Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chinese-English Statistical Machine Translation by Parsing

Statistical machine translation (SMT) has evolved from the word-based level to higher levels of abstraction. Currently the best known systems are phrased-based, and recent research has started to explore tree-based systems with syntactical information. This thesis aims to study large-scale Chinese-English SMT using a syntactic tree-based model. From the engineering point of view, SMT systems are very complex to build. However, existing pieces of software can bring the work load to a manageable level for this thesis. Using the GenPar framework and other software, this thesis studies Chinese-English SMT by parsing by large-scale experiments. This is the first application of GenPar on Chinese-English SMT. The experiments show that the accuracy of Chinese-English SMT by parsing is comparable to existing SMT by parsing of other language pairs. However, the accuracy of current MT methods is still largely below human translation, and is influenced by the difference between training and testing data, such as the writing style and domain. Two important factors in the SMT by parsing model are studied, and it is observed that though the accuracy of word-to-word alignment influences the translation accuracy, the mono-lingual English and Chinese grammars do not have a significant impact on the results. From the above observations, advantages and weaknesses of the SMT model are analysed, and possible future improvements for Chinese-English SMT are suggested. This thesis is organised in three main parts. The first chapter presents the introduction and overview of the thesis. The second and third chapters summarise the related theories by literature review, giving a detailed exposition of the theory of SMT and SMT by parsing. The last two chapters report the novel experiments of Chinese-English SMT by generalised parsing. By discussing the experimental output, the last chapter summarises this thesis and proposes further work.
Improved rigidity of composite circular plates through radial ribs

Engineering practice imposes an increased rigidity of mechanical elements that are parts of machinery or equipment used in practice. Circular plates are such elements, especially used in many common applications, which is why the increase in mechanical properties of circular plates in engineering is connected with the weight optimization problem. The paper makes a study of such a composite plate, proposes and validates a constructive solution capable of increasing the stiffness of this piece. The finite element method is used for the composite panel analysis, and experimental measurements allow us to take information concerning of the magnitude of this rigidity.
A teaching experience on a data mining module

Data mining is recognized as an important field where one has the possibility to become accustomed both with analysis techniques and methods and with a state of mind. By means of data mining it is possible to develop critical skills that are essential in today's information technology. We present our experience in teaching a data mining module, within an Information System course, centered around a few key aspects: a convergence of theoretical Information Systems aspects and computing skills through programming a complete data mining analysis in Matlab; a project centered learning experience; a sharing of resources that are commented on both by the teacher and by peers facilitating the flow of information and the development of critical skills; a guided inquiry process where the students, when needed, are guided through appropriate questions in the right direction; and finally special attention to requiring motivation of each decision and step undertaken. As a case study we present and summarize the experience performed by two groups of students in a data mining study aiming at predicting a liquidity crisis of companies.
Clinical opinions generation from general blood test results using deep neural network with principle component analysis and regularization

The conventional approach of generating clinical opinions from general blood test (GBT) results uses the deep neural network (DNN) comprised of fully-connected layers. The large number of input neurons and output neurons result in the complex DNN structure, which causes overfitting problem. However, the dimension of the input vector and the output vector cannot be reduced arbitrarily, as all GBT results and all clinical opinions should be retained. In order to avoid overfitting, we apply principal component analysis (PCA) and parameter regularization. PCA is a dimensionality reduction technique which may be used to reduce the number of input neurons, minimizing the information loss. Besides, we apply L1 penalty or L2 penalty to the loss function of the DNN to apply parameter regularization. We also apply PCA and the regularization simultaneously. Experimental results show that all three proposed methods outperform the conventional DNN, and applying only L1-regularization shows the best performance in avoiding overfitting in the DNN for generating clinical opinions.
Disease activity as a risk factor for myocardial infarction in rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at greater risk of developing coronary heart disease than the general population. Systemic inflammation may contribute to this risk. This study investigated whether the level of disease activity is associated with the risk of developing myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with RA. Methods: A case-control study was performed within a large prospective cohort of patients with RA. Cases were patients who developed their first MI after the diagnosis of RA, controls were patients with RA without MI. Cases and controls had similar RA disease duration. Traditional and disease-specific risk factors for MI were collected and a time-averaged disease activity score (DAS28) was calculated. The data were analysed using conditional logistic regression analysis. Results: Cases of MI were significantly older, were more often male, with higher body mass index (BMI) and total cholesterol and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) serum levels than controls. Time-averaged disease activity was similar for cases and controls. The raw odds ratio for MI in patients with a “high” (>4.0) versus a “low” (⩽4.0) average DAS28 was 1.2 (95% CI 0.61 to 2.36). The odds ratio corrected for age, gender, BMI, baseline Health Assessment Questionnaire and baseline HDL was 0.91 (95% CI 0.39 to 2.12). Conclusion: Patients with RA who developed MI had more classical risk factors but not higher disease activity over time than control patients with RA. Low levels of inflammation may be sufficient for accelerated atherogenesis and an excess risk of cardiovascular disease in RA.
Muscle strength and knee range of motion after femoral lengthening

