Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FAQ-based Question Answering via Word Alignment

In this paper, we propose a novel word-alignment-based method to solve the FAQ-based question answering task. First, we employ a neural network model to calculate question similarity, where the word alignment between two questions is used for extracting features. Second, we design a bootstrap-based feature extraction method to extract a small set of effective lexical features. Third, we propose a learning-to-rank algorithm to train parameters more suitable for the ranking tasks. Experimental results, conducted on three languages (English, Spanish and Japanese), demonstrate that the question similarity model is more effective than baseline systems, the sparse features bring 5% improvements on top-1 accuracy, and the learning-to-rank algorithm works significantly better than the traditional method. We further evaluate our method on the answer sentence selection task. Our method outperforms all the previous systems on the standard TREC data set.
Rational homotopy type of subspace arrangements with a geometric lattice

Let A = {x(1),. , x(n)} be a subspace arrangement with a geometric lattice such that codim(x) = 2 for every x. A. Using rational homotopy theory, we prove that the complement M(A) is rationally elliptic if and only if the sum x1/1 +. + x1/n is a direct sum. The homotopy type of M(A) is also given: it is a product of odd-dimensional spheres. Finally, some other equivalent conditions are given, such as Poincare duality. Those results give a complete description of arrangements (with a geometric lattice and with the codimension condition on the subspaces) such that M(A) is rationally elliptic, and show that most arrangements have a hyperbolic complement.
Repeated Signaling and Reputation ( Incomplete ) ∗

This paper studies monotonic (supermodular) repeated signaling games with simultaneous moves. If the signaler’s type is a Markov process over time, there is an equilibrium with continual separation of types at minimal cost, an analog of the static Riley equilibrium. It exists as a stationary Markov equilibrium in infinitely repeated games, and in a finite game is unique and can be found by backward induction. Is is selected by an analog of the static equilibrium refinement D1. The signaler has reputational motives because current actions influence future expectations of actions via type-beliefs. With a continuum of highly persistent types, if the signaler is patient, he will take actions that maximize Stackelberg payoffs, subject to separating from the lowest type. If the signaler has additively separable utility and is is impatient, he maximizes a discounted version of Stackelberg payoffs. If the respondent cares directly about the signaler’s type in addition to his actions, there is a combination of pure signaling and Stackelberg leadership. In contrast to the standard approach to reputation there is no reliance on behavioural types.
Modeling End-to-End Response Times in Multi-Tier Internet Applications

Many Internet applications and workflow systems employ multi-tier software architectures. The performance of such multi-tier Internet applications is typically measured by the end-to-end response times. Most of the earlier works in modeling the response times of such systems have limited their study to modeling the mean. However, since the user-perceived performance is highly influenced by the variability in response times, the variance of the response times is important as well. In this paper, we derive expressions for estimating the mean end-to-end latency of more general applications and provide approximations to its variance. We validate our model by testing on two Web applications. We find that the model has a very good accuracy in estimating the mean endto-end response time and its variance with margins of error less than 10 percent. We believe this model is useful for capacity planning, resource provisioning, and performance prediction of Internet applications and services.
The selection of instant messaging or e-mail: College students' perspective for computer communication

Purpose – Instant messaging and e‐mail are popular communication methods on college campuses. However, students' perceptions of the two technologies vary greatly. This study seeks to investigate the differences between instant messaging and e‐mail.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was given to 545 college students.Findings – Instant messaging is perceived as offering many advantages over e‐mail including conveying emotions, building relationships and ease of use (EU). Users are more likely to use symbols with their instant messages to help communicate. College students find both technologies to be easy to use, but show a preference for the EU of instant messaging. However, despite its perceived functional benefits, instant messaging is only the favored form of communication for personal and social relationships.Originality/value – This paper builds on existing research by discussing information richness, EU, the use of emotions, multimedia, playfulness, flow, cognitive fit theory, bounded rationality.
The effects of sexual and religious orientations on memory for weight-related stimuli

Women are often socialized to adhere to an ideal of thinness, although recent research has shown that sexual orientation and religious beliefs may moderate body dissatisfaction and disordered eating symptoms. The present study examined the effects of religious and sexual orientations on memory for weight-related stimuli. The main research question was whether sexual and religious orientations would affect the recall of pictures, whether they are weight-related, neutral, or intrusions. Young college women (aged 18-30), of different sexual and religious orientations, participated in an incidental memory test consisting of weight-related and neutral pictures shown on a computer screen. Participants were also asked to complete a series of questionnaires and scales. Results indicated that religious, heterosexual participants recalled more intrusions than non-religious, heterosexual participants. Furthermore, religious orientation affected the number of weight-related intrusions recalled.
The effect of a brief music intervention No Effect of a Brief Music Intervention on Test Anxiety and Exam Scores in College Undergraduates

