Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting podcast preference: An analysis framework and its application

Finding worthwhile podcasts can be difﬁcult for listeners since podcasts are published in large numbers and vary widely with respect to quality and repute. Indepen-dently of their informational content, certain podcasts provide satisfying listening material while other podcasts have little or no appeal. In this paper we present Pod-Cred, a framework for analyzing listener appeal, and we demonstrate its application to the task of automatically predicting the listening preferences of users. First, we describe the PodCred framework, which consists of an inventory of factors contributing to user perceptions of the credibility and quality of podcasts. The framework is designed to support automatic prediction of whether or not a particular podcast will enjoy listener preference. It consists of four categories of indicators related to the Podcast Content ,the Podcaster ,the Podcast Context ,and the Technical Execution of the podcast. Three studies contributed to the development of the PodCred framework: a review of the literature on credibility for other media, a survey of prescriptive guidelines for podcast-ing, and a detailed data analysis. Next, we report on a validation exercise in which the PodCred framework is applied to a real-world podcast preference prediction task. Our validation focuses on select framework indicators that show promise of being both discriminative and readily accessible.We translate these indicators into a set of easily extractable “surface” features and use them to implement a basic classiﬁcation system. The experiments carried out to evaluate system use popularity levels in iTunes as ground truth and demonstrate that simple surface features derived from the PodCred framework are indeed useful for classifying podcasts.
Microwave sensor for imaging corrosion under coatings utilizing pattern recognition

The problem of detecting corrosion under coating has been under investigation for a long time where different methods were used. These methods included pulsed eddy currents, magnetic flux leakage, and microwaves-based sensing amongst others. This work proposes combining microwave sensing and artificial intelligence to build a nondestructive evaluation modality for imaging hidden corrosion underneath coatings in metallic structures. The response of the microwave sensor for each scanned position was classified using a binary pattern recognition model to build black and white images. Resultant images of different materials under test indicate high imaging lateral resolution.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and related tools for the imaging of foods and beverages on the nanoscale

Abstract: This chapter discusses the use of atomic force microscopy, atomic force spectroscopy and optical tweezers as tools for probing the nanostructures of foods and the molecular origins of the functional properties of foods and beverages. Emphasis is given to the uses of these techniques that have led to new insights in food science and to potential new applications in the near future.
Integrated neotectonic and morphometric analysis of northern Sicily

Sicily is characterised by active deformations, as suggested by the presence of very recent faulted deposits and by widespread seismicity. The northern portion of the Sicilian belt has undergone strike-slip tectonics since the Pliocene, as the effect of the south Tyrrhenian border dynamics. Integrated methodologies of analysis have been utilised to evaluate the neotectonic setting of the northern sector of the island. To this aim, we have elaborated mesostructural, morphotectonic and morphometric data obtained from field survey, photogeological analysis and from the elaboration of digital elevation model (DEM) data relative to 31 drainage basins. The data sets have been compared with the uplift rate and seismicity distributions, allowing us to recognise different crustal blocks into which the northern Sicily chain may be divided. Each block of the chain reflects the characteristic morphometric pattern of the drainage basins. The morphostructural setting, the distribution of seismicity and the orientation of the recent faults indicate that the main narrow neotectonic deformation zones bounding the crustal blocks range from NW-SE, NE-SW and W-E.
3D Reconstruction of Interior Wall Surfaces under Occlusion and Clutter

Laser scanners are often used to create 3D models of buildings for civil engineering applications. The current manual process is time-consuming and error-prone. This paper presents a method for using laser scanner data to model predominantly planar surfaces, such as walls, floors, and ceilings, despite the presence of significant amounts of clutter and occlusion, which occur frequently in natural indoor environments. Our goal is to recover the surface shape, detect and model any openings, and fill in the occluded regions. Our method identifies candidate surfaces for modeling, labels occluded surface regions, detects openings in each surface using supervised learning, and reconstructs the surface in the occluded regions. We evaluate the method on a large, highly cluttered data set of a building consisting of forty separate rooms.
Mountain Pine Beetle Host Selection Between Lodgepole and Ponderosa Pines in the Southern Rocky Mountains

