Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Psychology-Inspired Approach to Automated Narrative Text Comprehension

We report on an ongoing research program to develop a formal framework for automated narrative text comprehension, bringing together know-how from research in Artificial Intelligence and the Psychology of Reading and Comprehension. It uses argumentation to capture appropriate solutions to the frame, ramification, and qualification problems, and their generalizations as required for text comprehension. In this first part of the study we concentrate on the central problem of integration of the explicit information from the text narrative with the reader's implicit commonsense world knowledge, and the associated tasks of elaboration and revision.
Microbial Diversity and Its Relationship to Physicochemical Characteristics of the Water in Two Extreme Acidic Pit Lakes from the Iberian Pyrite Belt (SW Spain)

The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) hosts one of the world’s largest accumulations of acidic mine wastes and pit lakes. The mineralogical and textural characteristics of the IPB ores have favored the oxidation and dissolution of metallic sulfides, mainly pyrite, and the subsequent formation of acidic mining drainages. This work reports the physical properties, hydrogeochemical characteristics, and microbial diversity of two pit lakes located in the IPB. Both pit lakes are acidic and showed high concentrations of sulfate and dissolved metals. Concentrations of sulfate and heavy metals were higher in the Nuestra Señora del Carmen lake (NSC) by one order of magnitude than in the Concepción (CN) lake. The hydrochemical characteristics of NSC were typical of acid mine waters and can be compared with other acidic environments. When compared to other IPB acidic pit lakes, the superficial water of CN is more diluted than that of any of the others due, probably, to the strong influence of runoff water. Both pit lakes showed chemical and thermal stratification with well defined chemoclines. One particular characteristic of NSC is that it has developed a chemocline very close to the surface (2 m depth). Microbial community composition of the water column was analyzed by 16S and 18S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing. The microorganisms detected in NSC were characteristic of acid mine drainage (AMD), including iron oxidizing bacteria (Leptospirillum, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans) and facultative iron reducing bacteria and archaea (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidiphilium, Actinobacteria, Acidimicrobiales, Ferroplasma) detected in the bottom layer. Diversity in CN was higher than in NSC. Microorganisms known from AMD systems (Acidiphilium, Acidobacteria and Ferrovum) and microorganisms never reported from AMD systems were identified. Taking into consideration the hydrochemical characteristics of these pit lakes and the spatial distribution of the identified microorganisms, a model explaining their geomicrobiology is advanced.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Analysis Between Indian Red Jungle Fowl and Domestic Chicken Using Microsatellite Markers

The present study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity, population structure, and relatedness in Indian red jungle fowl (RJF, Gallus gallus murgi) from northern India and three domestic chicken populations (gallus gallus domesticus), maintained at the institute farms, namely White Leghorn (WL), Aseel (AS) and Red Cornish (RC) using 25 microsatellite markers. All the markers were polymorphic, the number of alleles at each locus ranged from five (MCW0111) to forty-three (LEI0212) with an average number of 19 alleles per locus. Across all loci, the mean expected heterozygosity and polymorphic information content were 0.883 and 0.872, respectively. Population-specific alleles were found in each population. A UPGMA dendrogram based on shared allele distances clearly revealed two major clusters among the four populations; cluster I had genotypes from RJF and WL whereas cluster II had AS and RC genotypes. Furthermore, the estimation of population structure was performed to understand how genetic variation is partitioned within and among populations. The maximum ▵K value was observed for K = 4 with four identified clusters. Furthermore, factorial analysis clearly showed four clustering; each cluster represented the four types of population used in the study. These results clearly, demonstrate the potential of microsatellite markers in elucidating the genetic diversity, relationships, and population structure analysis in RJF and domestic chicken populations.
Increasing TCP Throughput and Fairness in Cognitive WLAN over Fiber

The performance of legacy WLAN systems will significantly degrade as the number of active stations (STA) in the network increases, rendering satisfactory coverage of busy hot spots challenging in practice. A novel centralized architecture that coordinates several WLAN access points is the exploitation of Radio over Fiber (RoF) technology. In this paper we focus on spatial diversity techniques to enhance the performance of the newly proposed Cognitive WLAN over Fiber (CWLANoF) compared to legacy WLAN Extended Service Set (ESS). More specifically we develop an optimal transmitter-side beamforming technique and investigate the TCP performance enhancement as a result of usage of this scheme. Furthermore, the issue of fairness will also be discussed, where we introduce a fairness measure based on the distribution of TCP throughput among existing STAs in the network. The numerical results verify the superior performance of CWLANoF compared to WLAN ESS.
Fibronectin is produced by blood vessels in response to injury

