Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Size does matter: how image size affects aesthetic perception?

There is no doubt that an image's content determines how people assess the image aesthetically. Previous works have shown that image contrast, saliency features, and the composition of objects may jointly determine whether or not an image is perceived as aesthetically pleasing. In addition to an image's content, the way the image is presented may affect how much viewers appreciate it. For example, it may be assumed that a picture will always look better when it is displayed in a larger size. Is this "the-bigger-the-better" rule always valid? If not, in what situations is it invalid? In this paper, we investigate how an image's resolution (pixels) and physical dimensions (inches) affect viewers' appreciation of it. Based on a large-scale aesthetic assessments of 100 images displayed in a variety of resolutions and physical dimensions, we show that an image's size significantly affects its aesthetic rating in a complicated way. Normally a picture looks better when it is bigger, but it may look worse depending on its content. We develop a set of regression models to predict a picture's absolute and relative aesthetic levels at a given display size based on its content and compositional features. In addition, we analyze the essential features that lead to the size-dependent property of image aesthetics. It is hoped that this work will motivate further research by showing that both content and presentation should be considered when evaluating an image's aesthetic appeals.
Learning Context-aware Ranking 4.1 Optimization Criterion (bcr-opt)

In this chapter, we propose a learning method for the problem setting of context-aware ranking. This problem setting has been investigated in detail in the last chapter. We have seen, that a context-aware ranking : C × X 2 m can be modelled by a real-valued function y : C × X m → R. Now, we will show how this function can be optimized. The optimization will be done with respect to the pairwise training data d s , that is inferred from the sparse and incomplete observations s. The whole chapter assumes, that y can be expressed as a differentiable, non-recursive function with a finite set of parameters Θ. This assumption holds for many models, including the factorization models that we will introduce in the next chapter. First, we propose an optimization criterion based on Bayesian Context-aware Ranking (BCR). The optimization criterion BCR-OPT, is the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator of the model parameters Θ. BCR-OPT tries to minimize the classification loss for context-aware ranking on the inferred training data d s. Furthermore it contains a regularization term that prevents overfitting. Afterwards, we develop the learning algorithm BCR-LEARN which performs the optimization of Θ with respect to BCR-OPT. This algorithm is generic and can be adapted to many model classes including matrix factorization, k-nearest-neighbor, tensor factorization and Markov chains. BCR-LEARN is based on stochastic gradient descent, where the cases are drawn by bootstrapping. This allows the algorithm to converge faster than typical full gradient or context-wise stochastic gradient descent. We show, how samples for BCR-LEARN can be drawn efficiently both in terms of runtime and memory consumption. Finally, we discuss the relationships of BCR-OPT to other criteria like the pairwise approach of AUC optimization or element-wise approaches like weighted regularized least square. Both the optimization criterion and the learning algorithm that we present here are generic. Thus, this chapter does not discuss any specific model. This will be done in the next chapter, where factorization models are proposed to model y. In the last chapter we have shown that learning a ranking can be reformu-lated as learning a function y. Now, we derive the maximum a posteriori estimator S. Rendle: Context-Aware Ranking with Factorization Models, SCI 330, pp. 39–50.
HH135/HH136 - a luminous H 2 outflow towards a high-mass protostar

Context. Molecular hydrogen observations towards Herbig-Haro objects provide the possibility of studying physical processes related to star formation. Aims. Observations towards the luminous IRAS source IRAS 11101-5928 and the associated Herbig-Haro objects HH135/HH136 are obtained to understand whether high-mass stars form via the same physical processes as their low-mass counterparts. Methods. Near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy are used to infer H 2 excitation characteristics. A theoretical H 2 spectrum is constructed from a thermal ro-vibrational population distribution and compared to the observations. Results. The observations reveal the presence of a well-collimated, parsec-sized H 2 outflow with a total H 2 luminosity of about $2~L_\odot$. The bulk of the molecular gas is characterized by a ro-vibrational excitation temperature of $2000\pm200$ K. A small fraction (0.3%) of the molecular gas is very hot, with excitation temperatures around 5500 K. The molecular emission is associated with strong [FeII] emission. The H 2 and [FeII] emission characteristics indicate the presence of fast, dissociative J-shocks at speeds of $v_\mathrm{s} \approx 100$ km s -1 . Electron densities of $n_\mathrm{e} = 3500$–4000 cm -3 are inferred from the [FeII] line ratios. Conclusions. The large H 2 luminosity combined with the very large source luminosity suggests that the high-mass protostar that powers the HH135/HH136 flow forms via accretion, but with a significantly increased accretion rate compared to that of low-mass protostars.
Target Gene Analysis by Microarrays and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Identifies HEY Proteins as Highly Redundant bHLH Repressors

