Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blackjack as a test bed for learning strategies in neural networks

Blackjack or twenty-one is a card game where the player attempts to beat the dealer, by obtaining a sum of card values that is equal to or less than 21 so that his total is higher than the dealer's. The probabilistic nature of the game makes it an interesting test bed problem for learning algorithms, though the problem of learning a good playing strategy is not obvious. Learning with teacher systems are not very useful since the target outputs for a given stage of the game are not known. Instead, the learning system has to explore different actions and develop a certain strategy by selectively retaining the actions that maximize the player's performance. The paper explores the use of blackjack as a test bed for learning strategies in neural networks, and specifically with reinforcement learning techniques. Furthermore, performance comparisons with previous related approaches are also reported.
Implementation and Evaluation of an Efficient Level-2 Cache Prefetching Algorithm

The advancement of process technology has lead to dramatic increase in the processing power. However, memory latency has not been improved at a comparable rate and therefore, has become a major limiting factor of system performance. As an attempt to mitigate this problem, hierarchical memory system containing several levels of caches is designed. Hardware prefetcher further reduces memory latency by fetching the data in advance from the main memory to the cache. This paper presents a Delta Correlation Prediction Table (DCPT) based Level 2 cache (L2 cache) prefetcher optimized for Alpha21264 microprocessor with 1 MB L2 cache. Additionally, the performance of optimized algorithm has been evaluated using SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suites on the M5 simulator. From the obtained result, it has been observed that overall achieved speedup using the implemented prefetcher is 1.91 which leads to 6.1% performance improvement over the referenced DCPT-P prefetcher.
Complex analysis and parameterization of the lossy Transmission Line Theory and its application to solve related physical problems

This paper provides the current state of the analysis of the Transmission Line Theory based on complex analyses. These analyses include important parameterizations which are determined by specific normalizations, leading to graphical representations of the behavior of any circuit based on transmission lines with arbitrary losses. These graphical representations facilitate not only the physical understanding of the effects of losses but also reduce the study of any problem in terms of geometrical transformations. Finally, some illustrative examples will be summarized in order to get some insight of the Complex Transmission Line Theory.
Speech enhancement using 2-D Fourier transform

This paper presents an innovative way of using the two-dimensional (2-D) Fourier transform for speech enhancement. The blocking and windowing of the speech data for the 2-D Fourier transform are explained in detail. Several techniques of filtering in the 2-D Fourier transform domain are also proposed. They include magnitude spectral subtraction, 2-D Wiener filtering as well as a hybrid filter which effectively combines the one-dimensional (1-D) Wiener filter with the 2-D Wiener filter. The proposed hybrid filter compares favorably against other techniques using an objective test.
Secretory endometrium highly expresses urocortin messenger RNA and peptide: possible role in the decidualization process.

BACKGROUND Urocortin (UCN) gene expression and synthesis have been reported in epithelial and stromal cells of the human endometrium. In this study we evaluated (i) UCN messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and peptide production in uterine specimens collected throughout the endometrial cycle, (ii) UCN secretion after decidualization of cultured human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) and (iii) the effect of UCN on endometrial decidualization. METHODS HESCs were isolated from samples of human endometrium collected from healthy patients with normal menstrual cycle and cultured in presence of cAMP, 17-beta-estradiol (E(2)) + medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and UCN. UCN levels were measured in endometrial extracts by an enzyme immunoassay, and changes of endometrial UCN mRNA expression were measured by RT-PCR analysis. RESULTS UCN peptide concentrations and mRNA expression were highest in the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle (P < 0.001, late secretory versus early and late proliferative phase) and higher in the late than the early secretory phase (P < 0.01). After decidualization of HESC with cAMP or E(2) + MPA, UCN levels rose in parallel with prolactin concentrations by days 6 (P < 0.01, for all). Finally, the addition of UCN to HESCs, with or without E(2) + MPA, induced the release of prolactin. CONCLUSIONS The evidence that (i) UCN is highly expressed in the secretory phase of the endometrial cycle; (ii) cAMP and E(2) + MPA modulate secretion of UCN and (iii) UCN induces HESCs decidualization together suggest a possible role for UCN in endometrial physiology.
Clustering Based Classification in Data Mining Method Recommendation

With the growing amount of data available in today's world, the emphasis is laid on the automatic configuration of data analysis - metal earning. This paper elaborates one of the metal earning sub problems, the data mining method recommendation. Based on a metric over the data features called metadata, we have proposed a solution exploiting clustering of datasets. The agglomerative algorithm is used to construct clustering over the metadata, and the average methods' performance is computed in each cluster. The ranking of data mining methods is then deduced from the classification of a dataset to a particular cluster. The recommendation algorithm, which is implemented within our data mining multi-agent system, has been tested in various configurations, and the results of these experiments have been compared.
Automatic computer game balancing: a reinforcement learning approach

