Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information Granulation for the Design of Granular Information Retrieval Systems

With the explosive growth of the amount of information stored on computer networks such as the Internet, it is increasingly more difficult for information seekers to retrieve relevant information. Traditional document ranking functions employed by Internet search engines can be enhanced to improve the effectiveness of information retrieval (IR). This paper illustrates the design and development of a granular IR system to facilitate domain specific search. In particular, a novel computational model is designed to rank documents according the searchers’ specific granularity requirements. The initial experiments confirm that our granular IR system outperforms a classical vector-based IR system. In addition, user-based evaluations also demonstrate that our granular IR system is effective when compared with a well-known Internet search engine. Our research work opens the door to the design and development of the next generation of Internet search engines to alleviate the problem of information overload.
Population Pharmacokinetics of Ketorolac in Neonates and Young Infants

Although ketorolac is commonly used as an analgesic in the pediatric population, there is no information on the pharmacokinetics of ketorolac available for children less than 6 months of age. The objective of this analysis was to construct a population pharmacokinetic model to describe ketorolac disposition in young children. Three neonates and 9 infants, median (range) age 0.4-32 weeks, were administered with 0.5 mg/kg of ketorolac. The data were best described by a 2-compartment model, with an allometric expression to describe body weight effects on clearance. Estimated parameters were clearance [2.8 mL·min-1·(kg0.75)-1], intercompartmental clearance (11.5 mL/min), volume of distribution of the central compartment (535 mL), and volume of distribution of the peripheral compartment (322 mL). The clearance values in these neonates and younger group of infants are greater than that reported for older children and adults.
2-D finite displacements and finite strain from PIV analysis of plane-strain tectonic analogue models

Abstract. Image correlation techniques have provided new ways to analyze the distribution in space and time of deformation in analogue models of tectonics. Here we demonstrate how the correlation of successive time-lapse images of a deforming model allows not only to evaluate the components of the strain-rate tensor at any time in the model but also calculate the finite displacements and finite strain tensor. We illustrate, using synthetic images, the ability of the algorithm to produce maps of the velocity gradients, small-strain tensor components, but also incremental or instantaneous principal strains and maximum shear. The incremental displacements can then summed up using a Eulerian or a Lagrangian summation, and the components of the 2-D finite strain tensor can be calculated together with the finite principal strain and maximum finite shear. We benchmark the measures of finite displacements using specific synthetic tests for each summation mode. The deformation gradient tensor is calculated from the deformed state, and decomposed into the finite rigid-body rotation and left or right finite stretch tensors, allowing the deformation ellipsoids to be drawn. The finite strain has long been the only quantified measure of strain in analogue models. The presented software package allows producing these finite strain measures while also accessing incremental measures of strain. The more complete characterization of the deformation of tectonic analogue models will facilitate the comparison with numerical simulations and geological data, and help produce conceptual mechanical models.
Ieee Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 1 Detecting Deceptive Behavior via Integration of Discriminative Features from Multiple Modalities

—Deception detection has received an increasing amount of attention in recent years, due to the significant growth of digital media, as well as increased ethical and security concerns. Earlier approaches to deception detection were mainly focused on law enforcement applications and relied on polygraph tests, which had proven to falsely accuse the innocent and free the guilty in multiple cases. In this paper, we explore a multimodal deception detection approach that relies on a novel dataset of 149 multimodal recordings, and integrates multiple physiological, linguistic, and thermal features. We test the system on different domains, to measure its effectiveness and determine its limitations. We also perform feature analysis using a decision tree model, to gain insights into the features that are most effective in detecting deceit. Our experimental results indicate that our multimodal approach is a promising step toward creating a feasible, non-invasive, and fully automated deception detection system.
Extended Extremes of Information Combining

Extremes of information combining inequalities play an important role in the analysis of sparse-graph codes under message-passing decoding. We introduce new tools for the derivation of such inequalities, and show by means of a concrete examples how they can be applied to solve some optimization problems in the analysis of low-density parity-check codes.
Compressing POMDPs Using Locality Preserving Non-Negative Matrix Factorization

Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) are a well-established and rigorous framework for sequential decision-making under uncertainty. POMDPs are well-known to be intractable to solve exactly, and there has been significant work on finding tractable approximation methods. One well-studied approach is to find a compression of the original POMDP by projecting the belief states to a lower-dimensional space. We present a novel dimensionality reduction method for POMDPs based on locality preserving non-negative matrix factorization. Unlike previous approaches, such as Krylov compression and regular non-negative matrix factorization, our approach preserves the local geometry of the belief space manifold. We present results on standard benchmark POMDPs showing improved performance over previously explored compression algorithms for POMDPs.
A comparison of actual and preferred classroom environments as perceived by science teachers and students

