Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nash Networks with Heterogeneous Agents 1

A non-cooperative model of network formation is developed. Agents form links with others based on the cost of the link and its assessed benefit. Link formation is one-sided, i.e., agents can initiate links with other agents with- out their consent, provided the agent forming the link makes the appropriate investment. Information flw is two-way. The model builds on the work of Bala and Goyal, but allows for agent heterogeneity. Whereas they permit links to fail with a certain common probability, in our model the probability of failure can be different for different links. We investigate Nash networks that exhibit connectedness and super-connectedness. We provide an explicit characterization of certain star networks. Efficiency and Pareto-optimality issues are discussed through examples. We explore alternative model specifications to address potential shortcomings.
Reliable scalable symbolic computation: the design of SymGridPar2

Symbolic computation is an important area of both Mathematics and Computer Science, with many large computations that would benefit from parallel execution. Symbolic computations are, however, challenging to parallelise as they have complex data and control structures, and both dynamic and highly irregular parallelism. The SymGridPar framework has been developed to address these challenges on small-scale parallel architectures. However the multicore revolution means that the number of cores and the number of failures are growing exponentially, and that the communication topology is becoming increasingly complex. Hence an improved parallel symbolic computation framework is required. This paper presents the design and initial evaluation of SymGrid-Par2 (SGP2), a successor to SymGridPar that is designed to provide scalability onto 106 cores, and hence also provide fault tolerance. We present the SGP2 design goals, principles and architecture. We describe how scalability is achieved using layering and by allowing the programmer to control task placement. We outline how fault tolerance is provided by supervising remote computations, and outline higher-level fault tolerance abstractions. We describe the SGP2 implementation status and development plans. We report the scalability and efficiency on approximately 2000 cores, and investigate the overheads of tolerating faults for simple symbolic computations.
Scaling matrix factorization for recommendation with randomness

Recommendation is one of the core problems in eCommerce. In our application, different from conventional collaborative filtering, one user can engage in various types of activities in a sequence. Meanwhile, the number of users and items involved are quite huge, entailing scalable approaches. In this paper, we propose one simple approach to integrate multiple types of user actions for recommendation. A two-stage randomized matrix factorization is presented to handle large-scale collaborative filtering where alternating least squares or stochastic gradient descent is not viable. Empirical results show that the method is quite scalable, and is able to effectively capture correlations between different actions, thus making more relevant recommendations.
How Well-Connected Individuals Help Spread Influences -- Analyses Based on Preferential Voter Model

The spread of influence in a network is a fundamental issue in many complex systems. For instance, the word of-mouth effect in a social network is crucial to the emerging viral market. The process was previously analyzed with a voter model where an individual weighs the opinions of his acquaintances equally. However, one would expect that an individual's opinion is often more swayed by her/his better connected peers. As such, the influence of a node x on another node should be proportional to x's degree. This paper studies the spread of influence under the latter model - called Preferential Voter Model (PVM) for easier reference. We first present the exact form of the random walk stationary distribution for PVM, based on which, we show that the First Passage Time (FPT) of PVM follows an exponential decay. Furthermore, compared against the conventional (nonpreferential) voter model, we show that nodes with larger degrees exhibit faster decay rate and lower mean First Passage Time in PVM. These new results have applications to network-based complex systems. For instance, in the context of viral marketing in a social network, picking nodes of larger degrees as the starting nodes of a sales campaign not only maximizes the expected number of influenced nodes in the network, but also reduces the expected time to spread the influence. Thus, our result confirms analytically that well-connected individuals indeed exert faster and more effective influences in social networks under the preferential model.
Prediction of Mobile User Behavior Using Clustering

Services which are recommended to the mobile devices like PDAs, Cellular Phones, smart phones and Laptops while moving using ISAP (Information Service and Application Provider) are increased by accurately predicting user usage pattern. But these discovery may not be always be good enough since the differentiated mobile behaviors among users and temporal periods are not considered simultaneously in the previous works. User relations and temporal property are used simultaneously in this work. Here CTMSP-Mine (Cluster-based Temporal Mobile Sequential Pattern Mine) algorithm is used to mine CTMSPs. Cluster-Object-based Smart Cluster Affinity Search Technique (CO-Smart-CAST) generates user clusters and similarities between mobile sequences are evaluated by Location-Based Service Alignment (LBS-Alignment). The specific time intervals to group the huge mobile logs are found using Genetic Algorithm based method called GetNTSP (Get Number of Time Segmenting Points). CTMSP-Mine technique, which creates CTMSPs utilizes Co-Smart-Cast and time intervals results. These patterns are used to predict the mobile user future behavior and service recommendations are given accordingly.
Activation of nuclear factor-kappa b transcriptional activity in airway epithelial cells by thioredoxin but not by N-acetyl-cysteine and glutathione.