This study examined classical music’s effect on test anxiety and exam performance in a college setting by randomizing students to (1) listen to Mozart while studying and taking an exam, (2) study and take the exam under usual conditions, or (3) choose between these two alternatives. We controlled for: prior exam performance, year in college, age, the amount of time ordinarily listening to classical music and music while studying, and condition preference. There was no effect on either outcome. Students were positively disposed toward the intervention, but did not typically listen to classical music or to music while studying. Although this intervention did not decrease test anxiety or enhance exam performance, more extensive or tailored music interventions could hold promise.
Co-Graft of Allogeneic Immune Regulatory Neural Stem Cells (NPC) and Pancreatic Islets Mediates Tolerance, while Inducing NPC-Derived Tumors in Mice

Background Data available on the immunomodulatory properties of neural stem/precursor cells (NPC) support their possible use as modulators for immune-mediated process. The aim of this study was to define whether NPC administered in combination with pancreatic islets prevents rejection in a fully mismatched allograft model. Methodology/Principal Finding Diabetic Balb/c mice were co-transplanted under the kidney capsule with pancreatic islets and GFP+ NPC from fully mismatched C57BL/6 mice. The following 4 groups of recipients were used: mice receiving islets alone; mice receiving islets alone and treated with standard immunosuppression (IL-2Rα chain mAbs + FK506 + Rapamycin); mice receiving a mixed islet/NPC graft under the same kidney capsule (Co-NPC-Tx); mice receiving the islet graft under the left kidney capsule and the NPC graft under the right kidney capsule (NPC-Tx). Our results demonstrate that only the co-transplantation and co-localization of NPC and islets (Co-NPC-Tx) induce stable long-term graft function in the absence of immunosuppression. This condition is associated with an expansion of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T regulatory cells in the spleen. Unfortunately, stable graft function was accompanied by constant and reproducible development of NPC-derived cancer mainly sustained by insulin secretion. Conclusion These data demonstrate that the use of NPC in combination with islets prevents graft rejection in a fully mismatched model. However, the development of NPC-derived cancer raises serious doubts about the safety of using adult stem cells in combination with insulin-producing cells outside the original microenvironment.
The Measurement of the Light Deflection from Jupiter: Experimental Results

We have determined the relativistic light deflection of the quasar J0842+1835 as Jupiter passed within 3. ′7 on 2002 September 8, by measuring the time delay using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and Effelsberg radio telescopes at 8.4 GHz. At closest approach, general relativity (GR) predicts a radial (static) deflection of 1190 μas and a tangential (retarded) deflection in the direction of Jupiter's motion of 51 μas. Our experiment achieved an rms position error of ≤10 μas and measured this retarded deflection to be 0.98 ± 0.19 (rms error) times that predicted by GR. The increased positional accuracy for this VLBI phase-referencing experiment was achieved by using two calibrator sources. Comments on the interpretation of this experiment are given.
De Novo Sequencing-Based Transcriptome and Digital Gene Expression Analysis Reveals Insecticide Resistance-Relevant Genes in Propylaea japonica (Thunberg) (Coleoptea: Coccinellidae)

The ladybird Propylaea japonica (Thunberg) is one of most important natural enemies of aphids in China. This species is threatened by the extensive use of insecticides but genomics-based information on the molecular mechanisms underlying insecticide resistance is limited. Hence, we analyzed the transcriptome and expression profile data of P. japonica in order to gain a deeper understanding of insecticide resistance in ladybirds. We performed de novo assembly of a transcriptome using Illumina's Solexa sequencing technology and short reads. A total of 27,243,552 reads were generated. These were assembled into 81,458 contigs and 33,647 unigenes (6,862 clusters and 26,785 singletons). Of the unigenes, 23,965 (71.22%) have putative homologues in the non-redundant (nr) protein database from NCBI, using BLASTX, with a cut-off E-value of 10−5. We examined COG, GO and KEGG annotations to better understand the functions of these unigenes. Digital gene expression (DGE) libraries showed differences in gene expression profiles between two insecticide resistant strains. When compared with an insecticide susceptible profile, a total of 4,692 genes were significantly up- or down- regulated in a moderately resistant strain. Among these genes, 125 putative insecticide resistance genes were identified. To confirm the DGE results, 16 selected genes were validated using quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). This study is the first to report genetic information on P. japonica and has greatly enriched the sequence data for ladybirds. The large number of gene sequences produced from the transcriptome and DGE sequencing will greatly improve our understanding of this important insect, at the molecular level, and could contribute to the in-depth research into insecticide resistance mechanisms.
Action recognition and interpretation from virtual demonstrations

