Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Fuzzy Description Logic for Multimedia Knowledge Representation

Today quite a lot of multimedia systems and applications use knowledge representation formalisms to encode and reason with knowledge that exists within the multimedia documents. The goal of this direction is to narrow the semantic gab between the content of a multimedia object, as perceived by a human being, and as “viewed” by an information system. Ontologies are quite often used to capture such a knowledge. Ontology languages are based on Description Logics, which though they are expressive enough, they lack the ability to encode and reason with imprecise knowledge. To this end we extend the DL language SI with fuzzy set theory and provide sound and complete reasoning algorithms for the extended language.
Feasibility of Secondary Networks: Analysis Methodology and Quantitative Study of Cellular and Wi-Fi-Like TVWS Deployments

Recent rulings by US and UK regulators allowing access to unused portions of TV spectrum have elicited high hopes for the practical value of these TV whitespaces (TVWS) for secondary exploitation. However, this optimism has been largely fueled by rather simple early studies, which do not consider all the system aspects in sufficient detail; the few early experimental works reported are proprietary and consider only a small number of nodes, whereas the existing more sophisticated theoretical studies focus on singular aspects of secondary spectrum access in isolation from the overall system interactions. In this paper we study quantitatively the deployment of secondary networks in TVWS by considering two archetypal candidate systems: LTE-like cellular and Wi-Fi-like networks. We develop a systematic framework for the performance evaluation of secondary networks, which we then use to obtain realistic estimates of the performance of our example systems. The secondary network performance assessment methodology demonstrated in this paper can be directly applied for other regions and systems. Our work explicitly takes into account limitations arising from aggregate interference, user density, and specific secondary transceiver characteristics. We argue that a systematic analysis, jointly considering all of these aspects, is key for obtaining realistic and robust results on the estimated value of whitespace spectrum. Our detailed system-level approach reveals a much more conservative picture of the realistic benefit of TVWS deployments than what has been commonly assumed thus far. We find that cellular TVWS networks have limited capabilities, but that a macro-cellular-only network may be a viable option for traffic offloading. Our results also show that Wi-Fi-like secondary deployments in TVWS, although increasing coverage range, lead to increased congestion, which limits the system capacity.
Verifiable Privacy-Preserving Multi-Keyword Text Search in the Cloud Supporting Similarity-Based Ranking

With the growing popularity of cloud computing, huge amount of documents are outsourced to the cloud for reduced management cost and ease of access. Although encryption helps protecting user data confidentiality, it leaves the well-functioning yet practically-efficient secure search functions over encrypted data a challenging problem. In this paper, we present a verifiable privacy-preserving multi-keyword text search (MTS) scheme with similarity-based ranking to address this problem. To support multi-keyword search and search result ranking, we propose to build the search index based on term frequency- and the vector space model with cosine similarity measure to achieve higher search result accuracy. To improve the search efficiency, we propose a tree-based index structure and various adaptive methods for multi-dimensional (MD) algorithm so that the practical search efficiency is much better than that of linear search. To further enhance the search privacy, we propose two secure index schemes to meet the stringent privacy requirements under strong threat models, i.e., known ciphertext model and known background model. In addition, we devise a scheme upon the proposed index tree structure to enable authenticity check over the returned search results. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed schemes through extensive experimental evaluation.
Vertical Search using User-Generated Content

The online news landscape has been greatly affected by the emergence of user-generated content, as the general public summarise, discuss and comment upon news stories in real-time. Meanwhile, Web search engines serve millions of queries relating to news events each day, which could benefit from this new content. In this thesis, we investigate how user-generated content can enhance the news vertical aspect of a universal Web search engine, such that news-related queries can be satisfied more accurately, comprehensively and in a more timely manner. The aim is to provide end-users with an aggregate search result ranking that provides increased relevance and coverage of events for news-related queries. In particular, we focus on improving the search result ranking for those news-related queries that cannot be easily satisfied by newswire articles, either because the event that the user is searching for has just broken and hence no news articles have yet been published, or because current newswire articles are insufficiently detailed or out-of-date. To do so, we propose a news search framework to describe the news vertical aspect of a universal web search engine, comprised of four components, each providing a different piece of functionality. The top events identification component identifies the most important events that are happening at any given moment using discussion in user-generated content streams. The news query classification component classifies incoming queries as news-related or not in real-time. The ranking news-related content component finds and ranks relevant content for news-related user queries from multiple streams of news and user-generated content. Finally, the news-related content integration component aggregates the previously ranked content for the user query into the Web search ranking. For each component, we propose novel approaches that use user-generated content to enhance each. In particular, for top events identification, we propose a fully automatic real-time approach for the identification of currently important news-related events based upon voting theory. For news query classification, we propose a real-time classification approach that leverages recent discussions from multiple parallel news and user-generated content sources. To rank news-related content, we experiment with novel machine learned approaches that leverage the unique characteristics of the different user-generated sources used when ranking. Meanwhile, for news-related
Towards content trust of web resources

