Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating Party-user Similarity in Voting Advice Applications using Hidden Markov Models

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are Web tools that inform citizens about the political stances of parties (and/or candidates) that participate in upcoming elections. The traditional process that they follow is to call the users and the parties to state their position in a set of policy statements, usually grouped into meaningful categories (e.g., external policy, economy, society, etc). Having the aforementioned information, VAA can provide recommendation to users regarding the proximity/distance that a user has to each participating party. A social recommendation approach of VAAs (so-called SVAAs) calculates the closeness between each party’s devoted users and the current user and ranks parties according the estimated ‘party users’ user similarity. In our paper we stand on this approach and we assume that ‘typical’ voters of particular parties can be characterized by answer patterns (sequences of choices for all policy statements included in the VAA) and that the answer choice in each policy statement can be ‘predicted’ from previous answer choices. Thus, we resort to Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), which are proved to be effective machine learning tools for sequential and correlated data. Based on the principles of collaborative filtering we try to model ‘party users’ using HMMs and then exploit these models to recommend each VAA user the party whose model best fits their answer pattern. For our experiments we use three datasets based on the 2014 elections to the European Parliament.
Mepiquat Chloride Effects on Irrigated Cotton in Arizona

A series of experiments have been conducted from 1988 to 1999 at various locations across the cotton producing regions of Arizona to evaluate mepiquat chloride (MC) applications in terms of plant growth and yield. These experiments were designed to evaluate MC under three application regimes. These regimes included low rate multiple applications, late season applications, and a feedback vs. scheduled management of MC and nitrogen (N) applications. The objective of this summary (including a total of 31 site-years) is to determine which of these three application regimes offer the greatest opportunity for a positive lint yield response to MC. Stability analysis was conducted by regressing the treatment mean lint yield against the environmental mean for each application regime. Results from the stability analyses revealed that the most viable method of application is a feedback approach for both MC and fertilizer N. The most reliable technique associated with plant assessment in a feedback approach was the height to node ratio (HNR) to indicate vegetative tendencies for determining the appropriate rate and timing of MC applications.
Usability inspection methods: report on a workshop held at CHI'92, Monterey, CA, May 3–4, 1992

Usability inspection methods, based on informed intuition s about interface design quality, hold promise of providing faster, more cost-effective ways to generate usability evaluations, compared to empirical user evaluation methods . Examples of inspection methods include heuristic evaluation (Nielsen &amp; Molich, 1990), usability walkthroughs (Bias, 1991 ; Karat &amp; Bennett, 1991a, 1991b), cognitive walk -throughs (Lewis, Polson, Wharton &amp; Reiman, 1990), and applications of guidelines in walkthroughs (Jeffries, Miller, Wharton, &amp; Uyeda, 1991). These methods have been used in development for some time in one form or another (perhap s by other names), often because there is simply no alternative like user testing. Usability inspection methods have been an object of research in the last two years or so . Progress has been made in refining methods, and understanding their role i n usability engineering.
Kinematic design and dynamic analysis of a medical parallel manipulator for chest compression task

The kinematic design of a medical parallel manipulator used for chest compressions in the process of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is presented in this paper. According to the requirements of CPR action from medical viewpoints, a 3-PRS (prismatic-revolute-spherical) parallel manipulator (PM) is designed utilizing an architectural optimization methodology for such applications. The dynamic modeling is performed for the 3PRS PM by two different approaches of Lagrangian formulation and virtual work principle utilizing a simplification hypothesis. Simulation results verify the accuracy of the derived dynamic equations quantitatively, and demonstrate the rationality of the adopted simplified hypothesis. The research work presented here provides a sound base to develop a new medical manipulator to assist in CPR operation, which is expected to reduce the workload of doctors in rescuing patients significantly
Increased microvascular permeability in mice lacking Epac1 (Rapgef3)

Maintenance of the blood and extracellular volume requires tight control of endothelial macromolecule permeability, which is regulated by cAMP signalling. This study probes the role of the cAMP mediators rap guanine nucleotide exchange factor 3 and 4 (Epac1 and Epac2) for in vivo control of microvascular macromolecule permeability under basal conditions.
Retrospective Estimation of Causal E¤ects Through Time

This paper provides methods for estimating a variety of retrospective measures of causal e¤ects in systems of dynamic structural equations. These equations need not be linear or separable. Structural identi cation of e¤ects of interest is ensured by certain conditional exogeneity conditions, an extension of the notion of strict exogeneity. The covariates ensuring conditional exogeneity can contain not only lags but also leads of suitable proxies for unobservables. We focus on covariate-conditioned average and quantile e¤ects, together with counterfactual objects that are associated with these, such as point bands and path bands. The latter are useful for constructing con dence intervals and testing hypotheses. We show how these objects can be estimated using state-space methods and illustrate with a study of the impact of crude oil prices on gasoline prices. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Rob Engle, Clive Granger, Jim Hamilton, Oscar Jorda, Xun Lu, Jim Stock, Scott Thompson, and two anonymous referees for their very helpful comments and suggestions. Any errors are the authorssole responsibility.
Gravitational Collapse of Magnetized Clouds. II. The Role of Ohmic Dissipation

