Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online training on a budget of support vector machines using twin prototypes

This paper proposes twin prototype support vector machine (TVM), a constant space and sublinear time support vector machine (SVM) algorithm for online learning. TVM achieves its favorable scaling by memorizing only a fixed‐size data summary in the form of example prototypes and their associated information during training. In addition, TVM guarantees that the optimal SVM solution is maintained on all prototypes at any time. To maximize the accuracy of TVM, prototypes are constructed to approximate the data distribution near the decision boundary. Given a new training example, TVM is updated in three steps. First, the new example is added as a new prototype if it is near the decision boundary. If this happens, to maintain the budget, either the prototype farthest away from the decision boundary is removed or two near prototypes are selected and merged into a single one. Finally, TVM is updated by incremental and decremental techniques to account for the change. Several methods for prototype merging were proposed and experimentally evaluated. TVM algorithms with hinge loss and ramp loss were implemented and thoroughly tested on 12 large datasets. In most cases, the accuracy of low‐budget TVMs was comparable with the resource‐unconstrained SVMs. Additionally, the TVM accuracy was substantially larger than that of SVM trained on a random sample of the same size. Even larger difference in accuracy was observed when comparing with Forgetron, a popular budgeted kernel perceptron algorithm. As expected, the difference in accuracy between hinge loss and ramp loss TVM was negligible and hinge loss version is preferable due to its lower computational cost. The results illustrate that highly accurate online SVMs could be trained from arbitrary large data streams using devices with severely limited memory budgets. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining 3: 149‐169, 2010
MIBPB: A software package for electrostatic analysis

The Poisson–Boltzmann equation (PBE) is an established model for the electrostatic analysis of biomolecules. The development of advanced computational techniques for the solution of the PBE has been an important topic in the past two decades. This article presents a matched interface and boundary (MIB)‐based PBE software package, the MIBPB solver, for electrostatic analysis. The MIBPB has a unique feature that it is the first interface technique‐based PBE solver that rigorously enforces the solution and flux continuity conditions at the dielectric interface between the biomolecule and the solvent. For protein molecular surfaces, which may possess troublesome geometrical singularities, the MIB scheme makes the MIBPB by far the only existing PBE solver that is able to deliver the second‐order convergence, that is, the accuracy increases four times when the mesh size is halved. The MIBPB method is also equipped with a Dirichlet‐to‐Neumann mapping technique that builds a Green's function approach to analytically resolve the singular charge distribution in biomolecules in order to obtain reliable solutions at meshes as coarse as 1 Å — whereas it usually takes other traditional PB solvers 0.25 Å to reach similar level of reliability. This work further accelerates the rate of convergence of linear equation systems resulting from the MIBPB by using the Krylov subspace (KS) techniques. Condition numbers of the MIBPB matrices are significantly reduced by using appropriate KS solver and preconditioner combinations. Both linear and nonlinear PBE solvers in the MIBPB package are tested by protein–solvent solvation energy calculations and analysis of salt effects on protein–protein binding energies, respectively. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011
Multiple user pair scheduling in TWR-FSO systems in presence of building sway

This paper investigates a two-way relay (TWR) assisted free space optical (FSO) communication system with multiple user pairs sharing a single relay via scheduling. A two-way, half-duplex, network-coded relay is considered which serves multiple user pairs over an optical channel characterized by path loss, atmospheric turbulence, and pointing errors (building sway). In addition, the relay employs a scheduler based on absolute signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and normalized SNR based scheduling schemes. Novel closed form expressions for outage probability for both the scheduling schemes are derived and numerically analyzed for the considered system and channel models.
ARSYS -- Article Recommender System

In a world flooded by information, a filtering mechanism is compulsory. Recommender systems have taken a huge leap towards this goal, significantly improving the user experience in the online environment. There are two main approaches, content-based and collaborative filtering, both with advantages and drawbacks. We propose an article recommender system that integrates content based, collaborative and metadata recommendations, allowing users to select the method that best suits their needs. The first approach uses keywords in order to find similar articles, given a query or an entire document. Collaborative filtering is implemented using a P2P network in which data is distributed evenly across all peers. The last technique uses data from a semantic repository containing information about articles (e.g. title, author, domain), which can be interrogated using natural language-like queries. In addition, we present in detail the results obtained from employing the P2P network in terms of providing timely responses to the collaborative filtering technique and of ensuring reliability through data replication.
Engineering Craniofacial Structures: Facing the Challenge

