Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research Statement Extracting Information from Microblogs

Data streams of all kinds are increasingly available, and the analysis of large datasets is presenting new forms of actionable intelligence for decision makers in business, healthcare, government, politics, crisis management and more. Structured data is just the tip of the iceberg, however. Thanks to the internet, the distinction between content producers and consumers has become increasingly blurry, leading to a constant flood of realtime user-generated text. My work is focused on exploiting the convergence of these trends, by inventing better ways to extract machine-processable information from unstructured text at scale with the goal of enabling new opportunities for largescale data-analysis applications. The unique characteristics and opportunities presented by this data suggest that we should re-think certain aspects of our overall approach to processing language. Systems designed to process edited text often fail when applied to user-generated language, and existing approaches based on supervised machine learning won’t scale up to the challenge of extracting meaning from these highly diverse, domain-independent corpora. My work has addressed these challenges, for example by producing publicly available text processing tools tuned to work on noisy Twitter data, and also by demonstrating how to build scalable latent variable models of word meaning in large open-domain text corpora. In addition, I have explored new applications this line of work enables, such as automatically extracting a calendar of popular events occurring in the near future from Twitter. I find that building working end-to-end systems helps provide insight when selecting important problems to work on and also when designing evaluations.
Improving Real World Schema Matching with Decomposition Process

This paper tends to provide an answer to a difficult problem: Matching large XML schemas. Scalable Matching acquires a long execution time other than decreasing the quality of matches. In this paper, we propose an XML schema decomposition approach as a solution for large schema matching problem. The presented approach identifies the common structures between and within XML schemas, and decomposes these input schemas. Our method uses tree mining techniques to identify these common structures and to select the most relevant sub-parts of large schemas for matching. As proved by our experiments in ebusiness domain, the proposed approach improves the performance of schema matching and offers a better quality of matches in comparison to other existing matching tools.
Modeling and Characterization of Spectrum White Spaces for Underlay Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive Radio (CR) networks are envisaged as the key technology to realize dynamic spectrum access and solving the scarcity of radio spectrum. Having a temporal characterization of the spectrum white spaces in the primary network is a key element for studying and designing radio resource management mechanisms in CR networks. In that sense, most of the studies in the literature rely on an ON-OFF model with exponentially distributed on and off times. The usage of that model, however, is principally based on its analytical tractability. In this paper we propose a versatile Markovian model for the duration of the spectrum white spaces. Our model builds on a simple model of the channel holding time (CHT) in the primary network and then matrix-analytic techniques are applied to derive and analyze the duration of the white spaces. Despite its simplicity, the proposed approach is proven to be able to model very accurately scenarios where the CHT distribution is of a more complex type not amenable to mathematical analysis. Our numerical results show that the duration of the white spaces exhibits a low sensitivity to the distribution of the channel holding time beyond the mean.
A Yield-factor Model of Interest Rates

This paper presents a consistent and arbitrage-free multifactor model of the term structure of interest rates in which yields at selected fixed maturities follow a parametric multivariate Markov diffusion process with “stochastic volatility. ” The yield of any zero-coupon bond is taken to be a maturitydependent affine combination of the selected “basis” set of yields. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions on the stochastic model for this affine representation. We include numerical techniques for solving the model, as wcll as numerical techniques for calculating the prices of term-structure derivative prices. The case of jump diffusions i \ also considered.
A SWOT Analysis of Multiculturalism in Canada, Europe, Mauritius, and South Korea

In this special issue on “Multiculturalism During Challenging Times,” we present six articles focused on multiculturalism as it is currently practiced or implemented in Canada, across Europe, in Mauritius, and in South Korea. We apply SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to assess the strengths and weaknesses of its application and the opportunities and threats it presents for the countries studied here. Strengths: We find that multiculturalism fosters national identity, promotes cultural tolerance and modernization, and assists with the incorporation of cultural minorities. Weaknesses: At the same time, multiculturalism also creates “faultlines” along cultural and religious groups, could promote separate and parallel lives, and could pose a challenge to equality in liberal societies. Opportunities: Multiculturalism has the potential to be used as a tool for attracting talents, a source of competitive advantage for nations, and a discourse for politicians to score political gains. Threats: Multiculturalism also has the potential to be perceived as incompatible with Western, liberal values, a burden to the state welfare, and challenge existing national identities. We conclude with some suggestions for future research to extend our understanding of multiculturalism within the context of increasing globalization and greater international migration.
A reliable token-based MAC protocol for V2V communication in urban VANET