During the time of tissue repair that ensues subsequent to tissue injury, blood vessel wall fibronectin increases concomitantly with endothelial proliferation and angiogenesis. However, the source of this blood vessel fibronectin had not been delineated. In this report we have demonstrated that microvascular fibronectin is produced in situ by the proliferating vessels surrounding excisional wounds. This finding was established by extirpating 3 mm of skin from the center of a well- healed rat xenograph on the flanks of immunosuppressed mice, harvesting the injured skin sites at various stages during the healing process, and staining the specimens with reciprocal species-specific anti- fibronectin. The proliferating donor vessels that surrounded the wounded graft had increased fluorescence staining with FITC conjugated mouse anti-rat fibronectin and no staining with rat anti-mouse fibronectin. This finding was taken as direct evidence that the fibronectin was produced in situ by the rat vessels and not derived from circulating mouse plasma.
Online Vicept learning for web-scale image understanding

Web-scale image understanding is a challenging but significant task to comprehend image contents on the internet. The de-facto standard methods based on machine learning or computer vision still suffer from a phenomenon of visual pol-ysemia and concept polymorphism (VPCP). To resolve the VPCP, Vicept has been proposed to characterize the membership distribution between visual appearances and semantic concepts. In this paper, we propose an online Vicept learning algorithm on the base of stochastic approximations, which can scale up to large scale datasets with millions of training samples. With the help of the Vicept, we develop an extension of the spatial pyramid matching (SPM) kernel method by generalizing the Vicept as a basic semantic description. The efficiency of our approach is validated in the experiments of web-scale semantic image search and image classification on the ImageNet dataset and Caltech-256 dataset.
More Than a Footnote to History in Cultural-Historical Theory: The Zalkind Summary, Experimental Study of Higher Behavioural Processes, and “Vygotsky's Blocks”

This article presents what is possibly the first English translation of a 1930 manuscript related to Vygotsky's work (probably written by Vygotsky himself). This manuscript, the Zalkind Summary, is a five-point summary of his presentation to the First All-Union Congress on the Study of Human Behaviour in Leningrad in January 1930. This article provides an account of the circumstances leading to the Zalkind Summary's discovery and explores several aspects of it in relation to contemporary appreciations of Vygotsky's psychology, most notably the functional method of double stimulation and the precise experimental data used by Vygotsky to document key theoretical constructs in concept formation processes. The method of double stimulation for the study of concept formation, as developed by Sakharov under Vygotsky's leadership and handed down to scholars in the West by Hanfmann and Kasanin, is compared to the works of various scholars, past and present. This article concludes that the Zalkind Summary is more than a footnote to history: It is a stand-alone theoretical and empirical statement of central and intriguing import to Vygotskian psychology.
Locally Differentially Private Protocols for Frequency Estimation

Protocols satisfying Local Differential Privacy (LDP) enable parties to collect aggregate information about a population while protecting each user’s privacy, without relying on a trusted third party. LDP protocols (such as Google’s RAPPOR) have been deployed in real-world scenarios. In these protocols, a user encodes his private information and perturbs the encoded value locally before sending it to an aggregator, who combines values that users contribute to infer statistics about the population. In this paper, we introduce a framework that generalizes several LDP protocols proposed in the literature. Our framework yields a simple and fast aggregation algorithm, whose accuracy can be precisely analyzed. Our in-depth analysis enables us to choose optimal parameters, resulting in two new protocols (i.e., Optimized Unary Encoding and Optimized Local Hashing) that provide better utility than protocols previously proposed. We present precise conditions for when each proposed protocol should be used, and perform experiments that demonstrate the advantage of our proposed protocols.
Complexity of Wavelength Assignment in Optical Network Optimization

We study the complexity of a set of design problems for optical networks. Under wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, demands sharing a common fiber are transported on distinct wavelengths. Multiple fibers may be deployed on a physical link. Our basic goal is to design networks of minimum cost, minimum congestion and maximum throughput. This translates to three variants in the design objectives: 1) MlN-SUMFlBER: minimizing the total cost of fibers deployed to carry all demands; 2) MlN-MAXFlBER: minimizing the maximum number of fibers per link to carry all demands; and 3) MAX-THROUGHPUT: maximizing the carried demands using a given set of fibers. We also have two variants in the design constraints: 1) CHOOSEROUTE: Here we need to specify both a routing path and a wavelength for each demand; 2) FIXEDROUTE: Here we are given demand routes and we need to specify wavelengths only. The FIXEDROUTE variant allows us to study wavelength assignment in isolation. Combining these variants, we have six design problems. Previously we have shown that general instances of the problems MIN-SUMFIBER-CHOOSEROUTE and MIN-MAXFIBER-FIXEDROUTE have no constant-approximation algorithms. In this paper, we prove that a similar statement holds for all four other problems. Our main result shows that MIN-SUMFIBER-FIXEDROUTE cannot be approximated within any constant factor unless NP-hard problems have efficient algorithms. This, together with the previous hardness result of MIN-MAXFIBER-FIXEDROUTE, shows that the problem of wavelength assignment is inherently hard by itself. We also study the complexity of problems that arise when multiple demands can be time-multiplexed onto a single wavelength (as in time-domain wavelength interleaved networking (TWIN) networks) and when wavelength converters can be placed along the path of a demand.
Application of adaptive algorithm of solar cell battery charger

