Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recognizing Confinement in Web Texts

In the Recognizing Textual Entailment (RTE) task, sentence pairs are classified into one of three semantic relations: Entailment, Contradiction or Unknown. While we find some sentence pairs hold full entailments or contradictions, there are a number of pairs that partially entail or contradict one another depending on a specific situation. These partial contradiction sentence pairs contain useful information for opinion mining and other such tasks, but it is difficult for Internet users to access this knowledge because current frameworks do not differentiate between full contradictions and partial contradictions. In this paper, under current approaches to semantic relation recognition, we define a new semantic relation known as Confinement in order to recognize this useful information. This information is classified as either Contradiction or Entailment. We provide a series of semantic templates to recognize Confinement relations in Web texts, and then implement a system for recognizing Confinement between sentence pairs. We show that our proposed system can obtains a F-score of 61% for recognizing Confinement in Japanese-language Web texts, and it outperforms a baseline which does not use a manually compiled list of lexico-syntactic patterns to instantiate the semantic templates.
The Legitimacy of Political Institutions

This paper criticizes the standard view that the legitimacy of a political institution rests on the private convictions of its clients. It shows that these problems derive from a more basic difficulty with the conception of political order upon which the standard idea of legitimacy rests. A revised conception of legitimacy is constructed in which legitimacy becomes a direct property of institutions rather than of individuals. In the process, it is also shown how one might account for important political features of institutionally-relevant behavior without resorting to imputed psychological states.
Training in hypoxia fails to further enhance endurance performance and lactate clearance in well‐trained men and impairs glucose metabolism during prolonged exercise

The aim of this study was to investigate the synergistic effects of endurance training and hypoxia on endurance performance in normoxic and hypoxic conditions (∼3000 m above sea level) as well as on lactate and glucose metabolism during prolonged exercise. For this purpose, 14 well‐trained cyclists performed 12 training sessions in conditions of normobaric hypoxia (HYP group, n= 7) or normoxia (NOR group, n= 7) over 4 weeks. Before and after training, lactate and glucose turnover rates were measured by infusion of exogenous lactate and stable isotope tracers. Endurance performance was assessed during incremental tests performed in normoxia and hypoxia and a 40 km time trial performed in normoxia. After training, performance was similarly and significantly improved in the NOR and HYP groups (training, P < 0.001) in normoxic conditions. No further effect of hypoxic training was found on markers of endurance performance in hypoxia (training × hypoxia interaction, n.s.). In addition, training and hypoxia had no significant effect on lactate turnover rate. In contrast, there was a significant interaction of training and hypoxia (P < 0.05) on glucose metabolism, as follows: plasma insulin and glucose concentrations were significantly increased; glucose metabolic clearance rate was decreased; and the insulin to glucagon ratio was increased after training in the HYP group. In conclusion, our results show that, compared with training in normoxia, training in hypoxia has no further effect on endurance performance in both normoxic and hypoxic conditions or on lactate metabolic clearance rate. Additionally, these findings suggest that training in hypoxia impairs blood glucose regulation in endurance‐trained subjects during exercise.
Chromatin-bound cardiolipin: the phospholipid of proliferation.

Chromatin-bound lipids, cardiolipin (CL), diglycerides, cholesterol, and cholesterol esters, together with nonhistone proteins, play a key role in structural and functional organization of the chromatin genome during various stages of evolution. There are two pools of chromatin lipids, namely loosely- and tightly-bound lipids. The entire chromatin cardiolipin is bound to DNA. The CL molecule has a common 'interphosphate' structural motive with DNA, i.e. DNA and CL phosphate moieties separated from each other with six chemical bonds and equidistant, which is important for CL functional role, the regulation of gene expression. The CL dominates in the DNA of the active genome but not in the DNA of the repressed genome. The amount of CL in the DNA from the repressed genome of pigeon erythrocytes (one CL molecule per 20 nucleosomes) is 20 times less than in the DNA from the active genome of rat thymus and liver and in the DNA of transformed cells. Cardiolipin provides A-form DNA in the complex with RNA-polymerase, which is necessary for transcription. The biological and structural function of cardiolipin can be realised only when unsaturated fatty acyl residues are present in its structure.
Decomposing a graph into expanding subgraphs