Abstract Recent evidence of range expansion and host transition by mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins; MPB) has suggested that MPB may not primarily breed in their natal host, but will switch hosts to an alternate tree species. As MPB populations expanded in lodgepole pine forests in the southern Rocky Mountains, we investigated the potential for movement into adjacent ponderosa pine forests. We conducted field and laboratory experiments to evaluate four aspects of MPB population dynamics and host selection behavior in the two hosts: emergence timing, sex ratios, host choice, and reproductive success. We found that peak MPB emergence from both hosts occurred simultaneously between late July and early August, and the sex ratio of emerging beetles did not differ between hosts. In two direct tests of MPB host selection, we identified a strong preference by MPB for ponderosa versus lodgepole pine. At field sites, we captured naturally emerging beetles from both natal hosts in choice arenas containing logs of both species. In the laboratory, we offered sections of bark and phloem from both species to individual insects in bioassays. In both tests, insects infested ponderosa over lodgepole pine at a ratio of almost 2: 1, regardless of natal host species. Reproductive success (offspring/female) was similar in colonized logs of both hosts. Overall, our findings suggest that MPB may exhibit equally high rates of infestation and fecundity in an alternate host under favorable conditions.
Symmetry cooperative object transportation by multiple humanoid robots

This research aims to create a framework of transporting an object by multiple humanoid robots. In this work, a symmetric hybrid position/force control is adapted to two humanoid robots. The reference object position and attitude are given by an operator online, and the two humanoid robots generate its whole body motion to follow the reference object position properly. The result of proposed method is verified with a dynamics simulation.
Multilevel �-way Document Clustering : Experiments & Analysis

In recent years, we have witnessed a tremendous growth in the volume of text documents available on the Internet, digital libraries, news sources and company-wide intranets. This has led to an increased interest in developing methods that can help users to effectively navigate, summarize and organize this information with the ultimate goal of helping them find what they are looking for. Fast and high-quality document clustering algorithms play an important role towards this goal as they have been shown to provide both intuitive navigation/browsing mechanism by organizing large amounts of information into a small number of meaningful clusters as well as greatly improve the retrieval performance either via cluster-driven dimensionality reduction, term-weighting or query expansion. This ever increasing importance of document clustering and the expanded range of its applications led to the development of a number of new and novel algorithms with different complexity-quality tradeoffs. Among them, a class of clustering algorithms that have relatively low computational requirements are those that treat the clustering problem as an optimization process which seeks to maximize or minimize a particular clustering criterion function defined over the entire clustering solution. A common way of performing this optimization is to use a greedy strategy. Such greedy strategies are commonly used in the context of partitional clustering algorithms (e.g., -means), and for many criterion functions it has been shown that they converge to local minima. An alternate way is to use powerful optimizers to do the task and one such technique is the multi-level optimization, which has been effectively used in graph partitioning. In this paper we propose a multilevel optimization technique in the context of document clustering. We experimentally show that multilevel optimizers produce high quality clusters, take very less time and also are scalable to large datasets. Our experiments are conducted with a number of datasets collected from a variety of domains like politics, entertainment and science.
A new geological slip rate estimate for the Calico Fault, eastern California: implications for geodetic versus geologic rate estimates in the Eastern California Shear Zone

ABSTRACT Accurate estimation of fault slip rate is fundamental to seismic hazard assessment. Previous work suggested a discrepancy between short-term geodetic and long-term geologic slip rates in the Mojave Desert section of the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ). Understanding the origin of this discrepancy can improve understanding of earthquake hazard and fault evolution. We measured offsets in alluvial fans along the Calico Fault near Newberry Springs, California, and used several techniques to date the offset landforms and determine a slip rate. Our preferred slip rate estimate is 3.2 ± 0.4 mm/yr, representing an average over the last few hundred thousand years, faster than previous estimates. Seismic hazard associated with this fault may therefore be higher than previously assumed. We discuss possible biases in the various slip rate estimates and discuss possible reasons for the rate discrepancy. We suggest that the ECSZ discrepancy is an artefact of limited data, and represents a combination of faster slip on the Calico Fault, off-fault deformation, unmapped fault strands, and uncertainties in the geologic rates that have been underestimated. Assuming our new rate estimate is correct and a fair amount (40%) of off-fault deformation occurs on major ECSZ faults, the summed geologic rate estimate across the Mojave section of the ECSZ is 10.5 ± 3.1 mm/yr, which is equivalent within uncertainties to the geodetic rate estimate.
Transfer of Free Polymannose-type Oligosaccharides from the Cytosol to Lysosomes in Cultured Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma HEPG2 Cells

