Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stereotype Accuracy: Estimating the Academic Performance of Ethnic Groups

The authors investigated the accuracy of stereotypes of the academic performance of ethnic groups. Ninety-four participants estimated the mean academic performance of Toronto highschool students from nine ethnic groups and completed measures of right-wing authoritarianism, intelligence, and attitudes toward the groups. The estimated academic performance means were compared with the true means as derived from data published by the Toronto Board of Education. These comparisons revealed that, on average, participants were fairly accurate in their perceptions of both the relative standings of groups and the magnitude of between-group variability. Underestimation of between-group variability was associated with lower authoritarianism, whereas overestimation of between-group variability was associated with lower intelligence. Attitudes toward a group were significantly correlated with estimates of the group’s mean academic performance, but only for the three groups whose mean academic performance levels were significantly over-or underestimated by participants overall.
Distance metric learning for RRT-based motion planning with constant-time inference

The distance metric is a key component in RRT-based motion planning that deeply affects coverage of the state space, path quality and planning time. With the goal to speed up planning time, we introduce a learning approach to approximate the distance metric for RRT-based planners. By exploiting a novel steer function which solves the two-point boundary value problem for wheeled mobile robots, we train a simple nonlinear parametric model with constant-time inference that is shown to predict distances accurately in terms of regression and ranking performance. In an extensive analysis we compare our approach to an Euclidean distance baseline, consider four alternative regression models and study the impact of domain-specific feature expansion. The learning approach is shown to be faster in planning time by several factors at negligible loss of path quality.
Divergent phenotypic patterns and commitment to apoptosis of Caco‐2 cells during spontaneous and butyrate‐induced differentiation

Caco‐2 cells differentiate spontaneously when cultured in confluence and on exposure to the physiologically relevant short‐chain fatty acid, butyrate. This study aimed to compare the phenotype induced by these pathways and their relations to cell turnover. Caco‐2 cells were treated with butyrate at a nontoxic concentration of 2 mM for 3 days, or allowed to spontaneously differentiate for 0–21 days. Brush border hydrolase activities and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) expression, transepithelial resistance and dome formation, expression of components of the urokinase system, and cell turnover by flow cytometry, and the degree of DNA fragmentation were quantified. Butyrate induced increases in alkaline phosphatase activity and CEA expression but not the activities of other hydrolases, while culture alone induced progressive increases in the activities/expression of all markers. Butyrate induced a significantly greater increase in transepithelial resistance (TER) than occurred during culture alone but the densities of domes were similar. Butyrate induced a ninefold increase in urokinase receptor expression and twofold increase in urokinase activity, while culture alone induced a significantly smaller increase in receptor expression, an increase in plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 but no change in activity. While both stimuli induced cell cycle arrest, only butyrate increased the proportion of cells undergoing apoptosis. In conclusion, differentiation of Caco‐2 cells can proceed along multiple pathways but does not necessarily lead to apoptosis. The phenotypic changes during spontaneous differentiation mimic those that occur in normal colonic epithelial cells in vivo during their migration from the crypt base to neck, while butyrate‐induced effects more closely follow those occurring when normal colonic epithelial cells migrate from crypt neck to the surface compartment. J. Cell. Physiol. 183:347–354, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Symmetry breaking and Landau quantization in topological crystalline insulators

In the recently discovered topological crystalline insulators SnTe and ${\mathrm{Pb}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Sn}}_{x}$(Te, Se), crystal symmetry and electronic topology intertwine to create topological surface states with many interesting features including Lifshitz transition, Van-Hove singularity, and fermion mass generation. These surface states are protected by mirror symmetry with respect to the (110) plane. In this work we present a comprehensive study of the effects of different mirror-symmetry-breaking perturbations on the (001) surface band structure. Pristine (001) surface states have four branches of Dirac fermions at low energy. We show that ferroelectric-type structural distortion generates a mass and gaps out some or all of these Dirac points, while strain shifts Dirac points in the Brillouin zone. An in-plane magnetic field leaves the surface state gapless, but introduces asymmetry between Dirac points. Finally, an out-of-plane magnetic field leads to discrete Landau levels. We show that the Landau level spectrum has an unusual pattern of degeneracy and interesting features due to the unique underlying band structure. This suggests that Landau level spectroscopy can detect and distinguish between different mechanisms of symmetry breaking in topological crystalline insulators.
Exploratory Robotic Controllers : An Evolution and Information Theory Driven Approach. (Exploration Robotique Autonome hybridant : évolution et théorie de l'information)

