Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relation between polynomial deformations of sl(2,R) and quasi-exact solvability

A general method based on the polynomial deformations of the Lie algebra sl(2,R) is proposed in order to exhibit the quasi-exact solvability of specific Hamiltonians implied by quantum physical models. This method, using the finite-dimensional representations and differential realizations of such deformations, is illustrated on the sextic oscillator as well as on second-harmonic generation.
Time-Aware Web Users' Clustering

Web users' clustering is a crucial task for mining information related to users' needs and preferences. Up to now, popular clustering approaches build clusters based on usage patterns derived from users' page preferences. This paper emphasizes the need to discover similarities in users' accessing behavior with respect to the time locality of their navigational acts. In this context, we present two time-aware clustering approaches for tuning and binding the page and time visiting criteria. The two tracks of the proposed algorithms define clusters with users that show similar visiting behavior at the same time period, by varying the priority given to page or time visiting. The proposed algorithms are evaluated using both synthetic and real data sets and the experimentation has shown that the new clustering schemes result in enriched clusters compared to those created by the conventional non-time-aware user clustering approaches. These clusters contain users exhibiting similar access behavior in terms not only of their page preferences but also of their access time.
Obfuscate arrays by homomorphic functions

As various computers are connected into a world wide network, software protections becomes a more and more im- portant issue for software users and developers. There are some technical measures for software protections, such as hardware- based protections and software-based techniques, etc. Software obfuscation is one of these measures. It protects software from unauthorized modification by making software more obscure so that it is hard for the potential attacker to understand the obfuscated software. Chow et al. use residue number technique to software obfuscation by encoding variables in the original program to hide the true meaning of these variables (1). There is some discussion about the division of residue numbers in (1), but, in order to lay a sound ground for this technique, we proposed homomorphic functions in (2) to deal with division by several constants in residue numbers. Data structures are important components of programme and they are key clues for people to understand codes. Obfuscating data structures of programme will make it very hard for an enemy to attack them. In this paper, we apply homomorphic functions to obfuscating the data structures of software.
What makes a protein a protein? Hydrophobic core designs that specify stability and structural properties

Here we describe how the systematic redesign of a protein's hydrophobic core alters its structure and stability. We have repacked the hydrophobic core of the four‐helix‐bundle protein, Rop, with altered packing patterns and various side chain shapes and sizes. Several designs reproduce the structure and native‐like properties of the wild‐type, while increasing the thermal stability. Other designs, either with similar sizes but different shapes, or with decreased sizes of the packing residues, destabilize the protein. Finally, overpacking the core with larger side chains causes a loss of native‐like structure. These results allow us to further define the roles of tight residue packing and the burial of hydrophobic surface area in the construction of native‐like proteins.
Virtual memory management for interactive continuous media applications

This paper proposes a virtual memory management system suitable for interactive continuous media applications. Interactive continuous media applications usually require a large amount of memory for storing their code, data, and stack segments. In traditional operating systems, demand paging makes it possible to execute such large applications by storing most pages in secondary disks. However, continuous media applications should avoid page faults for ensuring timing constraints of continuous media since it takes a long time to swap pages between physical memory and secondary storage. Thus, it is difficult to satisfy timing constraints of continuous media. Therefore, some operating systems provide memory wiring primitives that enable applications to wire pages in physical memory by specifying the range of virtual address spaces explicitly. On the other hand, our virtual memory management system enables continuous media applications to reserve physical memory for allocating pages as soon as possible when the applications require the pages. The system implicitly and incrementally allocates and wires pages used for processing timing critical media data. Also, our system supports applications that adapt the amount of wired memory to the memory usage of other continuous media applications.
Progressive Finite Newton Approach To Real-time Nonrigid Surface Detection

