Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sparse similarity-preserving hashing

In recent years, a lot of attention has been devoted to efficient nearest neighbor search by means of similarity-preserving hashing. One of the plights of existing hashing techniques is the intrinsic trade-off between performance and computational complexity: while longer hash codes allow for lower false positive rates, it is very difficult to increase the embedding dimensionality without incurring in very high false negatives rates or prohibiting computational costs. In this paper, we propose a way to overcome this limitation by enforcing the hash codes to be sparse. Sparse high-dimensional codes enjoy from the low false positive rates typical of long hashes, while keeping the false negative rates similar to those of a shorter dense hashing scheme with equal number of degrees of freedom. We use a tailored feed-forward neural network for the hashing function. Extensive experimental evaluation involving visual and multi-modal data shows the benefits of the proposed method.
Swarm modulation: An algorithm for real-time spectral transformation

A novel class of modulation is introduced, for frequency transformation and spectral synthesis in real-time. Swarm modulation has potential applications to enhance human hearing with extended frequency ranges, in medical diagnostics for electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG) and other medical signals, for RADAR analysis, for user-interface sonification, and for sound synthesis or non-synthetic sound transformation. Swarm modulation is a new way to transform signals, and is demonstrated for transforming subsonic and ultrasonic sound into the audible range of human hearing. Swarm modulation is based on the principle of phase-incoherent frequency-roaming oscillation. Features in the frequency-time plane are reconstructed via a time-varying process, controllable with instantaneous zero-latency reaction time to new information. Swarm modulation allows prioritization of salient output spectral features for efficient processing, and overcomes cyclic beating patterns when Fourier and wavelet-based methods are applied in a stationary manner. Swarm modulation can flexibly re-map sound when a user expressively touches physical matter creating vibration. By detecting subsonic, sonic and ultrasonic vibrations, we can add to materials a rich acoustic user-feedback that can be adjusted to sound like a bell, xylophone, dull piece of wood, or a variety of other objects, in real-time. By dynamically controlling the output sound spectrum depending on the input spectrum, simultaneously with a continuous and low-latency temporal response, the system imitates the physicality of touching a real object. Applied in control panels and expressive control surfaces, swarm modulation can create realistic sonic feedback, for human head-up operation of controls in critical applications.
Offering data confidentiality for multimedia overlay multicast: Design and analysis

Application layer multicast (ALM) has been proposed to overcome current limitations in IP multicast for large-group multimedia communication. We address offering data confidentiality tailored for ALM. To achieve confidentiality, a node may need to continuously re-encrypt packets before forwarding them downstream. Furthermore, keys have to be changed whenever there is a membership change, leading to rekey processing overhead at the nodes. For a large and dynamic group, these reencryption and rekeying operations incur high processing overhead at the nodes. We propose and analyze a scalable scheme called Secure Overlay Multicast (SOM) which clusters ALM peers so as to localize rekeying within a cluster and to limit re-encryption at cluster boundaries, thereby minimizing the total nodal processing overhead. We describe the operations of SOM and compare its nodal processing overhead with two other basic approaches, namely, host-to-host encryption and whole group encryption. We also present a simplified analytic model for SOM and show that there exists an optimal cluster size to minimize the total nodal processing overhead. By comparing with a recently proposed ALM scheme (DT protocol), SOM achieves a substantial reduction in nodal processing overhead with similar network performance in terms of network stress and delay.
Evaluation of Intra-articular Colloidal Gold Au 198 in the Treatment of Persistent Knee Effusions *

A new method, employing radiation, for inactivating inflamed synovial tissue was investigated. An attempt was made to produce radiation synovectomy, using the principle that colloidal Au/sup 198/, when injected into the knee joint, would behave like other particles and localize on the synovial membrane. A pilot study was undertaken to see if satisfactory diffusion throughout the knee joint and localization on the synovial membrane occurred. In four patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis with persistent knee effusions, a tracer dose of 50 mu C Au/sup 198/ was injected. At 1, 6, and 24 hours a scan of the knee was made, initially using a well-collimated scintillation counter with a 1/2 in. dia. sodium iodide crystal and later an automatic scanner. At 6 and 24 hours the regional lymph glands were also checked. Provided there was an effusion of moderate size, the introduction of colloidal Au/sup 198/ into the knee joint was followed by its rapid diffusion throughout that cavity followed by localization on the synovial membrane. Thirty injections were given in 24 patients and all were followed for a minimum of one year. The range of dosage varied from 480 to 1000 r (mean 690 r). Clinical assessment of the statemore » of the knees as previously described was made on the 3rd, 7th, and 21st day, and subsequently at 3 months and at 1 yr after the injection. The one-yr follow-up of 30 therapeutic injections showed a good result in 16, some effect in 7, and none in 7. In the 14 cases in which bilateral knee effusions were present, the treated knee tended to do better than the control. It is suggested that failure of this form of therapy may be due to the inability of the Au/sup 198/ to penetrate far enough into very thickened synovial membrane. Yttrium-90, with its considerably greater penetration (over 3 mm) into the tissue, may be preferable and warrants further investigation. (BBB)« less
On Unexpectedness in Recommender Systems: Or How to Expect the Unexpected

