Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simple Learning in Moded Non-stationary Environments

Non-stationary environments are an important application domain for learning algorithms. This paper examines a simple type of prediction problem in which an environment changes over time according to a Markov process. We motivate the study of this type of environment and show how the simple approach of learning using a xed learning rate can do well, simultaneously tracking changes between modes and smoothing internal variability within modes. We show that the ideal learning rate varies from environment to environment and present an algorithm that automatically identi es a good learning rate. We evaluate this approach over a set of simulated examples.
A Probabilistic Neural Network-Based Approach for Related Software Changes Detection

Current softwares are continuously updating. The change between two versions usually involves multiple program entities (e.g., Class, method, attribute) with multiple purposes (e.g., Changed requirements, bug fixing). It's hard for developers to understand which changes are made for the same purpose. However, whether two changes are related is not decided by the relationship between this two entities in the program. In this paper, we summarize 4 coupling rules (16 instances) and 4 co-changed types at class, method and attribute levels for software change. We propose the Related Change Vector (RCV) to characterize the related changes, which is defined based on the coupling rules and co-changed types. Probabilistic neural network is used to detect related software changes with RCV as input. Our approach is evaluated with experiments on 3 software projects (14 versions) written in Java. The results indicate that the average detection precision is about 90%.
Medial temporal lobe activation during encoding and retrieval of novel face-name pairs

The human medial temporal lobe (MTL) is known to be involved in declarative memory, yet the exact contributions of the various MTL structures are not well understood. In particular, the data as to whether the hippocampal region is preferentially involved in the encoding and/or retrieval of associative memory have not allowed for a consensus concerning its specific role. To investigate the role of the hippocampal region and the nearby MTL cortical areas in encoding and retrieval of associative versus non‐associative memories, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity during learning and later recognition testing of novel face‐name pairs. We show that there is greater activity for successful encoding of associative information than for non‐associative information in the right hippocampal region, as well as in the left amygdala and right parahippocampal cortex. Activity for retrieval of associative information was greater than for non‐associative information in the right hippocampal region also, as well as in the left perirhinal cortex, right entorhinal cortex, and right parahippocampal cortex. The implications of these data for a clear functional distinction between the hippocampal region and the MTL cortical structures are discussed. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mice Lacking Protease Nexin-1 Show Delayed Structural and Functional Recovery after Sciatic Nerve Crush

Multiple molecular mechanisms influence nerve regeneration. Because serine proteases were shown to affect peripheral nerve regeneration, we performed nerve crush experiments to study synapse reinnervation in adult mice lacking the serpin protease nexin-1 (PN-1). PN-1 is a potent endogenous inhibitor of thrombin, trypsin, tissue plasminogen activators (tPAs), and urokinase plasminogen activators. Compared with the wild type, a significant delay in synapse reinnervation was detected in PN-1 knock-out (KO) animals, which was associated with both reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis of Schwann cells. Various factors known to affect Schwann cells were also altered. Fibrin deposits, tPA activity, mature BDNF, and the low-affinity p75 neurotrophin receptor were increased in injured sciatic nerves of mutant mice. To test whether the absence of PN-1 in Schwann cells or in the axon caused delay in reinnervation, PN-1 was overexpressed exclusively in the nerves of PN-1 KO mice. Neuronal PN-1 expression did not rescue the delayed reinnervation. The results suggest that Schwann cell-derived PN-1 is crucial for proper reinnervation through its contribution to the autocrine control of proliferation and survival. Thus, the precise balance between distinct proteases and serpins such as PN-1 can modulate the overall impact on the kinetics of recovery.
Fibronectin modified expression of Sonic hedgehog in ATRA-mediated neuronal differentiation

In this study, the effect of fibronectin on the neurite outgrowth from embryoid bodies (EBs) in neurodifferentiated embryonal carcinoma P19 cells was examined. The neurite outgrowth on fibronectin was maintained for a longer time in comparison with those on collagen or laminin. Quantitative RT-PCR revealed that mRNA level corresponding to sonic hedgehog (Shh) in neurodifferentiated P19 cells was upregulated on fibronectin, whereas collagen or laminin did not affect. Further knockdown of integrin αv subunit in P19 cells demonstrated that expression of Shh was mediated through interaction between fibronectin and integrin. Additionally, exogenous Shh agonist accelerated neurite outgrowth from embryonic stem cell-derived EBs without large change of neuronal phenotype expression. Taken together, fibronectin could maintain neurite outgrowth via increased Shh expression.
The Structure of Ca2+ Sensor Case16 Reveals the Mechanism of Reaction to Low Ca2+ Concentrations

