Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Causality with Gates

An intervention on a variable removes the influences that usually have a causal effect on that variable. Gates [1] are a general-purpose graphical modelling notation for representing such context-specific independencies in the structure of a graphical model. We extend d-separation to cover gated graphical models and show that it subsumes do calculus [2] when gates are used to represent interventions. We also show how standard message passing inference algorithms, such as belief propagation, can be applied to the gated graph. This demonstrates that causal reasoning can be performed by probabilistic inference alone.
THUIR at TREC 2009 Web Track: Finding Relevant and Diverse Results for Large Scale Web Search

This is the 8th year that IR group of Tsinghua University (THUIR) participates in TREC. This year we focus on Web track, which contains two tasks, namely ad hoc and diversity. On ad hoc task, we improved the efficiency of our distributed retrieval system TMiner to handle terabytes of Web data. Then three studies have been done, namely page quality estimation, ranking feature analysis, and model comparison. On diversity task, we proposed several new approaches on searching strategy, user intention detection, and duplication elimination. To mine user"s intention, we proposed and compared two different strategies, namely "searching + content-based diversity" which is a kind of result clustering, and "user based diverse intention prediction + searching" which is in the branch of query expansion.
Clinical commentary with video sequences Gelastic seizures : not always hypothalamic hamartoma

Gelastic seizures are often associated with hypothalamic hamartomas. However, focal cortical dysplasias can also cause “laughing seizures”, and such cases can be difficult to localize with EEG. This case report presents a 29-year-old woman who was successfully rendered free of gelastic seizures after resection of a frontal cortical dysplasia, localized through MRI and SPECT imaging. [Published with video sequences]
A New Model for Predicting Fiber Clumping Phenomenon in Bio-Inspired Dry Adhesives

Self-adhesion, or clumping, primarily occurs in bio-inspired dry-adhesives when two or more adjacent fibers become in contact and adhere to each other due to large van der Waals (vdW) intermolecular forces. Studying self-adhesion is of primary interest as dry-adhesives drastically lose their adhesion strength after few load cycles if clumping occurs. An optimization procedure to select material properties, shape, and geometry of the fibers is therefore highly desirable for both improving the adhesion and reducing the probability of clumping. Few numerical models have been utilized to attain optimal geometry and material parameters. These models are developed based on the small-deflection beam theory and use an over-simplified elastic-contact model to determine adhesion forces. In this work, a model suitable to simulate large deformations with distributed intermolecular forces is proposed. The model is based on the finite element method (FEM) and uses an adaptive meshing procedure to accurately calculate adhesion forces. By using this model, clumping is studied and predictions are compared against experimental results obtained from the literature. In addition to the FEM model, an analytical model that considers large-deflection reactions of fibers is proposed to corroborate finite element results. Results from analytical and finite element models show precise clumping predictions.
Improvement on optical flow based video deinterlacing by adopting Flow Vector And Intensity Reliabilities

A recently introduced optical flow based deinterlacing algorithm showed a promising performance for the sequences with well estimated optical flows. However, estimated optical flows mostly include some errors, which cause significant artifacts. To reduce such artifacts, we propose an improved algorithm by considering flow vector reliability in terms of motion linearity, motion uniqueness, and consistent motion in a flat region. Moreover, to maximize the resolution of deinterlaced images, we propose intensity reliability which utilizes the field parity information. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm noticeably improves the quality of deinterlaced images.
Epigenetic control of alternative mRNA processing at the imprinted Herc3/Nap1l5 locus

