Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Context-based policy search: transfer of experience across problems

An important question in reinforcement learning is how generalization may be performed. This problem is especially important if the learning agent receives only partial information about the state of the environment. Typically, the bias required for generalization is chosen by the experimenter. Here, we investigate a way for the learning method to extract bias from learning one problem and apply it in subsequent problems. We use a gradient-based policy search method, and look for controllers that consist of a context component and an action component. Empirical results on a two-agent coordination problem are reported. It was found that learning a bias made it possible to address problems that were not solved otherwise.
MetaQuerier over the Deep Web: Shallow Integration across Holistic Sources

The Web has been rapidly “deepened” by myriad searchable databases online. To enable effective access to the “deep Web,” we are building the MetaQuerier– for exploring and integrating databases on the Web. Such metaquerying must tackle integration at a large scale (as sources are proliferating online) and of a dynamic nature (as each query will access different sources). Toward such integration, our approach hinges on the insight that the challenge of large scale is itself an opportunity: We observe that the desired “semantics” often connects to surface presentation characteristics, through some hidden regularities over many sources. Generalizing our recent works, this paper thus proposes our approach of shallow integration across holistic sources – to discover desired semantics by exploiting the hidden regularities of shallow clues across many sources holistically. As evidences, we have studied two concrete problems: 1) query-interface understanding based on hidden syntax, and 2) query-interface matching based on hidden statistic models. Our experience indicates high promise for employing shallow techniques across holistic sources.
A Framework Model Study for Ontology-Driven ETL Processes

ETL is a critical task performed at the early stages of a DW project. To solve heterogeneity problems of different data sources in the processes, this paper proposes a framework model for ontology-driven ETL processes by using semantic Web technologies and discusses how ontologies are used to support the data integration. The framework consists of four main phases: metadata abstract, ontology map, rule reason and ETL direction. The main ideas is to abstract local ontologies from metadata of different data sources, global ontology from data warehouse via OWL DL under the direction of domain ontology which is built by domain experts first, next map these ontologies to find the connotative semantic relations, then reason these relations to get exact ETL rules which can be used to direct the ETL processes and assist the performing of DW project.
Multilevel Modeling of the Traffic Dynamic

Currently traffic management is becoming more important to achieve the goal of sustainable transport, and a good traffic model can describe the traffic behavior efficiently. The traffic models can be classified based on level of details as submicroscopic-, microscopic-, mesoscopic-, and macroscopic-level models. In this paper, we provide a review of the four types of models (submicro, micro, meso, and macro) and then propose a multilevel model of traffic, which combines submicroscopic, microscopic, and macroscopic levels of traffic model. In this work, we do not consider the mesoscopic-level model. At the submicroscopic level, we develop a bond graph model of a four-wheeled vehicle considering the longitudinal, lateral, yaw, and actuator dynamics. At the microscopic level, we develop a car-following model based on virtual interconnections between the submicroscopic bond graph models of vehicles. Then, at the macroscopic level, we deduce macroscopic variables (average speed, density, and flow) from the submicroscopic and microscopic models. Having a multilevel model of traffic allows combining two properties of modeling simulation, one in real-time mode at microscopic and submicroscopic levels and the other at offline mode at macroscopic level. Thus, the whole supervision of the road traffic can be performed. Finally, the multilevel model of traffic is validated on a real-time simulator of vehicle dynamics, based on experimental measurements acquired from intelligent autonomous vehicles (IAVs). In addition, real experiments on IAVs are performed to validate the model.
Robust Regression on MapReduce