Designing agents whose behavior challenges human players adequately is a key issue in computer games development. This work presents a novel technique, based on reinforcement learning (RL), to automatically control the game level, adapting it to the human player skills in order to guarantee a good game balance. RL has commonly been used in competitive environments, in which the agent must perform as well as possible to beat its opponent. The innovative use of RL proposed here makes use of a challenge function, which estimates the current player's level, as well as changes on the action selection mechanism of the RL framework. The technique is applied to a fighting game, Knock'em, to provide empirical validation of the approach.
Lsh Is Essential for Maintaining Global DNA Methylation Levels in Amphibia and Fish and Interacts Directly with Dnmt1

Eukaryotic genomes are methylated at cytosine bases in the context of CpG dinucleotides, a pattern which is maintained through cell division by the DNA methyltransferase Dnmt1. Dramatic methylation losses are observed in plant and mouse cells lacking Lsh (lymphoid specific helicase), predominantly at repetitive sequences and gene promoters. However, the mechanism by which Lsh contributes to the maintenance of DNA methylation is unknown. Here we show that DNA methylation is lost in Lsh depleted frog and fish embryos, both of which exhibit developmental delay. Additionally, we show that both Lsh and Dnmt1 are associated with chromatin and that Lsh knockdown leads to a decreased Dnmt1-chromatin association. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments reveal that Lsh and Dnmt1 are found in the same protein complex, and pulldowns show this interaction is direct. Our data indicate that Lsh is usually diffuse in the nucleus but can be recruited to heterochromatin in a HP1α-dependent manner. These data together (a) show that the role of Lsh in DNA methylation is conserved in plants, amphibian, fish, and mice and (b) support a model in which Lsh contributes to Dnmt1 binding to chromatin, explaining how its loss can potentially lead to perturbations in DNA methylation maintenance.
Constrained reference tracking for a high-speed buck converter

Buck converters are ubiquitous in modern electronics, providing well regulated supply voltage to processing units and other integrated circuits, as well as to many other loads. In many applications, e.g., power supplies for processors, the reference for the output is piecewise constant, and typically the power converter must effectively reject disturbances due to fast changes in the load behavior. Furthermore, the stress on the converter components must be kept within specified limits to ensure increased life-time and high reliability of the end equipment. To answer this challenge, this paper investigates a previously proposed set-theoretic method for constrained reference tracking, and extends the approach towards handling additive disturbances which can be either measured or estimated. Within the method a nominally stabilizing control law and the associated domain of attraction are exploited to define the tracking control law which inherits the domain of attraction from the stabilizing one even in the presence of bounded additive disturbance. The approach is experimentally validated on a real-life buck converter and the measurement results are provided. Although, the control solution is illustrated on a buck converter only, the result is generic, and can be applied to any power converter with a linear averaged model.
Cover song identification using an enhanced chroma over a binary classifier based similarity measurement framework

Identifying all covers/versions of a query song from music collection is a challenging task since there exists much variance of multiple aspects, such as timbre, tempo, key, structure, among covers. In this paper we propose a cover song identification algorithm, about which there are two innovations. The first, we propose a method for extracting an enhanced chromagram which retains the harmonic partials of music and holds invariance of volume; the second, based on aforementioned chromagram, a similarity measurement framework where any binary classifier can be applied is schemed. As a case, we apply Bayes classifier to the framework, and experiments indicate the proposed algorithm is able to provide competitive retrieval accuracy.
An update model for network coding in cloud storage systems

The fast emerging cloud services have received a tremendous amount of attention in both industry and academia. Storage services such as Dropbox and iCloud enabled us to share files among multiple users or devices. Providing the benefits of network coding in distributed systems such as Peer-to-Peer file sharing and multimedia streaming, researchers have also been trying to apply network coding in storage systems. Existing works have been focusing on mechanisms for preserving the level of redundancy when one or more nodes fail or leave the system. However, file updates, the most frequent operations performed on files, pose challenges in maintaining coded information in the system up to date. In other words, any change in the file will impact all coded blocks in the system, so all traces of the file must be completely replaced. This becomes costly since recomputing coded blocks is very CPU intensive and replacing all the coded blocks consumes an excessive amount of bandwidth. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no work addressing this update problem. To this end, we propose a Differential Update Model (DUM) that will update coded blocks by delivering only the changes in the file. We also present our objective view of the model through a complete analysis on computational complexity and bandwidth saving and simulated experiments.
Sexual Orientation and School Discipline: New Evidence From a Population-Based Sample

