Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FIGURE8: A Novel System for Generating and Evaluating Figurative Language

Similes are easily obtained from web-driven and casebased reasoning approaches. Still, generating thoughtful figurative descriptions with meaningful relation to narrative context and author style has not yet been fully explored. In this paper, the author prepares the foundation for a computational model which can achieve this level of aesthetic complexity. This paper also introduces and evaluates a possible architecture for generating and ranking figurative comparisons on par with humans: the FIGURE8 system.
Hybrid Network Structure and Mechanical Properties of Rodlike Silicate/Cyanate Ester Nanocomposites

Silicate nanorods (attapulgite, ATT) were organically modified and homogeneously dispersed in a cyanate ester (CE) resin. ATT dispersions and networks were characterized by rheological and microscopic measurements. Amine groups grafted onto the particle surface catalyzed the cyclotrimerization of the CE monomers and enabled the CE monomers to enter the inter-rod spacing of loose aggregates easily, resulting in homogenization of the particle size distribution in the nanocomposites. The addition of nanorods decreased the density of organic networks and increased intracyclizations. Covalent bonding at the interface was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), which establishes a basis for enhancing/optimizing mechanical properties of CE resins. Nanocomposite modulus, strength, and toughness increased 40, 42, and 55%, respectively, relative to the neat resin, although high nanorod loadings (e.g., 8 wt %) showed negligible benefit. The interplay between.
Neuroectodermal Tumors Molecule Isoforms and L 1 Adhesion Molecules on Human Differential Spectrum of Expression of Neural Cell Adhesion

A series of four medulloblastomas, seven neuroblastomas (Nb), two ependymomas, and three gliomas, human neuroectodermal tumors, were screened for their expression of adhesion molecules LI, carcinoembryonic antigen, neural cell adhesion molecule isoforms (N-CAM) and HNK1 epitope by Western blotting and double immunofluorescence labeling. All seven neuroblastomas, whatever their differentiated state, ex pressed LI, a neural cell surface developmental antigen, whereas all other tumors tested were negative. All tumors expressed N-CAM; however, a large diversity was observed among the Â¡soforms. Low sialylated N-CAM 140 was present, with different intensity, in ependymomas and astrocytomas. High sialylated isoforms were detected by a monoclonal antibody (anti-MenB) specifically recognizing high polymers of o2-8 linked neuraminic acid. They were expressed in all medulloblastomas studied (4 of 4), and in 4 of 7 Nbs examined. Negative cases corresponded to tumors having undergone chemotherapeutic treatment or to ganglioneuroma. The interconversion from high to low sialylated forms might reflect changes which are critical for the conversion of Nbs into benign ganglioneuromas. HNK1 epitope was expressed on a large diversity of molecules by nearly all tumors except two Nbs which were also negative with anti-MenB antibody. This simultaneous loss of carbohydrate epitopes could correlate with higher maturation states of the tumors. None of the tumors ex pressed carcinoembryonic antigen. Therefore, anti-Li and anti-MenB antibodies define differentiation-related antigens that could differentiate between Nbs and other tumors and may prove helpful in diagnosis and understanding of the biological nature of neuroectodermal tumors. An immunodot assay was set up and allowed to titrate the presence of polysialic acid units in cerebrospinal fluid from patients presenting meningeal spread of medulloblastomas. It could help to assess metastasis and to monitor the effects of chemotherapeutic treatment on polysialylated N-CAM positive tumors.
The Viewer's Place in Theories of Vision

Analyses of vision have tended to focus on what may be under observation rather than considering the larger configuration including observer and observed. It is, however, possible to think systematically about the "missing link" of observer/observed relationships. The paper aims to clarify the logic associated with these relationships. At least three main types of observer/ observed relationship are interesting: when viewpoint is general, when viewpoint is representative, and when viewpoint is privileged. It is shown that knowledge about such relationships can support interesting conclusions - though the exact forms of these conclusions will reflect other empirical and a priori knowledge. The various viewpoint analyses may be regarded as aspects of a single issue - when and how an observer may legitimately assume that properties of stimulation are simply and directly indicative of features of the world. Also, expressing observer/observed relationships calls for appropriate ways of classifying observables: so understanding observer/observed relationships feeds back into understanding what may be observed.
Contextualization in Perspective