To properly perform tasks based on abstract instructions, autonomous robots need refined reasoning skills in order to bridge the gap between the ambiguous descriptions and the comprehensive information needed to execute the implied actions. In this article, we present an automated knowledge acquisition system from human executed tasks in virtual environments, and extend the knowledge processing system KNOWROB[1] to be capable to reason on the acquired data. We have set up two scenarios in a physics based simulator: creating a pancake, and garnishing a pizza dough. Users where asked to execute these tasks using the provided tools and ingredients. Using a data processing module we then collect the low-level data and the relevant abstract events from the performed episodes. The recorded data is then made available in a format that robots can understand, by using a symbolic layer to interconnect the two data types in a seamless way.
Genome and Transcriptome Adaptation Accompanying Emergence of the Definitive Type 2 Host-Restricted Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Pathovar

ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium definitive type 2 (DT2) is host restricted to Columba livia (rock or feral pigeon) but is also closely related to S. Typhimurium isolates that circulate in livestock and cause a zoonosis characterized by gastroenteritis in humans. DT2 isolates formed a distinct phylogenetic cluster within S. Typhimurium based on whole-genome-sequence polymorphisms. Comparative genome analysis of DT2 94-213 and S. Typhimurium SL1344, DT104, and D23580 identified few differences in gene content with the exception of variations within prophages. However, DT2 94-213 harbored 22 pseudogenes that were intact in other closely related S. Typhimurium strains. We report a novel in silico approach to identify single amino acid substitutions in proteins that have a high probability of a functional impact. One polymorphism identified using this method, a single-residue deletion in the Tar protein, abrogated chemotaxis to aspartate in vitro. DT2 94-213 also exhibited an altered transcriptional profile in response to culture at 42°C compared to that of SL1344. Such differentially regulated genes included a number involved in flagellum biosynthesis and motility. IMPORTANCE Whereas Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium can infect a wide range of animal species, some variants within this serovar exhibit a more limited host range and altered disease potential. Phylogenetic analysis based on whole-genome sequences can identify lineages associated with specific virulence traits, including host adaptation. This study represents one of the first to link pathogen-specific genetic signatures, including coding capacity, genome degradation, and transcriptional responses to host adaptation within a Salmonella serovar. We performed comparative genome analysis of reference and pigeon-adapted definitive type 2 (DT2) S. Typhimurium isolates alongside phenotypic and transcriptome analyses, to identify genetic signatures linked to host adaptation within the DT2 lineage. Whereas Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium can infect a wide range of animal species, some variants within this serovar exhibit a more limited host range and altered disease potential. Phylogenetic analysis based on whole-genome sequences can identify lineages associated with specific virulence traits, including host adaptation. This study represents one of the first to link pathogen-specific genetic signatures, including coding capacity, genome degradation, and transcriptional responses to host adaptation within a Salmonella serovar. We performed comparative genome analysis of reference and pigeon-adapted definitive type 2 (DT2) S. Typhimurium isolates alongside phenotypic and transcriptome analyses, to identify genetic signatures linked to host adaptation within the DT2 lineage.
TECHNOLOGY Ancient Tamil Vattezhutthu Alphabets Recognition in Stone Inscription Using Wavelet Transform and SVM Classifier

This paper presents the application of wavelet proc essing in the domain of Tamil Vattezhutthu alphabet s recognition in Stone inscription. To attain high re cognition rate, robust feature extractors and power ful classifiers that are invariant to degree of variability of ston e inscriptions are needed. The proposed scheme consists of two stages: a feature extraction stage, which is based on Haar wavelet transform and a classification stag e that uses support vector machine classifier. Experimental res ults show that the proposed method is effective.
Top-Down Mining of Interesting Patterns from Very High Dimensional Data

Many real world applications deal with transactional data, characterized by a huge number of transactions (tuples) with a small number of dimensions (attributes). However, there are some other applications that involve rather high dimensional data with a small number of tuples. Examples of such applications include bioinformatics, survey-based statistical analysis, text processing, and so on. High dimensional data pose great challenges to most existing data mining algorithms. Although there are numerous algorithms dealing with transactional data sets, there are few algorithms oriented to very high dimensional data sets with a relatively small number of tuples.
A Systematic Classification and Detection of Infeasible Paths for Accurate WCET Analysis of Esterel Programs

Synchronous programming languages like Esterel are widely used in safetycritical domains like avionics. However, it is only with the recent development of mature worst-case execution time (WCET) analysis tools that progress is being made on systematically studying the WCET analysis problem for languages like Esterel. In this context, we present techniques for methodically classifying and detecting different types of infeasible paths that arise while compiling Esterel programs into executable code, via high-level languages such as C. Our experimental results with well-known benchmarks show that the infeasible paths detected using our techniques result in as much as 36.5% reduction in the WCET estimates, compared to when no infeasible path detection is employed.
SIGIR ’ 98 Boosting and Rocchio Applied to Text Filtering

