Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Deterministic Approximation Algorithms for Non-myopic Value of Information in Graphical Models

Agents operating in the real world need to handle both uncertainty and resource constraints. Typical problems in this domain are optimization of sequences of observations, and optimal allocation of computation tasks during reasoning and search (also known as meta-reasoning). In both domains, a crucial issue is value of information, a quantity hard to compute in general, and thus usually estimated using severe assumptions, such as myopic and independence of information sources. This paper extends recent work on non-myopic value of information in graphical models, that assumed a chain-shaped graph and exact measurements. Suitably relaxing the assumption of exact measurements still allows for a provably close approximation of the optimal subset (of observations) selection, and for approximating the optimal conditional plan. The method is shown to be efficient and to provide a significant advantage in expected reward over the myopic and greedy value of information scheme.
Understanding cultural experiences: a qualitative study of Kenyans in America

Socialization is the lifelong process of learning beliefs, norms, and values socially expected by members of a society or a particular social group. Socialization encourages individuals to learn their culture and naturally reproduce it. Socialization may be altered when an individual enters a different society. This study used a phenomenological approach to understand experiences and adapted or preserved cultural traits of Kenyans in America. Socialization aspects and agents change when Kenyans move to America. Kenyans experienced difficult transitions with food, diet, time, community, language, leisure, work schedules, financial duties, stereotyping, and racism while living in America. The most significant difficulties occur within the first year and then aspects of American culture are slowly adopted. Independent religious values, time, clothing style, individuality, heavy work schedules, and English language capabilities become second nature to Kenyans living in America for more than a year, whereas diet, timing of meals, and experienced stereotyping and racism appeared unlikely transitions even after living in America for a year or more. With increased African immigration to the USA, a larger population of Kenyans will likely experience similar cultural experiences; as a result, potential adverse health effects may result from maladaptive adaptation. This research provides evidence of an increased need for diversity recognition and community outreach and awareness throughout America.
Impacts of video Quality of Experience on User Engagement in a live event

In order to understand the effects of QoE (Quality of Experience) on User Engagement, we measured QoE metrics on client side during Roland Garros 2013, an international tennis tournament broadcast live over the Internet. We analyze the impacts of four metrics on User Engagement: the video startup time, buffering ratio, average bitrate and content popularity. Our results demonstrate that video buffering is a critical parameter which impacts end-user satisfaction. We show also that content popularity is an important parameter of our analysis, whereas the video startup time is less significant. We highlight the relationship between the average bitrate and User Engagement in the case of popular content. Finally we confirm a correlation between metrics.
An Empirical Analysis of Team Coordination Behaviors and Action Planning With Application to Human–Robot Teaming

Objective: We conducted an empirical analysis of human teamwork to investigate the ways teammates incorporate coordination behaviors, including verbal and nonverbal cues, into their action planning. Background: In space, military, aviation, and medical industries, teams of people effectively coordinate to perform complex tasks under stress induced by uncertainty, ambiguity, and time pressure. As robots increasingly are introduced into these domains, we seek to understand effective human-team coordination to inform natural and effective human-robot coordination. Method: We conducted teamwork experiments in which teams of two people performed a complex task, involving ordering, timing, and resource constraints. Half the teams performed under time pressure, and half performed without time pressure. We cataloged the coordination behaviors used by each team and analyzed the speed of response and specificity of each coordination behavior. Results: Analysis shows that teammates respond to explicit cues, including commands meant to control actions, more quickly than implicit cues, which include short verbal and gestural attention getters and status updates. Analysis also shows that nearly all explicit cues and implicit gestural cues were used to refer to one specific action, whereas approximately half of implicit cues did not often refer to one specific action. Conclusion: These results provide insight into how human teams use coordination behaviors in their action planning. For example, implicit cues seem to offer the teammate flexibility on when to perform the indicated action, whereas explicit cues seem to demand immediate response. Application: We discuss how these findings inform the design of more natural and fluid human-robot teaming.
Allying to Kill

Terrorist organizations do not operate in isolation. Instead, they forge alliances with one another, which generate a tight network of intergroup relationships. We argue that these relationships serve to increase group capacity, manifesting itself in the ability of a group to conduct deadly attacks. However, groups are notably judicious when they forge these cooperative ties, preferring to link to the strongest groups to which they have access. The result of this process of preferential attachment is a core/periphery structure in the broader network of alliances. Moreover, groups with ties to organizations at the core of the broader universe of relationships reap more rewards than those with large numbers of less meaningful alliances. Terrorism research and counterterrorism policy should assess terrorist organizations in the broader context of their interrelationships and depth of alliances rather than in isolation.
A Model for Designing WLAN's 802.11 for VoIP

