems, and it will cause more computational resource if we re-run the algorithm or try other algorithms to get a much solution, which is more serious in CEPs. In this paper, we consider an algorithm portfolio for SAEAs to reduce the risk of choosing an inappropriate algorithm for CEPs. We propose two portfolio frameworks for very expensive problems in which the maximal number of fitness evaluations is only 5 times of the problem's dimension. One framework named Par-IBSAEA runs all algorithm candidates in parallel and a more sophisticated framework named UCB-IBSAEA employs the Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) policy from reinforcement learning to help select the most appropriate algorithm at each iteration. An effective reward definition is proposed for the UCB policy. We consider three state-of-the-art individual-based SAEAs on different problems and compare them to the portfolios built from their instances on several benchmark problems given limited computation budgets. Our experimental studies demonstrate that our proposed portfolio frameworks significantly outperform any single algorithm on the set of benchmark problems

Statistical Tests for Lyapunov Exponents of Deterministic Systems

In order to develop statistical tests for the Lyapunov exponents of deterministic dynamical systems, we develop bootstrap tests based on empirical likelihood for percentiles and expectiles of strictly stationary processes. The percentiles and expectiles are estimated in terms of asymmetric least deviations and asymmetric least squares methods. Asymptotic distributional properties of the estimators are established.Bootstrap, chaos, empirical likelihood, expectile, percentile.

THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALITY ON MOTIVATION IN THE WORK PLACE

Spirituality is the tendency of people to ask ultimate questions and look for meaning in life. Employees’ spirituality brings benefits such as better performance, higher satisfaction, and lower turnover. No research study has yet studied how spirituality in the workplace influences what type of motivation employees have. According to self-determination theory, there are several types of motivation including intrinsic motivation and four types of extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation and two types of extrinsic motivation are seen as autonomous motivation. Autonomous motivation brings benefits to life and also the workplace. This study hypothesizes that people with high spirituality also reported more autonomous motivation when they work. Also, managers can influence employees’ autonomous motivation by providing reasons for why working is important and valuable. In the current study, a survey was sent to participants online. Spirituality, autonomous motivation, satisfaction at work, and some control variables were measured in the survey. The findings show that spirituality did not predict autonomous motivation, managers’ provision of rationales did not predict autonomous motivation, managers’ provision of rationales did not moderate the relationship between spirituality and autonomous motivation, and both autonomous motivation and managers’ provision of rationales predicted job satisfaction. The non-significant results may due to several factors such as low statistical power and measures with psychometric quality. Also, it may suggest that the hypotheses proposed in the current study are not consistent with reality. Spirituality may not be a predictor of employees’ autonomous motivation and this relationship may not worth studying in future research. In future research, I suggest that measures with better psychometric properties are used. Also, other workplace outcomes can be added to study more relationships between autonomous motivation and these outcomes. Besides, other types of research methods can be applied such as true experiments and field experiments in future research. The developmental stage of employees’ spirituality can also be considered in future research

Galectin-12 in Cellular Differentiation, Apoptosis and Polarization.

Galectin-12 is a member of a family of mammalian lectins characterized by their affinity for β-galactosides and consensus amino acid sequences. The protein structure consists of a single polypeptide chain containing two carbohydrate-recognition domains joined by a linker region. Galectin-12 is predominantly expressed in adipose tissue, but is also detected in macrophages and other leukocytes. Downregulation of galectin-12 in mouse 3T3-L1 cells impairs their differentiation into adipocytes. Conversely, overexpression of galectin-12 in vitro induces cell cycle arrest in G1 and apoptosis. Upregulation of galectin-12 and initiation of G1 cell cycle arrest are associated with driving pre-adipocytes toward terminal differentiation. Galectin-12 deficiency increases insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in obese animals. Galectin-12 inhibits macrophage polarization to the M2 population, enhancing inflammation and decreasing insulin sensitivity in adipocytes. Galectin-12 also affects myeloid differentiation, which is associated with chemotherapy resistance. In addition to highlighting the above-mentioned aspects, this review also discusses the potential clinical applications of modulating the function of galectin-12

