Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring Usability and Learnability of Mode Inferencing in Pen/Tablet Interfaces

The inferred mode protocol uses contextual reasoning and local mediators to eliminate the need to access specific modes to perform draw, select, move and delete operations in a sketch interface. In this paper, we describe an observational experiment to understand the learnability, user preference and frequency of use of mode inferencing in a sketch application. The experiment demonstrated that those participants instructed in the interface features liked the fluid transitions between modes. As well, interaction techniques were not self-revealing: Participants who were not instructed in interaction techniques took longer to learn about inferred mode features and were more negative about the interaction techniques. Over multiple sketching sessions, as users develop expertise with the system, we find that they combine inferred mode techniques to speed interaction, and frequently make use of scratch space on the display to retrain themselves and to tune their behaviors. Our results inform the design of sketch interface techniques that incorporate noncommand features.
A transform domain LMS adaptive filter with variable step-size

We introduce a new transform domain (least mean square) LMS algorithm with variable step. The existing approaches use different time-variable step-sizes for each filter tap. The step-sizes are time-variable due to the power estimates of each transform coefficient. In our new approach, for each step-size we define a local component that is given by the power normalization, and a global component that is the same for each filter coefficient. We show that if the global component is also made time-variable, depending on the output error, the speed of convergence can be significantly improved.
Feature-distributed sparse regression: a screen-and-clean approach

Most existing approaches to distributed sparse regression assume the data is partitioned by samples. However, for high-dimensional data (D >> N), it is more natural to partition the data by features. We propose an algorithm to distributed sparse regression when the data is partitioned by features rather than samples. Our approach allows the user to tailor our general method to various distributed computing platforms by trading-off the total amount of data (in bits) sent over the communication network and the number of rounds of communication. We show that an implementation of our approach is capable of solving L1-regularized L2 regression problems with millions of features in minutes.
The risk management of everything: rethinking the politics of uncertainty

Demos is a greenhouse for new ideas which can improve the quality of our lives. As an independent think tank, we aim to create an open resource of knowledge and learning that operates beyond traditional party politics. We connect researchers, thinkers and practitioners to an international network of people changing politics. Our ideas regularly influence government policy, but we also work with companies, NGOs, colleges and professional bodies. Demos knowledge is organised around five themes, which combine to create new perspectives. The themes are democracy, learning, enterprise, quality of life and global change. But we also understand that thinking by itself is not enough. Demos has helped to initiate a number of practical projects which are delivering real social benefit through the redesign of public services. We bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds to cross-fertilise ideas and experience. By working with Demos, our partners develop a sharper insight into the way ideas shape society. For Demos, the process is as important as the final product. Open access. Some rights reserved. As the publisher of this work,Demos has an open access policy which enables anyone to access our content electronically without charge. We want to encourage the circulation of our work as widely as possible without affecting the ownership of the copyright,which remains with the copyright holder. Users are welcome to download,save,perform or distribute this work electronically or in any other format, including in foreign language translation without written permission subject to the conditions set out in the Demos open access licence which you can read at the back of this publication. Please read and consider the full licence.The following are some of the conditions imposed by the licence: ● Demos and the author(s) are credited; ● The Demos website address (www.demos.co.uk) is published together with a copy of this policy statement in a prominent position; ● The text is not altered and is used in full (the use of extracts under existing fair usage rights is not affected by this condition); ● The work is not resold; ● A copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to the address below for our archive. You are welcome to ask for permission to use this work for purposes other than those covered by the Demos open access licence.
Similar data elimination: MFB algorithm

Nowadays, the complex applications such as knowledge extraction, data mining, E-learning and web applications use heterogeneous and distributed data. In this context, the need for integration and improving data quality is increasingly felt. The problem of eliminating duplicates and similar data is still relevant in terms of both performance and in terms of the definition of similarity rules. We present in this paper a new deduplication algorithm based on the two functions Match and Merge. An evaluation is made experimentally using a set of randomly generated data.
High Power , Low Power , and Equality : Culture Beyond Individualism and CollectivismHIGH

Models of culture are operationalized as individualism and collectivism and have not given sufficient attention to other organizing axes—especially how a society handles power, dependence, and equality. Shavitt, Lalwani, Zhang, and Torelli (2006) make a significant contribution by first reminding the field of power distance (Hofstede, 1980) and then moving beyond a single factor to highlight benefits of Triandis’ (1995) horizontal (valuing equality) individualism–collectivism and vertical (emphasizing hierarchy) individualism–collectivism model. But this approach makes it difficult to disentangle the effects of power and individualism or collectivism; priming procedures and experimental variations of power can counter this limitation. Moreover, current horizontal/vertical approaches do not distinguish between having and not having power, although social cognition research documented differential effects of high and low power on content of self-concept, relationality, and cognition, which suggest previously neglected cultural differences.
Is Field of Study or Location Associated with College Students' Snacking Patterns?

