Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extending Tables with Data from over a Million Websites

This Big Data Track submission demonstrates how the BTC 2014 dataset, Microdata annotations from thousands of websites, as well as millions of HTML tables are used to extend local tables with additional columns. Table extension is a useful operation within a wide range of application scenarios: Imagine you are an analyst having a local table describing companies and you want to extend this table with the headquarter of each company. Or imagine you are a film enthusiast and want to extend a table describing films with attributes like director, genre, and release date of each film. The Mannheim Search Joins Engine automatically performs such table extension operations based on a large data corpus gathered from over a million websites that publish structured data in various formats. Given a local table, the Mannheim Search Joins Engine searches the corpus for additional data describing the entities of the input table. The discovered data are then joined with the local table and their content is consolidated using schema matching and data fusion methods. As result, the user is presented with an extended table and given the opportunity to examine the provenance of the added data. Our experiments show that the Mannheim Search Joins Engine achieves a coverage close to 100% and a precision of around 90% within different application scenarios. 1 Application Example Assume a marketing manager who wants to classify the customers of a company according to different properties of the countries in which the customers are located in order to select those that should be targeted by a marketing campaign. While the data about the customers can be found in the company’s internal data sources, further background information about the customers’ countries is not. Relevant data about countries could for instance include their population, GDP, or human development index. Today, the manager needs to manually search and integrate data about each country using search engines such as Google, access a small set of online databases he knows about, or copyand-paste values from Wikipedia. Manually searching for data is cumbersome and the manager will likely miss a large fraction of the relevant data sources that are available on the Web. The Mannheim Search Joins Engine (MSJ Engine) supports the manager in reaching his goal by automating the data search and data integration tasks, leaving him his core task. 2 O. Lehmberg, D. Ritze, P. Ristoski, H. Paulheim, C. Bizer
Perilipin1 Deficiency in Whole Body or Bone Marrow-Derived Cells Attenuates Lesions in Atherosclerosis-Prone Mice

Aims The objective of this study is to determine the role of perilipin 1 (Plin1) in whole body or bone marrow-derived cells on atherogenesis. Methods and Results Accumulated evidence have indicated the role of Plin1 in atherosclerosis, however, these findings are controversial. In this study, we showed that Plin1 was assembled and colocalized with CD68 in macrophages in atherosclerotic plaques of ApoE-/- mice. We further found 39% reduction of plaque size in the aortic roots of Plin1 and ApoE double knockout (Plin1-/-ApoE-/-) females compared with ApoE-/- female littermates. In order to verify whether this reduction was macrophage-specific, the bone marrow cells from wild-type or Plin1 deficient mice (Plin1-/-) were transplanted into LDL receptor deficient mice (LDLR-/-). Mice receiving Plin1-/- bone marrow cells showed also 49% reduction in aortic atherosclerotic lesions compared with LDLR-/- mice received wild-type bone marrow cells. In vitro experiments showed that Plin1-/- macrophages had decreased protein expression of CD36 translocase and an enhanced cholesterol ester hydrolysis upon aggregated-LDL loading, with unaltered expression of many other regulators of cholesterol metabolism, such as cellular lipases, and Plin2 and 3. Given the fundamental role of Plin1 in protecting LD lipids from lipase hydrolysis, it is reasonably speculated that the assembly of Plin1 in microphages might function to reduce lipolysis and hence increase lipid retention in ApoE-/- plaques, but this pro-atherosclerotic property would be abrogated on inactivation of Plin1. Conclusion Plin1 deficiency in bone marrow-derived cells may be responsible for reduced atherosclerotic lesions in the mice.
Convergence of Cranial Visceral Afferents within the Solitary Tract Nucleus

Primary afferent axons within the solitary tract (ST) relay homeostatic information via glutamatergic synapses directly to second-order neurons within the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). These primary afferents arise from multiple organ systems and relay multiple sensory modalities. How this compact network organizes the flow of primary afferent information will shape central homeostatic control. To assess afferent convergence and divergence, we recorded ST-evoked synaptic responses in pairs of medial NTS neurons in horizontal brainstem slices. ST shocks activated EPSCs along monosynaptic or polysynaptic pathways. Gradations in shock intensity discriminated multiple inputs and stimulus recruitment profiles indicated that each EPSC was unitary. In 24 pairs, 75% were second-order neurons with 64% receiving one direct ST input with the remainder receiving additional convergent ST afferent inputs (22% two; 14% three monosynaptic ST-EPSCs). Some (34%) second-order neurons received polysynaptic EPSCs. Neurons receiving only higher-order inputs were uncommon (13%). Most ST-EPSCs were completely independent, but 4 EPSCs of a total of 81 had equal thresholds, highly correlated latencies, and synchronized synaptic failures consistent with divergence from a single source ST axon or from a common interneuron producing a pair of polysynaptic EPSCs. We conclude that ST afferent inputs are remarkably independent with little evidence of substantial shared information. Individual cells receive highly focused information from the viscera. Thus, afferent excitation of second-order NTS neurons is generally dominated by single visceral afferents and therefore focused on a single afferent modality and/or organ region.
An algorithm to predict the connectome of neural microcircuits

