Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
User Profiling: Past, Future, and Applications

Users in social networks are often encouraged to complete their profile by providing personal attributes such as age, gender, interest, income, etc. Additionally, users are likely to join interest-based groups that are devoted to various topics: " 2016 University Graduates " , " Accordions Singa-pore " , etc. These profiles and groups are often used as a basis for rendering better online services, marketing, and advertisement. However, in practice, the majority of users are reluctant to provide actual personal attributes, while the group participation is often relevant to their friendship connections, rather than interests. As a solution, user profiling at the individual and group level is explored to mine the demography and mobility information of a user. In this paper, we discuss different user profiling approaches on social networks, highlight the challenges, techniques, and future trends. We explain the weakness and strength of these methods and introduce an analytic platform to bridge the gap between social media users, business intelligence and the Big Data.
The coding and annotation of multimodal dialogue acts

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in annotating linguistic data at the semantic level, including the annotation of dialogue corpus data. The annotation scheme developed as international standard for dialogue act annotation ISO 24617-2 is based on the DIT++ scheme (Bunt, 2006; 2009) which combines the multidimensional DIT scheme (Bunt, 1994) with concepts from DAMSL (Allen and Core , 1997) and various other schemes. This scheme is designed in a such way that it can be applied not only to spoken dialogue, as is the case for most of the previously defined dialogue annotation schemes, but also to multimodal dialogue. This paper describes how the ISO 24617-2 annotation scheme can be used, together with the DIT++ method of multidimensional segmentation', to annotate nonverbal and multimodal dialogue behaviour. We analyse the fundamental distinction between (a) the coding of surface features; (b) form-related semantic classification; and (c) semantic annotation in terms of dialogue acts, supported by experimental studies of (a) and (b). We discuss examples of specification languages for representing the results of each of these activities, show how dialogue act annotations can be attached to XML representations of functional segments of multimodal data.
Bright Lyman Break Galaxy Candidates in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey First Data Release

We report the discovery of six compact starburst galaxy candidates with redshifts 2.3 < z < 2.8 and r-band magnitudes 19.8-20.5 in the Quasar Catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) First Data Release. The SDSS spectra resemble the composite spectrum of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z ≈ 3 (albeit with some differences and broader spectral lines), but the objects are 4-5 mag brighter than an "L*" LBG. These objects could be extremely luminous LBGs, normal LBGs amplified by gravitational lensing, or a rare class of broad absorption line (BAL) quasars. In the first case, star formation rates inferred from the UV continuum luminosities, with no correction for dust extinction, are ~300-1000 M☉ yr-1, similar to those of ultraluminous infrared galaxies, but in these UV-bright objects the star formation is evidently not obscured by high dust column densities. The SDSS images show no evidence of multiple imaging or foreground lensing structures. The spectra have fairly broad absorption features and prominent high-ionization absorption but do not show high-ionization emission lines and do not resemble known BAL quasars. A rough estimate of the luminosity function of the objects is above a Schechter function extrapolation from LBGs at fainter magnitudes. Improved optical spectra and observations at X-ray, IR, and submillimeter wavelengths could help determine the nature of these remarkable objects.
Consumption and Labor Income Risk , Aggregation and Business Cycles

This paper discusses the role of household heterogeneity in a model in which idiosyncratic consumption and labor income risks manifest as a distortion to the intra-temporal optimal condition of the representative agent. Aggregation over the undistorted labor-leisure condition of each household leads to a wedge between the Marginal Rate of Substitution, between consumption and leisure, (MRS) and the Marginal Product of Labor (MPL), through the lens of the representative agent model. I use household survey data to assess the properties of this aggregation wedge. I find that it is consistent with the systematic deviation between the MRS and the MPL observed in aggregate data, the so-called "Labor Wedge", for both the long-run and the business cycles. Additionally, I explore the quantitative implications of the model assuming imperfect insurability against idiosyncratic shocks. I show that cyclical changes in the distribution of household productivity and in the degree of risk sharing lead to cyclical changes in the aggregation wedge, as if the representative agent faced higher labor taxes or was lazierduring recessions. The model also exhibits novel dynamics for labor, relative to the benchmark RBC, because of the various labor supply elasticities induced by the individual productivities and the wealth distribution.
PALDi: Online Load Disaggregation via Particle Filtering

