Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A census of the Carina Nebula – II. Energy budget and global properties of the nebulosity

The first paper in this series took a direct census of energy input from the known OB stars in the Carina Nebula, and in this paper we study the global properties of the surrounding nebulosity. This detailed comparison may prove useful for interpreting observations of extragalactic giant H II regions and ultraluminous infrared (IR) galaxies. We find that the total IR luminosity of Carina is about 1.2 x 10 7 L ⊙ , accounting for only about 50-60 per cent of the known stellar luminosity from Paper I. Similarly, the ionizing photon luminosity derived from the integrated radio continuum is about 7 x 10 50 s -1 , accounting for ∼75 per cent of the expected Lyman continuum from known OB stars. The total kinetic energy of the nebula is about 8 x 10 51 erg, or ∼30 per cent of the mechanical energy from stellar winds over the lifetime of the nebula, so there is no need to invoke a supernova (SN) explosion based on energetics. Warm dust grains residing in the HII region interior dominate emission at 10-30 μm, but cooler grains at 30-40 K dominate the IR luminosity and indicate a likely gas mass of ∼10 6 M ⊙ . We find an excellent correlation between the radio continuum and 20-25 μm emission, consistent with the idea that the ∼80-K grain population is heated by trapped Lyα photons. Similarly, we find a near perfect correlation between the far-IR optical depth map of cool grains and 8.6-μm hydrocarbon emission, indicating that most of the nebular mass resides as atomic gas in photodissociation regions and not in dense molecular clouds. Synchronized star formation around the periphery of Carina provides a strong case that star formation here was indeed triggered by stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation. This second generation appears to involve a cascade toward preferentially intermediate- and low-mass stars, but this may soon change when η Carinae and its siblings explode. If the current reservoir of atomic and molecular gas can be tapped at that time, massive star formation may be rejuvenated around the periphery of Carina much as if it were a young version of Gould's Belt. Furthermore, when these multiple SNe occur, the triggered second generation will be pelted repeatedly with SN ejecta bearing short-lived radioactive nuclides. Carina may therefore represent the most observable analogue to the cradle of our own Solar system.
A Platform-Independent Model for Videogame Gameplay Specification

Videogames require a more precise specification language to define and communicate gameplay than rules written in natural language. The proposed platform-independent model for videogame gameplay specification offers game designers a precise model to describe, analyze and communicate gameplay from early stages of development. The social context diagram defines how many players and teams interact with the game system. The structure diagram defines the game elements, attributes and events that compose the game system. And the rule set defines the game system behavior, implicitly specifying gameplay through precisely defined declarative rules.
Community Detection and Characteristics Analysis of Academic Network

Clustering and categorization of academic network, especially collaboration network, is always an interesting question, in that it can provide many insight into academic fields. While traditional methods, such as spectral clustering, are based on the assumption that each node can be assigned to only one clustering, more and more observations suggest that communities in academic network probably overlap with each other, or even nested under each other. This motivates us to apply a novel overlapping community detection algorithm on a large collaboration networks we obtain from arXiv with ground-truths. In this paper, we will examine the community detection on our collaboration network for deep insight into the internal structure that was hard to see in the past. By studying leadership characteristics of collaboration network and how leaders distribute among overlapping communities in various years, we not only get more insight into the structure of collaboration network, but find some general disagreement between detected communities and ground-truth as well, which may guide more future model building work.
Secular trends in under-reporting in young people

National survey data show that reported energy intake has decreased in recent decades despite a rise in the prevalence of obesity. This disparity may be due to a secular increase in under-reporting or a quantitatively greater decrease in energy expenditure. This study examines the extent of under-reporting of energy intake in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) in young people aged 4–18 years in 1997 using published equations to calculate estimated energy requirements. It explores secular changes by comparison with the Diets of British School Children (DBSC) survey in 10–11- and 14–15-year-olds in 1983. In the NDNS, under-reporting (estimated energy requirements – energy intake) represented 21 % of energy needs in girls and 20 % in boys. The magnitude of under-reporting increased significantly with age (P<0·001) and was higher in overweight than lean individuals over 7 years of age. To compare reported energy intake in DBSC and NDNS, the estimated physical activity level from dietary records (dPAL=reported energy intake/predicted BMR) was calculated. If there were no under-reporting, dPAL would represent the subject's true activity level. However, dPAL from the NDNS was significantly lower than that from the DBSC by 8 % and 9 % in boys and girls for those aged 10–11 years, and by 14 % and 11 % for 14–15-year-olds respectively, reaching physiologically implausible levels in the 14–15-year-old girls (dPAL=1·17). If activity levels have remained constant between the two surveys, under-reporting has increased by 8–14 %. The evidence supports a secular trend towards increased under-reporting between the two surveys, but the precise magnitude cannot be quantified in the absence of historical measures of energy expenditure.
Serious Games for Training Occupants of a Building in Personal Fire Safety Skills