This study of perceptions of classroom environment is distinctive in that, first, it made use of two instruments (the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire and Classroom Environment Scale) which have had very little use in prior science education research and, second, it involved assessment not only of student perceptions of actual environment, but also of student perceptions of preferred environments and teacher perceptions of actual environment. Administration of these instruments to a sample of 2175 junior high school students in 116 classes revealed that the environment scales exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity in each of the three forms (student actual, student preferred, and teacher actual), and that there were some fascinating systematic differences between the profiles of environment scale scores obtained for the different forms. In particular, it was generally found that students preferred a more favorable classroom environment then was perceived as being actually present and that teachers perceived the environment of their classes more favorably than did students in the same classrooms.
A Video Gateway to Support Video Streaming to Mobile Clients

This paper describes how video streaming from or to mobile participants of a video conference can be supported by a so called “Mobility Gateway“. The gateway interconnects a mobile client, through a wireless link, to a fixed network LAN or WAN multicast environment and performs intelligent operations on the video stream like transcoding, congestion control etc. in order to provide the mobile user with enhanced video services.
From Alternative Methods to a New Regulatory Toxicology

In the last 150 years, chemists have synthesized about 70 million substances. More than 100,000 of these are found in consumer products of daily use, in drugs, in cosmetics, in detergents, in our food, our clothes and – last but not least – as contaminants of our natural environment. When Bayer brought AspirinTM – our eldest synthetic drug – to the market 111 years ago, no regulatory safety assessments on animals were stipulated by legislation. The producer was held liable for any problems with his products. This did not always turn out as positive as in case of aspirin; only a few days after aspirin, the same chemist, Felix Hoffmann (1868-1946), synthesized a sedative for coughs: heroin. (Fig.1). Not every product is as harmless as aspirin. It is easy to understand that, with each safety scandal, the desire for safety assessments grows. In the 1920s, scientists started to use mice and rats broadly for laboratory research. Until then, it was considered absurd that these animals could mirror humans. It was clearly convincing, however, just how fast experiments could be performed with them: the animals did not cost a lot, they reproduced quickly, and a large number of them could be kept in a small cage. This created a real research rush, similar to today’s introduction of stem cells. With every scandal the toolbox of toxicology grew as chemists sought to prevent a similar occurrence. In the early 1930s in the US LashLure created a scandal: The cosmetic product was used to dye lashes permanently; unfortunately, the anilin dye it contained sometimes led to strong inflammation. More than 3,000 reports of collateral effects were collected: five women were blinded, and one woman died. This prompted the first regulation of cosmetics, which have since been controlled in the US by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Their employee, John H. Draize (1900-1992) in 1944 developed the Draize rabbit eye test, where a chemical is applied into the eye of a rabbit (Hartung et al., 2010). Today, many perceive this procedure as cruel, but in fact, for 65 years this test prevented the recurrence of a case like LashLure. In this manner, toxicology grew with every scandal, pieced together like a patchwork quilt. From Alternative Methods to a New Regulatory Toxicology
Using Provenance to boost the Metadata Prefetching in distributed storage systems

Caching and prefetching are effective approaches to boosting the performance of metadata access in distributed storage systems. Many research efforts have been devoted in developing new metadata prefetching methods by considering past file access patterns. However, the existing methods do not consider the correlations between processes and the corresponding files(e.g. file provenance). Therefore, the methods cannot obtain very rich and accurate correlations, thus decreasing the effectiveness of metadata prefetching. This paper presents a Provenance-based Metadata Prefetching(ProMP) scheme, which considers both provenance and the past file access patterns. Through mining the correlations between processes and corresponding files from provenance and past access history, ProMP can achieve accurate and rich correlation information. ProMP is conducive to employing aggressive metadata prefetching to boost the performance by leveraging the correlations. Our experimental results show that ProMP performs more effectively with less memory overhead than the existing solutions, while improving the hit rates by up to 49% and 7% in contrast to traditional LRU and a state-of-art metadata prefetching algorithm Nexus, respectively.
Generation bidding game with flexible demand

