Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Introduction to stream: An Extensible Framework for Data Stream Clustering Research with R

In recent years, data streams have become an increasingly important area of research for the computer science, database and statistics communities. Data streams are ordered and potentially unbounded sequences of data points created by a typically non-stationary data generating process. Common data mining tasks associated with data streams include clustering, classification and frequent pattern mining. New algorithms for these types of data are proposed regularly and it is important to evaluate them thoroughly under standardized conditions. In this paper we introduce stream, a research tool that includes modeling and simulating data streams as well as an extensible framework for implementing, interfacing and experimenting with algorithms for various data stream mining tasks. The main advantage of stream is that it seamlessly integrates with the large existing infrastructure provided by R. In addition to data handling, plotting and easy scripting capabilities, R also provides many existing algorithms and enables users to interface code written in many programming languages popular among data mining researchers (e.g., C/C++, Java and Python). In this paper we describe the architecture of stream and focus on its use for data stream clustering research. stream was implemented with extensibility in mind and will be extended in the future to cover additional data stream mining tasks like classification and frequent pattern mining.
Text Classification Based on Rule Mining by Granule Network Constructing

Text classification is one of the practices of knowledge discovery. Designation of the classifier is the most important par of text classification. Comparing with the methods based on statistic theory, classification based on rule learning is a better one on some situations. A granular computing approach is proposed to learn rules by constructing a granule network while classifying texts. The algorithm of constructing granule network is involved in a refining process that pick-up second-layer granules from the largest granule, third-layer granules from second-layer ones, repeat this procedure until get the smallest granules. During the work, the whole granule network is completed and text classification rules are learned.
Automated logical verification based on trace abstractions

We propose a new and practical framework for integrating the behavioral reasoning about distributed systems with model-checking methods. Our proof methods are based on trace abstractions, which relate the behaviors of the program and the specification. We show that for finitestate systems such symbolic abstractions can be specified conveniently in Monadic Second-Order Logic (M2L). Model-checking is then made possible by the reduction of non-determinism implied by the trace abstraction. Our method has been applied to a recent verification problem by Broy and Lamport. We have transcribed their behavioral description of a distributed program into temporal logic and verified it against another distributed system without constructing the global program state space. The reasoning is expressed entirely within M2L and is carried out by a decision procedure. Thus M2L is a practical vehicle for handling complex temporal logic specifications, where formulas decided by a push of a button are as long as 10-15 pages.
Agreement in the scoring of respiratory events and sleep among international sleep centers.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) guidelines for polysomnography (PSG) scoring are increasingly being adopted worldwide, but the agreement among international centers in scoring respiratory events and sleep stages using these guidelines is unknown. We sought to determine the interrater agreement of PSG scoring among international sleep centers. DESIGN Prospective study of interrater agreement of PSG scoring. SETTING Nine center-members of the Sleep Apnea Genetics International Consortium (SAGIC). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Fifteen previously recorded deidentified PSGs, in European Data Format, were scored by an experienced technologist at each site after they were imported into the locally used analysis software. Each 30-sec epoch was manually scored for sleep stage, arousals, apneas, and hypopneas using the AASM recommended criteria. The computer-derived oxygen desaturation index (ODI) was also recorded. The primary outcome for analysis was the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). The ICCs of the respiratory variables were: AHI = 0.95 (95% confidence interval: 0.91-0.98), total apneas = 0.77 (0.56-0.87), total hypopneas = 0.80 (0.66-0.91), and ODI = 0.97 (0.93-0.99). The kappa statistics for sleep stages were: wake = 0.78 (0.77-0.79), nonrapid eye movement = 0.77 (0.76-0.78), N1 = 0.31 (0.30-0.32), N2 = 0.60 (0.59-0.61), N3 = 0.67 (0.65-0.69), and rapid eye movement = 0.78 (0.77-0.79). The ICC of the arousal index was 0.68 (0.50-0.85). CONCLUSION There is strong agreement in the scoring of respiratory events among the SAGIC centers. There is also substantial epoch-by-epoch agreement in scoring sleep variables. Our results suggest that centralized scoring of PSGs may not be necessary in future research collaboration among international sites where experienced, well-trained scorers are involved.
Etude and the folklore of user interface design