We formulate the problem of magnetic field dissipation during the accretion phase of low-mass star formation, and we carry out the first step of an iterative solution procedure by assuming that the gas is in free fall along radial field lines. This so-called "kinematic approximation" ignores the back reaction of the Lorentz force on the accretion flow. In quasi-steady state and assuming the resistivity coefficient to be spatially uniform, the problem is analytically soluble in terms of Legendre's polynomials and hypergeometric confluent functions. The dissipation of the magnetic field occurs inside a region of radius inversely proportional to the mass of the central star (the "Ohm radius"), where the magnetic field becomes asymptotically straight and uniform. In our solution the magnetic flux problem of star formation is avoided because the magnetic flux dragged in the accreting protostar is always zero. Our results imply that the effective resistivity of the infalling gas must be higher by at least 1 order of magnitude than the microscopic electric resistivity, to avoid conflict with measurements of paleomagnetism in meteorites and with the observed luminosity of regions of low-mass star formation.
Evidence for the importance of puromycyl peptides in the inhibition by puromycin of cell aggregation in vitro.

Trypsin-dissociated cells from the muscle tissue of 9-day-old chick embryos were employed to investigate the effects of cycloheximide and a puromycin-cycloheximide mixture on cell aggregation, protein synthesis and respiratory metabolism. Cycloheximide when introduced at a concentration of 10 µg/ml into a suspension of cells in Eagle9s MEM inhibited aggregation by 25% at 24 h. At this time an inhibition of 40% was apparent in the presence of a mixture of cycloheximide and puromycin both at a concentration of 10 µg/ml. Both cycloheximide and the cycloheximide-puromycin mixture arrested protein synthesis of rotated cells by 90% within 15 min of introducing the antibiotics into cell suspensions. The antibiotics retained their inhibitory effects on protein synthesis for the 24-h period of rotation. Cycloheximide inhibited cellular oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide evolution of rotated cells by 25% at the end of the 24-h experimental period. At this time an inhibition of 30% was observed in the presence of the cycloheximide-puromycin mixture. The release of radioactive carbon dioxide by cycloheximide-treated cells was inhibited by 46% at 24 h. In the presence of the antibiotic mixture, 14 CO 2 release was inhibited by 30% at 4 h, but after 8 h very little further 14 CO 2 was evolved. As a control, puromycin (10 µg/ml) inhibited cell aggregation and respiration to an extent similar to that previously reported. The results are discussed in terms of puromycyl peptides producing a metabolic effect on cell aggregation. It is considered that this is additional to the effect of puromycin inhibiting aggregation through the arrest of protein synthesis.
An Efficient Hybrid Face Recognition Algorithm Using PCA and GABOR Wavelets

With the rapid development of computers and the increasing, mass use of high-tech mobile devices, vision-based face recognition has advanced significantly. However, it is hard to conclude that the performance of computers surpasses that of humans, as humans have generally exhibited better performance in challenging situations involving occlusion or variations. Motivated by the recognition method of humans who utilize both holistic and local features, we present a computationally efficient hybrid face recognition method that employs dual-stage holistic and local feature-based recognition algorithms. In the first coarse recognition stage, the proposed algorithm utilizes Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify a test image. The recognition ends at this stage if the confidence level of the result turns out to be reliable. Otherwise, the algorithm uses this result for filtering out top candidate images with a high degree of similarity, and passes them to the next fine recognition stage where Gabor filters are employed. As is well known, recognizing a face image with Gabor filters is a computationally heavy task. The contribution of our work is in proposing a flexible dual-stage algorithm that enables fast, hybrid face recognition. Experimental tests were performed with the Extended Yale Face Database B to verify the effectiveness and validity of the research, and we obtained better recognition results under illumination variations not only in terms of computation time but also in terms of the recognition rate in comparison to PCA- and Gabor wavelet-based recognition algorithms.
The Structure of Past and Future Events in Borderline Personality Disorder, Eating Disorder, and Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

The narrative structure and episodic richness of self-generated past and future events were examined in patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), eating disorder (ED), and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), respectively, and compared with a nonclinical control group. The 3 patient groups generated fewer events characterized by a classic narrative structure, with the event narrative building up to a high point followed by an evaluation. The narrative structures demonstrated by the BPD and ED groups were most deviant from the control group in terms of more frequently involving an impoverished narrative structure for past events and in terms of generating fewer future events with specific episodic contents. These deficits were more marked in the BPD group. The findings show that the ability to construct coherent past and future events is compromised across clinical diagnoses, but more so in patients diagnosed with BPD.
Experiments of UNED at the Third Recognising Textual Entailment Challenge

