Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toward diagnostic model calibration and evaluation: Approximate Bayesian computation

The ever increasing pace of computational power, along with continued advances in measurement technologies and improvements in process understanding has stimulated the development of increasingly complex hydrologic models that simulate soil moisture flow, groundwater recharge, surface runoff, root water uptake, and river discharge at different spatial and temporal scales. Reconciling these high‐order system models with perpetually larger volumes of field data is becoming more and more difficult, particularly because classical likelihood‐based fitting methods lack the power to detect and pinpoint deficiencies in the model structure. Gupta et al. (2008) has recently proposed steps (amongst others) toward the development of a more robust and powerful method of model evaluation. Their diagnostic approach uses signature behaviors and patterns observed in the input‐output data to illuminate to what degree a representation of the real world has been adequately achieved and how the model should be improved for the purpose of learning and scientific discovery. In this paper, we introduce approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) as a vehicle for diagnostic model evaluation. This statistical methodology relaxes the need for an explicit likelihood function in favor of one or multiple different summary statistics rooted in hydrologic theory that together have a clearer and more compelling diagnostic power than some average measure of the size of the error residuals. Two illustrative case studies are used to demonstrate that ABC is relatively easy to implement, and readily employs signature based indices to analyze and pinpoint which part of the model is malfunctioning and in need of further improvement.
Gait design by graph coloring for robots that have legs on their faces

This paper proposes a gait design method for robots that have legs on their faces. The method is based on a graph coloring problem in the theory of graphs. Representing a structure of a robot as a graph on a sphere, it is shown that the number of phases of movements needed for a leg is given as a minimum chromatic number of that graph. Also the allocation of an initial phase for each leg is given by a specific coloring pattern. For the demonstration of an actual hardware construction, we show a 12 legged square prismatic robot in which all the legs are driven by a row of gears.
Differential effects of dopamine-directed treatments on cognition

Dopamine, a prominent neuromodulator, is implicated in many neuropsychiatric disorders. It has wide-ranging effects on both cortical and subcortical brain regions and on many types of cognitive tasks that rely on a variety of different learning and memory systems. As neuroscience and behavioral evidence for the existence of multiple memory systems and their corresponding neural networks accumulated, so did the notion that dopamine’s role is markedly different depending on which memory system is engaged. As a result, dopamine-directed treatments will have different effects on different types of cognitive behaviors. To predict what these effects will be, it is critical to understand: which memory system is mediating the behavior; the neural basis of the mediating memory system; the nature of the dopamine projections into that system; and the time course of dopamine after its release into the relevant brain regions. Consideration of these questions leads to different predictions for how changes in brain dopamine levels will affect automatic behaviors and behaviors mediated by declarative, procedural, and perceptual representation memory systems.
An RFID Framework for Multimodal Service Provision

In recent years there has been a growing interest toward the development of pervasive and context-aware services, and RFID technology played a relevant role in the context sensing task. We propose the use of RFID technology together with a conversational agent in order to implement a multimodal information retrieval service we call SensorMesh. The information acquired from RFID tags about the nearest point of interest is processed by the conversational agent that carries a more natural interaction with the user, also exploiting a common sense ontology. The service is accessible using a multimodal browser on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs); the browser allows the user to interact with the conversational agent by means of spoken language instead of the traditional, keyboard- (or stylus-) based input systems. The resulting system offers a more natural interaction with respect to traditional pre-recorded, audio-visual services, and it is particularly suitable for non technology-skilled users.
Online Algorithm for Robust Kernel PCA

We introduce a technique to improve the online kernel PCA (KPCA) robust to outliers due to undesirable artifacts such as noises, alignment errors, or occlusion. The proposed online robust KPCA (rKPCA) links the online updating and robust estimation of principal directions. It inherits good properties from these two ideas for reducing the time complexity, space complexity, and the influence of these outliers on the directions of principal components. In the asymptotic stability analysis, we also show that our online rKPCA converges to the true kernel principal components. Experimental results are presented to confirm that our online rKPCA achieves the robustness as well as time saving better than batch KPCA.
Teacher knowledge and the role of theory in practice in TESOL

