Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Organizing Recurrent Fuzzy Wavelet Neural Network-Based Mixed $\rm{H}_{2}\rm{/ H}_{\rm{\infty }}$ Adaptive Tracking Control for Uncertain Two-Axis Motion Control System

In this paper, an intelligent adaptive tracking control system (IATCS) based on the mixed H2/H∞ approach for achieving high precision performance of a two-axis motion control system is proposed. The two-axis motion control system is an X-Y table driven by two permanent-magnet linear synchronous motors (PMLSMs) servo drives. The proposed control scheme incorporates a mixed H2/H∞ controller, a self-organizing recurrent fuzzy-wavelet-neural-network controller (SORFWNNC), and a robust controller. The SORFWNNC is used as the main tracking controller to adaptively estimate an unknown nonlinear dynamic function (UNDF) that includes the lumped parameter uncertainties, external disturbances, cross-coupled interference, and frictional force. Furthermore, a robust controller is designed to deal with the approximation error, optimal parameter vectors, and higher order terms in Taylor series. Besides, the mixed H2/H∞ controller is designed such that the quadratic cost function is minimized and the worst case effect of the UNDF on the tracking error must be attenuated below a desired attenuation level. The online adaptive control laws are derived based on Lyapunov theorem and the mixed H2/H∞ tracking performance so that the stability of the IATCS can be guaranteed. The experimental results confirm that the proposed IATCS grants robust performance and precise dynamic response to the reference contours regardless of external disturbances and parameter uncertainties.
Effective hashing for large-scale multimedia search

With the rapid development of the Internet and multimedia technologies over the last decade, a huge amount of data has become available, from text corpus, to collections of online images and videos. Cheap storage cost and modern database technologies have made it possible to accumulate large-scale datasets. However, the ever-growing sizes of the datasets make it harder to search useful information from such data. A fundamental computational primitive for dealing with massive multimedia datasets is the similarity search problem. Multimedia similarity search aims to preprocess a database so that given a query object, one can quickly find its similar objects in the database. Searching similar objects from a large dataset in high-dimensional spaces is at the heart of many multimedia applications, such as near-duplicate retrieval, multimedia tagging, recommendation, and so on. Driven by its significance, lots of efforts have been made on this topic. The goal of my research is to design efficient hashing methods for large-scale multimedia search. In this paper, we first present the general framework for multimedia similarity search and discuss the latest improvements and progresses in the field. Then we describe the contributions we have made to effectively and efficiently search similar multimedia objects from large-scale databases. Finally, we discuss the future work and draw a conclusion.
Prediction of Non-Linguistic Information of Spontaneous Speech from the Prosodic Annotation: Evaluation of the X-JToBI system

Speakers' gender and age-group were predicted using the symbolic information of the X-JToBI prosodic labelling scheme as applied to the Core of the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (44 hours, 155 speakers, 201 talks). The correct prediction rate of speaker gender by means of logistic regression analysis was about 80%, and, the correct discrimination rate of speaker age-group (4 groups) by means of linear discriminant analysis was about 50 %. These results, in conjunction with the previously reported result of the prediction experiment of 4 speech registers from the X-JToBI information, shows convincingly the superiority of X-JToBI over the traditional J_ToBI. Clarification of the mechanism by which gender- and/or age-group information were reflected in the symbolic representations of prosody largely remains as open question, although some preliminary analyses were presented in the current paper.
The Effects of Blocked and Random Word Lists on the Production of False Memories

This study separated participants into four different conditions based on a 2 (blocked or random study trials) x 2 (blocked or random test trials) between-subjects design. Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm the researcher investigated whether or not false memories were produced at the time of study or the time of test. According to the paradigm, participants who view a series of categorical words (mad, fear, hate, rage, temper) are thought to semantically associate critical lures (anger), as a part of the list presented, more frequently than participants who see a string of unrelated terms. The production of false memory is commonly accredited to the priming effect and the relationships among categorical terms. The current study explored whether manipulating blocked versus random word lists had an effect on false memory rates and further examined the conditions under which false memories are produced, in order to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon. Participants' responses were assessed based on their recall under either blocked or random conditions in both the study and test phases. Using measures ofrecognition and reaction time (RT), the results indicate that false memories are created primarily during original study and not during · the test of recognition. However, although the highest rates of false memories occurred during the blocked-study condition, the fastest reaction times for false memories were seen during blocked-test. These findings can contribute to the theoretical understanding of the origin of false memory. After comparing false memory rates and reaction times, concluding whether or not the mind exclusively produces these memories during the encoding process has yet to be determined.
Side-by-side: An evaluation of Connecticut’s police and youth interaction model