This paper describes the experiments developed and the results obtained in the participation of UNED in the Third Recognising Textual Entailment (RTE) Challenge. The experiments are focused on the study of the effect of named entities in the recognition of textual entailment. While Named Entity Recognition (NER) provides remarkable results (accuracy over 70%) for RTE on QA task, IE task requires more sophisticated treatment of named entities such as the identification of relations between them.
A Bohmian approach to quantum fractals

A quantum fractal is a wavefunction with a real and an imaginary part continuous everywhere, but differentiable nowhere. This lack of differentiability has been used as an argument to deny the general validity of Bohmian mechanics (and other trajectory-based approaches) in providing a complete interpretation of quantum mechanics. Here, this assertion is overcome by means of a formal extension of Bohmian mechanics based on a limiting approach. Within this novel formulation, the particle dynamics is always satisfactorily described by a well-defined equation of motion. In particular, in the case of guidance under quantum fractals, the corresponding trajectories will also be fractal.
Bmc Complementary and Alternative Medicine Potentials of Leaves of Aspilia Africana (compositae) in Wound Care: an Experimental Evaluation

Background: The potentials of the leaves of the haemorrhage plant, Aspilia africana C. D Adams (Compositae) in wound care was evaluated using experimental models. A. africana, which is widespread in Africa, is used in traditional medicine to stop bleeding from wounds, clean the surfaces of sores, in the treatment of rheumatic pains, bee and scorpion stings and for removal of opacities and foreign bodies from the eyes. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the potentials for use of leaves of this plant in wound care.
METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF QUANTITATIVE CREDIT RISK MODELING IN THE CZECH ECONOMY

This paper reviews the guidelines of "The New Basle Capital Accord" (NBCA) and four internal models of credit risk assessment. We treat them from the point of view of their underlying concepts, the institutional pre-conditions of their implementation and data requirements. We specially focus on the possibilities, difficulties and consequences of their application to the banking sector in the Czech Republic. The description of each model focuses on the underlying assumptions, characteristics and theoretical approaches and a brief discussion of their main advantages and limitations. Comparisons among models aim at identifying their common features and points of departure. Last but not least, we try to assess the potential impact that the use of these models could have on credit allocation in the Czech economy, and, consequently, on the resulting environment for the conduct of monetary policy. A number of preliminary recommendations for the models' implementation in this country are formulated.
Genetics of Bipolar Disorder

ABSTRACT The growing number of reports on candidate genes an genomic regions of interest in bipolar disorder reveals a tremendously active field of study. As with other complex psychiatric syndromes, these early findings will require a great deal of effort to replicate and clarify. This review serves both as an update and an introduction to some of the issues confronting investigators. Potential strategies in study design, population selection, and molecular methods are explored as well.
Characterizing instant messaging from recorded logs

Most studies about instant messaging (IM) are based on self-report data. We logged thousands of real IM conversations and examined them to find characteristic patterns of IM use in the workplace. Frequent IMers have longer, faster-paced interactions than do infrequent users, with shorter turns, more threading, and more multitasking. Pairs who IM with each other often have longer interactions with more threading than do rare partners. In contrast to previous characterizations, IM is used only occasionally to set up interactions in other media.
Sequence-based prediction of transcription upregulation by auxin in plants

Auxin is one of the main regulators of growth and development in plants. Prediction of auxin response based on gene sequence is of high importance. We found the TGTCNC consensus of 111 known natural and artificially mutated auxin response elements (AuxREs) with measured auxin-caused relative increase in genes' transcription levels, so-called either "a response to auxin" or "an auxin response. " This consensus was identical to the most cited AuxRE motif. Also, we found several DNA sequence features that correlate with auxin-caused increase in genes' transcription levels, namely: number of matches with TGTCNC, homology score based on nucleotide frequencies at the consensus positions, abundances of five trinucleotides and five B-helical DNA features around these known AuxREs. We combined these correlations using a four-step empirical model of auxin response based on a gene's sequence with four steps, namely: (1) search for AuxREs with no auxin; (2) stop at the found AuxRE; (3) repression of the basal transcription of the gene having this AuxRE; and (4) manifold increase of this gene's transcription in response to auxin. Independently measured increases in transcription levels in response to auxin for 70 Arabidopsis genes were found to significantly correlate with predictions of this equation (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) as well as with TATA-binding protein (TBP)'s affinity to promoters of these genes and with nucleosome packing of these promoters (both, p < 0.025). Finally, we improved our equation for prediction of a gene's transcription increase in response to auxin by taking into account TBP-binding and nucleosome packing (r = 0.53, p < 10(-6)). Fisher's F-test validated the significant impact of both TBP/promoter-affinity and promoter nucleosome on auxin response in addition to those of AuxRE, F = 4.07, p < 0.025. It means that both TATA-box and nucleosome should be taken into account to recognize transcription factor binding sites upon DNA sequences: in the case of the TATA-less nucleosome-rich promoters, recognition scores must be higher than in the case of the TATA-containing nucleosome-free promoters at the same transcription activity.
Iron requirements of the pennate diatom Pseudo‐nitzschia: Comparison of oceanic (high‐nitrate, low‐chlorophyll waters) and coastal species