Here we report the first crystal structure of a high-contrast genetically encoded circularly permuted green fluorescent protein (cpGFP)-based Ca2+ sensor, Case16, in the presence of a low Ca2+ concentration. The structure reveals the positioning of the chromophore within Case16 at the first stage of the Ca2+-dependent response when only two out of four Ca2+-binding pockets of calmodulin (CaM) are occupied with Ca2+ ions. In such a “half Ca2+-bound state”, Case16 is characterized by an incomplete interaction between its CaM-/M13-domains. We also report the crystal structure of the related Ca2+ sensor Case12 at saturating Ca2+ concentration. Based on this structure, we postulate that cpGFP-based Ca2+ sensors can form non-functional homodimers where the CaM-domain of one sensor molecule binds symmetrically to the M13-peptide of the partner sensor molecule. Case12 and Case16 behavior upon addition of high concentrations of free CaM or M13-peptide reveals that the latter effectively blocks the fluorescent response of the sensor. We speculate that the demonstrated intermolecular interaction with endogenous substrates and homodimerization can impede proper functioning of this type of Ca2+ sensors in living cells.
Personalized Exercises for Preposition Learning

We present a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system that generates fill-in-the-blank items for preposition usage. The system takes a set of carrier sentences as input, chooses a preposition in each sentence as the key, and then automatically generates distractors. It personalizes item selection for the user in two ways. First, it logs items to which the user previously gave incorrect answers, and offers similar items in a future session as review. Second, it progresses from easier to harder sentences, to minimize any hindrance on preposition learning that might be posed by difficult vocabulary.
An efficient navigation strategy for mobile robots with uncertainty estimation

The main contribution of this paper is an algorithm for integrating motion planning and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). We propose an effective navigation method and take into account not only the specific exploration situation, but also the uncertainty estimation of localization and mapping. In our method, both the navigation cost and the system uncertainty constitute an objective function. The robot will plan an optimal path based on this function between its current location and a selected local destination in order to implement the whole navigation process in an active and intelligent way. Simulation results are given for confirmation and it is shown that our method is a success in unknown corridor-like environment as it leads to more accurate localization and mapping result compared with the traditional method.
Improved heart rate variability signal analysis from the beat occurrence times according to the IPFM model

The heart rate variability (HRV) is an extended tool to analyze the mechanisms controlling the cardiovascular system. In this paper, the integral pulse frequency modulation model (IPFM) is assumed. It generates the beat occurrence times from a modulating signal. This signal is thought to represent the autonomic nervous system action, mostly studied in its frequency components. Different spectral estimation methods try to infer the modulating signal characteristics from the available beat timing on the electrocardiogram signal. These methods estimate the spectrum through the heart period (HP) or the heart rate (HR) signal. The authors introduce a new time domain HRV signal, the Heart Timing (HT) signal. They demonstrate that this HT signal, in contrast with the HR or HP, makes it possible to recover an unbiased estimation of the modulating signal spectra. In this estimation the authors avoid the spurious components and the low-pass filtering effect generated when analyzing HR or HP.
Does Bank Performance Benefit from Non-traditional Activities? A Case of Non-interest Incomes in Taiwan Commercial Banks

Non-interest incomes have become an increasingly important part of banks' operating incomes. Most banks regard non-interest incomes as one of the stable sources of bank revenues. In general, the industry believes increasing the ratio of non-interest incomes to operating incomes can not only improve profitability but also reduce the risk to the bank. However, DeYoung and Roland (2001) have stated increasing fee-based activities increases the volatility of bank revenues and earnings. Stiroh (2004) and DeYoung and Rice (2004) showed an increased reliance on non-interest incomes did not reduce the risk level of the bank. The objective of this study is to investigate whether the reliance on different sources of non-interest incomes will affect bank efficiency. We employ the data envelopment approach (DEA) to calculate the cost efficiency of Taiwan domestic commercial banks from 1992 to 2004. The findings are that the banks either with relatively higher or lower ratios of non-interest incomes to operating incomes perform more cost-efficiently during the examination periods. The relative optimal level of non-interest incomes exists in the Taiwan banking industry.
Manipulation planning of similar objects by part correspondence

Many innovative ideas in robotics have been inspired by neuroscience and, in particular, by the investigation of how intelligence and perception work. In this paper we explore an approach for semantic robot grasping, which combines programming by demonstration, automatic 3D shape segmentation and manipulation planning by parts. Neuro-psychology studies have evidenced the influence of shape decomposition for human perception of objects. In accordance to these findings a robot manipulation system is presented which is capable of learning and planning manipulation tasks for similar objects. The proposed approach allows a robot to perform intelligent grasping tasks by modeling the topology of an object. Manipulation tasks are demonstrated in virtual reality using a data glove. Results show that 3D shape segmentation enables both object retrieval and part-based grasping according to the affordances of an object.
Efficacy of acupuncture in asthma: systematic review and meta-analysis of published data from 11 randomised controlled trials