The voice transmission over the Internet Protocol or commonly named VoIP over a wireless local area network (WLAN) is becoming a necessity; nevertheless there is a very important problem here, it is the fact that the access points disposition is not ideal to establish a well communication at the WLAN design, since they were initially designed for data transport. This paper presents a procedure for designing WLAN's with VoIP support, using two of the most important current standards for WLAN's, 802.11b and 802.11g
5HT1A‐receptors and behaviour under chronic stress: selective counteraction by testosterone

Behaviour of chronically stressed male tree shrews is characterized by a reduction in scent marking, self‐grooming and overall locomotor activity. It has been proposed that this subordination behaviour is related to the down‐regulation of 5HT1A‐receptors occurring in distinct brain regions of the animals. The high cortisol concentrations which accompany chronic stress are supposed to induce 5HT1A‐receptor down‐regulation. Because chronic stress in males also decreases androgen levels we investigated whether behaviour and 5HT1A‐receptor expression could be renormalized by testosterone replacement.
Analyzing Patterns of Scientific Collaboration using Centrality Measures and Modularity

Modularity is generally used as a measure for determining goodness of clustering. In this paper, we performed analysis on coauthorship network. The authors belong to the field of Biology related to different research and academic institutes from all over the world. We took different centrality measures such as betweenness, degree, page rank, closeness and ranked authors on the basis of these measures. We also found cohesive groups of authors and detected communities in the form of clusters, using modularity metrics such as edge betweenness, walk-trap and label propagation. Our results indicate that different modularity metrics identified communities near to each other and clustered the authors of highly collaborating
Tuning the windowed Fourier transform of robotic signals in the perspective of information theory

In many applications we are interested in the frequency content of a signal at a given period of time. The windowed Fourier transform is one of the most widely used time-frequency representations. To use this technique several parameters must be defined according to the signal analyzed. A new method based on the mutual information between frequency and time is proposed. The tests developed with robotic signal show the capability of the presented method.
Logging On and Letting Out: Using Online Social Networks to Grieve and to Mourn

The purpose of this article is to explore how and why younger Internet users of social networking platforms such as MySpace and Facebook maintain connections with those who have died or been killed. This article, therefore, examines the blurring or blending of interpersonal communication and mass communication via the web as what once was very private communication—messages to the deceased—becomes very public. The findings suggest that these online social networks enable or empower individuals marginalized by more traditional forms of memorialization.
Integration of programming and learning in a control language for autonomous robots performing everyday activities

Autonomous robots acting in complex, dynamic every-day environments must constantly adapt their abilities to their environment by means of learning during the execution of their tasks. In this thesis a robot control language is introduced, which allows to describe declaratively and execute complete learning processes in the program. This process includes the identification and recording of experiences, the learning process itself, and the integration of the learning result into the program. Thereby, learning becomes an integral part of the robot behavior. The language supports a wide range of learning problems and learning algorithms. The implementation is based on the definition of an experience as a compact summary of a problem solving episode by means of hybrid automata.
The role of prevention-oriented attitudes towards nature in people’s judgment of new applications of genomics techniques in soil ecology:

New applications of genomics techniques in soil ecology may provide people with fresh insights into the richness of microbial life forms and natural methods to build on the “self-cleaning capacity” of soils. Because genetic modification might also be involved, this paper examines people’s judgments about some applications, using a theory on the promotion- or prevention-orientations that they may associate with interventions in the natural world. A prevention-oriented way of thinking was hypothesized to correspond with a preference for more restrictions on a GM application, unless the person appreciates the application’s benefits for nature restoration. Survey data agreed with the hypotheses and clarified the way in which people may talk about “nature knows best” or “nature needs a little help. ”
Trust in the health system: An analysis and extension of the social theories of Giddens and Luhmann

Abstract Social theory provides a lens through which we can analyse the role of trust in health systems. However, the majority of theoretically informed trust literature addresses ‘institutional’ or ‘interpersonal’ trust individually, failing to investigate trust as determined by a ‘web’ of mutually interacting relationships between individuals and social systems. Current theoretical assumptions are also problematic as they fail to recognise the role that social factors (such as socio-economic status, class and age) play in an individual’s willingness to trust. Through the analysis and critique of existing social theories of trust, this paper demonstrates a need for further empirical research into the multidimensionality of trusting relationships, while suggesting new directions for research in public health.
Neoadjuvant carboplatin before radiotherapy in stage IIA and IIB seminoma.

