Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parallel Task Routing for Crowdsourcing

An ideal crowdsourcing or citizen-science system would route tasks to the most appropriate workers, but the best assignment is unclear because workers have varying skill, tasks have varying difficulty, and assigning several workers to a single task may significantly improve output quality. This paper defines a space of task routing problems, proves that even the simplest is NP-hard, and develops several approximation algorithms for parallel routing problems. We show that an intuitive class of requesters' utility functions is submodular, which lets us provide iterative methods for dynamically allocating batches of tasks that make near-optimal use of available workers in each round. Experiments with live oDesk workers show that our task routing algorithm uses only 48% of the human labor compared to the commonly used round-robin strategy. Further, we provide versions of our task routing algorithm which enable it to scale to large numbers of workers and questions and to handle workers with variable response times while still providing significant benefit over common baselines.
Distribution, Diversity, and Seasonality of Waterborne Salmonellae in a Rural Watershed

ABSTRACT Salmonella outbreaks from contaminated water and nonanimal foods (e.g., produce) are increasingly reported. To address the environment as a potential source of pathogenic Salmonella, we investigated levels of salmonellae and the geographic and temporal variation of Salmonella serotypes from surface waters in a region of Georgia (United States) with a history of high salmonellosis case rates. Monthly water samples were collected from six stations in the Little River (Upper Suwannee Basin) for 12 months (April 2005 to April 2006). Salmonellae were enumerated using a three-step most-probable-number (MPN) assay. Salmonellae were detected in 57 of the 72 water samples collected (79.2%). Monthly Salmonella densities ranged from an MPN of 2.5 liter−1 in April 2005 to 36.3 liter−1 in August 2005; concentrations were significantly higher in the summer months compared to other seasons (P < 0.05). Concentrations were not significantly different between stations. Levels of salmonellae were correlated with average daily watershed rainfall for the 1 and 2 days preceding each sample collection (r = 0.77 and 0.68, respectively; P < 0.005). Additionally, water temperature was also positively associated with total Salmonella levels (r = 0.44; P < 0.05). In total, 13 S. enterica serotypes were identified among 197 Salmonella isolates. Eighty (40.6%) were identified as S. enterica subsp. arizonae. Muenchen and Rubislaw were the most frequently identified serotypes of the remaining 117 isolates (28 and 26 isolates, respectively). Serotype diversity peaked in the summer, with 9 serotypes observed in August compared to only one serotype (S. enterica subsp. arizonae) observed in April (2005 and 2006) (P < 0.05). Furthermore, all samples collected in August (6/6) contained multiple serotypes (two to five per sample). The results of this study suggest that Salmonella abundance and diversity in the environment vary temporally and are strongly influenced by seasonal precipitation and water temperature.
Clinical Interventions in Aging Dovepress Successful Aging and the Epidemiology of Hiv

By 2015, it is estimated that nearly half of those living with HIV in the US will be 50 years of age and older. This dramatic change in the demographics of this clinical population represents unique challenges for patients, health care providers, and society-at-large. Fortunately, because of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and healthy lifestyle choices, it is now possible for many infected with HIV to age successfully with this disease; however, this depends upon one's definition of successful aging. It is proposed that successful aging is composed of eight factors: length of life, biological health, cognitive efficiency, mental health, social competence , productivity, personal control, and life satisfaction. Unfortunately, HIV and medication side effects can compromise these factors, thus diminishing one's capacity to age successfully with this disease. This article explores how HIV, medication side effects from HAART, and lifestyle choices can compromise the factors necessary to age successfully. Implications for practice and research are posited.
Towards a neurocognitive model of turn taking in multimodal dialog

© Oxford University Press, 2008. All rights reserved. This chapter discusses hierarchically organised actions in communication. One essential, but often overlooked, feature of natural dialogue is turn taking. More recently, turn taking has become an issue in robot and virtual human research as researchers aim to make these systems more fluent and dynamic when interacting naturally with humans. The most promising way to understand turn taking is to develop a model, preferably in ways that it can be tested in interaction with real humans. This chapter describes a hybrid model that integrates features of the Ymir Turn Taking Model and Augmented Competitive Queuing by expanding key cognitive components of the former with neural mechanisms from the latter. The model is able to learn turn taking with little or no overlap in speech and to learn social turn taking cues.
Online Minimum-Copper-Loss Control of an Interior Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Machine for Automotive Applications

