Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generating and Adapting Game Mechanics

Game designs often center on the game mechanics—rules governing the logical evolution of the game. We seek to develop an intelligent system that generates computer games and assists humans in designing games. As ﬁrst steps towards this goal we present a composable and cross-domain representation for game mechanics that draws from AI planning action representations. We use a constraint solver to generate mechanics subject to design requirements on the form of those mechanics—what they do in the game. A planner takes a set of generated mechanics and tests whether those mechanics meet playability requirements—controlling how mechanics function in a game to aﬀect player behavior. We demonstrate our system by modeling and generating mechanics in a role-playing game, platformer game, and combined role-playing-platformer game.
Universally Composable Security Analysis of OAuth v2.0

This paper defines an ideal functionality for delegation of web access to a third-party where the authentication mechanism is password-based. We give a universally-composable (UC) realization of this ideal functionality assuming the availability of an SSL-like ideal functionality. We also show that this implementation can be further refined to give a browser based implementation whenever the browser supports https redirection. This implementation matches the ’Authorization Code’ mode of the OAuth Version 2.0 Internet draft proposal, with the additional requirement that the third-party along with the Authorization Server must support an SSL-like functionality. From the universally-composable perspective, our ideal functionality definition is novel in the respect that it does not require the three parties to decide on a session identifier in advance, which is usually assumed in a UC setting. This allows us to realize the ideal functionality without any wrapper code, and thus exactly matching the desired protocol in the OAuth standard.
A NFC based Authentication method for defense of the Man in the Middle Attack

Among other things, it is required a high safety about the information associated with the mobile payment from the user. In order to ensure this safety, the NFC has been proposed. It can be loaded and be operated a variety of a high-performance cryptographic algorithms in the NFC. However, despite the communication within 10cm, it is possible an attack named Man in the Middle Attack(MiM). In this paper, we propose a scheme about how to defend MiM efficiently.
Differential Effects of Blockade of Dopamine D1-Family Receptors in Nucleus Accumbens Core or Shell on Reinstatement of Heroin Seeking Induced by Contextual and Discrete Cues

In humans, exposure to environmental contexts previously associated with heroin intake can provoke drug relapse, but the neuronal mechanisms mediating this relapse are unknown. Using a drug relapse model, we found previously that reexposing rats to heroin-associated contexts, after extinction of drug-reinforced responding in different contexts, reinstates heroin seeking. This effect is attenuated by inhibition of glutamate transmission in the ventral tegmental area and medial accumbens shell, components of the mesolimbic dopamine system. Here, we explored the role of dopamine of the accumbens in context-induced reinstatement by using the D1-family receptor antagonist SCH 23390 [R(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine hydrochloride]. Rats were trained to self-administer heroin for 12 d; drug infusions were paired with a discrete tone–light cue. Subsequently, the heroin-reinforced lever pressing was extinguished in the presence of the discrete cue in a context that differed from the drug self-administration context in terms of visual, auditory, tactile, and circadian cues. When tested in the original drug self-administration context, systemic and medial or lateral accumbens shell SCH 23390 injections attenuated context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking, whereas accumbens core SCH 23390 injections were ineffective. In contrast, core but not lateral or medial shell SCH 23390 injections attenuated discrete-cue-induced reinstatement in a nondrug context after extinction of lever presses without this cue. Results indicate that activation of medial and lateral accumbens shell D1-family dopamine receptors mediate context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking and provide the first demonstration for a role of lateral shell dopamine in conditioned drug effects. Results also demonstrate novel dissociable roles of accumbens core and shell in context- versus discrete-cue-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking.
Differential privacy for counting queries: can Bayes estimation help uncover the true value?

Differential privacy is achieved by the introduction of Laplacian noise in the response to a query, establishing a precise trade-off between the level of differential privacy and the accuracy of the database response (via the amount of noise introduced). Multiple queries may improve the accuracy but erode the privacy budget. We examine the case where we submit just a single counting query. We show that even in that case a Bayesian approach may be used to improve the accuracy for the same amount of noise injected, if we know the size of the database and the probability of a positive response to the query.
Combining Probabilistic Ensemble Information from the Environment with Simulated Storm Attributes to Generate Calibrated Probabilities of Severe Weather Hazards