Alternative polyadenylation increases transcriptome diversity by generating multiple transcript isoforms from a single gene. It is thought that this process can be subject to epigenetic regulation, but few specific examples of this have been reported. We previously showed that the Mcts2/H13 locus is subject to genomic imprinting and that alternative polyadenylation of H13 transcripts occurs in an allele-specific manner, regulated by epigenetic mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that allele-specific polyadenylation occurs at another imprinted locus with similar features. Nap1l5 is a retrogene expressed from the paternally inherited allele, is situated within an intron of a ‘host’ gene Herc3, and overlaps a CpG island that is differentially methylated between the parental alleles. In mouse brain, internal Herc3 polyadenylation sites upstream of Nap1l5 are used on the paternally derived chromosome, from which Nap1l5 is expressed, whereas a downstream site is used more frequently on the maternally derived chromosome. Ablating DNA methylation on the maternal allele at the Nap1l5 promoter increases the use of an internal Herc3 polyadenylation site and alters exon splicing. These changes demonstrate the influence of epigenetic mechanisms in regulating Herc3 alternative mRNA processing. Internal Herc3 polyadenylation correlates with expression levels of Nap1l5, suggesting a possible role for transcriptional interference. Similar mechanisms may regulate alternative polyadenylation elsewhere in the genome.
Estimation in autoregressive models with Markov regime

In this paper we derive the consistency of the penalized likelihood method for the number state of the hidden Markov chain in autoregressive models with Markov regimen. Using a SAEM type algorithm to estimate the models parameters. We test the null hypothesis of hidden Markov Model against an autoregressive process with Markov regime.
IGF1 Is a Common Target Gene of Ewing's Sarcoma Fusion Proteins in Mesenchymal Progenitor Cells

Background The EWS-FLI-1 fusion protein is associated with 85–90% of Ewing's sarcoma family tumors (ESFT), the remaining 10–15% of cases expressing chimeric genes encoding EWS or FUS fused to one of several ets transcription factor family members, including ERG-1, FEV, ETV1 and ETV6. ESFT are dependent on insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) for growth and survival and recent evidence suggests that mesenchymal progenitor/stem cells constitute a candidate ESFT origin. Methodology/Principal Findings To address the functional relatedness between ESFT-associated fusion proteins, we compared mouse progenitor cell (MPC) permissiveness for EWS-FLI-1, EWS-ERG and FUS-ERG expression and assessed the corresponding expression profile changes. Whereas all MPC isolates tested could stably express EWS-FLI-1, only some sustained stable EWS-ERG expression and none could express FUS-ERG for more than 3–5 days. Only 14% and 4% of the total number of genes that were respectively induced and repressed in MPCs by the three fusion proteins were shared. However, all three fusion proteins, but neither FLI-1 nor ERG-1 alone, activated the IGF1 promoter and induced IGF1 expression. Conclusion/Significance Whereas expression of different ESFT-associated fusion proteins may require distinct cellular microenvironments and induce transcriptome changes of limited similarity, IGF1 induction may provide one common mechanism for their implication in ESFT pathogenesis.
A comprehensive quality model for Linked Data

With the increasing amount of Linked Data published on the Web, the community has recognised the importance of the quality of such data and a number of initiatives have been undertaken to specify and evaluate Linked Data quality. However, these initiatives are characterised by a high diversity in terms of the quality aspects that they address and measure. This leads to difficulties in comparing and benchmarking evaluation results, as well as in selecting the right data source according to certain quality needs. This paper presents a quality model for Linked Data, which provides a unique terminology and reference for Linked Data quality specification and evaluation. The mentioned quality model specifies a set of quality characteristics and quality measures related to Linked Data, together with formulas for the calculation of measures. Furthermore, this paper also presents an extension of the W3C Data Quality Vocabulary that can be used to capture quality information specific to Linked Data, a Linked Data representation of the Linked Data quality model, and a use case in which the benefits of the quality model proposed in this paper are presented in a tool for Linked Data evaluation.
Skin Test Performed with Highly Purified Mycobacterium tuberculosis Recombinant Protein Triggers Tuberculin Shock in Infected Guinea Pigs

