Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social tags for resource discovery: a comparison between machine learning and user-centric approaches

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of tags in facilitating resource discovery through machine learning and user-centric approaches. Drawing our dataset from a popular social tagging system, Delicious, we conducted six text categorization experiments using the top 100 frequently occurring tags. We also conducted a human evaluation experiment to manually evaluate the relevance of some 2000 documents related to these tags. The results from the text categorization experiments suggest that not all tags are useful for content discovery regardless of the tag weighting schemes. Moreover, there were cases where the evaluators did not perform as well as the classifiers, especially when there was a lack of cues in the documents for them to ascertain the relationship with the tag assigned. This paper discusses three implications arising from the findings and suggests a number of directions for further research.
A directional MAC protocol with the DATA-frame fragmentation and short busy advertisement signal for mitigating the directional hidden node problem

This paper proposes a MAC protocol for ad hoc networks with directional antennas for mitigating the directional hidden-node problem. In the proposed protocol, it is possible to tell the communication situation to the directional hidden node by using DATA-frame fragmentations and short busy advertisement signals. As a result, the frame collisions induced by the directional hidden nodes can be reduced and the network throughput is enhanced compared with the conventional protocol. Simulation results show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed protocol.
Children’s Physical Activity and On-Task Behavior Following Active Academic Lessons

ABSTRACT Sitting for extended periods of time is detrimental to children’s physical health and may cause off-task behavior in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a classroom physical activity (PA) program, TAKE 10! ®, on children’s PA and on-task behavior. Participants in the program included 137 children from six classes (third to fifth grades) in one ethnically diverse elementary school in the Southwestern United States. Classroom teachers implemented 10-minute bouts of active academic TAKE 10! ® lessons for 12 weeks (four weeks baseline and eight weeks intervention). PA was measured using pedometers and on-task behavior was measured using systematic observation in the classrooms. Children’s step counts increased significantly (p < 0.05) by 853 from baseline to end-intervention. There was also significant (p < 0.05) improvement in on-task behavior of 5.5%. Active academic lessons were effective in increasing children’s in-school PA and on-task behavior in the classroom.
What ’ s the Alternative ? : An Equivalence Approach to Balance and Placebo Tests ∗

The rise of design based inference has led to the expectation that scholars justify their research designs by testing the plausibility of their causal identification assumptions, often through balance and placebo tests. Yet some methodologists have severely criticized the current status quo of relying on hypothesis tests to assess balance on pre-treatment covariates and placebo outcomes because designs can “pass” traditional tests due solely to small sample size, thus conflating statistical insignificance with substantive insignificance. We show that these problems are due to the use of an inappropriate null hypothesis, which can result in the equating of non-significant differences with significant homogeneity. When the hypothesis test is correctly specified so that difference is the null and equivalence is the alternative, the problems afflicting traditional tests are alleviated. We leverage the statistical literature on tests of equivalence to provide an alternative framework for testing covariate and placebo balance. In addition to their superior statistical properties, we argue that equivalence tests are better able to incorporate substantive considerations about what constitutes good balance on covariates and placebo outcomes than traditional tests. To demonstrate these advantages, we apply equivalence tests to a recent natural experimental design that aims to show balance to validate the design. ∗Thanks to Jasjeet Sekhon and Philip Stark for their comments and encouragement and to Kosuke Imai’s Research Group for valuable feedback. †Department of Politics, Princeton University, ekhartman@princeton.edu. ‡Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dhidalgo@mit.edu
Stay or leave? The effects of communicative infidelity on relationship outcomes

Stay or Leave? The Effects of Communicative Infidelity on Relationship Outcomes Colleen C. Malachowski The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of communicative infidelity (CI) motives on relationship outcomes. CI motives include jealousy, vengefulness, sexual selfesteem, sexual depression, and sexual preoccupation, while outcomes included forgiveness, reparation, voice, exit, loyalty, and neglect responses. Additionally, this study tested the relationship of commitment and satisfaction to relational outcomes. Participants were 215 undergraduate students currently involved in a romantic relationship. Participants were instructed to answer questions measuring their commitment and satisfaction levels, as well as read and respond to a CI scenario. Results indicated that commitment is positively related to voice responses and negatively related to neglect responses, while satisfaction is negatively related to neglect responses. Results also revealed that commitment and satisfaction are negatively related to forgiveness by minimizing. Additionally, significant differences were found in the ways that men and women respond following the discovery of a partner’s transgression. Specifically, men reported reacting to the discovery of a partner’s CI with more exit and neglect responses and less voice responses than women. Finally, both sexes rated all CI motives as relatively unacceptable.
Simulation Based Performance Evaluation of Mobile, Ad hoc Network Routing Protocols