Although the broad social and business success of recommender systems has been achieved across several domains, there is still a long way to go in terms of user satisfaction. One of the key dimensions for improvement is the concept of unexpectedness. In this paper, we propose a model to improve user satisfaction by generating unexpected recommendations based on the utility theory of economics. In particular, we propose a new concept of unexpectedness as recommending to users those items that depart from what they expect from the system. We define and formalize the concept of unexpectedness and discuss how it differs from the related notions of novelty, serendipity and diversity. We also measure the quality of recommendations using specific metrics under certain utility functions. Finally, we provide unexpected recommendations of high quality and conduct several experiments on a “real-world” dataset to compare our recommendation results with some other standard baseline methods. Our proposed approach outperforms these baseline methods in terms of unexpectedness while avoiding accuracy loss.
Arabidopsis HsfB1 and HsfB2b Act as Repressors of the Expression of Heat-Inducible Hsfs But Positively Regulate the Acquired Thermotolerance1[C][W][OA]

Many eukaryotes have from one to three heat shock factors (Hsfs), but plants have more than 20 Hsfs, designated class A, B, and C. Class A Hsfs are activators of transcription, but details of the roles of individual Hsfs have not been fully characterized. We show here that Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) HsfB1 and HsfB2b, members of class B, are transcriptional repressors and negatively regulate the expression of heat-inducible Hsfs (HsfA2, HsfA7a, HsfB1, and HsfB2b) and several heat shock protein genes. In hsfb1 hsfb2b double mutant plants, the expression of a large number of heat-inducible genes was enhanced in the non-heat condition (23°C) and the plants exhibited slightly higher heat tolerance at 42°C than the wild type, similar to Pro35S:HsfA2 plants. In addition, under extended heat stress conditions, expression of the heat-inducible Hsf genes remained consistently higher in hsfb1 hsfb2b than in the wild type. These data indicate that HsfB1 and HsfB2b suppress the general heat shock response under non-heat-stress conditions and in the attenuating period. On the other hand, HsfB1 and HsfB2b appear to be necessary for the expression of heat stress-inducible heat shock protein genes under heat stress conditions, which is necessary for acquired thermotolerance. We show that the heat stress response is finely regulated by activation and repression activities of Hsfs in Arabidopsis.
Mass-to-light ratio gradients in early-type galaxy haloes

Owing to the fact that the near future should see a rapidly expanding set of probes of the halo masses of individual early-type galaxies, we introduce a convenient parameter for character­ izing the halo masses from both observational and theoretical results: ∇ eϒ , the logarithmic radial gradient of the mass-to-light ratio. Using halo density profiles from A-cold dark matter (CDM) simulations, we derive predictions for this gradient for various galaxy luminosities and star formation efficiencies E SF . A s a pilot study, we assemble the available ∇ eϒ data from kinematics in early-type galaxies – representing the first unbiased study of halo masses in a wide range of early-type galaxy luminosities – and find a correlation between luminosity and ∇ eϒ , such that the brightest galaxies appear the most dark-matter dominated. We find that the gradients in most of the brightest galaxies may fit in well with the ACDM predictions, but that there is also a population of fainter galaxies whose gradients are so low as to imply an unreasonably high star formation efficiency E SF > 1. This difficulty is eased if dark haloes are not assumed to have the standard ACDM profiles, but lower central concentrations. Ke yw ords: galaxies: evolution – galaxies: fundamental parameters – galaxies: haloes – galax­ ies: kinematics and dynamics – dark matter.
AMF configurations: Checking for service protection using heuristics

