LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
AI for Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Games

Video Games are boring when they are too easy and frustrating when they are too hard. While most singleplayer games allow players to adjust basic difficulty (easy, medium, hard, insane), their overall level of challenge is often static in the face of individual player input. This lack of flexibility can lead to mismatches between player ability and overall game difficulty. In this paper, we explore the computational and design requirements for a dynamic difficulty adjustment system. We present a probabilistic method (drawn predominantly from Inventory Theory) for representing and reasoning about uncertainty in games. We describe the implementation of these techniques, and discuss how the resulting system can be applied to create flexible interactive experiences that adjust on the fly. Introduction Video games are designed to generate engaging experiences: suspenseful horrors, whimsical amusements, fantastic adventures. But unlike films, books, or televised media  which often have similar experiential goals  video games are interactive. Players create meaning by interacting with the games internal systems. One such system is inventory  the stock of items that a player collects and carries throughout the game world. The relative abundance or scarcity of inventory items has a direct impact on the players experience. As such, games are explicitly designed to manipulate the exchange of resources between world and player. [Simpson, 2001] This network of producer-consumer relationships can be viewed as an economy  or more broadly, as a dynamic system [Castronova, 2000, Luenberger, 79]. 1 Inventory items for first-person shooters include health, weapons, ammunition and power-ups like shielding or temporary invincibility. 2 A surplus of ammunition affords experimentation and shoot first tactics, while limited access to recovery items (like health packs) will promote a more cautious approach to threatening situations. Game developers iteratively refine these systems based on play testing feedback  tweaking behaviors and settings until the game is balanced. While balancing, they often analyze systems intuitively by tracking specific identifiable patterns or types of dynamic activity. It is a difficult and time consuming process [Rollings and Adams, 2003]. While game balancing and tuning cant be automated, directed mathematical analysis can reveal deeper structures and relationships within a game system. With the right tools, researchers and developers can calculate relationships in less time, with greater accuracy. In this paper, we describe a first step towards such tools. Hamlet is a Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) system built using Valves Half Life game engine. Using techniques drawn from Inventory Theory and Operations Research, Hamlet analyzes and adjust the supply and demand of game inventory in order to control overall game difficulty.
Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure (PRISM): A novel visual instrument to measure quality of life in dermatological inpatients.

OBJECTIVES
To validate the PRISM (Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure) tool, a novel visual instrument, for the assessment of health-related quality of life in dermatological inpatients compared with the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the Skindex-29 questionnaires and to report qualitative information on PRISM.


DESIGN
In an open longitudinal study, PRISM and Skindex-29 and DLQI questionnaires were completed and HRQOL measurements compared.


SETTING
Academic dermatological inpatient ward.


PARTICIPANTS
The study population comprised 227 sequential dermatological inpatients on admission.


INTERVENTION
Patients completed the PRISM tool and the Skindex-29 and DLQI questionnaires at admission and discharge.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
PRISM Self-Illness Separation (SIS) score; Skindex-29 and DLQI scores; and qualitative PRISM information by Mayring inductive qualitative context analysis.


RESULTS
The PRISM scores correlated well with those from the Skindex-29 (rho = 0.426; P < .001) and DLQI (rho = 0.304; P < .001) questionnaires. Between PRISM and Skindex-29 scores, the highest correlations were for dermatitis (rho = 0.614) and leg ulcer (rho = 0.554), and between PRISM and DLQI scores, the highest correlations were for psoriasis (rho = 0.418) and tumor (rho = 0.399). The PRISM tool showed comparable or higher sensitivity than quality of life questionnaires to assess changes in the burden of suffering during hospitalization. Inductive qualitative context analysis revealed impairment of adjustment and self-image as major aspects. Patients overall expected symptomatic and functional improvement. In patients with psoriasis and leg ulcers, many expected no treatment benefit.