Instruction abstracted from specific and concrete examples is frequently criticized for ignoring the context-dependent and perspectival nature of learning (e.g., Bruner, 1962, 1966; Greeno, 1997). Yet, in the effort to create personally interesting learning contexts, cognitive consequences have often been ignored. To examine what kinds of personalized contexts foster or hinder learning and transfer, three manipulations of perspective and context were employed to teach participants Signal Detection Theory (SDT). In all cases, application of SDT principles was negatively impacted by manipulations that encouraged participants to consider the perspective of the signal detector (the decision maker in SDT situations): by giving participants active detection experience (Experiment 1), biasing them to adopt a first-person rather than third-person perspective (Experiment 2), or framing the task in terms of a well-known celebrity (Experiment 3). These contexts run the risk of introducing goals and information that are specific to the detector's point of view, resulting in sub-optimal understanding of SDT.
X-ray obscuration and obscured AGN in the local universe

We discuss the X-ray properties of 49 local ($z Chandra and XMM-Newton observations, which yield 25 (22) new X-ray detections in the 0.5–2 keV (2–10 keV) energy band. Our sample covers a range in the 2–10 keV observed flux, F 2-10 , from $3 \times 10^{-11}$ to $6 \times 10^{-15}$ erg cm -2 s -1 . The percentage of objects that are likely obscured by Compton-thick matter (column density, $N_{\rm H} \ge \sigma_t^{-1} \simeq 1.6 \times 10^{24}$ cm -2 ) is $\simeq$50%, and reaches $\simeq$80% for $\log\, (F_{2-10}) α fluorescent iron lines with large Equivalent Width (${\it EW} > 0.6$ keV) are common in our sample (6 new detections at a confidence level ≥ 2 σ ). They are explained as due to reflection off the illuminated side of optically thick material. We confirm a correlation between the presence of a ~100-pc scale nuclear dust in the WFC2 images and Compton-thin obscuration. We interpret this correlation as due to the large covering fraction of gas associated with the dust lanes. The X-ray spectra of highly obscured AGN invariably present a prominent soft excess emission above the extrapolation of the hard X-ray component. This soft component can account for a very large fraction of the overall X-ray energy budget. As this component is generally unobscured – and therefore likely produced in extended gas structures – it may lead to a severe underestimation of the nuclear obscuration in $z \sim 1$ absorbed AGN, if standard X-ray colors are used to classify them. As a by-product of our study, we report the discovery of a soft X-ray, luminous ($\simeq$7$\,\times\, 10^{40}$ erg s -1 ) halo embedding the interacting galaxy pair Mkn 266.
A novel space-frequency coding algorithm suited for frequency-selective fading channels

Aiming at MIMO-OFDM wireless communication system, we propose a simple and effective space-frequency coding algorithm: time-domain cycle delay algorithm, which implements space-frequency coding using the cycle delay of OFDM time-domain signal. The academic analysis and computer simulations indicate that this kind of space-frequency coding algorithm not only can achieve full diversity gain but also has such advantages as: the algorithm is independent of the number of transmit antennas; the calculation amount of the algorithm is little and it is easy to implement the algorithm.
Acute Kidney Injury in Urology Patients: Incidence, Causes and Outcomes

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in hospitalised patients and is associated with high mortality rates. However, the epidemiology of AKI in urology patients may differ due to a higher proportion of post-renal causes and surgical procedures that result in the intentional removal of renal parenchyma. Objectives We performed a study to examine the incidence, aetiology and outcomes of AKI in a urological population. Patients and Methods We performed a single-centre observational study including all hospitalised patients who sustained AKI within the Urology Department over an 18 month period. Patients with AKI were prospectively identified by a hospital-wide, electronic AKI reporting system that also allows demographic, hospital admission and co-morbidity data collection. Data regarding aetiology of AKI and details of surgical procedures were added retrospectively by manual case-note search. Results 587 episodes of AKI occurred in 410 urology patients, giving an overall incidence of 6.7%. 137 (33.4%) were elective cases of whom 58 had undergone nephrectomy (radical and partial). Urinary obstruction and sepsis were the predominant causes of AKI in the 273 patients (66.6%) admitted as an emergency. Overall 30-day mortality was 7.8%; increasing severity of AKI was associated with mortality (4.8% in stage 1, 9.1% in stage 2, 14.9% in stage 3, P = 0.007). At time of discharge, only 57.7% of patients had recovered pre-morbid renal function. The observational nature of this study is a limitation, preventing determination of causality of associations. Conclusions AKI is common in urology patients. The underlying aetiologies of AKI in this group may explain a lower overall mortality, although increasing AKI severity remains a marker of patients at higher risk of poor outcomes. The low rate of renal recovery suggests that urology patients who sustain AKI are exposed to a significant risk of CKD and its attendant consequences for long term health.
MREclat: An Algorithm for Parallel Mining Frequent Itemsets