AMF (Availability Management Framework) is a middleware service that manages the availability of applications. AMF has been defined by the Service Availability Forum (SA Forum). An AMF configuration for an application running on top of AMF is a logical organization of hardware and software resources to provide and protect services. Resources, namely components, are grouped into logical entities such as service units and service groups and are set together at configuration time to provide and protect services represented as component service instances and service instances. The assignment of component service instances and service instances to components and service units, respectively, is performed at runtime by the AMF middleware. However, the configuration is valid if and only if it satisfies all AMF constraints, including the provisioning and protection of the services. Therefore, the problem is how to ensure at configuration time that the services will be protected at runtime. In a previous work, we tackled this problem and proved it to be NP-hard in general for most redundancy models. Here, we tackle the problem of AMF configuration validation further with heuristics using extended versions of heuristics developed for the bin-packing problem. We consider all the redundancy models for which the problem is NP-hard. In addition, we propose an approach which incrementally adds resources to a “likely” invalid configuration and transforms it into a valid one.
Molecular Basis for Transmission Barrier and Interference between Closely Related Prion Proteins in Yeast*

Replicating amyloids, called prions, are responsible for transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in mammals and some heritable phenotypes in fungi. The transmission of prions between species is usually inhibited, being highly sensitive to small differences in amino acid sequence of the prion-forming proteins. To understand the molecular basis of this prion interspecies barrier, we studied the transmission of the [PSI+] prion state from Sup35 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to hybrid Sup35 proteins with prion-forming domains from four other closely related Saccharomyces species. Whereas all the hybrid Sup35 proteins could adopt a prion form in S. cerevisiae, they could not readily acquire the prion form from the [PSI+] prion of S. cerevisiae. Expression of the hybrid Sup35 proteins in S. cerevisiae [PSI+] cells often resulted in frequent loss of the native [PSI+] prion. Furthermore, all hybrid Sup35 proteins showed different patterns of interaction with the native [PSI+] prion in terms of co-polymerization, acquisition of the prion state, and induced prion loss, all of which were also dependent on the [PSI+] variant. The observed loss of S. cerevisiae [PSI+] can be related to inhibition of prion polymerization of S. cerevisiae Sup35 and formation of a non-heritable form of amyloid. We have therefore identified two distinct molecular origins of prion transmission barriers between closely sequence-related prion proteins: first, the inability of heterologous proteins to co-aggregate with host prion polymers, and second, acquisition by these proteins of a non-heritable amyloid fold.
A Probabilistic Character Layout Strategy for Mobile Text Entry

We present a text entry strategy designed for small, input-limited devices in mobile situations. In an existing text entry interaction style, arrow keys move a cursor around the character set, displayed on a 3 or 4 line liquid crystal display, and a select key outputs the highlighted character to the display. The Fluctuating Optimal Character Layout (FOCL) strategy aims to improve entry rates with this interaction technique. After each character c entered, the layout is rearranged so that the most likely next characters are closer to the cursor. Each new layout is optimal with respect to c , given digram (letter-pair) probabilities in common English. FOCL significantly reduces kspc --the average number of keystrokes per character--, a non-empirical measure that partly accounts for text entry speed. However, it also requires the user to locate each character in an unfamiliar layout, thus adding visual search time to the task. In a longitudinal experiment comparing the fluctuating layout approach to a fixed QWERTY layout, we found no significant difference in entry speeds. We discuss our design rationale and various modifications to the design that may yield a performance improvement.
Culture, Self, and Development: Are Cultural Templates Useful or Stereotypic?.

In this paper it is asserted that dichotomous cultural templates such as independence and interdependence, as well as individualism and collectivism, do not accurately reflect the complexity of social life in Western and non-Western cultures and often result in stereotypic, rather than actual, characterizations of the social orientations of individuals and of cultures. Viewpoints that (a) promote the use of dichotomous labels, (b) espouse dualities for some aspects, but not other aspects of cultures, and (c) critique the notion of broad templates used to describe cultures are discussed. In general, it is concluded that acknowledging the limitations of cultural dichotomies is incompatible with proposing the notion of an individualistic American self.  1997 Academic Press
Evaluation of an off-screen visualization for magic lens and dynamic peephole interfaces

Map navigation is often limited due to the inherent size restrictions of mobile devices' displays. Using a magic lens to interact with physical objects has been proposed as a way to reduce this limitation. The dynamic peephole interface is an alternative approach where a device is moved across a virtual surface. In this paper we study the effect of an additional visualization of objects beyond the screen on magic lens and dynamic peephole interfaces. In the conducted experiment the participants had to select points of interest shown on a map. We show that an additional visualization of off-screen objects decreases the task completion time and reduces the perceived task load. The advantage of an off-screen visualization is much higher than the difference between using a magic lens instead of a dynamic peephole interface.
Mobile services used in unstable environments: design requirements based on three case studies

