Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skip N-grams and Ranking Functions for Predicting Script Events

In this paper, we extend current state-of-the-art research on unsupervised acquisition of scripts, that is, stereotypical and frequently observed sequences of events. We design, evaluate and compare different methods for constructing models for script event prediction: given a partial chain of events in a script, predict other events that are likely to belong to the script. Our work aims to answer key questions about how best to (1) identify representative event chains from a source text, (2) gather statistics from the event chains, and (3) choose ranking functions for predicting new script events. We make several contributions, introducing skip-grams for collecting event statistics, designing improved methods for ranking event predictions, defining a more reliable evaluation metric for measuring predictiveness, and providing a systematic analysis of the various event prediction models.
Low Paraoxonase Activity Predicts Coronary Events in the Caerphilly Prospective Study

Background—The hypothesis that paraoxonase (PON1) has a role in preventing atherosclerosis is based on experimental, transgenic, and case-control studies but has not previously been tested prospectively. Methods and Results—The Caerphilly Prospective Study is a cohort study of men aged 49 to 65 years observed for coronary heart disease (CHD) events (fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction) over a mean period of 15 years. Serum PON1 activity toward paraoxon was measured in 1353 participants. PON1 activity was 20% lower in the 163 men who had a coronary event (P =0.039). Men in the highest quintile of PON1 activity had a decreased risk compared with those in the lowest quintile (OR 0.57 [95% CI, 0.33 to 0.96]). The inverse relationship between quintiles of serum PON1 activity and CHD risk was graded, the median change in OR across each quintile being 0.87 (0.77 to 0.98). After adjustment for all other CHD risk factors, including HDL cholesterol, this median value became 0.90 (0.78 to 1.02). PON1 was most predictive of a new CHD event in patients at highest risk by virtue of preexisting CHD (adjusted median OR for each quintile, 0.74 [0.59 to 0.93]; n=313) or the presence of other risk factors. For the highest tertile of CHD risk (n=390) calculated by the Framingham equation, adjusted median OR for each quintile was 0.84 (0.66 to 1.05); n=390. Conclusions—Low serum PON1 activity toward paraoxon is an independent risk factor for coronary events in men at high risk because of preexisting disease or other CHD risk factors.
Malicious KGC attacks in certificateless cryptography

Identity-based cryptosystems have an inherent key escrow issue, that is, the Key Generation Center (KGC) always knows user secret key. If the KGC is malicious, it can always impersonate the user. Certificateless cryptography, introduced by Al-Riyami and Paterson in 2003, is intended to solve this problem. However, in all the previously proposed certificateless schemes, it is always assumed that the malicious KGC starts launching attacks (so-called Type II attacks) only after it has generated a master public/secret key pair honestly. In this paper, we propose new security models that remove this assumption for both certificateless signature and encryption schemes. Under the new models, we show that a class of certificateless encryption and signature schemes proposed previously are insecure. These schemes still suffer from the key escrow problem. On the other side, we also give new proofs to show that there are two generic constructions, one for certificateless signature and the other for certificateless encryption, proposed recently that are secure under our new models.
Bridging the Gap between Performance and Bounds of Cholesky Factorization on Heterogeneous Platforms

We consider the problem of allocating and scheduling dense linear application on fully heterogeneous platforms made of CPUs and GPUs. More specifically, we focus on the Cholesky factorization since it exhibits the main features of such problems. Indeed, the relative performance of CPU and GPU highly depends on the sub-routine: GPUs are for instance much more efficient to process regular kernels such as matrix-matrix multiplications rather than more irregular kernels such as matrix factorization. In this context, one solution consists in relying on dynamic scheduling and resource allocation mechanisms such as the ones provided by PaRSEC or StarPU. In this paper we analyze the performance of dynamic schedulers based on both actual executions and simulations, and we investigate how adding static rules based on an offline analysis of the problem to their decision process can indeed improve their performance, up to reaching some improved theoretical performance bounds which we introduce.
Auditory Cortex Responses to Clicks and Sensory Modulation Difficulties in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Auditory sensory modulation difficulties are common in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and may stem from a faulty arousal system that compromises the ability to regulate an optimal response. To study neurophysiological correlates of the sensory modulation difficulties, we recorded magnetic field responses to clicks in 14 ASD and 15 typically developing (TD) children. We further analyzed the P100m, which is the most prominent component of the auditory magnetic field response in children and may reflect preattentive arousal processes. The P100m was rightward lateralized in the TD, but not in the ASD children, who showed a tendency toward P100m reduction in the right hemisphere (RH). The atypical P100m lateralization in the ASD subjects was associated with greater severity of sensory abnormalities assessed by Short Sensory Profile, as well as with auditory hypersensitivity during the first two years of life. The absence of right-hemispheric predominance of the P100m and a tendency for its right-hemispheric reduction in the ASD children suggests disturbance of the RH ascending reticular brainstem pathways and/or their thalamic and cortical projections, which in turn may contribute to abnormal arousal and attention. The correlation of sensory abnormalities with atypical, more leftward, P100m lateralization suggests that reduced preattentive processing in the right hemisphere and/or its shift to the left hemisphere may contribute to abnormal sensory behavior in ASD.
Effect of sampling rate and monitoring granularity on anomaly detectability