A paradigm that was successfully applied in the study of both pure and algorithmic problems in graph theory can be colloquially summarized as stating that any graph is close to being the disjoint union of expanders. Our goal in this paper is to show that in several of the instantiations of the above approach, the quantitative bounds that were obtained are essentially best possible. Three examples of our results are the following: A classical result of Lipton, Rose and Tarjan from 1979 states that if F is a hereditary family of graphs and every graph in F has a vertex separator of size n/(log⁡n)1+o(1) , then every graph in F has O(n) edges. We construct a hereditary family of graphs with vertex separators of size n/(log⁡n)1−o(1) such that not all graphs in the family have O(n) edges. Trevisan and Arora‐Barak‐Steurer have recently shown that given a graph G, one can remove only 1% of its edges to obtain a graph in which each connected component has good expansion properties. We show that in both of these decomposition results, the expansion properties they guarantee are essentially best possible, even when one is allowed to remove 99% of G's edges. Sudakov and the second author have recently shown that every graph with average degree d contains an n‐vertex subgraph with average degree at least (1−o(1))d and vertex expansion 1/(log⁡n)1+o(1) . We show that one cannot guarantee a better vertex expansion even if allowing the average degree to be O(1).
Probability Collectives using Response Surface estimation

This paper motivates and describes the use of Response Surface (RS) with Probability Collectives (PC) to handle large-scale optimization problems. The main characteristic of PC is that it optimizes the probability distribution of the variables rather than their values, thus different types of variables may be integrated into optimization procedure. The RS is used to approximate the utility evaluation of candidate solutions in PC. To improve the approximation accuracy, the Trust Region (TR) method is introduced to iteratively update the RS during optimization. Extensive simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Mechanism of Toxicity in Rotenone Models of Parkinson's Disease

Exposure of rats to the pesticide and complex I inhibitor rotenone reproduces features of Parkinson's disease, including selective nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration and α-synuclein-positive cytoplasmic inclusions (Betarbet et al., 2000; Sherer et al., 2003). Here, we examined mechanisms of rotenone toxicity using three model systems. In SK-N-MC human neuroblastoma cells, rotenone (10 nm to 1 μm) caused dose-dependent ATP depletion, oxidative damage, and death. To determine the molecular site of action of rotenone, cells were transfected with the rotenone-insensitive single-subunit NADH dehydrogenase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (NDI1), which incorporates into the mammalian ETC and acts as a “replacement” for endogenous complex I. In response to rotenone, NDI1-transfected cells did not show mitochondrial impairment, oxidative damage, or death, demonstrating that these effects of rotenone were caused by specific interactions at complex I. Although rotenone caused modest ATP depletion, equivalent ATP loss induced by 2-deoxyglucose was without toxicity, arguing that bioenergetic defects were not responsible for cell death. In contrast, reducing oxidative damage with antioxidants, or by NDI1 transfection, blocked cell death. To determine the relevance of rotenone-induced oxidative damage to dopaminergic neuronal death, we used a chronic midbrain slice culture model. In this system, rotenone caused oxidative damage and dopaminergic neuronal loss, effects blocked by α-tocopherol. Finally, brains from rotenone-treated animals demonstrated oxidative damage, most notably in midbrain and olfactory bulb, dopaminergic regions affected by Parkinson's disease. These results, using three models of increasing complexity, demonstrate the involvement of oxidative damage in rotenone toxicity and support the evaluation of antioxidant therapies for Parkinson's disease.
Inferring the Demographic History and Rate of Adaptive Substitution in Drosophila

An important goal of population genetics is to determine the forces that have shaped the pattern of genetic variation in natural populations. We developed a maximum likelihood method that allows us to infer demographic changes and detect recent positive selection (selective sweeps) in populations of varying size from DNA polymorphism data. Applying this approach to single nucleotide polymorphism data at more than 250 noncoding loci on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster from an (ancestral) African population and a (derived) European, we found that the African population expanded about 60,000 y ago and that the European population split off from the African lineage about 15,800 y ago, thereby suffering a severe population size bottleneck. We estimated that about 160 beneficial mutations (with selection coefficients s between 0.05% and 0.5%) were fixed in the euchromatic portion of the X in the African population since population size expansion, and about 60 mutations (with s around 0.5%) in the diverging European lineage.
Clearing Contamination in Large Networks

In this work, we study the problem of clearing contamination spreading through a large network where we model the problem as a graph searching game. The problem can be summarized as constructing a search strategy that will leave the graph clear of any contamination at the end of the searching process in as few steps as possible. We show that this problem is NP-hard even on directed acyclic graphs and provide an efficient approximation algorithm. We experimentally observe the performance of our approximation algorithm in relation to the lower bound on several large online networks including Slashdot, Epinions, and Twitter.
Publications 2008-0101 Automatic Composition of Themed Mood Pieces

Musical harmonization of a given melody is a nontrivial problem; slight variations in instrumentation, voicing, texture, and bass rhythm can lead to significant differences in the mood of the resulting piece. This study explores the possibility of automatic musical composition by using machine learning and statistical natural language processing to tailor a piece to a particular mood using an existing melody.
New Design Metrics for Complexity Estimation in Object Oriented Systems

