Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scaling up Open Tagging from Tens to Thousands: Comprehension Empowered Attribute Value Extraction from Product Title

Supplementing product information by extracting attribute values from title is a crucial task in e-Commerce domain. Previous studies treat each attribute only as an entity type and build one set of NER tags (e.g., BIO) for each of them, leading to a scalability issue which unfits to the large sized attribute system in real world e-Commerce. In this work, we propose a novel approach to support value extraction scaling up to thousands of attributes without losing performance: (1) We propose to regard attribute as a query and adopt only one global set of BIO tags for any attributes to reduce the burden of attribute tag or model explosion; (2) We explicitly model the semantic representations for attribute and title, and develop an attention mechanism to capture the interactive semantic relations in-between to enforce our framework to be attribute comprehensive. We conduct extensive experiments in real-life datasets. The results show that our model not only outperforms existing state-of-the-art NER tagging models, but also is robust and generates promising results for up to 8,906 attributes.
2. RECENT RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

From its beginnings to the present, research in the field of language maintenance and shift has advocated the preservation of ethnic minority and immigrant languages. This review of current published literature, which continues that advocacy, focuses on a narrow time frame (approximately 1998–2002) in order to provide broad, worldwide coverage of different language contact situations. The discussion largely excludes questions of language policy and planning, but includes studies that use traditional as well as newer methodologies to illuminate how educational institutions, the media, ethnic language literacy, family relationships, and friendship networks—to name the more significant factors in maintenance—can be employed to encourage maintenance and language revitalization. After considering recent theoretical and critical works, this review surveys various countries in which research within ethnic and minority language communities illuminates language maintenance, or shift, or revitalization for that group. Current research suggests that use of the ethnic language in the family and friendship networks and its transgenerational transmission are still of crucial importance, as are the conditions in the greater society that provide support for its linguistic viability as a means of communication within and outside the immediate community.
Generalized fiducial inference for graded response models

YANG LIU: GENERALIZED FIDUCIAL INFERENCE FOR GRADED RESPONSE MODELS. (Under the direction of David Thissen) Generalized fiducial inference (GFI) has been proposed as an alternative inferential framework in the statistical literature. Inferences of various sorts, such as confidence regions for (possibly transformed) model parameters, making prediction about future observations, and goodness of fit evaluation, can be constructed from a fiducial distribution defined on the parameter space in a fashion similar to those used with a Bayesian posterior. However, no prior distribution needs to be specified. In this work, the general recipe of GFI is applied to the graded response models, which are widely used in psychological and educational studies for analyzing ordered categorical survey questionnaire data. Asymptotic optimality of GFI is established (Chapter 2), and a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed for sampling from the resulting fiducial distribution (Chapter 3). The comparative performance of GFI, maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches is evaluated via Monte Carlo simulations (Chapter 4). The use of GFI as a convenient and powerful tool to quantify sampling variability in various inferential procedures is illustrated by an empirical data analysis using the patient-reported emotional distress data (Chapter 5).
On designing a reconfigurable fault-tolerant pyramid tree network architecture

A new dynamically reconfigurable modular approach for pyramid tree network architecture is presented. A module, in which three primary processing elements (PEs) are supported by a spare processing element (SP), can be considered as a basic building block and it perfectly suits the VLSI design methodology in forming the complete fault-tolerant pyramid tree. Reconfiguration of the PEs is simple and local to the module. Since SPs can be shared across the module boundaries, multiple PE failures in a module can be tolerated. It is also shown that in addition to PE failures, this design can tolerate up to a certain extent SP failures as well. A switch structure, a simple reconfiguration algorithm, and a VLSI layout of the design are also presented. The reliability analysis shows a substantial increase in the system reliability of the proposed design over the nonredundant architecture. A yield analysis comes up with a promising result regarding single-chip implementation of the pyramid tree. <<ETX>>
From the bottom up - A systematic study of structure based coarse graining approaches

