Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asymptotically optimal priority policies for indexable and nonindexable restless bandits

We study the asymptotic optimal control of multi-class restless bandits. A restless bandit is a controllable stochastic process whose state evolution depends on whether or not the bandit is made active. Since finding the optimal control is typically intractable, we propose a class of priority policies that are proved to be asymptotically optimal under a global attractor property and a technical condition. We consider both a fixed population of bandits as well as a dynamic population where bandits can depart and arrive. As an example of a dynamic population of bandits, we analyze a multi-class M/M/S+M queue for which we show asymptotic optimality of an index policy. We combine fluid-scaling techniques with linear programming results to prove that when bandits are indexable, Whittle's index policy is included in our class of priority policies. We thereby generalize a result of Weber and Weiss (1990) about asymptotic optimality of Whittle's index policy to settings with (i) several classes of bandits, (ii) arrivals of new bandits, and (iii) multiple actions. Indexability of the bandits is not required for our results to hold. For non-indexable bandits we describe how to select priority policies from the class of asymptotically optimal policies and present numerical evidence that, outside the asymptotic regime, the performance of our proposed priority policies is nearly optimal.
Just-in-time inventions and the development of standards: How firms use opportunistic strategies to obtain standard-essential patents (SEPs)

Recent years have seen large-scale litigation of standard-essential patents (SEPs) between companies like Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Google, HTC, Microsoft, Kodak, and Research in Motion. Such patents are particular because they are, by definition, indispensable to any company wishing to implement a technical standard. Such patents bring substantial benefits to their owners and firms that do not have such patents in their own portfolio are sometimes prepared to spend billions of dollars purchasing them and/or signing a license agreement with each of the owners. In addition, the owners have other benefits in financial returns (Blind et al., 2011) and stock market returns (Aggarwal et al., 2011). Thus, firms have huge incentives to obtain essential patents. While there is already a considerable body of literature on the possible effects of SEP ownership on competition (e.g. patent holdup, royalty stacking), not much work has yet been done on how firms obtain such patents in the first place. Notable exceptions are the studies of Omachi (2004), who shows how firms use patent continuations to extend the scope of existing patents in order to make them essential to the standard.
Higher Education in Environmental Sciences: The Effects of Incorporating Expert Information in Group Discussions of a Transdisciplinary Case Study

This article analyzes the impact of expert information on learning effects of students who participated in a transdisciplinary case study as part of a curriculum of Higher Education in Environmental Sciences. 80 master program students of Environmental Natural Sciences at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in their fourth year were involved in a case study on ecological regional planning. The study included a field experiment, which examined how different formats of group discussions influence the students' judgments on impact relations (IRs) between variables relevant to the case. The formats were (a) conventional group discussions, versus (b) group discussions including the preliminary disclosure of expert judgments. The analysis showed that in the experimental and the control groups, the students' individual judgments approached the expert judgments in the course of the discussions. This tendency was significantly stronger in the groups where the expert estimates were disclosed. However, there were only minor differences between the two conditions with respect to the students' confidence in their judgments. A longitudinal analysis comparing the students' judgments at the beginning vs. at the end of the case study showed that the judgments approached the expert judgments during the case study. This was true for IRs where expert information was given as part of the experiment, as well as for IRs where no expert information was given. The discussion addresses possible didactical conclusions and perspectives for further research.
A pseudo-task design in multi-task learning deep neural network for speaker recognition

Deep neural network (DNN) technique has been successfully applied in image and automatic speech recognition (ASR) fields due to its efficiency to learn robust and invariant features for pattern recognition. Recently, it has been applied to learn speaker specific acoustic features for speaker recognition. However, due to large number of parameters to be optimized in DNN model and limited training data, it is easy for the DNN to be overfitting with a local solution. The overfitted model has a weak generalization ability on testing data sets. Multitask learning framework is proved to improve DNN model generalization, but how to design a secondary task for speaker recognition is not a trivial work. In this study, under the multi-task learning framework, besides the main task with speaker ID labels in training, a pseudo-task as an auxiliary task was designed with labels obtained from an unsupervised learning algorithm. Speaker recognition experiments were carried out to test the proposed multi-task learning DNN model. The results showed that adding the pseudo-task in the multi-task learning, the performance of the main task was improved.
Components of artistic style: turning people into pigeons

Family resemblance describes the covarying information across members of a category. In an attempt to demonstrate human categorization based on family resemblance— that is, on the style of a category, it seems that categorical definition must be made an incidental part of the task so that participants employ a strategy described by Brooks (1978) as “nonanalytic cognition”. Eigenvectors obtained from the dimension reduction of pixel-maps describe the underlying structural variation across a set of images. Partially reconstructed images made from a subset of their derived eigenvectors were used as stimuli in investigating judgements of style, as they appear to be without human-nameable features. The following exploratory experiments provide evidence for spontaneous judgements based on family resemblance using as little information as is contained in the first 10 eigenvectors of Monet and Picasso paintings.
Toward a Hierarchical Bayesian Framework for Modelling the Effect of Regional Diversity on Household Expenditure

