Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Game and Player Feature Selection for Entertainment Capture

The notion of constructing a metric of the degree to which a player enjoys a given game has been presented previously. In this paper, we attempt to construct such metric models of children's 'fun' when playing the Bug Smasher game on the Playware platform. First, a set of numerical features derived from a child's interaction with the Playware hardware is presented. Then the sequential forward selection and the n-best feature selection algorithms are employed together with a function approximator based on an artificial neural network to construct feature sets and function that model the child's notion of 'fun' for this game. Performance of the model is evaluated by the degree to which the preferences predicted by the model match those expressed by the children in a survey experiment. The results show that an effective model can be constructed using these techniques and that the sequential forward selection method performs better in this task than n-best. The model reveals differing preferences for game parameters between children who react fast to game events and those who react slowly. The limitations and the use of the methodology as an effective adaptive mechanism to entertainment augmentation are discussed
Modeling and Analysis of Opportunistic Routing in Multi-hop Wireless Networks

Opportunistic Routing (OR) takes advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to increase reliability in communications. Instead of selecting one node as the next-hop forwarder, OR selects a set of candidates to forward the packet. In this way, if one of them does not receive the packet from the source, another candidate will be able to do it, this avoids the need for a re-transmission from the source. To increase the successful delivery ratio, we can increase the size of the candidate set or the number of re-transmissions, but, we must take into account the impact on the use of the network resources. In this paper, we propose a Markov chain as a general model for OR that can be applied to any kind of network topology and any candidate selection algorithm without any constraint. The only input parameters needed are: i) the candidate list of each node, ii) the link delivery probability between nodes, and, iii) the maximum number of re-transmissions in each node. Taking this data into account, our model allows for the evaluation of the performance of different candidate selection algorithms according to different metrics, such as the expected number of transmissions (ExNT), which is one of the most relevant metrics in OR. Our model also enables an evaluation of the influence of the number of candidates, its relation to the number of re-transmissions and how these two parameters together contribute to the successful delivery of data packets.
Pastoral mobility optimization based on a mobile Geographic Information System (GIS) for rural development

This paper explores the use of mobile Geographic Information System (GIS) computing in its application in water point management. Applications based on mobile GIS are the best way to provide appropriate solutions for rural populations such as breeders in Senegal. In fact, the breeders have many problems to find water points for their cattle group. So far, the potential geographic location of water points is transmitting orally between breeders. It is worth noticing that this knowledge, in rural areas, is not stored for instance in databases and depends only on the availability of breeders that own these information. Many solutions for setting up rural information systems have been proposed, but most of them are either PC-based, or rely on proprietary software, or do not take into account electricity constraints which are crucial in rural areas. In this paper, we present an information system based on Short Message Service (SMS) technology and mobile GIS for pastoral mobility (breeders) in Senegal. The system is based on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) [1] format, adapted to mobile phone. Our proposed solution is able to keep up-to-date water points status as well to optimize the seasonal migration of breeders.
Parallel H-Tree Based Data Cubing on Graphics Processors

Graphics processing units (GPUs) have a SIMD architecture and have been widely used recently as powerful generalpurpose co-processors for the CPU. In this paper, we investigate efficient GPU-based data cubing because the most frequent operation in data cube computation is aggregation, which is an expensive operation well suited for SIMD parallel processors. H-tree is a hyper-linked tree structure used in both top-k H-cubing [21] and the stream cube [20]. Fast H-tree construction, update and real-time query response are crucial in many OLAP applications. We design highly efficient GPU-based parallel algorithms for these H-tree based data cube operations. This has been made possible by taking effective methods, such as parallel primitives for segmented data and efficient memory access patterns, to achieve load balance on the GPU while hiding memory access latency. As a result, our GPU algorithms can often achieve more than an order of magnitude speedup when compared with their sequential counterparts on a single CPU. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to develop parallel data cubing algorithms on graphics processors.
Image matching method based on improved SURF algorithm

In recent years, SURF (Speeded Up Robust Feature) algorithm has gained great interest in image matching and self-localization or self-navigation of robots noted by its affine invariant property as well as its low computational complexity. Image matching method based on SURF algorithm has been widely used in many fields, such as computer vision, medical diagnosis, and treatment and image mosaic. In the process of matching, the efficiency of the traditional linear algorithm is low, we can use the method which constructing the k-d tree and using improved BBF algorithms to replace the linear algorithm to accelerate the speed of matching. The final results and analysis of error show that this method is simple and effective, BBF algorithm based on the k-d tree is obviously much faster than the conventional linear algorithm.
Coordination breakdowns: why groupware is so difficult to design