Detecting nonrigid surfaces is an interesting research problem for computer vision and image analysis. One important challenge of nonrigid surface detection is how to register a nonrigid surface mesh having a large number of free deformation parameters. This is particularly significant for detecting nonrigid surfaces from noisy observations. Nonrigid surface detection is usually regarded as a robust parameter estimation problem, which is typically solved iteratively from a good initialization in order to avoid local minima. In this paper, we propose a novel progressive finite Newton optimization scheme for the non-rigid surface detection problem, which is reduced to only solving a set of linear equations. The key of our approach is to formulate the nonrigid surface detection as an unconstrained quadratic optimization problem which has a closed-form solution for a given set of observations. Moreover, we employ a progressive active-set selection scheme, which takes advantage of the rank information of detected correspondences. We have conducted extensive experiments for performance evaluation on various environments, whose promising results show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient and effective than the existing iterative methods.
Independent effects of peripheral nerve dysfunction on lower-extremity physical function in old age: the Women's Health and Aging Study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the role of peripheral nerve dysfunction (PND) in the disablement pathway. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Vibration perception threshold (VPT) was measured in 894 women aged > or = 65 years, and those with normal peripheral nerve function and with mild, moderate, and severe PND were identified. Lower-extremity impairments included quadriceps strength (kilograms) and three progressively difficult balance tasks (able/unable). Functional limitations included rising from a chair (able/unable) and usual pace and fast-paced walking speeds (meters/second). Level of PND was related to impairments and functional limitations in linear and logistic regression models that controlled for potentially confounding factors, including reported diabetes. RESULTS Level of PND was associated with impaired balance (adjusted odds ratios: 2.21, 1.95, and 3.02 for mild, moderate, and severe PND, respectively, relative to normal, P < 0.05). PND was also associated with decrements in both usual and fast-paced walking speeds (-0.08, -0.08, and -0.15 m/s for usual pace and -0.13, -0.12, and -0.24 m/s for fast-paced walking speed for women with mild, moderate, and severe PND, respectively; P < 0.01 for all). Reported diabetes was not associated with these outcomes in the presence of PND. Some, but not all, of the association between PND and functional limitations was explained by the relationship between PND and impairments. CONCLUSIONS PND is significantly associated with both lower-extremity impairments and functional limitations in older women, and PND appears to have independent effects on functional limitations. The independent effect of diabetes on these outcomes may be limited when PND is considered. Further research is needed to determine if PND is causally related to disability in old age.
Biochemical Fractionation of Brain Tissue for Studies of Receptor Distribution and Trafficking

An important tool for studying the regulation of synapses is a rapid and reliable means of separating synaptic and intracellular proteins. This unit presents a technique for analysis of brain tissue which relies on differential centrifugation to separate proteins present at synaptic sites from those found in intracellular cytoplasmic and vesicular pools. The method is efficient in that only small amounts of tissue, such as might be obtained from a small region of a rodent brain, are required. It is reproducible and, in conjunction with immunoblot or immunoprecipitation techniques, can produce reliable quantitative data. The protocol will be of interest to those conducting a variety of different studies related to the localization and trafficking of brain receptors and signaling molecules. Curr. Protoc. Neurosci. 42:1.16. 1‐1.16. 16. © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ecological optics and visual slant.

Flock's "A Possible Optical Basis for Monocular Slant Perception" is criticized as being a theory of stimuli rather than a theory of perception. To account for accurate monocular slant perception, the theory requires 9 assumptions, including the unproved ability of the eye to register random texture density. The alternative hypothesis is proposed that monocular visual slant is a function primarily of contour perspective which varies with the size, shape, and viewing distance, as well as slant, of plane surfaces.
Representation of Pseudo Inter‐reflection and Transparency by Considering Characteristics of Human Vision

We have succeeded in developing a quick and fully automated system that can generate photo‐realistic 3D CG data based on a real object. A major factor in this success comes from our findings through psychophysical experiments that human observers do not have an accurate idea of what should be actually reflected as inter‐reflections on the surface of an object. Taking advantage of this characteristic of human vision, we propose a new inter‐reflection representation technique in which inter‐reflections are simulated by allowing the same quantity of reflection components as there are in the background to pass through the object. Since inter‐reflection and transparency are calculated by the same algorithm, our system can capture 3D CG data from various real objects having a strong inter‐reflection, such as plastic and porcelain items or translucent glass and acrylic resin objects. The synthetic images from the 3D CG data generated with this pseudo inter‐reflection and transparency look very natural. In addition, the 3D CG data and synthetic images are produced quickly at a lower cost.
Joint Effect of Attribution and Proxemics on Interpersonal Attraction: Study on Personal Space Invasion by a Telepresence Robot