Trust is an integral part of the Semantic Web architecture. While most prior work focuses on entity-centered issues such as authentication and reputation, it does not model the content, i.e. the nature and use of the information being exchanged. This paper discusses content trust as an aggregate of other trust measures that have been previously studied. The paper introduces several factors that users consider in deciding whether to trust the content provided by a Web resource. Many of these factors are hard to capture in practice, since they would require a large amount of user input. Our goal is to discern which of these factors could be captured in practice with minimal user interaction in order to maximize the system's trust estimates. The paper also describes a simulation environment that we have designed to study alternative models of content trust.
Universal Mutual Information Privacy Guarantees for Smart Meters

Smart meters enable improvements in electricity distribution system efficiency at some cost in customer privacy. Users with home batteries can mitigate this privacy loss by applying charging policies that mask their underlying energy use. A battery charging policy is proposed and shown to provide universal privacy guarantees subject to a constraint on energy cost. The guarantee bounds our strategy's maximal information leakage from the user to the utility provider under general stochastic models of user energy consumption. The policy construction adapts coding strategies for non-probabilistic permuting channels to this privacy problem.
Non-Turing Computers and Non-Turing Computability

A true Turing machine (TM) requires an infinitely long paper tape. Thus a TM can be housed in the infinite world of Newtonian spacetime (the spacetime of common sense), but not necessarily in our world, because our world-at least according to our best spacetime theory, general relativity-may be finite. All the same, one can argue for the "existence" of a TM on the basis that there is no such housing problem in some other relativistic worlds that are similar ("close") to our world. But curiously enough-and this is the main point of this paper-some of these close worlds have a special spacetime structure that allows TMs to perform certain Turing unsolvable tasks. For example, in one kind of spacetime a TM can be used to solve first-order predicate logic and the halting problem. And in a more complicated spacetime, TMs can be used to decide arithmetic. These new computers serve to show that Church's thesis is a thoroughly contingent claim. Moreover, since these new computers share the fundamental properties of a TM in ordinary operation (e.g. intuitive, finitely programmed, limited in computational capability), a computability theory based on these non-Turing computers is no less worthy of investigation than orthodox computability theory. Some ideas about this new mathematical theory are given.
Leveraging Rapid Community-Based HIV Testing Campaigns for Non-Communicable Diseases in Rural Uganda

Background The high burden of undiagnosed HIV in sub-Saharan Africa limits treatment and prevention efforts. Community-based HIV testing campaigns can address this challenge and provide an untapped opportunity to identify non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We tested the feasibility and diagnostic yield of integrating NCD and communicable diseases into a rapid HIV testing and referral campaign for all residents of a rural Ugandan parish. Methods A five-day, multi-disease campaign, offering diagnostic, preventive, treatment and referral services, was performed in May 2011. Services included point-of-care screening for HIV, malaria, TB, hypertension and diabetes. Finger-prick diagnostics eliminated the need for phlebotomy. HIV-infected adults met clinic staff and peer counselors on-site; those with CD4≤100/µL underwent intensive counseling and rapid referral for antiretroviral therapy (ART). Community participation, case-finding yield, and linkage to care three months post-campaign were analyzed. Results Of 6,300 residents, 2,323/3,150 (74%) adults and 2,020/3,150 (69%) children participated. An estimated 95% and 52% of adult female and male residents participated respectively. Adult HIV prevalence was 7.8%, with 46% of HIV-infected adults newly diagnosed. Thirty-nine percent of new HIV diagnoses linked to care. In a pilot subgroup with CD4≤100, 83% linked and started ART within 10 days. Malaria was identified in 10% of children, and hypertension and diabetes in 28% and 3.5% of adults screened, respectively. Sixty-five percent of hypertensives and 23% of diabetics were new diagnoses, of which 43% and 61% linked to care, respectively. Screening identified suspected TB in 87% of HIV-infected and 19% of HIV-uninfected adults; 52% percent of HIV-uninfected TB suspects linked to care. Conclusions In an integrated campaign engaging 74% of adult residents, we identified a high burden of undiagnosed HIV, hypertension and diabetes. Improving male attendance and optimizing linkage to care require new approaches. The campaign demonstrates the feasibility of integrating hypertension, diabetes and communicable diseases into HIV initiatives.
Demographic and Evolutionary Consequences of Selective Mortality: Predictions from an Eco-Genetic Model for Smallmouth Bass