Increasing evidence indicates that intracellular redox status modulates the activity of various transcriptional factors, including nuclear factor (NF)-kappa B and activator protein-1. Our laboratory has been interested in characterizing the role thioredoxin (TRX) plays in regulating cellular redox status in airway epithelium. TRX is a small, ubiquitous protein with two redox-active half-cysteine residues, -Cys-Gly-Pro-Cys, in its active center. Using primary passage-1 human tracheobronchial epithelial cell cultures and an immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell line, HBE1, we observed that tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha enhanced NF-kappa B transcriptional activity. This observation was based on gel mobility shift assays and interleukin (IL)-8 promoter-reporter gene transfection studies. TNF-alpha activation coincided with translocation of NF-kappa B p65 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Pretreatment with N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) (1 to 10 mM) or glutathione (1 to 10 mM) inhibited TNF-alpha-induced activation of NF-kappa B transcriptional activity and IL-8 promoter-mediated reporter gene expression. In contrast, elevated TRX protein levels in cells enhanced TNF-alpha-dependent NF-kappa B transcriptional activity and IL-8 promoter activity. This observation was independent of the manner in which TRX was elevated in cells (e.g., by cotransfection with a FLAG-TRX expression clone, or by direct exposure to commercially available human TRX protein). Localization of TRX protein by anti-TRX antibody indicated an accumulation of TRX protein in the nucleus after TNF-alpha treatment. The nuclear localization phenomenon was different from the major cytosolic accumulation of glutathione and NAC. This is the first known report demonstrating movement of TRX into the nucleus of airway epithelial cells after an inflammatory stress. These results suggest a compartment effect of thiol chemicals in the regulation of redox-dependent transcriptional activity.
A randomized trial of prolonged co-trimoxazole in HIV-infected children in Africa.

BACKGROUND Co-trimoxazole (fixed-dose trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole) prophylaxis administered before antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces morbidity in children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We investigated whether children and adolescents receiving long-term ART in sub-Saharan Africa could discontinue co-trimoxazole. METHODS We conducted a randomized, noninferiority trial of stopping versus continuing daily open-label co-trimoxazole in children and adolescents in Uganda and Zimbabwe. Eligible participants were older than 3 years of age, had been receiving ART for more than 96 weeks, were using insecticide-treated bed nets (in malaria-endemic areas), and had not had Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia. Coprimary end points were hospitalization or death and adverse events of grade 3 or 4. RESULTS A total of 758 participants were randomly assigned to stop or continue co-trimoxazole (382 and 376 participants, respectively), after receiving ART for a median of 2.1 years (interquartile range, 1.8 to 2.3). The median age was 7.9 years (interquartile range, 4.6 to 11.1), and the median CD4 T-cell percentage was 33% (interquartile range, 26 to 39). Participants who stopped co-trimoxazole had higher rates of hospitalization or death than those who continued (72 participants [19%] vs. 48 [13%]; hazard ratio, 1.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14 to 2.37; P = 0.007; noninferiority not shown). There was no evidence of variation across ages (P=0.93 for interaction). A total of 2 participants in the prophylaxis-stopped group (1%) died, as did 3 in the prophylaxis-continued group (1%). Most hospitalizations in the prophylaxis-stopped group were for malaria (49 events, vs. 21 in the prophylaxis-continued group) or infections other than malaria (53 vs. 25), particularly pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis. Rates of adverse events of grade 3 or 4 were similar in the two groups (hazard ratio, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.72; P=0.33), but more grade 4 adverse events occurred in the prophylaxis-stopped group (hazard ratio, 2.04; 95% CI, 0.99 to 4.22; P=0.05), with anemia accounting for the largest number of events (12, vs. 2 with continued prophylaxis). CONCLUSIONS Continuing co-trimoxazole prophylaxis after 96 weeks of ART was beneficial, as compared with stopping prophylaxis, with fewer hospitalizations for both malaria and infection not related to malaria. (Funded by the United Kingdom Medical Research Council and others; ARROW Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN24791884.).
Reconstruction from Multiple Depth Sensors

3D model generation from real world data using scanning systems, such as cheap depthsensors has become widely popular in recent times owing to immense utility of such models in various industries. But such scans are often noisy and incomplete, leading to the fundamental problem of registration of a scan to a full body deformable mesh. We wish to set up a system wherein a subject will be scanned using multiple depth sensors in a room, and its corresponding body mesh will be generated robustly and correctly. This problem of registration has been attempted by many, and we spent a major portion of our time studying their solutions. We were impressed with one particular algorithm of coregistration, which we have studied in depth. To simulate the lab setup and generate synthetic partial point cloud data, we have also developed a visualization tool.
Planted Random 3 SAT with a Small Fraction of 1-Clauses

