Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Should Repeat Offenders Be Punished More Severely for Their Crimes?

Debate persists as to the amount of influence criminal history should have in determining the severity of imposed legal sanction for a criminal offense. One position maintains that the punishment for repeat and first-time offenders convicted for the same type of offense should be similar, whereas an alternative viewpoint argues that the state should sanction repeat offenders more harshly. We contribute to this discourse by investigating whether the amount of weight given to an offender’s prior criminal record in sentencing affects the likelihood of repeat offending. Although initial findings showed that a substantive negative bivariate relationship existed at the county level between the weight-accorded prior criminal record in sentencing and repeat offending, this association disappeared in a more sophisticated nonlinear multilevel analysis. Our findings suggest that sanctioning repeat offenders more harshly than first-time offenders for similar offenses has little effect on attenuating repeat offending once other factors are controlled.
Ground state and quasiparticle spectrum of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

We consider a dilute atomic Bose-Einstein condensate with two non-degenerate internal energy levels. The presence of an external radiation field can result in new ground states for the condensate which result from the lowering of the condensate energy due to the interaction energy with the field. In this approach there are no instabilities in the quasiparticle spectrum as was previously found by Goldstein and Meystre (Phys. Rev. A \QTR{bf}{55}, 2935 (1997)).
Enhancing Accessibility for University Students with Specific Learning Disabilities Using a Computerized Screening System~!2009-06-13~!2009-10-13~!2010-03-09~!

This paper considers the diagnostic value of a computer screening system as an alternative, or adjunct, to traditional battery testing systems in identifying the presence of specific learning disabilities (SLD) in university students. In the present times of increasing numbers of students with various forms of disabilities entering tertiary education, institutional fiscal constraints, problems with employing and securing professional staff, and the heightened value placed on time, it would seem sensible to utilize cost and time efficient systems for diagnosing the presence of disabilities in students. This paper therefore considers the use of the Lucid Adult Dyslexia Screening (LADS) system, and draws from the university casebook of one psychologist to highlight its usefulness in terms of increasing accessibility to assessment and associated services. It is argued that, because the diagnostic phase is crucial to the approval and implementation of accommodations, efficiency in the assessment process contributes to reducing barriers that students with SLD may face in gaining access to equitable assistive resources. The conclusion suggests that LADS is a cost and time efficient system, but needs to be used judiciously by considering the clinical history of the student. Scope for further research is also indicated.
A Probabilistic Algorithm for MANET Clustering

Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a type of ad hoc network that MANET nodes can change their locations and configure by themselves on the fly. Because of mobility the MANET nodes, the management of a large MANET is difficult, therefore, clustering in a MANET is an important technique. A large network is divided into several sub networks applying clustering method. When the topology of the network is dynamic and ad hoc, the process of clustering is very complicated. In this paper, we propose a Probabilistic Algorithm for MANET Clustering (PAMC) to improve the performance of this wireless technology. We simulate our algorithm and evaluate it based on two criteria: the average number of clusters and the average reaffiliation.
Inflation Dynamics and Subjective Expectations in the United States

We estimate a forward looking New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) for the U.S. using data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters as proxy for expected inflation. We find that the NKPC captures inflation dynamics well, independent from whether output or unit labor costs are used as a measure of marginal costs. We show that identification of expectations exploiting orthogonality to output is severely distorted and explains why the NKPC estimated with survey data performs much better than under rational expectations. We also find that lagged inflation enters the price equation significantly suggesting that there is a role for lagged inflation beyond that of capturing non-rationalities in expectations. Estimating the NKPC of Christiano et al. (2001) where lagged inflation enters due to price indexation by non-reoptimizing firms, we find that it captures the role of lagged inflation reasonably well.
An OAI Compliant Federated Digital Library

To federate collections with varying degrees of metadata richness across continents poses a number of challenging issues such as: how to build a rich unified search interface when there is a lack of controlled vocabulary, and how to federate collections in different languages. The focus of this paper is on the approaches we have taken to address these issues in Arc, an OAI compliant federated digital library. The first Arc implementation had addressed the issue related to the lack of controlled vocabulary in an ad hoc way, and had not addressed altogether the cross-language issue. One approach to address lack of controlled vocabulary is by proposing a unified vocabulary and mapping individual library vocabulary to the unified vocabulary. This approach, particularly when applied to the subject metadata field, has two major limitations: (1) The standard subject classification (unified vocabulary for the subject field) may differ in terms of levels and semantics from that of an individual library leading to low precision searches. (2) Adding of a new collection to the federation leads to the complexity of updating mapping tables. Moreover, the new library may differ significantly in terms of the unified subject classification necessitating an update to the unified subject classification scheme. In this paper, we propose and implement a novel user-centric approach that addresses the lack of controlled vocabulary issue for the subject field, and does not suffer from above limitations. For the cross-language issue, the focus is more on how to integrate an existing cross-language technique based on query translation into Arc to support searches across English and German collections.
Interrupting the Here and Now: Implications and Opportunities

