Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Graph Edit Distance Cost: Properties and Applications

We model the edit distance as a function in a labeling space. A labeling space is an Euclidean space where coordinates are the edit costs. Through this model, we define a class of cost. A class of cost is a region in the labeling space that all the edit costs have the same optimal labeling. Moreover, we characterize the distance value through the labeling space. This new point of view of the edit distance gives us the opportunity of defining some interesting properties that are useful for a better understanding of the edit distance. Finally, we show the usefulness of these properties through some applications.
A Direction of MT Development

The two most recently popular technological paradigms in machine translation — examplebased translation (EBMT) and statistics-based translation (SBMT) — require knowledge about language only as an afterthought. While the representatives of the above paradigms are still at the stage of either building toy systems (e.g., Furuse and Iida, 1992; McLean, 1992, Jones, 1992, Maruyama and Watanabe, 1992) or struggling with the natural constraints of approaches that eschew the study of language as such (e.g., Brown et al., 1990), a number of proposals have come up for some hybridization of MT. In some such approaches, corpus analysis is used for tuning analysis and transfer grammars (e.g., Su and Chang, 1992). In others, a standard transfer-based approach (TBMT) is followed using traditional analysis and generation techniques but having transfer component based on aligned bilingual corpora (Grishman and Kosaka, 1992). Still in others, it was suggested that statistical information be used as the source of preference assignment during text disambiguation (e.g., the outline presented in Lehmann and Ott, 1992). Indeed, hybrid MT systems were a central topic of the latest Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in MT.
Association of a Bacteriophage with Meningococcal Disease in Young Adults

Despite being the agent of life-threatening meningitis, Neisseria meningitidis is usually carried asymptomatically in the nasopharynx of humans and only occasionally causes disease. The genetic bases for virulence have not been entirely elucidated and the search for new virulence factors in this species is hampered by the lack of an animal model representative of the human disease. As an alternative strategy we employ a molecular epidemiological approach to establish a statistical association of a candidate virulence gene with disease in the human population. We examine the distribution of a previously-identified genetic element, a temperate bacteriophage, in 1288 meningococci isolated from cases of disease and asymptomatic carriage. The phage was over-represented in disease isolates from young adults indicating that it may contribute to invasive disease in this age group. Further statistical analysis indicated that between 20% and 45% of the pathogenic potential of the five most common disease-causing meningococcal groups was linked to the presence of the phage. In the absence of an animal model of human disease, this molecular epidemiological approach permitted the estimation of the influence of the candidate virulence factor. Such an approach is particularly valuable in the investigation of exclusively human diseases.
A Survey Paper on a Compact Data Structure Based Technique for Mining Frequent Closed Item Set

Association discovery finds closely correlate sets so the presence of some components in an exceedingly frequent set can imply the presence of the remaining components (in identical set). Closed item sets are a solution to the problems described above. These are obtained by partitioning the lattice of frequent item sets into equivalence classes according to the following property: two distinct item sets belong the same class if and only if they occur in the same set of transactions. Closed item sets are the collection of maximal item sets of these equivalence classes. This paper proposes a comprehensive survey of the closed item set mining. The concept of the frequent closed item set mining is also elaborated in detail. The modern methods of frequent closed item set mining are also discussed in brief.
The use of inertial sensors system for human motion analysis

Abstract Objective: The aim of this article is to review systematically and appraise critically the literature surrounding the research, comparing inertial sensors with any kind of gold standard; this gold standard has to be a tool for measuring human movement (e.g. electrogoniometry, optoelectronic systems, electromagnetic systems, etc.). Method: A MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDRo and SCOPUS search of published English language articles was conducted, which focused on articles that compared inertial sensors to any kind of gold standard (e.g. electrogoniometry, optoelectronic systems, electromagnetic systems, etc.), from 2000 to 2010. Two independent reviewers completed the study selection, quality appraisal and data extraction. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Español tool was used to assess study quality, and a reliability comparison between the systems was made. Results: Fourteen out of 242 articles were reviewed, which displayed a similar threat to validity, relating to sample selection and operator blinding. Other study limitations are discussed. A comparison between the different systems showed good agreement across a range of tasks and anatomical regions. Conclusions: This review concludes that inertial sensors can offer an accurate and reliable method to study human motion, but the degree of accuracy and reliability is site and task specific.
In 'a Traffic Aware, Energy-efficient Mac Protocol for Wireless Sensor

Biographical notes: Lou Wei is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. His current research interests are in the areas of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, mobile computing, and computer networks. He has worked intensively on designing, analysing and evaluating practical algorithms with the theoretical basis, as well as building prototype systems. He received the BE Degree in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 1995, the ME Degree in Telecommunications from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China in 1998, and the PhD Degree in Computer Engineering from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA in 2004. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society.
A myriad of miRNA variants in control and Huntington’s disease brain regions detected by massively parallel sequencing