Safety applications developed for vehicular environments require every vehicle to periodically broadcast its status information (beacon) to all other vehicles, thereby avoiding the risk of car accidents in the road. Due to the high requirements on timing and reliability posed by traffic safety applications, the current IEEE 802.11p standard, which uses a random access Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, faces difficulties to support timely and reliable data dissemination in vehicular environments where no acknowledgement or RTS/CTS (Request-to-Send/Clear-to-Send) mechanisms are adopted. In this paper, we propose the Dynamic Token-Based MAC (DTB-MAC) protocol. It implements a token passing approach on top of a random access MAC protocol to prevent channel contention as much as possible, thereby improving the reliability of safety message transmissions. Our proposed protocol selects one of the neighbouring nodes as the next transmitter; this selection accounts for the need to avoid beacon lifetime expiration. Therefore, it automatically offers retransmission opportunities to allow vehicles to successfully transmit their beacons before the next beacon is generated whenever time and bandwidth are available. Based on simulation experiments, we show that the DTB-MAC protocol can achieve better performance than IEEE 802.11p in terms of channel utilization and beacon delivery ratio for urban scenarios.
Analysis of Current Pulses in HeLa-Cell Permeabilization Due to High Voltage DC Corona Discharge

Corona discharges are commonly utilized for numerous practical applications, including bio-technological ones. The corona induced transfer of normally impermeant molecules into the interior of biological cells has recently been successfully demonstrated. The exact nature of the interaction of the corona discharge with a cell membrane is still unknown, however, previous studies have suggested that it is either the electric fields produced by ions or the chemical interaction of the reactive species that result in the disruption of the cell membrane. This disruption of the cell membrane allows molecules to permeate into the cell. Corona discharge current constitutes a series of pulses, and it is during these pulses that the ions and reactive species are produced. It stands to reason, therefore, that the nature of these corona pulses would have an influence on the level of cell permeabilization and cell destruction. In this investigation, an analysis of the width, rise-time, characteristic frequencies, magnitude, and repetition rate of the nanosecond pulses was carried out in order to establish the relationship between these factors and the levels of cell membrane permeabilization and cell destruction. Results obtained are presented and discussed.
Juvenile Justice Contact of Youth in Systems of Care

Youth with serious emotional disturbance involved in juvenile justice systems have complex needs that often are best addressed through collaborative systems that coordinate the efforts of individual agencies. This study examines the effectiveness of a system-of-care-grant-funded community in Birmingham, AL compared to a matched comparison community in Montgomery, AL in reducing youth contact with the juvenile justice system. Logistic regression results demonstrate greater reductions in the likelihood of juvenile justice involvement among youth served in systems of care over time compared to those served in a services-as-usual environment. These findings show the benefits of the incorporation of system-of-care principles for youth with a multitude of needs.
Association of Tau Protein with Microtubules in Living Cells

Several well-characterized microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) coassemble with microtubules in vitro and promote the assembly of purified tubulin. These include the tau proteins of 55,000-68,000 kD,'-* MAPs of 120,000 and 210,000 kD,3 and MAPs of approximately 300,000 kD, called MAP1 and MAP-2.4-6 The relevance of in vitro studies on MAPs rests first upon direct demonstration that the MAPs associate with microtubules in living cells, and second upon direct demonstration of their in vivo functions. Immunocytochemical studies have supported the conclusion that tau,'-' the 210,000 kD MAP: and the 300,000 kD MAPs'*~@'~ bind microtubules in living cells. Immunocytochemical experiments alone, however, can be ambiguous, as evidenced by inconsistencies in reported staining patterns. For example, in our own studies with a highly specific affinity-purified antiserum raised against bovine brain tau protein, we find vanishingly low levels of tau protein in cells previously reported to be stained by tau antibodies (see discussion below). In addition, other investigators have noted discrepancies in high molecular weight MAP staining.12 In this report, we reexamine the distribution of tau protein in established cell lines and in various mouse organs. We find that tau protein is found predominantly in cells of neuronal origin. We also use both biochemical and immunocytochemical techniques to demonstrate conclusively that tau protein is bound to microtubules in living cells. Finally, we discuss ways in which MAP function can be studied in vivo.
London underground: Neighbourhood centrality and relation to urban geography