In this paper we evaluate several routing protocols for mobile, wireless, ad hoc networks via packet level simulations. The ad hoc networks are multi-hop wireless networks with dynamically changing network connectivity owing to mobility. In the protocol suite includes several routing protocols speciically designed for ad hoc routing, as well as more traditional protocols, such as link state and distance vector, used for dynamic networks. Performance is evaluated with respect to fraction of packets delivered, end-to-end delay and routing load for a given traac and mobility model. Both small (30 nodes) and medium sized (60 nodes) networks are used. It is observed that the new generation of on-demand routing protocols use much lower routing load, especially with small number of peer-to-peer conversations. However, the traditional link state and distance vector protocols provide, in general, better packet delivery and end-to-end delay performance.
BICP: Block-Incremental CP Decomposition with Update Sensitive Refinement

With many applications relying on multi-dimensional datasets for decision making, tensors (or multi-dimensional arrays) are emerging as a popular data representation to support diverse types of data, such as sensor streams and social networks. Consequently, tensor decomposition forms the basis for many data analysis and knowledge discovery tasks, from clustering, trend detection, anomaly detection, to correlation analysis. In applications where data evolves over time and the tensor-based analysis results need to be continuously maintained, re-computation of the whole tensor decomposition with each update will cause high computational costs and incur large memory overheads. In this paper, we propose a two-phase block-incremental CP-based tensor decomposition technique, BICP, that efficiently and effectively maintains tensor decomposition results in the presence of dynamically evolving tensor data. In its first phase, instead of repeatedly conducting ALS on each sub-tensor, BICP only revises the decompositions of the tensors that contain updated data. Moreover, when updates are relatively small with respect to the block size, BICP relies on a incremental factor tracking to avoid re-decomposition the updated sub-tensor. In its second phase, BICP limits the block-centric refinement process to only those blocks that are critical given the update. Experiment results show that the proposed method significantly reduces the execution time while assuring high accuracy.
Reinforcement Learning on Slow Features of High-Dimensional Input Streams

Humans and animals are able to learn complex behaviors based on a massive stream of sensory information from different modalities. Early animal studies have identified learning mechanisms that are based on reward and punishment such that animals tend to avoid actions that lead to punishment whereas rewarded actions are reinforced. However, most algorithms for reward-based learning are only applicable if the dimensionality of the state-space is sufficiently small or its structure is sufficiently simple. Therefore, the question arises how the problem of learning on high-dimensional data is solved in the brain. In this article, we propose a biologically plausible generic two-stage learning system that can directly be applied to raw high-dimensional input streams. The system is composed of a hierarchical slow feature analysis (SFA) network for preprocessing and a simple neural network on top that is trained based on rewards. We demonstrate by computer simulations that this generic architecture is able to learn quite demanding reinforcement learning tasks on high-dimensional visual input streams in a time that is comparable to the time needed when an explicit highly informative low-dimensional state-space representation is given instead of the high-dimensional visual input. The learning speed of the proposed architecture in a task similar to the Morris water maze task is comparable to that found in experimental studies with rats. This study thus supports the hypothesis that slowness learning is one important unsupervised learning principle utilized in the brain to form efficient state representations for behavioral learning.
Fully Integrated CMOS Power Amplifier With Efficiency Enhancement at Power Back-Off

This paper presents a new approach for power amplifier design using deep submicron CMOS technologies. A transformer based voltage combiner is proposed to combine power generated from several low-voltage CMOS amplifiers. Unlike other voltage combining transformers, the architecture presented in this paper provides greater flexibility to access and control the individual amplifiers in a voltage combined amplifier. In this work, this voltage combining transformer has been utilized to control output power and improve average efficiency at power back-off. This technique does not degrade instantaneous efficiency at peak power and maintains voltage gain with power back-off. A 1.2 V, 2.4 GHz fully integrated CMOS power amplifier prototype was implemented with thin-oxide transistors in a 0.13 mum RF-CMOS process to demonstrate the concept. Neither off-chip components nor bondwires are used for output matching. The power amplifier transmits 24 dBm power with 25% drain efficiency at 1 dB compression point. When driven into saturation, it transmits 27 dBm peak power with 32% drain efficiency. At power back-off, efficiency is greatly improved in the prototype which employs average efficiency enhancement circuitry.
Cholinergic top-down influences on the auditory brainstem

Abstract Descending connections are present in many sensory systems and support adaptive information processing. This allows the sensory brain to code a wider range of inputs. A well characterized descending system is the olivo-cochlear cholinergic innervation of the inner ear, which mediates a reduction of the sensitivity of the inner ear upon perception of intense sounds. Because this inhibits the response to background noise, the olivo-cochlear system supports detection of transient sound events. Olivo-cochlear neurons also innervate the cochlear nucleus through axon collaterals. Here, acetylcholine increases the excitability of central neurons without reducing their temporal precision. Thus their target neurons in the superior olivary complex can more effectively process binaural temporal cues. We argue that the central effect of the olivo-cochlear system augments the peripheral effect. In addition, olivo-cochlear cholinergic neurons are under top-down control of cortical inputs, providing further adaptability of information processing on the level of the auditory brainstem.
Outbreak of multi-resistant Klebsiella oxytoca involving strains with extended-spectrum beta-lactamases and strains with extended-spectrum activity of the chromosomal beta-lactamase.

