Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tractable First-Order Golog with Disjunctive Knowledge Bases

While based on the Situation Calculus, current implementations of the agent control language Golog typically avoid offering full first-order capabilities, but rather resort to the closed-world assumption for the sake of efficiency. On the other hand, realistic applications need to deal with incomplete world knowledge including disjunctive information. Recently Liu, Lakemeyer and Levesque proposed the logic of limited belief SL, which lends itself to efficient reasoning in incomplete first-order knowledge bases. In particular, SL defines levels of belief which limit reasoning by cases in a principled way. In this paper, we propose to apply SL-based reasoning in the context of a Golog system. Central to our approach is a new search operator that finds plans only within a fixed belief level k, and an iterative-deepening-style variant where instead of considering plans with increasing length, the belief level k is incremented in each cycle. Thus, not the shortest plans are preferred, but those which are the computationally cheapest to discover.
Fracture characteristics and micromechanical theory of rock as a quasibrittle material: Apperçu of recent advances

'Fracture characteristics and micromechanical theory of rock as a quasi brittle material: Aper,cu of recent advances' (keynote lecture) Proc., 5th Int. Cant. on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting (FRAG-BLAST 5) (held in Montreal), ed. ABSTRACT: Realistic characterization of rock fracture properties is essential for successful predictions of rock fracture under any situation, including the fragmentation in blasting. The paper presents a review of some interesting recent results on the characterization of rock fracture by point-wise, line-wise and diffuse models for the fracture process zone. The effect of the rate of loading and of crack growth on the fracture characteristics is also reviewed and the micromechanical aspects are discussed. Attention is then focused on the problem of the effect of microcracks on the global stiffness tensor of a microcracked material such as rock, and some new results which take into account the growth of cracks retaining their criticality are described. The lecture is documented by numerical results.
Attributional biases and the inability to ignore retracted information

The purpose of the study was to explore factors that result in one type of distortion in memory. In particular, previous research has shown that people have a difficult time disregarding causal information that has later been retracted (e.g., Johnson & Seifert, 1994). The present investigation was designed to explore whether or not the nature of the experienced event (whether it is personally relevant to a person or not) influences this tendency. Participants were presented with stories about an airplane crash that was either personally relevant to participants (i.e., the plane departed from Milwaukee airport) or not personally relevant (i.e., the plane departed from Paris airport). Participants were given an initial cause for the airplane crash (engine malfunction), that was subsequently discredited in one of two ways. In the Negation Only condition, participants simply learned that the original cause was inaccurate. By contrast, in the Alternative condition, participants were also provided an alternative explanation for why the event occurred. Finally, participants were tested to see how much of their understanding of the events was influenced by the initial causal explanation. Results indicated that participants continued to rely on the initial causal explanation whether they were given a retraction or a retraction with an alternative explanation, which further supported previous research on the continued influence effect. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant effect of personal relevance on the number of inferences made. However, when participants were given a negation only, they were numerically more likely to make inferences based on the original causal explanation when the story was personally relevant. These results are discussed in the context of previous research on the continued influence effect.
A Sudoku Based Wet Paper Hiding Scheme

Good image quality and high hiding capacity are two basic requirements of information hiding systems. Technically, it is very challenging to achieve these two factors simultaneously. The purpose of obtaining either high hiding capacity or good image quality are various from application to application. Inspired from the wet paper codes proposed by Fridrich et al., we propose an information hiding scheme for grayscale images. The proposed scheme first uses a secret key to randomly select a subset of pixels from a cover image as dry pixels. Next, the toral automorphism is applied to the cover image to maximize the number of dry pixel pairs. Then, each secret digit in the base-9 numeral system is embedded into one dry pixel pair. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve good image quality (i.e., PSNR > 46 dB) and flexible hiding capacity. In addition, unauthorized users without knowing the secret key and the secret parameters used for the toral automorphism can not extract the embedded message.
Patent Retrieval System Using Document Filtering Techniques

Existing patent retrieval systems are di cult to use by amateur users because of several drawbacks. We have developed a novel type of patent retrieval system which anybody can make use of easily, and have been using it in our laboratories since the beginning of this year. Our system uses document ltering techniques. These ltering techniques are based on a probabilistic model which searches documents relevant to the user's interest. This paper describes our patent retrieval system, ltering method and experimental results.
Tools for Music Information Retrieval and Playing

