Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The status of quantum geometry in the dynamical sector of loop quantum cosmology

This paper is motivated by the recent papers by Dittrich and Thiemann and, respectively, Rovelli discussing the status of quantum geometry in the dynamical sector of quantum geometry. Since the papers consider model examples, we also study the issue in the case of an example, namely on the loop quantum cosmology model of a space-isotropic universe. We derive the Rovelli–Thiemann–Dittrich partial observables corresponding to the quantum geometry operators of LQC in both Hilbert spaces: the kinematical one and the physical Hilbert space of solutions to the quantum constraints. We find that quantum geometry can be used to characterize the physical solutions, and the operators of quantum geometry preserve many of their kinematical properties.
Bayesian Unsupervised Batch and Online Speaker Adaptation of Activation Function Parameters in Deep Models for Automatic Speech Recognition

We present a Bayesian framework to obtain maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation of a small set of hidden activation function parameters in context-dependent-deep neural network-hidden markov model (CD-DNN-HMM)-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. When applied to speaker adaptation, we aim at transfer learning from a well-trained deep model for a “general” usage to a “personalized” model geared toward a particular talker by using a collection of speaker-specific data. To make the framework applicable to practical situations, we perform adaptation in an unsupervised manner assuming that the transcriptions of the adaptation utterances are not readily available to the ASR system. We conduct a series of comprehensive batch adaptation experiments on the Switchboard ASR task and show that the proposed approach is effective even with CD-DNN-HMM built with discriminative sequential training. Indeed, MAP speaker adaptation reduces the word error rate (WER) to 20.1% from an initial 21.9% on the full NIST 2000 Hub5 benchmark test set. Moreover, MAP speaker adaptation compares favorably with other techniques evaluated on the same speech tasks. We also demonstrate its complementarity to other approaches by applying MAP adaptation to CD-DNN-HMM trained with speaker adaptive features generated through constrained maximum likelihood linear regression and further reduces the WER to 18.6%. Leveraging upon the intrinsic recursive nature in Bayesian adaptation and mitigating possible system constraints on batch learning, we also proposed an incremental approach to unsupervised online speaker adaptation by simultaneously updating the hyperparameters of the approximate posterior densities and the DNN parameters sequentially. The advantage of such a sequential learning algorithm over a batch method is not necessarily in the final performance, but in computational efficiency and reduced storage needs, without having to wait for all the data to be processed. So far, the experimental results are promising.
Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are required for efficient neurotransmission in C. elegans

The complex lipid constituents of the eukaryotic plasma membrane are precisely controlled in a cell-type-specific manner, suggesting an important, but as yet, unknown cellular function. Neuronal membranes are enriched in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) and alterations in LC-PUFA metabolism cause debilitating neuronal pathologies. However, the physiological role of LC-PUFAs in neurons is unknown. We have characterized the neuronal phenotype of C. elegans mutants depleted of LC-PUFAs. The C. elegans genome encodes a single Δ6-desaturase gene (fat-3), an essential enzyme for LC-PUFA biosynthesis. Animals lacking fat-3 function do not synthesize LC-PUFAs and show movement and egg-laying abnormalities associated with neuronal impairment. Expression of functional fat-3 in neurons, or application of exogenous LC-PUFAs to adult animals rescues these defects. Pharmacological, ultrastructural and electrophysiological analyses demonstrate that fat-3 mutant animals are depleted of synaptic vesicles and release abnormally low levels of neurotransmitter at cholinergic and serotonergic neuromuscular junctions. These data indicate that LC-PUFAs are essential for efficient neurotransmission in C. elegans and may account for the clinical conditions associated with mis-regulation of LC-PUFAs in humans.
Application of visual servoing to an X-ray based welding inspection robot