To survive a fire, occupants of a building have to be able to evacuate the structure before the situation becomes unsustainable. Evacuation time is thus a critical factor, but lack of knowledge about the basics of fire safety can dangerously increase this time and also result in various forms of unsafe behavior. In this paper, we propose serious games as a tool to acquire personal fire safety skills, also discussing a specific game we have developed.
Adaptive velocity-free consensus of networked Euler-Lagrange systems with delayed communication

This paper addresses the leaderless consensus problem of multiple Euler-Lagrange (EL) systems on directed graphs containing a spanning tree, provided that the velocity signals of the agents are unavailable. Considering dynamic uncertainties and bounded constant communications delays, we propose a distributed output feedback control scheme comprised by a novel distributed sliding observer and an integral sliding vector based adaptive controller. The proposed strategy gives rise to the scaled weighted average consensus of the networked EL agents. The convergence of consensus errors is proved by use of the Lyapunov stability analysis tool and the frequency domain input-output analysis tool. Finally, the performance of the proposed consensus scheme is shown by numerical simulation.
The history of cosmic baryons: X-ray emission versus star formation rate

ABSTRA C T We relate the star formation from cold baryons condensing in virialized structures to the X-ray properties of the associated diffuse, hot baryonic component. Our computations use the standard ‘semi-analytic’ models to include and connect three sectors of the complex astrophysics involved: first, the formation of dark matter haloes through accretion and merging, after the standard hierarchical clustering; secondly, the star formation governed, after the current ‘recipes’, by radiative cooling and by feedback of the supernova energy into the hot baryonic component; thirdly, and novel, the hydrodynamics and thermodynamics of the hot phase, rendered with our Punctuated Equilibria model. So we relate the X-ray observables concerning the intracluster medium (namely, the luminosity‐temperature relation, the luminosity functions, the source counts) to the thermal energy of the gas preheated and expelled by supernovae following star formation, and then accreted during the subsequent merging events. Our main results are as follows. At fluxes fainter than FX < 10 215 erg cm 22 s 21 the X-ray counts of extended extragalactic sources (as well as the faint end of the luminosity function, their contribution to the soft X-ray background, and the LX 2 T correlation at the group scales) increase considerably if the star formation rate is high for z . 1 as indicated by growing optical/infrared evidence. Specifically, the counts in the range 0.5‐2 keV are increased by factors ,4 when the the feedback is decreased and the star formation is enhanced as to yield a flat shape of the star formation rate for 2 , z , 4. Such faint fluxes are well within the reach of next generation X-ray observatories like AXAF and XMM. So very faint X-ray counts will soon constitute a new means of gaining information about the stellar processes (formation, and supernova feedback) at z . 2, and a new way to advance the understanding of the galaxy formation.
Fast recursive total least squares algorithm for adaptive FIR filtering with input and output noises: coordinate relaxation approach

A computationally efficient recursive total least squares (RTLS) algorithm is developed for iteratively computing the TLS solution for adaptive FIR filtering with input and output noises. The developed algorithm is aimed at searching the minimum of the so-called constrained Rayleigh quotient (c-RQ) in which the last entry of the parameter vector is constrained to the negative one. The high computational efficiency of the developed algorithm is obtained by searching the minimal point of c-RQ alternately along every coordinate direction and using the well-known fast gain vector. In particular, the developed algorithm involves only the 8N + 19 MADs (number of multiplies, divides, and square roots). The performances of the developed algorithm are compared with the IP (inverse power iteration) and the well-known RLS algorithms via computer simulations.
Low-dose thioperamide injected into the cerebellar vermis of mice immediately after exposure to the elevated plus-maze impairs their avoidance behavior on re-exposure to the apparatus

The present study investigated the effect of thioperamide (THIO), an H3 histaminergic receptor antagonist, microinjected into the cerebellar vermis on emotional memory consolidation in male Swiss albino mice re-exposed to the elevated plus-maze (EPM). We implanted a guide cannula into the cerebellar vermis using stereotactic surgery. On the third day after surgery, we performed behavioral tests for two consecutive days. On the first day (exposure), the mice (n=10/group) were exposed to the EPM and received THIO (0.06, 0.3, or 1.5 ng/0.1 µL) immediately after the end of the session. Twenty-four hours later, the mice were re-exposed to the EPM under the same experimental conditions, but without drug injection. A reduction in the exploration of the open arms upon re-exposure to the EPM (percentage of number of entries and time spent in open arms) compared with the initial exposure was used as an indicator of learning and memory. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Duncan post hoc test was used to analyze the data. Upon re-exposure, exploratory activity in the open arms was reduced in the control group, and with the two highest THIO doses: 0.3 and 1.5 ng/0.1 µL. No reduction was seen with the lowest THIO dose (0.06 ng/0.1 µL), indicating inhibition of the consolidation of emotional memory. None of the doses interfered with the animals' locomotor activity. We conclude that THIO at the lowest dose (0.06 ng/0.1 µL) microinjected into the cerebellum impaired emotional memory consolidation in mice.
IQP: Incremental query construction, a probabilistic approach