This chapter deals with the state of the art of tools for music information retrieval (MIR) and playing and with state of the art musical feature extraction. We make use of a bottom-up strategy. First we focus on three different blind tasks: beat and tempo tracking, pitch tracking and automatic recognition of musical instruments; the attribute blind refers to the fact that these tasks deal with audio signals without paying attention to the symbolic information layer (score). Second we present the most useful algorithms which have proven to be most effective in solving these problems in general purpose situations, providing also an overview into specific task applications. These algorithms work both on compressed and uncompressed data, anyway particular attention will be given to MPEG audio formats like AAC and MP3. We then introduce second level tasks, such as automatic genre extraction and score extraction, that make use of proprietary algorithms too, which will be described in the chapter. We analyze the relationships between MIR and feature extraction presenting examples of possible applications. Finally we focus on automatic music synchronization, a non-blind task on score and the corresponding audio performance, pointing out both solving algorithms and their applications in MIR, music playing, music education and musicology. We introduce a new audio player that supports the MX logic layer and allows to play both the symbolic score and the related audio file coherently, offering a new experience in music listening.
Using verbal instructions for route learning: Instruction Analysis

Future domestic robots will need to adapt to the special needs of their users and to their environment. It is likely that programming by natural language will be a key method enabling computer language-naive users to instruct their robots. This paper describes initial steps and considerations towards the design of Instruction-Based Learning (IBL) systems. The proposed methodology is to be tested in the restricted domain of route instructions with real speech input and a real mobile robot using vision for navigation. Users will use unconstrained speech within a restricted domain-specific lexicon determined by analysing a corpus of route instructions. This will maximise speech recognition performance. The robot will possess an appropriate set of primitive procedures that correspond to procedures found in route instructions. Based on 96 route instructions, it is found that the task vocabulary contains approximately 270 words, but is not closed. It increases at an average rate of one new word for every new route instruction, although there are large inter-individual differences. It is also found that 58% of instructions contain no out-of-vocabulary words. The functional vocabulary is found to include 12 different procedures, and is also not closed. It increases at an average rate of one new procedure for every 25 instructions.
A Composite Study of the Interactions between Tropical Cyclones and Upper-Tropospheric Troughs

Abstract The objective of this study is to understand how interactions with upper-tropospheric troughs affect the intensity of tropical cyclones. The study includes all named Atlantic tropical cyclones between 1985 and 1996. To minimize other factors affecting intensity change, times when storms are over subcritical sea surface temperatures (≤26°C) or near landfall are removed from the sample. A trough interaction is defined to occur when the eddy momentum flux convergence calculated over a 300–600-km radial range is greater than 10 (m s−1) day−1. The trough interaction cases are separated into four composites: (i) favorable superposition [tropical cyclone intensifies with an upper-tropospheric potential vorticity (PV) maximum within 400 km of the tropical cyclone center], (ii) unfavorable superposition, (iii) favorable distant interaction (upper PV maximum between 400 and 1000 km from the tropical cyclone center), and (iv) unfavorable distant interaction. For comparison, two additional composites are cre.
Coordinated Motion Planning for a Mobile Manipulator considering Stability and Manipulation

For a mobile manipulator to be used in areas such as offices and houses, it is desirable that the mobile platform be small sized. In the case of a small-sized platform, the mobile manipulator may tip over when moving at high speed or executing tasks in the presence of disturbances. Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously consider both stabilization and manipulation while coordinating vehicle motion and manipulator motion. In this paper, we first present the concept of the valid stable region to evaluate stability in the presence of disturbances. Next, we propose a method for coordinating vehicle motion planning including manipulator configuration, and manipulator motion planning including platform stability. Then, the optimal problem of vehicle motion is formulated, taking into account vehicle dynamics, manipulator workspace, and system stability. Also, the manipulator motion is derived, considering stability compensation and manipulator configuration. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulation examples.
Analysis of Power Loss and Improved Simulation Method of a High Frequency Dual-Buck Full-Bridge Inverter