The paper presents a control system structure for an X-ray based welding inspection and image recording, and studies a new method to realize the synchronous movement between the inner and outer robots. The paper provides a new design to sense the relative movement of robots and utilizes it to synchronize the movement of dual robots. Based on the theory of image-based visual servo control, the paper studies its application to the welding scam tracking and cooperation control of dual robot, and implements the control algorithms. A time delay and white noises are introduced to simulate the lag due to image feature recognition and the mechanical vibration in the system. The simulation results show that the outer robot tracks the movement of inner robot very well. The experiments of the visual servo control algorithms are realized on the welding inspection and image recording system.
Profound Depletion of Host Conventional Dendritic Cells, Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells, and B Cells Does Not Prevent Graft-versus-Host Disease Induction

The efficacy of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is limited by graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Host hematopoietic APCs are important initiators of GVHD, making them logical targets for GVHD prevention. Conventional dendritic cells (DCs) are key APCs for T cell responses in other models of T cell immunity, and they are sufficient for GVHD induction. However, we report in this article that in two polyclonal GVHD models in which host hematopoietic APCs are essential, GVHD was not decreased when recipient conventional DCs were inducibly or constitutively deleted. Additional profound depletion of plasmacytoid DCs and B cells, with or without partial depletion of CD11b+ cells, also did not ameliorate GVHD. These data indicate that, in contrast with pathogen models, there is a surprising redundancy as to which host cells can initiate GVHD. Alternatively, very low numbers of targeted APCs were sufficient. We hypothesize the difference in APC requirements in pathogen and GVHD models relates to the availability of target Ags. In antipathogen responses, specialized APCs are uniquely equipped to acquire and present exogenous Ags, whereas in GVHD, all host cells directly present alloantigens. These studies make it unlikely that reagent-based host APC depletion will prevent GVHD in the clinic.
Homological realization of prescribed abelian groups via K-theory

Abstract Using algebraic and topological K-theory together with complex C*-algebras, we prove that every abelian group may be realized as the centre of a strongly torsion generated group whose integral homology is zero in dimension one and isomorphic to two arbitrarily prescribed abelian groups in dimensions two and three.
Coordinated scheduling of customer orders for quick response

The scheduling problem addressed in this paper concerns a manufacturer who produces a variety of product types and operates in a make‐to‐order environment. Each customer order consists of known quantities of the different product types, and must be delivered as a single shipment. Periodically the manufacturer schedules the accumulated and unscheduled customer orders. Instances of this problem occur across industries in manufacturing as well as in service environments. In this paper we show that the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of customer order delivery times is unary NP‐hard. We characterize the optimal schedule, solve several special cases of the problem, derive tight lower bounds, and propose several heuristic solutions. We report the results of a set of computational experiments to evaluate the lower bounding procedures and the heuristics, and to determine optimal solutions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.
Maternal Coparenting Attitudes and Toddler Adjustment: Moderated Mediation through Father’s Positive Engagement

SYNOPSIS Objective. To better understand the antecedents of fathers’ positive engagement and child externalizing behaviors, we examined the roles of maternal coparenting attitudes and fathers’ prenatal intuitive parenting behaviors in predicting fathers’ positive engagement and toddler externalizing behaviors. Design. One hundred and eighty-two dual-earner families residing in Columbus, Ohio, were recruited when parents were expecting their first child. They were followed across the transition to parenthood and assessed at the third trimester (Time 1), 3 months postpartum (Time 2), 9 months postpartum (Time 3), and when the child reached approximately 27 months of age (Time 4). Mothers reported their perceptions of their partners’ parenting competence (i.e., coparenting attitudes) and their children’s externalizing behaviors at Times 2 and 4, respectively. Fathers reported their own positive engagement at Times 2 and 3. Fathers’ intuitive parenting behaviors were observed at Time 1. Results. After controlling for fathers’ positive engagement at Time 2, maternal endorsement of fathers’ parenting competence positively predicted fathers’ positive engagement at Time 3, especially for fathers who displayed average or high levels of prenatal intuitive parenting behaviors. For families with fathers who displayed average or above-average intuitive parenting behaviors, maternal endorsement of fathers’ parenting competence was negatively associated with children’s externalizing behaviors through its positive association with fathers’ positive engagement. Conclusions. Maternal coparenting attitudes in conjunction with fathers’ prenatal intuitive parenting predicted toddler externalizing behaviors through their association with fathers’ positive engagement.
Strength, speed-strength and performance in change of direction tasks in rugby union athletes