Background and purpose — Femoral lengthening may result in decrease in knee range of motion (ROM) and quadriceps and hamstring muscle weakness. We evaluated preoperative and postoperative knee ROM, hamstring muscle strength, and quadriceps muscle strength in a diverse group of patients undergoing femoral lengthening. We hypothesized that lengthening would not result in a significant change in knee ROM or muscle strength. Patients and methods — This prospective study of 48 patients (mean age 27 (9–60) years) compared ROM and muscle strength before and after femoral lengthening. Patient age, amount of lengthening, percent lengthening, level of osteotomy, fixation time, and method of lengthening were also evaluated regarding knee ROM and strength. The average length of follow-up was 2.9 (2.0–4.7) years. Results — Mean amount of lengthening was 5.2 (2.4–11.0) cm. The difference between preoperative and final knee flexion ROM was 2° for the overall group. Congenital shortening cases lost an average of 5% or 6° of terminal knee flexion, developmental cases lost an average of 3% or 4°, and posttraumatic cases regained all motion. The difference in quadriceps strength at 45° preoperatively and after lengthening was not statistically or clinically significant (2.7 Nm; p = 0.06). Age, amount of lengthening, percent lengthening, osteotomy level, fixation time, and lengthening method had no statistically significant influence on knee ROM or quadriceps strength at final follow-up. Interpretation — Most variables had no effect on ROM or strength, and higher age did not appear to be a limiting factor for femoral lengthening. Patients with congenital causes were most affected in terms of knee flexion.
Analytical model for the thermal resistance of windings consisting of solid or litz wire

In this paper a method to calculate the thermal resistance of windings is presented and validated by measurements. Two formulas have been developed for widely used wire types in power electronics being round and litz wire. With the presented approach it is possible to describe the thermal resistance of arbitrary wire arrangements. This analytical approach can either be used in fast forward designs of magnetic devices, respectively can also be integrated in automatized optimization procedures to improve the designs of magnetic components. The calculated results are showing good coincidence with the measured values.
It's Not in Their Tweets: Modeling Topical Expertise of Twitter Users

One of the key challenges for users of social media is judging the topical expertise of other users in order to select trustful information sources about specific topics and to judge credibility of content produced by others. In this paper, we explore the usefulness of different types of user-related data for making sense about the topical expertise of Twitter users. Types of user-related data include messages a user authored or re-published, biographical information a user published on his/her profile page and information about user lists to which a user belongs. We conducted a user study that explores how useful different types of data are for informing human's expertise judgements. We then used topic modeling based on different types of data to build and assess computational expertise models of Twitter users. We use We follow directories as a proxy measurement for perceived expertise in this assessment. Our findings show that different types of user-related data indeed differ substantially in their ability to inform computational expertise models and humans's expertise judgements. Tweets and retweets - which are often used in literature for gauging the expertise area of users - are surprisingly useless for inferring the expertise topics of their authors and are outperformed by other types of user-related data such as information about users' list memberships. Our results have implications for algorithms, user interfaces and methods that focus on capturing expertise of social media users.
Three-phase distribution OPF in smart grids: Optimality versus computational burden

Existing Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming (MINLP) solution methods and commercially available solvers lack computational efficiency and robustness in solving three-phase Distribution Optimal Power Flow (DOPF) programs, given the large number of continuous and integer variables encountered in practical sized systems. A heuristic approach to solve this problem was proposed by the authors, in which a compromise is made on optimality in order to reduce the computational burden. In the present work, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based method is applied to determine the optimal solution to the three-phase DOPF problem, and is compared with the heuristic solution in terms of both optimality and computational burden. Two distribution feeders, namely, the IEEE 13-node feeder and a practical feeder from Hydro One are used for these comparisons. The results show that the GA-based method yields superior solutions in terms of optimality but at a rather large computational cost, making it unsuitable for practical implementation. The heuristic method is shown to yield solutions reasonably close to the global optima at a significantly reduced computational burden, demonstrating that the heuristic solution method has the potential to improve distribution system operation in practical real-time applications.
Hysteresis modelling and feedforward compensation of piezoelectric nanopositioning stage with a modified Bouc‐Wen model