HEY bHLH transcription factors have been shown to regulate multiple key steps in cardiovascular development. They can be induced by activated NOTCH receptors, but other upstream stimuli mediated by TGFß and BMP receptors may elicit a similar response. While the basic and helix-loop-helix domains exhibit strong similarity, large parts of the proteins are still unique and may serve divergent functions. The striking overlap of cardiac defects in HEY2 and combined HEY1/HEYL knockout mice suggested that all three HEY genes fulfill overlapping function in target cells. We therefore sought to identify target genes for HEY proteins by microarray expression and ChIPseq analyses in HEK293 cells, cardiomyocytes, and murine hearts. HEY proteins were found to modulate expression of their target gene to a rather limited extent, but with striking functional interchangeability between HEY factors. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed a much greater number of potential binding sites that again largely overlap between HEY factors. Binding sites are clustered in the proximal promoter region especially of transcriptional regulators or developmental control genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that HEY proteins primarily act as direct transcriptional repressors, while gene activation seems to be due to secondary or indirect effects. Mutagenesis of putative DNA binding residues supports the notion of direct DNA binding. While class B E-box sequences (CACGYG) clearly represent preferred target sequences, there must be additional and more loosely defined modes of DNA binding since many of the target promoters that are efficiently bound by HEY proteins do not contain an E-box motif. These data clearly establish the three HEY bHLH factors as highly redundant transcriptional repressors in vitro and in vivo, which explains the combinatorial action observed in different tissues with overlapping expression.
The Evolution of Wage Mobility in the German Low-Wage Sector - Is There Evidence for Increasing State Dependence?

In this paper, we study how wage mobility in the low-wage sector has changed in Western Germany between 1984 and 2004. Using German individual register data, we document a clear upward trend in the persistence of low-wage employment for both men and women. To explore whether the observed rise in persistence is accounted for by an increase in "genuine" state dependence or by compositional shifts of the low-wage sector, we model low-pay transitions by estimating a series of multivariate probit models. To address the initial conditions problem and the endogeneity of earnings attrition, our estimation approach accounts for the selection into low-wage employment and earnings retention. Using the estimates from the transition model, we determine the evolution of genuine state dependence which is defi ned as the average diff erence in low-pay transition probabilities conditional on being initially low and high paid, respectively. For men, our findings strongly argue against an upward trend of genuine state dependence, as the latter exhibits a fairly stationary development. This contrasts with women, whose evolution of genuine state dependence displays a slight upward trend.
Energy Balancing in the Self-configuring Sensor Networks

Like other distributed systems, unattended sensor networks need to be balanced not only by load but also in terms of energy. Sensor networks are expected to live long. Lifetime can be maximized if and only if a balanced network can be formed. In this research work we first identify the tasks, that a sensor node accomplishes in its life time. Based on those, we define the sensor node life-cycle. Then we characterize the nodes based on their residual energy levels as, SEN - nodes having sufficient energy to perform additional responsibilities other than its own sensing task, or NEN - nodes having only necessary energy to perform its own task. Every node starts as SEN, and at some point it becomes NEN based on a predefined threshold value. Thus the nodes are protected from the early exhaustion. Finally, we developed a virtual clustering technique which is self-configurable and scalable. We apply our approach to a simulation environment and the simulation results justify our assertion.
Large-Signal Stabilization of a DC-Link Supplying a Constant Power Load Using a Virtual Capacitor: Impact on the Domain of Attraction

It is known that the interaction between poorly damped LC input filters and constant power loads (CPLs) leads to degradation of dynamic performance or system instability. This paper addresses a large-signal stability study and stabilization of an electrical system containing a dc power supply, an LC filter, and a CPL. This latter is realized here by a voltage source inverter supplying a motor drive. To stabilize the system, the control structure is slightly modified to implement a nonlinear stabilization block that virtually increases the dc-link capacitance and, hence, the damping of the system. The main idea consists in adding a capacitive power component to the CPL power reference. This allows reducing the real dc-link capacitance value and volume, which is, for weight and size reasons, an important issue in aerospace applications. The impact on the large-signal stability will be analyzed by estimating the domain of attraction of the operating point. An illustrative example consisted of an LC input filter connected to an inverter-permanent-magnet synchronous motor designed for aircraft applications treated by simulations and experimentation, which confirm the validity of the proposed approach.
A bi-functional siRNA construct induces RNA interference and also primes PCR amplification for its own quantification