Algorithm Eclat is a classical algorithm for mining frequent itemsets, which is based on vertical layout databases. It is greatly different from those algorithms based on horizontal layout databases, such as algorithm Apriori and FP-Growth. In order to improve the efficiency of mining frequent itemsets from massive datasets, parallel algorithm MREclat based on Map/Reduce framework is presented. The algorithm also overcomes the problem of memory and computational capability insufficient when mining frequent itemsets from massive datasets. In this paper, the idea of MREclat is introduced and the performance of the algorithm is studied. The experimental results show that algorithm MREclat has high scalability and good speedup.
Two bit correlation-an adaptive time delay estimation

Time delay estimation is a very important operation in ultrasound time-domain flow mapping and correction of phase aberration of an array transducer. As the interest increases in the application of one and a half-dimensional (1.5-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) array transducers to improving image quality and three-dimensional (3-D) imaging, the need of simple, fast, and sufficiently accurate algorithms for real-time time delay estimation becomes exceedingly crucial. In this paper, we present an adaptive time-delay estimation algorithm which minimizes the problem of noise sensitivity associated with the one bit correlation while retaining simplicity in implementation. This algorithm converts each sample datum into a two bit representation including the sign of the sample and an adaptively selected threshold. A bit pattern correlation operation is applied to find the time delay between two engaged signals. By using the criterion of misregistration as an indicator, we are able to show that the proposed algorithm is better than one bit correlation in susceptibility to noise level. Analytical results show that the improvement in reducing misregistration of the two bit correlation over its counterpart is consistent over a wide range of noise level. This is achieved by an adaptive adjustment of the threshold to accommodate signal corruption due to noise. The analytical results are corroborated by results from simulating the blood as a random distribution of red blood cells. Finally, we also present a memory-based architecture to implement the two bit correlation algorithm whose computation time does not depend upon the time delay of the signals to be correlated.
Life Course Impact of School-Based Promotion of Healthy Eating and Active Living to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Background The Alberta Project Promoting active Living and healthy Eating in Schools (APPLE Schools) is a comprehensive school health program that is proven feasible and effective in preventing obesity among school aged children. To support decision making on expanding this program, evidence on its long-term health and economic impacts is particularly critical. In the present study we estimate the life course impact of the APPLE Schools programs in terms of future body weights and avoided health care costs. Method We modeled growth rates of body mass index (BMI) using longitudinal data from the National Population Health Survey collected between 1996–2008. These growth rate characteristics were used to project BMI trajectories for students that attended APPLE Schools and for students who attended control schools (141 randomly selected schools) in the Canadian province of Alberta. Results Throughout the life course, the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) was 1.2% to 2.8% (1.7 on average) less among students attending APPLE Schools relative to their peers attending control schools. The life course prevalence of obesity was 0.4% to 1.4% (0.8% on average) less among APPLE Schools students. If the APPLE Schools program were to be scaled up, the potential cost savings would be $33 to 82 million per year for the province of Alberta, or $150 to 330 million per year for Canada. Conclusions These projected health and economic benefits seem to support broader implementation of school-based health promotion programs.
The Effect of Social Influence on The Bloggers' Usage Intention

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to further explore relationships among social influence, blog platform qualities and usage intention for improving the understanding of the effect that social influence exerts on bloggers' usage intention.Design/methodology/approach – Based on the IS success model, the authors propose a conceptual framework incorporating information quality, system quality, blog function quality and social influence as key determinants of bloggers' usage intention. Empirical data from 613 participants were collected via a web survey.Findings – The results show that information quality, system quality and blog function quality, i.e. the technical factors, positively influence bloggers' usage intention. Among these qualities, system quality is the most prominent. For social factors, social influence significantly affects bloggers' usage intention directly and indirectly through blog platform qualities. A multi‐group analysis revealed the differences between blog readers and writers i.
Dynamical Origin of Low-Frequency Variability in a Highly Nonlinear Midlatitude Coupled Model

Abstract A novel mechanism of decadal midlatitude coupled variability, which crucially depends on the nonlinear dynamics of both the atmosphere and the ocean, is presented. The coupled model studied involves quasigeostrophic atmospheric and oceanic components, which communicate with each other via a constant-depth oceanic mixed layer. A series of coupled and uncoupled experiments show that the decadal coupled mode is active across parameter ranges that allow the bimodality of the atmospheric zonal flow to coexist with oceanic turbulence. The latter is most intense in the regions of inertial recirculation (IR). Bimodality is associated with the existence of two distinct anomalously persistent zonal-flow modes, which are characterized by different latitudes of the atmospheric jet stream. The IR reorganizations caused by transitions of the atmosphere from its high- to low-latitude state and vice versa create sea surface temperature anomalies that tend to induce transition to the opposite atmospheric state. T.
The Recent Dynamics of Public Debt in the European Union: A Matter of Fundamentals or the Result of a Failed Monetary Experiment?