Transport is important as a means by which people engage in the economy and interact socially. It is important to understand the complex relationships between transport properties and other geographic measures in order to design integrated smart city solutions. In this paper, we apply complex network analysis to better understand the London underground and overground rail network and uncover its relation to how citizens make certain lifestyle choices and other urban geography features. We propose to apply Neighbourhood Centrality, which aggregates the network centrality values in a geographic area. We uncover that the neighbourhood eigenvector centrality can explain for up to 79% of the variations in: (1) the age demographics, (2) the choice in transportation mode, and (3) the price and choice of housing. This sheds light on some of the complexities that surround public transport networks and its relation to urban human geography, and can prove useful for the design of future smart city transport systems.
Finding of k in Fagin's R. Theorem 24

By using of analytical multi-logic expresses in conjunction with non-deterministic Turing machine the proposition was proved that algorithm of deterministic Turing counter machine of polynomial time complexity can be decreased to the algorithm of linear time complexity in non-deterministic Turing counter machine. Furthermore, it was shown that existence of reduction of polynomial time complexity to the linear time complexity by switching from deterministic to non-deterministic Turing machine for string recognition imply P equals to NP. Analytical generation functions of higher order logic were used for finding of k value in Fagin's R. Theorem 24.
Meeting the Challenges of Implementing an Intervention to Promote Work Ability and Health-Related Quality of Life at Construction Worksites: A Process Evaluation

Objective: To evaluate the process of a prevention program among construction workers. Methods: The program consisted of training sessions of a physical therapist and an empowerment trainer, and a Rest-Break Tool. Data on seven process items were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. Results: Recruiting construction companies to participate was difficult. The therapists and trainer largely provided the training sessions as intended, but the Rest-Break Tool was poorly implemented. Construction workers (n = 171) showed high reach (84%) and moderate attendance rates (three of four sessions). Sixty-four percent of the construction workers recommended the overall program to colleagues. Company size, economic recession, engagement of the management, and intervention year influenced dose delivered and satisfaction. Conclusions: The study showed a successful reach, dose and fidelity, and moderate satisfaction. Furthermore, contextual factors played an important role during the implementation.
Assembly and dynamics of proteins of the longitudinal and junctional sarcoplasmic reticulum in skeletal muscle cells

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of skeletal muscle cells is a complex network of tubules and cisternae that share a common lumen delimited by a single continuous membrane. The SR contains longitudinal and junctional domains characterized by distinctive patterns of protein localization, but how SR proteins reach and/or are retained at these sites is not known. Here, we report that the organization of longitudinal SR proteins is a slow process characterized by temporally distinct patterns of protein localization. In contrast, junctional SR proteins rapidly and synchronously assembled into clusters which, however, merged into mature triadic junctions only after completion of longitudinal SR protein organization. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments indicated that SR organization was accompanied by significant changes in the dynamic properties of longitudinal and junctional proteins. The decrease in mobility that accompanied organization of the longitudinal SR proteins ank1.5-GFP and GFP-InsP3R1 was abrogated by deletion of specific binding sites for myofibrillar or cytoskeletal proteins, respectively. Assembly of junctional SR domains was accompanied by a strong decrease in mobility of junctional proteins that in triadin appeared to be mediated by its intraluminal region. Together, the data suggest that the organization of specific SR domains results from a process of membrane reorganization accompanied by the establishment of multiple protein–protein interactions with intrinsic and extrinsic cues.
Building large-scale hierarchical models of the world with binary sparse distributed representations

Many researchers agree on the basic architecture of the "world model" where knowledge about the world required for organization of agent's intelligent behavior is represented. However, most proposals on possible implementation of such a model are far from being plausible both from computational and neurobiological points of view. Implementation ideas based on distributed connectionist representations offer a huge information capacity, flexibility of similarity representation, and possibility to use a distributed neural network memory. However, for a long time distributed representations suffered from the "superposition catastrophe". Local representations are vivid, pictorial and easily interpretable, allow for an easy manual construction of hierarchical structures and an economical computer simulation of toy tasks. The problems of local representations show up with scaling to the real world models, and it is unclear how to solve them under reasonable requirements imposed on memory size and speed. We discuss the architecture of Associative-Projective Neural Networks (APNNs) that is based on binary sparse distributed representations of fixed dimensionality for items of various complexity and generality, and provides a promise for scaling up to the full-sized model of the real world. An on-the-fly binding procedure proposed for APNNs overcomes the superposition catastrophe, permitting representation of the order and grouping of structure components. These representations allow a simple estimation of structures' similarity, as well as finding various kinds of associations based on their context-dependent similarity. Structured distributed auto-associative neural network is used as long-term memory, wherein representations of items organized into part-whole (compositional) and concept (generalization) hierarchies are built. Examples of schematic APNN architectures and processes for recognition, prediction, reaction, analogical reasoning, and other tasks required for functioning of an intelligent system, as well as APNN implementations, are considered.
An Agent-Oriented Information System: A Model Driven Approach