A high frequency dual-buck full-bridge inverter for small power renewable energy application is proposed in this paper. A switching frequency of 400 kHz is achieved with the adoption of the SiC power device. A two-pole two-zero (2P2Z) compensator is employed in the outer voltage loop to generate the current reference for inner current loop. A 3P3Z compensator is adopted in the inner current loop to track the current reference. A systematic way for calculating the losses of high frequency inverter is presented, and the losses of the components are thoroughly analyzed. The turn-on and turn-off procedures of the inverter are discussed in detail. The losses caused by high frequency are calculated accurately, and the loss distribution is established as well. The procedure of the loss analysis gives a practical example for calculating the loss of similar type inverters. Moreover, deviation between pulse width modulation (PWM) control signal and switching response in high frequency switching is thoroughly analyzed. The influence of deviation is verified by designed experiment. Hence, a compensation method is proposed in order to minimize the influence. The compensation effect is validated by experiment and simulation. Finally, a 1-kW prototype is built to verify the feasibility of the theoretical analyses. The grid-connected maximum output power experiment is completed at 1 kW with the efficiency of 96.1% and the total harmonic distortion (THD) of 1.8%. The comparison experiments of power loss between Si and SiC power devices are carried out. The experiment results confirm the loss calculation method to be valid.
Optimisation of cancer chemotherapy schedules using directed intervention crossover approaches

This paper describes two directed intervention crossover approaches that are applied to the problem of deriving optimal cancer chemotherapy treatment schedules. Unlike traditional uniform crossover (UC), both the calculated expanding bin (CalEB) method and targeted intervention with stochastic selection (TInSSel) approaches actively choose an intervention level and spread based on the fitness of the parents selected for crossover. Our results indicate that these approaches lead to significant improvements over UC when applied to cancer chemotherapy scheduling.
Topical web crawling using weighted anchor text and web page change detection techniques

In this paper, we discuss about the focused web crawler and relevance of anchor text as well as method for web page change detection for search engine. We have proposed a technique called weighted anchor text which uses the link structure to form the weighted directed graph of anchor texts. These weights are further used for deciding the relevance of the web pages as the indexing of these pages is done in the decreasing order of weights assigned to them. Weights are assigned for every incoming link for a node of the directed graph. We applied our algorithm on various websites and observed the results. We deduce that the algorithm can be very useful when incorporated with other existing algorithms. As Web usage has increased exponentially in the past few years. This collection of enormous web pages is highly changing and web pages show a rapid change, the degree of which varies from site to site. We discuss the relevance of change detection and then move on to explore the related work in the area. Based on this understanding we propose a new algorithm to map changes in a web page. After verifying results on various web pages we observe the relative merits of the proposed algorithm.
RIPPLE: A Scalable Framework for Distributed Processing of Rank Queries

We introduce a generic framework, termed RIPPLE, for processing rank queries in decentralized systems. Rank queries are particularly challenging, since the search area (i.e., which tuples qualify) cannot be determined by any peer individually. While our proposed framework is generic enough to apply to all decentralized structured systems, we show that when coupled with a particular distributed hash table (DHT) topology, it offers guaranteed worst-case performance. Specifically, rank query processing in our framework exhibits tunable polylogarithmic latency, in terms of the network size. Additionally we provide a means to trade-off latency for communication and processing cost. As a proof of concept, we apply RIPPLE for top-k query processing. Then, we consider skyline queries, and demonstrate that our framework results in a method that has better latency and lower overall communication cost than existing approaches over DHTs. Finally, we provide a RIPPLEbased approach for constructing a k-diversified set, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first distributed solution for this problem. Extensive experiments with real and synthetic datasets validate the effectiveness of our framework.
Grounded Distributional Semantics for Abstract Words

Since Harnad (1990) pointed out the symbol grounding problem, cognitive science research has demonstrated that grounding in perceptual or sensorimotor experience is crucial to language. Recent embodied cognition theories have argued that language is more important for grounding abstract than concrete words; abstract words are grounded via language. Distributional semantics has recently addressed the embodied nature of language and proposed multimodal semantic models. However, these models are not cognitively plausible because they do not address the recent embodiment view of abstract concepts. Therefore, we propose a novel multimodal distributional semantics in which abstract words are represented indirectly through grounded representations of their semantically related concrete words. A simulation experiment demonstrated that the proposed model achieved better performance in computing the word similarity than other multimodal or text-based distributional models. This finding suggests that the indirect embodiment view is plausible and contributes to the improvement of multimodal distributional semantics.
The Outcome Effect and Professional Skepticism: A Replication and a Failed Attempt at Mitigation

