Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A multi-agent infrastructure for developing personalized web-based systems

Although personalization and ubiquity are key properties for on-line services, they challenge the development of these systems due to the complexity of the required architectures. In particular, the current infrastructures for the development of personalized, ubiquitous services are not flexible enough to accommodate the configuration requirements of the various application domains. To address such issues, highly configurable infrastructures are needed.In this article, we describe Seta2000, an infrastructure for the development of recommender systems that support personalized interactions with their users and are accessible from different types of devices (e.g., desktop computers and mobile phones). The Seta2000 infrastructure offers a built-in recommendation engine, based on a multi-agent architecture. Moreover, the infrastructure supports the integration of heterogeneous software and the development of agents that can be configured to offer specialized facilities within a recommender system, but also to dynamically enable and disable such facilities, depending on the requirements of the application domain. The Seta2000 infrastructure has been exploited to develop two prototypes: SeTA is an adaptive Web store personalizing the recommendation and presentation of products in the Web. INTRIGUE is a personalized, ubiquitous information system suggesting attractions to possibly heterogeneous tourist groups.
The gender bias and children's work: Spain, Latin America and Developing countries in a long run comparative perspective

In this paper we compare several historical scenarios very different one to each other both in institutional and geographical terms. What they have in common is the situation of relative poverty of part of the population. This approach allows us to combine the micro historical analysis (in the Catalan case) with the macro comparative approach in current developing countries. By means of both, the micro historical analysis and the macro regression analysis we obtain the result that adult women’s skills and real wages are a key factor when we want to explain the patterns of children work. While female real wages increased at a sharp rate in 19th century Catalonia we obtain very different results in the case of developing countries. We identify this gender bias as some of the very significant effect of human capital held by women that helps to explain why in some cases children continue to work and also why some parts of the world continue to be poor according to our regression analysis.
Optimization of an Optically Rmplemented On-board Fdma Demultiplexer

SUMMARY l>erlormdnce of a 30 GHz FDMA uplink to a processlng satelllte Is modelled for the case where the on-board demultiplexer is implemented optically. Included in the perforance model are the effects o[ ad}a-cent channel interference, intersymbol interference, and spurious s_gnals associated wlth the optical implementation. Demultiplexer parameters are optimized to provide the mlnimum bit error probabll ity at a given bandwidth effLctency when filtered QPSK modulation is employed.
Detecting System-directed Utterances using Dialogue-level Features

We have developed a method to determine whether a user utterance is directed at the system or not. A spoken dialogue system should not respond to audio inputs that are not directed at it (i.e., a user’s mutter), and it therefore needs to detect such inputs to avoid unsuitable responses. We classify the two cases by logistic regression based on a feature set including utterance timing, utterance length, and dialogue status. We conducted experiments using 5395 user utterances for both transcription and automatic speech recognition results. Results showed that the classification accuracy improved by 11.0 and 4.1 points, respectively. We also discuss which features are effective in the classification.
N A ] 2 2 M ay 2 00 0 SCALAR LEVIN-TYPE SEQUENCE TRANSFORMATIONS ∗

Sequence transformations are important tools for the convergence acceleration of slowly convergent scalar sequences or series and for the summation of divergent series. The basic idea is to construct from a given sequence { sn} a new sequence { s ′ n} = T ({ sn} ) where each s ′ n depends on a finite number of elements sn1 , . , snm . Often, the sn are the partial sums of an infinite series. The aim is to find transformations such that { sn} converges faster than (or sums) { sn} . Transformations T ({ sn} , {ωn} ) that depend not only on the sequence elements or partial sums sn but also on an auxiliary sequence of so-called remainder estimates ωn are of Levin-type if they are linear in the sn, and nonlinear in the ωn. Such remainder estimates provide an easy-to-use possibility to use asymptotic information on the problem sequence for the construction of highly efficient sequence transformations. As shown first by Levin, it is possible to obtain such asymptotic information easily for large classes of sequences in such a way that the ωn are simple functions of a few sequence elements sn. Then, nonlinear sequence transformations are obtained. Special cases of such Levin-type transformations belong to the most powerful currently known extrapolation methods for scalar sequences and series. Here, we review known Levin-type sequence transformations and put them in a common theoretical framework. It is discussed how such transformations may be constructed by either a model sequence approach or by iteration of simple transformations. As illustration, two new sequence transformations are derived. Common properties and results on convergence acceleration and stability are given. For important special cases, extensions of the general results are presented. Also, guidelines for the application of Levin-type sequence transformations are discussed, and a few numerical examples are given.
Ultrasound-guided percutaneous portal transplantation of peripheral blood monocytes in patients with liver cirrhosis