Objective. To compare on- and off-campus snacking patterns among college students pursuing degrees in health-related fields (HRFs) and nonhealth-related fields (NHRFs). Materials and Methods. Snack frequency questionnaire, scales measuring barriers, self-efficacy, and stage of change for healthy snacking, and a snack knowledge test (SKT). Participants. 513 students, 46% HRFs, and 54% NHRFs. The students' mean ± SD BMI was 24.1 ± 4.3 kg/m2 (range 14.6 to 43.8), and 32.2% were overweight/obese. Results. Softdrinks (on-campus), lowfat milk (off-campus), and sports drinks were popular among HRFs and NHRFs. Cost and availability were barriers to healthy snacking, students felt least confident to choose healthy snacks when emotionally upset, and 75% (65%) of HRFs (NHRFs) self-classified in the action stage of change for healthy snacking. The HRFs scored higher on the SKT. Conclusions. Neither location nor field of study strongly influenced snacking patterns, which featured few high-fiber foods.
Dual-scale pattern formation in nanoparticle assemblies

A pseudo-3D lattice gas-based Monte Carlo simulation is used to reproduce dual-scale nonequilibrium structures formed from drying colloidal nanoparticle solutions. Morphologies possessing multiple length scale features are recreated by coupling the chemical potential to the solvent density, modeling a film thickness-dependent disjoining pressure. By assigning a sigmoidal form to the chemical potential, a switch in the dewetting mechanism at a threshold solvent density is capable of producing nanoparticle patterning at two length scales. Dual-scale cellular networks, and nanoparticle ring and fingering structures coexisting with small scale patterning, can all be generated in this way with suitable simulation parameters. Extensive exploration of the model’s parameter space maps the temperature-dependent spinodal line and demonstrates the influence of nanoparticle concentration on morphology.
Developments in the roles, features, and evaluation of alerting algorithms for disease outbreak monitoring

utomated systems for public health surveillance have evolved over the past several years as national and local institutions have been learning the most effective ways to share and apply population health information for outbreak investigation and tracking. The changes have included developments in algorithmic alerting methodology. This article presents research efforts at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for advancing this methodology. The analytic methods presented cover outcome variable selection, background estimation, determination of anomalies for alerting, and practical evaluation of detection performance. The methods and measures are adapted from information theory, signal processing, financial forecasting, and radar engineering for effective use in the biosurveillance data environment. Examples are restricted to univariate algorithms for daily time series of syndromic data, with discussion of future generalization and enhancement.
Characterization of a Truncated Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor in a Primitive Metazoan, the Parasitic Flatworm Schistosoma mansoni

A novel glutamate-binding protein was identified in Schistosoma mansoni. The protein (SmGBP) is related to metabotropic glutamate receptors from other species and has a predicted glutamate binding site located within a Venus Flytrap module but it lacks the heptahelical transmembrane segment that normally characterizes these receptors. The SmGBP cDNA was cloned, verified by 5′ and 3′ Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RACE) and shown to be polyadenylated at the 3′end, suggesting the transcript is full-length. The cloned cDNA was subsequently expressed in bacteria and shown to encode a functional glutamate-binding protein. Other studies, using a specific peptide antibody, determined that SmGBP exists in two forms, a monomer of the expected size and a stable but non-covalent dimer. The monomer and dimer are both present in the membrane fraction of S. mansoni and are resistant to extraction with high-salt, alkaline pH and urea, suggesting SmGBP is either an integral membrane protein or a peripheral protein that is tightly associated with the membrane. Surface biotinylation experiments combined with western blot analyses and confocal immunolocalization revealed that SmGBP localized to the surface membranes of adult male schistosomes, especially the dorsal tubercles. In contrast, we detected little or no expression of SmGBP either in the females or larval stages. A comparative quantitative PCR analysis confirmed that the level of SmGBP expression is several-fold higher in male worms than cercariae, and it is barely detectable in adult females. Together, the results identify SmGBP as a new type of schistosome glutamate receptor that is both gender- and stage-specific. The high-level expression of this protein in the male tubercles suggests a possible role in host-parasite interaction.
High-Field fMRI for Human Applications: An Overview of Spatial Resolution and Signal Specificity