In this research note, we replicate Brazel, Jackson, Schaefer, and Stewart's (2016) study of how auditors evaluate skeptical behavior. Like the original study, we find that evaluators reward audit staff who exercise appropriate levels of skepticism and identify a misstatement (positive outcome). However, when no misstatement is identified (negative outcome), evaluators penalize staff who exercise appropriate levels of skepticism. One factor causing this outcome effect may be that exercising skepticism typically causes budget overages due to additional testing. Hence, we examine whether formally attributing the budget overage to skeptical judgments and actions in the audit budget file reduces outcome effects. However, while replicating the initial effect across three separate studies, we have been unable to reduce this effect. Thus, it is clear that the outcome effect in this context is very robust. Data Availability: Contact the authors.
Adjustable Pedals by Gesture Recognition: A Novel Approach for User Interface in Automotive

This paper proposes the enhancement in the design of adjustable pedals in automotive by incorporating gesture recognition methodologies. The design addresses the three primary controls: Accelerator, Brake and Clutch. Mechanical input of driver's feet is deduced at location variant adjustable pedals in terms of feet gestures. Research work aims vision based technology for the feet gesture recognition. Machine vision algorithms are developed to recognize feet gestures. Low level features based upon background subtraction, connected component analysis, optical flow and motion trajectories are computed to infer spatial, symbolic, pathic and emotional information of feet gestures. Classification of motion trajectories is done by logic based analysis. Accurate classification of feet gestures proves a workable adjustable pedals framework based upon feet gestures. Research work recommends the substitution of conventional fixed pedals with user-defined gesture controlled adjustable pedals facilitating the drivers in terms of ease, flexibility, ergonomics and cost-effectiveness.
Factors Influencing Successful Psychotherapy Outcomes

Previous research indicates that the therapeutic alliance is a main factor in determining successful outcomes of psychotherapy. The goal of this study was to expand the understanding of not only the therapeutic alliance, but also how other contributing factors such as empathy, experience of the therapist, therapeutic modality, client’s level of motivation, personality, and symptomology increase positive therapeutic outcomes. The present study explored the following research question: What are the key factors to producing successful therapeutic outcomes in individual psychotherapy? This is an exploratory study with a qualitative research design. The findings of this study appear to correlate closely with the literature reviewed. The therapeutic alliance remains a key component of creating successful outcomes in psychotherapy. Empathy also continues to be an integral factor to not only forming the alliance, but also increasing a client’s ability to feel validated and understood. It appears that experience does not always increase the odds of creating successful outcomes in therapy, and no one type of therapeutic modality is superior to another. The findings also concur that a client’s level of motivation, personality characteristics, and symptomology do play a role in their therapeutic outcomes. FACTORS INFLUENCING SUCCESSFUL PSYCHOTHERAPY OUTCOMES ii
Design of a Ku-band cavity diplexer with an E-plane T-junction

The design of a Ku-band cavity diplexer with an E-plane T-junction is described. The cavity diplexer consists of a transmit filter and a receive filter combined to the antenna port via an E-plane T-junction. Two seventh-order bandpass filters are designed at 14.557 GHz and 14.977 GHz. The fractional bandwidths for two bands are 0.77% and 0.75%. The optimized insertion losses are about 1.2 dB for the two filters with better than 55 dB isolation.
Expression profile analysis based on DNA microarray for patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery

Off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) surgery is the most effective treatment for coronary heart disease. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of OPCAB on the basis of the associated molecular mechanisms. GSE12486 expression profiles downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO) were analyzed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted based on the expression profiles of DEGs. Function and pathway enrichment of upregulated DEGs was performed, followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was used for miRNA enrichment analysis based on expression profiles and prediction of their association with the disease. Cytoscape was applied to construct miRNA regulatory networks of DEGs. In total 64 DEGs were identified, including 63 upregulated and 1 downregulated gene. The first principal component in the PCA analysis was able to distinguish between pre- and post-OPCAB samples. Upregulated DEGs mainly enriched 20 Gene Ontology terms, such as chemokine activity, and 5 pathways including the chemokine signaling pathway. The constructed PPI network contained 234 edges and 55 nodes, and 10 upregulated hub nodes, including FBJ murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog (FOS), were screened. A total of 36 miRNAs, including MIR-224 and MIR-7, were screened by GSEA enrichment analysis. A miRNA regulatory network including 176 edges and 97 nodes was constructed, showing the regulatory relationships between miRNAs and DEGs. For example, early growth response 2 (EGR2) was regulated by 8 miRNAs including MIR-150, MIR-142-3P, MIR-367 and MIR-224. The identified DEGs might play important roles in patients pre- and post-OPCAB surgery via the regulation of associated genes.