ii Acknowledgements . iv List of Figures . x List of Tables . xi Attestation of Authorship . xiii Co-authored Works . xiv Publications Arising from the Thesis . xvi Ethics Approval . xvii Chapter 1 Introduction . 1 Rationale of the Thesis . 1 Purpose of the Research . 2 Significance of the Thesis . 3 Structure of Thesis . 5 Chapter 2 – Physical Characteristics and Performance in Change of Direction Tasks: A Brief Review and Training Considerations . 7 Introduction . 8 Methods . 11 Discussion . 12 Practical Applications . 22 Conclusion . 37 Chapter 3 The Relationship between Multidirectional Jumping and Performance in Change of Direction Tasks . 39 Overview . 40 Introduction . 41 Methods . 43 Results . 49 Discussion . 56 Practical Applications . 61 Chapter 4 The Relationship between Multidirectional Jumping and Performance in Change of Direction Tasks: A Kinetic Analysis . 62 Overview . 63 Introduction . 64 Methods . 65 Results . 69
Have You Heard?

This study seeks to understand “listening” as a practice and norm of journalism in the context of an eruption of journalistic discourse about listening surrounding the 2016 US election. An examination of US journalists’ own discourse about listening pointed to an understanding of the need to listen more, better, and to a more diverse set of voices. The widespread criticism of journalism’s performance frequently pointed to failures of listening as a root cause of the more general failure to adequately cover the campaign. Thus, listening involved a set of skills, but was also sometimes construed as a moral obligation. Overall, however, the discourse showed an anemic understanding of listening, often pointing to the public’s inability to listen to journalists.
An FPGA-Based Accelerator to Speed-Up Matrix Multiplication of Floating Point Operations

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are able to provide a high computational parallelism that can be exploited to achieve high performance improvements in intensive data processing problems. In this paper our efforts were directed towards developing a PC cluster based on nodes that use FPGAs as co-processors. The target application is a floating-point large dense matrix multiplication. Experimental results for just one node of the cluster, consisting of a Xilinx Virtex 5 VLX50T with a PCI interface, showed performance improvements compared with the Intel Core2 Quad at 2.66 GHz, achieving a speed-up of 1.19 times. Other analyses in terms of frequency variation and power dissipation have been made by considering different matrix sizes running in one node of the cluster. Recently, the platform has been updated for a powerful Gidel plaftorm, the PROCe III 260E. This new platform consists of 1 FPGA Stratix III per board. In this board, it is possible to allocate up to 40 MACs per FPGA, reaching an overall speed-up of approximately 11.2 per node of the cluster when compared with the same general-purpose processor. A full example is presented in this paper.
On How to Be Flexible (or Not): Modulation of the Stability-Flexibility Balance

Goal-directed behavior in a constantly changing environment requires a dynamic balance between two antagonistic modes of control: On the one hand, goals need to be maintained and shielded from distraction (stability), and on the other hand, goals need to be relaxed and flexibly updated whenever significant changes occur (flexibility). A dysregulation of this stability-flexibility balance can result in overly rigid or overly distractible behavior, and it is therefore important to understand how this balance is regulated in a context-sensitive, adaptive manner. In the present article, we review recent evidence on how positive affect, reward prospect, and task context modulate the stability-flexibility balance. Two distinct underlying cognitive mechanisms will be discussed: Flexibility may result either from lowering the updating threshold in working memory or from keeping multiple tasks active in working memory. Critically, these two mechanisms allow different (testable) predictions: Whereas lowering the updating threshold should ease the access of new information in working memory and thereby increase flexibility in general, concurrent task activation should only increase flexibility between the respective tasks.
The effect of positive psychology interventions on hope and well-being of adolescents living in a child and youth care centre