In the last decade, dozens of 7 Tesla scanners have been purchased or installed around the world, while 3 Tesla systems have become a standard. This increased interest in higher field strengths is driven by a demonstrated advantage of high fields for available signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the magnetic resonance signal. Functional imaging studies have additional advantages of increases in both the contrast and the spatial specificity of the susceptibility based BOLD signal. One use of this resultant increase in the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) for functional MRI studies at high field is increased image resolution. However, there are many factors to consider in predicting exactly what kind of resolution gains might be made at high fields, and what the opportunity costs might be. The first part of this article discusses both hardware and image quality considerations for higher resolution functional imaging. The second part draws distinctions between image resolution, spatial specificity, and functional specificity of the fMRI signals that can be acquired at high fields, suggesting practical limitations for attainable resolutions of fMRI experiments at a given field, given the current state of the art in imaging techniques. Finally, practical resolution limitations and pulse sequence options for studies in human subjects are considered.
Mitigation and Pragmatic Empathy

In the pragmatics literature the relationship between mitigation and pragmatic empathy remains largely an underexplored, or even worse, a controversial issue, giving rise to the formulation of divergent views of empathy in mitigation. While I treat empathy as a working mechanism providing a general explanation of how mitigation works, Caffi (1999; 2007; 2013) adopts a “paradox” view on it. The purpose of this paper is to track down the sources of divergence by comparing and contrasting our conceptualizations of mitigation. It is found that the biggest difference lies in the treatment of intersubjectivity. However, although I argue in favor of my empathic view, I see it as complementary, rather than contradictory, to Caffi’s view. The relationship between mitigation and politeness is revisited with its implications for teaching pragmatics briefly discussed.
Efficient large-domain MoM solutions to electrically large practical EM problems

A numerical method is presented for the analysis and design of a wide variety of electromagnetic (EM) structures consisting of dielectric and conducting parts of arbitrary shapes. The method is based on the integral-equation formulation in frequency domain, and represents a large domain (high-order expansion) Galerkin-type version of the method of moments (MoM). The method is formulated in two versions concerning the type of the equivalence (volume and surface) utilized in the treatment of the dielectric parts of the structure. The generality, versatility, accuracy, and practicality of the method and code are demonstrated on four very diverse, electrically large, and complex EM problems. The examples are: an X-band reflector antenna modeled after a bat's ear, which is about 11/spl lambda//sup 3/ large at X-band; a broad-band (0.5-4.5 GHz) nested array of crossed loaded dipoles; an EM system consisting of a dipole antenna and a human body, and a broad-band (1-5 GHz) microstrip-fed Vivaldi antenna with a high-permittivity dielectric substrate. The central processing unit times with a modest personal computer are on the order of several minutes for a single-frequency application.
AN ANALYSIS OF IMPLICITLY YEAR QUALIFIED QUERIES

A significant fraction of search queries relate to topics tha t are time dependent, where the ideal result changes from one time-span to the next. Desp ite their prevalance and importance, such queries have been largely ignored. In this paper 1, we focus on a subset of temporal queries known as implicitly year qualified queries. Such queries, wh ich include “olympics” and “miss universe” implicitly depend on the year. We describe an efficien t algorithm for automatically mining these queries using query log analysis. We apply our algorit hm to a large query log consisting of over 750 million web search queries from a commercial search engine and analyze the characteristics of the mined queries. Finally, we show that web search effectiveness for certain classes of implicitly year qualified queries can be significantly impro ved using our proposed temporal result set reordering approach. This technical report is an extended version of [15].
Institute of Physics Publishing Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Post-packaging Frequency Tuning of Microresonators by Pulsed Laser Deposition

This paper presents a post-packaging tuning process for microresonators by PLD (pulsed laser deposition). The microresonators are first hermetically packaged using a RTP (rapid thermal processing) aluminum-to-silicon nitride bonding process. The resonator mass is then altered by adding materials on the surface of the structure using PLD to achieve the desired resonant frequency. The demonstrated tuning resolution is 0.5% per laser shot with a laser beam spot size of 25 × 25 µm 2 and fluence of 616 mJ cm −2. The laser pulse duration is 6 ns and a 0.35 µm thick gold film is used as the deposition material for comb-drive microresonators resonating at 12.45 kHz.
The Effects of Employment Uncertainty and Wealth Shocks on the Labor Supply and Claiming Behavior of Older American Workers