This paper presents an algorithm to calculate the current references on line, considering the inherent nonlinear nature of the saturation effect in an interior permanent-magnet synchronous machine for the minimum-copper-loss control under the current and voltage limit of the drive system. This paper basically approaches this issue as a nonlinearly constrained optimization problem where the torque command imposes the nonlinear equality constraint and the voltage limit imposes the nonlinear inequality constraint. Depending on the operating region, it solves the corresponding set of nonlinear equations in real time derived from the Lagrange multiplier method. Newton's method among various techniques is adopted to implement the numerical solution. This scheme gives accurate results not only in motoring but also in generating operation of the machine, since the voltage drop of the stator resistance is taken into account, which is hardly applicable to a two-dimensional lookup table where the inputs are the torque command and the maximum flux amplitude, and the output is each axis current reference in the rotor reference frame. The simulation and experimental results show the feasibility and performance of the proposed technique
Three Exemplars Allow at Least Some Linguistic Generalizations: Implications for Generalization Mechanisms and Constraints

The mechanism that allows learners to generalize over linguistic input and its relation to constraints on possible generalizations was explored in three experiments. Infants were familiarized briefly with words exhibiting stress patterns generated by a set of ordered principles, and then tested on new words that were either consistent or inconsistent with those principles. In Experiment 1, 9-month-olds generalized from three different heavy syllables (those ending in a consonant) heard during familiarization, to a new heavy syllable at test, but did not generalize from multiple tokens of one heavy syllable. Experiment 2 demonstrated that, although 9-month-olds were able to use three syllables to generalize the linguistically natural principle assigning stress to heavy syllables, they failed to use them to generalize a principle that does not occur in natural languages, suggesting that the mechanism requiring three input examples does not apply to all input equally. Experiment 3 demonstrated that although 9-month-olds failed to generalize the unnatural principle, 7.5-month-olds succeeded, suggesting that constraints on generalization can be acquired over development.
Narratives We Organize By

1. Introduction (by Czarniawska, Barbara) 2. Part 1: Structuralist approaches to narrative analysis 3. Sensegiving and sensemaking in an integration process: A narrative approach to the study of an international acquisiton (by Soderberg, Anne-Marie) 4. Narrative institutions we organize by: The case of municipal administration (by Robichaud, Daniel) 5. Part 2: Poststructuralist approaches to narrative 6. Re-navigating management theory: Steering by the star of Mary Follet (by Monin, Nanette) 7. The body of the text and the ordinary narratives of organisation (by Hopfl, Heather) 8. Part 3: Genre analysis 9. How can strategy be a practice? : Between discourse and narration (by Ville, Valerie-Ines de la) 10. Narratives of organizational performance (by Corvellec, Herve) 11. Part 4: Stories help to understand 12. The Schweik Syndrome: The narrative power of resistance by agreement (by Hirsch, Paul M.) 13. Detective stories and the narrative structure of organizing: Towards an understanding of organizations as texts (by Patriotta, Gerardo) 14. Part 5: Getting help from the stories of the future 15. From naked emperor to count zero: Tracking knights, nerds and cyber-punks in identity narratives of freelancers in the IT-field (by Metz, David) 16. Narrating the future of intelligent machines: The role of science fiction in technological anticipation (by Bloomfield, Brian P.) 17. Part 6: Narrating ourselves 18. Ticking time and side cupboard . : The journey of a patient (by Sharifi, Sudi) 19. Fluid tales: A preservation of self in everyday life (by Small, Robert Grafton) 20. About the authors and the editors 21. References 22. Name index 23. Subject index
Dysfonctionnement fronto-limbique dans le trouble bipolaire et apports des interventions thérapeutiques psychosociales : approche par l'IRM multimodale

Le trouble bipolaire (TB) est une pathologie chronique de l'humeur, caracterisee par des perturbations du fonctionnement emotionnel et cognitif lors des periodes depressives, maniaques, et intercritiques (euthymiques). L'essor recent des interventions psychosociales specifiques, telles que la psychoeducation, dans la prise en charge du TB est du a une efficacite considerable demontree dans l'optimisation de la reponse et la stabilisation clinique des patients bipolaires (BP). L'objectif de cette these a ete d'identifier le substrat cerebral, anatomique et fonctionnel, qui sous-tend (i) les troubles cognitifs et emotionnels persistants lors des periodes euthymiques, afin de degager des marqueurs traits de la maladie ; (ii) l'amelioration symptomatique suite a l'application d'un programme de psychoeducation chez les patients BP. Nos resultats ont montre que le TB se caracterise par une deregulation de l'activite et de la connectivite des regions prefrontales et limbiques, respectivement impliquees dans le controle cognitif et la generation/perception des emotions. Nous avons egalement mis en evidence, a la fois au repos et lors d'une tâche cognitivo-emotionnelle, une connectivite anormale chez les patients BP entre le « default mode network », qui sous-tend des processus mentaux egocentres, et le « task positive network », qui est implique dans des processus cognitifs exocentres. Suite a trois mois de psychoeducation, les anomalies d'activation fronto-limbique chez les patients BP etaient attenuees. De plus, la diffusivite au sein du faisceau uncine, qui relie ces regions, etait amelioree. En outre, l'atteinte de la structure anatomique des regions fronto-limbiques ainsi que de leurs connexions, constituait un facteur predictif de la reponse a la psychoeducation. L'ensemble de nos resultats suggerent que les deficits de regulation emotionnelle et de controle attentionnel caracterisant le TB pourraient etre modules par l'amelioration du controle cognitif « top-down », induit par la participation a un programme de psychoeducation.
Three nuclear genes for phylogenetic, SNP and population genetic studies of molluscs and other invertebrates