Contradictory results from randomised controlled trials of acupuncture in asthma suggest both a beneficial and detrimental effect. The authors conducted a formal systematic review and meta-analysis of all randomised clinical trials in the published literature that have compared acupuncture at real and placebo points in asthma patients. The authors searched for trials published in the period 1970–2000. Trials had to measure at least one of the following objective outcomes: peak expiratory flow rate, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity. Estimates of the standarised mean difference, between acupuncture and placebo were computed for each trial and combined to estimate the overall effect. Hetereogeneity was investigated in terms of the characteristics of the individual studies. Twelve trials met the inclusion criteria but data from one could not be obtained. Individual patient data were available in only three. Standardised differences between means ranging from 0.071 to 0.133, in favour of acupuncture, were obtained. The overall effect was not conventionally significant and it corresponds to an approximate difference in FEV1 means of 1.7. After exploring hetereogenenity, it was found that studies where bronchoconstriction was induced during the experiment showed a conventionally significant effect. This meta-analysis did not find evidence of an effect of acupuncture in reducing asthma. However, the meta-analysis was limited by shortcomings of the individual trials, in terms of sample size, missing information, adjustment of baseline characteristics and a possible bias against acupuncture introduced by the use of placebo points that may not be completely inactive. There was a suggestion of preferential publication of trials in favour of acupuncture. There is an obvious need to conduct a full-scale randomised clinical trial addressing these limitations and the prognostic value of the aetiology of the disease.
Automatic Generation of Literary Texts : Greek Mythology

Currently, there is some scientific interest on studying creativity and how it can be modeled by computer programs. One of the active subareas focuses on the generation of text, with some prior success systems. In this paper, we describe an example of this kind of system that automatically generates texts related to Greek mythology. We have elaborated on ideas coming from computer creativity, such as Brutus architecture, and narrative theory, such as tales structure or Greek texts, taking as a model Homer’s books. The implementation is based on a production system, whose knowledge base is represented as an ontology, and we have borrowed also ideas from Shank’s conceptual dependency.
Cocaine-Induced Vasoconstriction in the Human Coronary Microcirculation: New Evidence From Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography

Background— Cocaine is a major cause of acute coronary syndrome, especially in young adults; however, the mechanistic underpinning of cocaine-induced acute coronary syndrome remains limited. Previous studies in animals and in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization suggest that cocaine constricts coronary microvessels, yet direct evidence is lacking. Methods and Results— We used myocardial contrast echocardiography to test the hypothesis that cocaine causes vasoconstriction in the human coronary microcirculation. Measurements were performed at baseline and after a low, nonintoxicating dose of intranasal cocaine (2 mg/kg) in 10 healthy cocaine-naïve young men (median age, 32 years). Postdestruction time-intensity myocardial contrast echocardiography kinetic data were fit to the equation y=A(1−e−&bgr;t) to quantify functional capillary blood volume (A), microvascular flow velocity (&bgr;), and myocardial perfusion (A×&bgr;). Heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and left ventricular work (2-dimensional echocardiography) were measured before and 45 minutes after cocaine. Cocaine increased mean arterial pressure (by 14±2 mm Hg [mean±SE]), heart rate (by 8±3 bpm), and left ventricular work (by 50±18 mm Hg·mL−1·bpm−1). Despite the increases in these determinants of myocardial oxygen demand, myocardial perfusion decreased by 30% (103.7±9.8 to 75.9±10.8 arbitrary units [AU]/s; P<0.01) mainly as a result of decreased capillary blood volume (133.9±5.1 to 111.7±7.7 AU; P<0.05) with no significant change in microvascular flow velocity (0.8±0.1 to 0.7±0.1 AU). Conclusions— In healthy cocaine-naïve young adults, a low-dose cocaine challenge evokes a sizeable decrease in myocardial perfusion. Moreover, the predominant effect is to decrease myocardial capillary blood volume rather than microvascular flow velocity, suggesting a specific action of cocaine to constrict terminal feed arteries.
The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law : Effective Judicial Intervention

A. The Massachusetts Approach . 1. Gould v. Greylock Reservation Commission 2. The Development of the Massachusetts Response to the Problem of Low-Visibility Policy Decisions 3. A Tentative Application of the Massachusetts Approach: Public Trust Problems in Maryland and Virginia . B. The Public Trust in Wisconsin . 1. The Early Developments . 2. Refining the Basic Concept . C. The Public Trust in California . 1. The Obligations of Private Grantees . 2. The Obligations of Municipal Grantees a. The need to restrain localism [471] . 509 . 509 . 514
New directions in social comparison research