Background/Aims Liver transplantation offers the only definite cure for cirrhosis but lacking donors is problem. Stem cell therapy is attractive in this setting. In this study, we aimed to explore the safety and efficacy of ultrasound-guided percutaneous portal transplantation of peripheral blood monocyte cell (PBMC) in cirrhotic patients. Methods A total of nine decompensated cirrhotic patients were randomized into three groups: group 1 (n = 3) was control group, group 2 (n = 3) received granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilization for 3 days, and group 3 (n = 3) received G-CSF mobilized PBMCs by leukapheresis and PBMC transplantation through ultrasound-guided percutaneous portal vein puncture. Liver function and clinical features were evaluated. Results At baseline, the Child-Turcotte-Pugh and the model for end-stage liver disease scores were comparable in study groups. Compared with group 1, there was a tendency to improve liver function in group 3 at 6 months after treatment. Treatment was tolerable and no complications were encountered related to the G-CSF mobilization or percutaneous portal administration of PBMCs. Imaging studies showed patent portal veins at the end of the study period. Conclusions Autologous PBMC transplantation through ultrasound-guided percutaneous portal vein puncture could be considered as a safe alternative treatment for decompensated cirrhotic patients.
A Measurement Study of ARM Virtualization Performance

ARM servers are becoming increasingly common, making server technologies such as virtualization for ARM of growing importance. We present the first in-depth study of ARM virtualization performance on ARM server hardware, including measurements of two popular ARM and x86 hypervisors, KVM and Xen. We show how the ARM hardware support for virtualization can support much faster transitions between VMs and the hypervisor, a key hypervisor operation. However, current hypervisor designs, including both Type 1 hypervisors such as Xen and Type 2 hypervisors such as KVM, are not able to leverage this performance benefit in practice for real application workloads. We discuss the reasons why and show that other factors related to hypervisor software design and implementation have a larger role in overall performance. Based on our measurements, we discuss changes to ARM’s hardware virtualization support that can potentially bridge the gap to bring its faster VM-tohypervisor transition mechanism to modern Type 2 hypervisors running real applications. These changes have been incorporated into the latest ARM architecture.
A Unique Mucin Immunoenhancing Peptide with Antitumor Properties

Implantation of DA-3 mammary tumor cells into BALB/c mice results in tumor growth, metastatic lesions, and death. These cells were transfected with genes encoding for either the transmembrane (DA-3/TM) or secreted (DA-3/sec) form of human mucin 1 (MUC1). Although the gene for the secreted form lacks the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains, the 5′ sequences of these mucins are identical; however, the gene for the secreted mucin isoform ends with a sequence encoding for a unique 11 amino acid peptide. The DA-3/TM or DA-3 cells transfected with the neomycin vector only (DA-3/neo) have the same in vivo growth characteristics as the parent cell line. In contrast, DA-3/sec cells fail to grow when implanted in immunocompetent BALB/c animals. DA-3/sec cells implanted in nude mice resulted in tumor development verifying the tumorigenic potential of these cells. Pre-exposure of BALB/c mice to DA-3/sec cells afforded protection against challenge with DA-3/TM or DA-3/neo mammary tumors and the unrelated tumors K7, an osteosarcoma, and RENCA, a renal cell carcinoma. Partial protection against subsequent tumor challenges was also achieved by substituting the 11 amino acid peptide found only in the secreted MUC1 isoform, for the live DA-3/sec cells. Notably, the efficacy of this peptide is not strain restricted because it also retarded the growth of Lewis lung carcinoma cells in C57 BL/6 mice. These findings reveal that a unique peptide present in the secreted MUC1 has immunoenhancing properties and may be a potential agent for use in immunotherapy.
Gamma-ray spectrum of RX J1713.7-3946 in the Fermi era and future detection of neutrinos

The recently launched satellite, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, is expected to find out if cosmic-ray (CR) protons are generated from supernova remnants (SNRs), especially RX J1713.7−3946, by observing the GeV-to-TeV γ-rays. The GeV emission is thought to be bright if the TeV emission is hadronic, i.e., of proton origin, while dim if leptonic. We reexamine the above view using a simple theoretical model of nonlinear acceleration of particles to calculate the gamma-ray spectrum of Galactic young SNRs. If the nonlinear effects of CR acceleration are considered, it may be impossible to distinguish the evidence of proton acceleration from leptonic in the γ-ray spectrum of Galactic young SNRs like RX J1713.7−3946. On the other hand, future km 3 -class neutrino observations will likely find a clear evidence of the proton acceleration there.
Mining semantics for culturomics: towards a knowledge-based approach