This paper proposes four design metrics of class level for early and effective feedback to manage the quality of object-oriented software. These metrics measure the complexity induced by the use of various object-oriented design concepts like data hiding, aggregation, inheritance and cohesion. These four metrics are evaluated from the output of design phase before the starting of the coding to reduce the overall efforts in term of time, cost, and manpower. Although various set of metrics already exist to measure the design complexity of class and object- oriented system but maximum of them are evaluated from the source code not before actual coding. These measures are analytically evaluated against Weyuker's properties for object-oriented metrics. Metrics data is collected from two C++ projects as empirical sample for analysis. The quantitative information forms the basis of every engineering discipline; software engineering is not an exception. Software measures/metrics are essential to manage the various processes of software development to produce a quality product. Some of the traditional metrics have been used to analyse the object- oriented codes, but are certainly not sufficient to characterize the all features unique to object-oriented approach. Metrics have already been proposed by various authors related to various object-oriented constructs e.g. encapsulation, coupling, cohesion, inheritance and polymorphism. Among the existing object-oriented metrics most are evaluated using source-codes i.e. later-stage information. In object-oriented approach, each category of data and their corresponding operations are collected into a single unit using encapsulation. The concept of identification, classification and abstraction are used to format a class-structure. Polymorphism and inheritance are unique to object-oriented approach regarding the reusability of codes. Polymorphism means the same operator or method is used to perform different functions. Inheritance is the mechanism that permits the sharing of data and methods among classes based on a hieratical relationship. The in-built strength of the object-oriented approach happens due to the data-hiding along with reusability of codes but these concepts induce some level of complexity in design and codes. High complexity of classes/programs requires more effort in testing and maintaining the software. The quality of product is also affected by its complexity. The analysis and design phases of object-oriented approach of software development need more focus as compared to others. Feedbacks from the measures applicable in design phase are of intensive use. This need instigates the authors to propose new set of design metrics. The applicability of these metrics would strictly be restricted to the requirement and design phase. Metrics are illustrated with simple and suitable examples. The proposed set of four metrics are analytically evaluated against Weyuker's set of measurement principles. The data is collected from two C++ projects to analyse metrics empirically.
Burrowing owls and burrowing mammals: are ecosystem engineers interchangeable as facilitators?

Terrestrial vertebrates exhibit dynamic, positive interactions that form and dissolve under different circumstances, usually with multiple species as participants. Ecosystem engineers are important facilitators of other species because they cause physical changes in the environment that alter resource availability. Although a species can be associated with more than one partner, facilitators may not be interchangeable if they differ in abundance, behavioral characteristics, or interactions with other factors in ways that condition the outcome of the association. We examined interactions between burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) and two burrowing mammals, hairy armadillos (Chaetophractus villosus) and plains vizcachas (Lagostomus maximus), and determined whether these ecosystem engineers are interchangeable for owls. We examined reproductive success for owls nesting in these mammal burrows, constructed a logistic regression model to identify habitat characteristics associated with owl nests, and examined the engineering activities of the mammals. Data on reproduction and habitat indicate that armadillos and vizcachas are not interchangeable for owls. Thirty-five percent of the nests in vizcacha burrows produced fledglings; no fledglings were produced from nests outside vizcachas colonies, even though owls nest successfully in armadillo burrows in other parts of Argentina. Vizcachas facilitate burrowing owls by construction of burrows and by producing open understory vegetation through herbivory. In contrast, armadillos do not alter vegetation, and their burrows are suitable for nest sites only when they occur in recently burned areas or areas maintained by anthropogenic disturbance. Our habitat model also suggests that fire plays a key role in maintaining owl populations because fire is the only natural process that reduces shrubs to the level required by owls. Current management practices of eradication of vizcachas and fire suppression in shrublands could have strong negative consequences for burrowing owls.
Transcriptional Regulation of the Rat Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene by Hypoxia (*)

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a potent angiogenic factor and endothelial cell-specific mitogen, is up-regulated by hypoxia. However, the mechanism(s) responsible for hypoxic induction of VEGF has not been clearly delineated. We report that the steady state VEGF mRNA levels are increased 12 ± 0.6-fold, but the transcriptional rate for VEGF is increased only 3.1 ± 0.6-fold by hypoxia in PC12 cells. In order to investigate cis-regulatory sequences which mediate this response to hypoxia, we cloned the rat genomic sequences encoding VEGF and identified a 28-base pair element in the 5′ promoter that mediates hypoxia-inducible transcription in transient expression assays. This element has sequence and protein binding similarities to the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 binding site within the erythropoietin 3′ enhancer. Post-transcriptional mechanisms have also been suggested to play a role in the hypoxic induction of VEGF. Evidence is provided that a frequently used polyadenylation site is 1.9 kilobases downstream from the translation termination codon for rat VEGF. This site is 1.5 kilobases further downstream from the polyadenylation site previously reported for VEGF. This new finding reveals sequence motifs in the 3′-untranslated region that may mediate VEGF mRNA stability.
Removing the boundaries: palliative care for patients with heart failure