We quantified and compared physiological parameters and iron requirements of several oceanic Pseudonitzschia spp. , newly isolated from the high‐nitrate, low‐chlorophyll waters of the northeast subarctic Pacific, with coastal Pseudo‐nitzschia spp. and the oceanic centric diatom Thalassiosira oceanica at a range of iron concentrations. In iron‐replete conditions, the iron (Fe) : carbon (C) ratios in the six Pseudo‐nitzschia isolates ranged from 157 µmol Fe mol C‐1 to 248 µmol Fe mol C‐1, with no apparent differences between oceanic and coastal isolates. In low iron conditions, all Pseudo‐nitzschia spp. exhibited marked reductions in photosynthetic efficiency, whereas the extent of the reductions in specific growth rates varied among species. When iron‐limited, the Fe :C ratios decreased significantly in all oceanic Pseudo‐nitzschia species, with the lowest ratios ranging from 2.8 µmol Fe mol C‐1 to 3.7 µmol Fe mol C‐1. Combined with faster growth rates, lower Fe :C ratios in oceanic isolates of Pseudo‐nitzschia resulted in significantly higher iron‐use efficiencies relative to their coastal congeners and T. oceanica. The wide range between iron‐replete (Fe‐Qhigh) and iron‐limited (Fe‐Qlow) quotas indicates that oceanic Pseudo‐nitzschia spp. have an extensive plasticity in iron contents relative to other diatoms grown at similar iron concentrations reported in the literature; the Fe‐Qhigh : Fe‐Qlow ratios for oceanic species were 46 to 67, whereas for coastal Pseudo‐nitzschia species they were 16 and 43. We suggest that the ability of oceanic Pseudo‐nitzschia species to exhibit an extensive growth response to iron enrichment events may, in part, be a result of their extraordinary capacity to accumulate and potentially store large amounts of intracellular iron when iron concentrations are high, yet substantially reduce their iron requirements to sustain fast growth rates well after external iron concentrations are depleted.
The Indian Public Sphere: Histories, Contradictions and Challenges

This article traces the complexities inherent in the formation of the public sphere in India and how this can be seen as impinging on specific kinds of media discourses. After highlighting a few of the apparent contradictions in the Indian public sphere, the article builds on the insights offered by Partha Chatterjee, Kuan-Hsing Chen and Walter Mignolo to argue the case for the need to reconceptualise the concept of the public sphere in order to make it more suitable for the Indian context. Using media reports on terrorism and terrorist activities in India and the diverse conceptualisations of terrorism that underpin them as examples, this article demonstrates the exercise of symbolic power by the state and the media, and how this is indicative of the contradictions intrinsic to the public sphere in India.
A new self-reconfigurable modular robotic system UBot: Multi-mode locomotion and self-reconfiguration

In the paper, a concept of novel self-reconfigurable robotic system made of the autonomous robotic modules has been reviewed. Each robotic module is made of simple structure and few degrees of freedom; however, a group of the modules is able to change its connective configuration by changing their local connections and has functionality of robotic system which is capable of generating complicated motions and accomplishing a large variety of tasks, such as: transportation, exploration, inspection, construction and in-situ resource utilization. Multimode locomotion and self-reconfiguration are the basic and essential abilities for the self-reconfigurable robotic system. Based on this concept, a new self-reconfiguration system, UBot robotic system that combines the advantages from the chain-based and lattice-based robots has been proposed. Each UBot module which is cubic structure based on universal joint has two rotational DOF and four connecting surfaces that can connect to or disconnect from adjacent modules. The smart structure and the reliable connecting mechanism of the modules make the robot flexible enough to complete multimode locomotion and self-reconfiguration. This paper demonstrates the design philosophy of the UBot module and a solution for multimode motions and self-reconfiguration using the UBot system. The system can complete motion in the modes of quadruped, chain and loop configuration. Besides, the system can deform from one mode to the other though self-reconfiguration. All the proposed methods have been verified though simulations and real hardware experiments.