The human innate regenerative ability is known to be limited by the intensity of the insult together with the availability of progenitor cells, which may cause certain irreparable damage. It is only recently that the paradigm of tissue engineering found its way to the treatment of irreversibly affected body structures with the challenge of reconstructing the lost part. In the current review, we underline recent trials that target engineering of human craniofacial structures, mainly bone, cartilage, and teeth. We analyze the applied engineering strategies relative to the selection of cell types to lay down a specific targeted tissue, together with their association with an escorting scaffold for a particular engineered site, and discuss their necessity to be sustained by growth factors. Challenges and expectations for facial skeletal engineering are discussed in the context of future treatment.
Hybrid Modulation Technique for Cascaded Multilevel Inverter for High Power and High Quality Applications in Renewable Energy Systems

The objective of the work is to improve multilevel power electronic converter topologies for high quality and high power applications with specific emphasis on renewable energy systems. The rapid evolution of renewable energy within the last several years has resulted in the design of efficient power converters suitable for medium and high-power applications such as wind turbine and photovoltaic (PV) systems. Today, the industrial trend is moving away from heavy and bulky passive components to power converter systems that use more and more semiconductor elements controlled by powerful processor systems. However, it is hard to connect the traditional converters to the high and medium voltage grids, as a single power switch cannot stand at high voltage. For these reasons, a new family of multilevel inverters has appeared as a solution for working with higher voltage levels. This paper presents four different sequential switching hybrid-modulation strategies and compared for cascaded multilevel inverters. Hybrid-modulation strategies represent combinations of fundamental-frequency modulation and multilevel sinusoidalmodulation (MSPWM) strategies, and are designed for performance of the well-known alternative phase opposition disposition, phase-shifted carrier, carrier-based space-vector modulation, and single-carrier sinusoidalmodulations. The main characteristic of these modulations are the reduction of switching losses with good harmonic performance, balanced power loss dissipation among the devices with in a cell, and among the series-connected cells.
The Role of High School Physical Activity Experience in College Students’ Physical Activity Motivation

International Journal of Exercise Science 7(2) : 98-109, 2014. This study tested the role of past physical activity mode in predicting physical activity motivation of first year college students. Consistent with self-determination theory, perceived competence and autonomy were expected to mediate the relationships of specific types of physical activity engaged in during high school to autonomous motivation for physical activity in college. College students (N = 124; Mage= 18.42, SD = 0.51) completed an online questionnaire that assessed frequency of engagement in different modes of physical activity during their final year of high school (i.e., competitive sport, recreational sport, aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, organized activities and recreational activities) and current perceptions of competence and autonomy and autonomous motivation for physical activity in college. Path analysis results showed that feelings of competence and autonomy mediated the relationships of past engagement in competitive sport and resistance exercise to current autonomous motivation for physical activity. Competitive sport involvement positively predicted both perceived competence and autonomy, whereas resistance exercise positively predicted perceived competence. Results supported self-determination theory and suggest that creating more opportunities for students to stay involved in competitive sport and engage in resistance exercise may be important for sustaining physical activity behaviours in college.
Developing and Implementing a Pediatric Emergency Care Curriculum for Providers at District Level Hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study in Kenya

