Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HITIQA: Towards Analytical Question Answering

In this paper we describe the analytic question answering system HITIQA (High-Quality Interactive Question Answering) which has been developed over the last 2 years as an advanced research tool for information analysts. HITIQA is an interactive open-domain question answering technology designed to allow analysts to pose complex exploratory questions in natural language and obtain relevant information units to prepare their briefing reports. The system uses novel data-driven semantics to conduct a clarification dialogue with the user that explores the scope and the context of the desired answer space. The system has undergone extensive hands-on evaluations by a group of intelligence analysts. This evaluation validated the overall approach in HITIQA but also exposed limitations of the current prototype.
Privacy-preserving min and k-th min computations with fully homomorphic encryption

We design a secure protocol that a server can compute the minimum number of all participants' data while kept unknown additional information about the users' data in its execution. Ours protocol is based on fully homomorphic encryption and we utilize it to fix the problem of securely computing the minimum value. Besides, the used FHE scheme is a lattice-based cryptosystem that can resist some quantum adversaries who can carry out quantum computations on classical queries. We also expand the secure min computing protocol to the privacy-preserving the k-th min computing protocol, and present the security analysis of the two protocols on the assumption of the semi-honest model. In the previous literature, their solutions are based on secure arithmetic sum computations as well as secure bitwise XOR computations. Our protocols are more secure with the comparison to them.
Correspondence analysis of genre preferences in UK film audiences

I analyze the genre preferences of UK film audiences, applying correspondence analysis to data produced for the BFI's report Opening Our Eyes on the cultural contribution of film. Although there is a weak correlation between the interactively coded variable 'gender-age' and genre, I identify clear patterns of genre preferences that extend the original interpretation of this data showing how viewer's preferences for different genres are associated with their gender and their age.
Is John Dewey's Thought "Humanist"?

This paper proposes that John Dewey’s thought is not entirely humanist, and that a dehumanist reconstruction of his philosophy opens curriculum studies toward a pragmatic, democratic engagement with the uncountable nonhumans that share the earth with those who think of themselves as “human. ” The essay outlines what is meant by both humanism and dehumanism before analyzing how a cluster of keywords in Deweyan thought—habit, experience, growth, and democracy—can be put to use in ways that are not anthropocentric or exclusively human. By arguing that Dewey’s humanism (which has been taken for granted in much Deweyan scholarship) can be extracted from his potentially nonhumanist conceptualizations of democracy and pedagogy, the essay claims that Dewey’s thought can prove a pragmatic point of departure for dehumanist curriculum studies, and that Deweyan pragmatics offer nonhumanist philosophy a set of concepts for better understanding what a democracy of humans, nonhuman animals, and inhuman objects could be.
Comparison of Sparse Representation and Fourier Discriminant Methods: Damage Location Classification in Indirect Lab-scale Bridge Structural Health Monitoring

This paper presents a novel method for interpreting data to improve the indirect structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges. The research presented in the study is part of an ongoing study aimed at developing a novel SHM paradigm for the health assessment of bridges. In this paradigm, we envision the use of an instrumented vehicle that assesses a bridge's dynamic characteristics while traveling across the bridge. These characteristics are then correlated to the health of the structure by means of advanced signal processing and pattern recognition approaches. In this paper, we present and compare two classification algorithms that locate the presence of damages at well-defined locations on the structure: sparse representation and the Fourier discriminant methods, and find that the sparse representation method provides superior classification accuracy.
Canonic real-valued FFT structures

An N-point FFT processes N complex signals to compute N output complex signals using decimation-in-time (DIT) or decimation-in-frequency (DIF) approach. The FFT makes use of n = log2N stages of computations where each stage computes N complex signals; N is assumed to be power-of-two. This paper considers implementation of a real signal of length N. Since the degrees of freedom of the input data is N, each stage of the FFT should not need to compute more than N signal values, where a signal value can corresponds to a purely real or purely imaginary value. Any more than N samples computed at any FFT stage is inherently redundant. This paper, for the first time, presents novel DIT and DIF structures for computing real FFT, referred as RFFT, that are canonic with respect to the number signal values computed at each FFT stage. In the proposed structure, in an N-point RFFT, exactly N signal values are computed at the output of each FFT stage and at the output. No prior canonic DIT RFFT structure was presented before. This paper, for the first time, presents a formal approach to compute RFFT using DIT in a canonic manner. While canonic FFT structures based on decimation-in-frequency were presented before, these structures were derived in an adhoc way. This paper presents a formal method to derive canonic DIF RFFT structures.
An examination of experiential avoidance as a vulnerability factor for posttraumatic stress symptoms and excessive behaviors in parent and young adult child dyads