This paper presents our research approach of interruptions in mobile HCI inspired by a phenomenological view of context and mobility. On that basis, we outline a research framework and methodology to study the contextual factors at play during the interruption process. Building on that, we propose a design framework based on the discovery of contextual opportunity and delineate the design of a naturalistic study to test the veracity of our design rationale. Finally, we point towards future work to extend the design framework’s empirical foundation and to apply the framework to create applications that enrich the user’s current experience by sensing contextual opportunity.
A Role for Extracellular Adenosine in Time-Dependent Reversal of Long-Term Potentiation by Low-Frequency Stimulation at Hippocampal CA1 Synapses

The involvement of adenosine on the development of time-dependent reversal of long-term potentiation (LTP) by low-frequency stimulation (LFS) was investigated at Schaffer collateral–CA1 synapses of rat hippocampal slices. A train of LFS (2 Hz, 10 min, 1200 pulses) had no long-term effects on synaptic transmission but produced lasting depression of previously potentiated responses. This reversal of LTP (depotentiation) was observed when the stimulus was delivered ≤3 min after induction of LTP. However, application at 10 min after induction had no detectable effect on potentiation. This time-dependent reversal of LTP by LFS appeared to be mediated by extracellular adenosine, because it was mimicked by bath-applied adenosine and was specifically inhibited by the selective A1 adenosine receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (100 nm). The effect of adenosine could be mimicked by 5-HT1A receptor agonist buspirone, but the LFS-induced depotentiation could not be antagonized by 5-HT1A receptor antagonist NAN-190. The source of extracellular adenosine in response to LFS appeared to be attributable to the efflux of cAMP. In addition, this LFS-induced depotentiation was blocked by bath application of adenylyl cyclase activator forskolin or injection of a cAMP analog Sp-adenosine cAMP (10 mm) into postsynaptic neurons. Moreover, the selective protein phosphatase 1 and 2A inhibitors okadaic acid and calyculin A prevented the LFS-induced depotentiation. These results thus suggest that increasing extracellular adenosine appears to underlie the LFS-induced depotentiation via acting on the A1 receptor subtype to interrupt the cAMP-dependent biochemical processes leading to the LTP expression.
Alcohol Use is Not Directly Related to the Perceived Control of Depressive Symptoms in Patients with Depressive Symptoms

Treatment-seeking patients (N = 233) were recruited as they started a course of relapse prevention and coping with depression. The mean Beck depression inventory (BDI-II) score was 26 points, indicating a moderate degree of depression. The sample was recruited from different outpatient clinics and screened for alcohol-related problems with the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT). Almost half of the total sample had a score on AUDIT >8 indicating an alcohol problem. The participants in this study did not undergo a clinical interview to check out if their symptoms, as assessed with BDI-II and AUDIT, were part of a formal diagnosis in accordance with the criteria in ICD 10 or DSM IV. A specific instrument, perceived uncontrollability of depression (UNCONTROL), was used to measure the persons’ perceived control of depressive symptoms; a set of statements about coping with depressive symptoms where high scores indicate lack of coping with the symptoms. Alcohol problems were not found to be significantly associated with the perceived control of ongoing depressive symptoms and did not moderate the relationship between depressive symptoms and the perceived control of depressive symptoms. The results question the assumption that alcohol use is related to coping with depressive symptoms in patients with alcohol abuse and depressive symptoms.
Turning x 86 into a Hardware Simulator for Future

Hardware/operating system co-design opens up many possibilities to experiment with new features and to propose new acceleration possibilities for evermore demanding applications. However, to justify these modifications, rigorous simulations and experiments are required. In this paper, we introduce a novel way of using high-end manycore systems as a simulation platform. Reserving some cores as application cores while using the others to simulate the new hardware features, we maintain near native performance and thus provide an early evaluation environment for application-level benchmarks. Illustrating our simulator with an envisaged inter-process communication mechanism for redirecting system calls to dedicated OS cores, we achieve a file-system throughput in a GPGPU-like setting that is close to the local case of more traditional settings where system calls invoke the local OS instance.
Control Strategy of Fuel Cell and Supercapacitors Association for a Distributed Generation System

This paper proposes an innovative control strategy for a voltage-regulated dc hybrid power source employing polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell as the main energy source and supercapacitors as the auxiliary power source for a distributed generation system. This strategy is based on a standard dc link voltage regulation, which is simpler than standard state machines used for hybrid source control, and free of chattering problems. Its originality lies in using only the storage device for supplying the energy required to achieve the dc link voltage regulation. Therefore, the main source of the hybrid system is considered as a standard load, working only in regenerative braking, to keep the storage device charged. The general structure of the studied system, the control principle of the hybrid source, the realization of the experimental bench, and the experimental validation are all presented.
Packet-loss modelling in IP networks with state-duration constraints