Problem statement: Household expenditure analysis was highly demanding for government in order to formulate its policy. Since household data was viewed as hierarchical structure with household nested in its regional residence whi ch varies inter region, the contextual welfare analysis was needed. This study proposed to develop a hierarchical model for estimating household expenditure in an attempt to measure the effect of regional diversity by taking into account district characteristics and household attributes using a Ba yesian approach. Approach: Due to the variation of household expenditure data which was captured by the three parameters of Log-Normal (LN3) distribution, the model was developed based on LN3 distribution. Data used in this study was household expenditure data in Central Java, Indones ia. Since, data were unbalanced and hierarchical models using a classical approach work well for bal anced data, thus the estimation process was done by using Bayesian method with MCMC and Gibbs sampling. Results: The hierarchical Bayesian model based on LN3 distribution could be implemented to explain the variation of household expenditure using district characteristics and hous ehold attributes. Conclusion: The model shows that districts characteristics which include demographic and economic conditions of districts and the availability of public facilities which are strongl y associated with a dimension of human development index, i.e., economic, education and he alth, do affect to household expenditure through its household attributes.
Facial and Verbal Measures of Children’s Emotions and Empathy

The relation between children’s emotional expressions and their reported experience of emotions is relevant to multicomponent models of both emotion and empathy development. Children (N 73) in three age groups (5-, 9-, and 13-year-olds) participated in a study of their facial and verbal responses to emotionally evocative videotapes. Children were unobtrusively videotaped while they watched these stimuli, and their facial expressions were coded. Children were also interviewed to determine the emotions they attributed to stimulus persons and to themselves. There was significant but modest convergence between facial and verbal measures of emotion, an important finding given the paucity of independent research in this area. In addition, two nonconvergent indices of empathy derived from facial and verbal measures showed some functional similarities in their relations with other variables. On the basis of similar results from other laboratories, we argue that efforts to find converging measures of emotion and empathy should be redirected to study the semi-independent development of facial and verbal emotional responses to the same events.
Thymus-leukemia (TL) antigens of the mouse. Analysis of TL mRNA and TL cDNA TL+ and TL- strains

A thymus-leukemia (TL)-specific probe, pTL1, has been generated from a TL-coding gene of BALB/c mice. Multiple species of TL mRNA were detected in TL+ cells by Northern blot analysis with pTL1, and different Tla haplotypes could be distinguished on the basis of characteristic patterns of TL mRNA. No TL-related message was found in normal or leukemic TL- cells, including thymocytes from Tlab mice. However, TL mRNA could be detected in TL+ leukemias occurring in Tlab mice. A cDNA library has been made from ASL1 (a TL+ leukemia of A mice [Tlaa]), and pTL1+ clones have been sequenced. At least three structurally distinct TL genes are expressed in ASL1. Sequence comparison of TL genes from three Tla haplotypes indicates that TL genes are highly conserved (greater than 90% homology) and are more distantly related to H-2 genes. Several polyadenylation sites have been found in the 3' untranslated region of TL genes, and differential polyadenylation contributes to the size heterogeneity of TL transcripts. The predicted amino acid sequence of TL products indicates that TL and H-2 are similar in domain structure and disulfide bonds, but differ in glycosylation sites and in cytoplasmic domain sequences.
Solving hard instances of FPGA routing with a congestion-optimal restrained-norm path search space

The negotiated congestion mechanism forms the basis of most published FPGA routers today, with many routers projecting congestion and any other requirements onto a scalar search space to evaluate candidate paths. In this paper, we study the numerical stability of these scalar projections as the number of iterations increase. We show that in these scalar search spaces the norm of path costs increase exponentially with the number of iterations, leading to floating-point absorption and representation problems in computer arithmetic. We propose a novel two-component totally-ordered monoid space for path candidate evaluation, that guarantees the A* search finds a path with minimum congestion cost, and has linear norm growth with respect to the number of iterations. We demonstrate the efficacy of our new algorithm by testing on hard open routing problems in the FPGA Place and Route Challenge. The router successfully found 18 new routing solutions to instances that were previously unroutable, reducing the lowest track count to route 20 standard FPGA routing benchmarks by 10.2%.
High-performance microprocessor design

Three generations of Alpha microprocessors have been designed using a proven custom design methodology. The performance of these microprocessors was optimized by focusing on high-frequency design. The Alpha instruction set architecture facilitates high clock speed, and the chip organization for each generation was carefully chosen to meet critical paths. Digital has developed six generations of CMOS technology optimized for high-frequency design. Complex circuit styles were used extensively to meet aggressive cycle time goals. CAD tools were developed internally to support these designs. This paper discusses some of the technologies that have enabled Alpha microprocessors to achieve high performance.
Putting Bayes to sleep