This thesis is concerned with building autonomous exploratory robotic controllers in an online, on-board approach, with no requirement for ground truth or human intervention in the experimental setting.This study is primarily motivated by autonomous robotics, specifically autonomous robot swarms. In this context, one faces two difficulties. Firstly, standard simulator-based approaches are hardly effective due to computational efficiency and accuracy reasons. On the one hand, the simulator accuracy is hindered by the variability of the hardware; on the other hand, this approach faces a super-linear computational complexity w.r. t. the number of robots in the swarm. Secondly, the standard goal-driven approach used for controller design does not apply as there is no explicit objective function at the individual level, since the objective is defined at the swarm level.A first step toward autonomous exploratory controllers is proposed in the thesis. The Evolution & Information Theory-based Exploratory Robotics (Ev-ITER) approach is based on the hybridization of two approaches stemming from Evolutionary Robotics and from Reinforcement Learning, with the goal of getting the best of both worlds: (i) primary controllers, or crawling controllers, are evolved in order to generate sensori-motor trajectories with high entropy; (ii) the data repository built from the crawling controllers is exploited, providing prior knowledge to secondary controllers, inspired from the intrinsic robust motivation setting and achieving the thorough exploration of the environment.The contributions of the thesis are threefold. Firstly, Ev-ITER fulfills the desired requirement: it runs online, on-board and without requiring any ground truth or support. Secondly, Ev-ITER outperforms both the evolutionary and the information theory-based approaches standalone, in terms of actual exploration of the arena. Thirdly and most importantly, the Ev-ITER controller features some generality property, being able to efficiently explore other arenas than the one considered during the first evolutionary phase. It must be emphasized that the generality of the learned controller with respect to the considered environment has rarely been considered, neither in the reinforcement learning, nor in evolutionary robotics.
Sentiment classification in English from sentence-level annotations of emotions regarding models of affect

This paper presents a text classifier for automatically tagging the sentiment of input text according to the emotion that is being conveyed. This system has a pipelined framework composed of Natural Language Processing modules for feature extraction and a hard binary classifier for decision making between positive and negative categories. To do so, the Semeval 2007 dataset composed of sentences emotionally annotated is used for training purposes after being mapped into a model of affect. The resulting scheme stands a first step towards a complete emotion classifier for a future automatic expressive text-to-speech synthesizer.
An Energy Efficient Intelligent Wireless Body Area Network for Real-Time Vital Signs Monitoring

In this paper we present a real-time, continuous vital signs monitoring system based on a Multi-agent architecture. Real-time remote monitoring of the patient's vital signs and generating alerts in case of emergency situations is of great importance in healthcare. Several tiny sensors attached to the patient's body can collect physiological measurements of vital signs, and transmit them to a remote server, from where it can be consulted by a physician. Using Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) technology patients can move freely and perform daily tasks while being monitored. In such systems energy is the most valuable resource. Most energy consumption is done by data transmission related operations. Therefore local processing of vital signs measurements and continuously updating vital signs thresholds according to the activity carried by the patient on each sensor node, and sending data only when abnormal values exceed these ranges, can significantly reduce data transmission and save the sensors' battery life.
A Better Statutory Approach to Whistle-blowing

Abstract: Statutory approaches toward whistle-blowing currently appear to be based on the assumption that most observers of wrongdoing will report it unless deterred from doing so by fear of retaliation. Yet our review of research from studies of whistle-blowing behavior suggests that this assumption is unwarranted. We propose that an alternative legislative approach would prove more successful in encouraging valid whistle-blowing and describe a model for such legislation that would increase self-monitoring of ethical behavior by organizations, with obvious benefits to society at large. A defense contractor’s inspectors used improper calibration standards when inspecting missile parts and other military products, used noncertified inspectors when inspecting such products, and used employees without top-secret clearance to work on classified projects. This created potentially life-threatening products as well as potential compromises of military secrets. Quality-control officials on the Trans Alaska Pipeline were threatened with physical harm, demoted, and spied on in an effort to force them not to turn in negative reports or report problems. As a result, the likelihood of damaging oil spills due to improperly built and maintained equipment is heightened. A major corporation allegedly initiated an analysis of the cost savings that would result from circumventing or reducing compliance with health, safety and environmental standards. Two officers who objected to this noncompliance cost/benefit analysis were subsequently fired.
Balancing Values of Outstanding Universality with Conservation and Management at Three United Kingdom Cultural World Heritage Sites