The complexity of group interaction means that there are many uncertainties in the requirements for software support tools. Many existing software systems rely on the adaptability of human users to overcome such uncertainties. One of the biggest problems is that existing analysis techniques fail to predict how collaboration will change as a result of the introduction of a new system. In this paper, we demonstrate the extent to which group support systems can change an organisation. To address this problem, better theories of how collaboration evolves over time are required, and in particular, what aspects of collaboration are likely to lead to coordination breakdowns. This paper sketches out a model of collaboration based on concepts of shared understanding, conflict and breakdown, and analyses the mechanisms of interaction in the light of this model. <<ETX>>
Classification of nonoscillatory solutions of nonlinear neutral differential equations

Nonoscillatory solutions of a general class of second order functional neutral differential equations of the form $(r(t)(x(t)+p(t)x(t-\tau))')'+f(t,x(\sigma_{1}(t)),x(\sigma_{2}(t)),. ,x(\sigma_{n}(t)))=0$ have been classified in accordance with their asymptotic behavior.
Development of lateral control system for autonomous vehicle based on adaptive pure pursuit algorithm

This paper proposes a lateral control system based on adaptive pure pursuit algorithm. The lateral control system consists of the path tracker and primitive driver. The path tracker is improved than original pure pursuit method. The original pure pursuit method is influenced by look ahead distance that is dynamically adjusted with velocity. If look ahead distance is short, tracking performance is good. But if controller has long look ahead distance, we can see cutting corner at curved path. To reduce tracking error, we applied the PI (Proportional-Integral) control theory in lateral offset. Proportional gain is constant and integral gain is a function of the road curvature. The total desired steering angle is sum of look ahead distance desired angle and lateral offset desired angle. The primitive driver controls steering actuator by using PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controller. The performance of proposed path tracking algorithm is a good at curved path, but similar to original path tracking method at low curvature path.
The influence of condition parameters and internalizing symptoms on social outcomes in youth with spina bifida.

OBJECTIVE To test a model of social competence in youth with spina bifida (SB). Involvement in social activities was expected to mediate associations between SB-related condition parameters (pain, body mass index, and motor function) and social competence. Internalizing symptoms were predicted to amplify the negative impact of condition parameters on social activity involvement. METHODS 108 youth with SB, their caregivers, peers, and teachers participated in a multimethod study that included cognitive testing, questionnaires, and observational interaction tasks. RESULTS Social activity involvement partially mediated the relation between pain and lower social competence. Internalizing symptoms had a significant indirect effect on social competence via decreased involvement in social activities. CONCLUSIONS Pain and internalizing symptoms interfere with social activity involvement, which is, in turn, important for social competence development in youth with SB. Assessing and treating these condition parameters and activity factors may be important areas of focus in clinical practice and research with these youth.
nhancing serpentine dissolution kinetics for mineral carbon dioxide equestration amuel

Mineral carbon dioxide sequestration binds carbon dioxide by reacting it with magnesium silicate minerals to form solid magnesium carbonates that are ready for disposal. Research on mineral sequestration has focused on enhancing process kinetics in aqueous processing schemes. High costs of these processes are associated with mineral processing, such as ultrafine grinding, or the consumption of acids and bases, vailable online xxx
Normal Forms, K3 Surface Moduli, and Modular Parametrizations

The geometric objects of study in this paper are K3 surfaces which admit a polarization by the unique even unimodular lattice of signature (1,17). A standard Hodge-theoretic observation about this special class of K3 surfaces is that their polarized Hodge structures are identical with the polarized Hodge structures of abelian surfaces that are cartesian products of elliptic curves. Earlier work of the first two authors gives an explicit normal form and construction of the moduli space for these surfaces. In the present work, this normal form is used to derive Picard-Fuchs differential equations satisfied by periods of these surfaces. We also investigate the subloci of the moduli space on which the polarization is enhanced. In these cases, we derive information about the Picard-Fuchs differential equations satisfied by periods of these subfamilies, and we relate this information to the theory of genus zero quotients of the upper half-plane by Moonshine groups. For comparison, we also examine the analogous theory for elliptic curves in Weierstrass form.
SRC-based Cache Coherence Protocol in Chip Multiprocessor