For a simple model of price-responsive demand, we consider a deregulated electricity marketplace wherein the grid (ISO, retailer-distributor) accepts bids per-unit supply from generators (simplified herein neither to consider start-up/ramp-up expenses nor day-ahead or shorter-term load following) which are then averaged (by supply allocations via an economic dispatch) to a common "clearing" price borne by customers (irrespective of variations in transmission/distribution or generation prices), i.e., the ISO does not compensate generators based on their marginal costs. Rather, the ISO provides sufficient information for generators to sensibly adjust their bids. Notwithstanding our idealizations, the dispatch dynamics are complex. For a simple benchmark power system, we find a price-symmetric Nash equilibrium through numerical experiments.
Frequency-shifting analysis of electrostatically tunable micro-mechanical actuator

A numerical approach for eigenvalue analysis of electrostatically tunable micro-mechanical actuators is proposed. An effi- cient algorithm for calculating the natural frequwncy shifting due to applied DC turning voltage is proposed. In the calculation of the coupled field problem, 3-D FEM and BEM are employed. The numerical examples are presented and the numerical analysis results are compared with experimental data. Previous works on the analysis of tunable electrostatic actuators used very simplified models in which micro- mechanical actuators are assumed as single mass-spring systems (3-5). However, actuator systems must be modeled to continuum structures because the actuators assumed as rigid body in previous works are generally deformable. Moreover, in real situations, the electrostatic field and the elastic deformation field of the system are 3-dimensionally coupled. An advanced numerical approach, which can treat continuous fields, is used only in the calculation of the electrostatic force applied on the device (6). In order to accurately predict the behavior of the real system, the analysis of the coupled fields in 3-D continuous system and an algorithm for evaluating the effects of electrostatic field on natural frequency are necessary. In this work, a numerical scheme for eigenvalue analysis of electrostatically tunable micro-mechanical actuators is proposed. We have used the boundary element method (BEM) and the finite element method (FEM) for the 3-D coupled analysis of electrostatic field and deformation of a device. In order to consider the effects of electrostatic field on natural frequency, an equivalent stiffness matrix for electrostatic tuning voltage is introduced. We can perturb the equilibrium structure using a concerned eigenvector of operating mode and then linearize the corresponding electrostatic force variation in order to determine the equivalent stiffness. For examples, a simple beam-shaped structure and a tunable micromirror are analyzed and the numerical analysis results are compared with experimental data.
Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) have greater blood volumes, higher diving metabolic rates and a longer aerobic dive limit when nutritionally stressed

Marine mammal foraging behaviour inherently depends on diving ability. Declining populations of Steller sea lions may be facing nutritional stress that could affect their diving ability through changes in body composition or metabolism. Our objective was to determine whether nutritional stress (restricted food intake resulting in a 10% decrease in body mass) altered the calculated aerobic dive limit (cADL) of four captive sea lions diving in the open ocean, and how this related to changes in observed dive behaviour. We measured diving metabolic rate (DMR), blood O2 stores, body composition and dive behaviour prior to and while under nutritional restriction. We found that nutritionally stressed sea lions increased the duration of their single long dives, and the proportion of time they spent at the surface during a cycle of four dives. Nutritionally stressed sea lions lost both lipid and lean mass, resulting in potentially lower muscle O2 stores. However, total body O2 stores increased due to rises in blood O2 stores associated with having higher blood volumes. Nutritionally stressed sea lions also had higher mass-specific metabolic rates. The greater rise in O2 stores relative to the increase in mass-specific DMR resulted in the sea lions having a longer cADL when nutritionally stressed. We conclude that there was no negative effect of nutritional stress on the diving ability of sea lions. However, nutritional stress did lower foraging efficiency and require more foraging time to meet energy requirements due to increases in diving metabolic rates and surface recovery times.
Sequential Fractionation and Two-dimensional Gel Analysis Unravels the Complexity of the Dimorphic Fungus Candida albicans Cell Wall Proteome*