Aim: This study aimed to explore the experiences of patients with severe heart failure and identify their needs for palliative care. Method: A qualitative design was chosen. Semistructured interviews were used for data collection and patients were interviewed in their homes. The sample consisted of 20 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure. Patients were between 60 and 83 years. Results: Patients reported difficulties in walking, extreme fatigue and problems managing daily activities. Having to rely on family, friends and neighbours was common, causing feelings of being a burden, loneliness and isolation. Patients talked about dying as well as their fears and frustrations in living with heart failure. Barriers to accessing information and social services were identified. None of these patients had been referred to specialist palliative care services. Conclusions: Patients' experiences were similar to those of patients living with advanced cancer and yet they received little support. Comprehensive routine assessment of the palliative care needs of patients living with severe heart failure is recommended.
A Study on the Relationships Among Work Characteristics, Burnout, and Turnover Intention of Social Workers Working in Multicultural Family Centers

본 연구는 다문화가족지원센터에 종사하고 있는 사회복지사의 업무관련 특성과 소진이 이직의도에 미치는 영향을 파악한 연구다. 전국 67개 다문화가족지원센터에 종사하는 사회복지사 214명의 자료를 분석한 결과 업무량은 과중한 편으로 인식하고 있으며 상사만족은 중간이상의 평균을 보였으나 조직의 교육지원에 대한 만족은 높지 않은 것으로 확인되었다. 소진의 하위개념으로 정서적 탈진이 가장 높았으며 성취감감소와 비인간화 순으로 나타났다. 선행요인이 소진과 이직의도에 미치는 영향을 확인한 결과, 업무과중과 상사만족이 소진에, 그리고 상사만족과 소진이 이직의도에 영향을 미치고 있었다. 선행변수의 관계를 구조방정모형을 통해 확인한 결과, 업무과중은 소진을 통해 이직의도에 영향을 미치고 있는 것으로 확인되었다. 연구 결과를 토대로 다문화가족지원센터에 종사하는 사회복지사의 소진 및 부정적인 조직태도를 관리하기 위한 함의를 제시하였다.
High-throughput bayesian computing machine with reconfigurable hardware

We use reconfigurable hardware to construct a high throughput Bayesian computing machine (BCM) capable of evalu- ating probabilistic networks with arbitrary DAG (directed acyclic graph) topology. Our BCM achieves high throughput by exploiting the FPGA's distributed memories and abundant hardware structures (such as long carry-chains and registers), which enables us to 1) develop an innovative memory allocation scheme based on a maximal matching algorithm that completely avoids memory stalls, 2) optimize and deeply pipeline the logic design of each processing node, and 3) optimally schedule them. The BCM architecture we present not only can be applied to many important algorithms in artificial intelligence, signal processing, and digital communications, but also has high reusability, i.e., a new application needs not change a BCM's hardware design, only new task graph processing and code compilation are necessary. Moreover, the throughput of a BCM scales almost linearly with the size of the FPGA on which it is implemented. A prototype of a Bayesian computing machine with 16 processing nodes was implemented with a Virtex-5 FPGA (XCV5LX155T-2) on a BEE3 (Berkeley Emulation Engine) platform. For a wide variety of sample Bayesian problems, comparing running the same network evaluation algorithm on a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel processor and a GeForce 9400m using the CUDA software package, the BCM demonstrates 80x and 15x speedups respectively, with a peak throughput of 20.4 GFLOPS (Giga Floating-Point Operations per Second).
Joint Attention without Gaze Following: Human Infants and Their Parents Coordinate Visual Attention to Objects through Eye-Hand Coordination

The coordination of visual attention among social partners is central to many components of human behavior and human development. Previous research has focused on one pathway to the coordination of looking behavior by social partners, gaze following. The extant evidence shows that even very young infants follow the direction of another's gaze but they do so only in highly constrained spatial contexts because gaze direction is not a spatially precise cue as to the visual target and not easily used in spatially complex social interactions. Our findings, derived from the moment-to-moment tracking of eye gaze of one-year-olds and their parents as they actively played with toys, provide evidence for an alternative pathway, through the coordination of hands and eyes in goal-directed action. In goal-directed actions, the hands and eyes of the actor are tightly coordinated both temporally and spatially, and thus, in contexts including manual engagement with objects, hand movements and eye movements provide redundant information about where the eyes are looking. Our findings show that one-year-olds rarely look to the parent's face and eyes in these contexts but rather infants and parents coordinate looking behavior without gaze following by attending to objects held by the self or the social partner. This pathway, through eye-hand coupling, leads to coordinated joint switches in visual attention and to an overall high rate of looking at the same object at the same time, and may be the dominant pathway through which physically active toddlers align their looking behavior with a social partner.