ABSTRACT Tuberculin shock due to inoculation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens in patients with tuberculosis is a serious syndrome originally described over 100 years ago by Robert Koch. Here, we present experimental evidence that a single M. tuberculosis recombinant protein, CFP-10, triggers this syndrome. Intradermal inoculation of CFP-10 elicits in M. tuberculosis-infected mice high levels of serum tumor necrosis factor alpha and causes tuberculin shock in infected guinea pigs characterized by hypothermia and death within 6 to 48 h after the antigen inoculation. Autopsies of these animals revealed intense polycythemia and hemorrhagic patches in the lung parenchyma, a pathological observation consistent with tuberculin shock. These results point to the possible occurrence of tuberculin shock in sensitive individuals inoculated with highly purified M. tuberculosis recombinant proteins as vaccine candidates or skin test reagents.
Ambiguity resolution and the retrieval of idioms: two approaches

When an idiomatic expression is encountered during natural language processing, the ambiguity between its idiomatic and non-idiomatic meaning has to be resolved. Rather than including both meanings in further processing, a conventionality-principle could be applied. This results in best-first processing of the idiomatic analysis. Two models are discussed fot the lexical representation of idioms. One extends the notion continuation class from two-level morphology, the other is a localist, connectionist model. The connectionist model has an important advantage over the continuation class model: the conventionality principle follows naturally from the architecture of the connectionist model.
Two contributions to blind source separation using time-frequency distributions

We present two improvements/extensions of a previous deterministic blind source separation (BSS) technique, by Belouchrani and Amin, that involves joint-diagonalization of a set of Cohen's class spatial time-frequency distributions. The first contribution concerns the extension of the BSS technique to the stochastic case using spatial Wigner-Ville spectrum. Then, we show that Belouchrani and Amin's technique can be interpreted as a practical implementation of the general equations we provide in the stochastic case. The second contribution is a new criterion aimed at selecting more efficiently the time-frequency locations where the spatial matrices should be joint-diagonalized, introducing single autoterms selection. Simulation results on stochastic time-varying autoregressive moving average (TVARMA) signals demonstrate the improved efficiency of the method.
Microbeam deformed by evaporative microdrop

Deformation of microbeams including microcantilever (MCL), simply supported microbeam (SSMB), clamped-simply supported microbeam (CSSMB), and clamped–clamped microbeam (CCMB) induced by evaporative microdrop is theoretically investigated. MCL will bend upwards while SSMB, CSSMB, and CCMB will bend downwards when there is a sessile microdrop on the top surface of the microbeam. The maximum deflection of MCL is proportional to the cube of the contact radius and , and the maximum deflections of SSMB, CSSMB, and CCMB are proportional to and nearly proportional to the cube of the contact radius. During constant contact angle (CCA) evaporation, as the contact radius reduces, the maximum deflection will decrease greatly. While during constant contact radius (CCR) evaporation, as the contact angle decrease, the maximum deflection will increase when the contact angle is larger than 90°, while the maximum deflection will decrease when the contact angle is less than 90°. Some numerical examples are given to show how MCL, SSMB, CSSMB, and CCMB are deformed by evaporative microdrop and the numerical simulations agree well with the theory.
Activation of endosomal dynein motors by stepwise assembly of Rab7–RILP–p150Glued, ORP1L, and the receptor βlll spectrin

The small GTPase Rab7 controls late endocytic transport by the minus end–directed motor protein complex dynein–dynactin, but how it does this is unclear. Rab7-interacting lysosomal protein (RILP) and oxysterol-binding protein–related protein 1L (ORP1L) are two effectors of Rab7. We show that GTP-bound Rab7 simultaneously binds RILP and ORP1L to form a RILP–Rab7–ORP1L complex. RILP interacts directly with the C-terminal 25-kD region of the dynactin projecting arm p150Glued, which is required for dynein motor recruitment to late endocytic compartments (LEs). Still, p150Glued recruitment by Rab7–RILP does not suffice to induce dynein-driven minus-end transport of LEs. ORP1L, as well as βIII spectrin, which is the general receptor for dynactin on vesicles, are essential for dynein motor activity. Our results illustrate that the assembly of microtubule motors on endosomes involves a cascade of linked events. First, Rab7 recruits two effectors, RILP and ORP1L, to form a tripartite complex. Next, RILP directly binds to the p150Glued dynactin subunit to recruit the dynein motor. Finally, the specific dynein motor receptor Rab7–RILP is transferred by ORP1L to βIII spectrin. Dynein will initiate translocation of late endosomes to microtubule minus ends only after interacting with βIII spectrin, which requires the activities of Rab7–RILP and ORP1L.
The Clustering of Zn6Y9 and its Predominant Role in Long Period Stacking Order Phases in Mg-Zn-Y Alloys: A First-Principles Study