Experimentally mapping synaptic connections, in terms of the numbers and locations of their synapses and estimating connection probabilities, is still not a tractable task, even for small volumes of tissue. In fact, the six layers of the neocortex contain thousands of unique types of synaptic connections between the many different types of neurons, of which only a handful have been characterized experimentally. Here we present a theoretical framework and a data-driven algorithmic strategy to digitally reconstruct the complete synaptic connectivity between the different types of neurons in a small well-defined volume of tissue—the micro-scale connectome of a neural microcircuit. By enforcing a set of established principles of synaptic connectivity, and leveraging interdependencies between fundamental properties of neural microcircuits to constrain the reconstructed connectivity, the algorithm yields three parameters per connection type that predict the anatomy of all types of biologically viable synaptic connections. The predictions reproduce a spectrum of experimental data on synaptic connectivity not used by the algorithm. We conclude that an algorithmic approach to the connectome can serve as a tool to accelerate experimental mapping, indicating the minimal dataset required to make useful predictions, identifying the datasets required to improve their accuracy, testing the feasibility of experimental measurements, and making it possible to test hypotheses of synaptic connectivity.
Robust pose determination for autonomous docking

This paper describes current work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop a robotic vision system capable of recognizing designated objects by their intrinsic geometry. This method, based on single camera vision, combines point features and a model-based technique using geometric feature matching for the pose calculation. In this approach, 2-D point features are connected into higher-order shapes and then matched with corresponding features of the model. Pose estimates are made using a closed-form point solution based on model features of four coplanar points. Rotations are represented by quaternions that simplify the calculations in determining the least squares solution for the coordinate transformation. This pose determination method including image acquisition, feature extraction, feature correspondence, and pose calculation has been implemented on a real-time system using a standard camera and image processing hardware. Experimental results are given for relative error measurements.
A GRASP with Path Relinking for the Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem

This study considers a single machine scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the total weighted tardiness of the jobs. This problem is one of the most famous problems in single machine scheduling theory and it is NP-hard. In this paper, we propose a hybrid heuristic which combines GRASP with Path Relinking to find good quality solutions for the considered problem. The performance of the hybrid GRASP heuristic is tested over multiple benchmark problems from the OR-Library with up to 100 jobs and experimental results show that it is very competitive with the existing good performing algorithms.
Should Financially Constrained Consumers Ask for High Public Spending ?

We study optimal government spending policy in a New Keynesian setting. We augment the standard model with limited asset market participation as in Bilbiie (2008). Furthermore we allow scal authority to levy a proportional labour income tax to nance its public consumption. We show that limited asset market participation makes it optimal to reduce public spending compared to the rst best allocation. This is so as to dampen the strongly distortionary e¤ects that scal policy has on the welfare of the nancially constrained agents. Moreover we show that replacing labour income tax with consumption tax allows the Ramsey Planner to set the public spending-to-GDP ratio at its rst best regardless of limited asset market participation or long run public debt. Keywords: Limited asset market participation, Ramsey policy, Optimal public spending, distortionary taxation. JEL: E30,E61, E62. We bene t from discussions with Alessia Campolmi, Michela Cella, Andrea Colciago, Mario Gilli, Sarolta Laczò, Elena Manzoni as well as all the participants at the departmental seminars at the University of MilanoBicocca. yE-mail:giorgio.motta1@unimib.it. zE-mail: ra¤aele.rossi1@unimib.it.
Drought, Deluge and Declines: The Impact of Precipitation Extremes on Amphibians in a Changing Climate

The Class Amphibia is one of the most severely impacted taxa in an on-going global biodiversity crisis. Because amphibian reproduction is tightly associated with the presence of water, climatic changes that affect water availability pose a particularly menacing threat to both aquatic and terrestrial-breeding amphibians. We explore the impacts that one facet of climate change—that of extreme variation in precipitation—may have on amphibians. This variation is manifested principally as increases in the incidence and severity of both drought and major storm events. We stress the need to consider not only total precipitation amounts but also the pattern and timing of rainfall events. Such rainfall “pulses” are likely to become increasingly more influential on amphibians, especially in relation to seasonal reproduction. Changes in reproductive phenology can strongly influence the outcome of competitive and predatory interactions, thus potentially altering community dynamics in assemblages of co-existing species. We present a conceptual model to illustrate possible landscape and metapopulation consequences of alternative climate change scenarios for pond-breeding amphibians, using the Mole Salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum, as an example. Although amphibians have evolved a variety of life history strategies that enable them to cope with environmental uncertainty, it is unclear whether adaptations can keep pace with the escalating rate of climate change. Climate change, especially in combination with other stressors, is a daunting challenge for the persistence of amphibians and, thus, the conservation of global biodiversity.
Evolution and phylogeny of the scarab subtribe Anisopliina (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anomalini)