We discuss two learning algorithms for text filtering: modified Rocchio and a boosting algorithm called AdaBoost. We show how both algorithms can be adapted to maximize any general utility matrix that associates cost (or gain) for each pair of machine prediction and correct label. We first show that AdaBoost significantly outperforms another highly effective text filtering algorithm. We then compare AdaBoost and Rocchio over three large text filtering tasks. Overall both algorithms are comparable and are quite effective. AdaBoost produces better classifiers than Rocchio when the training collection contains a very large number of relevant documents. However, on these tasks, Rocchio runs much faster than AdaBoost.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.org Targeting Asymptomatic Term and Late Preterm Newborns at Risk for Early Sepsis: C Reactive Protein 20mg/l Threshold

Identification of sepsis is a major issue due to limitations in diagnosis and severity of outcome. Different combinations of tests are used to screen babies at risk for infection, none specific enough to avoid treatment of non-infected newborns. 193 newborns with 35 weeks of gestational age admitted in the maternity were screened for infection using a protocol scoring system involving haematological values and CRP 10mg/l. Blood-cultures were taken after treatment decision, before antibiotics were started. No microbiological exam was included in the screening. Treatment decisions were taken by the staff irrespectively of the ongoing observational study. Newborns were classified by the authors in 4 groups: infected (culture verified), strongly suspected infection (SSI), no sepsis but treated (NST), no sepsis-no treatment (NSNT). Treatment decision was revaluated by the authors according to different cutoff levels of CRP. 40 newborns (20.7%) received antibiotics. 2 had positive blood-cultures. 13 were classified as SSI (all treated) and 178 as not infected (25 treated). All infected babies were identified but the error of the positive predictive value reached 62.5%. Revaluation of treatment decisions with CRP cutoff levels of 15, 20 and 25 mg/l showed respectively 60.5%, 51.6 and 48% of error of the positive predictive value, the first two cutoffs missing no infected newborns but the last one missing two. A new scoring system including CRP at 20mg/l has been in use since then without readmissions for infection and an estimated reduction of 24% antibiotic treatment.
The Devil Is in the Details: Implementing Flash Page Reuse with WOM Codes

Flash memory is prevalent in modern servers and devices. Coupled with the scaling down of flash technology, the popularity of flash memory motivates the search for methods to increase flash reliability and lifetime. Erasures are the dominant cause of flash cell wear, but reducing them is challenging because flash is a write-once medium--memory cells must be erased prior to writing. An approach that has recently received considerable attention relies on write-once memory (WOM) codes, designed to accommodate additional writes on write-once media. However, the techniques proposed for reusing flash pages with WOM codes are limited in their scope. Many focus on the coding theory alone, while others suggest FTL designs that are application specific, or not applicable due to their complexity, overheads, or specific constraints of MLC flash. This work is the first that addresses all aspects of page reuse within an end-to-end implementation of a general-purpose FTL on MLC flash. We use our hardware implementation to directly measure the short and long-term effects of page reuse on SSD durability, I/O performance and energy consumption, and show that FTL design must explicitly take them into account.
Leptin expression affects metabolic rate in zebrafish embryos (D. rerio)

We used antisense morpholino oligonucleotide technology to knockdown leptin-(A) gene expression in developing zebrafish embryos and measured its effects on metabolic rate and cardiovascular function. Using two indicators of metabolic rate, oxygen consumption was significantly lower in leptin morphants early in development [<48 hours post-fertilization (hpf)], while acid production was significantly lower in morphants later in development (>48 hpf). Oxygen utilization rates in <48 hpf embryos and acid production in 72 hpf embryos could be rescued to that of wildtype embryos by recombinant leptin coinjected with antisense morpholino. Leptin is established to influence metabolic rate in mammals, and these data suggest leptin signaling also influences metabolic rate in fishes.
Does Functional Knowledge Have a Privileged Status in the Speeded Computation of Word Meaning ?

Theories of semantic memory differ in claims about the relative importance of knowledge types (e.g., sensory versus functional) in object concepts, giving rise to varying predictions about the rate at which they become available during word meaning computation. We report evidence that sensory features are computed faster than functional features, and interpret these results in terms of perceptual symbol systems theory.
The Formation of Filamentary Structures in Radiative Cluster Winds

We explore the dynamics of a “cluster wind” flow in the regime in which the shocks resulting from the interaction of winds from nearby stars are radiative. We first show that for a cluster with T Tauri stars and/or Herbig Ae/Be stars, the wind interactions are indeed likely to be radiative. We then compute a set of four three-dimensional radiative simulations of a cluster of 75 young stars, exploring the effects of varying the wind parameters and the density of the initial ISM that permeates the volume of the cluster. These simulations show that the ISM is compressed by the action of the winds into a structure of dense knots and filaments. The structures that are produced resemble in a qualitative way the observations of IRAS 18511+0146 by Vig and coworkers.