CONCLUSIONS
The PRISM tool proved to be convenient and reliable for health-related quality of life assessment, applicable for a wide range of skin diseases, and correlated with DLQI and Skindex-29 scores. With the PRISM tool, free-text answers allow for the assessment of individual information and potentially customized therapeutic approaches.
Quadcopter – Obstacle Detection and Collision Avoidance

A simple approach for obstacle detection and collision avoidance of an autonomous flying quadcopter using low-cost ultrasonic sensors and simple data fusion is presented here. The approach has been implemented and tested in a self-developed quadcopter and its evaluation shows the general realizability as well as the drawbacks of this approach. In this paper, we propose a complete MICRO-UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (MUAV) platform including hardware setup and processing pipeline-that is able to perceive obstacles in (almost) all directions in its surrounding. In this paper, we propose a complete micro aerial vehicle platform—including hardware setup and processing pipeline—that is able to perceive obstacles in (almost) all directions in its surrounding. Quadcopter is equipped with ultrasonic sensor. All signals from sensors are processed by Arduino microcontroller board. [5] Output from Arduino microcontroller board used to control Quadcopter propellers. [5] Keywords— Obstacle Detection, Collision Avoidance, PID controller programming, components.
Adjuvant high-dose medroxyprogesterone acetate for early breast cancer: 13 years update in a multicentre randomized trial

The authors updated their report on a randomized trial initiated in 1982 comparing, in early breast cancer, high-dose IM Medroxyprogesterone acetate (HD-MPA) adjuvant hormonotherapy during 6 months with no hormonotherapy; node-positive patients also received 6 courses of IV CMF (day 1, day 8; q.4 weeks). 246 node-negative (NN) and 270 node-positive (NP) patients had been followed for a median duration of 13 years. Previous results were confirmed in this analysis on mature data. In NN patients, relapse-free survival (RFS) was improved in the adjuvant hormonotherapy arm, regardless of age while overall survival (OAS) was also increased in younger (less then 50 years) patients. In the whole group of NP patients, no difference was seen regarding RFS or OAS. However, an age-dependant opposite effect was observed: younger patients (< 50) experienced a worse and significant outcome of relapse-free and overall survivals when receiving adjuvant HD-MPA while older patients (> = 50) enjoyed a significant improvement of their relapse-free survival. For both NN and NP patients, differences in overall survivals observed in older women with a shorter follow-up, were no longer detected. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com
Ad Exchanges: Research Issues

An emerging way to sell and buy display ads on the Internet is via ad exchanges. RightMedia [1], AdECN [2] and DoubleClick Ad Exchange [3] are examples of such real-time two-sided markets. We describe an abstraction of ad exchanges. Based on that abstraction, we present several research directions and discuss some insights.
Blob Analysis of the Head and Hands: A Method for Deception Detection

Behavioral indicators of deception and behavioral state are extremely difficult for humans to analyze. Blob analysis, a method for analyzing the movement of the head and hands based on the identification of skin color is presented. This method is validated with numerous skin tones. A proof-of-concept study is presented that uses blob analysis to explore behavioral state identification in the detection of deception.
Collusion Detection and Prevention with FIRE+ Trust and Reputation Model

Recently many decentralized methods for trust management have been proposed. FIRE trust and reputation model presents a modular approach to trust and reputation from different information sources, according to availability, interaction trust, role-based trust, witness reputation, and certified reputation. However, FIRE model does not consider malicious activity and possible collusive behavior in the network nodes and is therefore susceptible to collusion attacks. In this paper we present a trust management approach to detecting collusion in direct and witness interactions among nodes based on history of interactions among nodes. Various interaction policies are defined to detect and prevent collaborative behavior in colluding nodes. Finally a multidimensional trust model FIRE+ is proposed for avoiding collusion attacks in direct and witness based interactions.
Skill-based Exception Handling and Error Recovery for Collaborative Industrial Robots