The local structures of Zn and Y in the long period stacking order (LPSO) phase in Mg-Zn-Y system were investigated by first principles calculations in details. The clustering of Zn and Y atoms ranging from single stacking fault layer to four consecutive layers was explicitly demonstrated. The calculations indicate that Zn and Y atoms prefer clustering in the form of Zn6Y9 embedding in ABCA-type building block to the random or ordered arrangements of Zn and Y atoms being enriched in two stacking fault layers. The cluster of Zn6Y9 can be regarded as the ideal stoichiometric component of LPSO and it plays a predominant role in the LPSO phases. The formation of LPSO phases is highly associated with the Zn6Y9 cluster and its derivatives.
Nutrient distributions, transports, and budgets on the inner margin of a river‐dominated continental shelf

[1] Physical and biogeochemical processes determining the distribution, transport, and fate of nutrients delivered by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya river basin (MARB) to the inner Louisiana continental shelf (LCS) were examined using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model and observations of hydrography, nutrients, and organic carbon collected during 12 cruises. Two aspects of nutrient transport and fate on the inner LCS (<50 m depth) were evaluated: (1) along-shelf and cross-shelf transports were calculated and (2) nutrient sinks and sources were inferred. On average, 47% of the lower Mississippi River freshwater traveled westward on the LCS, but this percentage was reduced during summer when currents reversed to a predominately upcoast direction. Changes from mainly inorganic to organic nutrients were observed at salinity between 20 and 30, and above 30, organic nutrients were the dominant forms. Westward transport of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) was about 25% of the combined DIN load from the MARB, whereas westward transport of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) was 2.8-fold larger than the MARB DON load. Different from dissolved inorganic nutrients, for which the rivers were the primary source, the dominant source of organic nutrients was advection from offshore. Overall, the inner LCS was estimated to be a net sink for total nitrogen in the amount of −3.14 mmol N m−2 d−1 and a net sink for total phosphorus in the amount of −0.28 mmol P m−2 d−1. These sinks were approximately 33% and 59% of the total N and P sources, respectively, to the inner LCS.
Enhancing Visual Fashion Recommendations with Users in the Loop

We describe a completely automated large scale visual recommendation system for fashion. Existing approaches have primarily relied on purely computational models to solving this problem that ignore the role of users in the system. In this paper, we propose to overcome this limitation by incorporating a user-centric design of visual fashion recommendations. Specifically, we propose a technique that augments 'user preferences' in models by exploiting elasticity in fashion choices. We further design a user study on these choices and gather results from the 'wisdom of crowd' for deeper analysis. Our key insights learnt through these results suggest that fashion preferences when constrained to a particular class, contain important behavioral signals that are often ignored in recommendation design. Further, presence of such classes also reflect strong correlations to visual perception which can be utilized to provide aesthetically pleasing user experiences. Finally, we illustrate that user approval of visual fashion recommendations can be substantially improved by carefully incorporating these user-centric feedback into the system framework.
Personal Tracking of Screen Time on Digital Devices