The research project explores teacher knowledge and the role of theory in the practice of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers. It addresses issues which are relevant more widely to the field and profession of English Language Teaching (ELT). It includes a literature-based survey of the types and sources of knowledge relevant to the work of ESOL-ELT teachers, which are collated into a conceptual framework (CF). The CF includes aspects of teacher knowledge and learning such as the ‘apprenticeship of observation’ (Lortie 1975/2002) and ‘personal practical knowledge’ (Clandinin 1985; Clandinin & Connelly 1987). Relevant contextual factors are analysed, with four levels of policy identified as impacting to varying degrees on ESOL teachers’ practice. These (policy) contextual factors include notions of ‘best practice’, ‘appropriate methodology’, and the ELT-ESOL curriculum. A further contextual area of influence on the role of theories in ESOL teachers’ practice is the recent history of teaching methodology, including ‘ELT methods’, which is analysed in a ‘genealogy of ELT’. Several of these ELT methods have traditionally embodied elements of theories from Applied Linguistics. One such ELT ‘method’ (or ‘approach’) - Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) - is identified as influential on the thinking of ESOL teachers. The question of theory and the relationship between theory and practice are discussed with reference to the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and his use of Aristotelian concepts, such as praxis. Views from ELT and mainstream education regarding the role of theory and practice are also discussed. In addition to the theoretical and conceptual analysis of the research question, an ‘empirical’ data-collection element of the research design involves conducting ‘semi-structured’ qualitative research interviews with eight ESOL teachers who work in the same UK Further Education College as the researcher. A qualitative, interpretivist research approach is adopted, which draws on several research methodologies and ‘paradigms’ such as phenomenology and critical realism. Data analysis methods draw on ideas from ‘Grounded Theory’, and use NVivo computer software to process the research interview data. Findings from the interview data are briefly presented (in Chapter 5) and illustrative quotations are included in Chapter 6. Conclusions and recommendations are presented, relating to issues of ESOL teacher education, teacher development, policy, and areas for future research (in Chapter 7). They highlight the potential value for ESOL practitioners of a greater examination of the role of theory in their practice.
Improving Chinese-to-Japanese Patent Translation Using English as Pivot Language

This paper implements and compares three different strategies to use English as pivot language for Chinese-Japanese patent translation: corpus enrichment, sentence pivot translation and phrase pivot translation. Our results show that both corpus enrichment and phrase pivot translation strategy outperform the baseline system, while the sentence pivot translation strategy failed to improve the system. We apply the strategies on large data set and figure out approaches to improve efficiency. Finally, we perform Minimum Bayes Risk system combination on the different results of direct translation system and pivot translation systems, which significantly outperforms the direct translation system by 4.25 BLEU scores.
Continuous recognition of one-handed and two-handed gestures using 3D full-body motion tracking sensors

In this paper we present a new bimanual markerless gesture interface for 3D full-body motion tracking sensors, such as the Kinect. Our interface uses a probabilistic algorithm to incrementally predict users' intended one-handed and twohanded gestures while they are still being articulated. It supports scale and translation invariant recognition of arbitrarily defined gesture templates in real-time. The interface supports two ways of gesturing commands in thin air to displays at a distance. First, users can use one-handed and two-handed gestures to directly issue commands. Second, users can use their non-dominant hand to modulate single-hand gestures. Our evaluation shows that the system recognizes one-handed and two-handed gestures with an accuracy of 92.7%--96.2%.
High Energy Resolution Hard X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Imagers Using CdTe Diode Devices

We developed CdTe double-sided strip detectors (DSDs or cross strip detectors) and evaluated their spectral and imaging performance for hard X-rays and gamma-rays. Though the double-sided strip configuration is suitable for imagers with a fine position resolution and a large detection area, CdTe diode DSDs with indium (In) anodes have yet to be realized due to the difficulty posed by the segmented In anodes. CdTe diode devices with aluminum (Al) anodes were recently established, followed by a CdTe device in which the Al anodes could be segmented into strips. We developed CdTe double-sided strip devices having Pt cathode strips and Al anode strips, and assembled prototype CdTe DSDs. These prototypes have a strip pitch of 400 mum. Signals from the strips are processed with analog ASICs (application specific integrated circuits). We have successfully performed gamma-ray imaging spectroscopy with a position resolution of 400 mum. Energy resolution of 1.8 keV (FWHM: full width at half maximum) was obtained at 59.54 keV. Moreover, the possibility of improved spectral performance by utilizing the energy information of both side strips was demonstrated. We designed and fabricated a new analog ASIC, VA32TA6, for the readout of semiconductor detectors, which is also suitable for DSDs. A new feature of the ASIC is its internal ADC function. We confirmed this function and good noise performance that reaches an equivalent noise charge of 110 e- under the condition of 3-4 pF input capacitance.
An Algorithm for Real-Time Fast Walkthrough of Massive Terrain