Sexual minorities’ risk for exclusionary discipline is a commonly cited indicator of the challenges that these students face. The current study addresses this issue by introducing a new data source for research on sexual minority students: the Fragile Families and Childhood Wellbeing Study. In this geographically diverse, population-based sample, I find that sexual minorities continue to face higher rates of discipline than their peers. However, this risk is highly stratified by sex: Same-sex attraction is associated with 95% higher odds of discipline among girls but no apparent discipline risk among boys. Sexual minority girls’ risk for discipline is only partially mediated by behavior, a result that is plausibly consistent with the interpretation that these students continue to face discriminatory treatment in schools.
Development of Resistance towards Artesunate in MDA-MB-231 Human Breast Cancer Cells

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in industrialized countries. Systemic treatment of breast cancer is effective at the beginning of therapy. However, after a variable period of time, progression occurs due to therapy resistance. Artesunate, clinically used as anti-malarial agent, has recently revealed remarkable anti-tumor activity offering a role as novel candidate for cancer chemotherapy. We analyzed the anti-tumor effects of artesunate in metastasizing breast carcinoma in vitro and in vivo. Unlike as expected, artesunate induced resistance in highly metastatic human breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231. Likewise acquired resistance led to abolishment of apoptosis and cytotoxicity in pre-treated MDA-MB-231 cells. In contrast, artesunate was more cytotoxic towards the less tumorigenic MDA-MB-468 cells without showing resistance. Unraveling the underlying molecular mechanisms, we found that resistance was induced due to activation of the tumor progression related transcription factors NFκB and AP-1. Thereby transcription, expression and activity of the matrix-degrading enzyme MMP-1, whose function is correlated with increased invasion and metastasis, was up-regulated upon acquisition of resistance. Additionally, activation of the apoptosis-related factor NFκB lead to increased expression of ant-apoptotic bcl2 and reduced expression of pro-apoptotic bax. Application of artesunate in vivo in a model of xenografted breast cancer showed, that tumors growth was not efficiently abolished as compared to the control drug doxorubicin. Taken together our in vitro and in vivo results correlate well showing for the first time that artesunate induces resistance in highly metastatic breast tumors.
An output capacitorless low-dropout regulator based on flipped voltage follower

An output capacitor-less low-dropout (LDO) regulator based on flipped voltage follower (FVF) for system-on-chip (SoC) application is presented. With a common-gate amplifier and two-pole system, it evidently simplifies the architecture of the LDO regulator and achieves the stability more easily. Implemented in SMIC 55nm CMOS, the proposed LDO regulator only consumes 15 μA net current from 1.5V power supply, with a minimum dropout voltage of 200 mV. With 16pF total compensation capacitance, it can provide 0-30mA load current with a load capacitance range of 0-300pF.
Stochastic forcing of the Lamb–Oseen vortex

The aim of the present paper is to analyse the dynamics of the Lamb–Oseen vortex when continuously forced by a random excitation. Stochastic forcing is classically used to mimic external perturbations in realistic configurations, such as variations of atmospheric conditions, weak compressibility effects, wing-generated turbulence injected into aircraft wakes, or free-stream turbulence in wind tunnel experiments. The linear response of the Lamb–Oseen vortex to stochastic forcing can be decomposed in relation to the azimuthal symmetry of the perturbation given by the azimuthal wavenumber m. In the axisymmetric case m = 0, we find that the response is characterized by the generation of vortex rings at the outer periphery of the vortex core. This result is consistent with recurrent observations of such dynamics in the study of vortex–turbulence interaction. When considering helical perturbations m = 1, the response at large axial wavelengths consists of a global translation of the vortex, a feature very similar to the phenomenon of vortex meandering (or wandering) observed experimentally, corresponding to an erratic displacement of the vortex core. At smaller wavelengths, we find that stochastic forcing can excite specific oscillating modes of the Lamb–Oseen vortex. More precisely, damped critical-layer modes can emerge via a resonance mechanism. For perturbations with higher azimuthal wavenumber m ≥ 2, we find no structure that clearly dominates the response of the vortex.
Tailoring Group Package Recommendations to Large Heterogeneous Groups Based on Multi-criteria Optimization

A group package recommender framework is proposed to provide recommendations on dynamically defined packages of products and services to large heterogeneous groups based on multi-criteria optimization. The framework is based on: (1) sampling the entire large group, (2) eliciting the utility function for each member, (3) clustering the sample heterogeneous group into a number of relatively small homogeneous subgroups, (4) extracting the representative utility function for each subgroup, (5) estimating the utility function of the entire group, and use it to find an optimal recommendation alternative, (6) diversify recommendations across those subgroups, (7) applying a group decision-making method, from social choice theories, to refine the recommendations. A preliminary experimental study is conducted, which shows that the proposed framework is able to produce a small set of ranked recommendations that retains close to optimal precision and recall, as compared to the baseline method applied directly to original large groups.
Title of Thesis: Developmental Milestones, Childhood Behavior and Schizophrenia-spectrum Symptomatology: an Investigation of Psychometrically Identified Putative Schizotypes Developmental Milestones, Childhood Behavior and Schizophrenia-spectrum Symptomatology: an Investigation of Psychometrically I