BACKGROUND Extended field radiotherapy is a standard of care for low volume stage II testicular seminoma. We hypothesized that neoadjuvant carboplatin might reduce the recurrence risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS In a single-arm study, 51 patients were treated between May 1996 and November 2011 with a single cycle of carboplatin followed by radiotherapy. The radiation field was reduced from an extended abdomino-pelvic field to just the para-aortic region, and the radiation dose from 35 Gy to 30 Gy in 39 patients. RESULTS After a median follow-up of 55 months (range 8-151 months) with 38 (74%) of the patients having been followed for >2 years, there have been no relapses (95% confidence limits of 5-year relapse-free survival of 93%-100%). Toxicity has been low with grade 3 toxicity limited to four patients with grade 3 haematological toxicity (with no clinical sequelae) and one patient with grade 3 nausea (during radiotherapy). No patients experienced grade 4 toxicity. CONCLUSIONS The results of this pilot study suggest that a single cycle of neoadjuvant carboplatin before radiotherapy may reduce recurrence risk compared with radiotherapy alone and permit a smaller radiation field, and this approach is proposed for further investigation.
Drowning your sorrows? Social exclusion and anger effects on alcohol drinking

This study was designed to examine whether social exclusion and anger affect alcohol consumption and value. Sixty participants who were excluded, provoked, and could then pour and consume beverages (labeled alcohol/juice), reported their perception of the beverages’ value. Social exclusion increased the influence of anger provocation on alcohol drinking. When participants received a restricted amount of the beverages as an evaluative target, social exclusion and anger provocation interacted on ratings of the alcoholic-labeled beverage's hedonic value – when not anger-provoked, socially excluded participants wanted to drink more alcohol and were willing to pay more than socially accepted participants. Conversely, when provoked, the socially included participants reported higher hedonic value. Exclusion and anger increased alcohol consumption without conscious feelings of pleasure or other subjective liking report, and decreased objective indicators for the beverages’ hedonic value (implicit liking–craving or willingness to pay for alcohol and wanting to drink more). When combined, exclusion and anger promote irrational drinking behavior. Implications regarding the involvement of alcohol in the non-conscious emotional responses to exclusion are discussed.
Connection Caching for WWW Servers and Proxies

This paper proposes connection caching to reduce the overhead of accessing WWW pages. Connection caching means that a WWW server or a WWW proxy server does not release its connection with a client or a peer but retains it and uses it again after the transmission is completed. The retained connection is cached and it is used for future access. Connection caching reduces network traffic and server load. This paper shows that the hit rate of connection caching for WWW accesses is high and connection caching is effective. This evaluation is based on actual logs from a server and a proxy server. The logs are records of 350 days. The log from the proxy server includes more than 14 million accesses.
Developmental expression patterns of α1H T‐type Ca2+ channels during spermatogenesis and organogenesis in mice

The objectives of the present study were to investigate the expression patterns of T‐type Ca2+ channel mRNA during spermatogenesis and organogenesis in mice. Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) was performed to identify the subtypes of calcium channels present in the round spermatids isolated from mouse testes by flow cytometry. Transcripts of L‐type (α1D), non‐L‐type (α1E) and T‐type Ca2+ channels were detected in round spermatids. Analysis of PCR products of T‐type Ca2+ channels indicated that only α1H subunits were detected in round spermatids. The appearance and differential distribution of α1H T‐type Ca2+ channel mRNA during mouse spermatogenesis and postimplantation embryogenesis (embryonic (E) days E9, E12, E15) were investigated by in situ hybridization with digoxigenin‐labeled RNA probes coupled with alkaline phosphatase detection. In testes from adult and immature mice (postnatal 2 and 3 weeks), α1H T‐type Ca2+ channel mRNA was expressed in all developing germ cells and sertoli cells. On E9 and E12, tissues of the central nervous system, such as the telencephalon, expressed α1H T‐type Ca2+ channel mRNA. On E15, signals were detected throughout all organs of the embryo. These findings indicate that the expression of α1H T‐type Ca2+ channels is spatio‐temporally regulated during spermatogenesis and organogenesis.
Strategies for finding good local guides in multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO)

In multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) methods, selecting the best local guide (the global best particle) for each particle of the population from a set of Pareto-optimal solutions has a great impact on the convergence and diversity of solutions, especially when optimizing problems with high number of objectives. This paper introduces the Sigma method as a new method for finding best local guides for each particle of the population. The Sigma method is implemented and is compared with another method, which uses the strategy of an existing MOPSO method for finding the local guides. These methods are examined for different test functions and the results are compared with the results of a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA).
Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Test Anxiety Scale for Elementary Students (TAS-E) Scores

