Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analyzing Multi-source Social Data for Extracting and Mining Social Networks

In recent years, social computing has become a very popular application in the Internet, and therefore large amount of social (communication) data has been collected in differentsocial computing application. This paper will introduce a methodology to collect and analyze multi-source social, and by this for extracting social networks from the data. A system architecture will also be presented in this paper to show how the data can be collected, pre-processed, analyzed. Furthermore, the system will allow the users to use the data as a resource for personal decision support.
High-speed dynamic logic styles for scaled-down CMOS and MTCMOS technologies

A new high-speed domino circuit, called HS-Domino is developed. HS-Domino resolves the trade-off between performance and noise margins in conventional CD-Domino logic while dissipating low dynamic power with minimal area overhead. A dual-threshold (MTCMOS) implementation of HS-Domino and DDCVS logic is also devised. This implementation achieves low leakage values during standby, while maintaining high performance and low dynamic power during the active mode.
Resolving domains in large scale Web crawling

Efficient domain resolving is essential for large scale Web crawl. Based on batch processing, data structure and algorithms are presented for maintaining domains and addresses in crawling, and their performances are analyzed mathematically. Large scale domain resolving system is designed with proposed data structure. The theoretical analysis and experiments show that the speed of several thousand links per second for billions of links or hundreds of millions hosts can be achieved on one common personal computer.
A concept for miniaturized 3‐D cell culture using an extracellular matrix gel

This paper presents a novel method to embed, anchor, and cultivate cells in a controlled 3‐D flow‐through microenvironment. This is realized using an etched silicon pillar flow chamber filled with extracellular matrix (ECM) gel mixed with cells. At 4°C, while in liquid form, ECM gel is mixed with cells and injected into the chamber. Raising the temperature to 37°C results in a gel, with cells embedded. The silicon pillars both stabilize and increase the surface to volume ratio of the gel. During polymerization the gel shrinks, thus creating channels, which enables perfusion through the chip. The pillars increase the mechanical stability of the gel permitting high surface flow rates without surface modifications. Within the structure cells were still viable and proliferating after 6 days of cultivation. Our method thus makes it possible to perform medium‐ to long‐term cultivation of cells in a controlled 3‐D environment. This concept opens possibilities to perform studies of cells in a more physiological environment compared to traditional 2‐D cultures on flat substrates.
AN OVERVIEW OF COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNIQUES FOR RETINAL DISEASE IDENTIFICATION APPLICATIONS ( REVIEW PAPER )

Computational methodologies have become a significant part of the real time applications. One specific application which highly depends on the computing techniques is the medical field. Ophthalmology is a significant branch of biomedical field which requires computer-aided automated techniques for pathology identification in human eyes. These automated techniques must be highly accurate and also converge in quick time period. Based on these criterions, several automated techniques are developed and being used for practical applications. Even though many techniques are available, it is very difficult to achieve the concept of generalization among these automated techniques. Hence, there is a significant necessity for analyzing the various techniques in order to highlight their suitability for eye disease identification applications. This research paper overcomes this deficiency by providing an in-depth analysis of the existing automated techniques. The focus of this paper is on Artificial Intelligence (AI) based techniques since these techniques are found to be superior to other computing techniques. An extensive analysis is performed to bring out the merits and demerits of various Artificial Intelligence (AI) based techniques. Thus the application of AI techniques for retinal disease identification is explored in this work. This work also indirectly suggests AI based solutions for the various stages of automated retinal disease diagnosis system.
Moving Object Tracking based on Background Extraction Using Mean Algorithm and Three Temporal Difference Algorithm

In this study, we propose a new tracking method that uses Three Temporal Difference (TTD) and the Mean Algorithm (MA) to approach the tracking of an object. TTD method is used for continuous image subtraction while the MA method is used for the extraction of Background image. The proposed method was compared with different methods used in the field; the comparison clearly shows that the method is reliable, quickly and precise. This method has the advantage that it is fast and successfully tracks the objects and extract background image, also no shadow and noise was associated with the application of the method. Experimental work shows that our method is improved relatively to the other widely used techniques.
Graph Cut Based Optimization for MRFs with Truncated Convex Priors