A planted random 3SAT instance is formed by selecting a truth assignment and including each clause consistent with it with a certain probability. When the clause to variable ratio is Ω(log n) it is well known that the assignment can be reconstructed by the Majority Vote heuristic, hence the more interesting case is when the clause to variable ratio is constant. In a paper from 2003, Flaxman presented a modified version of the planted model where clauses satisfied by different number of literals are included with different probabilities. We focus on the case where the number of clauses satisfied by exactly one literal is small, both in absolute and in relative terms. We present polynomial time algorithms for the two distribution families, where for the first one we are also able to handle a semi random model for choosing the polarities of the formula.
A Discourse-Based Meta-Communication Model for Collective Sensemaking

This paper describes a meta-communication model and illustrates its applicability. The model integrates previous discursive approaches to reflective practice and extends them with additional relevant concepts. The concepts of the model are mainly based on Habermas’ discourse theory. By means of case examples, this paper also illustrates how the model can be used for collective sense-making, i.e. the articulation and contesting the meaning and relevance of ideas. This paper argues that the model provides a way for systematically and meaningfully structuring and organizing meta-level conversations. Thus, it is applicable in several domains.
A Tripartite Architecture based on Referee Function for Generic Implementations of Evidence Combination Rules

Abstract: An approach for a generic implementation of combination rules of evidence is proposed. This approach implies a tripartite architecture, with respective parts implementing the logical framework (complete distributive lattice, Boolean algebra), the combination definition (referee function), and the belief-related processes (basic belief assignment, belief and plausibility computation, computations of the combinations according to their definitions). Referee functions are decisional arbitrament conditionally to basic decisions provided by the sources of information. Two generic processes are proposed for computing combination rule defioned by referee functions: a sampling method and a deterministic method based on an adaptive reduction of the set of focal elements. The proposed generic implementation makes possible the construction of several rules simply on the basis of a referee function extension.
Automated detection of storm damage in forest areas by analyzing TerraSAR-X data

Fast mapping of storm-damaged forest areas is in great demand. In general, airborne platforms are called into action to get a quick impression and to record high-resolution data. However, such storm events come often along with bad weather conditions that limit acquisition of optical data as well as flying by airplane. In this case, the new generation of high-resolution spaceborne SAR sensors (e.g., TerraSAR-X) can be used to acquire rapidly image data. The new generation of high-resolution spaceborne sensors increases the expectation of more promising results. In this paper, we focus first on the border line extraction of forest areas to enable a fast estimation of wind-thrown areas, whereby the pre-event forest border is derived from multi-spectral data. Second, clean-up operations are monitored in the affected forest area by applying a change detection operator.
Black-box obfuscation for d-CNFs

We show how to securely obfuscate a new class of functions: conjunctions of NC0d circuits. These are functions of the form C(→/x) = ∧mi=1 C1(→/x), where each C1 is a boolean NC0d circuits circuit, whose output bit is only a function of d = O(1) bits of the input →/x. For example, d-CNFs, where each clause is a disjunction of at most d variables, are in this class. Given such a function, we produce an obfuscated program that preserves the input-output functionality of the given function, but reveals nothing else. Our construction is based on multilinear maps, and can be instantiated using the recent candidates proposed by Garg, Gentry and Halevi (EUROCRYPT 2013) and by Coron, Lepoint and Tibouchi (CRYPTO 2013). We prove that the construction is a secure obfuscation in a generic multilinear group model, under the black-box definition of Barak et al. (CRYPTO 2001). Security is based on a new worst-case hardness assumption about exponential hardness of the NP-complete problem 3-SAT, the Bounded Speedup Hypothesis. One of the new techniques we introduce is a method for enforcing input consistency, which we call randomizing sub-assignments. We hope that this technique can find further application in constructing secure obfuscators. The family of functions we obfuscate is considerably richer than previous works that consider black-box obfuscation. As one application, we show how to achieve obfuscated functional point testing: namely, to construct a circuit that checks whether ƒ(→/x) = →/y, where ƒ is an arbitrary "public" polynomial-time computable function, but →/y is a "secret" point that is hidden in the obfuscation.
NADPH-Cytochrome P450 Reductase Is Regulated by All-Trans Retinoic Acid and by 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 in Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines can be driven to differentiate to monocyte-like cells by 1,25- dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D) and to granulocyte-like cells by all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). Both compounds activate their specific intracellular receptors, vitamin D receptor (VDR) and retinoic acid receptors (RARs) respectively. Inside the cells 1,25D is degraded to calcitrioic acid by a mitochondrial enzyme CYP24A1, while ATRA is degraded to several polar metabolites by CYP26. NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) is a membrane-bound enzyme required for electron transfer to cytochrome P450 (CYP), vital in the processes of the metabolism of drugs and steroid production in humans. In this paper we report that POR in AML cells, from both cell lines and patients, is upregulated by ATRA and by 1,25D at the level of mRNA and protein. Partial silencing of POR in HL60 cells resulted in augmented differentiation response to 1,25D.
Comparison of Multi-User Detectors of DS- CDMA System