The study reports new primers capable of amplifying fragments from three nuclear protein‐coding genes in a variety of deep‐sea molluscs and annelids – adenine nucleotide translocase (Ant), calmodulin (Cal) and cyclophilin A (CycA). The Ant primers appear to be restricted to bivalve molluscs, whereas the Cal and CycA primers also amplified appropriate gene fragments from Lepetodrilus gastropod molluscs and Osedax polychaete worms. The amplified fragment of Cal contains an intron in the molluscs, but no intron was detected in the Ant and CycA fragments from any of the tested animals. DNA sequences generated by the three primer sets exhibited one to 15 single nucleotide polymorphism sites in deep‐sea vesicomyid clams and Osedax boneworms. The observed levels of polymorphism indicate that the genes are likely to be useful in both population genetic and phylogenetic analyses of different invertebrate taxa.
Excitonic effects in coupled quantum wells.

Electron-sublevel-anticrossing effects have been studied in coupled quantum wells where the exciton binding energy is comparable to the minimum sublevel splitting. The anticrossing was induced by applying an electric field to align the first and second sublevels of adjacent wells. In this situation the electron-hole Coulomb interaction has a strong effect on the splittings measured by optical techniques, because the optical spectra typically measure exciton energies rather than single-particle energies. The most striking effect is that the minimum splitting of the excitons associated with each of the split electron levels does not occur at the same field as for the minimum splitting of the bare-electron levels. One unexpected but readily observable consequence is that when the same electron-sublevel splitting is measured using two different pairs of intrawell and interwell exciton transitions, the field for minimum exciton splitting can differ by up to \ensuremath{\sim}10% from one pair of transitions to the other. We have constructed a variational model of the coupled excitons that explains these effects in terms of Coulomb mixing of the delocalized electron states. We have measured the exciton splittings directly by photocurrent spectroscopy in three GaAs/${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.3}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.7}$As multiple-quantum-well structures. The samples were similar in design except that the ${\mathrm{Al}}_{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$As barrier thickness varied from 15 to 35 \AA{}. By fitting our variational model to the experimental anticrossing data, we have been able to deduce the actual bare-electron level splittings rather than the exciton splittings. Within the experimental accuracy, we find that the minimum splitting decreased exponentially with increasing barrier thickness, as would be expected for simple quantum-mechanical tunneling.
Thermostable Mismatch-Recognizing Protein MutS Suppresses Nonspecific Amplification during Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-related technologies are hampered mainly by two types of error: nonspecific amplification and DNA polymerase-generated mutations. Here, we report that both errors can be suppressed by the addition of a DNA mismatch-recognizing protein, MutS, from a thermophilic bacterium. Although it had been expected that MutS has a potential to suppress polymerase-generated mutations, we unexpectedly found that it also reduced nonspecific amplification. On the basis of this finding, we propose that MutS binds a mismatched primer-template complex, thereby preventing the approach of DNA polymerase to the 3′ end of the primer. Our simple methodology improves the efficiency and accuracy of DNA amplification and should therefore benefit various PCR-based applications, ranging from basic biological research to applied medical science.
A Column-Aware Index Management Using Flash Memory for Read-Intensive Databases

Abstract Most traditional database systems exploit a record-oriented model where the attributes of a record are placed contiguously in a hard disk to achieve high performance writes. However, for read-mostly data warehouse systems, the column-oriented database has become a proper model because of its superior read performance. Today, flash memory is largely recognized as the preferred storage media for high-speed database systems. In this paper, we introduce a column-oriented database model based on flash memory and then propose a new column-aware flash indexing scheme for the high-speed column-oriented data warehouse systems. Our index management scheme, which uses an enhanced B + -Tree, achieves superior search performance by indexing an embedded segment and packing an unused space in internal and leaf nodes. Based on the performance results of two test databases, we concluded that the column-aware flash index management outperforms the traditional scheme in the respect of the mixed operation throughput and its response time.
Thromboprophylaxis in the intensive care unit: Focus on medical–surgical patients