Smart metering and fine-grained energy data are one of the major enablers for future smart grid and improved energy efficiency in smart homes. Using the information provided by smart meter power draw, valuable information can be extracted as disaggregated appliance power draws by non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM). NILM allows to identify appliances according to their power characteristics in the total power consumption of a household, measured by one sensor, the smart meter. In this paper, we present an NILM approach, where the appliance states are estimated by particle filtering (PF). PF is used for nonlinear and non-Gaussian disturbed problems and is suitable to estimate the appliance state. ON/OFF appliances, multistate appliances, or combinations of them are modeled by hidden Markov models, and their combinations result in a factorial hidden Markov model modeling the household power demand. We evaluate the PF-based NILM approach on synthetic and on real data from a well-known dataset to show that our approach achieves an accuracy of 90% on real household power draws.
Expression Defect Size among Unclassified MLH1 Variants Determines Pathogenicity in Lynch Syndrome Diagnosis

Purpose: Lynch syndrome is caused by a germline mutation in a mismatch repair gene, most commonly the MLH1 gene. However, one third of the identified alterations are missense variants with unclear clinical significance. The functionality of these variants can be tested in the laboratory, but the results cannot be used for clinical diagnosis. We therefore aimed to establish a laboratory test that can be applied clinically. Experimental Design: We assessed the expression, stability, and mismatch repair activity of 38 MLH1 missense variants and determined the pathogenicity status of recurrent variants using clinical data. Results: Four recurrent variants were classified as neutral (K618A, H718Y, E578G, V716M) and three as pathogenic (A681T, L622H, P654L). All seven variants were proficient in mismatch repair but showed defects in expression. Quantitative PCR, pulse-chase, and thermal stability experiments confirmed decreases in protein stability, which were stronger in the pathogenic variants. The minimal cellular MLH1 concentration for mismatch repair was determined, which corroborated that strongly destabilized variants can cause repair deficiency. Loss of MLH1 tumor immunostaining is consistently reported in carriers of the pathogenic variants, showing the impact of this protein instability on these tumors. Conclusions: Expression defects are frequent among MLH1 missense variants, but only severe defects cause Lynch syndrome. The data obtained here enabled us to establish a threshold for distinguishing tolerable (clinically neutral) from pathogenic expression defects. This threshold allows the translation of laboratory results for uncertain MLH1 variants into pathogenicity statements for diagnosis, thereby improving the targeting of cancer prevention measures in affected families. Clin Cancer Res; 19(9); 2432–41. ©2013 AACR.
Nrf3-Pla2g7 Interaction Plays an Essential Role in Smooth Muscle Differentiation From Stem Cells

Objective—Phospholipase A2, group 7 (Pla2g7) is an important mediator in cardiovascular development and diseases because of its divergent physiological and pathological functions in inflammation and oxidative stress. However, little is known about the functional role of Pla2g7 in smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation from stem cells. Methods and Results—In the present study, embryonic stem cells were cultivated on collagen IV-coated plates to allow SMC differentiation. Pla2g7 gene expression and activity were upregulated significantly following 4 to 14 days of cell differentiation and colocalized with SMC differentiation markers in the differentiated SMCs. Knockdown of Pla2g7 resulted in downregulation of smooth muscle–specific markers in vitro and impairment of SMC differentiation in vivo, whereas enforced expression of Pla2g7 enhanced SMC differentiation and increased reactive oxygen species generation. Importantly, enforced expression of Pla2g7 significantly increased the binding of serum response factor to SMC differentiation gene promoters, resulting in SMC differentiation, which was abolished by free radical scavenger and flavoprotein inhibitor of NADPH oxidase but not hydrogen peroxide inhibitor. Moreover, we demonstrated that nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 3 (Nrf3) regulates Pla2g7 gene expression through direct binding to the promoter regions of Pla2g7 gene. Conclusion—Our findings demonstrated that Pla2g7 plays a crucial physiological role in SMC differentiation from stem cells, and the fine interactions between Nrf3 and Pla2g7 are essential for SMC differentiation.
Critical Pedagogy : Origin , Vision , Action & Consequences

Critical pedagogy is a transformation-based approach to education. The aim of this article is to introduce the origin, vision, action and consequences of critical pedagogy. It also aims on finding out about educators’ possibility of actualising it in their practice. As a source materials articles, book chapters and books are used. The literature shows that critical pedagogy has its origin in the tradition of critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the work of the Brazilian pedagog Paulo Freire. According to the literature, its major theses is that education should go beyond transfer of knowledge and training the future labour force; to help developing critical consciousness, which leads to transformation of the individual, learning environment and society at large. Critical pedagogy is criticised for a focus on macro level system, for not having a model for classroom implementation and for being abstract. Despite some critics, I argue that critical pedagogy has still the potential to empower those in the field of education to increase their consciousness about the injustice in their society and to involve in transforming it.
Short-Cavity Integrated VECSELs : A Fabrication Approach