This paper presents the adaptive algorithm to resolve the problem in the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of solar cell battery charger and applies it in the design for MPPT system. Results of the research show that the adaptive algorithm has not only accelerated the calculating speed and strengthen the searching performances, but also has the high tracking precision.
Management as a professional discipline

The nature of management as a discipline is problematic. Drawing on Aristotle’s concepts of poiesis and techne, it can however be seen as one of a class of professional disciplines such as medicine, law, engineering or teaching which are characterized by their instrumentality, contingency and processuality. These three attributes suggest three basic questions (What do managers do? What affects what they do? How do they do it? ) which in turn yield a three-dimensional model. While the contents of the model must be regarded as tentative, its form offers one way in which management can constitute itself as a discipline and re-position itself within higher education. Questions arise in relation to the nature and status of the model, the segmented nature of management work, its varying internal/external focus and the locus of management decisions. However the model appears to provide a useful, heuristic framework within which practitioners can address specific, concrete problems and decisions.
Revealing the broad iron Kα line in Cygnus X-1 through simultaneous XMM-Newton, RXTE, and INTEGRAL observations

We report on the analysis of the broad Fe K α line feature of Cyg X-1 in the spectra of four simultaneous hard intermediate state observations made with the X-ray Multiple Mirror mission ( XMM-Newton ), the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), and the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL). The high quality of the XMM-Newton data taken in the Modified Timing Mode of the EPIC-pn camera provides a great opportunity to investigate the broadened Fe K α reflection line at 6.4 keV with a very high signal to noise ratio. The 4–500 keV energy range is used to constrain the underlying continuum and the reflection at higher energies. We first investigate the data by applying a phenomenological model that consists of the sum of an exponentially cutoff power law and relativistically smeared reflection. Additionally, we apply a more physical approach and model the irradiation of the accretion disk directly from the lamp post geometry. All four observations show consistent values for the black hole parameters with a spin of a ~ 0.9, in agreement with recent measurements from reflection and disk continuum fitting. The inclination is found to be i ~ 30°, consistent with the orbital inclination and different from inclination measurements made during the soft state, which show a higher inclination. We speculate that the difference between the inclination measurements is due to changes in the inner region of the accretion disk.
A value‐creating model for effective policy services

Policy services have generally escaped performance evaluation techniques. Traditionally, the evaluation of the quality of policy services has been internally driven, and has tended to rely on definitions and process practices determined by the service provider rather than customer definitions of value. In this study, customers of policy services (ministers, ex‐ministers, department secretaries and key advisers) were asked what the ideal characteristics of policy services were and what would create value. On the basis of customer values, an integrated four level model of policy service provision was developed. This model potentially provides guidance for the development and evaluation of policy services and should lead to greater customer satisfaction.
Sustainable development and industrial minerals

Most discussions of sustainable development (SD) in mining relate to metal mines in rural areas. Industrial minerals (IM) are closer to urban areas primarily owing to a high transport-cost component of delivered cost. This visibility to large populations overshadows IMs relatively small operation size and generally lower waste volume and toxicity. The IM industry needs to rethink its way of doing business to fit into the SD paradigm. Society and business in general will also undergo significant change to enable industrial SD along the lines of triple-bottom-line accounting with government pushing everyone. The benefit to IM mining from embracing SD is a renewal in their social license to operate and a rebirth of mining as a positively-viewed force in society. This positive view would lead to lower acquisition costs because society would not fight so hard to eliminate nearby mining. This would ease the current exploration woes of the IM industry by opening up new deposits for exploration and more readily allowing placement of mines nearer to markets. The earlier in the exploration process SD is initiated, the better.
Vorticity is a Marker of Diastolic Ventricular Interdependency in Pulmonary Hypertension