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the effect of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) on hope and well-being among adolescents living in a child and youth care centre (CYCC) in South Africa. Adolescents (n = 29) were allocated to either the experimental or control group through matched sampling. The experimental group engaged in one-hour intervention sessions weekly for six weeks. Measures of well-being and hope were recorded at three time intervals. Independent- and paired-sample t-tests were conducted to establish group differences. There were no statistically significant differences in well-being and hope between the two groups after the interventions. We discuss moderating factors and offer a qualitative reflection to better understand these outcomes. With this understanding, preliminary guidelines are proposed for implementing PPIs in CYCCs.
X-Raying the Star Formation History of the Universe

The current models of early star and galaxy formation are based upon the hierarchical growth of dark matter halos, within which the baryons condense into stars after cooling down from a hot diffuse phase. The latter is replenished by infall of outer gas into the halo potential wells; this includes a fraction previously expelled and preheated because of momentum and energy fed back by the supernovae which follow the star formation. We identify such an implied hot phase with the medium known to radiate powerful X-rays in clusters and in groups of galaxies. We show that the amount of the hot component required by the current star formation models is enough to be observable out to redshifts z ≈ 1.5 in forthcoming deep surveys from Chandra and X-Ray Multimirror Mission, especially in case the star formation rate is high at such and earlier redshifts. These X-ray emissions constitute a necessary counterpart and will provide a much-wanted probe of the star formation process itself (in particular, of the supernova feedback) to parallel and complement the currently debated data from optical and IR observations of the young stars.
Comparision of Analgesic Efficacy of Tramadol Infusion Versus Tramadol Plus Ondansetron Infusion In Medical Intensive Care Unit

Background: Tramadol, a preferred analgesic due to its less respiratory depression. It also has a central action that blocks the reuptake and enhances the release of serotonin at spinal antinociceptive pathways. Ondansetron, an antiemetic is a serotonin receptor antagonist. Due to the contradictory actions of the two drugs, co-administration of these drugs resulted in higher usage of tramadol. All these studies were done in the postoperative period. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of tramadol infusion versus tramadol plus ondansetron infusion in Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. Materials and Methods: After Institutional Ethical Committee approval, 50 patients who experience pain other than postoperative pain were enrolled and randomized into two groups. Both the groups initially received 50 mg of tramadol intravenously over 10 min followed by Group T+O received 10 mg/h tramadol + 0.4 mg/h ondansetron as an infusion. Group T received 10 mg/h tramadol as infusion. Hemodynamic parameters along with pain assessment using Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) were analyzed at 0, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. Rescue analgesia was administered if VRS >4. Side effects were noted by condition scoring criteria (CSC) scale. Results: Rescue analgesia was administered at 3 h, for three patients in T+O Group and 1 patient in T Group, but this is not statistically significant (P = 0.153). No rescue analgesia was required in both the groups at any other point of time. There was fall in heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, respiratory rate at 0, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h in both the groups but not statistically significant. Grade 1 sedation of CSC scale was observed in two patients of Group T+O and one patient in Group T but not statistically significant (P = 0.153). No nausea and vomiting were seen. Conclusions: We conclude that co-administration of tramadol and ondansetron can be practiced in medical ICU patients without any higher requirement in dosage of tramadol.
The role of ICOS in the development of CD4 T cell help and the reactivation of memory T cells