Experiential avoidance is receiving increasing conceptual and empirical review as an emotion regulation strategy and crucial factor in the development and maintenance of symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; Kumpula, Orcutt, Bardeen, & Varkovitzky, 2011; Thompson & Waltz, 2010). It is also implicated in a variety of topographically dissimilar problem behaviors (Kingston, Clarke, & Remington, 2010; Mansell et al., 2009) and poor mental health outcomes. The transmission of effective emotion regulatory strategies (Duncombe et al., 2012) is increasingly important to understanding the development of these problems. Experiential avoidance may be a learned response style from one’s parent. This conceptual model was used to test the predictive power of parent experiential avoidance to young adult child experiential avoidance, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and excessive behaviors. Cross-sectional survey methodology was employed in a university setting, using a sample of parent and young adult child dyads. Significant discrepancies in the measurement of experiential avoidance were observed. Overall, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II was the strongest predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms and excessive behaviors between and within dyads, above and beyond trauma itself. Parent experiential avoidance influenced young adult child experiential avoidance and parents appeared to engage in more harmful behaviors than their young adult children. Implications for understanding the influence of parent behaviors and experiential avoidance for young adults are discussed.
Safety of Tenofovir Gel, a Vaginal Microbicide, in South African Women: Results of the Caprisa 004 Trial

Background Tenofovir gel, used vaginally before and after coitus, reduced women's acquisition of HIV by 39%. This is a safety assessment of tenofovir gel, including renal, bone, gastrointestinal, genital and haematological parameters. Methods In the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) 004, a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial, 445 of the 889 eligibly enrolled women were assigned to tenofovir gel. All participants were advised to use the gel vaginally only, with one dose of gel within 12 h before and a second dose as soon as possible after sex, with no more than two doses in 24 h. Clinical and laboratory safety data were collected at monthly and quarterly visits, respectively. Genital assessments were undertaken at enrolment and quarterly thereafter, or as indicated. Results Women assigned to tenofovir gel were exposed to an average monthly vaginal dose of 240 mg of tenofovir (six applications). In total, six women, three in each group, had mild creatinine elevations, all of which occurred in July/ August 2008. The incidence of anaemia was 3.5 and 3.8 per 100 women-years in tenofovir and placebo groups, respectively (P=0.80). Of the six women (four tenofovir and two placebo) experiencing bone fractures, none were associated with abnormal phosphate or calcium values. The proportion of women with diarrhoea was higher in the tenofovir gel group (17% versus 11%; P=0.026). There was no significant increase of any genital adverse event in the tenofovir group. Conclusions No significant renal, haematological, genital or bone effects were associated with the use of tenofovir gel. Aside from a puzzling increase in diarrhoea, tenofovir gel has an excellent safety profile.
The State and the Supernatural: Support for Prosocial Behavior

Author(s): Brown, Christian; Eff, E. Anthon | Abstract: Using the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, Roes and Raymond (2003) find that large societies are more likely to be located in resource-rich environments, engage in warfare, and hold beliefs in gods actively supporting human morality (“moralizing gods”). We revisit the Roes and Raymond study, using the methods presented in a series of papers by Dow and Eff. Our findings suggest that moralizing gods are less likely to be found in resource-rich environments or amongst societies frequently engaged in external warfare. We find that cultural transmission over geographic space is the most significant force in conditioning belief in moralizing gods; that moralizing gods are more likely to be found in pastoral societies; and that the relationship between society size and moralizing gods is non-linear, with both very large and very small societies less likely to have moralizing gods. We explain this non-linearity by arguing that the functions of moralizing gods can also be performed by the state, and we also argue that moralizing gods play an important role in stabilizing property rights.
A Comparison between Camera Calibration Software Toolboxes

Camera calibration has many applications in various computer vision fields such as pose estimation, robot navigation, trajectory tracking, and object recognition. Camera calibration involves (mostly) determining the intrinsic parameters of a camera so that problems or distortions caused by the camera's optics or manufacturing could be estimated for proper projection. There are already a number of toolboxes available for camera calibration. In this paper, we explain our experience using these toolboxes in terms of installation, usability, time to calibrate, and performance with respect to the resolution of images. Our experience is helpful for other researchers on how to select or develop camera calibration toolboxes.
Merged-Output HMM for Piano Fingering of Both Hands

This paper discusses a piano fingering model for both hands and its applications. One of our motivations behind the study is automating piano reduction from ensemble scores. For this, quantifying the difficulty of piano performance is important where a fingering model of both hands should be relevant. Such a fingering model is proposed that is based on merged-output hidden Markov model and can be applied to scores in which the voice part for each hand is not indicated. The model is applied for decision of fingering for both hands and voice-part separation, automation of which is itself of great use and were previously difficult. A measure of difficulty of performance based on the fingering model is also proposed and yields reasonable results.
Pressure Ulcers Prediction Using Support Vector Machines