ABSTRACT This study evaluated a community-based intervention program designed to promote positive youth development and to create positive interactions between police and youth in a non-enforcement environment. A pre–post-design was used to compare the results of the program for participating youth and police officers, particularly changes in each group’s attitudes toward the other. The results showed that participation in the program improved police officers’ and youths’ attitudes toward each other. For youth, the rate of change in attitudes was greatest for minority youth and for youth who had prior negative experience with the police. That is, youth who had negative prior experiences with police and began with negative attitudes toward police developed more positive attitudes toward police as a result of participating in the program. Furthermore, having opportunities for positive interactions between police and youth played an important role in decreasing negative perceptions of police for ethnic minority youth. This study suggests that community-based programs that involve police with youth can improve participants’ attitude toward each other, which might impact future interactions.
Representation of Global and National Conservation Priorities by Colombia's Protected Area Network

Background How do national-level actions overlap with global priorities for conservation? Answering this question is especially important in countries with high and unique biological diversity like Colombia. Global biodiversity schemes provide conservation guidance at a large scale, while national governments gazette land for protection based on a combination of criteria at regional or local scales. Information on how a protected area network represents global and national conservation priorities is crucial for finding gaps in coverage and for future expansion of the system. Methodology/Principal Findings We evaluated the agreement of Colombia's protected area network with global conservation priorities, and the extent to which the network reflects the country's biomes, species richness, and common environmental and physical conditions. We used this information to identify priority biomes for conservation. We find the dominant strategy in Colombia has been a proactive one, allocating the highest proportion of protected land on intact, difficult to access and species rich areas like the Amazon. Threatened and unique areas are disproportionately absent from Colombia's protected lands. We highlight six biomes in Colombia as conservation priorities that should be considered in any future expansion of Colombia's protected area network. Two of these biomes have less than 3% of their area protected and more than 70% of their area transformed for human use. One has less than 3% protected and high numbers of threatened vertebrates. Three biomes fall in both categories. Conclusions Expansion of Colombia's Protected Area Network should consider the current representativeness of the network. We indicate six priority biomes that can contribute to improving the representation of threatened species and biomes in Colombia.
Parenting and Family Structure After Divorce: Are They Related?

ABSTRACT Children are raised in various family structures after a parental divorce. Currently, research including both repartnering and the custodial arrangement when investigating parenting is scarce and mainly proceeds from a maternal perspective, ignoring potential partner effects. Consequently, we investigate differences in parenting after divorce according to family structure (repartnering and custodial arrangement), analyzing a dyadic subsample of the multiactor Divorce in Flanders data set (616 children and parents) using a structural equation model. We conclude that living with a partner has a positive effect on parenting, whereas not living with the child has a relatively negative effect on parenting, regardless of the parental gender.
Late Gadolinium Enhancement Amount As an Independent Risk Factor for the Incidence of Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Stage C or D Heart Failure

Background: Myocardial fibrosis (MF) is a risk factor for poor prognosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) of the myocardium on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) represents MF. We examined whether the LGE amount increases the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with stage C or D heart failure (HF). Methods: Eighty-four consecutive patients with stage C or D HF, either ischemic or non-ischemic, were enrolled. Comprehensive clinical and CMR evaluations were performed. All patients were followed up for a composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, heart transplantation, and cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT-D). Results: LGE was present in 79.7% of the end-stage HF patients. LGE distribution patterns were mid-wall, epi-myocardial, endo-myocardial, and the morphological patterns were patchy, transmural, and diffuse. During the average follow-up of 544 days, 13 (15.5%) patients had endpoint events: 7 patients cardiac death, 2 patients heart transplantation, and 4 patients underwent CRT-D implantation. On univariate analysis, LGE quantification on cardiac magnetic resonance, blood urine nitrogen, QRS duration on electrocardiogram, left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD), and left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) on CMR had the strongest associations with the composite endpoint events. However, on multivariate analysis for both Model I (after adjusting for age, sex, and body mass index) and Model II (after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, renal function, QRS duration, and atrial fibrillation on electrocardiogram, the etiology of HF, LVEF, CMR-LVEDD, and CMR-LVEDV), LGE amount was a significant risk factor for composite endpoint events (Model I 6SD HR 1.037, 95%CI 1.005–1.071, p = 0.022; Model II 6SD HR 1.045, 95%CI 1.001–1.084, p = 0.022). Conclusion: LGE amount from high-scale threshold on CMR increased the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events for patients in either stage C or D HF.
An examination of the predictive factors of cyberbullying in adolescents