An analysis of three of the United Kingdom's cultural World Heritage Sites (WHS) illustrates, inter alia, the vigour and commitment of these sites in their application of the World Heritage Committee's recommendations. The cultural sites discussed in this case study include the Tower of London, Blenheim Palace and Maritime Greenwich. Attention is paid to the interrelationship between UK heritage legislation and UNESCO conventions and guidelines. The category of cultural landscape is analysed against the background of 20th century ideas concerning landscape. The concomitant consideration of the gradual impact of management plan requirements indicates the direction in which WHS will be aligned as the 21st century progresses. The 21st century developments also reinforce observations regarding the uniqueness of every aspect of each site, even when narrowed down to three sites of only one of the signatory nations to the World Heritage Convention.
Cloth simulation based on local adaptive subdivision and merging

To speed up cloth simulation while achieving realistic simulation results, a local adaptive Catmull-Clark subdivision is adopted in this paper. During the growing phase of cloth simulation, several new particles are added to the system if the cloth grids collide with rigid objects. The cloth grids are merged later when coarse grids are sufficient. In this article, a mass-spring model is developed for rectangle grids. Collision detection and response methods for local adaptive subdivision are also described. The exploitation of cache control instruction set and SIMD instructions allow us to achieve nearly 100% FPU utilization. The algorithm supports tradeoffs between simulation time and realistic results.
Relationship of age to bone microstructure independent of areal bone mineral density

Previous studies using dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) have demonstrated that age is a major predictor of bone fragility and fracture risk independent of areal bone mineral density (aBMD). Although this aBMD‐independent effect of age has been attributed to poor bone “quality,” the structural basis for this remains unclear. Because high‐resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) can assess bone microarchitecture, we matched younger and older subjects for aBMD at the ultradistal radius and assessed for possible differences in trabecular or cortical microstructure by HRpQCT. From an age‐stratified, random sample of community adults, 44 women aged <50 years (mean age 41.0 years) were matched to 44 women aged ≥50 years (mean age 62.7 years) by ultradistal radius aBMD (mean ± SEM, younger and older aBMD 0.475 ± 0.011 and 0.472 ± 0.011 g/cm2, respectively), and 57 men aged <50 years (mean age 41.3 years) were matched to 57 men aged ≥50 years (mean age 68.1 years; younger and older aBMD both 0.571 ± 0.008 g/cm2). In these matched subjects, there were no sex‐specific differences in trabecular microstructural parameters. However, significant differences were noted in cortical microstructure (all p < 0.05): Older women and men had increased cortical porosity (by 91% and 56%, respectively), total cortical pore volume (by 77% and 61%, respectively), and mean cortical pore diameter (by 9% and 8%, respectively) compared with younger subjects. These findings indicate that younger and older women and men matched for DXA aBMD have similar trabecular microarchitecture but clearly different cortical microstructure, at least at an appendicular site represented by the radius. Further studies are needed to define the extent to which this deterioration in cortical microstructure contributes to the aBMD‐independent effect of age on bone fragility and fracture risk at the distal radius and other sites of osteoporotic fractures. © 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
Depression: An Important Comorbidity With Metabolic Syndrome in a General Population

OBJECTIVE—There is a recognized association among depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to examine in a sample representative of the general population whether depression, anxiety, and psychological distress are associated with metabolic syndrome and its components. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Three cross-sectional surveys including clinical health measures were completed in rural regions of Australia during 2004–2006. A stratified random sample (n = 1,690, response rate 48%) of men and women aged 25–84 years was selected from the electoral roll. Metabolic syndrome was defined by the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults, Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III), and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Anxiety and depression were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and psychological distress by the Kessler 10 measure. RESULTS—Metabolic syndrome was associated with depression but not psychological distress or anxiety. Participants with the metabolic syndrome had higher scores for depression (n = 409, mean score 3.41, 95% CI 3.12–3.70) than individuals without the metabolic syndrome (n = 936, mean 2.95, 95% CI 2.76–3.13). This association was also present in 338 participants with the metabolic syndrome and without diabetes (mean score 3.37, 95% CI 3.06–3.68). Large waist circumference and low HDL cholesterol showed significant and independent associations with depression. CONCLUSIONS—Our results show an association between metabolic syndrome and depression in a heterogeneous sample. The presence of depression in individuals with the metabolic syndrome has implications for clinical management.
A multiobjective genetic algorithm to improve power and performance of heterogeneous multiprocessors