Computer simulations of soft matter require a compromise to be made between the computational efficiency and the resolution of a model studied. Highly resolved models can give insights into the interactions between individual atoms in a soft material. But, since these atomistic models are computational expensive, they are limited to small length scales and short time scales, which makes it difficult to compare simulation results with the ones from experiments in the laboratory. On the other hand, continuum models enable the study of soft matter at larger length and longer time scales and are computationally less expensive, but they rather focus on macroscopic properties than on their atomistic origin. A possible way to bridge the gap between these scales is to perform simulations at an intermediate level of resolution. The problem, which exists at this mesoscopic scale, is the lack of accurate models. Hence, new ones have to be built. The process to construct mesoscopic models based on information from the atomistic scale is commonly referred to as bottom-up coarse graining. Bottom-up coarse graining describes the process of lowering the resolution of a atomistic model to make it applicable at larger length and time scales. The major goal of this Ph.D. thesis is to increase the knowledge on so called structure-based bottom-up coarse graining techniques.These methods enable the derivation of coarse grained (CG) models, which accurately reproduce the structure of an atomistic or fine grained (FG) model at the mesoscopic scale. The shortcomings of different structure-based methods are carefully analyzed and new approaches to overcome them are presented.
The Visualisation Capability of Self-Organizing Maps to Detect Deviations in Distribution Control

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the visualisation capability of self- organizing maps and their usability in distribution control. The self- organizing maps are a special form of neural networks that are good in clustering and dimensionality reduction and could therefore be used in observing the significant deviations between an actual and a norm delivery such as previous or expected deliveries. However, many factors, such as data pre-processing and the size of the map, affect the goodness of the map''s representation, and we do not have exact rules for creating an optimal map. Instead, we have methods to analyse the goodness of resulting maps and their visualisation. In practice this means that the building process includes a construction of many, even tens of maps and afterwards a selection of the best one for the purpose. However, we anticipate that if the network building is too complicated, the user will loose her or his interest to use it in distribution control. For this reason, we concentrate on two issues in this study. First, we illustrate the impact of the map size on the accuracy of the visualisation. Second, we investigate how the number of customers and their shipments in the training data set influences the deviation detection. As a result, we found that both issues affect the goodness of the map. However, when considering the maps'' usability, these are not too severe factors. Hence, we do not need to pay too much attention to them in network building for deviation detection in distribution control.
Frequency-dependent C-V Characteristic-based Extraction of Interface Trap Density in Normally-off Gate-recessed AlGaN/GaN Heterojunction Field-effect Transistors

It is essential to acquire an accurate and simple technique for extracting the interface trap density (Dit) in order to characterize the normally-off gate-recessed AlGaN/GaN hetero field-effect transistors (HFETs) because they can undergo interface trap generation induced by the etch damage in each interfacial layer provoking the degradation of device performance as well as serious instability. Here, the frequency-dependent capacitance-voltage (C-V) method (FDCM) is proposed as a simple and fast technique for extracting Dit and demonstrated in normally-off gate-recessed AlGaN/GaN HFETs. The FDCM is found to be not only simpler than the conductance method along with the same precision, but also much useful for a simple C-V model for AlGaN/GaN HFETs because it identifies frequency-independent and bias- dependent capacitance components.
Video transmission over a radio link using H.261 and DECT

A system for transmitting a compressed video signal over a radio link has been developed. The scheme involves altering the output bitstream of an H.261 videocodec to allow data transmission over a DECT demonstrator system. The system was used to demonstrate acceptable picture quality at bit rates between 32 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s. The high error rate possible for a radio link requires that techniques for improving the error resilience of the coding scheme be investigated. The resilience may be improved by forward error correction, interleaving of the data stream and by repeating blocks which have been corrupted by transmission. The viability of the system has been proven by hardware trials but further study is required before the system is usable on a real network. >
Optimizing Distributed Network Monitoring for NFV Service Chains

Efficient and coordinated network monitoring is key to realize the full potential of software-based network infrastructures. In this context, coordinated network monitoring refers to the ability of i) collecting network traffic in a flexible way (i.e., along the path and with different granularities), ii) placing monitoring sinks effectively, and iii) forward collected network traffic efficiently to monitoring sinks. In this letter, we argue that the coordinated network monitoring is another cornerstone for delivering the best-of-breed out of network function virtualization (NFV) infrastructures and an essential step toward fully customized monitoring deployments. We introduce the distributed network monitoring (DNM) problem and propose an optimization model. By coordinating the placement of monitoring sinks and the forwarding of network monitoring traffic, DNM allows finer-grained network monitoring with limited overheads. Results indicate that the DNM outperforms the state-of-the-art telemetry solution by a factor of 3, and reduces of up to 80% in network monitoring traffic that is routed through the network infrastructure.
Do classroom textbooks encourage learner autonomy