In this paper, we quantitatively evaluate how sampling decreases the detectability of anomalous traffic. We build equations to calculate the false positive ratio (FPR) and false negative ratio (FNR) for given values of the sampling rate, statistics of normal traffic, and volume of anomalies to be detected. We show that by changing the measurement granularity, we can detect anomalies even with a low sampling rate and give the equation to derive optimal granularity by using the relationship between the mean and variance of aggregated flows. With those equations, we can answer for the practical questions that arise in actual network operations; what sampling rate to set in order to find the given volume of anomaly, or, if the sampling is too high for actual operation, then what granularity is optimal to find the anomaly for a given lower limit of sampling rate.
Eye movement efficiency in normal and reading disabled elementary school children: effects of varying luminance and wavelength.

BACKGROUND This investigation examines the question of whether decreasing wavelength of light and/or reducing luminance benefits oculomotor efficiency in normal and reading disabled (RD) children. METHODS Two groups of children were identified as normal or disabled readers using standardized reading tests. After suitable practice, eye movements were objectively measured with the Visagraph II as each of the subjects silently read a series of three different selections at their independent reading level with clear (control), gray, and blue filters. Four variables were measured for each subject. Data were analyzed using a repeated measure ANOVA and post hoc tests. RESULTS The standardized reading tests significantly differentiated average from poor readers using grade scores and percentiles. Initially, with clear filters, eye movement scores of normal readers were superior to disabled readers for fixations regressions, and rate of reading. Among the RDs--but not the normals--the three variables improved with the blue filter when compared with the clear filter, number of fixations and regressions were significantly lower, and rate was significantly higher. Gray filters yielded no significant changes. Improvement with the blue filters normalized the three variables in that there were no significant differences between normal and disabled readers. CONCLUSION This investigation confirms a link between wavelength of light and eye movement efficiency in reading. Blue filters resulted in a significant improvement in the number of fixations and regressions and rate of reading in RD children. The outcome broadens the concept of transient system deficit established in previous research to include the effect on oculomotor efficiency. The educational implications of this study are of special interest to optometrists.
Mobility-Aware Uplink Interference Model for 5G Heterogeneous Networks

To meet the surging demand for throughput, 5G cellular networks need to be more heterogeneous and much denser, by deploying more and more small cells. In particular, the number of users in each small cell can change dramatically due to users' mobility, resulting in random and time varying uplink interference. This paper considers the uplink interference in a 5G heterogeneous network, which is jointly covered by one macro cell and several small cells. Based on the Lévy flight moving model, a mobility-aware interference model is proposed to characterize the uplink interference from macro cell users to small cell users. In this model, the total uplink interference is characterized by its moment generating function, for both closed subscriber group (CSG) and open subscriber group (CSG) femto cells. In addition, the proposed interference model is a function of basic step length, which is a key velocity parameter of Lévy flights. It is shown by both theoretical analysis and simulation results that the proposed interference model provides a flexible way of evaluating the system performance in terms of success probability and average rate.
Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs on HIV/AIDS Among Tertiary Students in Papua New Guinea

This cross-sectional study among 1597 tertiary level students, 757 (48%) males and 832 (52%) females (9 respondents no mention of gender), from 12 institutions, across Papua New Guinea, examined their level of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about HIV/AIDS. The study revealed that the majority of the students have a very good knowledge of HIV/AIDS; in general students have a considerate and compassionate attitude towards those infected with HIV/AIDS; and the students have positive and healthy attitudes and beliefs regarding HIV/AIDS. Among the demographic variables of gender, province and the institution of their study a significant difference showed in their levels of knowledge and also a statistically significant association was found between beliefs and knowledge. Interestingly, about 58% of the students think that HIV/AIDS is a punishment from God. Almost half (46.5%) of the respondents think that learning about sex and the use of condoms could also encourage young people to engage in more frequent sex. Although, in general the students have a very good knowledge, they indicate the need for more sex education and awareness pro-grams about HIV/AIDS that could be given in high schools.
On the polynomial approximation