Although the MapReduce framework is now the de facto standard for analyzing massive data sets, many algorithms (in particular, many iterative algorithms popular in machine learning, optimization, and linear algebra) are hard to fit into MapReduce. Consider, e.g., the lp regression problem: given a matrix A ∈ Rm×n and a vector b ∈ Rm, find a vector x* ∈ Rn that minimizes f(x) = ||Ax-b||p. The widely-used l2 regression, i.e., linear least-squares, is known to be highly sensitive to outliers; and choosing p ∈ [1; 2) can help improve robustness. In this work, we propose an efficient algorithm for solving strongly over-determined (m ≫ n) robust lp regression problems to moderate precision on MapReduce. Our empirical results on data up to the terabyte scale demonstrate that our algorithm is a significant improvement over traditional iterative algorithms on MapReduce for l1 regression, even for a fairly small number of iterations. In addition, our proposed interior-point cutting-plane method can also be extended to solving more general convex problems on MapReduce.
THE CHANGE OF THE BUILDINGS BEFORE AND AFTER EARTHQUAKE BY USING AIRBORNE PHOTOGRAPHS

Recently the possibility of an earthquake has become one of the most important subjects in lots of countries especially in Turkey. For that reason, the possibility of an earthquake gains ground due to its devastating physical and psychological effects. Because of these physical losses and its psychological effects, people who experience the earthquake generally become sensitive and provident. Although disaster management had been established before the earthquake, the studies after the earthquake prove the fact that decreases in the loss of lives is inadequate. In this study, the aerial photographs have used which have been obtained before and after the earthquake. An algorithm is developed that determines the damaged buildings as semi-automatic. The principle of this study is analyzing the buildings’ image histograms and determining their conditions. Gölcük and Adapazarı regions before and after the earthquake have been used for the analysis of the image histograms that belong to the buildings in the aerial photographs. Our empirical results have shown that the histograms of the undamaged and damaged buildings have different forms. For this reason, utilizing the histogram analysis, the conditions of the damaged buildings have determined by using a semi-automatic process. The important pre-condition for this study is the digital maps of the study area to be in existence. Briefly, to form the histograms, the coverage areas of the buildings that are after the earthquake photographs in vector format are found and the image histograms are calculated from those areas. The purpose is to determine the damaged buildings quickly during the earthquake and contribute to the disaster management. It is thought that, through the results that are to be obtained, it will be possible to direct the rescue mission correctly, estimate the number of loss of lives and take healthy precautions. * Corresponding author.
Objective evaluation of infraorbital nerve involvement in maxillary lesions by means of the blink reflex.

OBJECTIVE To objectively evaluate the effects of maxillary lesions on the infraorbital nerve (ION). METHODS We investigated the latencies (R1, R2) of the blink reflex, stimulating the infraorbital foramen electrically (18 mA, 0.2 millisecond). Twenty-two patients with unilateral maxillary lesions were enrolled. RESULTS Ten patients showed delayed or absent R1 on the lesion side. Four of 20 patients showed delayed difference in R2 latency. Ten (77%) of 13 patients with lesions along the ION pathway showed an abnormal blink reflex. Only 3 patients demonstrated a normal blink reflex despite a lesion along the pathway of the ION. All patients whose ION pathway was intact showed a normal blink reflex. CONCLUSIONS These results suggested that lesions along the ION pathway may impair the afferent pathway of the blink reflex. The blink reflex may be valuable to evaluate maxillary lesions objectively. Furthermore, R1 is more effective than R2 in detecting ION defects.
Kernel Regression Based Online Boosting Tracking

Although online boosting algorithm has received an increasing amount of interest in visual tracking, it is susceptible to class-label noise. Slight inaccuracies in the tracker can result in incorrectly labeled examples, which degrade the classifier and cause drift. This paper proposes a kernel regression based online boosting method for robust visual tracking. A nonlinear recursive least square algorithm which performs linear regression in a high-dimensional feature space induced by a Mercer kernel is employed to derive weak classifiers. Online sparsification to filter samples in feature space is adopted to reduce the computational cost of the recursive least square algorithm. In our method, weak classifiers themselves can be modified adaptively to cope with scene changes. Experimental results compared with several relevant tracking methods demonstrate the good performance of the proposed algorithm under challenging conditions.
Central suboptimal mean-square H∞ filter design for linear stochastic time-varying systems