This article notices that social comparison theory has developed from being a focused theoretical statement on the use of others for self-evaluation into a lively and varied area of research encompassing many different paradigms, approaches and applications. A recent 'renaissance' in social comparison theory is described in which links were established with social comparison work from before Festinger's (1954) classic paper and in which various new methods and theoretical models were developed. More recently, an 'enlightment' of social comparison theory seems to occur in which an integrative effort is made to link social comparison processes to more general principles that underlie our Psychological functioning. Four trends in this enlightment are described: (1) the movement of social cognition to the centre stage of social comparison research; (2) the interest in more biological perspectives, including evolutionary theory; (3) the focus on the role of individual differences such as social comparison orientation (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999) in moderating the responses to social comparison; and (4) an emphasis on the social context of social comparisons, in particular the influence of social groups and social identity. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley, & Sons, Ltd.
SpiderStore: A Native Main Memory Approach for Graph Storage

The ever increasing amount of linked open data results in a demand for high performance graph databases. In this paper we therefore introduce a memory layout which is tailored to the storage of large RDF data sets in main memory. We present the memory layout SpiderStore. This layout features a node centric design which is in contrast to the prevailing systems using triple focused approaches. The benet of this design is a native mapping between the nodes of a graph onto memory locations connected to each other. Based on this native mapping an addressing schema which facilitates relative addressing together with a snapshot mechanism is presented. Finally a performance evaluation, which demonstrates the capabilities, of the SpiderStore memory layout is performed using an RDF-data set consisting of about 190 mio triples.
Multi-aspect and Multi-class Based Document Sentiment Analysis of Educational Data Catering Accreditation Process

Sentiment analysis is used to determine the attitude of a writer with respect to some topic or the overall contextual polarity of a document. Current techniques of sentiment analysis work either at a document or at a sentence or at an entity level. The objective of this research is to compute the document level sentiment analysis score based upon underlying entity or aspect based scores, and their importance towards the evaluation of the topic discussed in the complete document. In this approach we have classified the document into multiple classes with multiple aspects are taken into consideration. The approach allows us to automatically take care of the current problems of document level sentiment analysis, such as, entity identification, subjectivity detection and negation. The technique is further applied for educational data mining, where a faculty performance is evaluated using the sentiment analysis of comments provided by students as a part of their feedback. The document level faculty performance score is computed from the distinct aspect based sentiment scores, such as, knowledge, presentation, communication and regularity of the faculty. The importance of these aspects towards computation of document level score is taken based upon the weight ages. These aspects have, taken up from the NAAC accreditation criteria. The results show that this strategy provides more accurate document level sentiment scores than the scores computed directly at the document level without analyzing the underlying aspects.
Statistical Methods in Medical Research

can be found at: Statistical Methods in Medical Research Additional services and information for http://smm.sagepub. com/cgi/alerts Email Alerts: http://smm.sagepub. com/subscriptions Subscriptions: http://www.sagepub. com/journalsReprints.nav Reprints: http://www.sagepub. com/journalsPermissions.nav Permissions: http://smm.sagepub. com/cgi/content/refs/15/5/423 SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms): (this article cites 12 articles hosted on the Citations
Development of an Autonomous BCI Wheelchair

Restoration of mobility for the movement impaired is one of the important goals for numerous Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems. In this study, subjects used a steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) based BCI to select a desired destination. The selected destination was communicated to the wheelchair navigation system that controlled the wheelchair autonomously avoiding obstacles on the way to the destination. By transferring the responsibility of controlling the wheel chair from the subject to the navigation software, the number of BCI decisions needed to be completed by the subject to move to the desired destination is greatly reduced.
Detection and compensation algorithm for backlight images with fuzzy logic and adaptive compensation curve

This paper presents a new algorithm for detection and compensation of backlight images. The proposed technique attacks the weakness of the conventional backlight image processing methods such as over-saturation, losing contrast and so on. The proposed algorithm consists of two operation phases: detection and compensation phases. In the detection phase, we use the spatial position characteristic and histogram of backlight image to obtain two image indices, which can determine the backlight degree of an image. Fuzzy logic is then used to integrate these two indices into a final backlight index determining the final backlight degree of an image precisely. Second, in the compensation phase, to solve the over-saturation problem that exists usually in conventional image compensation methods, we propose the adaptive compensation-curve scheme to compensate and enhance the brightness of backlight images. The luminance of a backlight image is adjusted according to the compensation curve, which is adapted dynamically according to the backlight degree indicated by the backlight index estimated in the detection phase. The performance of the proposed technique is tested on 100 backlight images covering various kinds of backlight conditions and degrees. The experimental and comparison results clearly show the superiority of the proposed technique.