When users share autonomy with a telepresence robot questions arise as to how the behavior of the robot is interpreted by local users. We investigated how a robot’s violations of social norms under shared autonomy influence the local user’s evaluation of the robot’s pilot users. Specifically, we examined how attribution of such violations to either robot or pilot user influences the social perception of the pilot user. Using personal space invasion as a salient social norm violation, we conducted an experiment (n=40) using a Wizard of Oz technique to investigate these questions. Participants saw several people introducing themselves through a telepresence robot, while personal space invasion and attribution were manipulated. Due to technical issues, we were forced to use two different robots with behavioural differences. We found a significant (p=0.007) joint effect of the manipulations on interpersonal attraction with one of the robots. No such effect was found for the other robot; data from video annotation suggested that less accurate robot trajectories may have modified attribution. Our results offer insights into the mechanisms of attribution in interactions with a telepresence robot as a mediator.
Computer Systems Lab Senior Research Project Automatic Readability Evaluation Using a Neural Network 2009-2010

Many formulas and methods for assessing the readability of a text or determining the appropriate grade level are inaccurate and based only on surface features of text. In automatic assessment of a text’s reading level, computers can easily run more sophisticated models than simple algebraic formulas; the goal of this project is to create such a model. Indexes and statistics will be computed with respect to various features of a text such as sentence length and lexical density. A combination of these textual features is necessary to accurately capture the readability of a text. A neural network will be used to implement a model for readability using said features as inputs. After being trained the model will be useful for determining approximately what U.S. grade level corresponds to a given text, for use in educational or other settings to assess writing for a certain audience.
INTRAVENOUSLY INJECTED FAT IN RABBITS

Murray and Freeman reported that considerable quantities of injected fat emulsion were rapidly taken up by the reticuloendothelial cells of the liver and spleen, whereas the hepatic parenchymal cells failed to show a distinct accumulation of stainable lipids (1). They concluded that artificial fat particles are treated by the organism as foreign bodies, and that utilization of this fat by the liver chiefly depends on preceding uptake by the Kupffer cells. Waddell et al. studied the influence of extirpation of several organs on the disappearance of artificial fat emulsions from the blood (2). They confirmed that the liver and also the spleen take up most of the injected triglycerides, other organs playing a subordinate role in this respect. In a further investigation the same authors demonstrated that after injection of stained emulsions all parenchymal cells of the liver were stained within 5 minutes--a fact which suggests direct uptake of the fat without passage through the Kupffer cells (3). This interpretation was supported by the observation that blocking of the reticuloendothelial cells by means of carbon, trypan blue, or lithium carmine excluded fat particles from the cells of this system, but did not affect the disappearance of injected fat from the blood or its uptake by the parenchymal cells of the liver. Studies made by Felton et al. (4) with radioactively labeled triolein also demonstrated that the liver and spleen take up the highest concentrations of the injected fat, and showed that atherosclerotic animals were normal in this respect. None of these experiments measured the quantity of triglyceride taken up by the various organs, making it impossible to compare the quantity of triglyceride disappearing from the blood and the quantities found in the tissues.
Dynamic pattern selection for faster learning and controlled generalization of neural networks

We address the question of selecting a proper training set for neural network time series prediction or function approximation. As a result of analyzing the relation between approximation and generalization, a new measure, the generalization factor, is introduced. Using this factor and cross validation we develop the dynamic pattern selection algorithm. By employing two time series prediction tasks, we compare the results for dynamic pattern selection training to results obtained with fixed training sets. The favorable properties of the dynamic pattern selection, namely lower computational expense and control of generalization, are demonstrated.
The Impostor Syndrome from Luxury Consumption

The present research proposes that luxury consumption can be a double-edged sword: while luxury consumption yields status benefits, it can also make consumers feel inauthentic, producing what we call the impostor syndrome from luxury consumption. As a result, paradoxically, luxury consumption may backfire and lead consumers to behave less confidently due to their undermined feelings of self-authenticity. Feelings of inauthenticity from luxury consumption may arise because consumers perceive luxury as an undue privilege. These feelings are less pronounced among consumers with high levels of chronic psychological entitlement, and they are reduced when consumers’ sense of entitlement is temporarily boosted. The effects are robust across studies conducted in the lab and in field settings such as the Metropolitan Opera, Martha’s Vineyard, a luxury shopping center, and the Upper East Side in New York, featuring relevant participant populations including luxury target segments and consumption contexts including consumers’ reflections on their actual past luxury purchases.
On capacity and coding for segmented deletion channels