The concern of reducing power consumption and the schedule length (or makespan) has added new levels of complexities to the scheduling of task graphs on multiprocessors. Recent researches in the field have obtained considerable improvement in power consumption with a comparable makespan by exploring a large search space with mixed integer linear programming (MIP). However, MIP based solutions are applicable only to smaller instances of task graphs. In this paper, we propose a multi-objective genetic algorithm (P2Gen) that uses dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS) to perform Power (P) and Performance (P) aware scheduling. With DVFS, tasks are made to run on low voltages, which decreases their computation power. However, it also increases their execution costs and hence, is optimized with a genetic algorithm. In the first phase, P2Gen optimizes the makespan whereas the second phase uses DVFS with multiple tolerance levels of the obtained makespan to optimize both the objectives. To enhance the convergence of P Gen as well as exploring a variety of population, each task is run by integrating the maximum and minimum voltage on a processor instead of iterating through all the voltage levels. The results demonstrate that P2Gen is able to balance power and performance better than other algorithms.
The segmentation of glandular cavity based on K-means and mathematical morphology

This paper presents a new method for the segmentation of glandular cavity. Our method is based on the K-means and mathematical morphology. We have segmented the entire glandular cavity and eliminated many of the interference factors in the gastric glandular image. An important characteristic of our method is that we combined the K-means with the mathematical morphological processing, and carried out the iterative execution which resulted in a gradual refinement, and the algorithm can run in nearly a linear time. Images that are processed using our methods can be more effective in helping doctors diagnose disease.
The Design of a Proofreading Software Service

Web applications have the opportunity to check spelling, style, and grammar using a software service architecture. A software service authoring aid can offer contextual spell checking, detect real word errors, and avoid poor grammar checker suggestions through the use of large language models. Here we present After the Deadline, an open source authoring aid, used in production on Word-Press.com, a blogging platform with over ten million writers. We discuss the benefits of the software service environment and how it affected our choice of algorithms. We summarize our design principles as speed over accuracy, simplicity over complexity, and do what works.
Experience report: OCaml for an industrial-strength static analysis framework

This experience report describes the choice of OCaml as the implementation language for Frama-C, a framework for the static analysis of C programs. OCaml became the implementation language for Frama-C because it is expressive. Most of the reasons listed in the remaining of this article are secondary reasons, features which are not specific to OCaml (modularity, availability of a C parser, control over the use of resources.) but could have prevented the use of OCaml for this project if they had been missing.
Neural basis of egalitarian behavior

Individuals are willing to sacrifice their own resources to promote equality in groups. These costly choices promote equality and are associated with behavior that supports cooperation in humans, but little is known about the brain processes involved. We use functional MRI to study egalitarian preferences based on behavior observed in the “random income game. ” In this game, subjects decide whether to pay a cost to alter group members’ randomly allocated incomes. We specifically examine whether egalitarian behavior is associated with neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the insular cortex, two regions that have been shown to be related to social preferences. Consistent with previous studies, we find significant activation in both regions; however, only the insular cortex activations are significantly associated with measures of revealed and expressed egalitarian preferences elicited outside the scanner. These results are consistent with the notion that brain mechanisms involved in experiencing the emotional states of others underlie egalitarian behavior in humans.
Analyzing multi-agent approaches for the design of advanced interactive and collaborative systems

The purpose of this paper is to determine a set of requirements and proposals for the design of a collaborative inter- active system working under distributed tangible environments. A wide range of human-machine, human-human and human- environment interactions is to be considered, and using multi-agent architectures was recommended since they have already shown their benefits in developing large and complex systems under a unified framework. We further argue that such a design would require an in-depth analysis of four main properties (autonomy, proactiveness, context-awareness, situatedness). In this context, the potential interest and complementarity of two main design approaches (holonic and normative) are discussed. To support this discussion, two applications are also described - a Road Traffic simulation and a version of the game of RISK . B oth of these applications introduce complementary man-machine-environment interaction issues.
Estimation of Fish Abundance Indices Based on Scientific Research Trawl Surveys

Summary. The fish abundance index over an ocean region is defined here to be the integral of expected catch per unit effort (CPUE), approximated by the sum of expected CPUE over grid squares. When trawl surveys are done within grid squares selected according to a probability sampling design, several other sources of variation such as the fish population dynamics and the catching process are also involved. In such situations model‐assisted methods for estimating abundance, assessed under both design and model perspectives, have some advantages over purely design‐based methods such as the Horvitz–Thompson (HT) estimator or purely model‐based prediction approaches. This article develops model‐assisted empirical likelihood (EL) methods via loglinear regression and nonparametric smoothing. The methods are applied to grid surveys of the Grand Bank region carried out annually by Fishery Products International from 1996 through 2002. The HT and EL methods produce similar point estimates of abundance indices. Simulation results, however, indicate that the EL estimator under local linear smoothing is associated with smaller standard errors.