We outline the fabrication of an electrically pumped surface-emitting laser with a short vertical extended cavity (VECSEL) for sensing applications. The emission wavelength is detuned by introducing microparticles into the cavity via a microfluidic channel. Multiple longitudinal modes can fit inside the resonator. A reproducible detuning of the extended cavity demands a longitudinal mode spacing of at least a few nanometers. The related resonator length of 80μm therefore requires a tailored fabrication and mounting procedure.
Low-tech and high-tech prototyping for eBook co-design with children

This paper draws on a Cooperative Inquiry study conducted at a children's library that aimed to design and develop more engaging eBooks for children, with children as design partners. The study was characterized by four different stages where we experimented both low-tech and high-tech prototyping by introducing tablet computers as tools for supporting co-design. At the end of the study we analyzed pros and cons of each approach.
Binary and nonbinary description of hypointensity in human brain MR images

Accumulating evidence has shown that iron is involved in the mechanism underlying many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. Abnormal (higher) iron accumulation has been detected in the brains of most neurodegenerative patients, especially in the basal ganglia region. Presence of iron leads to changes in MR signal in both magnitude and phase. Accordingly, tissues with high iron concentration appear hypo-intense (darker than usual) in MR contrasts. In this report, we proposed an improved binary hypointensity description and a novel nonbinary hypointensity description based on principle components analysis. Moreover, Kendall's rank correlation coefficient was used to compare the complementary and redundant information provided by the two methods in order to better understand the individual descriptions of iron accumulation in the brain.
Reliability assessment for distributed systems via communication abstraction and refinement

Distributed systems like cloud-based services are ever more popular. Assessing the reliability of distributed systems is highly non-trivial. Particularly, the order of executions among distributed components adds a dimension of non-determinism, which invalidates existing reliability assessment methods based on Markov chains. Probabilistic model checking based on models like Markov decision processes is designed to deal with scenarios involving both probabilistic behavior (e.g., reliabilities of system components) and non-determinism. However, its application is currently limited by state space explosion, which makes reliability assessment of distributed system particularly difficult. In this work, we improve the probabilistic model checking through a method of abstraction and reduction, which controls the communications among system components and actively reduces the size of each component. We prove the soundness and completeness of the proposed approach. Through an implementation in a software toolkit and evaluations with several systems, we show that our approach often reduces the size of the state space by several orders of magnitude, while still producing sound and accurate assessment.
Wireless Information and Power Transfer With Full Duplex Relaying

We consider a dual-hop full-duplex relaying system, where the energy constrained relay node is powered by radio frequency signals from the source using the time-switching architecture, both the amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying protocols are studied. Specifically, we provide an analytical characterization of the achievable throughput of three different communication modes, namely, instantaneous transmission, delay-constrained transmission, and delay tolerant transmission. In addition, the optimal time split is studied for different transmission modes. Our results reveal that, when the time split is optimized, the full-duplex relaying could substantially boost the system throughput compared to the conventional half-duplex relaying architecture for all three transmission modes. In addition, it is shown that the instantaneous transmission mode attains the highest throughput. However, compared to the delay-constrained transmission mode, the throughput gap is rather small. Unlike the instantaneous time split optimization which requires instantaneous channel state information, the optimal time split in the delay-constrained transmission mode depends only on the statistics of the channel, hence, is suitable for practical implementations.
Macrophage PPARγ inhibits Gpr132 to mediate the anti-tumor effects of rosiglitazone

Tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) significantly contributes to cancer progression. Human cancer is enhanced by PPARγ loss-of-function mutations, but inhibited by PPARγ agonists such as TZD diabetes drugs including rosiglitazone. However, it remains enigmatic whether and how macrophage contributes to PPARγ tumor-suppressive functions. Here we report that macrophage PPARγ deletion in mice not only exacerbates mammary tumor development but also impairs the anti-tumor effects of rosiglitazone. Mechanistically, we identify Gpr132 as a novel direct PPARγ target in macrophage whose expression is enhanced by PPARγ loss but repressed by PPARγ activation. Functionally, macrophage Gpr132 is pro-inflammatory and pro-tumor. Genetic Gpr132 deletion not only retards inflammation and cancer growth but also abrogates the anti-tumor effects of PPARγ and rosiglitazone. Pharmacological Gpr132 inhibition significantly impedes mammary tumor malignancy. These findings uncover macrophage PPARγ and Gpr132 as critical TAM modulators, new cancer therapeutic targets, and essential mediators of TZD anti-cancer effects. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.18501. 001
The agricultural antibiotic carbadox induces phage-mediated gene transfer in Salmonella