Huntington disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that predominantly affects neurons of the forebrain. We have applied the Illumina massively parallel sequencing to deeply analyze the small RNA populations of two different forebrain areas, the frontal cortex (FC) and the striatum (ST) of healthy individuals and individuals with HD. More than 80% of the small-RNAs were annotated as microRNAs (miRNAs) in all samples. Deep sequencing revealed length and sequence heterogeneity (IsomiRs) for the vast majority of miRNAs. Around 80–90% of the miRNAs presented modifications in the 3′-terminus mainly in the form of trimming and/or as nucleotide addition variants, while the 5′-terminus of the miRNAs was specially protected from changes. Expression profiling showed strong miRNA and isomiR expression deregulation in HD, most being common to both FC and ST. The analysis of the upstream regulatory regions in co-regulated miRNAs suggests a role for RE1-Silencing Transcription Factor (REST) and P53 in miRNAs downregulation in HD. The putative targets of deregulated miRNAs and seed-region IsomiRs strongly suggest that their altered expression contributes to the aberrant gene expression in HD. Our results show that miRNA variability is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the adult human brain, which may influence gene expression in physiological and pathological conditions.
Community Risk Factors for Ocular Chlamydia Infection in Niger: Pre-Treatment Results from a Cluster-Randomized Trachoma Trial

Background Trachoma control programs utilize mass azithromycin distributions to treat ocular Chlamydia trachomatis as part of an effort to eliminate this disease world-wide. But it remains unclear what the community-level risk factors are for infection. Methods This cluster-randomized, controlled trial entered 48 randomly selected communities in a 2×2 factorial design evaluating the effect of different treatment frequencies and treatment coverage levels. A pretreatment census and examination established the prevalence of risk factors for clinical trachoma and ocular chlamydia infection including years of education of household head, distance to primary water source, presence of household latrine, and facial cleanliness (ocular discharge, nasal discharge, and presence of facial flies). Univariate and multivariate associations were tested using linear regression and Bayes model averaging. Findings There were a total of 24,536 participants (4,484 children aged 0–5 years) in 6,235 households in the study. Before treatment in May to July 2010, the community-level prevalence of active trachoma (TF or TI utilizing the World Health Organization [WHO] grading system) was 26.0% (95% CI: 21.9% to 30.0%) and the mean community-level prevalence of chlamydia infection by Amplicor PCR was 20.7% (95% CI: 16.5% to 24.9%) in children aged 0–5 years. Univariate analysis showed that nasal discharge (0.29, 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.54; P = 0.03), presence of flies on the face (0.40, 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.64; P = 0.001), and years of formal education completed by the head of household (0.07, 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.13; P = 0.03) were independent risk factors for chlamydia infection. In multivariate analysis, facial flies (0.26, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.49; P = 0.03) and years of formal education completed by the head of household (0.06, 95% CI: 0.008 to 0.11; P = 0.02) were associated risk factors for ocular chlamydial infection. Interpretation We have found that the presence of facial flies and years of education of the head of the household are risk factors for chlamydia infection when the analysis is done at the community level. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00792922
Transform flow: A mobile augmented reality visualisation and evaluation toolkit

It is common in mobile augmented reality (AR) research to examine results that Avere attained with unpublished tools and data sets, which makes it difficult to compare and improve existing work without significant effort. We discuss the development of an open source toolkit called Transform Flow, which includes a data capture application for iOS, a desktop application to replay and analyse captured data sets with different algorithms, and a mobile application that can run these algorithms in real-time. Our results suggest that our toolkit can be a centre for collaborative research, as it provides a common platform on which tracking algorithms for mobile AR can be developed, studied and eventually deployed.
Source‐independent waveform inversion for attenuation estimation in anisotropic media

In previous publications, we presented a waveform‐inversion algorithm for attenuation analysis in heterogeneous anisotropic media. However, waveform inversion requires an accurate estimate of the source wavelet, which is often difficult to obtain from field data. To address this problem, here we adopt a source‐independent waveform‐inversion algorithm that obviates the need for joint estimation of the source signal and attenuation coefficients. The key operations in that algorithm are the convolutions (1) of the observed wavefield with a reference trace from the modelled data and (2) of the modelled wavefield with a reference trace from the observed data. The influence of the source signature on attenuation estimation is mitigated by defining the objective function as the ℓ2‐norm of the difference between the two convolved data sets. The inversion gradients for the medium parameters are similar to those for conventional waveform‐inversion techniques, with the exception of the adjoint sources computed by convolution and cross‐correlation operations. To make the source‐independent inversion methodology more stable in the presence of velocity errors, we combine it with the local‐similarity technique. The proposed algorithm is validated using transmission tests for a homogeneous transversely isotropic model with a vertical symmetry axis that contains a Gaussian anomaly in the shear‐wave vertical attenuation coefficient. Then the method is applied to the inversion of reflection data for a modified transversely isotropic model from Hess. It should be noted that due to the increased nonlinearity of the inverse problem, the source‐independent algorithm requires a more accurate initial model to obtain inversion results comparable to those produced by conventional waveform inversion with the actual wavelet.
The influence of Pentecostal social networks on Latino student college choice