Research in user interface design is like the weather—everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. While this isn't strictly true, the great majority of guidelines for user interface design that one is likely to come across are based on the experience or gut feelings of a particular designer. These are better than nothing, but they are made less useful since 1) a particular recommendation could be based on factors unique to the designer's own system, 2) the population for whom the particular system is intended is either not described in detail or is not a generalizable sample of computer users, 3) designers' gut feelings are notoriously inaccurate sources for human factors guidelines. Thus the main body of recommendations available to the designer of a new system is more in the category of folklore than of readily accepted engineering principles. So long as one recognizes these limitations, it is still very helpful to consider the recommendations one finds in the literature when designing a new system. Some of these are based on experimental evidence, while others are repeated often enough and with so little opposition that their utility is better than average. In this paper, I will show how these principles have been applied in designing the Etude text processing system. After summarizing the major ideas behind the design of Etude, I will focus on several specific areas of user interface design, comparing Etude's approach with the appropriate recommendations from the folklore. I will conclude by briefly describing a forthcoming experiment which is intended to determine if adherence to the folklore has in fact produced a system that is easy to use.
Optimization of growth conditions of ZnO nano thin films by chemical double dip technique

Abstract Zinc oxide (ZnO) nano thin films have been deposited by the chemical double-dip technique using aqueous ZnSO4 and NaOH solutions. The ZnO films were characterized in terms of surface morphology by x-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX), the use of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) for surface morphology. The films exhibited a smooth morphology. The chemical states of oxygen and zinc in the ZnO nano thin films were also investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In the present investigations, highly textured ZnO thin films with a preferential (002)-orientation were prepared on glass substrates. The deposition conditions were optimized to obtain device-quality films for practical applications.
Cell Therapy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: State of the Art and Perspectives

The pulmonary diseases of obstructive character have high prevalence in the human population and has been subject of several clinical and experimental studies in order to seek a wider understanding of their pathogeny, physiopathology and, especially, the establishment of more rational ways for their treatment. Accordingly, this great effort has led to an extraordinary widening in the concepts of obstructive diseases in the last years, involving the integration of mechanical factors, inflammatory agents, autonomic regulation of airways and environmental aspects.
FPGA Implementation of High Speed FFT Algorithm Based on Split-Radix

Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is the collection of algorithms that performed the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). As a medium to perform the transform from time domain to frequency domain, FFT is widely used as an indispensible tool in signal processing applications. Split-radix algorithm is an appropriate algorithm for the implementation of FFT among all the effective algorithms of FFT. At the requirement of high speed, an algorithm that is best for high speed implementation is to be found. After researching all the relative algorithms, split-radix algorithm is chosen as the basic algorithm. In this paper, parallel processing and pipeline techniques are employed and proved to be a well-performed method. The proposed method performs well in the implementation of FPGA and satisfies the requirement of high speed. Results show the system latency of 13 clock periods and high efficiency in conserving hardware resources. The method put forward in this paper is extensible and can be applied to various applications.
Judicial Performance Evaluations by State Governments: Informing the Public While Avoiding the Pitfalls*

"The quality of our justice in America patently hinges, in large measure, on the quality of our judges" (Special Commission on Evaluation of Judicial Performance, 1995:i). Whether one is speaking of how judges are initially selected to the bench, how judges maintain their position, or how sitting judges are assisted in maintaining or improving their performance, this statement is as true today as it was fifteen years ago when it was written in the preface to the American Bar Association's Guidelines for the Evaluation of Judicial Performance. During the last half of the twentieth century, a number of changes were made to help maintain the quality of judges in the United States. Today, all states require that judges partake in some form of judicial education. A number of states provide judges with con fidential evaluations designed to help them recognize and improve areas in which their job performance may be ineffective. Perhaps most important, in an effort to have well qualified individuals sit as judges, a majority of states have adopted a merit selection sys tem of choosing judges as opposed to partisan or nonpartisan popular elections. In 1940 Missouri became the first state to name its judges through a merit selection process. Under the "Missouri Plan," which is currently used in one form or another in at least thirty-four states, a commission made up of lawyers and nonlawyers selects sev eral candidates for judgeships from whom the governor must choose. To quell the com plaints of critics of merit selection, states typically require the appointed judge to stand for periodic retention elections in which his or her name is the only one on the ballot and the public can vote on whether or not the judge should be retained. While merit selection has spread since it was first introduced in 1940, critics of the system have correctly noted that voters are given little or no information about the judges standing for retention (Lozier, 1996; Lovrich, Pierce, and Shelton, 1989). This lack of information in turn has led to low voter turnout in retention elections (Kearney, 1999). In an effort to address this concern, several states have implemented judicial perfor mance evaluation (JPE) programs designed, in part, to provide information to the elec
Detection of algD, oprL and exoA Genes by New Specific Primers as an Efficient, Rapid and Accurate Procedure for Direct Diagnosis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strains in Clinical Samples