Abstract The subtribe Anisopliina (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anomalini) is associated with grasses, and its species are distributed in the Palaearctic, Oriental, Ethiopian, Nearctic and Neotropical biogeographical regions. Phylogenetic analysis of adult morphological characters was conducted to examine the monophyly and classification of the group, as well as to examine characters associated with grass pollinivory and graminivory. We review the biology, phylogeny and classification of the Anisopliina and provide an overview of each genus. The analysis of ninety‐one morphological characters using parsimony does not support the monophyly of the subtribe Anisopliina. Instead, the results provide support for a group referred to here as the anisopliine clade, a circum‐Mediterranean group, forming an internal clade within the well‐supported tribe Anomalini. Sister group relationships are discussed, possibly being associated with a New World anomaline taxon. Character states associated with grass herbivory, including mouthpart and leg characters, are discussed based on the phylogenetic analysis. Within the Anomalini, an evolutionary shift from generalized leaf feeding to grass associations and grass pollen feeding is supported.
Lecture 3 : Suffix Tree , August 27 , 2004

Suffix tree is a fundamental data structure for combinatorial pattern matching [1]. In this note, we will introduce suffix tree, its construction and applications. We begin by giving a brief introduction on trie data structure, which suffix tree is part of. The Ukkonen’s algorithm for constructing the suffix tree is covered and suffix link is presented. Applications of suffix tree in the biological domain is then showed. The last two sections of the note touch on suffix array and FM-index.
Eliciting a Sensemaking Process from Verbal Protocols of Reverse Engineers

A process of sensemaking in reverse engineering was elicited from verbal protocols of reverse engineers as they investigated the assembly code of executable programs. Four participants were observed during task performance and verbal protocols were collected and analyzed from two of the participants to determine their problem-solving states and characterize likely transitions between those states. From this analysis, a highlevel process of sensemaking is described which represents hypothesis generation and information-seeking behaviors in reverse engineering within a framework of goal-directed planning. Future work in validation and application of the process is discussed.
A Highly Scalable Decentralized Scheduler of Tasks with Deadlines

Scheduling of tasks in distributed environments, like cloud and grid computing platforms, using deadlines to provide quality of service is a challenging problem. The few existing proposals suffer from scalability limitations, because they try to manage full knowledge of the system state. To our knowledge, there is no implementation yet that reaches scales of a hundred thousand nodes. In this paper, we present a fully decentralized scheduler, that aggregates information about the availability of the execution nodes throughout the network and uses it to allocate tasks to those nodes that are able to finish them in time. Through simulation, we show that our scheduler is able to operate on different scenarios, from many-task applications in cloud computing sites to volunteer computing projects. Simulations on networks of up to a hundred thousand nodes show very competitive performance, reaching allocation times of under a second and very low overhead in low latency gigabit networks.
low-level zonal winds shift to monsoon trough regions in the Northern Hemisphere

The boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) in the global tropics is documented here using a 7-year suite (1998–2004) of satellite measurements. A composite scenario was made of 28 selected events with reference to the oscillation in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO), where the oscillation is most regular and its intensity is indicative of the strength of the subsequent northward propagation. The average oscillation period is about 32 days, and this quasi-monthly oscillation (QMO) is primarily confined to the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Topics that were investigated are the partition of convective versus stratiform clouds, the vertical structure of precipitation rates, and the evolution of cloud types during the initial organization and the development of intraseasonal convective anomalies in the central Indian Ocean. During the initiation of the convective anomalies, the stratiform and convective rains have comparable rates; the prevailing cloud type experiences a trimodal evolution from shallow to deep convection, and finally to anvil and extended stratiform clouds. A major northwest/southeast-slanted rainband forms as the equatorial rainfall anomalies reach Sumatra, and the rainband subsequently propagates northeastward into the west Pacific Ocean. The enhanced precipitation in the west Pacific then rapidly traverses the Pacific along the Intertropical Convergence Zone, meanwhile migrating northward to the Philippine Sea. A seesaw teleconnection in rainfall anomalies is found between the southern Bay of Bengal (5–15 N, 80–100 E) and the eastern Pacific (5–15 N, 85–105 W). Local seasurface temperature (SST)-rainfall anomalies display a negative simultaneous correlation in the off-equatorial regions but a zero correlation (quadrature phase relationship) near the equator. We propose that atmosphere–ocean interaction and the vertical monsoon easterly shear are important contributors to the northeastward propagation component of the intraseasonal rainband. The observed evidence presented here provides critical information for validating the numerical models, and it supports the self-induction mechanism theory for maintenance of the boreal summer ISO.
Effective design of semiconductor devices using evolutionary-based derivative free optimization