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has been generating probabilistic forecasts of severe weather hazards (i.e., tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds) as part of the Day 1 Convective Outlook for over a decade. Although the SPC forecasters have become proficient in generating reliable hazard probabilities over the years, there is a lack of calibrated probabilistic guidance to forecast these hazards. The recent proliferation of convection-allowing models (CAMs) in SPC operations allows for the unique opportunity to supplement traditional ingredients-based forecast assessments of the environment (e.g., CAPE and vertical wind shear: Johns and Doswell 1992) with explicit simulated storm-attribute characteristics (e.g., intensity and rotation; Kain et al. 2010). The objective of this initial effort is to generate separate calibrated probabilities for tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds by combining probabilistic environment information from the Short-Range Ensemble Forecast (SREF) system and probabilistic storm-attribute information from the SPC Storm-Scale Ensemble of Opportunity (SSEO). The following section will discuss the data and methodology used in creating calibrated hazard probabilities. Section 3 will provide forecast examples of the calibrated probabilities and a statistical analysis of the results for 2014. The final section will provide a summary of the findings.
Effective and Efficient Algorithms for Flexible Aggregate Similarity Search in High Dimensional Spaces

Numerous applications in different fields, such as spatial databases, multimedia databases, data mining, and recommender systems, may benefit from efficient and effective aggregate similarity search, also known as aggregate nearest neighbor (AggNN) search. Given a group of query objects Q, the goal of AggNN is to retrieve the k most similar objects from the database, where the underlying similarity measure is defined as an aggregation (usually sum or max) of the distances between the retrieved objects and every query object in Q. Recently, the problem was generalized so as to retrieve the k objects which are most similar to a fixed proportion of the elements of Q. This variant of aggregate similarity search is referred to as “flexible AggNN”, or FANN. In this work, we propose two approximation algorithms, one for the sum variant of FANN, and the other for the max variant. Extensive experiments are provided showing that, relative to state-of-the-art approaches (both exact and approximate), our algorithms produce query results with good accuracy, while at the same time being very efficient.
Relationship of parental psychological distress to consequences of chronic health conditions in children.

OBJECTIVE To assess whether parents' self-reported psychological distress was related to consequences of chronic health conditions in their children as reflected by three domains: functional limitations, reliance on compensatory mechanisms, and service use above routine care. METHODS We used telephone survey data on children's health and parents' psychiatric symptoms from an inner-city community sample (n = 380) and a population-based national sample (n =398). RESULTS In the national sample, parents of children with functional limitations were more distressed than parents whose children experienced other types of condition consequences or none. In the inner-city sample, presence of a health condition was associated with greater parental distress, but there were no significant effects by consequence type. CONCLUSION Research needs to determine if parents of children with functional limitations represent a high-risk group and to identify the factors associated with their elevated distress.
Extending the Limits of Ensemble Forecast Verification with the Minimum Spanning Tree

Abstract Uncertainty in the initial condition is one of the factors that limits the utility of single-model-run predictions of even deterministic nonlinear systems. In practice, an ensemble of initial conditions is often used to generate forecasts with the dual aims of 1) estimating the reliability of the forecasts and 2) estimating the probability distribution of the future state of the system. Current rank histogram ensemble verification techniques can only evaluate scalars drawn from ensembles and associated verification; a new method is presented that allows verification in high-dimensional spaces, including those of the verifications for 106 dimensional numerical weather prediction forecasts.
The Mirror World: Preparing for Mixed-Reality Living

A new kind of smart space is emerging in which digital, physical, and social layers are strongly intertwined. These spaces extend the classic assistive functionality of ambient intelligence toward more proactive possibilities, where the smart environment not only monitors people as they perform tasks but also influences their plans and intentions. The authors explore this concept of the smart space as a mirror world, looking in particular at how it will affect our cognitive abilities and noting some of the research challenges that will need to be addressed. This department is part of a special issue on smart spaces.
SocialWeaver: collaborative inference of human conversation networks using smartphones

Understanding how people communicate with one another plays a very important role in many disciplines including social psychology, economics, marketing, and management science. This paper proposes and evaluates SocialWeaver, a sensing service running on smartphones that performs conversation clustering and builds conversation networks automatically. SocialWeaver uses a hybrid speaker classification scheme that exploits an adaptive histogram-based classifier to non-obtrusively bootstrap the in situ speaker model learning. The conversation clustering algorithm proposed is able to detect fine-grain conversation groups even if speakers are close together. Finally, to address energy constrain, a POMDP-based energy control scheme is incorporated. We evaluate the performance of each component in SocialWeaver using more than 100 hours of conversation data collected from conversation groups with sizes ranging from 2 to 13. Evaluation shows that accuracy of 71% to 92% can be achieved for various conversation modes and up to 50% of the energy consumption in SocialWeaver can be reduced through the POMDP-based scheme. Evaluations of SocialWeaver in both controlled and uncontrolled settings show promising results in realistic settings and potential to enable many future applications.
Solar convection and oscillations in magnetic regions