Large, free polymannose oligosaccharides generated during glycoprotein biosynthesis rapidly appear in the cytosol of HepG2 cells where they undergo processing by a cytosolic endo H–like enzyme and a mannosidase to yield the linear isomer of Man5GlcNAc (Man[α1-2]Man[α1-2]Man[α1-3][Man α1-6]Man[β14]GlcNAc). Here we have examined the fate of these partially trimmed oligosaccharides in intact HepG2 cells. Subsequent to pulse–chase incubations with d-[2- 3H]mannose followed by permeabilization of cells with streptolysin O free oligosaccharides were isolated from the resulting cytosolic and membrane-bound compartments. Control pulse–chase experiments revealed that total cellular free oligosaccharides are lost from HepG2 cells with a half-life of 3–4 h. In contrast use of the vacuolar H+/ATPase inhibitor, concanamycin A, stabilized total cellular free oligosaccharides and enabled us to demonstrate a translocation of partially trimmed oligosaccharides from the cytosol into a membrane-bound compartment. This translocation process was unaffected by inhibitors of autophagy but inhibited if cells were treated with either 100 μM swainsonine, which provokes a cytosolic accumulation of large free oligosaccharides bearing 8-9 residues of mannose, or agents known to reduce cellular ATP levels which lead to the accumulation of the linear isomer of Man5GlcNAc in the cytosol. Subcellular fractionation studies on Percoll density gradients revealed that the cytosol-generated linear isomer of Man5GlcNAc is degraded in a membrane-bound compartment that cosediments with lysosomes.
This Work Is Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License Date Deposited: Gaze-dependent Topography in Human Posterior Parietal Cortex

permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The brain must convert retinal coordinates into those required for directing an effector. One prominent theory holds that, through a combination of visual and motor/proprioceptive information, head-/ body-centered representations are computed within the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). An alternative theory, supported by recent visual and saccade functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) topographic mapping studies, suggests that PPC neurons provide a retinal/eye-centered coordinate system, in which the coding of a visual stimulus location and/or intended saccade endpoints should remain unaffected by changes in gaze position. To distinguish between a retinal/eye-centered and a head-/body-centered coordinate system, we measured how gaze direction affected the representation of visual space in the parietal cortex using fMRI. Subjects performed memory-guided saccades from a central starting point to locations " around the clock. " Starting points varied between left, central, and right gaze relative to the head-/body midline. We found that memory-guided saccadotopic maps throughout the PPC showed spatial reorganization with very subtle changes in starting gaze position , despite constant retinal input and eye movement metrics. Such a systematic shift is inconsistent with models arguing for a retinal/ eye-centered coordinate system in the PPC, but it is consistent with head-/body-centered coordinate representations.
The role of GABA-mediated inhibition in the rat ventral posterior medial thalamus. II. Differential effects of GABAA and GABAB receptor antagonists on responses of VPM neurons.

1. Changes in the response properties of 106 ventral posterior medial (VPM) units were assessed after iontophoretic blockade of gamma-aminobutyric acid-A or -B (GABAA or GABAB) receptor-mediated inhibition using bicuculline methiodide (BIC) or 2-hydroxy-saclofen (2-OH-S), respectively. 2. The iontophoretic administration of either BIC or 2-OH-S did not alter significantly the average spontaneous firing rate of VPM neurons for current intensities between 40 and 80 nA. The presence of 10 mM 2-OH-S (60 nA) was effective in completely reversing the depressant effects of the selective GABAB receptor agonist, baclofen, on the spontaneous activity of VPM neurons. 3. The effect of BIC on whisker-evoked responses was a preferential enhancement in the responses elicited by the whisker giving rise to the highest probability response (center receptive field whisker or CRF). The effect of 2-OH-S (40-80 nA iontophoretic currents) was to increase the responsiveness of VPM neurons to the stimulation of whiskers in all parts of the receptive field (RF), although its influence was much more pronounced in the peripheral areas of the RF (surround receptive field whisker or SRF). This preferential enhancement of SRF-whisker responses after the blockade of GABAB receptor-mediated inhibition resulted in a 2.3-fold increase in the average RF size of VPM neurons; no statistically significant increases in the size of the RF were seen in the presence of BIC. 4. The primary influence of BIC and, to a lesser degree, 2-OH-S was to prolong the response duration of VPM neurons to CRF whisker stimulation. Under our recording conditions, approximately 25% of VPM neurons in normal animals responded with sustained discharges. In the presence of BIC and 2-OH-S, the percent of VPM units that could be classified as tonically responding increased to 82% and 67%, respectively. 5. The proportion of VPM neurons that was selective to the deflection of whiskers in a particular direction (87%) was not altered in the presence of BIC or 2-OH-S. 6. BIC was effective in antagonizing GABA-mediated inhibition within the first 40 ms of a stimulus; BIC was completely ineffective in reversing a late suppression seen between 80 and 140 ms. In contrast, no statistically significant changes in the initial GABA-mediated inhibition were seen in the presence of 2-OH-S, but 2-OH-S was partially effective in antagonizing the late suppression of responses in VPM neurons. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
From ELF to Compressibility in Solids