The polynomial approximation is a very important procedure in many applications. Exploiting the connection between wavelets and polynomials and the abilities of the Discrete Wavelet Transform, in this paper is proposed a new method for the accurate polynomial degree estimation of a function. Also, our interest is focused, on the polynomial description by the Bezier curves, where the set of parameters are reduced to an ensemble of control points Examples, containing applications of the proposed methods, are also presented.
Religious Identity and Smoking Behavior Among Adolescents: Evidence From Entering Students at the American University of Beirut

This survey investigation examines the association between religious identity and smoking behavior in a sample of older adolescents entering the university in Beirut, Lebanon. A culturally appropriate item of religiosity was developed for data collection. Results suggest that religious identity is inversely associated with regular smoking among male and female adolescents, after adjusting for sociodemographic, behavioral, personal, and environmental risk factors. The pattern of associations between weak religious identity, other risk factors, and smoking suggests that risk mechanisms may be gender-differentiated. Overall, findings suggest functional religiosity in late adolescence may assist in promoting the health and decreasing the morbidity of both men and women. Implications for future research are discussed.
Profiling-By-Association: a resilient traffic profiling solution for the internet backbone

Profiling Internet backbone traffic is becoming an increasingly hard problem since users and applications are avoiding detection using traffic obfuscation and encryption. The key question addressed here is: Is it possible to profile traffic at the backbone without relying on its packet and flow level information, which can be obfuscated? We propose a novel approach, called Profiling-By-Association (PBA), that uses only the IP-to-IP communication graph and information about some applications used by few IP-hosts (a.k.a. seeds). The key insight is that IP-hosts tend to communicate more frequently with hosts involved in the same application forming communities (or clusters). Profiling few members within a cluster can "give away" the whole community. Following our approach, we develop different algorithms to profile Internet traffic and evaluate them on real-traces from four large backbone networks. We show that PBA's accuracy is on average around 90% with knowledge of only 1% of all the hosts in a given data set and its runtime is on the order of minutes (≈ 5).
Characterization of dark-matter-induced anisotropies in the diffuse gamma-ray background

The Fermi-LAT collaboration has recently reported the detection of angular power above the photon noise level in the diffuse gamma-ray background between 1 and 50 GeV. Such signal can be used to constrain a possible contribution from dark matter (DM) induced photons. We estimate the intensity and features of the angular power spectrum (APS) of this potential DM signal, for both decaying and annihilating DM candidates, by constructing template all-sky gamma-ray maps for the emission produced in the galactic halo and its substructures, as well as in extragalactic (sub)haloes. The DM distribution is given by state-of-the-art N-body simulations of cosmic structure formation, namely Millennium-II for extragalactic (sub)haloes, and Aquarius for the galactic halo and its subhaloes. We use a hybrid method of extrapolation to account for (sub)structures that are below the resolution limit of the simulations, allowing us to estimate the total emission all the way down to the minimal self-bound halo mass. We describe in detail the features appearing in the APS of our template maps and we estimate the effect of various uncertainties such as the value of the minimal halo mass, the fraction of substructures hosted in a halo and the shape of the DM density profile. Our results indicate that the fluctuation APS of the DM-induced emission is of the same order as the Fermi-LAT APS, suggesting that one can constrain this hypothetical emission from the comparison with the measured anisotropy. We also quantify the uncertainties affecting our results, finding ‘theoretical error bands’ spanning more than two orders of magnitude and dominated (for a given particle physics model) by our lack of knowledge of the abundance of low-mass (sub)haloes.
Hormonal treatment, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

ABSTRACT A plethora of in vitro and in vivo studies have supported the neuroprotective role of estrogens and their impact on the neurotransmitter systems implicated in cognition. Recent hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) trials in non-demented postmenopausal women suggest a temporary positive effect (notably on verbal memory), and four meta-analyses converge to suggest a possible protective effect in relation to Alzheimer's disease (reducing risk by 29 to 44%). However, data from the only large randomized controlled trial published to date, the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study, did not confirm these observations and have even suggested an increase in dementia risk for women using HRT compared to controls. Apart from methodological differences, one key shortcoming of this trial has probably been the focus on late-onset (postmenopausal) hormonal changes, i.e. at a time when the neurodegenerative process has already begun and without taking into account individual lifetime exposure to hormone variability. Multifactorial models based on an exhaustive view of all hormonal events throughout the reproductive life (rather than on a specific exposure to a given steroid) together with other risk factors (notably genetic risk factors related to estrogen receptor polymorphisms) should be explored to clarify the role of hormonal risk factors, or protective factors for cognitive dysfunction and dementia.
Molecular Characterization of Vegetative Incompatibility Genes That Restrict Hypovirus Transmission in the Chestnut Blight Fungus Cryphonectria parasitica