Piezoelectric actuators (PEAs) are widely applied in various nanopositioning equipment. However, the strong hysteresis nonlinearity compromises the positioning accuracy. In this work, a novel modified Bouc-Wen (MBW) model with a polynomial function of the differential of the input is established for modelling the hysteresis nonlinearity of the PEA-actuated nanopositioning stages. The particle swarm optimisation algorithm is adopted to identify the parameters of the MBW model with a set of input-output experimental data. The obtained model with the corresponding identification parameters matches well the experimental data with 0.31% relative error. A feedforward compensator based on the obtained model is also applied to compensate the hysteresis nonlinearity. Experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of this approach, and the results show the great improvement of positioning accuracy of the stage.
Application of the Random Coupling Model to Electromagnetic Statistics in Complex Enclosures

The effectiveness of the random coupling model (RCM) in predicting electromagnetic wave coupling to targeted electronic components within a complex enclosure is examined. In the short-wavelength limit with respect to the characteristic length of the enclosure, electromagnetic wave propagation within a large enclosure is sensitive to small changes to the interior, or to the boundaries of the enclosure. Such changes can reduce or invalidate the applicability of deterministic predictions of the electromagnetic fields at radiofrequencies (RF) in large enclosures. Under such circumstances, a statistical approach is needed to provide a better understanding of RF coupling to components within large enclosures. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the applicability of a statistical technique, the RCM, to estimate the probabilistic magnitudes of RF fields on electrically large components (i.e., long cables, etc.) that are partially shielded within a complex, 3-D enclosure.
Petrous apex cephaloceles.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Petrous apex cephaloceles (PACs) are uncommon lesions that are usually incidental but may be symptomatic. We reviewed MR and CT studies in 10 patients with PACs to identify characteristic imaging features that facilitate their diagnosis. METHODS MR and CT studies from 10 patients with PACs were reviewed retrospectively. In each case the PAC was characterized by lesion center, signal intensity or attenuation, adjacent petrous apex pneumatization, and its relationship to Meckel's cave. Intraoperative findings were reviewed in the three cases in which surgery was performed. RESULTS All 10 patients had lobulated expansile cystic petrous apex lesions centered along the posterolateral margin of Meckel's cave. All cysts were contiguous with Meckel's cave. Three patients had bilateral PACs. Four patients had symptoms that could potentially be explained by the PAC, while findings in the other six were incidental observations. Three patients underwent surgery, during which two lesions were diagnosed as meningoceles while the third was diagnosed as an arachnoid cyst protruding through a dural defect. CONCLUSION PACs represent a protrusion of meninges and CSF from the posterolateral portion of Meckel's cave into the petrous apex, which is their characteristic imaging appearance. PACs are usually incidental but may be symptomatic. Surgical intervention should be approached cautiously and undertaken only when symptoms are clearly linked to the presence of this lesion.
Recognition of motion from temporal texture

A method of visual motion recognition applicable to a range of naturally occurring motions that are characterized by spatial and temporal uniformity is described. The underlying motivation is the observation that, for objects that typically move, it is frequently easier to identify them when they are moving than when they are stationary. Specifically, it is shown that certain statistical spatial and temporal features that can be derived from approximations to the motion field have invariant properties, and can be used to classify regional activities such as windblown trees, ripples on water, or chaotic fluid flow, that are characterized by complex, non-rigid motion. The technique is referred to as temporal texture analysis, in analogy to the techniques developed to classify gray-scale textures. The techniques are demonstrated on a number of real-world image sequences containing complex movement. The work has practical application in monitoring and surveillance, and as a component of a sophisticated visual system. <<ETX>>
Blastocystis Is Associated with Decrease of Fecal Microbiota Protective Bacteria: Comparative Analysis between Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Control Subjects