We examined the factors related to predicting cyberbullying behavior in adolescents, specifically demographics and the use of information and communication technologies. The study participants were 417 adolescents attending high school in Kir s ehir, Turkey. We used an individual information form and a cyberbullying scale to collect information and found that 149 (35.7%) of the adolescents had cyberbullied others at least once. Hierarchical regression analysis showed in Step 1 that age, gender, grade, father’s age, and family income were significant factors predictive of cyberbullying, and in Step 2 that owning a computer rather than just having access to one in a public library or Internet cafe, parental control of use of the Internet, and previously being bullied on the Internet were significant predictive factors. Based on these findings, we propose that effective strategies for the prevention of cyberbullying are parental supervision of adolescent use of information and communication technologies, education for parents and teachers, and offering information technology communication (media) literacy courses in schools.
Child Labor and School Decisions in Urban and Rural Areas: Cross Country Evidence

FCND Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results, and are circulated prior to a full peer review in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. It is expected that most Discussion Papers will eventually be published in some other form, and that their content may also be revised. Abstract Child labor is widespread in developing countries, but its causes are debatable. Poverty is considered the primary reason, but many theoretical and empirical analyses show that other factors, such as lack of access to credit, poor school quality, and labor market opportunities play equal or even greater roles in the decision to have children work. This study surveys the existing literature and, taking into account urban-rural divides, aims to shed light on the debate with empirical evidence from Nepal, Peru, and Zimbabwe. We find that while poverty drives child work and schooling in rural areas, it does not appear to significantly influence such decisions in urban areas. This suggests that policies such as trade sanctions or a ban on child labor in rural areas could have an adverse effect as child labor decisions in such areas are more likely a response to poverty and subsistence requirements. Similarly, improving access to credit has greater potential for alleviating child labor and enhancing school enrollment in rural than urban areas, particularly in Nepal and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the availability of alternative childcare options appears to considerably decrease child labor and create conditions for higher school attendance rates in urban than in rural areas. Finally, evidence from all three countries indicates that efforts to bolster adult educational levels and wages will help curb the prevalence and intensity of child labor and improve the likelihood that children stay in school.
An Empirical Examination of Peer Referrals in Online Crowdfunding

Observational learning and word-of-mouth are frequently confounded in online settings. Consumers purchase a product, enjoy it, and then refer others. In parallel, referral recipients observe a transmitter's interaction with the product and draw inferences about product quality. We aim to tease apart these effects using data on 42,000+ peer referrals at a leading crowdfunding platform. Our identification comes from the fact that referral transmitters can choose to conceal their prior contributions from public view, making observational learning impossible. We show that referrals are 30% more effective when the transmitter's past contributions are publicly visible. Moreover, visible prior contributions drive referral recipients to convert more quickly. Acknowledging the potential endogeneity of the referrer’s decision to conceal contributions, we demonstrate the robustness of our results following propensity score matching and discuss the implications for crowdfunding and WOM referrals.
Ancient transacting siRNAs modulate auxin sensitivity in the moss Physcomitrella patens

1. Watson School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA 2. Present address: Department of Biology, NYU Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York, NY, USA 3. National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan 4. Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan 5. Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA 6. Present address: Philipps-Universität Marburg, FB Biologie, Zellbiologie II, Marburg, Germany 7. Center for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Logarithmic Online Regret Bounds for Undiscounted Reinforcement Learning

We present a learning algorithm for undiscounted reinforcement learning. Our interest lies in bounds for the algorithm's online performance after some finite number of steps. In the spirit of similar methods already successfully applied for the exploration-exploitation tradeoff in multi-armed bandit problems, we use upper confidence bounds to show that our UCRL algorithm achieves logarithmic online regret in the number of steps taken with respect to an optimal policy.
Minimal Capture Sets for Multi-Exposure Enhanced-Dynamic-Range Imaging