Our objective was to determine whether left ventricular (LV) vorticity (ω), the local spinning motion of a fluid element, correlated with markers of ventricular interdependency in pulmonary hypertension (PH). Maladaptive ventricular interdependency is associated with interventricular septal shift, impaired LV performance, and poor outcomes in PH patients, yet the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying fluid-structure interactions in ventricular interdependency are incompletely understood. Because conformational changes in chamber geometry affect blood flow formations and dynamics, LV ω may be a marker of LV-RV (right ventricular) interactions in PH. Echocardiography was performed for 13 PH patients and 10 controls for assessment of interdependency markers, including eccentricity index (EI), and biventricular diastolic dysfunction, including mitral valve (MV) and tricuspid valve (TV) early and late velocities (E and A, respectively) as well as MV septal and lateral early tissue Doppler velocities (e′). Same-day 4-dimensional cardiac magnetic resonance was performed for LV E (early)-wave ω measurement. LV E-wave ω was significantly decreased in PH patients (P = 0.008) and correlated with diastolic EI (Rho = −0.53, P = 0.009) as well as with markers of LV diastolic dysfunction, including MV E(Rho = 0.53, P = 0.011), E/A (Rho = 0.56, P = 0.007), septal e′ (Rho = 0.63, P = 0.001), and lateral e′ (Rho = 0.57, P = 0.007). Furthermore, LV E-wave ω was associated with indices of RV diastolic dysfunction, including TV e′ (Rho = 0.52, P = 0.012) and TV E/A (Rho = 0.53, P = 0.009). LV E-wave ω is decreased in PH and correlated with multiple echocardiographic markers of ventricular interdependency. LV ω may be a novel marker for fluid-tissue biomechanical interactions in LV-RV interdependency.
Anisotropy of transcallosal motor fibres indicates functional impairment in children with periventricular leukomalacia

Aim In children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy (CP), periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is commonly identified on magnetic resonance imaging. We characterized this white matter condition by examining callosal microstructure, interhemispheric inhibitory competence (IIC), and mirror movements.
Avoidant coping, verbal-autonomic response dissociation and pain tolerance

Higher autonomic reactivity relative to self-reported discomfort, often found in repressors and avoidant copers might be associated with a diminished perception of bodily symptoms. This study aimed at relating such so-called verbal-autonomic response dissociation to pain tolerance. Eighty-five volunteers underwent a public speaking task and a cold pressor test. Heart rate and negative affect in response to the speech, and pain ratings and facial muscle responses for the cold pressor were obtained. A dissociation score was calculated for each individual in response to speech, thereby subtracting standardized changes in negative affect from standardized changes in heart rate. Response dissociation was positively associated with avoidant coping and negatively associated with pain perception, although it was unrelated to the facial muscle response. Moreover, it mediated the relationship between avoidant coping and pain perception. Thus, verbal-autonomic response dissociation might represent a meaningful intervening variable for understanding the avoidant coping–health relationship.
Vaccination of Chimpanzees With Plasmid DNA Encoding the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Envelope E2 Protein Modified the Infection After Challenge With Homologous Monoclonal HCV

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Development of vaccines to prevent HCV infection, or at least prevent progression to chronicity, is a major goal. In mice and rhesus macaques, a DNA vaccine encoding cell‐surface HCV–envelope 2 (E2) glycoprotein stimulated stronger immune responses than a vaccine encoding intracellular E2. Therefore, we used DNA encoding surface‐expressed E2 to immunize chimpanzees 2768 and 3001. Chimpanzee 3001 developed anti‐E2 after the second immunization and antibodies to hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) after the third immunization. Although chimpanzee 2768 had only low levels of anti‐E2 after the third immunization, an anamnestic response occurred after HCV challenge. CTL responses to E2 were not detected before challenge, but a strong response was detected after HCV challenge in chimpanzee 2768. An E2‐specific CD4+ response was detected in chimpanzee 2768 before challenge and in both chimpanzees postchallenge. Three weeks after the last immunization, animals were challenged with 100 50% chimpanzee‐infectious doses (CID50 ) of homologous monoclonal HCV. As a control, a naive chimpanzee was inoculated with 3 CID50 of the challenge virus. The vaccine did not generate sterilizing immunity because both vaccinated chimpanzees were infected. However, both vaccinated chimpanzees resolved the infection early whereas the control animal became chronically infected. Compared with the control animal, hepatitis appeared earlier in the course of the infection in both vaccinated chimpanzees. Therefore, DNA vaccine encoding cell surface–expressed E2 did not elicit sterilizing immunity in chimpanzees against challenge with a monoclonal homologous virus, but did appear to modify the infection and might have prevented progression to chronicity.
OAUC's participation in the CLEF2015 SBS Search Suggestion Track

In this article we describe the OAUC's participation in the CLEF 2015 SBS Search Suggestion track. We are trying to represent appeal elements, used in readers' advisory theory and practice, to see if they can be used in an automatic retrieval and recommendation con- text. We are starting out with the pace appeal element, used on ction to representing how quickly a buildup of the story is. The results so far indicate that much tuning is needed when building models that can represent pace.