We consider binary deletion channels with a segmentation assumption which appears to be suited for more practical scenarios. Unlike the binary independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) deletion channel where each bit is independently deleted with an equal probability, the segmentation assumption prohibits certain transmitted bits to be deleted, i.e., in a block of bits of a certain length, only a limited number of deletions can occur. We first propose several upper and lower capacity bounds for the segmented deletion channel. Then we focus on an interleaved concatenation of an outer low-density parity check (LDPC) code with error-correction capabilities and an inner marker code with synchronization capabilities over these channels. With the help of a specifically designed maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) detector, we demonstrate reliable transmission at higher code rates than the existing ones reported in the literature.
Stability of user experience: Changes in constructs as users transition from anticipated to actualised interaction.

In order to understand the effects of interaction on User Experience with a range of MP3 players, we used a Personal Construct Theory Approach (Kelly, 1955) to elicit users’ anticipations and interpretations of their experience with technology. Sixteen participants rated four different MP3 players on a variety of user-generated constructs in the form of rating scales before and after interaction. The data revealed stability to be a dimension of constructs on a continuum between stable and volatile. The data also revealed qualitative aspects of the dynamics of User Experience as users transition between pre- to post-interaction. The implications of these findings for theory, methodology and design are discussed.
Novel Scheme for Object-based Embedded Image Coding

Conventional EBCOT algorithm encodes an image with the same block-based coding strategy and it is difficult to acquire perceptually consistent results in practical applications. This paper presents a new scheme for object-based embedded coding aiming to enhance the flexibility and the coding efficiency. In our scheme, an original image is firstly segmented into objects, which are taken as basic coding units and are encoded independently. Then the compressed streams of all objects are further truncated and reassembled based on rate-distortion optimization principle according to given bit-rate. In our scheme, each object can be encoded independently with different strategy according to its visual interest at the encoder. At the decoder, it can be decoded and reconstructed independently and progressively. As a whole, the new scheme is more flexible and may enhance the overall subjective quality of reconstructed images. Experiments are conducted and the results show the proposed scheme can implement object-based image coding and rate control effectively.
Protocol for a cluster randomised stepped wedge trial assessing the impact of a community-level hygiene intervention and a water intervention using riverbank filtration technology on diarrhoeal prevalence in India

Introduction Diarrhoea is a leading cause of death globally, mostly occurring as a result of insufficient or unsafe water supplies, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Our study aims to investigate the impact of a community-level hygiene education program and a water quality intervention using riverbank filtration (RBF) technology on diarrhoeal prevalence. Methods and analysis We have designed a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial to estimate the health impacts of our intervention in 4 rural villages in Karnataka, India. At baseline, surveys will be conducted in all villages, and householders will receive hygiene education. New pipelines, water storage tanks and taps will then be installed at accessible locations in each village and untreated piped river water will be supplied. A subsequent survey will evaluate the impact of hygiene education combined with improved access to greater water volumes for hygiene and drinking purposes (improved water quantity). Villages will then be randomly ordered and RBF-treated water (improved water quality) will be sequentially introduced into the 4 villages in a stepwise manner, with administration of surveys at each time point. The primary outcome is a 7-day period prevalence of self-reported diarrhoea. Secondary outcomes include self-reported respiratory and skin infections, and reported changes in hygiene practices, household water usage and water supply preference. River, tank and tap water from each village, and stored water from a subset of households, will be sampled to assess microbial and chemical quality. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee in Australia and The Energy and Resources Institute Institutional Ethics Committee in India. The results of the trial will be presented at conferences, published in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated to relevant stakeholders. This study is funded by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant. Trial registration number ACTRN12616001286437; pre-results.
Backward difference time discretization of parabolic differential equations on evolving surfaces

A linear parabolic differential equation on a moving surface is discretized in space by evolving surface finite elements and in time by backward difference formulas (BDF). Using results from Dahlquist's G-stability theory and Nevanlinna & Odeh's multiplier technique together with properties of the spatial semi-discretization, stability of the full discretization is proven for the BDF methods up to order 5 and optimal-order convergence is shown. Numerical experiments illustrate the behaviour of the fully discrete method.