This paper designs the central finite-dimensional H∞ filter for a linear stochastic systems with integral-quadratically bounded deterministic disturbances, that is suboptimal for a given threshold γ with respect to a modified Bolza-Meyer quadratic criterion including the attenuation control term with opposite sign. In contrast to the previously obtained results, the paper reduces the original H∞ filtering problem to the corresponding optimal H2 filtering problem, using the technique proposed in [1]. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the designed filter performance for a linear stochastic system against the central suboptimal H8 filter available for the corresponding deterministic system.
Male Germ Cell Apoptosis and Epigenetic Histone Modification Induced by Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F

Multiglycosides of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook f (GTW), a Chinese herb-derived medicine used as a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis, are considered to be a reversible anti-fertility drug affecting the mammalian spermatids. However, the mechanism behind this effect is still unknown. To study the possible mechanism behind the impact of GTW on spermatogenesis, we administered 4 groups of 4-week-old male mice with different doses of GTW. We found a dose-dependent decrease in the number of germ cells after 40 days of GTW treatment, and an increase in apoptotic cells from the low-dose to the high-dose group. During this same period the dimethylated level of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9me2) in GTW-treated testes germ cells declined. Additionally, spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) from 6-day-old mice were isolated to evaluate the possible effect of GTW or triptolide on development of SSCs. We found a significantly higher incidence of apoptosis and lower dimethylation level of H3K9me2 in the SSCs of GTW or triptolide treatment than in controls. Thus, these data suggest that the GTW-induced apoptosis might be responsible for the fertility impairment in mice. This damage could be traced back to the early stages of spermatogenesis. GTW also affected the epigenetic modification of H3K9 in spermatogenesis. Molecular dynamics simulation suggested that triptolide and dimethylated or trimethylated H3K9 might have similar interaction mechanisms with EED (embryonic ectoderm development). These candidate activation mechanisms provide the first glimpse into the pathway of GTW-induced gonad toxicity, which is crucial for further research and clinical application.
Issues in hedging options positions

Many financial institutions hold derivative securities in their portfolios, and frequently these securities need to be hedged for extended periods of time. Failure to hedge properly can expose an institution to sudden swings in the values of derivatives, such as options, resulting from large, unanticipated changes in the levels or volatilities of the underlying asset. Understanding the basic techniques employed for hedging derivative securities and their advantages and pitfalls is therefore of crucial importance. ; This article examines the popular valuation model for options developed by Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973). The model, while elegant from a theoretical perspective, is often fraught with problems when implemented in the real world. Nevertheless, because of its simplicity and tractability, the model is widely used by options traders and investors. ; The authors consider ways that users try to circumvent some of these problems-for example, with certain ad hoc pricing rules. Using the Standard and Poor's 500 index options market, the authors compare the hedging efficacies of various models. Their findings suggest that ad hoc rules do not always result in better hedges than a very simple and internally consistent implementation of the Black-Scholes-Merton model.
Determining Food Insecurity: An Application of the Rasch Model with Household Survey Data in Uganda

The inexplicable nature of food insecurity in parts of Uganda and worldwide necessitated an investigation into the nature, extent, and differentials of household food security. The main objective of this study was to examine the food security dynamics and model household food insecurity. The Rasch modelling approach was employed on a dataset from a sample of 1175 (Tororo = 577; Busia = 598) randomly selected households in the year 2010. All households provided responses to the food security questions and none was omitted from the analysis. At 5 percent level of significance the analysis indicated that Tororo district average food security assessment (0.137 ± 0.181) was lower than that for Busia district (0.768 ± 0.177). All the mean square fit statistics were in the range of 0.5 to 1.5, and none of them showed any signs of distortion, degradation, or less productivity for measurement. This confirmed that items used in this study were very productive for measurement of food security in the study area. The study recommends further analysis where item responses are ordered polytomous rather than the dichotomous item response functions used. Furthermore, consideration should be given to fit models that allow for different latent distributions for households with children and those without children and possibly other subgroups of respondents.
Towards Constructing a Flexible Multimedia Environment for Teaching the History of Arts