BACKGROUND Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that infects patients with cystic fibrosis, burning wounds, ophthalmic traumas and immunodeficiency. OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to compare the efficiency of newly designed primer sets with some previously published primers for PCR detection of exoA, oprL and algD genes from P. aeruginosa. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 150 clinical specimens were inoculated into the routine and selective culture media for P. aeruginosa isolation. Specific primers were designed by bioinformatics analysis for detection of the virulence genes determinants, exoA, oprL and algD. The sequences of these three genes were obtained from NCBI and multiple alignments were performed to find the conserved sequences of each gene to design the primers. Multiple alignment and primer design steps were carried out by the AlleleID software, version 7.0. RESULTS Microbiological culture methods resulted 70 P. aeruginosa strains isolated from 70 of the 150 clinical specimens. The results of the PCR assay using the newly designed exoA, oprL and algD primer sets were positive in 68, 70 and 69 clinical samples which represent 97.2%, 100% and 98% sensitivity for each primer set, respectively. The PCR results using previously published exoA, oprL and algD primer sets were positive only in 57, 49 and 28 specimens that correspond to 81.5%, 70% and 40% sensitivity, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The results of the present study showed that in comparison with previously published primer sets, P. aeruginosa infection can be diagnosed with higher sensitivity and specificity by the conventional PCR assay using the newly designed primers. It was also shown that the results of the PCR assay on clinical samples of severe infections became positive much earlier than the results of conventional culture method.
Every NAND formula of size N can be evaluated in time O ( N 1 2 + ε ) on a quantum computer

For every NAND formula of size N , there is a bounded-error O(N 1 2 )-time quantum algorithm that evaluates this formula on a black-box input, for ε > 0 an arbitrarily small constant. It follows that the (2 − ε)-th power of the quantum query complexity is a lower bound on the formula size, almost solving in the positive an open problem posed by Laplante, Lee and Szegedy. Institute for Quantum Information, California Institute of Technology. Supported by NSF Grant PHY-0456720 and ARO Grant W911NF-05-1-0294. University of California, Berkeley. Supported by NSF Grant CCF-0524837 and ARO Grant DAAD 19-03-1-0082. Work conducted in part while visiting Caltech.
Service Security Revisited

Developing contemporary software architectures requires the consideration and adoption of the Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. Distributed applications are a very common domain in which SOA guides design decisions in particular. For a long time, SOAP and its related stack of standards have been the only technological choice for implementing SOA-based systems. With the increased adoption of the REST concept, an alternative to SOAP is gaining traction. Security considerations have been part of the SOAP-based standardization work since the very beginning. As a result, a mature and comprehensive set of security-related standards is available for building SOAP-based service systems. REST-ful service systems, however, cannot take advantage of such a fully developed security framework yet. This paper therefore revisits the SOAP-based web services security stack in order to identify commonalities, differences and gaps in the security available for REST-ful services. From these findings a desired REST-ful web services security stack is proposed together with related research, development and standardization challenges.
Fast and accurate read mapping with approximate seeds and multiple backtracking

We present Masai, a read mapper representing the state-of-the-art in terms of speed and accuracy. Our tool is an order of magnitude faster than RazerS 3 and mrFAST, 2–4 times faster and more accurate than Bowtie 2 and BWA. The novelties of our read mapper are filtration with approximate seeds and a method for multiple backtracking. Approximate seeds, compared with exact seeds, increase filtration specificity while preserving sensitivity. Multiple backtracking amortizes the cost of searching a large set of seeds by taking advantage of the repetitiveness of next-generation sequencing data. Combined together, these two methods significantly speed up approximate search on genomic data sets. Masai is implemented in C++ using the SeqAn library. The source code is distributed under the BSD license and binaries for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows can be freely downloaded from http://www.seqan. de/projects/masai.
Adjacent Vertex Reducible Edge-Total Coloring of Graphs