The idea that the present euro-zone sovereign debt crisis was caused by structural weaknesses degenerating into fundamental macroeconomic imbalances in the peripheral countries prevails among economists and politicians alike. We use quarterly data from 2000 to 2011 from the 27 European Union countries to uncover the main factors explaining the debt to GDP ratio dynamics. We also examine three possible determinants of that crisis: i) weak fundamentals; ii) inappropriate fiscal policies adopted by the governments at the beginning of the crisis; iii) unfavorable debt dynamics due to a sharp GDP contraction, coupled with substantial increases in the interest rates on government bonds. Except for the current account to GDP ratio, we fail to find any significant relationship between the fundamentals prior to the financial crisis, and the ensuing dynamics on both public debt to GDP, and interest rates on government bonds. We also reject any association between the initial fiscal policy response to the crisis and the following debt crisis. We conclude that the immediate explanation for the adverse debt dynamics unraveling after 2007 was the sharp GDP contraction which, in turn, induced unfavorable expectations by creditors causing higher interest rates charged on peripheral countries’ debt and a liquidity crisis.
Business students’ hardiness and its role in quality of university life, quality of life, and learning performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the hardiness of university business students. Overall hardiness, and its individual components of commitment, control and challenge, were all explored in relation to students’ quality of university life, quality of life and learning performance. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 722 Vietnamese business students was surveyed to collect the data. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine whether hardiness and/or its components enhanced students’ quality of university life, quality of life and learning performance. Necessary condition analysis (NCA) was then employed to explore the levels of hardiness and its components necessary for each of the key areas. Findings SEM results revealed that overall hardiness had a positive effect on all three key areas. In terms of individual components, commitment, control and challenge were found to have positive impacts on learning performance; however, control did not affect quality of university life, and challenge had no effect on quality of life. NCA results show that these components of hardiness had varying degrees necessary for students to experience success in these areas. Practical implications Findings suggest that university administers should consider the role which student hardiness, and its individual components, can play in relation to student success at university. Specifically, universities should practice hardiness training and assessment programs to equip their students with hardy attitudes and skills. Originality/value This study is one of the first to examine of the levels of the components of hardiness (i.e. commitment, control and challenge) necessary for students to achieve success in the quality of university life, quality of life and learning performance.
Explaining the Increase in Saving in Chile

The paper attempts to explain the sharp increase in the Chilean domestic saving rate. It addresses the issue from different angles. It estimates the series for the period 1960-1994 for domestic saving and its main components (public and private saving and within the latter, household and business saving). With these data, a series of econometric analyses is done within the framework of an error correction model. The paper explores the extent to which households adjust their saving to take into account the saving behavior of business saving. It also undertakes a study of corporate saving using panel data for firms listed on the Chilean stock exchange for the period 1986-1994.
ERRATUM on The QSO evolution derived from the HBQS and other complete QSO surveys

An ESO Key programme dedicated to an Homogeneous Bright QSO Survey (HBQS) has been completed. 327 QSOs (Mb<-23, 0.3<z<2.2) have been selected over 555 deg^2 with 15<B<18.75. For B<16.4 the QSO surface density turns out to be a factor 2.2 higher than what measured by the PG survey, corresponding to a surface density of 0.013+/-. 006 deg^{-2}. If the Edinburgh QSO Survey is included, an overdensity of a factor 2.7 is observed, corresponding to a density of 0.016+/-0.005 deg^{-2}. In order to derive the QSO optical luminosity function (LF) we used Monte Carlo simulations that take into account of the selection criteria, photometric errors and QSO spectral slope distribution. The LF can be represented with a Pure Luminosity Evolution (L(z)\propto(1+z)^k) of a two power law both for q_0=0.5 and q_0=0.1. For q_0=0.5 k=3.26, slower than the previous Boyle's (1992) estimations of k=3.45. A flatter slope beta=-3.72 of the bright part of the LF is also required. The observed overdensity of bright QSOs is concentrated at z<0.6. It results that in the range 0.3<z<0.6 the luminosity function is flatter than observed at higher redshifts. In this redshift range, for Mb<-25, 32 QSOs are observed instead of 19 expected from our best-fit PLE model. This feature requires a luminosity dependent luminosity evolution in order to satisfactorily represent the data in the whole 0.3<z<2.2 interval.
Document vector compression and its application in document clustering

Document clustering organizes documents into groups such that each group contains documents with similar content. The majority of document clustering algorithms require a vector representation for each document. Each vector has well over 10,000 elements. Consequently, the memory required during clustering can be extremely high when clustering hundreds of thousands of documents. This paper introduces document vector compression, which is based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT). Document vector compression reduces the run-time memory requirements by as much as 60%. Document vector compression does not degrade the final cluster quality (total F-measure) as does other document vector reduction techniques