Gualzru’s path to the Advertisement World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Fernando Fernández, Moisés Mart́ınez, Ismael Garćıa-Varea, Jesús Mart́ınez-Gómez, Jose Pérez-Lorenzo, Raquel Viciana, Pablo Bustos, Luis J. Manso, Luis Calderita, Marco Antonio Gutiérrez Giraldo, Pedro Núñez, Antonio Bandera, Adrián Romero-Garcés, Juan Bandera and Rebeca Marfil
Novel air blowing control for balancing a unicycle robot

This paper presents the implementation of a novel control method of using air for balancing the roll angle of a unicycle robot. The unicycle robot is designed and built. The roll angle of the unicycle robot is controlled by blowing air while the pitch angle is also controlled by DC motors. Successful balancing performances are demonstrated.
Small Universal families of graphs on ℵω+ 1

We prove that it is consistent that אω is strong limit, 2אω is large and the universality number for graphs on אω+1 is small. The proof uses Prikry forcing with interleaved collapsing.
Contamination by arsenic and other trace elements of tube-well water along the Mekong River in Lao PDR.

Arsenic and other trace element concentrations were determined for tube-well water collected in the Lao PDR provinces of Attapeu, Bolikhamxai, Champasak, Savannakhet, Saravane, and Vientiane. Water samples, especially from floodplain areas of central and southern Laos, were significantly contaminated not only with As, but with B, Ba, Mn, U, and Fe as well. Total As concentrations ranged from <0.5 μg L(-1) to 278 μg L(-1), with over half exceeding the WHO guideline of 10 μg L(-1). 46% of samples, notably, were dominated by As(III). Samples from Vientiane, further north, were all acceptable except on pH, which was below drinking water limits. A principal component analysis found associations between general water characteristics, As, and other trace elements. Causes of elevated As concentrations in Lao tube wells were considered similar to those in other Mekong River countries, particularly Cambodia and Vietnam, where young alluvial aquifers give rise to reducing conditions.
Social Support and Health: A Review of Physiological Processes Potentially Underlying Links to Disease Outcomes

Social support has been reliably related to lower rates of morbidity and mortality. An important issue concerns the physiological mechanisms by which support influences such health endpoints. In this review, I examine evidence linking social support to changes in cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune function. Consistent with epidemiological evidence, social support appears to be related to more positive “biological profiles” across these disease-relevant systems. Recent research on immune-mediated inflammatory processes is also starting to provide data on more integrative physiological mechanisms potentially linking social support to health. The implications of these links, along with future research directions are discussed.
Model-based matching and hinting of fonts

In today's digital computers, phototypesetters and printers, typographic fonts are mainly given by their outline descriptions. Outline descriptions alone do not provide any information about character parts like stems serifs, shoulders, and bowls. But, in order to produce the best looking characters at a given size on a specific printer, non-linear operations must be applied to parts of the character shape. At low-resolution, grid-fitting of character outlines is required for generating nice and regular raster characters. For this reason, grid-fitting rules called hints are added to the character description. Grid-fitting rules require as parameters certain characteristic points within the shape outlines. In order to be able to detect these characteristic points in any given input font, a topological model representing the essence of the shapes found in typographic latin typefaces is proposed. This model includes sufficient information for matching existing non-fancy outline fonts to the model description. For automatic hint generation, a table of applicable hints is added into the topological model description. After matching a given input shape to the model, hints which can be applied to the shape of the given font are taken and added to its outline description. Furthermore, a structural description of individual letter shape parts using characteristic model points can be added to the model. Such a description provides knowledge about typographic structure elements like stems, serifs and bowls.
Generating Images from Captions with Attention

Motivated by the recent progress in generative models, we introduce a model that generates images from natural language descriptions. The proposed model iteratively draws patches on a canvas, while attending to the relevant words in the description. After training on MS COCO, we compare our models with several baseline generative models on image generation and retrieval tasks. We demonstrate our model produces higher quality samples than other approaches and generates images with novel scene compositions corresponding to previously unseen captions in the dataset. For more details, visit http://arxiv.org/abs/ 1511.02793.
Duality of Hardy and BMO spaces associated with operators with heat kernel bounds