This paper presents IQP - a novel approach to bridge the gap between usability of keyword search and expressiveness of database queries. IQP enables a user to start with an arbitrary keyword query and incrementally refine it into a structured query through an interactive interface. The enabling techniques of IQP include: (1) a conceptual framework for incremental query construction; (2) a probabilistic model to assess the possible informational needs represented by a keyword query; (3) an algorithm to perform an optimal query construction.
Monitoring Concepts for a 3D Printer Applied to Build a Human Outpost on the Moon

The paper presents the concept of a monitoring system for a 3D printer capable of printing big artifact, which has been successfully evaluated for a possible application for building components of a human outpost on the Moon surface by using the local sand. The monitoring system is designed to allow autonomous detection of eventual faults or decrease of printing performance, in order to early operate suitable countermeasures, by taking into account that the human supervision on the printing operations will be absent or very poor. The monitoring systems exploits an industrial CCD camera positioned above the printing area and directed perpendicular to the layer plane, which collects images of the printing process and computes some performance index on the basis of the comparison to the ideal shape of the area to be printed. Such system has been tested on some preliminary printing experiments and the concepts for further exploitation of the extracted information has been developed.
CBCL Paper April 4 , 2008 On a model of visual cortex : learning invariance and selectivity from image sequences

In this paper we present a class of algorithms for similarity learning on spaces of images. The general framework that we introduce is motivated by some well-known hierarchical pre-processing architectures for object recognition which have been developed during the last decade, and which have been in some cases inspired by functional models of the ventral stream of the visual cortex. These architectures are characterized by the construction of a hierarchy of “local” feature representations of the visual stimulus. We show that our framework includes some well-known techniques, and that it is suitable for the analysis of dynamic visual stimuli, presenting a quantitative error analysis in this setting.
So Do Values: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Quality Matters

In the first part of the 21 century, community colleges in the U.S. have embraced exclusively online coursework as a major part of their curriculum. Yet students at community colleges face a variety of impediments--including socioeconomic and cultural barriers--to their success in online coursework, and research at community colleges has revealed that success in those online courses has varied widely for the diverse student populations of those colleges. Such selective success of students lends itself to inquiry regarding why online learning has become such a prominent educational arrangement at community colleges. A review of the history and policy context of community colleges suggests an incongruous nature to the adoption of online education at those colleges, with ideological discourses newly influencing these institutions and their classrooms. Online “quality” assurance programs like Quality Matters (QM) have emerged to try to resolve issues attached to online courses by locating the problems of online learning within the design of courses, with no acknowledgement of the political and ideological context for the arrangement. Given the contradictions of the online learning arrangement at community colleges, this study subjects the QM rubric to a critical discourse analysis (CDA) in order to DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF QUALITY MATTERS vii analyze its language practices and their discursive functions. Through that CDA, this study demonstrates that the Rubric serves as a naturalizer and ideological imprimatur for the online learning arrangement. Furthermore, this study’s CDA identifies multiple dimensions of ideological discourse within the QM Rubric, revealing various instrumental and econometric frames for its evaluation of online courses and a set of discursive practices that bolster specific pedagogical orientations, neoliberal political substrates and administrative trends, like managerialism, within community colleges. The study then considers the broader impacts of ideological discourse on the classrooms, faculty and students at community colleges, including inhibitory impacts on critical pedagogy and other oppositional educational practices at those institutions, and offers a model for those processes. Finally, the study examines if change in the QM approach to “quality” in online learning is possible, and how it might be achieved within community colleges by the actions of faculty and other democratic means. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF QUALITY MATTERS viii Table of
Heterogeneities in the thickness of the elastic lithosphere of Mars - Constraints on heat flow and internal dynamics