RNA interference (RNAi) is a process of post-transcriptional gene silencing initiated by double-stranded RNAs, including short interfering RNA (siRNA). Silencing is sequence-specific and RNAi has rapidly become central to the study of gene function. RNAi also carries promise for selective silencing of viral and endogenous genes causal for disease. To detect the very low levels of siRNA effective for RNAi we modified the 3′ end of the sense strand of siRNA with a nuclease-resistant DNA hairpin. We show that the modified siRNA-DNA construct (termed ‘crook’ siRNA) functions as a primer for the PCR and describe a novel, yet simple PCR protocol for its quantification (amolar levels/cell). When transfected into mammalian cells, crook siRNA induces selective mRNA knock-down equivalent to its unmodified siRNA counterpart. This new bifunctional siRNA construct will enable future in vivo studies on the uptake, distribution and pharmacokinetics of siRNA, and is particularly important for the development of siRNA-based therapeutics. More generally, PCR-based detection of siRNA carries wide-ranging applications for RNAi reverse genetics.
Cognitive-Computer Artifacts for Urban Art and Communication

Graffiti and ‘maker’ cultures use technology in ways that reveal specific effects of the urban environment. Researchers have paid little attention to how these cognitive artifacts ‐ artificial devices designed to serve a representational function ‐ are invented, acquired, or transmitted across individuals or generations, especially in groups outside of accepted criterion. This paper investigates the information-processing roles played by these artifacts and how they interact with informationprocessing activities of their users. The aim of this paper is to investigate cognitive-computer artifacts ‐ from an environmental perspective ‐ that are extended with technology to create a new paradigm for technosocial production that is culturally situated.
Evaluation of information visualizations vs. language proficiency

In this paper we will ask the question of what proficiency in a textual language (e.g. English) has in common with evaluating information visualizations. We admit that this question might not seem completely straightforward. Therefore we will first present how experimental practice led us to this question. We hypothesize that the ability to use a visualization (to speak the visual language) affects both objective and subjective evaluation methods. We propose to transfer the use of language testing and grammar description from linguistics to human computer interaction evaluation.
Record-replay debugging for the SCOOP concurrency model

To support developers in writing reliable and efficient concurrent programs, novel concurrent programming abstractions have been proposed in recent years. Programming with such abstractions requires new analysis tools because the execution semantics often differs considerably from established models. We present a record-replay technique for programs written in SCOOP, an object-oriented programming model for concurrency. The resulting tool enables developers to reproduce the nondeterministic execution of a concurrent program, a necessary prerequisite for debugging and testing.
Probabilistic Analysis of Disagreement in Synchronous Consensus Protocols ( Preliminary draft )

This report presents a probabilistic analysis of a family of simple synchronous round-based consensus algorithms aimed at solving the 1-of-n selection problem. In this problem, a set of n nodes are to select one common value among a set of n proposed values. There are two possible outcomes of each node’s selection process: it can decide either to select a value, or to abort. Agreement implies that all nodes select the same value, or all nodes decide to abort. We analyse this problem under the assumption of massive communication failures considering symmetric and asymmetric message losses. Previous research has shown that it is impossible to guarantee agreement among the nodes in a synchronous system subjected to an unbounded number of message losses. Our aim is to find algorithms for which the probability of disagreement is as low as possible. To this end, we study how the probability of disagreement varies for three different decision criteria, the optimistic, pessimistic and the moderately pessimistic. Our results show that that the probability of disagreement varies significantly with the number of nodes, the number of rounds, and the probability of message loss. In general, the optimistic decision criterion performs better (has a lower probability of disagreement) than the pessimistic one when the probability of message loss is less than 30% to 70%. On the other hand, the optimistic decision criterion has in general a higher maximum probability of disagreement compared to the pessimistic decision criterion. Moreover we show that the outcome of the moderately pessimistic decision criterion generally lies in between the two other decision criteria.
Children in self-care.