The introduction and development of Hardy and BMO spaces on Euclidean spaces R in the 1960s and 1970s played an important role in modern harmonic analysis and applications in partial differential equations. These spaces were studied extensively in [32], [22], [18], [19], [31] and many others. An L function f on R is in the Hardy space H(R) if the area integral function of the Poisson integral e−t √ f satisfies
Non-pharmacological interventions for breathlessness in advanced stages of malignant and non-malignant diseases.

BACKGROUND
Breathlessness is a common and distressing symptom in the advanced stages of malignant and non-malignant diseases. Appropriate management requires both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.


OBJECTIVES
The primary objective was to determine the effectiveness of non-pharmacological and non-invasive interventions to relieve breathlessness in participants suffering from the five most common conditions causing breathlessness in advanced disease.


SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the following databases: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, British Nursing Index, PsycINFO, Science Citation Index Expanded, AMED, The Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Trials Register, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness in June 2007. We also searched various websites and reference lists of relevant articles and textbooks.


SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomised controlled and controlled clinical trials assessing the effects of non-pharmacological and non-invasive interventions to relieve breathlessness in participants described as suffering from breathlessness due to advanced stages of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease, chronic heart failure or motor neurone disease.


DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently assessed relevant studies for inclusion. Data extraction and quality assessment was performed by three review authors and checked by two other review authors. Meta-analysis was not attempted due to heterogeneity of studies.


MAIN RESULTS
Forty-seven studies were included (2532 participants) and categorised as follows: single component interventions with subcategories of walking aids (n = 7), distractive auditory stimuli (music) (n = 6), chest wall vibration (CWV, n = 5), acupuncture/acupressure (n = 5), relaxation (n = 4), neuro-electrical muscle stimulation (NMES, n = 3) and fan (n = 2). Multi-component interventions were categorised in to counselling and support (n = 5), breathing training (n = 3), counselling and support with breathing-relaxation training (n = 2), case management (n = 2) and psychotherapy (n = 2). There was a high strength of evidence that NMES and CWV could relieve breathlessness and moderate strength for the use of walking aids and breathing training. There is a low strength of evidence that acupuncture/acupressure is helpful. There is not enough data to judge the evidence for distractive auditory stimuli (music), relaxation, fan, counselling and support, counselling and support with breathing-relaxation training, case management and psychotherapy. Most studies have been conducted in COPD patients, only a few studies included participants with other conditions.


AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Breathing training, walking aids, NMES and CWV appear to be effective non-pharmacological interventions for relieving breathlessness in advanced stages of disease.
Effect of insulin feedback on closed-loop glucose control: a crossover study.

BACKGROUND
Closed-loop (CL) insulin delivery systems utilizing proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers have demonstrated susceptibility to late postprandial hypoglycemia because of delays between insulin delivery and blood glucose (BG) response. An insulin feedback (IFB) modification to the PID algorithm has been introduced to mitigate this risk. We examined the effect of IFB on CL BG control.


METHODS
Using the Medtronic ePID CL system, four subjects were studied for 24 h on PID control and 24 h during a separate admission with the IFB modification (PID + IFB). Target glucose was 120 mg/dl; meals were served at 8:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 6:00 PM and were identical for both admissions. No premeal manual boluses were given. Reference BG excursions, defined as incremental glucose rise from premeal to peak, and postprandial BG area under the curve (AUC; 0-5 h) were compared. Results are reported as mean ± standard deviation.