To face the challenges of rapid enterprises environment change, enterprises need agile information systems that are flexible, reactive and adaptive. The process of mapping business requirements to the system functionalities involves several constraints that make the whole development process again very susceptible to errors. In this paper, we present a model-driven approach combined with software agent to develop an agile information system. In this work, we focus on the development of multi-agent systems (MAS) and a set of model transformation rules. Different ways of transforming a model into another exist. The choice of a target model differs according to quality criteria and is determined on the basis of specific requirements. The development process proposed is based separate aspects of systems, a BPMN metamodel, AML agent meta-model and a JADEX meta-model and the automated transformation rules with ATL language. The approach leading elements are: the meta-modeling, and mapping rules. Finally, we illustrate our proposals with a case study. General Terms Information system development, Model Driven Architecture, multiagent systems, business process modeling
Co-adapting mobile sensor networks to maximize coverage in dynamic environments

With recent advances in mobile computing, swarm robotics has demonstrated its utility in countless situations like recognition, surveillance, and search and rescue. This paper presents a novel approach to optimize the position of a swarm of robots to accomplish sensing tasks based on cooperative co-evolution. Results show that the introduced cooperative method simultaneously finds the right number of sensors while also optimizing their positions in static and dynamic environments.
Enterprise Systems For Competence Development: Approach, Method And Challenges

Due to a shortage of key competencies in organisations and the rising challenge to find the right person to do a job, organisations are under pressure to assess, monitor and continuously develop their workers’ competencies. At the same time, enterprise systems offer data that provide a basis for strategic decisions in the area of competence development. This domain was investigated with two case studies in two medium-sized organisations and a set of parameters describing workers, tasks, competencies, and learning measures, was derived that can be used to solve the decision problem of allocating workers to learning measures. The resulting model was reviewed in a first evaluation cycle on a micro, meso, and macro level, involving 203 employees, 16 focus group participants and six human resource experts, respectively. The feedback from the evaluation informed a revision of the model, adding factors that describe competencies of promoted team members. The preliminary results comprise an updated optimisation model as well as a set of challenges for competence development derived from the first evaluation cycle.
Evolution of mycoheterotrophy in Polygalaceae: The case of Epirixanthes.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY The mycoheterotrophic lifestyle has enabled some plant lineages to obtain carbon from their mycorrhizal symbionts. The mycoheterotrophic genus Epirixanthes (Polygalaceae) consists of six species from tropical Asia. Although it is probably closely related to the chlorophyllous genus Salomonia and linked to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, lack of DNA sequence data has thus far prevented these hypotheses from being tested. Therefore, the evolutionary history of Epirixanthes remains largely unknown. METHODS We reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships of Epirixanthes based on nuclear ITS and plastid matK data. Divergence times were inferred using a Bayesian relaxed clock approach, and we phylogenetically analyzed its mycorrhizal symbionts. We furthermore assigned these symbionts to operational taxonomic units, compared them with symbionts of other Polygalaceae, and measured their phylogenetic diversity. KEY RESULTS We found that Epirixanthes is placed in tribe Polygaleae as sister to Salomonia. Epirixanthes has a Miocene-Oligocene stem age and grows exclusively in symbiosis with fungi of Glomeraceae. Salomonia and some Polygala species are linked to both Glomeraceae and Acaulosporaceae, resulting in higher phylogenetic diversity values. The majority of the symbionts of Epirixanthes are not found in Salomonia or Polygala, although a few shared fungal taxa are found. CONCLUSIONS Epirixanthes forms a relatively young mycoheterotrophic lineage. The Oligocene-Miocene origin suggests its evolution was influenced by the environmental dynamics in Southeast Asia during this time. Although comparison of fungi from Epirixanthes with those from Salomonia and Polygala suggests some specialization, many other mycoheterotrophic plants are linked to a more narrow set of Glomeraceae.
A multi-resolution large population game framework for smart grid demand response management

Dynamic demand response (DR) management is becoming an integral part of power system and market operational practice. Motivated by the smart grid DR management problem, we propose a multi-resolution stochastic differential game-theoretic framework to model the players' intra-group and inter-group interactions in a large population regime. We study the game in both risk-neutral and risk-sensitive settings, and provide closed-form solutions for symmetric mean-field responses in the case of homogenous group population, and characterize the symmetric mean-field Nash equilibrium using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation together with the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov (FPK) equation. Finally, we apply the framework to the smart grid DR management problem and illustrate with a numerical example.