The psychometric properties of the Test Anxiety Scale for Elementary Students (TAS-E) scores were examined. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the responses of 997 students in Grades 2 to 6 on the TAS-E. The results of the EFA produced a four-factor solution: Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behavior, and Worry. Gender differences were also found on each factor, except the Social Concerns factor. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed on the TAS-E scores with a sample of 421 elementary students. The CFA results provided support for the four-factor solution in Study 1. The results also indicated that the TAS-E scores had adequate internal consistency reliability and test score stability. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of the TAS-E scores was found.
Individualistic orientation and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence

Purpose – Interpersonal influences play a major role in shaping consumer choice decisions. This is particularly evident in the case of services, where intangibility and variability add to the decision difficulty. While all consumers are susceptible to interpersonal influence, people differ in the extent of their susceptibility to interpersonal influence, with some individuals being chronically more susceptible to social influence than others. Seeks to speculate in this paper that, in addition to individual differences, susceptibility to interpersonal influence also varies systematically across cultures with varying degrees of individualism‐collectivism.Design/methodolog/approach – Hypothesis is tested by investigating and comparing the structure, properties, and mean levels of the susceptibility to interpersonal influence scale across samples of French and English Canadian consumers.Findings – It is found that: French Canadians are significantly more susceptible to normative influence than English Canadia.
Perpetrators, Victims, and Observers of Violence

The purposes of this analysis were (a) to compare the prevalence of violence among a sample of chronic drug users (CDUs) and non-chronic drug users (NCDUs) in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and (b) to determine the level of risk of becoming a victim, perpetrator, or observer of violence if one uses drugs. In interviews, 1,479 CDUs and NCDUs provided information about their experiences with violence. CDUs were significantly more likely than NCDUs to have perpetrated all violent acts. However, CDUs were also significantly more likely than NCDUs to have been the victim or observer of violent acts as well. This finding should shift our views of CDUs to include the latter roles. Specific intervention strategies are recommended to facilitate violence reduction in this population.
An minorization-maximization based hybrid precoding in NOMA-mMIMO

In order to satisfy rate requirement in the enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) application group, wireless technologies as Air Interfaces (AI) are widely studied, including non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO). In this paper, we propose a Minorization-Maximization (MM) based hybrid precoding scheme in NOMA-mMIMO system. Firstly, we introduce a user clustering scheme which allocates two suitable users in a group. Then, a power allocation scheme is designed to achieve the power difference required by NOMA for successive interference cancellation (SIC) to distinguish user data within a cluster. The performance of the MM based hybrid precoding is thus significantly enhanced with NOMA and mMIMO. Numerical results validate our proposed scheme with better performance on average sum rate and user fairness than the conventional zero forcing (ZF) hybrid precoding mMIMO system. It is observed that the more antennas equipped on the base station (BS), the higher average sum rate the system achieves.
Optimal Decision Making on the Basis of Evidence Represented in Spike Trains

Experimental data indicate that perceptual decision making involves integration of sensory evidence in certain cortical areas. Theoretical studies have proposed that the computation in neural decision circuits approximates statistically optimal decision procedures (e.g., sequential probability ratio test) that maximize the reward rate in sequential choice tasks. However, these previous studies assumed that the sensory evidence was represented by continuous values from gaussian distributions with the same variance across alternatives. In this article, we make a more realistic assumption that sensory evidence is represented in spike trains described by the Poisson processes, which naturally satisfy the mean-variance relationship observed in sensory neurons. We show that for such a representation, the neural circuits involving cortical integrators and basal ganglia can approximate the optimal decision procedures for two and multiple alternative choice tasks.
Whole grains and human health

Epidemiological studies find that whole-grain intake is protective against cancer, CVD, diabetes, and obesity. Despite recommendations to consume three servings of whole grains daily, usual intake in Western countries is only about one serving/d. Whole grains are rich in nutrients and phytochemicals with known health benefits. Whole grains have high concentrations of dietary fibre, resistant starch, and oligosaccharides. Whole grains are rich in antioxidants including trace minerals and phenolic compounds and these compounds have been linked to disease prevention. Other protective compounds in whole grains include phytate, phyto-oestrogens such as lignan, plant stanols and sterols, and vitamins and minerals. Published whole-grain feeding studies report improvements in biomarkers with whole-grain consumption, such as weight loss, blood-lipid improvement, and antioxidant protection. Although it is difficult to separate the protective properties of whole grains from dietary fibre and other components, the disease protection seen from whole grains in prospective epidemiological studies far exceeds the protection from isolated nutrients and phytochemicals in whole grains.