The development of learner autonomy is widely seen as beneficial in preparing students for lifelong learning. It is also recognised that most learners need explicit instruction in skills for independent learning. Classrooms provide a natural opportunity to develop these skills in learners. As textbooks play such an important role in most classrooms, it is important to ask to what extent they prepare learners for their future learning. Surprisingly, this has not been done before. This study investigated five English textbooks, commonly used in classrooms worldwide, to determine the 1) range and 2) frequency of advice given to learners about the language learning process. It uses an evaluative framework to identify advice relating to the different aspects of the independent learning process. The study found that the textbooks do little to foster learner autonomy and that when they do, they offer limited opportunity for practice to students.
Consumer use of package directions of varying formats for familiar and unfamiliar food products

Cooking or handling directions found on a food package are among the many pieces of information conveyed to the consumer through packaging. This study examined consumer use of preparation directions for food products and which of three formats of directions (paragraph, step-by-step, and graphical/text) consumers prefer. The study was conducted in two parts: (1) a quantitative survey of food preparers and (2) product preparation/focus groups. For the product preparation, both a familiar (macaroni) and an unfamiliar (stuffing mix) food product were prepared. Results from the survey indicated that most consumers said that they read directions. However, our focus groups showed that consumers read only directions for the unfamiliar product and then followed what they considered to be essential information. When given a choice, consumers prefer directions that are easy to read and quick to reread, such as a step-by-step or graphical/text format.
Written English into spoken: A functional discourse analysis of American, Indian, and Chinese TA presentations

International teaching assistants (ITAs) often receive specialized training because their spoken English is not easily comprehensible. Lack of comprehensibility may be influenced by grammatical issues (Tyler, 1994), incorrect or inadequate discourse structure (Tyler, 1992; Williams, 1992), or aspects of their pronunciation, such as unclear sentence focus (Hahn, 2004) or intonation (Pickering, 2001; Wennerstrom, 1998). Problems with comprehensibility may be compounded by ITAs having learned English through formal, written models. However, we do not know how ITAs change written text into an oral lecture, nor how their strategies differ from those of native teaching assistants (NTAs) doing the same task. This paper reports results of such a study. We video-recorded three different groups of engineering TAs (American, Chinese, and Indian) presenting information from a textbook passage. Each TA was asked to read the same passage taken from a first-year college physics textbook, and then to teach the content in spoken English. Presentations were transcribed and analyzed using a Systemic Functional Linguistics approach (Halliday, 1994; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Mohan, 2007). Changes made by each group of TAs from the written to the spoken language were compared, and the strategies used by each group to mark their changes from written into spoken language were examined. The results provide
Beyond BLEU:Training Neural Machine Translation with Semantic Similarity

While most neural machine translation (NMT)systems are still trained using maximum likelihood estimation, recent work has demonstrated that optimizing systems to directly improve evaluation metrics such as BLEU can significantly improve final translation accuracy. However, training with BLEU has some limitations: it doesn’t assign partial credit, it has a limited range of output values, and it can penalize semantically correct hypotheses if they differ lexically from the reference. In this paper, we introduce an alternative reward function for optimizing NMT systems that is based on recent work in semantic similarity. We evaluate on four disparate languages trans-lated to English, and find that training with our proposed metric results in better translations as evaluated by BLEU, semantic similarity, and human evaluation, and also that the optimization procedure converges faster. Analysis suggests that this is because the proposed metric is more conducive to optimization, assigning partial credit and providing more diversity in scores than BLEU
Generalized Two-Magnitude Check Node Updating with Self Correction for 5G LDPC Codes Decoding

The min-sum (MS) and approximate-min* (a-min*) algorithms are alternatives of the belief propagation (BP) algorithm for decoding low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. To lower the BP decoding complexity, both algorithms compute two magnitudes at each check node (CN) and pass them to the neighboring variable nodes (VNs). In this work we propose a new algorithm, ga-min*, that generalizes the MS and a-min* in terms of number of incoming messages to a CN.We analyze and demonstrate a condition to improve the performance when applying self-correction to the ga-min*. Simulations on 5G LDPC codes show that the proposed decoding algorithm yields comparable performance to the a-min* with a significant reduction in complexity, and it is robust against LLR mismatch. (Less)
Dynamic Econometric Modeling