Abstract We use an individual-based eco-genetic model to examine the demographic and evolutionary consequences of selective mortality on a species with parental care, the smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu. Our analyses are grounded in a long-term (1936-2003) empirical study of the dynamics of two populations that differ widely in both density and life history. The model we construct extends previous approaches by including phenotypic plasticity in age and size at maturation, by permitting density-dependent somatic growth, and by analyzing how costs associated with parental care alter model predictions. We show that, first, additional mortality on age-0 individuals applied for 100 years causes reduced population abundance and biomass, faster somatic growth rates, and phenotypic plasticity toward slightly larger sizes at maturation. Second, mortality on individuals above a minimum size limit, also applied for 100 years, has a small influence on population abundance and somatic growth, causes a reduction .
Automatic estimation of reverberation time from binaural signals

An estimate of the reverberation time (RT) at the space of usage can be useful in many communications applications, such as augmented reality audio and intelligent hearing aid devices. This paper presents a method to measure the reverberation time from two microphone signals. The analysis is based on locating suitable sound segments for RT analysis by using short-time energy and inter-channel coherence measures, followed by the Schroeder integration method, line fitting and finally statistical analysis. The line fitting is used to estimate the slope of the decay. In this paper, we propose a method where the slope is estimated in the region that maximizes the correlation coefficient of the least squares method. This makes the estimation results more accurate than if fixed limits, e.g., -5 to -25 dB on the decay curve, were used, thanks to the absence of the systematic error caused by bending of the decay curves. The system performance was evaluated using a real-time version of the algorithm.
Distributed Control for a Class of Spatially Interconnected Discrete-time Systems

Abstract This paper considers the analysis and synthesis of a spatially distributed controller for discrete-time spatially interconnected parameter-varying system. The system under consideration has both discrete time and space dynamics. The concept of quadratic separators (Iwasaki and Shibata, 2001), (Chughtai and Werner, 2007) has been extended to compute a measure of worst-case performance for such systems by solving an LMI problem. The use of quadratic separator allows a systematic search for a parameter dependent Lyapunov function, thus resulting in less conservative controllers. The problem of synthesizing controllers leads to a nonlinear matrix inequality, and a hybrid evolutionary-LMI approach to solving this problem, based on LMI solvers and genetic algorithms, is proposed in this paper. A design example illustrates the efficiency of the proposed method.
Understanding the Psychosocial Well-being of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC): The Intersection of Research and Policy

This paper identifies the demographic and behavioral predictors that influence the psychosocial health of orphans. A study was conducted using data from 1,851 children across six sites in Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, and Tanzania, who are enrolled in the Positive Outcomes for Orphans Study (POFO). The quantitative analysis found that maternal orphans, double orphans, and children who engage in labor outside of the home were particularly vulnerable to psychosocial distress. In addition, the multivariate models showed that variations in site and living arrangements were significantly associated with the subjects’ psychosocial outcomes. By synthesizing these findings with literature on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), this paper recommends forging an international framework for psychosocial programming and tailoring country-level programs to address the individual, social, and cultural predictors of psychosocial distress.
The Impact of Expansive Arterial Remodeling on Clinical Presentation in Carotid Artery Disease: A Multidetector CT Angiography Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Atherosclerotic arterial remodeling has been described in the coronary circulation but has not been studied extensively for carotid atherosclerosis. The purpose of our study was to examine the association between carotid artery remodeling and clinical presentation in patients with significant stenosis by using multidetector row CT (MDCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred eight patients with ≥50% stenosis (North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial criteria) by MDCT angiography between January 2004 and June 2006 were identified. The study group included 37 symptomatic (65.9 ± 13.0 years; 12 women; stenosis, 81.5 ± 12.2%; 17 with stroke; 15 with transient ischemic attack; 5 with amaurosis fugax) and 71 asymptomatic patients (70.5 ± 10.5 years; 28 women; stenosis, 78.8 ± 11.1%). Remodeling ratio (RR) was calculated by dividing the outer vessel circumference at the site of greatest stenosis by a normal reference-segment vessel circumference. Maximum vessel thickness (MxVT) and eccentricity index (EI) of the plaque, defined as maximal thickness/minimal thickness at the site of greatest luminal narrowing, were also determined. Data were analyzed by using an independent t test. RESULTS: The RR was significantly higher in symptomatic patients (1.64 ± 0.44) than in asymptomatic patients (1.41 ± 0.5) (P=.02). There was no significant difference in MxVT in symptomatic (5.9 ± 2.1 mm) and asymptomatic patients (5.6 ± 2.4 mm) (P=.45) and no significant difference in EI (symptomatic, 4.7 ± 2.7; asymptomatic, 4.3 ± 2.2; P=.38). CONCLUSION: In this series of subjects with significant internal carotid artery stenosis, expansive carotid remodeling was significantly greater in patients with cerebral ischemic symptoms than in asymptomatic patients. The extent of expansive remodeling may indicate underlying atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability. MDCT has a role in the evaluation of carotid artery disease beyond examining luminal stenosis.
Institutional, Subcultural, and Individual Determinants of Same-Sex Sexual Contact Among College Women