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to analyse broad-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Klebsiella oxytoca strains. METHODS The 57 isolates studied were recovered from clinical specimens (n=23) or from rectal swabs (n=34) during a 26-month period. Antibiotic susceptibility patterns were determined using standard agar diffusion and dilution methods including the synergy test between extended-spectrum cephalosporins and clavulanic acid. ERIC-2 PCR and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) methods were used to study the clonal relatedness of the strains. Plasmid-mediated and chromosomal beta-lactamases were characterized by mating and specific bla gene amplification and sequencing. RESULTS Four different antibiotic resistance patterns were identified whereas ERIC-2 PCR and PFGE revealed six main profiles. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) were found in 32 strains: TEM-7 (n=26), TEM-129 (n=1), TEM-3 (n=4), SHV-2 (n=1). The new TEM-type beta-lactamase, TEM-129, differed from TEM-7 by one mutation (Glu-104-->Lys). All TEM-7 or TEM-129 producers were genetically related. Twenty-five other strains with identical ERIC-2 PCR and PFGE profiles harboured a bla(OXY-2) gene different from the reference gene: 24 strains displayed one substitution (Ala-237-->Ser) in the KTG motif and one strain, highly resistant to ceftazidime, showed an additional substitution (Pro-167-->Ser). CONCLUSIONS The study demonstrated that the majority of strains (n=52) harbouring the OXY-2-type beta-lactamase corresponded to two clones. The first clone (n=27) corresponded to ESBL-producing strains. The second clone (n=25) displayed extended-spectrum activity of the chromosomal beta-lactamase.
Integration of Basic Controversies in Cross-cultural Psychology

This article discusses controversies in the field of cross-cultural psychology, including cultural psychology, with a view to possible integration.1 It briefly describes the indigenisation movement as a reaction against Western scientific ethnocentrism and mentions two methodological topics, that is, lack of equivalence of cross-cultural data and issues with culture-comparative studies designed as experiments. Later in the article, major conceptual contrast in cross-cultural psychology such as the dichotomy of universalism and cultural relativism are addressed. The article also addresses the major empirical dichotomy of individualism and collectivism and its extension in cultural neuroscience research. Some examples of applied cross-cultural psychology are given that show how interventions can be adapted for other societies as where they were developed even when dichotomies prevalent in academic research have not been resolved.
Self-Serving Altruism? When Unethical Actions That Benefit Others Do Not Trigger Guilt

In three experiments, we examine whether individuals cheat more when other individuals can benefit from their cheating (they do) and when the number of beneficiaries of wrongdoing is larger (they do). Our results indicate that people use moral flexibility in justifying their selfinterested actions when such actions benefit others in addition to the self. Namely, our findings suggest that when others can benefit from one’s dishonesty people consider larger dishonesty as morally acceptable and thus can benefit from their cheating and simultaneously feel less guilty about it. We discuss the implications of these results for collaborations in the social realm.
Fibonacci numbers and Fermat's last theorem

numbers. As applications we obtain a new formula for the Fibonacci quotient Fp−( 5 p )/p and a criterion for the relation p |F(p−1)/4 (if p ≡ 1 (mod 4)), where p 6= 5 is an odd prime. We also prove that the affirmative answer to Wall’s question implies the first case of FLT (Fermat’s last theorem); from this it follows that the first case of FLT holds for those exponents which are (odd) Fibonacci primes or Lucas primes.
Enzymatic Kinetic Properties of the Lactate Dehydrogenase Isoenzyme C4 of the Plateau Pika (Ochotona curzoniae)