Every child reaches a point somewhere between infancy and young adulthood when he or she takes a step toward independence by caring for himself or herself for a period of time when no adult is present. Family decisions to allow their children to care for themselves vary widely, depending among other things on the family’s view of the risks associated with self-care, the child’s readiness for self-care, the circumstances in which the child will care for himself or herself, and the resources available to provide adult supervision. One child, for instance, may take that step toward independence at age 11 or 12, at home alone in a low-crime neighborhood, reassured by the presence of a reliable neighbor, well rehearsed on how to respond to the telephone and doorbell, and connected to a parent via the telephone. Another child may first experience self-care at a much younger age, in a high-crime neighborhood, with no trustworthy neighbors, and no telephone. The consequences for children of being left unsupervised also vary; some children suffer no ill effects, and in fact enjoy their independence, while other children find the self-care experience to be scary and detrimental to their healthy development. The latter circumstance may occasionally result in tragedy. 1 News reports sensationalize the tragic consequences of leaving children unsupervised (as when Detroit parents returned home after 45 minutes away to find that all seven of their children, ages seven months to nine years, had perished in a swift-moving, smoky fire), 2 while failing to acknowledge the millions of children in self-care who suffer no negative consequences. In making the decision to leave a child in self-care, parents must consider not only the potential risks to the child but also the legal implications. In most states the laws about child supervision are unclear, but legal authorities can interpret self-care as child neglect or endangerment. Only two states explicitly outlaw self-care, defined in terms of the age of the child and the duration or setting of neglect. Illinois state law prohibits leaving a child under age 13 unsupervised for 24 hours or more. 3 Maryland specifically pro
Augmented Reality-based Exhibit Information Personalized Service Architecture through Spectator's Context Analysis

This paper suggests a personalized service system offering effective exhibition information by collecting, analyzing, and managing spectator environment information in exhibitions based on a ubiquitous environment. To that end, we use AR technologies that can provide intuitive and supportive information for displaying exhibition information. The previous AR is considered quite static, for virtual information is provided by pattern matching (e.g., markers, features of an object, etc.). Therefore, the system in this paper offers dynamic personalized services in that virtual information is displayed according to spectator’s situations and carries out context inference by grouping context information into metadata and by measuring similarity.
Quality-oriented information retrieval in a health domain

Among other goals, Web search engines attempt to rank high quality information above low quality. Techniques designed for this purpose, such as PageRank or hub and authority, rely heavily on the Web graph structure, and apply generally across all topic domains. In the health domain, the evidence-based medicine approach provides a very specific definition of quality. That is, a search service over health websites (a health portal) should return results that are not only relevant to the query but also in accordance with evidence-based medical guidelines. Low-quality health information may lead to serious endangerment if presented to users. Can quality defined in this way be automatically measured? Finding techniques that can detect, gather, retrieve and present high-quality health information to Web users is the goal of this thesis. Five fundamental questions were investigated. First, how to define and evaluate the quality of health webpages? Second, what works better in locating high quality health information: domain-specific search engines or general-purpose search engines? Third, can an engine automatically detect health webpages of high quality? Fourth, can quality be incorporated into a domain-specific crawler? And finally, what is the preferred approach to building health portals? Experiments were conducted, resulting in a number of important findings regarding the techniques to automatically evaluate the quality of health websites and to build high-quality health portals. The initial experiment, addressing the first two questions, judged quality against the available scientific evidence to find out whether search engines returned results consistent with evidence-based medicine. Results show that a manually built domainspecific index of 207 hand-picked sites gave results of slightly worse relevance than a general-purpose search engine (due to lower coverage) but gave better quality advice. A subsequent study, showed that an automatic quality assessment tool — a program that collects the content of a website and returns a score indicating the quality of that site — can be successfully built using relevance feedback techniques and resources provided by evidence-based medicine. Using this tool, health portals were built applying two different approaches. First, a focused crawler that prefers both relevance and quality was built, making use of the Web graph structure to locate relevant content, and the above tool to locate highquality content. Second, the tool was applied in filtering results from a general search engine. The results show that both approaches can be used to build high-quality health portals that outperform the manually built domain-specific portal in terms of relevance and quality. Filtering is a more effective approach to obtain relatively comparable coverage to a general search engine, but with much better quality of content. The techniques presented in this thesis have potential to be generalised to other health topics and possibly more generally.
A Study on Representation of QoS in UDDI for Web Services Composition

With the increasing popularity of deploying web services, quality of service (QoS) becomes a significant concern for service consumers and providers for service selection. However, representing and storing the values of QoS attributes are problematic, as the current universal description, discovery and integration (UDDI) was not designed to accommodate these emerging requirements. To solve the problems of storing QoS in UDDI and aggregating QoS values, three different approaches, namely type, keyword based and ontological approaches to model QoS tModel (technical model) have been proposed. The aim is to study these approaches and other existing QoS tModel representation for their efficiency and consistency in service selection. In this paper, we also report a number of experimental results based on an example in order to evaluate these approaches.