Title of Thesis: DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES, CHILDHOOD BEHAVIOR AND SCHIZOPHRENIA-SPECTRUM SYMPTOMATOLOGY: AN INVESTIGATION OF PSYCHOMETRICALLY IDENTIFIED PUTATIVE SCHIZOTYPES Courtney Brynn Forbes, Master of Arts, 2006 Directed By: Professor Jack J. Blanchard Department of Psychology The present study assessed retrospectively rated childhood abnormalities of development and behavior in individuals identified as having increased risk for schizophrenia using the psychometric high-risk paradigm. It was hypothesized that social anhedonics would have significantly more childhood behavior problems and developmental milestone delays than controls, and that anhedonics with greater childhood problems and developmental delays would display elevated levels of schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms. Examining proband reports, social anhedonics endorsed greater internalizing, thought, and total problems than controls. Analysis of mother reports revealed ratings of increased internalizing problems among social anhedonics. Mother ratings exhibited a trend toward significance for delayed walking in the social anhedonic group (d=.59). For social anhedonics, proband and mother rated childhood behavior problems correlated with clinician-rated schizophreniaspectrum symptoms, assessed at age 18. These findings indicate the presence of childhood behavior problems in social anhedonics and suggest an association between these early behavior problems and current clinical symptoms within the putative highrisk group.
Ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic precursors, progenitors, and stem cells: the next generation of cellular therapeutics.

INCE ITS INCEPTION as a medical specialty, hematolS ogy has had the unique perspective of considering therapeutics to include not only small molecular weight pharmaceuticals, but also cells themselves. Recognizing the complexity of the functions performed by the blood cells, hematologists have long understood that our best chance of harnessing the power of these cells for oxygen transport, repair of damaged endothelium, and inflammation was to transfuse large numbers of normal blood cells. By doing so, hematologists could thereby circumvent the need to understand every molecular function of these cells in complete reductionist detail, simply taking advantage of evolution’s wisdom. Cellular transfusion therapies began with mature blood cells, first with whole blood and then later evolving to the use of fractionated blood components. These therapies proved extremely effective for red blood cells and often useful for platelets, but less so for neutrophils, whose lifetimes were too short to be of practical use. Transfusion of mature longlived T lymphocytes may itself have useful clinical applications as well. Bone marrow transplantation, the second phase of cellular therapeutics, began with the realization that permanent clinical benefit from transfused blood cells could only come from transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells. Stem cell transplantation has now been conclusively proven to provide definitive therapy for a variety of malignant and inherited diseases and to also provide robust myelopoietic support for patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, stem cell transplantation has been limited by several features. First, acquiring sufficient stem cells to achieve benefit after transfusion requires either extensive, operative bone marrow harvests or extensive, morbid pheresis procedures. Next, even under these circumstances, the number of useful cells obtained is limited. Finally, the kinetics of regeneration of mature blood cells after transfusion are not ideal, so that these cells have little direct therapeutic benefits for periods of I to 3 weeks. Over the past decade, these limitations to blood and stem cell transfusion have now been tackled by attempts to increase the number and proliferative rates of primitive hematopoietic cells before infusion through their controlled ex vivo culture. These techniques, which fall under the umbrella or “ex vivo stem cell expansion,” have now developed to the point at which clinical trials are now underway in a
InflammationAntigen-Elicited Granulomatous (Type 1) and Schistosomal (Type 2) Function of RANTES During Mycobacterial Differential Expression and Cross-Regulatory

The role of RANTES in Th1 and Th2 cell-mediated immune responses has been enigmatic. To approach this question, we analyzed RANTES expression and function in murine models of types 1 and 2 cell-mediated pulmonary granulomas elicited with Myco-bacterium bovis or Schistosoma mansoni egg Ag-coated beads, respectively. Compared with type 2, type 1 lesions had up to 4-fold greater RANTES protein and mRNA production. Type 1 draining lymph nodes also produced up to 7-fold higher levels of RANTES. Anti-RANTES Ab treatments had opposite effects, decreasing type 1 lesion area by 25% and augmenting type 2 lesions by 50%. The latter was associated with increased IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13 production by lymph nodes. Infusion of rRANTES (1 mg/kg/day) did not affect type 1 lesions, but reduced type 2 lesion area by 27% and eosinophils by 40%. Lymph node cultures from RANTES-treated mice had augmented type 1 and impaired type 2 responses. In vitro, RANTES caused selective, dose-related inhibition of IL-4 that was largely dependent on CCR1 receptors. In conclusion, RANTES plays different roles in types 1 and 2 granuloma formation, promoting the former and mediating cross-regulatory inhibition of the latter. Moreover, RANTES may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of established type 2 hypersensitivity. The Journal of Immunology, 1999, 163: 165–173.