How to improve the scalability of snooping protocol and reduce the memory access latency of directory-based protocol are critical problems for performance optimization of multiprocessor systems. In this paper, we present an SRC (sharing relation cache)-based protocol for chip multiprocessor architecture, in which protocol SRC is used to cache recently appeared sharing relations in case reuse in the near future. A two-phase write scheme is introduced to allow SRC-based protocol applicable not only in in-order network but also out-order network topology. By making full use of the temporal locality of sharing relations among processors, SRC-based protocol can heavily reduce the message traffic in CMP cache coherence protocols compared with snooping protocol. At the same time, SRC-based protocol has better memory access latency than directory-based protocol
Strengthening of antioxidant defense by Azadirachta indica in alloxan-diabetic rat tissues

Background: Azadirachta indica has been reported to correct altered glycaemia in diabetes. Objective: The aqueous extract of A. indica leaf and bark has been evaluated for its effect on antioxidant status of alloxan diabetic rats and compared with insulin treatment. Materials and Methods: The oral effective dose of A. indica leaf (500 mg/kg body weight) and A. indica bark (100 mg/kg body weight) were given once daily for 21 days to separate groups of diabetic rats. At the end of the experimental period blood glucose level and activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD), and membrane lipid peroxidation were determined in different fractions of liver and kidney tissues. Results: Diabetic rats showed high blood glucose (P<0.01), increased level of malondialdehyde (P<0.05) and a significant decrease in the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Treatment with insulin, A. indica leaf extract (AILE), and A. indica bark extract (AIBE) restored the above altered parameters close to the control ones. Conclusions: Both AILE and AIBE were found significantly effective in reducing hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress. The findings suggest further investigations for the possible use of A. indica as alternative medicine to prevent long-term complications of diabetes.
Customization of the Europarl Corpus for Translation Studies

Currently, the area of translation studies lacks corpora by which translation scholars can validate their theoretical claims, for example, regarding the scope of the characteristics of the translation relation. In this paper, we describe a customized resource in the area of translation studies that mainly addresses research on the properties of the translation relation. Our experimental results show that the Type-Token-Ratio (TTR) is not a universally valid indicator of the simplification of translation.
Being poor and coping with stress: health behaviors and the risk of death.

OBJECTIVES Individuals may cope with perceived stress through unhealthy but often pleasurable behaviors. We examined whether smoking, alcohol use, and physical inactivity moderate the relationship between perceived stress and the risk of death in the US population as a whole and across socioeconomic strata. METHODS Data were derived from the 1990 National Health Interview Survey's Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Supplement, which involved a representative sample of the adult US population (n = 40335) and was linked to prospective National Death Index mortality data through 1997. Gompertz hazard models were used to estimate the risk of death. RESULTS High baseline levels of former smoking and physical inactivity increased the impact of stress on mortality in the general population as well as among those of low socioeconomic status (SES), but not middle or high SES. CONCLUSIONS The combination of high stress levels and high levels of former smoking or physical inactivity is especially harmful among low-SES individuals. Stress, unhealthy behaviors, and low SES independently increase risk of death, and they combine to create a truly disadvantaged segment of the population.
Spectral analysis of Swift long gamma-ray bursts with known redshift

We study the spectral and energetics properties of 47 long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with known redshift, all of them detected by the Swift satellite. Due to the narrow energy range (15-150 keV) of the Swift-BAT detector, the spectral fitting is reliable only for fitting models with two or three parameters. As high uncertainty and correlation among the errors is expected, a careful analysis of the errors is necessary. We fit both the power law (PL, two parameters) and cut-off power law (CPL, three parameters) models to the time-integrated spectra of the 47 bursts, and we present the corresponding parameters, their uncertainties and the correlations among the uncertainties. The CPL model is reliable only for 29 bursts for which we estimate the νfν peak energy E pk . For these GRBs, we calculate the energy fluence and the rest-frame isotropic-equivalent radiated energy, E γ,iso , as well as the propagated uncertainties and correlations among them. We explore the distribution of our homogeneous sample of GRBs on the rest-frame diagram E' pk versus E γ,iso . We confirm a significant correlation between these two quantities (the 'Amati' relation) and we verify that, within the uncertainty limits, no outliers are present. We also fit the spectra to a Band model with the high-energy PL index frozen to -2.3, obtaining a rather good agreement with the 'Amati' relation of non-Swift GRBs.
Complete Nucleotide Sequence of the 113-Kilobase Linear Catabolic Plasmid pAL1 of Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus Rü61a and Transcriptional Analysis of Genes Involved in Quinaldine Degradation