Genetic nonself recognition systems such as vegetative incompatibility operate in many filamentous fungi to regulate hyphal fusion between genetically dissimilar individuals and to restrict the spread of virulence-attenuating mycoviruses that have potential for biological control of pathogenic fungi. We report here the use of a comparative genomics approach to identify seven candidate polymorphic genes associated with four vegetative incompatibility (vic) loci of the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. Disruption of candidate alleles in one of two strains that were heteroallelic at vic2, vic6, or vic7 resulted in enhanced virus transmission, but did not prevent barrage formation associated with mycelial incompatibility. Detailed characterization of the vic6 locus revealed the involvement of nonallelic interactions between two tightly linked genes in barrage formation, heterokaryon formation, and asymmetric, gene-specific influences on virus transmission. The combined results establish molecular identities of genes associated with four C. parasitica vic loci and provide insights into how these recognition factors interact to trigger incompatibility and restrict virus transmission.
Meet the lemons: An experiment on how cheap-talk overcomes adverse selection in decentralized markets

We report on an experiment on decentralized markets in the presence of adverse selection. When allowing for costless and non-binding communication (cheap-talk), there exists a partially separating equilibrium that results in a substantially higher efficiency level than the adverse selection benchmark. The partially separating equilibrium hinges on the presence of matching frictions, which create a trade-off for low quality sellers between successfully mimicking high quality sellers and an increased matching probability if they truthfully reveal their type. The experimental results reflect the theoretical predictions of the partially separating equilibrium: communication is informative and improves efficiency compared to the benchmark without cheap-talk. We conduct control treatments to show that truth-telling is not explained by lying aversion or pro-social preferences, but is due to the pecuniary incentives of the partially separating equilibrium.
Analyzing Super-Junction C-V to estimate charge imbalance

In this paper, we present a new technique to model charge imbalance in Super Junction devices using junction (Drain-Source for MOSFET) C-V measurements. In contrast to Breakdown Voltage measurement that can also be used for this purpose, this technique offers significant advantages by having no dependence on the edge termination BV for its accuracy. In addition, this method can be used to estimate both the magnitude (δQ) and polarity (Q<inf>p</inf>>Q<inf>n</inf> or Q<inf>p</inf><Q<inf>n</inf>) of charge imbalance
Study of the influence of 3D printing parameters on the mechanical properties of PLA

This paper aims to determine the influence of 3D printing parameters, such as Infill Density, Extrusion Temperature, Raster Angle and Layer Thickness, on mechanical properties, namely Ultimate Tensile Strength, Yield Strength, Modulus of Elasticity and Elongation at Break, in the case of polylactic acid (PLA), after it goes through the manufacturing process. Another objective is to study water absorption by the PLA, with a goal to minimize it by means of a coating agent. The influence of each printing parameter on each mechanical property is evaluated by using analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Network architecture underlying maximal separation of neuronal representations

One of the most basic and general tasks faced by all nervous systems is extracting relevant information from the organism's surrounding world. While physical signals available to sensory systems are often continuous, variable, overlapping, and noisy, high-level neuronal representations used for decision-making tend to be discrete, specific, invariant, and highly separable. This study addresses the question of how neuronal specificity is generated. Inspired by experimental findings on network architecture in the olfactory system of the locust, I construct a highly simplified theoretical framework which allows for analytic solution of its key properties. For generalized feed-forward systems, I show that an intermediate range of connectivity values between source- and target-populations leads to a combinatorial explosion of wiring possibilities, resulting in input spaces which are, by their very nature, exquisitely sparsely populated. In particular, connection probability ½, as found in the locust antennal-lobe–mushroom-body circuit, serves to maximize separation of neuronal representations across the target Kenyon cells (KCs), and explains their specific and reliable responses. This analysis yields a function expressing response specificity in terms of lower network parameters; together with appropriate gain control this leads to a simple neuronal algorithm for generating arbitrarily sparse and selective codes and linking network architecture and neural coding. I suggest a straightforward way to construct ecologically meaningful representations from this code.