Derived values of the thickness of the effective elastic lithosphere on Mars are converted to estimates of lithospheric thermal gradients and surface heat flow by finding the thickness of the elastic-plastic plate having the same bending moment and curvature, subject to assumed strain rates and temperature-dependent flow laws for crustal and mantle material. Local thermal gradients and heat flow values so estimated were 10–14 K km−1 and 25–35 mW m−2, respectively, at the time of formation of flexurally induced graben surrounding the Tharsis Montes and Alba Patera, while gradients and heat flow values of less than 5–6 K km−1 and 17–24 mW m−2, respectively, characterized the lithosphere beneath the Isidis mascon and Olympus Mons at the time of emplacement of these loads. On the basis of the mean global thickness of the elastic lithosphere inferred to support the Tharsis rise and estimates of mantle heat production obtained from SNC meteorites, it is suggested that the present average global heat flux on Mars is in the range 15–25 mW m−2. Approximately 3–5% of this heat flux during the Amazonian epoch has been contributed by excess conducted heat in the central regions of major volcanic provinces. Most likely, this excess heat flux has been delivered to the base of the lithosphere by mantle plumes. The fractional mantle heat transport contributed by plumes during the last 2 b.y. on Mars is therefore similar to that at present on Earth.
Engaging Youth in Municipal Government: Moving Toward a Youth-Centric Practice

ABSTRACT Youth councils are one mechanism to engage youth in community governance; yet, there is scant research to guide practice. This study examined the extent to which youth are engaged in the origin, structure, and activities of municipal youth councils. Interviews were conducted with 24 adult stakeholders involved in the operations of youth councils. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results demonstrated that youth-centric practice builds upon theoretical frames of positive youth development, social justice, and civic engagement. Youth-centric practice consists of youth representation, leadership, initiative, and decision-making. Results can assist practitioners and policy makers in engaging youth in municipal government.
From record performance to hypoxia tolerance: respiratory transition in damselfish larvae settling on a coral reef

The fastest swimming fishes in relation to size are found among coral reef fish larvae on their way to settle on reefs. By testing two damselfishes, Chromis atripectoralis and Pomacentrus amboinensis, we show that the high swimming speeds of the pre-settlement larvae are accompanied by the highest rates of oxygen uptake ever recorded in ectothermic vertebrates. As expected, these high rates of oxygen uptake occur at the cost of poor hypoxia tolerance. However, hypoxia tolerance is needed when coral reef fishes seek nocturnal shelter from predators within coral colonies, which can become severely hypoxic microhabitats at night. When the larvae settle on the reef, we found that they go through a striking respiratory transformation, i.e. the capacity for rapid oxygen uptake falls, while the ability for high-affinity oxygen uptake at low oxygen levels is increased. This transition to hypoxia tolerance is needed when they settle on the reef; this was strengthened by our finding that small resident larvae of Acanthochromis polyacanthus, a damselfish lacking a planktonic larval stage, do not display such a transition, being well adapted to hypoxia and showing relatively low maximum rates of oxygen uptake that change little with age.
Acceleration Operators in the Value Iteration Algorithms for Average Reward Markov Decision Processes

One of the most widely used methods for solving average cost MDP problems is the value iteration method. This method, however, is often computationally impractical and restricted in size of solvable MDP problems. We propose acceleration operators that improve the performance of the value iteration for average reward MDP models. These operators are based on two important properties of Markovian operator: contraction mapping and monotonicity. It is well known that the classical relative value iteration methods for average cost criteria MDP do not involve the max-norm contraction or monotonicity property. To overcome this difficulty we propose to combine acceleration operators with variants of value iteration for stochastic shortest path problems associated average reward problems.
A Simple Process to Speed up Machine Learning Methods: Application to Hidden Markov Models

An intrinsic problem of classifiers based on machine learning (ML) methods is that their learning time grows as the size and complexity of the training dataset increases. For this reason, it is important to have efficient computational methods and algorithms that can be applied on large datasets, such that it is still possible to complete the machine learning tasks in reasonable time. In this context, we present in this paper a simple process to speed up ML methods. An unsupervised clustering algorithm is combined with Expectation, Maximization (EM) algorithm to develop an efficient Hidden Markov Model (HMM) training. The idea of the proposed process consists of two steps. The first one involves a preprocessing step to reduce the number of training instances with any information loss. In this step, training instances with similar inputs are clustered and a weight factor which represents the frequency of these instances is assigned to each representative cluster. In the second step, all formulas in the classical HMM training algorithm (EM) associated with the number of training instances are modified to include the weight factor in appropriate terms. This process significantly accelerates HMM training while maintaining the same initial, transition and emission probabilities matrixes as those obtained with the classical HMM training algorithm. Accordingly, the classification accuracy is preserved. Depending on the size of the training set, speedups of up to 2200 times is possible when the size is about 100.000 instances. The proposed approach is not limited to training HMMs, but it can be employed for a large variety of MLs methods.