The cell wall proteins of Candida albicans play a key role in morphogenesis and pathogenesis and might be potential target sites for new specific antifungal drugs. However, these proteins are difficult to analyze because of their high heterogeneity, interconnections with wall polysaccharides (mannan, glucan, and chitin), low abundance, low solubility, and hydrophobic nature. Here we report a subproteomic approach for the study of the cell wall proteins (CWPs) from C. albicans yeast and hyphal forms. Most of the mannoproteins present in this compartment were extracted by cell wall fractionation according to the type of interactions that they establish with other structural components. CWPs were solubilized from isolated cell walls by hot SDS and dithiothreitol treatment followed by extraction either by mild alkali conditions or by enzymatic treatment with glucanases and chitinases. These highly enriched cell wall fractions were analyzed by two-dimensional PAGE, showing that a large number of proteins are involved in cell wall construction and that the wall remodeling that occurs during germ tube formation is related to changes in the composition of CWPs. We suggest that the CWP-chitin linkage is an important retention mechanism of CWPs in C. albicans mycelial forms. This article also highlights the usefulness of the combination of sequential fractionation and two-dimensional PAGE followed by Western blotting using specific antibodies against known CWPs in the characterization of incorporation mechanisms of such CWPs into the cell wall and of their interactions with other wall components. Mass spectrometry analyses have allowed the identification of several cell surface proteins classically associated with both the cell wall and other compartments. The physiological significance of the dual location of these moonlighting proteins is also discussed. This approach is therefore a powerful tool for obtaining a comprehensive and integrated view of the cell wall proteome.
Title of dissertation: REFRAMING PARENT INVOLVEMENT: THE ROL E OF A MUSEUM PROGRAM IN CONNECTING PARENTS AND SCHOOLS

Using grounded theory methods, a qualitative study was conducted to generate theoretical propositions about the nature of parent involvement generally, and the role that a museum program can play in facilitating parent involvement more specif ically. Indepth retrospective interviews were conducted via telephone with 20 parents who had participated in the museum program. Data were analyzed using the constant com parative method and drawing from the Ecologies of Parent Engagement framework (Calabrese Barton et al., 2004). At the core of the analysis is the phenomenon of parent engagement ‐ as opposed to involvement ‐ that emphasizes the social and cultural negotiations through which parent involvement occurred, and the more informal, personal manifestations of involvement through the museum program. At a more micro level, analysis revealed the mechanisms through which the museum program facilitate d engagement, namely building capital and authoring. Findings culminate with an adapt ed version of the Ecologies of Parent Engagement model, revised to reflect the rol e of a museum program in facilitating parent engagement. Overall, study results ha ve implications for theoretical understandings of parent involvement, providing a more holistic picture of why and how parents are involved, and what forms their involvement takes. Establishing hypotheses about parent involvement processes makes it possible for
20×224Gbps (56Gbaud) PDM-QPSK transmission in 50GHz grid over 3040km G.652 fiber and EDFA only link using Soft Output Faster than Nyquist Technology

We report 20×224Gbps PDM-QPSK in 50GHz grid over G.652 fiber and EDFA-only link. Using Soft Output Faster than Nyquist and 7% SDFEC, 4bit/s/Hz net spectral efficiency transmission over 3040km with 21dB span loss is achieved.
Sequences that regulate the divergent GAL1-GAL10 promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The GAL1 and GAL10 genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are divergently transcribed, with 606 base pairs of DNA separating their transcription initiation sites. These two genes are stringently coregulated: their expression is induced ca. 1,000-fold in cells growing on galactose and is repressed by growth on glucose. The nucleotide sequence of the region of DNA between these genes and the precise sites of transcription initiation are presented here. The most notable feature of the nucleotide sequence of this region is a 108-base-pair guanine-plus-cytosine-rich stretch of DNA located approximately in the middle of the region between GAL1 and GAL10. Analysis of the effects of mutations that alter the region between these two genes, constructed in vitro or selected in vivo, suggest that these guanine-plus-cytosine-rich sequences are required for the expression of both genes. The region of DNA between GAL1 and GAL10 is sufficient for regulation of expression of these genes: fusion of the region to the yeast HIS3 gene places HIS3 under GAL control.
Categorical Inference Is Not a Tree: The Myth of Inheritance Hierarchies

One enduring principle of rational inference is category inclusion: Categories inherit the properties of their superordinates. In five experiments, I show that people do not consistently apply this principle when evaluating categorical arguments involving natural categories and a single nonexplainable predicate such as all electronic equipment has parts made of germanium, therefore all stereos have parts made of germanium. Participants frequently did not apply the category inclusion rule despite affirming the relevant categorical relation (e.g., stereos are electronic equipment). They failed to apply the rule even when categories were universally quantified unambiguously. Instead, judgments tended to be proportional to the similarity between premise and conclusion categories. Neglect of category inclusion relations was observed using arguments concerning natural kinds, artifacts, and social kinds.