The goal of this research is to investigate how magnetic field affects the dynamics of granular convection and excitation of solar oscillations by means of realistic numerical simulations. We have used a 3D, compressible, non-linear radiative magnetohydrodynamics code developed at the NASA Ames Research Center. This code takes into account several physical phenomena: compressible fluid flow in a highly stratified medium, sub-grid scale turbulence models, radiative energy transfer between the fluid elements, and a real-gas equation of state. We have studied the influence of the magnetic field of various strength on the convective cells and on the excitation mechanisms of the acoustic oscillations by calculating spectral properties of the convective motions and oscillations. The results reveal substantial changes of the granulation structure with increased magnetic field, and a frequency-dependent reduction in the oscillation power in a good agreement with solar observations. These simulations suggest that the enhanced high-frequency acoustic emission at the boundaries of active region ("acoustic halo" phenomenon) is caused by the changes of the spatial-temporal spectrum of the turbulent convection in magnetic field, resulting in turbulent motions of smaller scales and higher frequencies than in quiet Sun regions.
Innovate or Die

As the paraphrase of the New Hampshire State Motto in the title suggests, leaders of organizations of all stripes are having to deal with an almost constant pressure for organizational innovation. In the for-profit sector, competition among firms in different industries has steadily increased as the internet makes information about new products, processes, or services almost instantly available to potential competitors. In the not-for-profit social sector, the competition is for resources that are not only scarce, but are often targeted by funders to the newest, most innovative approaches to addressing social problems. In addition, as managed care and similar funding devices spread throughout the social service sector, managers are having to change organizational practices to reflect the growing pressure for business-like management practices, and market-oriented service strategies. A number of articles in the current management literature address organizational innovation in the public and private sectors. Arndt and Bigelow (2000) look at organizational innovation from the perspective of institutional theory. A major tenet of this theory is that organizations derive their legitimacy in large part from having struc-
A Wavelet-Based EM Algorithm for the Restoration of Medical Pulse-Echo Ultrasound Datasets

The application of pulse-echo ultrasound to anatomical imaging is well established, but despite the prevalence of this imaging modality in modern clinical practice, typical ultrasound images still suffer from blurring and poor resolution and there is significant scope for developing restoration algorithms to address this problem. As with other similar inverse problems, the design of an effective restoration algorithm is contingent on a good image model, and in this respect, the problem is challenging because the acoustic reflectivities of soft tissues have statistical characteristics that are substantially different to those of natural images studied in mainstream image processing. Whereas natural images tend to be piecewise-smooth and are well sparsified by a wavelet basis, the acoustic reflectivities of soft tissues exhibit piecewise-smoothness only on a macroscopic scale; on a microscopic scale, they exhibit a pseudo-random texture. Previously, we presented a simple model of acoustic reflectivity which could adequately account for this dual behaviour and we described a statistically-motivated restoration algorithm that simply alternated between Wiener filtering and dual-tree complex wavelet shrinkage [1]. Our previous results for two-dimensional images showed improved performance compared to other methods based on less sophisticated image models, and in this paper, we extend our algorithm to three-dimensional datasets to correct also for out-of-plane (elevational) blurring.
3D Interactive Information Visualization: Guidelines from Experience and Analysis of Applications

Effective design of GUI interfaces is aided through the development and use of guidelines. Similarly, the effectiveness of 3D information visualizations will be aided through the development, testing and application of guidelines. The guidelines presented here are the direct result of the expert knowledge accumulated over the development of 50+ information visualizations since 1993. Various techniques have been tried for communicating information in 3D visual representations drawing from knowledge in the fields of graphic design, user interface guidelines, end-user consultation, psychology and neurophysiology.
Social capital and post-war reconstruction: Evidence from northern Mozambique