A Gilbert–gamma topology is proposed to model packet-loss processes in UDP connections. The proposed topology introduces state duration modelling with gamma distributions. When compared with the ordinary Gilbert model the proposed topology substantially improves the likelihood of observed packet-loss processes, and gives reductions as high as 70% in the subjective estimation of speech quality transmitted over IP networks. The results presented can be easily applied to other real-time applications such as audio and video streaming.
Cardiovascular risk factors and the neighbourhood environment: a multilevel analysis.

BACKGROUND This article examines whether the neighbourhood environment influences intermediate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, such as obesity (body mass index [BMI]), and lifestyle factors, such as no physical activity and smoking, when adjusted for the individual socioeconomic status (SES). METHODS The study consists of face-to-face interviews from the Swedish Annual Level of Living Survey (SALLS) matched with the social status of the respondents' residential areas measured by two composite indices, the Care Need Index (CNI) and the Townsend score. The response rate was about 80%. This study was limited to the residents aged 25-74 years and consists of 9240 interviews from the years 1988-1989, when there were extended items in the SALLS about health and lifestyle. The data were analysed using a hierarchical logistic regression model. RESULTS There was a gradient within every SES group so that respondents with a low (or intermediate or high) educational level exhibited an increasing proportion of daily smokers, physically inactive people and obese individuals with increasing neighbourhood deprivation. The multilevel model showed that respondents living in the most deprived neighbourhoods had an increased risk for being a daily smoker, engaging in no physical activity and being obese when adjusted for the individual SES. CONCLUSIONS We showed that the area level has an important influence on risk factors for CVD which goes beyond the individual educational attainment. An increased level of living standard, more resources for primary health care and health promotion targeting the community level should be beneficial.
Robust Local Triangular Kernel density-based clustering for high-dimensional data

A number of clustering algorithms can be employed to find clusters in multivariate data. However, the effectiveness and efficiency of the existing algorithms are limited, since the respective data has high dimension, contain large amount of noise and consist of clusters with arbitrary shapes and densities. In this paper, a new kernel density-based clustering algorithm, called Local Triangular Kernel-based Clustering (LTKC), is proposed to deal with these conditions. LTKC is based on combination of k-nearest-neighbor density estimation and triangular kernel density-based clustering. The advantages of our LTKC approach are: (1) it has a firm mathematical basis; (2) it requires only one parameter, number of neighbors; (3) it defines the number of cluster automatically; (4) it allows discovering clusters with arbitrary shapes and densities ;and (5) it is significantly faster than existing algorithms. LTKC is tested using artificial data and applied to some UCI data. A comparison with k-means, KFCM and well known density-based clustering algorithms including ILGC, DBSCAN, and DENCLUE shows the superiority of our proposed LTKC algorithm.
A resilient architecture for DHT-based distributed collaborative environments

Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) provide a flexible and reliable infrastructure for data storage and retrieval in peer-to-peer communities. We propose to apply Kademlia DHT to organize data management and cooperation between users participating in different work-groups. Particularly, in this paper we propose a mechanism for increasing the resilience and the overall performance of a Kademlia-based distributed work-sharing system, taking into account frequent joins and leaves of network nodes. To achieve this goal we propose a new flexible scheme for resource management that provides more resilience and fault tolerance than other mechanisms used by existent cooperative storage systems with a collaborative nature. In this work we try to extend and generalize our solution to fit several application contexts of collaborative computing, thereby addressing some common problems about resilience of existent distributed collaborative systems.
Correlation in Bivariate Poisson Regression Model

We consider a bivariate Poisson model that is based on the lognormal heterogeneity model. Two recent applications have used this model. We suggest that the correlation estimated in their model frameworks is an ambiguous measure of the correlation of the variables of interest, and may substantially overstate it. We conclude with a detailed application of the proposed method using the data employed in one of the two aforementioned bivariate Poisson studies.
Small-Molecule Inhibition of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Replication by Specific Targeting of the Final Step of Virion Maturation