Optimization with graph cuts became very popular in recent years. Progress in problems such as stereo correspondence, image segmentation, etc., can be attributed, in part, to the development of efficient graph cut based optimization. Recent evaluation of optimization techniques shows that the popular expansion and swap graph cut algorithms perform extremely well for energies where the underlying MRF has the Potts prior, which corresponds to the assumption that the true labeling is piecewise constant. For more general priors, however, such as corresponding to piece-wise smoothness assumption, both swap and expansion algorithms do not perform as well. We develop several optimization algorithms for truncated convex priors, which imply piecewise smoothness assumption. Both expansion and swap algorithms are based on moves that give each pixel a choice of only two labels. Our insight is that to obtain a good approximation under piecewise smoothness assumption, a pixel should have a choice among more than two labels. We develop new "range" moves which act on a larger set of labels than the expansion and swap algorithms. We evaluate our method on problems of image restoration, in-painting, and stereo correspondence. Our results show that we are able to get more accurate answers, both in terms of the energy, which is the direct goal, and in terms of accuracy, which is an indirect, but more important goal.
Preventing Lead Poisoning in China

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) constitute a particular family of tandem repeats found in a wide range of prokaryotic genomes (half of eubacteria and almost all archaea). They consist of a succession of highly conserved regions (DR) varying in size from 23 to 47bp, separated by similarly sized unique sequences (spacer) of usually viral origin. A CRISPR cluster is flanked on one side by an AT-rich sequence called the leader and assumed to be a transcriptional promoter. Recent studies suggest that this structure represents a putative RNA-interference-based immune system. Here we describe CRISPRFinder, a web service offering tools to (i) detect CRISPRs including the shortest ones (one or two motifs); (ii) define DRs and extract spacers; (iii) get the flanking sequences to determine the leader; (iv) blast spacers against Genbank database and (v) check if the DR is found elsewhere in prokaryotic sequenced genomes. CRISPRFinder is freely accessible at http://crispr.u-psud.fr/Server/
Constructing Programs or Processes

We define interacting sequential programs, motivated originally by constructivist considerations. We use them to investigate notions of implementation and determinism. Process algebras do not define what can be implemented and what cannot. As we demonstrate it is prob- lematic to do so on the set of all processes. Guided by constructivist notions we have constructed interacting sequential programs which we claim can be readily implemented and are a subset of processes.
Taxpayer Confusion Over Predictable Tax Liability Changes: Evidence from the Child Tax Credit

We develop a model of how taxpayers update beliefs over their tax rates when they encounter a non-salient tax liability change. We test the model's hypotheses using the loss of the Child Tax Credit when a child turns 17. Because this tax liability change is lump-sum and predictable, there should be no reaction in labor income if taxpayers are fully informed. Using this age discontinuity, we find, however, that losing the credit reduces household labor income. This finding suggests that taxpayers misperceive the source of tax liability changes, leading to under- or over-reactions to changes in marginal tax rates.
Lack of ABCG2 Leads to Biventricular Dysfunction and Remodeling in Response to Hypoxia

Aims: The ATP-binding cassette (ABC)G2 transporter protects the heart from pressure overload-induced ventricular dysfunction but also protects cancer cells from chemotherapeutic agents. It is upregulated in the myocardium of heart failure patients and clears hypoxia-induced intracellular metabolites. This study employs ABCG2 knockout (KO) mice to elucidate the relevance of ABCG2 for cardiac and pulmonary vascular structure and function in chronic hypoxia, and uses human primary cardiac fibroblasts to investigate the potential role of ABCG2 in cardiac fibrosis. Methods and results: ABCG2 KO and control mice (n = 10) were subjected to 4 weeks normoxia or hypoxia. This allowed for investigation of the interaction between genotype and hypoxia (GxH). In hypoxia, KO mice showed pronounced right (RV) and left (LV) ventricular diastolic dysfunction. Compared to normoxia, end-diastolic pressure (EDP) was increased in control vs. KO mice by +1.1 ± 0.3 mmHg vs. +4.8 ± 0.3 mmHg, p for GxH < 0.001 (RV) and +3.9 ± 0.5 mmHg vs. +11.5 ± 1.6 mmHg, p for GxH = 0.110 (LV). The same applied for myocardial fibrosis with +0.3 ± 0.1% vs. 1.3 ± 0.2%, p for GxH = 0.036 (RV) and +0.06 ± 0.03% vs. +0.36 ± 0.08%, p for GxH = 0.002 (LV), whereas systolic function and capillary density was unaffected. ABCG2 deficiency did not influence hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension or vascular remodeling. In line with these observations, human cardiac fibroblasts showed increased collagen production upon ABCG2 silencing in hypoxia (p for GxH = 0.04). Conclusion: Here we provide evidence for the first time that ABCG2 membrane transporter can play a crucial role in ventricular dysfunction and fibrosis in hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension.
Applicability of hybrid simulation to different modes of governance in UK healthcare

