Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cooperative Game Modeling With Weighted Token-Level Alignment for Audio-Text Retrieval

Previous audio-text retrieval (ATR) methods primarily concentrate on constructing contrastive pairs between entire audio clips and full caption sentences, while neglecting fine-grained cross-modal relationships. In this letter, we first introduce a weighted token-level alignment (WTA) module for ATR to learn fine-grained semantic interactions. Besides, due to the unavailability of manually labeling the fine-grained sequential correspondence between audio-text pairs, we attempt to model ATR as a cooperative game process to flexibly handle the uncertainty during audio-text semantic interactions. Specifically, we treat audio frames and text words as players and present a game theoretic interaction (GTI) method to assess potential correspondence between audio frames and text words, which can also be seen as an additional learning signal to improve the pure audio-text contrastive learning. Furthermore, to implement multi-level WTA and GTI, we develop a token cluster module to cluster the frames/words and calculate the interaction scores between the clustered tokens. Experiments show that our WTA significantly improves the ATR performance on multiple datasets. By combining our GTI, the retrieval performance is further boosted by a large margin.
Management across Cultures: Challenges and Strategies

Management practices and processes frequently differ across national and regional boundaries. What may be acceptable managerial behaviour in one culture may be counterproductive or even unacceptable in another. As managers increasingly find themselves working across cultures, the need to understand these differences has become increasingly important. This book examines why these differences exist and how global managers can develop strategies and tactics to deal with them. The text draws on recent research in anthropology, psychology, and management, to explain the cultural and psychological underpinnings that shape managerial attitudes and behaviours, whilst introducing a learning model to guide in the intellectual and practical development of managers seeking enhanced global expertise. It offers user-friendly conceptual models to guide understanding and exploration of topics and summarizes and integrates the lessons learned in each chapter in applications-oriented 'Manager's Notebooks'. A companion website featuring comprehensive chapter-by-chapter PPT slides is available at www.cambridge. org/management_across_cultures.
Consensus of nonlinear multiagent systems with mode‐dependent delay via stochastic sampled data under Markovian switching topologies

In this article, we investigate the mean‐square consensus problem of multiagent systems with one leader and multiple followers. In consideration of the uncertain disturbance from external environment or internal change of system, the interaction topology and time‐varying delay switch randomly which are regulated by a time‐homogeneous Markovian chain. The distributed control protocol is designed based on the stochastic sampling information from its neighbors and the leader. Using stochastic Lyapunov theory and linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, the sufficient condition is concluded to guarantee the mean‐square consensus. For the undirected topology case, a low‐dimensional LMI‐based consensus criterion is further derived based on the matrix diagonalization method. Finally, a numerical simulation is provided to demonstrate the reasonability of the theoretical results.
The International Application and Development Prospect of the Principle Purpose Test Clause

Abuse of tax treaties by taxpayers through various means has become increasingly rampant, infringing on the tax base of each country. The OECD has formulated the PPT rule in order to protect global tax order. The main content of the rule is: a tax benefit shall not be granted if obtaining that benefit was one of the principal purposes of any arrangement or transaction that resulted directly or indirectly in that benefit. The PPT rule is favored by countries for its simplicity, and it gradually developed into one of the most important rules in the anti-abuse system. However, there are many problems in the current application of the rule. This paper begins with a description of the concept of the PPT rule and three points of contention, followed by an analysis of the application of the PPT rule in the domestic laws of four countries and the problems that exist globally. Finally, this paper puts forward three recommendations that are relevant to the future development of the PPT rule.
Compact Multibeam Antenna Using Miniaturized Slow-Wave Substrate-Integrated Waveguide Rotman Lens for Satellite-Assisted Internet of Vehicles