The massive amounts of text data made available through the Google Books digitization project have inspired a new field of big-data textual research. Named culturomics, this field has attracted the attention of a growing number of scholars over recent years. However, initial studies based on these data have been criticized for not referring to relevant work in linguistics and language technology. This paper provides some ideas, thoughts and first steps towards a new culturomics initiative, based this time on Swedish data, which pursues a more knowledge-based approach than previous work in this emerging field. The amount of new Swedish text produced daily and older texts being digitized in cultural heritage projects grows at an accelerating rate. These volumes of text being available in digital form have grown far beyond the capacity of human readers, leaving automated semantic processing of the texts as the only realistic option for accessing and using the information contained in them. The aim of our recently initiated research program is to advance the state of the art in language technology resources and methods for semantic processing of Big Swedish text and focus on the theoretical and methodological advancement of the state of the art in extracting and correlating information from large volumes of Swedish text using a combination of knowledge-based and statistical methods.
A heuristic algorithm for minimum-recombinant haplotyping in pedigrees: Implementation and parallelization

Haplotype inference based on pedigree data under the Mendelian law of inheritance and the minimum recombination principle is important for the construction of haplotype maps and the study of disease genes. But this problem has been proven to be NP-hard, exact algorithms previously known can't be applied to handle large scale genotype datasets, so heuristic and parallel algorithms are imperative. This paper presents an algorithm named Zero recombinant block algorithm (ZRBA) based on a new strategy using zero recombinant blocks (ZRB) as intermediate structure to reconstruct the haplotype configurations, theoretical analysis shows that this strategy can reduce the possible haplotype configurations, and compared with the dynamical programming strategy used in existing rule-based algorithms, the using of zero recombinant blocks increases the parallelism enormously. Following experiments demonstrate the superiority of our algorithm in both serial and parallel performance.
Recognition of Finger Flexion from Ultrasound Image with Optical Flow: A Preliminary Study

Ultrasound imaging has been widely used to investigate the morphological changes during skeletal muscle contraction. In this study, the ultrasound images were recorded from extensor muscle during finger flexion, and the optical flow algorithm was used to recognize the muscle deformation for different fingers' flexions. The preliminary results demonstrated that the directions of optical flow and deformation areas of muscle contraction at certain location were different for five fingers' flexions. The proposed approach has the potential to classify finger flexion with the feature extraction from optical flow field.
Enforcing Memory Safety for Sensor Node Programs

Sensor nodes are generally resource-constrained and MMUs are not present on sensor nodes. Without MMU, operating system is volatile to user program errors. so it is notoriously difficult to write robust programs. In this paper, we present memory safety schemes for sensor programs written in C programming language to isolate user program memory from operating system memory. Our memory safety schemes have shown a number of superiorities over other existing safety schemes for sensor nodes. Evaluations show the overhead of our memory safety schemes and the performance of memory safety is compared with other safety schemes.
Phthalate exposure and reproductive hormones in adult men.

BACKGROUND Phthalates are used in personal and consumer products, food packaging materials, and polyvinyl chloride plastics and have been measured in the majority of the general population of the USA. Consistent experimental evidence shows that some phthalates are developmental and reproductive toxicants in animals. This study explored the association between environmental levels of phthalates and altered reproductive hormone levels in adult men. METHODS Between 1999 and 2003, 295 men were recruited from Massachusetts General Hospital. Selected phthalate metabolites were measured in urine. Linear regression models explored the relationship between specific gravity-adjusted urinary phthalate monoester concentrations and serum levels of reproductive hormones, including FSH, LH, sex hormone-binding globulin, testosterone, and inhibin B. RESULTS An interquartile range (IQR) change in monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) exposure was significantly associated with a 10% [95% confidence interval (CI): -16, -4.0] decrease in FSH concentration. Additionally, an IQR change in monobutyl phthalate (MBP) exposure was associated with a 4.8% (95% CI: 0, 10) increase in inhibin B but this was of borderline significance. CONCLUSIONS Although we found associations between MBP and MBzP urinary concentrations and altered levels of inhibin B and FSH, the hormone concentrations did not change in the expected patterns. Therefore, it is unclear whether these associations represent physiologically relevant alterations in these hormones, or whether they represent associations found as a result of conducting multiple comparisons.
Epidemiological study of anti-HPV16/18 seropositivity and subsequent risk of HPV16 and -18 infections.