Multi-exposure enhanced-dynamic-range imaging (MEDRI) is a common technique for overcoming the limited dynamic range of digital cameras. In MEDRI, the target scene is captured multiple times at different camera exposure settings. The resulting set of low-dynamic range images is then combined using software to create a single high-dynamic-range digital image of the target scene. In this paper we describe a general analytical framework for MEDRI systems. Based on this framework, we then present an optimal greedy algorithm for finding the minimum number of exposures required to capture the entire dynamic range of any MEDRI system. The resulting set of exposures is often significantly smaller than the entire set of available camera exposure settings, and therefore represents a significant speed-up in the HDR-image-acquisition process. We demonstrate this benefit via a case study. For the system considered, we show that minimal exposure set found via the optimal algorithm reduces the number of required LDR exposures from 16 to 3
Pre-Mesozoic Palinspastic Reconstruction of the Eastern Great Basin (Western United States)

The Great Basin of the western United States has proven important for studies of Proterozoic and Paleozoic geology [2500 to 245 million years ago (Ma)] and has been central to the development of ideas about the mechanics of crustal shortening and extension. An understanding of the deformational history of this region during Mesozoic and Cenozoic time (245 Ma to the present) is required for palinspastic reconstruction of now isolated exposures of older geology in order to place these in an appropriate regional geographic context. Considerable advances in unraveling both the crustal shortening that took place during Mesozoic to early Cenozoic time (especially from about 150 to 50 Ma) and the extension of the past 37 million years have shown that earlier reconstructions need to be revised significantly. A new reconstruction is developed for rocks of middle Proterozoic to Early Cambrian age based on evidence that total shortening by generally east-vergent thrusts and folds was at least 104 to 135 kilometers and that the Great Basin as a whole accommodated ∼250 kilometers of extension in the direction 287� � 12� between the Colorado Plateau and the Sierra Nevada. Extension is assumed to be equivalent at all latitudes because available paleomagnetic evidence suggests that the Sierra Nevada experienced little or no rotation with respect to the extension direction since the late Mesozoic. An estimate of the uncertainty in the amount of extension obtained from geological and paleomagnetic uncertainties increases northward from �56 kilometers at 36�30N to -87+108 kilometers at 40�N. On the basis of the reconstruction, the original width of the preserved part of the late Proterozoic and Early Cambrian basin was about 150 to 300 kilometers, about 60 percent of the present width, and the basin was oriented slightly more north-south with respect to present-day coordinates.
Blame assignment for higher-order contracts with intersection and union

We present an untyped calculus of blame assignment for a higher-order contract system with two new operators: intersection and union. The specification of these operators is based on the corresponding type theoretic constructions. This connection makes intersection and union contracts their inevitable dynamic counterparts with a range of desirable properties and makes them suitable for subsequent integration in a gradual type system. A denotational specification provides the semantics of a contract in terms of two sets: a set of terms satisfying the contract and a set of contexts respecting the contract. This kind of specification for contracts is novel and interesting in its own right. A nondeterministic operational semantics serves as the specification for contract monitoring and for proving its correctness. It is complemented by a deterministic semantics that is closer to an implementation and that is connected to the nondeterministic semantics by simulation. The calculus is the formal basis of TJS, a language embedded, higher-order contract system implemented for JavaScript.
Predictive factors and the prognosis of recurrence of colorectal cancer within 2 years after curative resection

Purpose Because predicting recurrence intervals and patterns would allow for appropriate therapeutic strategies, we evaluated the clinical and pathological characteristics of early and late recurrences of colorectal cancer. Methods Patients who developed recurrence after undergoing curative resection for colorectal cancer stage I-III between January 2000 and May 2006 were identified. Early recurrence was defined as recurrence within 2 years after primary surgery of colorectal cancer. Analyses were performed to compare the clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival rate between the early and late recurrence groups. Results One hundred fifty-eight patients experienced early recurrence and 64 had late recurrence. Multivariate analysis revealed that the postoperative elevation of carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), venous invasion, and N stage correlated with the recurrence interval. The liver was the most common site of early recurrence (40.5%), whereas late recurrence was more common locally (28.1%), or in the lung (32.8%). The 5-year overall survival rates for early and late recurrence were significantly different (34.7% vs. 78.8%; P < 0.001). Survival rates after the surgical resection of recurrent lesions were not different between the two groups. Conclusion Early recurrence within 2 years after surgery was associated with poor survival outcomes after colorectal cancer recurrence. An elevated postoperative CA 19-9 level, venous invasion, and advanced N stage were found to be significant risk factors for early recurrence of colorectal cancer.