A compact multibeam antenna using a miniaturized slow-wave substrate-integrated waveguide (SW-SIW) Rotman lens for satellite-assisted Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is reported in this article. It is well known that the conventional Rotman lens is bulky as the key part of the beamformer, i.e., the lens body, occupies most area of the multibeam antenna. In this work, the miniaturization of the Rotman lens body is realized first by loading slow wave structures in the form of metalized blind via holes inside the lens. In this manner, the effective permittivity of the substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) increases. Meanwhile, the phase velocity within the Rotman lens decreases such that the guided wavelength is shortened. Consequently, the size of the SW-SIW-based Rotman lens is significantly miniaturized. Compared to the conventional SIW-based Rotman lens, the size of the reported lens is reduced by 66.1% with good transmission performance from 15.3 to 16.3 GHz. Moreover, the miniaturized SW-SIW Rotman lens is adopted to design a compact five-beam antenna, which was simulated, fabricated, and measured. The measured results agree reasonably well with the simulations, showing the reported SW-SIW Rotman lens is an ideal candidate for Ku band satellite-assisted IoV applications.
Modeling spatial variability and transport processes in a glacial till soil

9 INTRODUCTION 10 PREVIOUS APPLICATION 12 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND FOR SPATIAL ANALYSIS 14 Model Fitting and Cross-Validation 17 EXPERIMENTAL METHODS 18 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 20 SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 22 Robust-Resistant Approach for Semivariogram Development 22 Semivariograms at 30-cni Depth 24 Semivariograms at 15-cm Depth 27 Theoretical Model Fitting 27 iii Split-Window Median Polish 29 Split-Window Median Polish vs. Universal Kriging 32 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 34 REFERENCES 36 PAPER II. SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF NITRATE-NITROGEN UNDER CONVENTIONAL TILLAGE VS. NO TILLAGE A COMPOSITE 3-D RESISTANT AND EXPLORATORY APPROACH 64 ABSTRACT 66 INTRODUCTION 68 PREVIOUS APPLICATIONS 70 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN 72 METHODOLOGY 74 Exploratory Analysis 7566 INTRODUCTION 68 PREVIOUS APPLICATIONS 70 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN 72 METHODOLOGY 74 Exploratory Analysis 75 Median Polish 77 Data Check 79 Spatial Variability 79 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 83
Practical Input-to-State Stability of Nonlinear Systems with Time Delay

An investigation of the input-to-state practical stability (ISpS) and the integral input-to-state practical stability (iISpS) of nonlinear systems with time delays (NSWTDs) is presented in this paper. The ISpS and iISpS of the systems are obtained by using a continuously differentiable Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) within-definite derivative, which generalizes the classical LKF with a positive definite derivative. As a result, the uniform practical asymptotic stability (UPAS) criteria of NSWTD were also given by using the proposed LKF.
Hypervalent hydridosilicate in the Na–Si–H system

Hydrogenation reactions at gigapascal pressures can yield hydrogen-rich materials with properties relating to superconductivity, ion conductivity, and hydrogen storage. Here, we investigated the ternary Na–Si–H system by computational structure prediction and in situ synchrotron diffraction studies of reaction mixtures NaH–Si–H2 at 5–10 GPa. Structure prediction indicated the existence of various hypervalent hydridosilicate phases with compositions NamSiH(4+m) (m = 1–3) at comparatively low pressures, 0–20 GPa. These ternary Na–Si–H phases share, as a common structural feature, octahedral SiH6 2− complexes which are condensed into chains for m = 1 and occur as isolated species for m = 2, 3. In situ studies demonstrated the formation of the double salt Na3[SiH6]H (Na3SiH7, m = 3) containing both octahedral SiH6 2− moieties and hydridic H−. Upon formation at elevated temperatures (>500°C), Na3SiH7 attains a tetragonal structure (P4/mbm, Z = 2) which, during cooling, transforms to an orthorhombic polymorph (Pbam, Z = 4). Upon decompression, Pbam-Na3SiH7 was retained to approx. 4.5 GPa, below which a further transition into a yet unknown polymorph occurred. Na3SiH7 is a new representative of yet elusive hydridosilicate compounds. Its double salt nature and polymorphism are strongly reminiscent of fluorosilicates and germanates.
Comparison of Porous Germanium Thin Films on SS and Mo as Anode for High-Performance LIBs