ABSTRACT Despite the effectiveness of currently available human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) therapies, a continuing need exists for new drugs to treat HIV-1 infection. We investigated the mechanism by which 3-O-{3′,3′-dimethylsuccinyl}-betulinic acid (DSB) inhibits HIV-1 replication. DSB functions at a late stage of the virus life cycle but does not inhibit the HIV-1 protease in vitro or interfere with virus assembly or release. DSB specifically delays the cleavage of Gag between the capsid (CA) and p2, resulting in delayed formation of the mature viral core and reduced HIV-1 infectivity. Replication of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) was resistant to DSB; however, a chimeric SIV carrying CA-p2 sequences from HIV-1 was inhibited by the drug, indicating that susceptibility to DSB maps to the CA-p2 region of the HIV-1 Gag protein. A single point mutation at the CA-p2 cleavage site of HIV-1 conferred strong resistance to DSB, confirming the target of the drug. HIV-1 strains that are resistant to a variety of protease inhibitors were sensitive to DSB. These findings indicate that DSB specifically protects the CA-p2 cleavage site from processing by the viral protease during virion maturation, thereby revealing a novel mechanism for pharmacologic inhibition of HIV-1 replication.
Robust RHC method with adaptive DA converter applied to BMI based robotic wheelchair

In this paper, robust RHC (Receding Horizon Control) method with adaptive DA converter for robotic wheelchair using EEG (Electroencephalogram) based BMI (Brain Machine Interface) is discussed. The method is developed to apply to the obstacle avoidance system of the robotic wheelchair. Some numerical examples are also included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Ubiquilin recruits Eps15 into ubiquitin-rich cytoplasmic aggregates via a UIM-UBL interaction

Eps15 and its related protein Eps15R are key components of the clathrin-mediated endocytic pathway. We searched for new binding partners of Eps15 using a yeast two-hybrid screen. We report here that ubiquilin (hPLIC1), a type-2 ubiquitin-like protein containing a ubiquitin-like domain (UBL) and a ubiquitin-associated domain (UBA), interacts with both Eps15 and Eps15R. Using glutathione-S-transferase pull-down experiments, we show that the first ubiquitin-interacting motif of Eps15 (UIM1) interacts directly with the UBL domain of ubiquilin, whereas it does not bind to ubiquitinated proteins. The second UIM of Eps15 (UIM2) binds poorly to the UBL domain but does bind to ubiquitinated proteins. Two other UIM-containing endocytic proteins, Hrs and Hbp, also interact with ubiquilin in a UIM-dependent manner, whereas epsin does not. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that endogenous Eps15 and Hrs, but not epsin, colocalize with green-fluorescent-protein-fused ubiquilin in cytoplasmic aggregates that are not endocytic compartments. We have characterized these green-fluorescent-protein-fused-ubiquilin aggregates as ubiquitin-rich intracytoplasmic inclusions that are recruited to aggresomes upon proteasome inhibition. Moreover, we show that endogenous Eps15 and endogenous ubiquilin colocalize to cytoplasmic aggregates and aggresomes. Finally, we show that the recruitment of Eps15 into ubiquilin-positive aggregates is UIM dependent. Altogether, our data identify ubiquilin as the first common UIM-binding partner of a subset of UIM-containing endocytic proteins. We propose that this UIM/UBL-based interaction is responsible for the sequestration of certain UIM-containing endocytic proteins into cytoplasmic ubiquitin-rich protein aggregates.
INCREMENTAL AGGREGATION MODEL FOR DATA STREAM CLASSIFICATION

In online data stream processing, data stream classification task confronts several challenges such as, concept drift, concept evolution and partial labeling due to the dynamic nature of data streams. Amid these issues, concept drift is on the top concern that degrades the accuracy of data stream classification task, immediately upon its occurrence. However, concept evolution and partial labeling are also equally notable plights that are not focused by most of the existing approaches. Ensemble learning is a widely accepted prominent method that attempts to reconcile the issues encountering in the data stream classification. Our previous work addresses only the different types of concept drifts. This paper expounds a Novel Incremental Aggregation Model (IAM) which makes use of Adaptive Probabilistic Neural Network (APNN), Aggregate Weighted Ensemble Model (AWEM) and Ensemble Cloning that makes the system impeccable by combating against all the above said issues. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been experimentally tested with few synthetic data sets. Experimental results show that our model outperforms the existing ensemble approaches in terms of accuracy.
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This contribution introduces a hybrid GP/ES system for the evolution of chess playing computer programs. We discuss the basic system and examine its performance in comparison to pre-existing algorithms of the type alphabeta and its improved variants. We can show that evolution is able to outperform these algorithms both in terms of eÆciency and strength.
Hybrid Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion captures a subset of global illumination effects, by computing for each point of the surface the amount of incoming light from all directions and considering potential occlusion by neighboring geometry. We introduce an approach to ambient occlusion combining object and image space techniques in a deferred shading context. It is composed of three key steps: an on-the-ﬂy voxelization of the scene, an occlusion sampling based on this voxelization and a bilateral ﬁltering of this sampling in screen space. The result are smoothly varying ambient terms in occluded areas at interactive frame rates without any precomputation. In particular, all computations are performed dynamically on the GPU while eliminating the problem of screen-space methods, namely ignoring geometry that is not rasterized into the Z-buffer.