Unemployment rates in developed countries have recently reached levels not seen in a generation, and workers of all ages are facing increasing probabilities of losing their jobs and considerable losses in accumulated assets. These events likely increase the reliance that most older workers will have on public social insurance programs, exactly at a time that public finances are suffering from a large drop in contributions. Our paper explicitly accounts for employment uncertainty and unexpected wealth shocks, something that has been relatively overlooked in the literature, but that has grown in importance in recent years. Using administrative and household level data we empirically characterize a life-cycle model of retirement and claiming decisions in terms of the employment, wage, health, and mortality uncertainty faced by individuals. Our benchmark model explains with great accuracy the strikingly high proportion of individuals who claim benefits exactly at the Early Retirement Age, while still explaining the increased claiming hazard at the Normal Retirement Age. We also discuss some policy experiments and their interplay with employment uncertainty. Additionally, we analyze the effects of negative wealth shocks on the labor supply and claiming decisions of older Americans. Our results can explain why early claiming has remained very high in the last years even as the early retirement penalties have increased substantially compared with previous periods, and why labor force participation has remained quite high for older workers even in the midst of the worse employment crisis in decades.
Stimulation of apical and basolateral vascular endothelial growth factor-A and vascular endothelial growth factor-C secretion by oxidative stress in polarized retinal pigment epithelial cells

Oxidative stress has been implicated as a possible inducer of choroidal neovascularization complicating age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is mediated by upregulation of several angiogenic growth factors. In AMD, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is an early site of injury, leading to visual loss [1]. The RPE performs critical visual maintenance functions including the degradation of shed photoreceptor outer segments and lipid peroxidation [2]. Lipid peroxidations trigger oxidative stress, generating high oxygen tension and reactive oxygen species (ROS), which in turn play a role in the progression to AMD [1]. Experimental evidence indicates that the RPE is a key player in the pathogenesis of choroidal neovascularization (CNV), which occurs late during the course of AMD [3,4]. In the course of CNV, RPE cells have been observed to encapsulate the new vessels, with their basal side toward the endothelial cells, which coincides with the arrest of further vascular growth [4], suggesting that RPE also has a function in controlling CNV. It has been well documented that ROS participate in decreased retinal blood circulation, increased vascular permeability and disruption of the outer blood-retinal barrier [5,6]. Polarized RPE in the intact monolayer as well as nonpolarized RPE that have migrated from the monolayer into the stroma promote CNV by secreting growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [7]. Studies using oxidative stress-inducing agents showed excessive secretion of VEGF is associated with increased vascular permeability, ©2006 Molecular Vision
Intimate Injection Partnerships Are at Elevated Risk of High-Risk Injecting: A Multi-Level Longitudinal Study of HCV-Serodiscordant Injection Partnerships in San Francisco, CA

Background It is increasingly recognized that the risk for HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) transmission among people who inject drugs (PWID), such as syringe sharing, occurs in the context of relationships between (at least) two people. Evidence suggests that the risk associated with injection behavior varies with injection partner types. Methods We utilized longitudinal dyad-level data from a study of young PWID from San Francisco (2006 to 2013) to investigate the relationship-level factors influencing high-risk injecting within HCV-serodiscordant injection partners (i.e., individuals who injected together ≥5 times in the prior month). Utilizing data from 70 HCV-serodiscordant injection partnerships, we used generalized linear models to examine relationship-level predictors (i.e., partnership composition, partnership closeness, and partnership dynamics) of: (1) receptive syringe sharing (RSS); and (2) receptive cooker use (RCU), as reported by the HCV-negative injection partner. Results As reported by the “at-risk” HCV-negative injection partner, receptive syringe sharing (RSS) and receptive cooker use (RCU) were 19% and 33% at enrollment, and 11% and 12% over all visits (total follow-up time 55 person-years) resulting in 13 new HCV-infections (incidence rate: 23.8/100 person-years). Person-level factors, injection partnership composition, and partnership dynamics were not significantly associated with either RSS or RCU. Instead, intimate injection partnerships (those who lived together and were also in a sexual relationship) were independently associated with a 5-times greater risk of both RSS and a 7-times greater risk of RCU when compared to injecting only partnerships. Conclusion Our findings suggest a positive, and amplified effect of relationship factors on injecting drug risk behaviors among young PWID injection partnerships. The majority of interventions to reduce injection drug use related harms focus on individual-based education to increase drug use knowledge. Our findings support the need to expand harm reduction strategies to relationship-based messaging and interventions.
Security Bid/Ask Dynamics with Discreteness and Clustering: Simple Strategies for Modeling and Estimation

The short-term movements of a security price reflect the latent efficient price (conditional expectation of terminal value) and also components arising from the trading mechanism itself. Observed bid and ask quotes are but rough signals of these unobserved quantities. The bid and ask quotes in the $/DM market considered here, for example, are discrete, with a tick size that is not trivial relative to the spread. Furthermore, the distribution of these quotes is clustered, with a greater-than-expected incidence of five-tick multiples. This paper suggests a simple framework for handling discrete, clustered quotes. Despite the simplicity of the model, estimation by traditional (likelihood or moment) methods is difficult. As an alternative, the paper implements a Gibbs sampler approach that proves to be quick and effective. This strategy opens the door for the investigation of a broad class of structural microstructure models.