We consider sequential prediction algorithms that are given the predictions from a set of models as inputs. If the nature of the data is changing over time in that different models predict well on different segments of the data, then adaptivity is typically achieved by mixing into the weights in each round a bit of the initial prior (kind of like a weak restart). However, what if the favored models in each segment are from a small subset, i.e. the data is likely to be predicted well by models that predicted well before? Curiously, fitting such "sparse composite models" is achieved by mixing in a bit of all the past posteriors. This self-referential updating method is rather peculiar, but it is efficient and gives superior performance on many natural data sets. Also it is important because it introduces a long-term memory: any model that has done well in the past can be recovered quickly. While Bayesian interpretations can be found for mixing in a bit of the initial prior, no Bayesian interpretation is known for mixing in past posteriors. We build atop the "specialist" framework from the online learning literature to give the Mixing Past Posteriors update a proper Bayesian foundation. We apply our method to a well-studied multitask learning problem and obtain a new intriguing efficient update that achieves a significantly better bound.
Proposal for training embedded software engineers using a real-time kernel implementation practice program

One of the important issues recognized recently is how to educate embedded-software engineers. With embedded systems, the real-time kernel plays an important role in basic controlling. This paper proposes an implementation practice program for embedded software engineers to be trained so that each is able to write the program code of a real-time kernel and check to see how it can function to support the design goals. Described herein also are the new real-time kernel, µK, that was specifically developed for the training use, and the results of having applied it for the implementation practice training program with µK at the "School of Monodzukuri (Manufacturing) 2008 for embedded system" (as organized by the Embedded Technology Center at Iwate Prefectural University).
A computational theory of vocabulary acquisition

As part of an interdisciplinary project to develop a computational cognitive model of a reader of narrative text, we are developing a computational theory of how natural-language-understanding systems can automatically acquire new vocabulary by determining from context the meaning of words that are unknown, misunderstood, or used in a new sense. ‘Context’ includes surrounding text, grammatical information, and background knowledge, but no external sources. Our thesis is that the meaning of such a word can be determined from context, can be revised upon further encounters with the word, “converges” to a dictionary-like definition if enough context has been provided and there have been enough exposures to the word, and eventually “settles down” to a “steady state” that is always subject to revision upon further encounters with the word. The system is being implemented in the SNePS knowledgerepresentation and reasoning system. This essay has been published as a chapter in Iwanska, Łucja, & Shapiro, Stuart C. (2000), Natural Language Processing and Knowledge Representation: Language for Knowledge and Knowledge for Language (Menlo Park, CA/Cambridge, MA: AAAI Press/MIT Press): 347–375. All citations should be to the published version. The present version is Technical Report 98-05 (Buffalo: SUNY Buffalo Department of Computer Science) and Technical Report 98-1 (Buffalo: SUNY Buffalo Center for Cognitive Science). Unlike the published version, this one has only minimal typographical errors, whereas the published version is maximal in that regard; errata for the published version are available at [http://www.cse. buffalo.edu/∼rapaport/papers.html#krnlp].
Provable Security: How Feasible Is It?

Strong, machine-checked security proofs of operating systems have been in the too hard basket long enough. They will still be too hard for large mainstream operating systems, but even for systems designed from the ground up for security they have been counted as infeasible. There are high-level formal models, nice security properties, ways of architecting and engineering secure systems, but no implementation level proofs yet, not even with the recent verification of the seL4 microkernel. This needs to change.
Assessment of the Brain's Macro- and Micro-Circulatory Blood Flow Responses to CO2 via Transfer Function Analysis