This book brings together presentations of some of the fundamental new research that has begun to appear in the areas of dynamic structural modeling, nonlinear structural modeling, time series modeling, nonparametric inference, and chaotic attractor inference. The contents of this volume comprise the proceedings of the third of a conference series entitled International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics. This conference was held at the IC;s2 (Innovation, Creativity and Capital) Institute at the University of Texas at Austin on May 22â€“23, l986.
Natural Language Generation: Recently Learned Lessons, Directions for Semantic Representation-based Approaches, and the Case of Brazilian Portuguese Language

This paper presents a more recent literature review on Natural Language Generation. In particular, we highlight the efforts for Brazilian Portuguese in order to show the available resources and the existent approaches for this language. We also focus on the approaches for generation from semantic representations (emphasizing the Abstract Meaning Representation formalism) as well as their advantages and limitations, including possible future directions.
Fast Post Processing Algorithms For Fault Tolerant Quantum Computation using Surface Codes

Local architecture of qubits in two dimensional lattices is known as one of the candidates to run fault tolerant quantum computation with high threshold. Topological quantum error correcting codes, such as surface codes, are used to make this architecture robust against various quantum error models. In this research we present a fast, concise, operationally inexpensive and highly parallelizable decoding algorithm for surface codes without using concatenation which has a threshold range of 8.6% to 10.5% varying based on a parameter called OMSS. Thanks to parallelization of the proposed algorithm, the time complexity scales logarithmically in the lattice size for small OMSS. This can be compared to the work of [9, 10] which has a threshold of 8% for the bit-flip error channel within the same complexity order.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ARABIC STEMMING ALGORITHMS

In the context of Information Retrieval, Arabic stemming algorithms have become a most research area of information retrieval. Many researchers have developed algorithms to solve the problem of stemming. Each researcher proposed his own methodology and measurements to test the performance and compute the accuracy of his algorithm. Thus, nobody can make accurate comparisons between these algorithms. Many generic conflation techniques and stemming algorithms are theoretically analyzed in this paper. Then, the main Arabic language characteristics that are necessary to be mentioned before discussing Arabic stemmers are summarized. The evaluation of the algorithms in this paper shows that Arabic stemming algorithm is still one of the most information retrieval challenges. This paper aims to compare the most of the commonly used light stemmers in terms of affixes lists, algorithms, main ideas, and information retrieval performance. The results show that the light10 stemmer outperformed the other stemmers. Finally, recommendations for future research regarding the development of a standard Arabic stemmer were presented.
New paradigm of silicon technology

We present a new paradigm of Si technologies to establish a gigahertz-operation gigascale integrated system large-scale integration (LSI), including digital and analog circuits. According to the theoretical analysis of high-speed signal propagation properties in the practical LSI structure, a gas-isolated-interconnect high-k gate dielectric metal-gate metal-substrate silicon-on-insulator (SOI) LSI structure is proposed as a possible solution for a future gigahertz GSI system LSI, where the clock rate is improved up to beyond 10 GHz and the minimum feature size is reduced down to 0.035 /spl mu/m in keeping with the continuous progress of the LSI's speed performance. Perfect scientific manufacturing free from fluctuations consisting of total low-temperature high-quality and high-speed processes based on very high-density plasma having very low electron temperatures is essential to realize them.
Examining the “Male, Antisocial” Stereotype of High Computer Users

The popular stereotype of the frequent computer user persists to be one of a male, socially inadequate and isolated individual—a perception which has been found to cause many students to avoid coming into contact with information and communications technology (ICT), both inside and outside of school. This article reports on a study examining the gender and social competency of both frequent and infrequent computer-using students in Year 12 (n = 117). The results suggest that students who are highly oriented toward ICT are just as likely to be female as they are male and are no less sociable, popular, or self-assured than their non-ICT using peers. These data are then contrasted with interview data from the “high” and “low” using students which suggest that negative stereotyping of the computer-using student persists —although primarily among students not engaging with ICT in school. The article postulates that the vast increases in ICT use in schools over the last ten years has created a more accessible “computer culture” to which increasing numbers of students are now subscribing; although teachers need to be aware of the persistence of the male, anti-social stereotype within elements of the student body.