The increasing demand for high performance lithium ion batteries is pushing the research toward the development of new materials for electrodes. Our study focuses on the usage of Germanium as the active material for the negative electrode since it has a higher theoretical specific capacity than standard graphite-based electrodes. This research article provides insight into the electrochemical performance of thin films of Germanium deposited on metallic substrates and then nanostructured via electrochemical etching. Molybdenum and stainless steel are investigated as substrates and compared with regard to the performance of the resulting electrodes. The nanostructured Germanium electrodes show promising results, demonstrating a stable and high specific capacity for hundreds of cycles. The long-term stability of the cell together with a high rate capability proves the reliability of the cell engineered.
Multiscale Spatial Patterns in Giant Dike Swarms Identified Through Objective Feature Extraction

Dike swarms are ubiquitous on terrestrial planets and represent the frozen remnants of magma transport networks. However, spatial complexity, protracted emplacement history, and uneven surface exposure typically make it difficult to quantify patterns in dike swarms on different scales. In this study, we address this challenge using the Hough transform (HT) to objectively link dissected dike segments and analyze multiscale spatial structure in dike swarms. We apply this method to swarms of three scales: the Spanish Peaks, USA; the Columbia River Flood Basalt Group (CRBG), USA; the Deccan Traps Flood Basalts, India. First, we cluster dike segments in HT space, recognizing prevalent linearly aligned structures that represent single dikes or dike packets, with lengths up to 10 − 30x the mapped mean segment length. Second, we identify colinear and radial dike segment mesoscale structures within each data set, using the HT to segment swarms into constituent spatial patterns. We show that for both the CRBG and Deccan Traps, a single radial or circumferential swarm does not well characterize the data. Instead, multiple and sometimes overlapping mesoscale linear and radial features are prevalent suggesting a complex history of crustal stresses. The HT can provide useful insights in a variety of geologic settings where many quasi‐linear features, at any scale, are superimposed spatially.
Prediction Model for the Evolution of Residual Stresses and Machining Deformation of Uneven Milling Plate Blanks

During aerospace thin-walled component processing, the prediction and control of machining deformation have gained increasing attention. The initial residual stress in the blank is a major factor leading to the occurrence of machining deformation. This paper proposes the concept of uneven milling during the workpiece machining process, which is caused by the variation in local cutting depth resulting in uneven material removal thickness. Based on the elasticity theory, an analytical model is established to predict the evolution of overall residual stress and machining deformation in beam-like aluminum alloy components under uneven milling conditions. The effectiveness of the model is verified through finite element simulations and experiments. The results are as follows: (1) Under uneven milling conditions, the analytical model can accurately predict the distribution of residual stress and the machining deformation within the ZX section of the workpiece. (2) The uneven distribution of bending stress arises from the different curvature radii of various positions after workpiece deformation, leading to a 1 MPa to 3 MPa difference in stress between the middle and both ends of the workpiece. (3) During the layer-by-layer milling process, the magnitude of workpiece deformation is related to the stress state of the material removed, and there is a deformation superposition effect on the lower surface of the workpiece, further exacerbating the overall machining deformation.
Prediction of even and odd sunspot cycles

Here we study the prediction of even and odd numbered sunspot cycles separately, thereby taking into account the Hale cyclicity of solar magnetism. We first show that the temporal evolution and shape of all sunspot cycles are extremely well described by a simple parameterized mathematical expression. We find that the parameters describing even sunspot cycles can be predicted quite accurately using the sunspot number 41 months prior to sunspot minimum as a precursor. We find that the parameters of the odd cycles can be best predicted with maximum geomagnetic aa index close to fall equinox within a 3-year window preceding the sunspot minimum. We use the found precursors to predict all previous sunspot cycles and evaluate the performance with a cross-validation methodology, which indicates that each past cycle is very accurately predicted. For the coming sunspot cycle 25 we predict an amplitude of 171 ± 23 and the end of the cycle in September 2029 ±1.9 years. We are also able to make a rough prediction for cycle 26 based on the predicted cycle 25. While the uncertainty for the cycle amplitude is large we estimate that the cycle 26 will most likely be stronger than cycle 25. These results suggest an increasing trend in solar activity for the next decades.
First Emergence of NDM-5 and OqxAB Efflux Pumps Among Multidrug-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolated from Pediatric Patients in Assiut, Egypt