Introduction Emergency medicine is a relatively new field in sub-Saharan Africa and dedicated training in pediatric emergency care is limited. While guidelines from the African Federation of Emergency Medicine (AFEM) regarding emergency training exist, a core curriculum in pediatric emergency care has not yet been established for providers at the district hospital level. Methods The objective of the project was to develop a curriculum for providers with limited training in pediatric emergencies, and contain didactic and simulation components with emphasis on treatment and resuscitation using available resources. A core curriculum for pediatric emergency care was developed using a validated model of medical education curriculum development and through review of existing guidelines and literature. Based on literature review, as well as a review of existent guidelines in pediatric and emergency care, 10 core topics were chosen and agreed upon by experts in the field, including pediatric and emergency care providers in Kenya and the United States. These topics were confirmed to be consistent with the principles of emergency care endorsed by AFEM as well as complimentary to existing Kenyan medical school syllabi. A curriculum based on these 10 core topics was created and subsequently piloted with a group of medical residents and clinical officers at a community hospital in western Kenya. Results The 10 core pediatric topics prioritized were airway management, respiratory distress, thoracic and abdominal trauma, head trauma and cervical spine management, sepsis and shock, endocrine emergencies, altered mental status/toxicology, orthopedic emergencies, burn and wound management, and pediatric advanced life support. The topics were incorporated into a curriculum comprised of ten 1.5-h combined didactic plus low-fidelity simulation modules. Feedback from trainers and participating providers gave high ratings to the ease of information delivery, relevance, and appropriateness of the curriculum. Conclusion We present here a core curriculum in pediatric emergency care for district hospital level providers in Kenya which can be used as a framework for further development and implementation of training programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
LP-Based Robust Algorithms for Noisy Minor-Free and Bounded Treewidth Graphs

We give a general approach to solve various optimization problems on noisy minor-free and bounded treewidth graphs, where some fraction of the edges have been corrupted adversarially. Our results are motivated by a previous work of Magen and Moharrami, who gave a $(1+\epsilon)$-approximate estimation algorithm for the independent set problem on noisy planar graphs, but left open the question of how to actually find a $(1+\epsilon)$-approximate independent set. While there are several approaches known for planar independent set, based on recursively using separators or decomposition into $k$-outerplanar or bounded treewidth graphs, they break down completely with noise. Our main contribution is to design robust variants of these algorithms using LP-based techniques that also work in the noisy setting.
Cultural Competence, Educators, and Military Families: Understanding the Military in a Department of Defense Dependents School

Military members have a strong cultural identity, one that distinguishes them from civilians. This qualitative study sought to identify the cultural competencies needed for educators to better understand an American military constituency. Data were obtained through semistructured interviews, collection of documents, and observations of public meetings. The results of this study appropriately extend and support the concept of cultural competency by focusing on a population not ordinarily viewed as a minority culture. Participants identified domains of the concept specific to military culture: duty versus job, moving, deployment, demanding schedules, living in a foreign country, availability of leave and support networks. They expected civilian educators to view the military positively, to be sensitive to the circumstances of their dependents, and to have the communication skills to build educational partnerships.
Genetic moderation of effects of maternal sensitivity on girl's age of menarche: Replication of the Manuck et al. study

Abstract Manuck, Craig, Flory, Halder, and Ferrell (2011) reported that a theoretically anticipated effect of family rearing on girls' menarcheal age was genetically moderated by two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the estrogen receptor-α gene. We sought to replicate and extend these findings, studying 210 White females followed from birth. The replication was general because a different measure of the rearing environment was used in this inquiry (i.e., maternal sensitivity) than in the prior one (i.e., family cohesion). Extensions of the work included prospective rather than retrospective measurements of the rearing environment, reports of first menstruation within a year of its occurrence rather than decades later, accounting for some heritability of menarcheal age by controlling for maternal age of menarche, and using a new model-fitting approach to competitively compare diathesis–stress versus differential-susceptibility models of Gene × Environment interaction. The replication/extension effort proved successful in the case of both estrogen receptor-α SNPs, with the Gene × Environment interactions principally reflecting diathesis–stress: lower levels of maternal sensitivity predicted earlier age of menarche for girls homozygous for the minor alleles of either SNP but not for girls carrying other genotypes. Results are discussed in light of the new analytic methods adopted.
Efficient arithmetic logic gates using double-gate silicon nanowire FETs

Silicon NanoWire (SiNW) based Field Effect Transistors (FETs) are promising candidates to extend Moore's law in the coming years. Recently, Double-Gate (DG) SiNWFETs have been demonstrated to allow on-line configurability of n-type and p-type device polarity through the second gate. Such feature enables novel compact realizations for XOR- and MAJ-based logic gates that are intensively used in arithmetic applications. In this paper, we present a complete design framework of DG-SiNWFETs technology for arithmetic logic. We characterize and validate compact arithmetic logic gates (XOR, MAJ, FA) using circuit level simulations. SiNW-based controllable polarity transistors at 22-nm technology node, first characterized at the physical level with Synopsys Sentaurus, enable a full-adder implementation about 3.8× faster than its CMOS FinFET 22-nm counterpart, according to HSPICE circuit simulations. Then, we study the application of these arithmetic gates in the automated synthesis of datapath circuits which are dominated by arithmetic operations. Experimental results show that datapath circuits synthesized in DG-SiNWFETs 22-nm technology are about 1.5× faster than in CMOS FinFET 22-nm technology while having practically the same area occupation.
Wizard of Oz Experiments for a Companion Dialogue System: Eliciting Companionable Conversation