The fast developing mobile technology and the lack of practices make it difficult to design mobile information services of satisfying quality within allocated time and budget. One of the difficulties is the unstable environment in which users accessing these services find themselves. Information services used on a personal computer connected to the Internet with a wired line are nowadays quite stable. However, the use of information services on a mobile device connected to the Internet by a mobile or wireless network is still vulnerable. The usage is even more unstable since the users are distracted when they are on the move, in an environment that might be unfamiliar, noisy, or surrounded with traffic.In this paper we describe three different case studies in which a mobile information service is designed for use in an unstable environment. We analyze the usage of these services and derive requirements for a design method to deal with this. We recommend applying context studies, simulation, user participation and service assembly with building blocks during the design process.
APPLYING MACHINE LEARNING TO LOW‐KNOWLEDGE CONTROL OF OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS

This paper addresses the question of allocating computational resources among a set of algorithms to achieve the best performance on scheduling problems. Our primary motivation in addressing this problem is to reduce the expertise needed to apply optimization technology. Therefore, we investigate algorithm control techniques that make decisions based only on observations of the improvement in solution quality achieved by each algorithm. We call our approach “low knowledge” since it does not rely on complex prediction models, either of the problem domain or of algorithm behavior. We show that a low‐knowledge approach results in a system that achieves significantly better performance than all of the pure algorithms without requiring additional human expertise. Furthermore the low‐knowledge approach achieves performance equivalent to a perfect high‐knowledge classification approach.
The effect of otitis media with effusion on perceptual masking.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of otitis media with effusion (OME) on perceptual masking (a phenomenon in which spondee threshold for a 2-talker masker is poorer than for a speech-shaped noise masker). DESIGN Longitudinal testing over a 1-year period following insertion of tympanostomy tubes, using clinical and normal-hearing control groups. SUBJECTS Forty-seven children having a history of OME were tested. Possible testing intervals were just before the placement of tympanostomy tubes, and up to 3 separate occasions after the placement of the tubes. An age-matched control group of 19 children was tested. METHODS A perceptual masking paradigm was used to measure the ability of the listener to recognize a spondee in either a speech-shaped noise or a 2-talker masker background. The masker was either continuous or gated on and off with the target spondee. RESULTS In gated masking conditions, children with a history of normal hearing showed only slight perceptual masking, but the children with a history of OME showed relatively great perceptual masking before surgery and up to 6 months following surgery. In continuous masking conditions, both groups of children showed relatively great perceptual masking and did not differ significantly from each other in this respect either before or after surgery. However, before surgery, the OME group showed higher thresholds in both the 2-talker and speech-shaped noise maskers. CONCLUSIONS In agreement with previous psychoacoustical findings, the relatively great perceptual masking in gated conditions shown by children with OME history may reflect a general deficit in complex auditory processing.
Performance Characteristics of Amyloid PET with Florbetapir F 18 in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitively Normal Subjects

The objectives of this study were to examine the effective dose range and the test–retest reliability of florbetapir F 18 using, first, visual assessment by independent raters masked to clinical information and, second, semiautomated quantitative measures of cortical target area to cerebellum standardized uptake value ratios (SUVr) as primary outcome measures. Visual ratings of PET image quality and tracer retention or β-amyloid (Aβ) binding expressed as SUVrs were compared after intravenous administration of either 111 MBq (3 mCi) or 370 MBq (10 mCi) of florbetapir F 18 in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n = 9) and younger healthy controls (YHCs) (n = 11). In a separate set of subjects (AD, n = 10; YHCs, n = 10), test–retest reliability was evaluated by comparing intrasubject visual read ratings and SUVrs for 2 PET images acquired within 4 wk of each other. Results: There were no meaningful differences between the 111-MBq (3-mCi) and 370-MBq (10-mCi) dose in the visual rating or SUVr. The difference in the visual quality across 111 and 370 MBq showed a trend toward lower image quality, but no statistical significance was achieved (t test; t1 = −1.617, P = 0.12) in this relatively small sample of subjects. At both dose levels, visual ratings of amyloid burden identified 100% of AD subjects as Aβ-positive and 100% of YHCs as Aβ-negative. Mean intrasubject test–retest variability for cortical average SUVrs with the cerebellum as a reference over the 50- to 70-min period was 2.4% ± 1.41% for AD subjects and 1.5% ± 0.84% for controls. The overall SUVr test–retest correlation coefficient was 0.99. The overall κ-statistic for test–retest agreement for Aβ classification of the masked reads was 0.89 (95% confidence interval, 0.69–1.0). Conclusion: Florbetapir F 18 appears to have a wide effective dose range and a high test–retest reliability for both quantitative (SUVr) values and visual assessment of the ligand. These imaging performance properties provide important technical information on the use of florbetapir F 18 and PET to detect cerebral amyloid aggregates.