Objectives: At present, there is no standard bedside method for assessing cerebral autoregulation (CA) with high temporal resolution. We combined the two methods most commonly used for this purpose, transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD, macro-circulation level), and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS, micro-circulation level), in an attempt to identify the most promising approach. Methods: In eight healthy subjects (5 women; mean age, 38 ± 10 years), CA disturbance was achieved by adding carbon dioxide (CO2) to the breathing air. We simultaneously recorded end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2), blood pressure (BP; non-invasively at the fingertip), and cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) in both middle cerebral arteries using TCD and determined oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin levels using NIRS. For the analysis, we used transfer function calculations in the low-frequency band (0.07–0.15 Hz) to compare BP–CBFV, BP–oxygenated hemoglobin (OxHb), BP–tissue oxygenation index (TOI), CBFV–OxHb, and CBFV–TOI. Results: ETCO2 increased from 37 ± 2 to 44 ± 3 mmHg. The CO2-induced CBFV increase significantly correlated with the OxHb increase (R2 = 0.526, p < 0.001). Compared with baseline, the mean CO2 administration phase shift (in radians) significantly increased (p < 0.005) from –0.67 ± 0.20 to –0.51 ± 0.25 in the BP–CBFV system, and decreased from 1.21 ± 0.81 to −0.05 ± 0.91 in the CBFV–OxHb system, and from 0.94 ± 1.22 to −0.24 ± 1.0 in the CBFV–TOI system; no change was observed for BP–OxHb (0.38 ± 1.17 to 0.41 ± 1.42). Gain changed significantly only in the BP–CBFV system. The correlation between the ETCO2 change and phase change was higher in the CBFV–OxHb system [r = −0.60; 95% confidence interval (CI): −0.16, −0.84; p < 0.01] than in the BP–CBFV system (r = 0.52; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.08; p < 0.05). Conclusion: The transfer function characterizes the blood flow transition from macro- to micro-circulation by time delay only. The CBFV–OxHb system response with a broader phase shift distribution offers the prospect of a more detailed grading of CA responses. Whether this is of clinical relevance needs further studies in different patient populations.
The α7β0 Isoform of the Complement Regulator C4b-Binding Protein Induces a Semimature, Anti-Inflammatory State in Dendritic Cells

The classical pathway complement regulator C4b-binding protein (C4BP) is composed of two polypeptides (α- and β-chains), which form three plasma oligomers with different subunit compositions (α7β1, α7β0, and α6β1). We show in this article that the C4BP α7β0 isoform (hereafter called C4BP[β−] [C4BP lacking the β-chain]), overexpressed under acute-phase conditions, induces a semimature, tolerogenic state on human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) activated by a proinflammatory stimulus. C4BP isoforms containing β-chain (α7β1 and α6β1; C4BP[β+]) neither interfered with the normal maturation of DCs nor competed with C4BP(β−) activity on these cells. Immature DCs (iDCs) treated with C4BP(β−) retained high endocytic activity, but, upon LPS treatment, they did not upregulate surface expression of CD83, CD80, and CD86. Transcriptional profiling of these semimature DCs revealed that treatment with C4BP(β−) prevented the induction of IDO and BIC-1, whereas TGF-β1 expression was maintained to the level of iDCs. C4BP(β−)–treated DCs were also unable to release proinflammatory Th1 cytokines (IL-12, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8) and, conversely, increased IL-10 secretion. They prevented surface CCR7 overexpression and, accordingly, displayed reduced chemotaxis, being morphologically indistinguishable from iDCs. Moreover, C4BP(β−)-treated DCs failed to enhance allogeneic T cell proliferation, impairing IFN-γ production in these cells and, conversely, promoting CD4+CD127low/negCD25highFoxp3+ T cells. Deletion mutant analysis revealed that the complement control protein-6 domain of the α-chain is necessary for the tolerogenic activity of C4BP(β−). Our data demonstrate a novel anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory function of the complement regulator C4BP, suggesting a relevant role of the acute-phase C4BP(β−) isoform in a number of pathophysiological conditions and potential applications in autoimmunity and transplantation.
NoteVideo: facilitating navigation of blackboard-style lecture videos

Khan Academy's pre-recorded blackboard-style lecture videos attract millions of online users every month. However, current video navigation tools do not adequately support the kinds of goals that students typically have, like quickly finding a particular concept in a blackboard-style lecture video. This paper reports on the development and evaluation of the new NoteVideo and its improved version, NoteVideo+, systems for identifying the conceptual 'objects' of a blackboard-based video - and then creating a summarized image of the video and using it as an in-scene navigation interface that allows users to directly jump to the video frame where that object first appeared instead of navigating it linearly through time. The research consisted of iteratively implementing the system and then having users perform four different navigation tasks using three different interfaces: Scrubbing, Transcript, and NoteVideo. Results of the study show that participants perform significantly better on all four tasks while using the NoteVideo and its improved version - NoteVideo+ - as compared to others.
Investigating the Impact of Dialect Prestige on Lexical Decision

The speech signal encodes both a talker's message and indexical information about a talker's identity. Dialectal variation is one way in which non-linguistic information about a talker is conveyed through her speech. A talker's dialect tends to correlate strongly with her demographic background, and listeners are known to form beliefs about speakers based on their dialect alone: talkers of lower-status dialects are consistently downgraded on positively-valued attributes relative to talkers of canonical dialects. Hypothesizing that pre-formed beliefs about a low-status talker might impact optimal perception of her speech, this study investigated the influence of the relative prestige of talker dialect on listeners' behavior in three lexical decision experiments. The finding of significantly increased propensity to incorrectly reject words uttered in an arguably low-prestige variety of American English relative to both normative General American English and British English suggests that talker status may play a role in the success with which talker messages are perceived by listeners. These results as well as unexpected interactions of dialect and word frequency in some but not all experiments are discussed in the context of signal detection theory.