Healthcare organizations exhibit both detailed and dynamic complexity. Effective and sustainable decision-making in healthcare requires tools that can comprehend this complexity. Discrete event simulation (DES) due to its ability to capture detail complexity is widely used for operational decision making. However at the strategic level, System Dynamics (SD) with its focus on a holistic perspective and its ability to comprehend dynamic complexity has advantages over DES. Appreciating the complexity of healthcare, the authors have proposed the use of hybrid simulation in healthcare. As argued previously, effective decision making require tools which are capable of comprehending both detail and dynamic interactions of healthcare. The interactions in the organizations are governed by the governance design. In appreciation of that argument the authors have described the applicability of a hybrid approach to various modes of governance in UK healthcare.
A Majorize-Minimize line search algorithm for barrier functions

Criteria containing abarrier function i.e., an unbounded function at the boundary of the feasible solution domain are frequently enc ou tered in the optimization framework. When an iterative descent method is used, a se arch along the line supported by the descent direction through the minimizatio n of the underlying scalar function has to be performed at each iteration. Usual line se arch strategies use an iterative procedure to propose a stepsize value ensuring th e fulfillment of sufficient convergence conditions. The iterative scheme is classical ly b sed on backtracking, dichotomy, polynomial interpolations or quadratic majoriza tion of the scalar function. However, since the barrier function introduces a singulari ty in the criterion, classical line search procedures tend to be inefficient. In this paper w e propose a majorizationbased line search strategy by deriving a nonquadratic form o f a majorant function well suited to approximate a criterion containing a barrier term . Furthermore, we establish the convergence of classical descent algorithms when this s trategy is employed. The efficiency of the proposed line search strategy is illustrat ed by means of numerical examples in the field of signal and image processing.
Syntax-Augmented Machine Translation using Syntax-Label Clustering

Recently, syntactic information has helped significantly to improve statistical machine translation. However, the use of syntactic information may have a negative impact on the speed of translation because of the large number of rules, especially when syntax labels are projected from a parser in syntax-augmented machine translation. In this paper, we propose a syntax-label clustering method that uses an exchange algorithm in which syntax labels are clustered together to reduce the number of rules. The proposed method achieves clustering by directly maximizing the likelihood of synchronous rules, whereas previous work considered only the similarity of probabilistic distributions of labels. We tested the proposed method on Japanese-English and Chinese-English translation tasks and found order-of-magnitude higher clustering speeds for reducing labels and gains in translation quality compared with previous clustering method.
Unacylated Ghrelin Rescues Endothelial Progenitor Cell Function in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Acylated ghrelin (AG) is a diabetogenic and orexigenic gastric polypeptide. These properties are not shared by the most abundant circulating form, which is unacylated (UAG). An altered UAG/AG profile together with an impairment of circulating endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) bioavailability were found in diabetes. Based on previous evidence for the beneficial cardiovascular effects of AG and UAG, we investigated their potential to revert diabetes-associated defects. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Healthy human subjects, individuals with type 2 diabetes, and ob/ob mice were AG or UAG infused. EPC mobilization in patients and mice was evaluated, and the underlying molecular mechanisms were investigated in bone marrow stromal cells. Recovered EPCs were also evaluated for the activity of senescence regulatory pathways and for NADPH oxidase activation by knocking down p47phox and Rac1. Finally, UAG modulation of human EPC vasculogenic potential was investigated in an in vivo mouse model. RESULTS Neither AG nor UAG had any effect in healthy subjects. However, systemic administration of UAG, but not AG, prevented diabetes-induced EPC damage by modulating the NADPH oxidase regulatory protein Rac1 and improved the vasculogenic potential both in individuals with type 2 diabetes and in ob/ob mice. In addition, unlike AG, UAG facilitated the recovery of bone marrow EPC mobilization. Crucial to EPC mobilization by UAG was the rescue of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation by Akt, as UAG treatment was ineffective in eNOS knockout mice. Consistently, EPCs expressed specific UAG-binding sites, not recognized by AG. CONCLUSIONS These data provide the rationale for clinical applications of UAG in pathologic settings where AG fails.
ISAAC: A Virtual Environment Tool for the Interactive Construction of Virtual Worlds

This paper presents a description of ISAAC, the Immersive Simulation Animation And Construction program designed and built at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). ISAAC is a scene composition application for the interactive construction of virtual worlds. Working directly in a virtual environment, objects can be positioned, oriented and scaled using direct and indirect manipulation techniques. Object configurations are stored in ASCII files which can be used to recreate object configurations at a later date for further manipulation and interactive exploration. ISAAC is not a modeling program, worlds are created by manipulating pre-generated three-dimensional models (which can come from sources such as Computer-Aided Design programs or three-dimensional scanning devices). ISAAC has been designed to overcome some of the limitations of working in a virtual environment and to take advantage of the natural and intuitive forms of interaction available in a virtual world.
A PLANAR COMPACT TRIPLE-BAND MONOPOLE ANTENNA FOR WLAN/WIMAX APPLICATIONS