ABSTRACT The nucleotide sequence of the linear catabolic plasmid pAL1 from the 2-methylquinoline (quinaldine)-degrading strain Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus Rü61a comprises 112,992 bp. A total of 103 open reading frames (ORFs) were identified on pAL1, 49 of which had no annotatable function. The ORFs were assigned to the following functional groups: (i) catabolism of quinaldine and anthranilate, (ii) conjugation, and (iii) plasmid maintenance and DNA replication and repair. The genes for conversion of quinaldine to anthranilate are organized in two operons that include ORFs presumed to code for proteins involved in assembly of the quinaldine-4-oxidase holoenzyme, namely, a MobA-like putative molybdopterin cytosine dinucleotide synthase and an XdhC-like protein that could be required for insertion of the molybdenum cofactor. Genes possibly coding for enzymes involved in anthranilate degradation via 2-aminobenzoyl coenzyme A form another operon. These operons were expressed when cells were grown on quinaldine or on aromatic compounds downstream in the catabolic pathway. Single-stranded 3′ overhangs of putative replication intermediates of pAL1 were predicted to form elaborate secondary structures due to palindromic and superpalindromic terminal sequences; however, the two telomeres appear to form different structures. Sequence analysis of ORFs 101 to 103 suggested that pAL1 codes for one or two putative terminal proteins, presumed to be covalently bound to the 5′ termini, and a multidomain telomere-associated protein (Tap) comprising 1,707 amino acids. Even if the putative proteins encoded by ORFs 101 to 103 share motifs with the Tap and terminal proteins involved in telomere patching of Streptomyces linear replicons, their overall sequences and domain structures differ significantly.
A Maximum Parsimony Model to Reconstruct Phylogenetic Network in Honey Bee Evolution

Phylogenies ; The evolutionary histories of groups of species are one of the most widely used tools throughout the life sciences, as well as objects of research with in systematic, evolutionary biology. In every phylogenetic analysis reconstruction produces trees. These trees represent the evolutionary histories of many groups of organisms, bacteria due to horizontal gene transfer and plants due to process of hybridization. The process of gene transfer in bacteria and hybridization in plants lead to reticulate networks, therefore, the methods of constructing trees fail in constructing reticulate networks. In this paper a model has been employed to reconstruct phylogenetic network in honey bee. This network represents reticulate evolution in honey bee. The maximum parsimony approach has been used to obtain this reticulate network. Keywords—Hybridization, HGT, Reticulate networks, Recombination, Species, Parsimony.
Improving services for people with learning disabilities and dementia: Findings from a service evaluation exploring the perspectives of health and social care professionals

Accessible summary Dementia is an illness caused by damage to a person's brain. People with learning disabilities, especially people with Down's Syndrome, are more likely to get dementia, and when they are younger. We talked to people working in community learning disability teams to find out what they thought about services and support for people with learning disabilities and dementia and carers. Screening and assessments mean that people get diagnosis and support more quickly and other problems are picked up. More appropriate housing and support is needed so people can stay at home for longer. Research needs to look at the best ways to support people with learning disabilities and dementia. It is important to find ways to involve people with learning disabilities and dementia and carers in meetings about their support and future research. Background Dementia prevalence rates are higher amongst people with learning disabilities than the general population. People with Down's syndrome are at even greater risk of developing dementia and of developing dementia at an earlier age. This study, conducted as part of a wider service evaluation, explored community learning disability team perspectives on screening, pathways, training, information and supports developed to improve services for people with learning disabilities and dementia. Methods A focus group was held with health and social care professionals working in community learning disability services. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results The dementia screening, pathways and processes had become embedded in practice, leading to a common framework, an efficient, multidisciplinary, proactive approach, earlier detection and diagnosis of dementia and identification of other health needs and issues. This avoided crisis situations supporting people to remain at home longer. Training and information were felt to improve care quality and reduce caregiver anxiety. People with learning disabilities and caregivers were involved to varying extents. External influences impacting on support included the availability, appropriateness, cost and effectiveness of different models of service provision. Conclusions Service developments have been made as a result of the findings which suggest that dementia pathways and supports improve service provision and outcomes for people with learning disabilities. It is important to develop the evidence base on the effectiveness of different service models for people with learning disabilities and dementia. Future studies need to gather views of people with learning disabilities and carers.