Piggy Pennies: An Interactive Piggy Bank to Help Children Learn Money Management

Wealth management skill has turned out to be one of the most crucial skills for every young people. A good habit of wealth management would bene­t people on a larger scale in wealth growth and life quality. In this case, it would be most bene­cial to educate people as early as when they are still children. Children usually do not understand where money comes from and how to spend it by nature. However, multiple challenges arise when parents realize the importance of the education of money management skills and teach their children. These challenges include but are not limited to, shortage of time, being short of suitable teaching tools, and being afraid of misleading. A few solutions and their ­nal products have already hit the market. By conducting thorough research on those products, it is evident that almost none of them puts its concentration on the collaboration among parents and their children, whereas parents could act as a crucial role in guiding their children, in most cases. To facilitate the collaboration of parents and children, this thesis provides a revolutionary solution called Piggy Pennies. Piggy Pennies provides a platform that integrates abilities to teach kids the concept of money itself and cultivating good, controlled spending habits. This solution consists of two parts. First, there is an interactive Piggy Bank, which is a real-entity terminal for kids to handle real cash, for example, depositing, withdrawing, making purchasing plans, and taking care of chores. In addition, a mobile application is another terminal for parents to set up chores, send allowance, and monitor the pro­le of their children, which is a perfect all-in-one tool to help their children on demand. The solution described in this thesis, not only addresses the problems parents may encounter during the wealth management education process but provides chances and tools to engage children and their parents together in this education process. The solution of Piggy Pennies is a significant breakthrough by filling the gap where the market fails to provide a solution concentrating on parent-children collaboration and adapting both real entity and a virtual mobile application. The design of this solution maximized the achievement of educating children into wealth management

Embodiment of Concrete and Abstract Concepts:The Role of Gesture

The present thesis focuses on speakers’ gesture and aims to investigate the relationship between gesture and concrete and abstract concepts—within the embodied view of meaning. Chapter 2 clarifies the motivation and main research question of the current thesis, that is, to what extent the grounding of abstract concepts is similar to or different from that of concrete concepts. Chapter 3 illustrates how examining gestural patterns (i.e., gesture occurrence and gesture form) can provide valuable insights into the similarities and differences between the grounding of concrete and abstract concepts. Specifically, Chapter 3 reviews one particular theory—the Gesture as Simulated Action (GSA) framework, which is consistent with the EVoM, and which provides several predictions about gestural patterns in the process of thinking and speaking. Particularly relevant to the current thesis, three predictions about gestural patterns in relation to the similarities and differences between concrete/abstract concepts are summarized in Chapter 3. These predictions lay the foundations for the three empirical chapters (Chapter 5-7) in the current thesis. Furthermore, the final section of Chapter 3 argues for using a video corpus of relatively spontaneous talk in interaction to add a more ecological approach to examining real-world gesture use. Chapter 4 illustrates the establishment of the video corpus that was used for the empirical work in this thesis. It describes how the corpus was compiled and also contains details about the transcription of the data and initial annotations of speech and gesture. Based on 46 interviews from an American TV talk show—The Ellen DeGeneres Show—the corpus with 44,240 words provides a basis for the empirical studies conducted in Chapters 5-7. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the first and second predictions about gesture occurrence, and Chapter 7 is related to the third prediction, concerning gesture form. In addition to their focus on gesture occurrence and form, Chapters 5-7 specify concrete/abstract concepts from different perspectives: Chapter 5 from the perspective of concreteness ratings of words, Chapter 6 from the perspective of concrete and abstract semantic fields, and Chapter 7 from the perspective of literal and metaphorical meaning. Specifically, Chapter 5 focuses on the relationship between gesture occurrence, concreteness, and parts of speech. By examining how gesture occurrence differs across concreteness ratings and across parts of speech, this chapter aims to investigate whether gesture occurrence for concrete concepts (indicated by higher concreteness ratings of words) is similar to or different from that for abstract concepts (indicated by lower concreteness ratings of words). Results of the analysis show that gestures are more likely to co-occur with concrete concepts than with abstract concepts, especially for concepts that are expressed in the form of nouns and verbs. Chapter 6 examines the relationship between gesture occurrence and various semantic fields. This chapter zooms in on the fine-grained varieties of concrete and abstract concepts (indicated by words in specific semantic categories) that might have been overlooked in Chapter 5. The main finding shows that gestures are more likely to co-occur with concrete semantic fields than with abstract semantic fields. To complement Chapters 5 and 6 which examine gesture occurrence, Chapter 7 focuses on the form of gesture. This chapter also provides an additional perspective to investigating concrete and abstract concepts when they are indicated by the literal and metaphorical use of words. Specifically, Chapter 7 investigates how certain gesture forms interact with metaphoricity and verb types in the expression of motion. Results of the analysis reveal that gesture forms vary when describing literal vs. metaphorical motion, although the variation is mediated by the use of motion verb types