Terrain walkthrough is a hot point in GIS, virtual reality and military simulation fields. Large scale terrain algorithm is used to load data partly into the memory, and then simplify terrain to speed up drawing-rate. This paper presents an algorithm which blocks the terrain, uses back face culling and modified viewpoint error equation to construct Level of Detail (LOD), and then uses a new horizon culling method based on screen error bounding box. This algorithm has a fast drawing-rate. Besides, memory mapping file technique to load DEM data is used to make the algorithm have high performance data process ability on massive terrain data.
Efficient Zero/One Matrix-Vector Multiplication Based on Cache

This article describes a new method which we have used for computing matrix-vector products. Matrix-vector multiplication is the core of black-box algorithm, which is effective when we analyze the properties of sparse or structured matrix. Hence it is very useful to optimize the calculation. Here we design an algorithm for large-sized sparse zero-one matrix-vector products based on the theory of cache, whose advantage is that it can reduce cache misses to the minimum. We divide the matrix M into several vertical strips and vector x is stripped by system in the corresponding way. Then we calculate the products of all stripped matrix and the vector, and add all the results together to obtain the Zo matrix-vector product. We use C++ language to implement the algorithm in Windows XP and have experiments to compare the time costs between the Zo and stripped matrix-vector products of various blocking schemes. After many experiments, we find the most appropriate blocking scheme to suit the cache size.
Multicore compilation strategies and challenges

To overcome challenges stemming from high power densities and thermal hot spots in microprocessors, multicore computing platforms have emerged as the ubiquitous computing platform from servers down through embedded systems. Unfortunately, providing multiple cores does not directly translate into increased performance or better energy efficiency for most applications. The burden is placed on software developers and tools to find and exploit coarse-grain parallelism to effectively make use of the abundance of computing resources provided by these systems. Concurrent applications are much more complex to develop than their single-threaded ancestors, thus software development tools will be critical to help programmers create both high performance and correct software. This article provides an overview of parallelism and compiler technology to help the community understand the software development challenges and opportunities for multicore signal processors.
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry Comparing Clock Tests for Dementia Screening: Naõ Ève Judgments Vs Formal Systemsðwhat Is Optimal?

SUMMARY Background Clock drawing tests (CDTs) vary in format, scoring, and complexity. Herein, we compared the dementia screening performance of seven CDT scoring systems and the judgements of untrained raters. Methods 80 clock drawings by subjects of known dementia status were selected, 20 from each of four categories (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease [CERAD] de®ned normal, mild, moderate, and severe abnormality). An expert rater scored all clocks using published criteria for seven systems. Additionally, 20 naõ Ève raters judged clocks as either normal or abnormal, without formal instructions. Clocks were then classi®ed by drawers' dementia status for comparison of dementia detection across systems. Results Naõ Ève and formal CDT systems showed 90±100% agreement in CERAD normal, moderate and severe categories, but poor agreement (mean  39%) for mildly impaired clocks. When CDT systems were compared for accurate dementia classi®cation, the Mendez and CERAD systems correctly identi®ed the greatest proportion of subjects (84±85%), and Wolf-Klein the smallest (58%). The better systems correctly identi®ed > 70% of mildly demented individuals (CDR  1). In contrast, medical records from patients' personal physicians correctly identi®ed only 24% of the mildly demented. Strikingly , naõ Ève raters' CDT judgements were as effective as ®ve of the seven CDT systems in dementia identi®cation. Conclusions While the Mendez system was the most accurate overall, it was not signi®cantly better than CERAD, which had simpler scoring rules. Untrained raters discriminated normal from abnormal clocks with acceptable accuracy for community screening purposes. Results suggest that, if used, most CDT systems would improve personal physicians' dementia recognition in dif®cult to detect mildly demented subjects.
1 VISUAL DATA MINING AND PIXEL-ORIENTED VISUALIZATION