Understanding the electronic nature of materials’ compressibility has always been a major issue behind tabulation and rationalization of bulk moduli. This is especially because this understanding is one of the main approaches to the design and proposal of new materials with a desired (e.g., ultralow) compressibility. It is well recognized that the softest part of the solid will be the one responsible for its compression at the first place. In chemical terms, this means that the valence will suffer the main consequences of pressurization. It is desirable to understand this response to pressure in terms of the valence properties (charge, volume, etc.). One of the possible approaches is to consider models of electronic separability, such as the bond charge model (BCM), which provides insight into the cohesion of covalent crystals in analogy with the classical ionic model. However, this model relies on empirical parametrization of bond and lone pair properties. In this contribution, we have coupled electron localization function (ELF) ab initio data with the bond charge model developed by Parr in order to analyze solid state compressibility from first principles and moreover, to derive general trends and shed light upon superhard behavior.
Effects of past mining on the quality of water resources in Sardinia

s of the International Mine Water Conference 19 – 23 October 2009 Proceedings ISBN Number: 978-0-9802623-5-3 Pretoria, South Africa Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies cc Conference organised by: Cilla Taylor Conferences EFFECTS OF PAST MINING ON THE QUALITY OF WATER RESOURCES IN SARDINIA ROSA CIDU and FRANCO FRAU University of Cagliari, Department of Earth Sciences, via Trentino 51, 09127 Cagliari, Italy; E-mail: cidur@unica.it (R. Cidu), frauf@unica.it (F. Frau)
Visual Fatigue Relaxation for Stereoscopic Video via Nonlinear Disparity Remapping

A nonlinear disparity remapping scheme is presented to enhance the visual comfort of stereoscopic videos. The stereoscopic video is analyzed for predicting a degree of fatigue with the viewpoint of three factors: 1) spatial frequency; 2) disparity magnitude; and 3) disparity motion. The degree of fatigue is then estimated in a local manner. It can be visualized as an index map so-called a “visual fatigue map,” and an overall fatigue score is obtained by pooling the visual fatigue map. Based on this information, a nonlinear remapping operator is generated in two phases: 1) disparity range adaptation and 2) operator nonlinearization. First, a disparity range is automatically adjusted according to the determined overall fatigue score. Second, rather than linearly adjusting the disparity range of an original video to the determined disparity range, a nonlinear remapping operator is constructed in a manner that the disparity range of inducible problematic region is compressed, while that of comfortable region is stretched. The proposed scheme is verified via subjective evaluations where visual fatigue and depth sensation are compared among original videos, linearly remapped videos, and nonlinearly remapped videos. Experimental results show that the nonlinearly remapped videos provide more comfort than the linearly remapped videos without losing depth sensation.
Parallel adaptive technique for computing PageRank

Re-ranking the search results using PageRank is a well-known technique used in modern search engines. Running an iterative algorithm like PageRank on a large Web graph consumes both much computing resource and time. This paper therefore proposes a parallel adaptive technique for computing PageRank using the PC cluster. Following the study of the Stanford WebBase group on convergence patterns of PageRank scores of pages using the conventional PageRank algorithm, PageRank scores of most pages converge more quickly than the remainder, we then devise our parallel adaptive algorithm to reiterate the computation for pages whose PageRank scores are still not converged. From experiments using a synthesized Web graph of 28 million pages and around 227 million hyperlinks, we obtain the acceleration rate up to 6-8 times using 32 PC processors.
PLUTO: Automated Solutions for Patent Translation

PLUTO is a commercial development project supported by the European Commission as part of the FP7 programme which aims to eliminate the language barriers that exist worldwide in the provision of multilingual access to patent information. The project consortium comprises four partners: the Centre for Next Generation Localisation at Dublin City University, ESTeam AB, CrossLang, and the Dutch Patent Information User Group (WON). Research and development is carried out in close collaboration with user groups and intellectual property (IP) professionals to ensure solutions and software are delivered that meet actual user needs.
Early Facial Expression Recognition Using Hidden Markov Models

Although it is often necessary to recognize users' expressions as soon as possible after it starts and before it ends in many applications, few methods have been proposed explicitly for early facial expression recognition. In this paper, we propose an early facial expression recognition method by using Hidden Markov Model. The relative displacement of the feature points between the current frame and the neutral frame are extracted as the facial features. During training, an iterative algorithm is introduced to find a classification entropy threshold and model parameters of early HMM. During testing, an image sequence is assigned an expression category when the entropy of the expression likelihood obtained from early HMMs is below the threshold by gradually increasing sequence length. Experimental results on CK+ and MMI databases show the effectiveness of our approach.