Designing semiconductor devices is a complex problem, which requires accurate models and effective optimizers. We have introduced a new methodology based on derivative-free optimization evolutionary algorithms, which aim to achieve a near-optimal design. We have tested these algorithms on various semiconductor devices using a drift-diffusion model; the experimental results show that CMA-ES and DE outperform the current state-of-the-art design algoritms.
Book Review: Auditory Scene Analysis: The Perceptual Organization of Sound

The world is full of sources of sound. As I write this review, I can hear the humming of the word processor, the creaking of a door in the wind, the distant rumble of an aeroplane, the passage of a car close by, a bird twittering, my neighbour talking on his doorstep, music from his son’s hi-fi, and someone speaking on the radio in the next room. Although each source generates a particular pattern of changes in air-pressure, the changes have summed together by the time they reach my ears, yet I perceive each source distinctly. What principles of perceptual grouping and segregation do listeners use to partition such mixtures of sound? Which principles are applied automatically to all sounds? Which are specialized for particular classes of sound, such as speech? In what ways have the principles been exploited in musical composition? These are the major concerns of this lengthy, scholarly, but readable book. Bregman’s approach is functional not physiological, empirical not computational. He provides a comprehensive review and interpretation of perceptual experiments up to about 1989, so his book pre-dates recent attempts to implement auditory grouping principles in computational models and to find a physiological substrate for them. One important distinction is sustained throughout the book. Bregman argues that there are two kinds of principle for auditory grouping and segregation: “schema-based’’ and “primitive”. Schema-based principles are specific to particular types of source. They are learnt by listeners, and their application is under attentional control. One example may be the use of the knowledge of the timbre of an instrument to follow its part in an ensemble. Another example may be the use of phonetic knowledge to integrate acoustic cues in speech perception. Primitive grouping principles, in contrast, are innate, learnt through evolution. They automatically exploit fundamental physical properties of sounds and sound sources. For example: the sizes of resonators generally change slowly; they often generate energy simultaneously over a wide frequency range; when they vibrate, they create energy at the discrete
Enhanced airway-tissue boundary segmentation for real-time magnetic resonance imaging data

This paper introduces an algorithm for robust segmentationof airway-tissue boundaries in the upper airway images recorded by the real-time magnetic resonance imaging. Compared to the previous method by Proctor et al. [1], the present algorithm performs image quality enhancement, including pixel sensitivity correction and grainy noise reduction, followed by robust estimation of airway path between the vocal tract walls. The airway path as well as the locations of the lips and the top of the larynx are found using the Viterbi algorithm. The tissue-airway boundaries are found for each grid line by searching the closest pixel of higher intensity than a threshold from the the estimated airway path. The accuracy of the tissue boundary segmentation was evaluated in terms of root-mean-squared-error as well as statistics (mean and standard deviation) of error for specific region in the vocal tract. Results suggest that the proposedalgorithm shows significantly less estimation error than the previous method [1], especially for the front cavity and the lower boundary.
Explorer Dopamine and memory dedifferentiation in aging

1 The dedifferentiation theory of aging proposes that a reduction in the specificity of neural 2 representations causes declines in complex cognition as people get older, and may reflect a 3 reduction in dopaminergic signaling. The present pharmacological fMRI study investigated episodic 4 memory-related dedifferentiation in young and older adults, and its relation to dopaminergic 5 function, using a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind crossover design with the agonist 6 Bromocriptine (1.25 mg) and the antagonist Sulpiride (400 mg). We used multi-voxel pattern 7 analysis to measure memory specificity: the degree to which distributed patterns of activity 8 distinguishing two different task contexts during an encoding phase are reinstated during memory 9 retrieval. As predicted, memory specificity was reduced in older adults in prefrontal cortex and in 10 hippocampus, consistent with an impact of neural dedifferentiation on episodic memory 11 representations. There was also a linear age-dependent dopaminergic modulation of memory 12 specificity in hippocampus reflecting a relative boost to memory specificity on Bromocriptine in 13 older adults whose memory was poorer at baseline, and a relative boost on Sulpiride in older better 14 performers, compared to the young. This differed from generalized effects of both agents on task 15 specificity in the encoding phase. The results demonstrate a link between ageing, dopaminergic 16 function and dedifferentiation in the hippocampus. 17