Within the EU-funded COMPANIONS project, we are working to evaluate new collaborative conversational models of dialogue. Such an evaluation requires us to benchmark approaches to companionable dialogue. In order to determine the impact of system strategies on our evaluation paradigm, we need to generate a range of companionable conversations, using dialogue strategies such as `empathy' and `positivity'. By companionable dialogue, we mean interactions that take user input of some scenario, and respond in a manner appropriate to the emotional content of the user utterance. In this paper, we describe our working Wizard of Oz (WoZ) system for systematically creating dialogues that fulfil these potential strategies, and enables us to deploy a range of potential techniques for selecting which parts of user input to address is which order, to inform the wizard response to the user based on a manual, on-the-fly assessment of the polarity of the user input.
Pathological Internet Use (PIU) in university students : a new addiction

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that some university students who have free and readily available access to personal computers, underperform in their first year of study. Their internet use, game playing or chat room activities may result in academic, social and lifestyle problems. The First World Congress on Internet Addiction which was held in Zurich, Switzerland in September 2000 is thought to have legitimized a new disorder. This paper will address this comparatively recent phenomenon, computer/cyber addiction that has been observed in all age groups and is directly related to the growth of technology in the late 20 th and early 21 st Century. There is evidence to believe that this “disorder” may have a small but significant contribution to student attrition rate. The paper will present research that has been carried out on internet use in some western universities, over the past ten years. It will also present case studies from one Australian University.
A Novel Method for Fabricating Microfluidic Devices Containing Immobilized Biological Specimens

Microfluidic devices are dominantly fabricated using the soft lithography microfabrication techniques and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a structural material. Although the technique is applicable for the majority of microfluidic devices, it has limited use for the fabrication of microfluidic devices with immobilized biological specimen due to the low biocompatibility- a consequence of the plasma-assisted bonding step during the assembly of the final device. In this step, biological specimens within the microfluidic device are affected by strong plasma exposure which ultimately can degrade their biochemical activity and stability. To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents for the first time a method for increasing the biocompatibility of a conventional PDMS soft lithography process and enables fabrication of the microfluidic devices containing immobilized biological specimens. Protection of the biological specimen during the plasma bonding step is ensured by placing a protective Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) nanofiber layer over the biological specimens. The method is verified against the conventional soft lithography method by fabricating microfluidic devices containing enzyme-filled microreactors and following enzymatic reactions. It was shown that inadvantageous impact of the plasma is reduced by utilizing a protective PVA layer which ultimately preserves the specific activity and biochemical stability of the immobilized enzymes.
The effect of carbohydrate moiety structure on the immunoregulatory activity of lactoferrin in vitro

The aim of this study was to evaluate the immunoregulatory effects of recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLF) in two in vitro models: (1) the secondary humoral immune response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC); and (2) the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). We compared the non-sialylated glycoform of rhLF as expressed by glycoengineered Pichia pastoris with one that was further chemically sialylated. In an earlier study, we showed that sialylated rhLF could reverse methotrexate-induced suppression of the secondary immune response of mouse splenocytes to SRBC, and that the phenomenon is dependent on the interaction of lactoferrin (LF) with sialoadhesin (CD169). We found that the immunorestorative activity of sialylated rhLF is also dependent on its interaction with the CD22 antigen, a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily that is expressed by B lymphocytes. We also demonstrated that only sialylated rhLF was able to inhibit the MLR reaction. MLR was inhibited by bovine lactoferrin (bLF), a glycoform that has a more complex glycan structure. Desialylated bLF and lactoferricin, a bLF-derived peptide devoid of carbohydrates, did not express such inhibitory activity. We showed that the interaction of LF with sialic acid receptors is essential for at least some of the immunoregulatory activity of this glycoprotein.