Introduction New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)-producing K. pneumoniae poses a high risk, especially among Egyptian pediatric patients who consume carbapenems antibiotics very widely and without adequate diagnostic sources. In addition, presence of efflux pump genes such as OqxAB increases resistance against many groups of antimicrobials which exacerbates the problem faced for human health. This study aimed to determine NDM variants among K. pneumoniae strains isolated from pediatric patients in Egypt, analyze the presence of OqxAB genes, and molecular characterization of blaNDM-5-positive K. pneumoniae. Methods Fifty-six K. pneumoniae isolates were recovered from pediatric patients, and tested for carbapenemase by modified carbapenem inactivation methods (mCIM) test. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of meropenem and colistin were determined by meropenem E-test strips and broth microdilution, respectively. PCR was used for the detection of the resistant genes (ESBL gene (blaCTX-M), carbapenemase genes (blaNDM, blaKPC) colistin resistant (mcr1, mcr2)) and genes for efflux pump (oqxA and oqxB). BlaNDM was sequenced. The effect of efflux pump in NDM-5-producing isolates was assessed by measuring MIC of ciprofloxacin and meropenem before and after exposure to the carbonyl cyanide 3-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP). The horizontal gene transfer ability of blaNDM-5 was determined using liquid mating assay and PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) was done to determine the major plasmid incompatibility group. Results Twenty-nine isolates were positive for blaNDM-1, nine isolates were positive for blaNDM-5, and 15 isolates were positive for blaKPC. There is a significant increase of meropenem MIC of NDM-5-positive isolates compared with NDM-1-positive isolates. In addition, 38 isolates were positive for CTX-M, and 15 isolates were positive for mcr1. Both OqxA and OqxB were detected in 26 isolates and 13 isolates were positive for OqxA while 11 isolates were positive for OqxB only. All NDM-5-producing isolates except one isolate could transfer their plasmids by conjugation to their corresponding transconjugants (E. coli J53). Plasmid replicon typing showed that FII was predominant in NDM-5-producing K. pneumoniae. Similar strains were found between the three isolates and similarity was also detected between the two isolates. Conclusion The highly resistant K. pneumoniae producing blaNDM-5 type was firstly isolated from pediatric patients. The association of efflux pump genes such as OqxAB is involved in resistance to ciprofloxacin. This highlighted the severity risk of blaNDM-5-positive K. pneumonia as it could transfer blaNDM-5 to other bacteria and has more resistance against carbapenems. This underlines the importance of continuous monitoring of infection control guidelines, and the urgent need for a national antimicrobial stewardship plan in Egyptian hospitals.
MFBP-UNet: A Network for Pear Leaf Disease Segmentation in Natural Agricultural Environments

The accurate prevention and control of pear tree diseases, especially the precise segmentation of leaf diseases, poses a serious challenge to fruit farmers globally. Given the possibility of disease areas being minute with ambiguous boundaries, accurate segmentation becomes difficult. In this study, we propose a pear leaf disease segmentation model named MFBP-UNet. It is based on the UNet network architecture and integrates a Multi-scale Feature Extraction (MFE) module and a Tokenized Multilayer Perceptron (BATok-MLP) module with dynamic sparse attention. The MFE enhances the extraction of detail and semantic features, while the BATok-MLP successfully fuses regional and global attention, striking an effective balance in the extraction capabilities of both global and local information. Additionally, we pioneered the use of a diffusion model for data augmentation. By integrating and analyzing different augmentation methods, we further improved the model’s training accuracy and robustness. Experimental results reveal that, compared to other segmentation networks, MFBP-UNet shows a significant improvement across all performance metrics. Specifically, MFBP-UNet achieves scores of 86.15%, 93.53%, 90.89%, and 0.922 on MIoU, MP, MPA, and Dice metrics, marking respective improvements of 5.75%, 5.79%, 1.08%, and 0.074 over the UNet model. These results demonstrate the MFBP-UNet model’s superior performance and generalization capabilities in pear leaf disease segmentation and its inherent potential to address analogous challenges in natural environment segmentation tasks.
Quantitative approaches for decoding the specificity of the human T cell repertoire