Surgical patients are usually at high risk of developing pressure ulcers after their operation. Usually, the pressure ulcers data sets are imbalanced. Therefore, this study aims to examine the real medical case of pressure ulcers with the use of support vector machines (SVMs). SVMs are used for forecasting and are a type of classification techniques. We utilize the measurement of sensitivity and specificity to compare the performances of SVMs with several classification techniques. The results indicated that SVMs performed better than the other classifiers for pressure ulcers prediction. In addition, the classifier of SVMs is a robust and powerful approach when facing the different ratios of training data sets.
A curriculum learning method for improved noise robustness in automatic speech recognition

The performance of automatic speech recognition systems under noisy environments still leaves room for improvement. Speech enhancement or feature enhancement techniques for increasing noise robustness of these systems usually add components to the recognition system that need careful optimization. In this work, we propose the use of a relatively simple curriculum training strategy called accordion annealing (ACCAN). It uses a multi-stage training schedule where samples at signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values as low as 0dB are first added and samples at increasing higher SNR values are gradually added up to an SNR value of 50dB. We also use a method called per-epoch noise mixing (PEM) that generates noisy training samples online during training and thus enables dynamically changing the SNR of our training data. Both the ACCAN and the PEM methods are evaluated on a end-to-end speech recognition pipeline on the Wall Street Journal corpus. ACCAN decreases the average word error rate (WER) on the 20dB to −10dB SNR range by up to 31.4% when compared to a conventional multi-condition training method.
A New Tree StructureTo Extract Frequent Pattern

Frequent pattern mining is a heavily researched area in the field of data mining with wide range of applications. Finding a frequent pattern (or items) plays as essentials role in data mining. Efficient algorithm to discover frequent patterns is essential in data mining research. A number of research works have been published that presenting new algorithm or improvements on existing algorithm to solve data mining problem efficiently. In that Apriori algorithm is the first algorithm proposed in this field. By the time of change or improvement in Apriori algorithm, the algorithms that compressed large database in to small tree data structure like FP tree, CAN tree and CP tree have been discovered. These algorithms are partitioned based , divide and conquer method used that decompose mining task in to smaller set of task for mining confined patterns in conditional database, which dramatically reduce search space. In this paper I propose a new novel tree structure - extension of CP tree that extract all frequent pattern from transactional database. This tree structure constructs compact prefix free structure with one database scan and it provide same mining performance as FP growth technique by efficient tree restructuring process. It also supports interactive and incremental mining without rescan the original database
Impact of Long-Term Endurance Training vs. Guideline-Based Physical Activity on Brain Structure in Healthy Aging

Brain structure is a fundamental determinant of brain function, both of which decline with age in the adult. Whereas short-term exercise improves brain size in older adults, the impact of endurance training on brain structure when initiated early and sustained throughout life, remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that long-term competitive aerobic training enhances cortical and subcortical mass compared to middle to older-aged healthy adults who adhere to the minimum physical activity guidelines. Observations were made in 16 masters athletes (MA; 53 ± 6 years, VO2max = 55 ± 10 ml/kg/min, training > 15 years), and 16 active, healthy, and cognitively intact subjects (HA; 58 ± 9 years, VO2max = 38 ± 7 ml/kg/min). T1-weighted structural acquisition at 3T enabled quantification of cortical thickness and subcortical gray and white matter volumes. Cardiorespiratory fitness correlated strongly with whole-brain cortical thickness. Subcortical volumetric mass at the lateral ventricles, R hippocampus, R amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex, correlated with age but not fitness. In a region-of-interest (ROI) group-based analysis, MA expressed greater cortical thickness in the medial prefrontal cortex, pre and postcentral gyri, and insula. There was no effect of group on the rate of age-related cortical or subcortical decline. The current data suggest that lifelong endurance training that produces high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, builds cortical reserve early in life, and sustains this benefit over the 40–70 year age span. This reserve likely has important implications for neurological health later in life.
What’s In Your Body Of Water? Reducing The Psychological Distance Of Pharmaceutical Pollution Through Metaphor In Risk Communication