Taking an economic perspective, this article uses a case study approach to identify obstacles for development and poverty alleviation in post-war rural northern Mozambique. Building on in-depth interviews with households in two rural communities, the article explores the role of social capital in post-war rural livelihoods. The analysis focuses on trust, the quality of relationships between community members, and access to income opportunities as indicators of social capital. Earlier research on post-conflict development is complemented in two ways. First, few studies highlight the importance of social capital for post-war economic reconstruction. The present study reveals that social capital in the two field sites has been shattered as a consequence of the conflict, which diminishes positive externalities from development. The study thus contributes micro-level evidence to the argument that low trust societies may fall into a development trap. Second, while much of the conflict literature focuses on the immediate post-conflict period, a medium-term perspective on post-war reconstruction is applied here. This time horizon allows us to identify economic winners and losers of post-war reconstruction, which provides insights into the sustainability of peace.
A Literature Survey on BSS Approaches for MIMO-OFDM Detection

In this paper the problem of detection and blind source separation (BSS) in multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) communication are discussed. In conventional detection techniques, transmitter has to transmit channel state information (CSI) constantly to the receiver. It affects spectral efficiency & it decreases effective data rates also. As spectrum is a limited source, BSS approaches are promising options for MIMO detection. Spectrum efficiency is one of the main challenges in wireless communication system design. The main objective of this literature survey is to provide an overview of main BSS algorithms used in the detection of MIMO-OFDM and the working of BSS in this promising research field. For this, recapitulation is done of last few years research efforts, with SOS (second order statistics) and HOS (higher order statistics) BSS methods in MIMO.
Relationships under the Microscope with Interaction-Backed Social Networks

Binary friendship declarations typical of online social networks have been shown inadequate to properly capture dynamic and meaningful social relationships between users. Interaction networks, on the other hand, rely on statistical inference and assumptions on the nature of what “friendship” means. This paper analyzes an interaction-backed social network, where an interaction network and a declared social network coexist without constraining each other. We show quantitatively how many interactions take place within a declared relationship, but also that there are interactions between users without a declared relationship. By measuring interactions between declared and non-declared pairs of users, we can discover how levels of interaction wax and wane, and how attention is diverted from existing relationships to forming new ones. Our quantitative analysis can also serve scientists to create interaction workloads from declared social networks or infer social networks from interaction traces.
A Formulation of the Earnings Function Using the Concept of Occupational Investment

Standard models of income determination specify income to be a function of two variables that measure postschool investment-the years of labor market experience and the years of employer tenure. This investigation develops a better proxy for general human capital investments by hypothesizing that the intensity of investment varies by occupation and that a proportion of the occupational skills are transferable with occupational change. After developing exogenous measures of these features, the occupational investment variable is calculated for the young men of the National Longitudinal Survey. Empirical work demonstrates that occupational investment is a strong determinant of income-far superior to the experience variable.
Studies on Grasping and Manipulation by Robotic Multifingered Hands and Arm-Hand Systems

The major purpose of this thesis is to discuss the various problems of the gra.sping and manipulation by robotic multifingered hands and arm-hand systems. This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part of Chapters 2 through 4, dliscussions are made on gra.sping and manipulation by multifingered hands. In the second part of Chapters 5 and 6, cooperative manipulations with grasping by macro-micro manipulators and arm-hand systems are dealt with. In the gra.sping and manipulation by mnltifingered hands, the fingertip force must be applied to an object suitably for the secure grasping and desired manipulation. In Chapter 2, the gra.sping and manipulating forces are defined as the components of fingertip force for the above aim. Ba.sed on the concept of these forces, a control scheme of multifingered hands for gra.sping and manipulation is proposed in Chapter 3, and adaptation of the grasping force for the secure grasping is proposed in Chapter 4 as an adaptive grasping. It is a matter of fact that the rolls of the arms and hands are important to the cooperative manipulations with grasping by arm-hand systems. In the comparison of their abilities, the arms are considered as macro manipulator, and the multifingered hands are considered as micro manipulator. That is, the arms generally have big motion ranges, but are not suitable for compliant motions because of their big masses. On the other hand, the multifingered hands are suitable for compliant motions because of their small ma.sses, but they have relatively small motion ranges. Consequently, by connecting an arm and multifingered hand, a redundant macro-micro manipulator is constructed. In Chapter 5, a motion control scheme of such redundant macro-micro manipulators is proposed, based on the impedance control. In Chapter 6, a control scheme of arm-hand systems for the secure gmsping and cooperative manipulation is proposed. The results of this study surely contribute to advanced manipulation technologies, and help to realize dexterous manipulation, appears in the cooperative motions by t.he human arm and hand.