Pixel-oriented visualization techniques map each attribute value of the data to a single colored pixel, yielding the display of the most possible information at a time. Thus pixel-oriented techniques maintain the global view of large amounts of data while still preserving the perception of small regions of interest. This property makes them suitable for a variety of data mining tasks. First we present pixel-oriented visualization techniques which can be used as stand-alone exploration tools. Then we show how they can be tightly integrated into data mining methods unifying the strength of existing algorithms and human involvement. Finally, we point out the idea of similarity clustering of attributes to enhance multidimensional visualization techniques. The task of the knowledge discovery and data mining process [7] is to extract knowledge from data such that the resulting knowledge is useful in a given application. Obviously, only the user can determine whether the resulting knowledge satisfies this requirement. Moreover, what one user may find useful is not necessarily useful to another user. Visual data mining tackles the data mining tasks from this perspective enabling human involvement and incorporating the perceptivity of humans. Datasets to be mined entail several requirements limiting or disqualifying most of the existing techniques known from the area information visualization. These requirements include handling high-dimensional data, handling large datasets, intuitive selection of a set of attributes or a set of objects. Pixel-oriented techniques have been pioneered by Keim for the VisDB system, e.g. [9], representing large amounts of high-dimensional data with respect to a given query. As a result the user of the system is able to refine his query based on the knowledge gathered from the visual representation of the data. The basic idea of pixel-oriented techniques is to represent each attribute value as a single colored pixel, mapping the range of possible attribute values to a fixed color map and displaying different attributes in different subwindows. Pixel-oriented visualization techniques maximize the amount of information represented at one time without any overlap. They effectively preserve the perception of small regions of interest while still maintaining the global view. These properties match the basic requirements listed above making them suitable for various data mining tasks. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews pixel-oriented visualization techniques which are designed for explorative visualization tasks. In section 3, we show how pixel-oriented visualization techniques can be integrated with data mining …
Effects of different conditioning programmes on the performance of high-velocity soccer-related tasks: Systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials

Physical performance is a key factor in most of the actions that determine success in soccer competitions. The present meta-analysis aimed to determine whether, and to what extent different conditioning programmes implemented in addition to regular soccer training are able to enhance the performance of high-velocity soccer-related tasks. Study groups were categorised according to type of performance measurement: (A) vertical jump ability, (B) linear sprint performance, (C), change of direction with ball, (D) change of direction without ball, (E) repeated sprint ability, and (F) kicking performance. Subgroup analyses were done with reference to the type of conditioning programme applied: (A) resistance training, (B) plyometric, (C) sprint and/or change of direction, and (D) combined methods. The standardised mean differences (SMD) along with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using the Review Manager 5.3 software. The application of a conditioning programme was associated with a significant improvement in vertical jump ability (SMD = 0.64 [95% CI: 0.50–0.77]), linear sprint (SMD = −0.79 [95% CI: −0.61 to −0.96]), change of direction with ball (SMD = −0.78 [95% CI: −0.42 to −1.15]), change of direction without ball (SMD = −0.83 [95% CI: −0.61 to −1.05]), repeated sprint ability (SMD = −0.51 [95% CI: −0.19 to −0.84]), and kicking performance (SMD = 0.78 [95% CI: 0.34–1.22]). No clear differences among the different conditioning programmes were observed. The implementation of a conditioning programme in addition to regular soccer training enhances the performance of high-velocity soccer-related tasks.
Dlx2 homeobox gene transcriptional regulation of Trkb neurotrophin receptor expression during mouse retinal development

Dlx homeobox genes are first expressed in embryonic retina at E11.5. The Dlx1/Dlx2 null retina has a reduced ganglion cell layer (GCL), with loss of late-born differentiated retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) due to increased apoptosis. TrkB signaling is proposed to regulate the dynamics of RGC apoptosis throughout development. DLX2 expression markedly precedes the onset of TrkB expression in the GCL; TrkB co-expression with Dlx2 and RGC markers is well-established by E13.5. In the Dlx1/Dlx2 null retina, TrkB expression is significantly reduced by E16.5. We demonstrated that DLX2 binds to a specific region of the TrkB promoter in retinal neuroepithelium during embryogenesis. In vitro confirmation and the functional consequences of DLX2 binding to this TrkB regulatory region support TrkB as a Dlx2 transcriptional target. Furthermore, ectopic Dlx2 expression in retinal explants activates TrkB expression and Dlx2 knockdown in primary retinal cultures results in reduced TrkB expression. RGC differentiation and survival require the coordinated expression of transcription factors. This study establishes a direct transcriptional relationship between a homeodomain protein involved in RGC differentiation and a neurotrophin receptor implicated in RGC survival. Signaling mediated by TrkB may contribute to survival of late-born RGCs whose terminal differentiation is regulated by Dlx gene function.
Injection locking/pulling analysis of oscillators under fractional excitation frequency

A method to analyze the injection locking and injection pulling of arbitrary oscillators under small excitation is proposed. The most general case when the excitation frequency is close to a rational fraction of the oscillator fundamental is considered. The phase differential equation for an arbitrary periodic excitation is derived. Expressions to evaluate characteristics of the oscillator in injection locking and injection pulling modes are obtained. The characteristics include the locking range, the waveforms of the phase and the instantaneous frequency, the dependencies of the beat frequency and output spectrum on the excitation frequency. The circuit example is presented to illustrate the application of proposed approach.