Numerous studies have tracked people's everyday use of digital devices, but without consideration of how such data might be of personal interest to the user. We have developed a personal tracking application that enables users to automatically monitor their 'screen time' on mobile devices (iOS and Android) and computers (Mac and Windows). The application interface enables users to combine screen time data from multiple devices. We trialled the application for 28+ days with 21 users, collecting log data and interviewing each user. We found that there is interest in personal tracking in this area, but that the study participants were less interested in quantifying their overall screen time than in gaining data about their use of specific devices and applications. We found that personal tracking of device use is desirable for goals including: increasing productivity, disciplining device use, and cutting down on use.
Tuning Schema Matching Software using Synthetic Scenarios

Most recent schema matching systems assemble multiple components, each employing a particular matching technique. The domain user must then tune the system: select the right component to be executed and correctly adjust their numerous "knobs" (e.g., thresholds, formula coefficients). Tuning is skill- and time-intensive, but (as we show) without it the matching accuracy is significantly inferior.We describe eTuner, an approach to automatically tune schema matching systems. Given a schema S, we match S against synthetic schemas, for which the ground truth mapping is known, and find a tuning that demonstrably improves the performance of matching S against real schemas. To efficiently search the huge space of tuning configurations, eTuner works sequentially, starting with tuning the lowest level components. To increase the applicability of eTuner, we develop methods to tune a broad range of matching components. While the tuning process is completely automatic, eTuner can also exploit user assistance (whenever available) to further improve the tuning quality. We employed eTuner to tune four recently developed matching systems on several real-world domains. eTuner produced tuned matching systems that achieve higher accuracy than using the systems with currently possible tuning methods, at virtually no cost to the domain user.
A necessary condition for connected wireless CSMA multi-hop networks

Connectivity is one of the most fundamental properties of wireless multi-hop networks. In a wireless network with many concurrent transmissions, signals transmitted at the same time may mutually interfere with each other. In this paper we consider the impact of interference on the connectivity of CSMA networks using the SINR model. On the basis of our earlier work in which we give a sufficient condition, i.e. an upper bound, on the critical transmission power required for a CSMA network with a total of n nodes i.i. d. on a √n × √n square following a uniform distribution to be a.a. s. connected as n → ∞ under the SINR model, in this paper we continue to study the necessary condition for the above CSMA network to be a.a. s. connected. A lower bound is obtained on the critical transmission power required for the above CSMA network to be a.a. s. connected under any scheduling scheme satisfying the carrier-sensing constraint. The lower bound differs from the upper bound by a constant factor only. Compared with previous literature assuming a unit disk model, it is shown that the critical transmission power for a CSMA network under the SINR model to be a.a. s. connected is within a constant factor of that required for a network under the unit disk model, which does not consider the impact of interference, to be a.a. s. connected. That is, transmission power only needs to be increased by a constant factor to combat interference and maintain connectivity. This result is also in sharp contrast with previous results considering the connectivity of ALOHA networks under the SINR model.
Interaction With Partially Transparent Hands And Objects

Visual concealment of important objects and information by hands or tools can make many tasks more difficult. To alleviate this problem, hands and tools can be made partially transparent, allowing users to see their tools and work area simultaneously. This paper describes our experience with a system that can control the level of transparency of hands, tools and objects. We describe how users performed with uniform transparency across objects and with selective transparency where important details of objects are made less transparent. We identify several perceptual issues with this interface and propose possible solutions.
Formal Semantics of Array-OL, a Domain Specific Language for Intensive Multidimensional Signal Processing

In several application domains (detection systems, telecommunications, video processing, etc.) the applications deal with multidimensional data. These applications are usually embedded and subjected to real-time and resource constraints. The challenge is thus to provide efficient implementations on parallel and distributed architectures. Array-OL has been designed specifically to handle this kind of intensive multidimensional signal processing applications. In this paper we present the language and its formal semantics. A subset of Array-OL, Static Array-OL, is defined that ensures the existence of a static scheduling. Finally, we discuss how to map and schedule an Array-OL application on a parallel and distributed architecture.