v List of Figures . x List of Tables . xi Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Latino College Choice . 3 The Influence of Religious Social Networks on Latino Students . 4 Problem Statement . 6 Purpose of the Study and Research Questions . 7 Significance of the Study . 10 Summary . 12 Chapter 2: Review of Literature . 14 Latino Students in the United States . 15 Latino Students’ College Choices . 17 The Influence of Social Networks on Latino Students . 19 Religious Social Networks and Their Positive Relationship with Education . 23 The Negative Impact of Pentecostalism on Education . 28 Pentecostal Hostility Toward Education and the Latino Community . 31 Conceptual Framework . 34 Summary . 35 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology . 38 Aims of the Study . 39 Research Design. 39
Thermohaline circulation below the Ross Ice Shelf: A consequence of tidally induced vertical mixing and basal melting

The warmest water below parts of the Ross Ice Shelf resides in the lowest portion of the water column because of its high salinity. Vertical mixing caused by tidal stirring can thus induce ablation by lifting the warm but dense water into contact with the ice shelf. A numerical tidal simulation indicates that vertically well-mixed conditions predominate in the southeastern part of the sub-ice-shelf cavity where the water column thickness is small. Basal melting in this region is expected to be between 0.05 and 0.5 m/yr and will drive a thermohaline circulation having the following characteristics: high salinity shelf water (at -1.8oC), formed by winter sea-ice production in the open Ross Sea, flows along the seabed toward the tidal mixing fronts below the ice shelf; and meltwater (at -2.2oC), produced in the wellmixed region, flows out of the sub-ice-shelf cavity along the ice shelf bottom. Sensitivity of this ablation process to climatic change is expected to be small because high salinity shelf water is constrained to have the sea-surface freezing temperature.
A Principled Approach to Facilitating Distance Education: The Internet, Higher Education and Higher Levels of Learning

In an earlier study I investigated the essential principles that facilitate higher levels of learning in Internet-based distance learning university courses. In this study I explored how these teaching and learning principles could be applied in Internet- based distance learning environments. I used an open-ended questionnaire to determine how (or if) the teaching and learning principles identified in the earlier study could be applied. The outcomes of this study provide many suggestions for Internet-based distance activities that can support the facilitation of higher levels of learning. Dans une recherche anterieure, j’ai examine les principes essentiels qui facilitent des niveaux d’apprentissage eleves dans des cours universitaires a distance utilisant surtout l’Internet. Dans la presente recherche, j’ai explore comment ces principes d’enseignement et d’apprentissage pouvaient etre appliques dans des environnements d’apprentissage a distance utilisant surtout l’Internet. J’ai utilise un questionnaire ouvert pour determiner comment (ou si) les principes d’enseignement et d’apprentissage identifies dans la recherche anterieure pouvaient etre appliques. Les resultats de cette recherche fournissent plusieurs suggestions pour des activites a distance utilisant l’Internet qui peuvent faciliter des niveaux d’apprentissage eleves.
Application Entropy Theory to Detect New Peer-to-Peer Botnet with Multi-chart CUSUM

Botnets have been recognized as one of the most important threats to the security of the Internet. They engage in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks, email spamming and other malicious activities likewise. As evolving new features such as decentralized architecture, using P2P networks and etc, new Peer-to-Peer(P2P) botnets could no longer be indicated effectively and accurately by using the traditional detection methods. And we believe that adopting more sophisticated methods from being detected would be the very trend of future botnet development. Thus, in this paper, based on several of the new P2P botnet characteristic properties, we propose a novel detecting method applying the Information Entropy theory in the detection Multi-chart CUSUM. With verification of experiments, it successfully detects the botnet with a relatively high precision.
Specification and validation of multimedia protocols using RT-LOTOS

The paper presents a new formal description technique, RT-LOTOS (real-time LOTOS) which is a temporal extension of the standard formal description technique LOTOS. After a brief and informal introduction to RT-LOTOS, the paper describes a design method of multimedia protocols based on the use of generic and reusable RT-LOTOS specification building blocks. An application in the area of multimedia synchronization is then developed as an illustration of the proposed design method. Several results, achieved by using the RT-LOTOS support tool RTL, are introduced and discussed with the purpose of formally assessing the quality of service of a lip-synchronization between audio and video streams.
Wave propagation in a functionally graded piezoelectric coating on a cylinder