Critically ill patients in the medical–surgical intensive care unit are at high risk for deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, which comprise venous thromboembolism. Herein, we describe the prevalence, incidence, risk factors, clinical consequences, prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism in critically ill patients, and compliance with thromboprophylaxis. We focus primarily on medical–surgical intensive care unit patients, who represent the largest subgroup of critically ill patients. Despite the large and growing number of critically ill patients in our aging society, their high risk for venous thromboembolism, and the morbidity and mortality associated with this complication of critical illness, relatively few rigorous studies are available. Large, well-designed, randomized trials of thromboprophylaxis, powered to detect differences in patient-important outcomes, are required to advance our understanding and care of these vulnerable patients. Furthermore, because thromboprophylaxis is a common error of omission in hospitalized patients, redoubled efforts are needed to ensure that it is used in practice.
Design and Field Experimentation of an Energy-Efficient Architecture for DTN Throwboxes

Disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs) rely on intermittent contacts between mobile nodes to deliver packets using a store-carry-and-forward paradigm. We earlier proposed the use of throwbox nodes, which are stationary, battery-powered nodes with storage and processing, to enhance the capacity of DTNs. However, the use of throwboxes without efficient power management is minimally effective. If the nodes are too liberal with their energy consumption, they will fail prematurely. However, if they are too conservative, they may miss important transfer opportunities, hence increasing lifetime without improving performance. In this paper, we present a hardware and software architecture for energy-efficient throwboxes in DTNs. We propose a hardware platform that uses a multitiered, multiradio, scalable, solar-powered platform. The throwbox employs an approximate heuristic for solving the NP-hard problem of meeting an average power constraint while maximizing the number of bytes forwarded by the throwbox. We built and deployed prototype throwboxes in UMass DieselNet, a bus-based DTN testbed. Through extensive trace-driven simulations and prototype deployment, we show that a single throwbox with a 270-cm2 solar panel can run perpetually while improving packet delivery by 37% and reducing message delivery latency by at least 10% in the network.
Design of algorithm for vehicle identification by number plate recognition

Design of an algorithm for vehicle identification by recognizing the number plate is presented. This new vehicle identification technique consists of vehicle detection, plate localization and character recognition. Here, Genetic algorithm (GA) is employed at two levels: for detecting vehicle from traffic image and recognizing character from the number plate. Detection is based on contour and shape information. GA controls the window size to capture each vehicle in a separate widow. Connectivity and adjacency concepts are used to locate and extract number plate and its characters. A digital board (DB) with window panes is introduced to recognize each character uniquely. GA is adopted at the second level to map character pixels into the window panes as lines. For each character in the number plate, distinct feature vector is computed. Finally, a feature based matching is adopted for character recognition. Experiments have been conducted with images taken from various scenes and conditions and the detection rate is found to be 92.5 %. Experiments have conducted for recognition with LPR images taken at different conditions and the recognition rate is found to be 91 %. Detection time is linear function of number of objects in the input image. Potential applications include provisioning of vehicle parking facilities and campus security system for permitting authorized vehicles into the premises.
Design of Automatically Adaptable Web Wrappers

Nowadays, the huge amount of information distributed through the Web motivates studying techniques to be adopted in order to extract relevant data in an efﬁcient and reliable way. Both academia and enterprises developed several approaches of Web data extraction, for example using techniques of artiﬁcial intelligence or machine learning. Some commonly adopted procedures, namely wrappers, ensure a high degree of precision of information extracted from Web pages, and, at the same time, have to prove robustness in order not to compromise quality and reliability of data themselves. In this paper we focus on some experimental aspects related to the robustness of the data extraction process and the possibility of automatically adapting wrappers. We discuss the implementation of algorithms for ﬁnding similarities between two different version of a Web page, in order to handle modiﬁcations, avoiding the failure of data extraction tasks and ensuring reliability of information extracted. Our purpose is to evaluate performances, advantages and draw-backs of our novel system of automatic wrapper adaptation.
Detection, localization and pose classification of ear in 3D face profile images

We present an efficient and robust system for landmark localization, segmentation and pose classification of ears from 3D profile facial range data. After defining 18 landmarks on the ear, including Triangular Fossa and Incisure Intertragica, a novel Ear Tree-structured Graph (ETG) is proposed to represent the 3D ear. We trained a flexible mixture model to locate these landmarks automatically. Afterwards, the ear region is outlined as the minimum rectangle including all landmarks. Finally, by calculating the turning angle between landmarks on the helix, the ear is classified as either a left or a right ear. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous work on automatic landmark localization for 3D ear on 3D facial profile depth images. Experiments are conducted on University of Notre Dame Collection F and Collection J2 datasets, containing large occlusion, scale and pose variations. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.