We have addressed the role of the inducible costimulator (ICOS) in the development of T cell help for B cells and in the generation, survival and reactivation of memory CD4 T cells and B cells. We find that while T cell help for all antibody isotypes (including IgG2c) is impaired in ICOS knockout (ICOS‐KO) mice, the IFN‐γ response is little affected, indicating a defect in helper function that is unrelated to cytokine production. In addition, the ICOS‐negative T cells do not accumulate in B cell follicles. Secondary (memory), but not primary, clonal proliferation of antigen‐specific B cells is impaired in ICOS‐KO mice, as is the generation of secondary antibody‐secreting cells. Analysis of endogenous CD4 memory cells in ICOS‐KO mice, using MHC class II tetramers, reveals normal primary clonal expansion, formation of memory clones and long‐term (10 wk) survival of memory cells, but defective expansion upon reactivation in vivo. The data point to a role of ICOS in supporting secondary, memory and effector T cell responses, possibly by influencing cell survival. The data also highlight differences in ICOS dependency of endogenous T cell proliferation in vivo compared to that of adoptively transferred TCR‐transgenic T cells.
The Active Site of a Carbohydrate Esterase Displays Divergent Catalytic and Noncatalytic Binding Functions

Multifunctional proteins, which play a critical role in many biological processes, have typically evolved through the recruitment of different domains that have the required functional diversity. Thus the different activities displayed by these proteins are mediated by spatially distinct domains, consistent with the specific chemical requirements of each activity. Indeed, current evolutionary theory argues that the colocalization of diverse activities within an enzyme is likely to be a rare event, because it would compromise the existing activity of the protein. In contrast to this view, a potential example of multifunctional recruitment into a single protein domain is provided by CtCel5C-CE2, which contains an N-terminal module that displays cellulase activity and a C-terminal module, CtCE2, which exhibits a noncatalytic cellulose-binding function but also shares sequence identity with the CE2 family of esterases. Here we show that, unlike other CE2 members, the CtCE2 domain displays divergent catalytic esterase and noncatalytic carbohydrate binding functions. Intriguingly, these diverse activities are housed within the same site on the protein. Thus, a critical component of the active site of CtCE2, the catalytic Ser-His dyad, in harness with inserted aromatic residues, confers noncatalytic binding to cellulose whilst the active site of the domain retains its esterase activity. CtCE2 catalyses deacetylation of noncellulosic plant structural polysaccharides to deprotect these substrates for attack by other enzymes. Yet it also acts as a cellulose-binding domain, which promotes the activity of the appended cellulase on recalcitrant substrates. The CE2 family encapsulates the requirement for multiple activities by biocatalysts that attack challenging macromolecular substrates, including the grafting of a second, powerful and discrete noncatalytic binding functionality into the active site of an enzyme. This article provides a rare example of “gene sharing,” where the introduction of a second functionality into the active site of an enzyme does not compromise the original activity of the biocatalyst.
Exploring social annotations for web document classification

Social annotation via so-called collaborative tagging describes the process by which many users add metadata in the form of unstructured keywords to shared content. In this paper, we explore and study social annotations and tagging with regard to their usefulness for web document classification by an analysis of large sets of real-world data. We are interested in finding out which kinds of documents are annotated more by end users than others, how users tend to annotate these documents, and in particular how this user-generated folk-sonomy compares with a top-down taxonomy maintained by classification experts for the same set of documents. We describe what can be deduced from the results for further research and development in the areas of document classification and information retrieval.
Active Risk Estimation

We address the problem of evaluating the risk of a given model accurately at minimal labeling costs. This problem occurs in situations in which risk estimates cannot be obtained from held-out training data, because the training data are unavailable or do not reflect the desired test distribution. We study active risk estimation processes in which instances are actively selected by a sampling process from a pool of unlabeled test instances and their labels are queried. We derive the sampling distribution that minimizes the estimation error of the active risk estimator when used to select instances from the pool. An analysis of the distribution that governs the estimator leads to confidence intervals. We empirically study conditions under which the active risk estimate is more accurate than a standard risk estimate that draws equally many instances from the test distribution.