In this paper, the wave propagation in a functionally graded piezoelectric coating on a cylinder is studied. Considering the piezoelectricity of the coating with an orthotropic symmetry, the wave equations and system matrices for state vector are obtained for SH and P-SV waves propagating along both the axial and circumferential directions. It is found that the wave propagation of the SH wave along the axial direction and the P-SV wave along the circumferential direction is not coupled to the electric field, i.e., their corresponding dispersion patterns are same as that for a functionally graded coating without piezoelectricity. However, the wave propagation of the P-SV wave along the axial direction and the SH wave along the circumferential direction is coupled to the electric field, i.e., their corresponding dispersion patterns depend on the applied electric field, their dispersion curves are different under the open or close electric boundary conditions.
Retinal remodeling triggered by photoreceptor degenerations

Many photoreceptor degenerations initially affect rods, secondarily leading to cone death. It has long been assumed that the surviving neural retina is largely resistant to this sensory deafferentation. New evidence from fast retinal degenerations reveals that subtle plasticities in neuronal form and connectivity emerge early in disease. By screening mature natural, transgenic, and knockout retinal degeneration models with computational molecular phenotyping, we have found an extended late phase of negative remodeling that radically changes retinal structure. Three major transformations emerge: 1) Müller cell hypertrophy and elaboration of a distal glial seal between retina and the choroid/retinal pigmented epithelium; 2) apparent neuronal migration along glial surfaces to ectopic sites; and 3) rewiring through evolution of complex neurite fascicles, new synaptic foci in the remnant inner nuclear layer, and new connections throughout the retina. Although some neurons die, survivors express molecular signatures characteristic of normal bipolar, amacrine, and ganglion cells. Remodeling in human and rodent retinas is independent of the initial molecular targets of retinal degenerations, including defects in the retinal pigmented epithelium, rhodopsin, or downstream phototransduction elements. Although remodeling may constrain therapeutic intervals for molecular, cellular, or bionic rescue, it suggests that the neural retina may be more plastic than previously believed. J. Comp. Neurol. 464:1–16, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Composable core-sets for diversity and coverage maximization

In this paper we consider efficient construction of "composable core-sets" for basic diversity and coverage maximization problems. A core-set for a point-set in a metric space is a subset of the point-set with the property that an approximate solution to the whole point-set can be obtained given the core-set alone. A composable core-set has the property that for a collection of sets, the approximate solution to the union of the sets in the collection can be obtained given the union of the composable core-sets for the point sets in the collection. Using composable core-sets one can obtain efficient solutions to a wide variety of massive data processing applications, including nearest neighbor search, streaming algorithms and map-reduce computation. Our main results are algorithms for constructing composable core-sets for several notions of "diversity objective functions", a topic that attracted a significant amount of research over the last few years. The composable core-sets we construct are small and accurate: their approximation factor almost matches that of the best "off-line" algorithms for the relevant optimization problems (up to a constant factor). Moreover, we also show applications of our results to diverse nearest neighbor search, streaming algorithms and map-reduce computation. Finally, we show that for an alternative notion of diversity maximization based on the maximum coverage problem small composable core-sets do not exist.
Naive mechanics: a computational model of device use and function in design improvisation

The EDISON project, which is developing computational models that can solve problems and reason creatively about mechanical devices, is discussed. The project addresses two general issues: the breadth of and interactions between knowledge needed for creative reasoning, and the amount of knowledge needed to describe mechanical devices, their behavior, function, and use. This approach supports mechanical improvisation by applying the concept of device functional equivalence in different situations. The discussion covers the following: two classes of individual objects used by EDISON, device behavior and function, device use in problem-solving situations, and functional similarity and improvisation. <<ETX>>
Design of a Small Antenna with Folded Ground and U-shaped Slot for Body-Centric Wireless Communications

In the paper, a small antenna for 2.4 GHz body-centric wireless communications is proposed. With the folded ground and U-shaped slot, the antenna has an improved efficiency of 56.5% when it is very close to human body. In addition, the antenna has attractive radiation patterns for body-centric wireless communications.
Generalizing k-means for an arbitrary distance matrix

The original k-means clustering method works only if the exact vectors representing the data points are known. Therefore calculating the distances from the centroids needs vector operations, since the average of abstract data points is undefined. Existing algorithms can be extended for those cases when the sole input is the distance matrix, and the exact representing vectors are unknown. This extension may be named relational k-means after a notation for a similar algorithm invented for fuzzy clustering. A method is then proposed for generalizing k-means for scenarios when the data points have absolutely no connection with a Euclidean space.