Let G(V,E) be a simple graph,k (1 k + 1) is a positive integer. f is a mapping from V (G) [ E(G) to {1,2,. ,k} such that 8uv,uw 2 E(G),v 6= w,f(uv) 6= f(uw);8uv 2 E(G) , if d(u) = d(v)then C(u) = C(v);we say that f is the adjacent vertex reducible edge-total coloring of G. The maximum number of k is called the adjacent vertex reducible edge-total chromatic number of G, simply denoted by avret(G). Where C(u) = {f(u)|u 2 V (G)} [ {f(uv)|uv 2 E(G)}. In this paper,the adjacent vertex reducible edge-total chromatic number of some special graphs.
Fractional Genomic Alteration Detected by Array-Based Comparative Genomic Hybridization Independently Predicts Survival after Hepatic Resection for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Purpose: Although liver resection is the primary curative therapy for patients with colorectal hepatic metastases, most patients have a recurrence. Identification of molecular markers that predict patients at highest risk for recurrence may help to target further therapy. Experimental Design: Array-based comparative genomic hybridization was used to investigate the association of DNA copy number alterations with outcome in patients with colorectal liver metastasis resected with curative intent. DNA from 50 liver metastases was labeled and hybridized onto an array consisting of 2,463 bacterial artificial chromosome clones covering the entire genome. The total fraction of genome altered (FGA) in the metastases and the patient's clinical risk score (CRS) were calculated to identify independent prognostic factors for survival. Results: An average of 30 ± 14% of the genome was altered in the liver metastases (14% gained and 16% lost). As expected, a lower CRS was an independent predictor of overall survival (P = 0.03). In addition, a high FGA also was an independent predictor of survival (P = 0.01). The median survival time in patients with a low CRS (score 0-2) and a high (≥20%) FGA was 38 months compared with 18 months in patients with a low CRS and a low FGA. Supervised analyses, using Prediction Analysis of Microarrays and Significance Analysis of Microarrays, identified a set of clones, predominantly located on chromosomes 7 and 20, which best predicted survival. Conclusions: Both FGA and CRS are independent predictors of survival in patients with resected hepatic colorectal cancer metastases. The greater the FGA, the more likely the patient is to survive.
Word Embeddings to Enhance Twitter Gang Member Profile Identification

Gang affiliates have joined the masses who use social media to share thoughts and actions publicly. Interestingly, they use this public medium to express recent illegal actions, to intimidate others, and to share outrageous images and statements. Agencies able to unearth these profiles may thus be able to anticipate, stop, or hasten the investigation of gang-related crimes. This paper investigates the use of word embeddings to help identify gang members on Twitter. Building on our previous work, we generate word embeddings that translate what Twitter users post in their profile descriptions, tweets, profile images, and linked YouTube content to a real vector format amenable for machine learning classification. Our experimental results show that pre-trained word embeddings can boost the accuracy of supervised learning algorithms trained over gang members social media posts.
On the Economics of Cloud Markets

Cloud computing is a paradigm that has the potential to transform and revolutionalize the next generation IT industry by making software available to end-users as a service. A cloud, also commonly known as a cloud network, typically comprises of hardware (network of servers) and a collection of softwares that is made available to end-users in a pay-as-you-go manner. Multiple public cloud providers (ex., Amazon) co-existing in a cloud computing market provide similar services (software as a service) to its clients, both in terms of the nature of an application, as well as in quality of service (QoS) provision. The decision of whether a cloud hosts (or finds it pro? table to host) a service in the long-term would depend jointly on the price it sets, the QoS guarantees it provides to its customers, and the satisfaction of the advertised guarantees. In this paper, we devise and analyze three inter-organizational economic models relevant to cloud networks. We formulate our problems as non co-operative price and QoS games between multiple cloud providers existing in a cloud market. We prove that a unique pure strategy Nash equilibrium (NE) exists in two of the three models. Our analysis paves the path for each cloud provider to 1) know what prices and QoS level to set for end-users of a given service type, such that the provider could exist in the cloud market, and 2) practically and dynamically provision appropriate capacity for satisfying advertised QoS guarantees.
Negotiations among Chinese and Germans - An Experimental Case Study

This paper aims to better understand negotiation behaviour between Germans and Chinese. We study intra- and inter-cultural bargaining in negotiations with asymmetric outside options. Our analysis is based on team decisions and verbal transcripts of video-recorded within- and between-team discussions. The data show the importance of aspiration formation in combination with equity concerns. Before the negotiation starts, all teams already have formulated goals that can be traced during the subsequent negotiation. Moreover, all first offers and demands and the majority of final outcomes represent equitable shares of the amount at stake. Teams often agree upon the 'Split the Difference' allocation, which represents a feasible and justifiable compromise. Chinese typically gather as much information on their counterparts as possible, anticipate and simulate their counterparts' behavior and make harmony an issue. German teams, however, put great emphasis on fairness issues and aim at efficient outcomes by reaching an acceptable payoff within reasonable time.
What Can the Study of Genetics Offer to Educators

This article explores the potential contribution of modern genetic methods and findings to education. It is familiar to hear that the “gene” for this or that behavior has been discovered, or that certain skills are “highly heritable. ” Can this help educators? To explore this question, we describe the methods used to relate genetic variation to individual differences in high-level behaviors such as academic skills and educational achievement. These methods include twin studies and genome-wide association studies. We address the key question of what genetic data imply about the ability of educators to optimize educational outcomes for children across the range of abilities.