Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for University

Due to technological evolution, improved infrastructure, and decreasing prices, people are traveling more frequently and to more distant destinations. Travelers seek new places with diverse cultures, often preferring those vastly different from their own. They crave novel experiences and emotions, from exploring unique monuments unlike those in their home country to savoring unimaginable new flavors.

This trend of visiting new countries has evolved into a pursuit of exotic activities, moving beyond conventional tourism.

The Rise of Unconventional Travel Experiences

Today, the tourism industry offers a diverse array of options beyond the ordinary. Let's explore five distinct types of unconventional tourism.

Five Types of Niche Tourism

War Tourism:

SkinnerDB: Regret-Bounded Query Evaluation via Reinforcement Learning

INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM DEFINITION:

The work is on query optimization, more specifically: SkinnerDB focuses on finding the optimal Join Order. Because it has the most impact in practice.

SkinnerDB aims to get expected near optimal results without needing any a-priori information. It does not make strong assumptions either.

CONTRIBUTIONS:

• Introduced a new quality criterion for query evaluation strategies that compares expected and optimal execution cost.
• Proposed several adaptive execution strategies based on reinforcement learning.
• Formally proved correctness and regret bounds for those execution strategies.
• Experimental comparisations of those strategies, implemented in SkinnerDB,

Acid Rain: Concurrency-Related Attacks in Database-Backed Web Applications

Motivation:

• 12 popular self-hosted e-commerce applications (deployed over 2M websites, representing over 50% of all e-commerce websites)
• 22 critical ACIDRain attacks identified and verified
• Flexcoin -> Bankrupted

Problem Definition:

An application is vulnerable if:

• Anomalies Possible: Under concurrent API access, the application may exhibit behaviors (i.e., anomalies) that could not have arisen under serial execution.
• Sensitive Invariants: The anomalies arising from concurrent access lead to violations of application invariants.

Solution:

• Execute API calls against a live application and database to generate a (possibly sequential) trace of database activity.
• Analyze the trace

Global Biosensors Market Dynamics

Driven by the need for better methods for environmental monitoring and rapid pathogen detection, the biosensors industry has been expanding rapidly. This expansion encompasses non-clinical applications such as biodefense, environmental surveillance, and the food industry.

This is a diversified and competitive market with a large number of players. The Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostics market currently holds the largest presence among all end-user segments of biosensors.

Key Market Players

• Roche Diagnostics Limited (U.K.)
• Alere Inc. (U.S.)
• Siemens Healthcare (Germany)
• Beckman Coulter, Inc. (U.S.)

Market Segmentation by Product

• Wearable Biosensors:
  • Wrist wear
  • Eye wear
  • Foot wear
  • Neck wear
  • Body wear
  • Others (ingestible and smart

Paper-Based Biosensors

Immunosensors

Immunosensors are affinity ligand-based biosensor solid-state devices in which the immunochemical reaction is coupled to a transducer. The fundamental basis of all immunosensors is the specificity of the molecular recognition of antigens by antibodies to form a stable complex.

Paper-Based ELISA

There are different techniques for the design and development of immunoassays. For instance, combining ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) and patterned paper provides a beneficial protocol for performing immunoassays.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Paper-Based ELISA

Paper-based ELISA offers three principal advantages over conventional ELISA performed in plastic 96-well plates:

• More rapid detection.
• Requires only small

Key Properties of Proteins

• Their molecular weight ranges from 1,000 to several hundred thousand.
• Generally water-soluble, with the exception of hydrophilic membrane proteins.
• Absorb light in the UV range, with maximum absorption at 280nm due to the presence of aromatic amino acids.
• Have a specific isoelectric pH (pI). Positively charged below pI, negatively charged above pI.
• Proteins are charged, which depends on the buffer.
• Move under the electric charge and can be separated by electrophoresis.
• Give a color reaction with reagents, such as a blue color with ninhydrin.

Classification of Proteins

Basis of Structure

1. Globular: All enzymes and intracellular proteins are globular, such as myoglobin and hemoglobin.
2. Fibrous: Mostly extracellular, such as collagen.

Understanding Semantic Roles

Unit 6

Understanding Wealth Taxation

A wealth tax is a tax periodically levied on an individuals' net value of assets.

Definition and Scope

These assets, for example, include:

• Bank deposits
• Savings
• Real estate
• Luxury items (art, jewelry, airplanes, etc.)
• Personal trusts

Liabilities like mortgages, loans, or other debt are deducted from a person's wealth.

Global Implementation

Current Adopters

Currently, three countries have a wealth tax implemented in their tax systems:

• Norway
• Spain
• Switzerland

Tax characteristics vary from country to country and sometimes even within a country.

Specific Cases

Belgium recently implemented a form of wealth tax that, unlike in other countries, only includes financial instruments held in an individual's securities accounts.

France abolished... Continue reading "Wealth Taxation Explained" »

Approaches to Co-Teaching

Station Teaching

Students choose a preference or style for learning. Station teaching provides opportunities to work on new concepts in small groups and to review previously taught lessons.

1. One teacher teaches half the content to half of the students while the other teaches the other half of the students.
2. Groups switch and each teacher repeats their part of the lesson.
3. Form a third group of "learning buddies" who tutor each other.

Parallel Teaching

Each teacher instructs half of the class separately. Teachers utilize various learning modalities. Students choose a preference or style for learning.

Alternative Teaching

The class is divided into one large and one small group. Prepares students who struggle to learn to have a "... Continue reading "Effective Co-Teaching Strategies for Inclusive Classrooms" »