Multimedia production displays two faces: a multimedia product is the result of programming as well as of publishing. Constructing a multimedia environment for teaching a course in the history of arts suggests that requirements elicitation has many facets and is central to success, hence has to be delt with in a particularly careful way, the more so since we wanted the art historians working in a speci c and custom tailored environment. The problem was technically resolved by constructing a dedicated markup language based on XML. We discuss the process of requirements elicitation that led to the markup language and show how this is used as a cornerstone in the development of such an experimental environment.
The fundamental parameters of the roAp star 10 Aquilae

Due to the strong magnetic field and related abnormal surface layers existing in rapidly oscillating Ap stars, systematic errors are likely to be present when determining their effective temperatures, which potentially compromises asteroseismic studies of these pulsators. Using long-baseline interferometry, our goal is to determine accurate angular diameters of a number of roAp targets to provide a temperature calibration for these stars. We obtained interferometric observations of 10 Aql with the visible spectrograph VEGA at the CHARA array. We determined a limb-darkened angular diameter of 0.275+/-0.009 mas and deduced a linear radius of 2.32+/-0.09 R_sun. We estimated the star's bolometric flux and used it, in combination with its parallax and angular diameter, to determine the star's luminosity and effective temperature. For two data sets of bolometric flux we derived an effective temperature of 7800+/-170 K and a luminosity of 18+/-1 L_sun or of 8000+/-210 K and 19+/-2 L_sun. We used these fundamental parameters together with the large frequency separation to constrain the mass and the age of 10 Aql, using the CESAM stellar evolution code. Assuming a solar chemical composition and ignoring all kinds of diffusion and settling of elements, we obtained a mass of 1.92 M_sun and an age of 780 Gy or a mass of 1.95 M_sun and an age of 740 Gy, depending on the considered bolometric flux. For the first time, we managed to determine an accurate angular diameter for a star smaller than 0.3 mas and to derive its fundamental parameters. In particular, by only combining our interferometric data and the bolometric flux, we derived an effective temperature that can be compared to those derived from atmosphere models. Such fundamental parameters can help for testing the mechanism responsible for the excitation of the oscillations observed in the magnetic pulsating stars.
INDECT Advanced Security Requirements

This paper reviews the requirements for the security mechanisms that are currently being developed in the framework of the European research project INDECT. An overview of features for integrated technologies such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Cryptographic Algorithms, Quantum Cryptography, Federated ID Management and Secure Mobile Ad-hoc networking are described together with their expected use in INDECT.
Inflation in Gauss-Bonnet brane cosmology

The effect of including a Gauss-Bonnet contribution in the bulk action is investigated within the context of the steep inflationary scenario. When inflation is driven by an exponential inflaton field, this Gauss-Bonnet term allows the spectral index of the scalar perturbation spectrum to take values in the range 0.944 and 0.989, thereby bringing the scenario in closer agreement with the most recent observations. Once the perturbation spectrum is normalized to the microwave background temperature anisotropies, the value of the spectral index is determined by the Gauss-Bonnet coupling parameter and the tension of the brane and is independent of the logarithmic slope of the potential.
Interaction of natural killer cells with neutrophils exerts a significant antitumor immunity in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients

Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) can induce a strong antitumor immunity by homeostatic proliferation (HP) of T cells and suppression of regulatory T cells following preconditioning‐induced lymphopenia. However, the role of innate immunity including natural killer (NK) cells is still not understood. Here, first, we examined whether NK cells exert an antitumor effect after syngeneic HSCT in a murine colon cancer model. Flow cytometry showed that NK cells as well as T cells rapidly proliferated after HSCT, and the frequency of mature NK cells was increased in tumor during HP. Furthermore, NK cells undergoing HP were highly activated, which contributed to substantial tumor suppression. Then, we found that a large number of neutrophils accumulated in tumor early after syngeneic HSCT. It was recently reported that neutrophil‐derived mediators modulate NK cell effector functions, and so we examined whether the neutrophils infiltrated in tumor are associated with NK cell‐mediated antitumor effect. The depletion of neutrophils significantly impaired an activation of NK cells in tumor and increased the fraction of proliferative NK cells accompanied by a decrease in NK cell survival. The results suggested that neutrophils in tumor prevent NK cells from activation‐induced cell death during HP, thus leading to a significant antitumor effect by NK cells. This study revealed a novel aspect of antitumor immunity induced by HSCT and may contribute to the development of an effective therapeutic strategy for cancer using HSCT.
Autocrine IFNγ Controls the Regulatory Function of Lymphoproliferative Double Negative T Cells

TCRαβ+ CD4−CD8−NK− double negative T cells (DN T cells) can act as regulatory T cells to inhibit allograft rejection and autoimmunity. Their role in graft-versus-host disease and mechanisms of suppression remain elusive. In this study, we demonstrate that DN T cells can inhibit CD4+ T cell-mediated GVHD in a semi-allogeneic model of bone marrow transplantation. Furthermore, we present evidence of a novel autocrine IFNγ signaling pathway in Fas-deficient C57BL/6.lpr (B6.lpr) DN T cells. B6.lpr DN T cells lacking IFNγ or its receptor were impaired in their ability to suppress syngeneic CD4+ T cells responding to alloantigen stimulation both in vitro and in vivo. Autocrine IFNγ signaling was required for sustained B6.lpr DN T cell IFNγ secretion in vivo and for upregulation of surface Fas ligand expression during TCR stimulation. Fas ligand (FasL) expression by B6.lpr DN T cells permitted lysis of activated CD4+ T cells and was required for suppression of GVHD. Collectively, our data indicate that DN T cells can inhibit GVHD and that IFNγ plays a critical autocrine role in controlling the regulatory function of B6.lpr DN T cells.
Investigating the structure of protein similarity networks both on sequence and structural level

The current work presents a study concerning similarity networks for a well defined and used dataset of proteins, constructed using sequence and structural derived similarity criteria. The analysis is made on the initial set of proteins and the subsets of proteins that yield to fully connected networks using both similarity criteria. Several parameters describing the networks are reported, whereas the values of clustering coefficient and characteristic path length classify both types of fully connected networks into the class of small-world networks. This reveals the grouping of proteins in clusters and the existence of random edges in the networks due to similarity transition among proteins.
Influenza Viral Membrane Deformation Due to Refolding of HA-Protein: Two-dimensional Model and Analysis

In this paper we study influenza viral membrane deformation related to the refolding of Hemagglutinin (HA) protein. The focus of the paper is to un- derstand membrane deformation and budding due to experimentally observed linear HA-protein clusters, which have not been mathematically studied before. The viral membrane is modeled as a two dimensional incompressible lipid bilayer with bending rigidity. For tensionless membranes, we derive an analytical solution while for membrane under tension we solve the problem numerically. Our solu- tion for tensionless membranes shows that the height of membrane deformation increases monotonically with the bending moment exerted by HA-proteins and at- tains its maximum when the size of the protein cluster reaches a critical value. Our results also show that the hypothesis of dimple formation proposed in the litera- ture is valid in the two dimensional setting. Our comparative study of axisymmet- ric HA-clusters and linear HA-clusters reveals that the linear HA-clusters are not favorable to provide a sufficient energy required to overcome an energy barrier for a successful fusion, despite their capability to cause membrane deformation and budding. AMS subject classifications: 92C05, 92B05, 92B99