T cell receptor (TCR)-peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) interactions play a vital role in initiating immune responses against pathogens, and the specificity of TCRpMHC interactions is crucial for developing optimized therapeutic strategies. The advent of high-throughput immunological and structural evaluation of TCR and pMHC has provided an abundance of data for computational approaches that aim to predict favorable TCR-pMHC interactions. Current models are constructed using information on protein sequence, structures, or a combination of both, and utilize a variety of statistical learning-based approaches for identifying the rules governing specificity. This review examines the current theoretical, computational, and deep learning approaches for identifying TCR-pMHC recognition pairs, placing emphasis on each method’s mathematical approach, predictive performance, and limitations.
Adipose Tissue Protects against Hepatic Steatosis in Male Rats Fed a High-Fat Diet plus Liquid Fructose: Sex-Related Differences

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a sexual dimorphic disease, with adipose tissue playing an essential role. Our previous work showed that female rats fed a high-fat high-fructose diet devoid of cholesterol (HFHFr) developed simple hepatic steatosis dissociated from obesity. This study assessed the impact of the HFHFr diet on the male rat metabolism compared with data obtained for female rats. A total of 16 Sprague Dawley (SD) male rats were fed either a control (standard rodent chow and water) or HFHFr (high-fat diet devoid of cholesterol, plus 10% fructose in drinking water) diet for 3 months. Unlike female rats, and despite similar increases in energy consumption, HFHFr males showed increased adiposity and hyperleptinemia. The expression of hormone-sensitive lipase in the subcutaneous white adipose tissue was enhanced, leading to high free fatty acid and glycerol serum levels. HFHFr males presented hypertriglyceridemia, but not hepatic steatosis, partially due to enhanced liver PPARα-related fatty acid β-oxidation and the VLDL-promoting effect of leptin. In conclusion, the SD rats showed a sex-related dimorphic response to the HFHFr diet. Contrary to previous results for HFHFr female rats, the male rats were able to expand the adipose tissue, increase fatty acid catabolism, or export it as VLDL, avoiding liver lipid deposition.
An Empirical Study on Android Malware Characterization by Social Network Analysis

Android malware detection has always been a hot research field. Prior work has validated that graph-based Android malware detection methods are effective, and several works have been proposed to regard the call graph of an app as a social network for more efficient classification. However, a social network contains many properties and there is a lack of perception as to which social network properties are more useful in differentiating malware from benign apps. Therefore, in this article, we present the first empirical study to analyze Android malware by different social network properties. We conduct extensive statistical analysis on 100 000 Android apps and apply three feature ranking methods to research the ability of 57 social network properties on malware detection. Moreover, in an effort to validate the effectiveness of these social network properties on malware detection, we implement a tool called SNADroid by using these properties as features for models training and use it to complete classification. Our study reveals that the average triangles number is the most impactful social network property in distinguishing malware from benign apps. Combined with the experimental results and in-depth analysis, we present the 15 most effective features for graph-based malware detection using social properties as a guideline.
CENTERIS 2013 - Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems / PRojMAN 2013 - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCIST 2013 - International Conference on Health and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies Goal-Driven Approach For Business/IT Alignment Evaluation

The alignment degree existing between a business process and the supporting software systems strongly affects the performance of the business process execution. Methodologies and tools are needed for detecting the alignment level and either keeping a business process aligned with the supporting software systems even when they evolve or increasing its level by identifying convenient software changes. This paper improves an approach previously proposed for managing alignment. In particular, a new set of metrics have been introduced in the existing approach for business goals and dynamic behavior to evaluate the alignment. The application of the new approach is explored through a case study. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-revi ew under responsibility of CENTERIS/ProjMAN/HCIST.