Testis-specific lactate dehydrogenase (LDH-C4) is one of the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isozymes that catalyze the terminal reaction of pyruvate to lactate in the glycolytic pathway. LDH-C4 in mammals was previously thought to be expressed only in spermatozoa and testis and not in other tissues. Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) belongs to the genus Ochotona of the Ochotonidea family. It is a hypoxia-tolerant species living in remote mountain areas at altitudes of 3000–5000 m above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Surprisingly, Ldh-c is expressed not only in its testis and sperm, but also in somatic tissues of plateau pika. To shed light on the function of LDH-C4 in somatic cells, Ldh-a, Ldh-b, and Ldh-c of plateau pika were subcloned into bacterial expression vectors. The pure enzymes of Lactate Dehydrogenase A4 (LDH-A4), Lactate Dehydrogenase B4 (LDH-B4), and LDH-C4 were prepared by a series of expression and purification processes, and the three enzymes were identified by the method of sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). The enzymatic kinetics properties of these enzymes were studied by Lineweaver-Burk double-reciprocal plots. The results showed the Michaelis constant (Km) of LDH-C4 for pyruvate and lactate was 0.052 and 4.934 mmol/L, respectively, with an approximate 90 times higher affinity of LDH-C4 for pyruvate than for lactate. At relatively high concentrations of lactate, the inhibition constant (Ki) of the LDH isoenzymes varied: LDH-A4 (Ki = 26.900 mmol/L), LDH-B4 (Ki = 23.800 mmol/L), and LDH-C4 (Ki = 65.500 mmol/L). These data suggest that inhibition of lactate by LDH-A4 and LDH-B4 were stronger than LDH-C4. In light of the enzymatic kinetics properties, we suggest that the plateau pika can reduce reliance on oxygen supply and enhance its adaptation to the hypoxic environments due to increased anaerobic glycolysis by LDH-C4.
PARALLEL IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION METAHEURISTIC WITH OPENMP

This paper presents a parallel implementation of an ant colony optimization metaheuristic for the solution of an industrial scheduling problem in an aluminum casting center. The usefulness and efficiency of the algorithm, in its sequential form, to solve that particular optimization problem has already been shown in previous work. However, even if this method, as well as metaheuristics in general, offers good quality of solution, it still needs considerable computational time and resources. Moreover, the structure of the algorithm makes it well suited for parallelization, so a considerable improvement can be achieved that way. In this paper an efficient and straightforward OpenMP implementation on a shared memory architecture is presented and the main algorithmic and programming issues that had to be adressed are discussed. The code is written in C and the application has been executed on a Silicon Graphics Origin2000 parallel machine.
A molecular-inspired approach for predicting topology change in directional mobile wireless networks

The control of topologies and the management of mobility can enable assured end-to-end connectivity and coverage in next generation mobile wireless networks. Previously we have investigated how analogies from physics and biology aid in control and prediction in backbones in hierarchical heterogeneous wireless networks (HHWNs). In this molecular-inspired approach, we employ molecular-based systems to investigate the prediction of link degradation leading to a self-diagnosing ability within the network in the subsequent evolutions of its (re)configuration or topology. By modeling the network as a set of convex (connected) and non-convex (non-connected) springs the network entity can be thought of as a giant molecule. The analysis of the network evolution will follow molecular dynamics and the contribution of each backbone node's movement can be defined as a consequence (positive or negative) on the overall health of the network and its available connectivity. The preliminary results show promise towards the assessment of link degradation and network evolution as it relates to end-to-end broadband connectivity (topology).
Efficacy and Safety of Adding Clopidogrel to Aspirin on Stroke Prevention among High Vascular Risk Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objectives Whether clopidogrel should be added to aspirin for stroke prevention remained controversial for the risk of hemorrhagic complications. This meta-analysis was aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of adding clopidogrel to aspirin on stroke prevention in high vascular risk patients, and to provide evidence for a suitable duration of dual antiplatelet therapy. Methods We searched PubMed, EMBase, OVID and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (up to June, 2013) for randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of clopidogrel plus aspirin versus aspirin alone in high vascular risk patients. Comparisons of stroke and hemorrhagic complications between treatment groups were expressed by the pooled Relative Risks (RRs) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs). Results Fifteen trials with a total of 97692 intention-to-treat participants were included with duration of follow-up ranging from 7 days to 3.6 years. Dual antiplatelet therapy reduced all stroke by 21% (RR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.73–0.85) with no evidence of heterogeneity across the trials (P = 0.27, I 2 = 17%). The effects were consistent between short-term subgroup (≤1 month, RR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.67–0.85) and long-term subgroup (≥3 months, RR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.73–0.89). The risk of major bleeding was not significantly increased by dual antiplatelet therapy in short-term subgroup (RR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.91–1.36), while significantly increased in long-term subgroup (RR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.36–1.69). Long-term dual antiplatelet therapy substantially increased the risk of intracranial bleeding (RR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.22–2.54). Conclusions This meta-analysis demonstrates that short-term combination of clopidogrel and aspirin is effective and safe for stroke prevention in high vascular risk patients. Long-term combination therapy substantially increases the risk of major bleeding and intracranial bleeding.
Numerical method for optimal stopping of piecewise deterministic Markov processes

We propose a numerical method to approximate the value function for the optimal stopping problem of a piecewise deterministic Markov process (PDMP). Our approach is based on quantization of the post jump location -- inter-arrival time Markov chain naturally embedded in the PDMP, and path-adapted time discretization grids. It allows us to derive bounds for the convergence rate of the algorithm and to provide a computable epsilon-optimal stopping time. The paper is illustrated by a numerical example.