Blastocystis is a protistan parasite living in the digestive tract of many animals, including humans. This highly prevalent intestinal parasite is suspected to be linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a chronic functional bowel disorder. Here, we first compared the prevalence of Blastocystis among 56 IBS patients (40 IBS with constipation (IBS-C), 9 IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D), 4 mixed IBS (IBS-M) and 3 unsubtyped IBS (IBS-U) according to the Rome III criteria) and 56 control (i.e. without any diagnosed chronic or acute gastrointestinal disorder) subjects. The highest prevalence of Blastocystis spp. was observed in the IBS group, but was only statistically significant in men (36.8% in the IBS group versus 4.8% in the control group). We then conducted a meta-analysis including epidemiological studies attempting to determine whether Blastocystis carriage could be linked to IBS, and highlighted that IBS patients had a relative risk of 2.34 to be infected by Blastocystis when compared to non-IBS subjects. We also looked for Dientamoeba fragilis, which is often associated with IBS, and identified this parasite only in some IBS patients (n = 6/56). Several studies provided evidence for a major role of the gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of IBS. Thus, we investigated the possible impact of Blastocystis carriage on the enteric bacterial community through quantification of 8 major bacterial groups from the enteric flora. Our data indicated that men with IBS-C had a significant decrease in Bifidobacterium sp. when infected by Blastocystis. Interestingly, in control subjects (i.e. without any gastrointestinal disorder) positive for Blastocystis, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which is known for its anti-inflammatory properties, was significantly decreased in men. Our results support the hypothesis that Blastocystis might be linked to the pathophysiology of IBS-C and intestinal flora imbalance.
SPATIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE IN WISCONSIN WHITE-TAILED DEER

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal, emerging disease of cervids associated with transmissible protease-resistant prion proteins. The potential for CWD to cause dramatic declines in deer and elk populations and perceived human health risks associated with consuming CWD-contaminated venison have led wildlife agencies to embark on extensive CWD control programs, typically involving culling to reduce deer populations. We characterized the spatial distribution of CWD in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Wisconsin to facilitate CWD management. We found that CWD prevalence declined with distance from a central location, was locally correlated at a scale of 3.6 km, and was correlated with deer habitat abundance. The latter result is consistent with patterns expected for a positive relationship between density and prevalence of CWD. We recommend management activities focused on culling in geographic areas with high prevalence to have the greatest probability of removing infected individuals. Further research is needed to elucidate the factors involved in CWD spread and infection rates, especially the role of density-dependent transmission.
Hardware architectures of adaptive equalizers for the HDTV receiver

This paper proposes hardware architectures of adaptive equalizers applicable to both the quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and vestigial sideband modulation (VSB) systems. First, adaptive equalization algorithms for QAM and VSB systems are presented by modifying the constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and least mean squares (LMS) algorithm, and their hardware mapping procedure is described. The proposed digitization methods requiring a low hardware cost show performance comparable with that of the algorithm employing floating-point operations. To reduce the hardware cost of the high-definition television (HDTV) equalizers, we propose a pipelined architecture that processes some parallel parts sequentially. The synthesis results by very-high-speed integration circuit (VHSIC) hardware description language (VHDL) show that the proposed architecture reduces the hardware complexity by a factor of two, compared with the architecture designed directly from the equalization algorithms.
Glacier: highly durable, decentralized storage despite massive correlated failures

Decentralized storage systems aggregate the available disk space of participating computers to provide a large storage facility. These systems rely on data redundancy to ensure durable storage despite of node failures. However, existing systems either assume independent node failures, or they rely on introspection to carefully place redundant data on nodes with low expected failure correlation. Unfortunately, node failures are not independent in practice and constructing an accurate failure model is difficult in large-scale systems. At the same time, malicious worms that propagate through the Internet pose a real threat of large-scale correlated failures. Such rare but potentially catastrophic failures must be considered when attempting to provide highly durable storage. In this paper, we describe Glacier, a distributed storage system that relies on massive redundancy to mask the effect of large-scale correlated failures. Glacier is designed to aggressively minimize the cost of this redundancy in space and time: Erasure coding and garbage collection reduces the storage cost; aggregation of small objects and a loosely coupled maintenance protocol for redundant fragments minimizes the messaging cost. In one configuration, for instance, our system can provide six-nines durable storage despite correlated failures of up to 60% of the storage nodes, at the cost of an elevenfold storage overhead and an average messaging overhead of only 4 messages per node and minute during normal operation. Glacier is used as the storage layer for an experimental serverless email system.
Graphene nanomesh and polymeric material at cutting edge

ABSTRACT Graphene nanomesh (GNM) is a nanostructure of graphene having periodic nanoscale holes. GNM has attracted extensive interest owing to promising chemical, thermal, electronic, photonic, and other vital characteristics. This review merely covers significant facts regarding structure, properties, and graphene patterning techniques to form nanomesh. Polymeric scaffolding has been used as one of fabrication techniques. Among few polymers used in polymer/GNM nanomaterial comprise polyaniline, poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(vinylidene fluoride), polystyrene, and polyethylene, as deliberated in this article. Recently, extensive investigations have been carried out on potential relevance of polymer/GNM nanomaterial in supercapacitor, sensor, Li–ion batteries, organic photovoltaic, and electronic nose. Graphical Abstract