Aquatic pharmaceutical pollution poses ecotoxicological risks to the environment and human health. Consumer attitudes and behavior represent a significant source of pharmaceutical compounds found in water. Thus, understanding public perceptions of aquatic pharmaceutical pollution and developing effective risk communication techniques are critical to engaging society in the type of widespread change necessary for addressing the presence of pharmaceuticals in water. This mixed-methods study applies conceptual metaphor theory in conjunction with construal level theory of psychological distance to assess how metaphoric framing affects perceptions of aquatic pharmaceutical contamination across four principal dimensions of psychological distance (geographic, social and temporal distance and uncertainty). Additionally, this study assesses the direct impact of metaphor use on concern and willingness to act, which are positively associated with perceived psychological distance. Data were collected from a convenience sample (n = 20) of university students in Burlington, Vermont using cognitive interviewing. Results indicate that pharmaceutical pollution was initially perceived as geographically distant, socially distant, temporally both proximate and distant and certain (versus uncertain). Our findings suggest people perceive distances in various ways, suggesting a need for validated questions to consistently measure psychological distance. Participants preferred the metaphorically-framed visual intervention to the non-metaphor visual intervention. Further, participants’ perception of pharmaceutical pollution changed to being more geographically and socially close after viewing the metaphoric visual only. Previous research indicates perceived psychological closeness leads to increased motivation and preparedness to act. Theoretical and practical implications of metaphor use in risk communications are discussed.
Differential Assemblage of Functional Units in Paddy Soil Microbiomes

Flooded rice fields are not only a global food source but also a major biogenic source of atmospheric methane. Using metatranscriptomics, we comparatively explored structural and functional succession of paddy soil microbiomes in the oxic surface layer and anoxic bulk soil. Cyanobacteria, Fungi, Xanthomonadales, Myxococcales, and Methylococcales were the most abundant and metabolically active groups in the oxic zone, while Clostridia, Actinobacteria, Geobacter, Anaeromyxobacter, Anaerolineae, and methanogenic archaea dominated the anoxic zone. The protein synthesis potential of these groups was about 75% and 50% of the entire community capacity, respectively. Their structure-function relationships in microbiome succession were revealed by classifying the protein-coding transcripts into core, non-core, and taxon-specific transcripts based on homologous gene distribution. The differential expression of core transcripts between the two microbiomes indicated that structural succession is primarily governed by the cellular ability to adapt to the given oxygen condition, involving oxidative stress, nitrogen/phosphorus metabolism, and fermentation. By contrast, the non-core transcripts were expressed from genes involved in the metabolism of various carbon sources. Among those, taxon-specific transcripts revealed highly specialized roles of the dominant groups in community-wide functioning. For instance, taxon-specific transcripts involved in photosynthesis and methane oxidation were a characteristic of the oxic zone, while those related to methane production and aromatic compound degradation were specific to the anoxic zone. Degradation of organic matters, antibiotics resistance, and secondary metabolite production were detected to be expressed in both the oxic and anoxic zones, but by different taxonomic groups. Cross-feeding of methanol between members of the Methylococcales and Xanthomonadales was suggested by the observation that in the oxic zone, they both exclusively expressed homologous genes encoding methanol dehydrogenase. Our metatranscriptomic analysis suggests that paddy soil microbiomes act as complex, functionally coordinated assemblages whose taxonomic composition is governed by the prevailing habitat factors and their hierarchical importance for community succession.
An uncommon co-localization of rDNA 5S with major rDNA clusters in Callichthyidae (Siluriformes): a report case in Corydoras carlae Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1983

Abstract Corydoras Lacepède, 1803 is the most specious genus of Corydoradinae subfamily and many of its species are still unknown in relation to molecular cytogenetic markers. However, the diploid number and karyotypic formula were recorded for many species of this group. In current study, we provided the first cytogenetic information of Corydoras carlae Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1983, an endemic fish species from Iguassu River basin, Paraná State, Brazil. The individuals were collected in Florido River, a tributary of Iguassu River and analysed with respect to diploid number, heterochromatin distribution pattern, Ag-NORs and mapping of 5S and 18S ribosomal genes. The karyotype of this species comprises 46 chromosomes arranged in 22m+22sm+2st. The heterochromatin is distributed in centromeric and pericentromeric positions in most of the chromosomes, and also associated with NORs. The Ag-NORs were detected in the terminal position on the long arm of the metacentric pair 6. The double-FISH technique showed that 5S rDNA and 18S rDNA were co-localized in the terminal portion on the long arm of the metacentric pair 6. This condition of co-localization of ribosomal genes in Corydoras carlae seems to represent a marker for this species.
Texture Classification Using Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform and LS-SVM

The paper proposed a novel algorithm for texture classification system. This texture classification system is based on the extracted features on the performance of texture images’ Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT). To decrease the dimension of feature vector, we achieve the mean and standard deviation of NSCT coefficients matrix in different subbands and various directions. To compare the performance of the proposed algorithm, the other two commonly used algorithms including of Wavelet Package Transform and the improved LBP descriptor are used to extract texture features. This paper presents the application of Least Square Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) classifiers to realize the automatic texture classification. The performed numerical experiments show that our algorithm produces a marked improvement in classification performance, which suggests a significant advance in texture classification.