BACKGROUND Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 or HPV18 elicits an antibody response, but whether the elicited antibodies protect women against subsequent infection by a homologous HPV type compared with seronegative women is unknown. METHODS Study participants were women aged 18-25 years at enrollment in the control group of the ongoing National Cancer Institute-sponsored, community-based, randomized HPV16/18 Costa Rica Vaccine Trial. At enrollment, 2813 participants were negative for cervical HPV16 DNA and 2950 for HPV18 DNA. Women were interviewed regarding sociodemographic data and medical and health history. Medical and pelvic examinations were conducted for all consenting sexually experienced women. Serum samples taken at enrollment were tested for total HPV16/18 antibodies with a polyclonal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and cervical specimens were tested for type-specific HPV DNA over 4 years of follow-up. Using Poisson regression, we compared rate ratios of newly detected cervical HPV16 or HPV18 infection among homologous HPV-seropositive and HPV-seronegative women, adjusting for age, education, marital status, lifetime number of sexual partners, and smoking. RESULTS There were 231 newly detected HPV16 infections during 5886 person-years among HPV16-seronegative women compared with 12 newly detected HPV16 infections during 581 person-years among HPV16-seropositive women with the highest HPV16 sero-levels. There were 136 newly detected HPV18 infections during 6352 person-years among HPV18-seronegative women compared with six new infections detected during 675 person-years among HPV18 seropositives with the highest sero-levels. After controlling for risk factors associated with newly detected HPV infection, having high HPV16 antibody titer at enrollment was associated with a reduced risk of subsequent HPV16 infection (women in the highest tertile of HPV16 antibody titers, adjusted rate ratio = 0.50, 95% confidence interval = 0.26 to 0.86 vs HPV16-seronegative women). Similarly, having high HPV18 antibody titer at enrollment was associated with a reduced risk of subsequent HPV18 infection (women in the highest tertile of HPV18 antibody titers, adjusted rate ratio = 0.36, 95% confidence interval = 0.14 to 0.76 vs HPV18-seronegative women). CONCLUSION In this study population, having high antibody levels against HPV16 and HPV18 following natural infection was associated with reduced risk of subsequent HPV16 and HPV18 infections.
Input design via LMIs admitting frequency-wise model specifications in confidence regions

A framework for reformulating input design problems in prediction error identification as convex optimization problems is presented. For linear time-invariant single input/single output systems, this framework unifies and extends existing results on open-loop input design that are based on the finite dimensional asymptotic covariance matrix of the parameter estimates. Basic methods for parametrizing the input spectrum are provided and conditions on these parametrizations that guarantee that all possible covariance matrices for the asymptotic distribution of the parameter estimates can be generated are provided. A wide range of model quality constraints can be handled. In particular, different frequency-by-frequency constraints can be used. This opens up new applications of input design in areas such as robust control. Furthermore, quality specifications can be imposed on all models in a confidence region. Thus, allowing for statements such as "with at least 99% probability the model quality specifications will be satisfied".
A hybrid map matching algorithm based on fuzzy comprehensive judgment

Based on analyzing the pure geometry and possibility statistics map matching algorithms, a hybrid map matching algorithm based on fuzzy comprehensive judgment is proposed by synthesizing the merits of two methods and the topology relation of the real road network, and using the concept of the fuzzy theory. The simulation results show that the new algorithm can provide more reasonable matched result for vehicle positioning information.
Force controlled robot gripper with flexible joint for delicate assembly task

For automatic assembly tasks in electronics manufacturing industries, grasping force control for the gripper is required when handling delicate electronic parts, because excessive force could permanently deform or even damage the parts. Furthermore, in order to grasp odd-shaped components, the `fingers' of the gripper should be adaptive to the work-piece's shape in order to maximize the contact area. To meet these requirements, we propose a five-bar linkage gripper design with a compliant finger joint. This under-actuated linkage design can grasp irregular shaped work-piece and maintain the direction of the applied force along the gripper closing direction. The compliant joint design adopts an innovative clamped-and-pivoted flexible beam configuration, with one end of the beam fixed to the finger's tip and the other end rotating with a joint. The angular displacement of the beam, which is a linear function of the grasping force, is measured by a magnetic rotary encoder. Therefore, the grasping force can be controlled by monitoring the angular deflection of the beam. An additional advantage of the compliant linkage design is the gripper can adapt to the centerline misalignment between the gripper and the mating part along the gripper closing direction during an insertion task due to the joint compliance. Based on the mentioned concept, a two-fingered under-actuated gripper is developed. Grasping experiments on objects with different stiffness and shapes, like electromagnetic shield for mobile phone PCB, are conducted to verify the gripper's performance on force control and shape-adaptability. All goals are achieved with satisfactory results.