A planar triple-band monopole antenna with a U-shaped stripline and a L slot is presented. The antenna is very compact with a size of 20 £ 30 £ 1:5mm 3 and fed by a 50› microstrip line with a defected ground. The measured i10dB impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna covers 2.33GHz{2.51GHz, 3.25GHz{3.82GHz, and 4.83GHz{8.4GHz, respectively, which meets the speciflcations of WLAN 2.4/5.2/5.8GHz and WiMAX 3.5/5.5GHz. The radiation characteristics shows a monopole-like pattern, and the measured results are in agreements with the simulated ones.
Distributed Phasers

A phaser is an expressive synchronization construct that unifies collective and point-to-point coordination with dynamic task parallelism. Each task can participate in a phaser as a signaler, a waiter, or both. The participants in a phaser may change over time as dynamic tasks are added and deleted. In this poster, we present a highly concurrent and scalable design of phasers for a distributed memory environment that is suitable for use with asynchronous partitioned global address space programming models. Our design for a distributed phaser employs a pair of skip lists augmented with the ability to collect and propagate synchronization signals. To enable a high degree of concurrency, addition and deletion of participant tasks are performed in two phases: a“fast single-link-modify” step followed by multiple hand-overhand “lazy multi-link-modify” steps. We show that the cost of synchronization and structural operations on a distributed phaser scales logarithmically, even in the presence of concurrent structural modifications. To verify the correctness of our design for distributed phasers, we employ the SPIN model checker. To address this issue of state space explosion, we describe how we decompose the state space to separately verify correct handling for different kinds of messages, which enables complete model checking of our phaser design.
Negotiation over Offspring Care?—a Positive Response to Partner-provisioning Rate in Great Tits

Game theoretical models of biparental care predict that a change in work rate by one parent should be met by incomplete compensation by its partner. However, in empirical studies on biparental birds, there has been some inconsistency in the direction and extent of the response, and the mechanism behind it has so far been unclear. Parents could be responding directly to partner work rate or indirectly via chick begging. In this study of great tits (Parus major), the work rate of one parent was increased experimentally by augmenting the begging of the chicks with playback of extra begging calls whenever the parent visited the nest. The playback had no effect on the chicks' begging behavior, so any change in the focal parent's behavior was a direct response to its partner's work rate over a short timescale. An experimental increase in care by either male or female parent led to an increase (to a lesser extent) in the work rate of its partner, which is counter to the decrease predicted by partial compensation models. This seemingly paradoxical result may reflect decisions made exclusively over a short timescale and is in keeping with new theoretical work, which takes into account the information content of partner work rates. I n species with biparental care, the amount of parental investment that each partner should provide is a major source of conflict between provisioning parents (Trivers, 1972). This sexual conflict arises because each parent will benefit from an investment in its offspring but pays a cost of providing that care in terms of reduced survival or fecundity (will benefit if the other does more of the work (see Westneat and Sargent, 1996). It might therefore benefit parents to adjust provisioning in relation to partner work rate, as well as to the hunger levels of their offspring (see Godfray, 1991; Kilner and Johnstone, 1997), and both theoretical and empirical work has investigated this. Houston and Davies (1985) developed a model by Chase (1980) and demonstrated that for biparental care to be stable, parents should partially compensate for a change in partner care. A parent should only partially redress a shortfall in care by its mate because compensating fully would leave it open to exploitation. Conversely, the model predicts that if one parent increases its work rate, the other should decrease by a lesser extent. In this model, each parent's optimal level of investment is fixed over …
Integrating Multiple Knowledge Sources for Detection and Correction of Repairs in Human-Computer Dialog

We have analyzed 607 sentences of spontaneous human-computer speech data containing repairs, drawn from a total corpus of 10,718 sentences. We present here criteria and techniques for automatically detecting the presence of a repair, its location, and making the appropriate correction. The criteria involve integration of knowledge from several sources: pattern matching, syntactic and semantic analysis, and acoustics.
Fixed-time synchronization of a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems

The fixed-time synchronization problem fsor a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with a leader-follower architecture is investigated in this paper. To achieve the fixed-time tracking, the design procedure is divided into two steps. At the first step, a distributed fixed-time estimator is designed for each agent to estimate the leader's state in a fixed time. Then, at the second step, based on the technique of adding a power integrator, a fixed-time tracking controller for each agent is proposed such that the estimate leader's state can be tracked in a fixed time. Finally, an estimator-based fixed-time controller is developed such that the leader can be tracked by all the followers in a fixed time. Simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.