DS-CDMA system is well known wireless technology. This system suffers from MAI (Multiple Access Interference) caused by Direct Sequence users. Multi-User Detection schemes were introduced to detect the users' data in presence of MAI. This paper focuses on linear multi-user detection schemes used for data demodulation. Simulation results depict the performance of three detectors viz-conventional detector, Decorrelating detector and Subspace MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) detector. It is seen that the performance of these detectors depends on the number of paths and the length of Gold code used.
A High-Order Imaging Algorithm for High-Resolution Spaceborne SAR Based on a Modified Equivalent Squint Range Model

Two challenges have been faced in signal processing of ultrahigh-resolution spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The first challenge is constructing a precise range model, and the second one is to develop an efficient imaging algorithm since traditional algorithms fail to process ultrahigh-resolution spaceborne SAR data effectively. In this paper, a novel high-order imaging algorithm for high-resolution spaceborne SAR is presented. First, a modified equivalent squint range model (MESRM) is developed by introducing equivalent radar acceleration into the equivalent squint range model, and it is more suitable for high-resolution spaceborne SAR. The signal model based on the MESRM is also presented. Second, a novel high-order imaging algorithm is derived. The insufficient pulse-repetition frequency problem is solved by an improved subaperture method, and accurate focusing is achieved through an extended hybrid correlation algorithm. Simulations are performed to validate the presented algorithm.
On Creative Metaphors in Technology Design: Case "Magic"

We explore how metaphors, and the metaphor of "magic" in particular, can be utilized in fostering layperson creativity within the context of a Participatory Design workshop. To explore this proposal, we scrutinize and combine perspectives from HCI, cultural anthropology, design studies and the study of creativity. We argue that understanding a metaphor, i.e. being aware of its cultural meanings is of great help when choosing the best metaphor for each purpose. The theoretical views we provide are reflected and elaborated upon through a discussion concerning an empirical case study, a multi-stakeholder workshop, arranged in order to create new visions and ideas for a "Hybrid Library", a library that combines virtual reality with services and physical amenities. Finally, we present a conceptual model that summarizes elements of a successful workshop employing creative metaphors.1
The Vision and the Work in the HyperPro Project

This paper is written to give an overview of past, ongoing and future work in the area of hypertext and programming environments at Aalborg University. In the past, the main emphasis of our work has been on data modeling and storage aspects of hypertext. Our current research focuses more directly at programming environments. Our hypothesis is that the node-link representation, inspired by hypertext, together with the basic interaction and working style known from hypertext systems can be taken as the starting point of a generic (language independent) hyperstructure programming environment. In such an environment all the important structural as well as semantical relations, at some chosen level of granularity, should be represented in a uniform way, via the link concept as known from hypertext. In the present paper we describe our visions with this kind of programming environments. This paper is a thoroughly updated and extended version of a paper titled “Hyperstructure Programming Environments” presented at the Nordic Workshop on Programming Environment Research, Tampere, January 8-10, 1992 yThis work has been partially financed by the Danish Natural Science Research Council, Programme No. 11-0061.
Sensor Scheduling in Variance Based Event Triggered Estimation With Packet Drops

This paper considers a remote state estimation problem with multiple sensors observing a dynamical process, where sensors transmit local state estimates over an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) packet dropping channel to a remote estimator. At every discrete time instant, the remote estimator decides whether each sensor should transmit or not, with each sensor transmission incurring a fixed energy cost. The channel is shared such that collisions will occur if more than one sensor transmits at a time. Performance is quantified via an optimization problem that minimizes a convex combination of the expected estimation error covariance at the remote estimator and expected energy usage across the sensors. For transmission schedules dependent only on the estimation error covariance at the remote estimator, this work establishes structural results on the optimal scheduling which show that: 1) for unstable systems, if the error covariance is large then a sensor will always be scheduled to transmit and 2) there is a threshold-type behavior in switching from one sensor transmitting to another. Specializing to the single sensor case, these structural results demonstrate that a threshold policy (i.e., transmit if the error covariance exceeds a certain threshold and don't transmit otherwise) is optimal. We also consider the situation where sensors transmit measurements instead of state estimates, and establish structural results including the optimality of threshold policies for the single sensor, scalar case. These results provide a theoretical justification for the use of such threshold policies in variance based event triggered estimation. Numerical studies confirm the qualitative behavior predicted by our structural results.