RESULTS
The PID + IFB control resulted in higher mean BG levels compared with PID alone (153 ± 54 versus 133 ± 56 mg/dl; p < .0001). Postmeal BG excursions (114 ± 28 versus 114 ± 47 mg/dl) and AUCs (285 ± 102 versus 255 ± 129 mg/dl/h) were similar under both conditions. Total insulin delivery averaged 57 ± 20 U with PID versus 45 ± 13 U with PID + IFB (p = .18). Notably, eight hypoglycemic events (BG < 60 mg/dl) occurred during PID control versus none during PID + IFB.


CONCLUSIONS
Addition of IFB to the PID controller markedly reduced the occurrence of hypoglycemia without increasing meal-related glucose excursions. Higher average BG levels may be attributable to differences in the determination of system gain (Kp) in this study. The prevention of postprandial hypoglycemia suggests that the PID + IFB algorithm may allow for lower target glucose selection and improved overall glycemic control.
MMX-Accelerated Real-Time Hand Tracking System

We describe a system for tracking real-time hand gestures captured by a cheap web camera and a standard Intel Pentium based personal computer with no specialized image processing hardware. To attain the necessary processing speed, the system exploits the Multi-Media Instruction set (MMX) extensions of the Intel Pentium chip family through software including. the Microsoft DirectX SDK and the Intel Image Processing and Open Source Computer Vision (OpenCV) libraries. The system is based on the Camshift algorithm (from OpenCV) and the compound constantacceleration Kalman filter algorithms. Tracking is robust and efficient. and can tracks hand motion at 30 fps. Keyword: Real-Time, Camshift algorithm, Kalman filter, moment, HSV color, Gesture Recognition
Soft-tissue lesions: when can we exclude sarcoma?

OBJECTIVE
A wide spectrum of space-occupying soft-tissue lesions may be discovered on MRI studies, either as incidental findings or as palpable or symptomatic masses. Characterization of a lesion as benign or indeterminate is the most important step toward optimal treatment and avoidance of unnecessary biopsy or surgical intervention.


CONCLUSION
The systemic MRI interpretation approach presented in this article enables the identification of cases in which sarcoma can be excluded.
Longitudinal treatment mediation of traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety disorders.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the relationship between session-by-session putative mediators and treatment outcomes in traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for mixed anxiety disorders.


METHOD
Session-by-session changes in anxiety sensitivity and cognitive defusion were assessed in 67 adult outpatients randomized to CBT (n = 35) or ACT (n = 32) for a DSM-IV anxiety disorder.


RESULTS
Multilevel mediation analyses revealed significant changes in the proposed mediators during both treatments (p < .001, d = .90-1.93), with ACT showing borderline greater improvements than CBT in cognitive defusion (p = .05, d = .82). Anxiety sensitivity and cognitive defusion both significantly mediated post-treatment worry; cognitive defusion more strongly predicted worry reductions in CBT than in ACT. In addition, cognitive defusion significantly mediated quality of life, behavioral avoidance, and (secondary) depression outcomes across both CBT and ACT (p < .05, R(2) change = .06-.13), whereas anxiety sensitivity did not significantly mediate other outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
Cognitive defusion represents an important source of therapeutic change across both CBT and ACT. The data offered little evidence for substantially distinct treatment-related mediation pathways.
SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS: SPREADSHEET OR SIMULATION?

In the last few decades, a lot of company effort has been spent in the optimization of internal efficiency, aiming at cost reduction and competitiveness. Especially over the last decade, there has been a consensus that not only the company, but the whole supply chain in which it fits, is responsible for the success or failure of any business. Therefore, supply chain analysis tools and methodologies have become more and more important. From all tools, spreadsheets are by far the most widely used technique for scenario analysis. Other techniques such as optimization, simulation or both (simulation-optimization) are alternatives for in-depth analysis. While spreadsheet-based analysis is mainly a static-deterministic approach, simulation is a dynamic-stochastic tool. The purpose of this paper is to compare spreadsheet-based and simulation-based tools showing the impacts of using these two different approaches on the analysis of a real (yet simplified) supply chain case study.