While the collegiate hookup literature identifies the prevalence and conditions under which women engage in same-sex sexual behaviors, less is understood about the macro- and mesolevel features of universities predictive of women’s engagement in these behaviors. How do predictors of same-sex contact differ for women who report engagement in nongenital versus genital sexual acts? Using the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS), this study examined 5,069 women from 21 U.S. colleges and universities who reported at least one same-sex encounter in their lifetime to empirically evaluate how same-sex sexual histories are predicted by university structure and membership in student subcultures. Results find subcultural participation to have a regulative effect on what types of sexual behaviors women engaged in with other women. While Greek-affiliated women were significantly more likely to have engaged in solely nongenital sexual behavior, women in team-based athletics were more likely to report a genital sexual history with women. This study’s focus on women’s sexual behaviors as opposed to sexual identity affirms the influence of institutional contexts, subcultural dynamics, and their variability across U.S. campuses in producing the conditions and opportunities for varied forms of sexual interactions among college women.
Targeted interrogation of copy number variation using SCIMMkit

Summary: Copy number variants (CNVs) contribute substantially to human genomic diversity, and development of accurate and efficient methods for CNV genotyping is a central problem in exploring human genotype–phenotype associations. SCIMMkit provides a robust, integrated implementation of three previously validated algorithms [SCIMM (SNP-Conditional Mixture Modeling), SCIMM-Search and SCOUT (SNP-Conditional OUTlier detection)] for targeted interrogation of CNVs using Illumina Infinium II and GoldenGate SNP assays. SCIMMkit is applicable to standardized genome-wide SNP arrays and customized multiplexed SNP panels, providing economy, efficiency and flexibility in experimental design. Availability: Source code and documentation are available for noncommercial use at http://droog.gs. washington.edu/scimmkit. Contact: troyz@u.washington.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION FOR DISASTER AND RESCUE: A REVIEW.

Gaurav Jain 1 , Abhijit Kulshrestra 2 and N. L. Vyas 3 . 1. PhD Scholar, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Jodhpur National University, Jodhpur, India. 2. Associate Professor, Sobha Saria Group of Institute, Sekar, Rajasthan, India. 3. Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Jodhpur National University, Jodhpur, India. Manuscript Info Abstract . Manuscript History
Spontaneous Inference of Personality Traits and Effects on Memory for Online Profiles

As users navigate online social spaces, they encounter numerous personal profiles, each displaying a unique constellation of attributes. How do users make sense of this information? In our first study, we provide evidence that users spontaneously make personality trait inferences about people from profiles they encounter online, and for certain profiles, preferentially remember this inferred trait content over actual profile content. Study 2 uses several measures of profile coherence to assess how the coherence of user profiles interacts with trait inferences to influence memory for profiles. Findings provide a better understanding of specific profile content that makes profiles memorable and the social-cognitive process utilized when extracting information from profiles.
Psychological Well-Being and Family Environment of Siblings of Children with Life Threatening Illness.

BACKGROUND The psychological well-being of siblings of children with life threatening illness remains largely uncharted. Pediatric cancer research suggests that a supportive family environment may protect the psychological well-being of siblings. OBJECTIVE We hypothesized that (1) siblings of pediatric palliative care patients would show clinical/behavioral scores that were elevated but that rates of serious psychopathology would be comparable to the general population of children their age; and (2) higher family functioning scores would be associated with lower clinical scores and higher adaptive scores for these siblings. METHODS We conducted an observational study with families in which a patient receiving palliative care had one or more siblings between the ages of 6 and 11. Parents completed the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) to assess the siblings' psychological well-being and the Family Assessment Device (FAD) to assess the family environment. RESULTS Twenty-four parents reported data for 30 siblings. Only three siblings scored in the clinical range on a BASC-2 composite clinical scale, and 11 siblings scored in the at-risk range on one or more composite scales. Higher FAD scores predicted significantly higher externalization composite clinical scores (7.54, 95% CI: 1.12, 13.97, p < 0.05) and significantly higher behavioral composite scores (7.88, 95% CI: 1.55, 14.21, p < 0.05). DISCUSSION Siblings of pediatric palliative care patients are not experiencing lower psychological well-being than the general population. The prediction that a positive family environment would be associated with higher levels of psychological health was supported.