Antibiotics are used for disease therapeutic or preventative effects in humans and animals, as well as for enhanced feed conversion efficiency in livestock. Antibiotics can also cause undesirable effects in microbial populations, including selection for antibiotic resistance, enhanced pathogen invasion, and stimulation of horizontal gene transfer. Carbadox is a veterinary antibiotic used in the US during the starter phase of swine production for improved feed efficiency and control of swine dysentery and bacterial swine enteritis. Carbadox has been shown in vitro to induce phage-encoded Shiga toxin in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and a phage-like element transferring antibiotic resistance genes in Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, but the effect of carbadox on prophages in other bacteria is unknown. This study examined carbadox exposure on prophage induction and genetic transfer in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, a human foodborne pathogen that frequently colonizes swine without causing disease. S. Typhimurium LT2 exposed to carbadox induced prophage production, resulting in bacterial cell lysis and release of virions that were visible by electron microscopy. Carbadox induction of phage-mediated gene transfer was confirmed by monitoring the transduction of a sodCIII::neo cassette in the Fels-1 prophage from LT2 to a recipient Salmonella strain. Furthermore, carbadox frequently induced generalized transducing phages in multidrug-resistant phage type DT104 and DT120 isolates, resulting in the transfer of chromosomal and plasmid DNA that included antibiotic resistance genes. Our research indicates that exposure of Salmonella to carbadox induces prophages that can transfer virulence and antibiotic resistance genes to susceptible bacterial hosts. Carbadox-induced, phage-mediated gene transfer could serve as a contributing factor in bacterial evolution during animal production, with prophages being a reservoir for bacterial fitness genes in the environment.
TREST: A Hadoop Based Distributed Mobile Trajectory Retrieval System

Nowadays, mobile phones have prevailed in a great variety of applications, through which massive personal trajectories can be collected and analyzed to support many interesting location-based services. However, it is still challenging to efficiently store and retrieve this kind of spatio-temporal data, which has typical big-data feature with large size, streaming style and multiple data source. To address this issue, we develop a mobile trajectory retrieval system named TREST, which is based on the distributed Hadoop and HBase systems. TREST makes use of the horizontal expansion mechanism of Hadoop to store overwhelming spatio-temporal trajectories, and supports frequent incremental insertion of data stream. Meanwhile, TREST maps the spatio-temporal features of trajectories into the simple key-value schema of HBase to support fast retrieval. We also develop a prototype of TREST to manipulate the real mobile trajectory data set, which contains totally 104 million records collected by mobile service providers. Experiments on this data set show that TREST can efficiently support both Single-track and All-track retrieval within milliseconds on average.
Not notable enough: feminism and expertise in Wikipedia

ABSTRACT Wikipedia promotes itself as a community that anyone can join as long as they know the rules. In this paper, we reflect on our attempt to join this community and to edit Wikientries on ageing so that they include an intersectional perspective, especially with regard to gender. Our excursion into Wikipedia reveals how certain entries act as sites of contestation between different communities of practice, such as feminist scholars and Wikipedia experts. We document and discuss three interconnected discursive guidelines over which contestation takes place: notability, verifiability, and tone. These guidelines govern the way that Wikipedia operates in relationship to dominant discourses on age and gender. They are at the heart of its inequitable treatment of content matter.
A topical PageRank based algorithm for recommender systems

In this paper, we propose a Topical PageRank based algorithm for recommender systems, which aim to rank products by analyzing previous user-item relationships, and recommend top-rank items to potentially interested users. We evaluate our algorithm on MovieLens dataset and empirical experiments demonstrate that it outperforms other state-of-the-art recommending algorithms.
Adaptive Tracking Scheme for Plants with Multiple State Delays and Actuator Failures

This paper develops an adaptive state feedback tracking control scheme for a class of linear systems with state-delays in the presence of unknown actuator failures. The main contributions of this paper are the development of a new controller parametrization with delayed feedback which attempts to anticipate the future states, the introduction of an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii type functional to design the new class of adaptation algorithms, and the stability proof