Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Ensemble Training for Hidden Markov Models using Random Relative Node Permutations

Hidden Markov Models have many applications in signal processing and pattern recognition, but their convergence-based training algorithms are known to suffer from oversensitivity to the initial random model choice. This paper focuses upon the use of model averaging, ensemble thresholding, and random relative model permutations for improving average model performance. A method is described which trains by searching for the best relative permutation set for ensemble averaging. This uses the fit to the training set as an indicator. The work provides a simpler alternative to previous permutation-based ensemble averaging methods.
On the three critical points theorem.

Let φ be a C real function defined on R. We assume that φ is coercive (i.e. φ(x) → ∞ as ||x|| → ∞). It is well-known that under these assumptions φ reaches a minimum at some point x0. Let now x1 be a critical point of φ which is not a global minimum. M. A. Krasnosel’skĭı [10] made the following observations: if x1 is a nondegenerate singular point of the vector field ∇φ (i.e. the topological index ind (∇φ(x1), 0) is different from zero), then φ admits a third critical point. In the sequel this statement became known as the “Three Critical Points Theorem” (TCPT). The above result of Krasnosel’skĭı was extended to the context of Banach spaces (see [1], [4], [8], [17]). Another generalization was obtained by Chang [5], [6] using the methods of Morse theory (the condition ind (∇φ(x1), 0) 6= 0 is replaced by the weaker assumption of nontriviality of Morse critical groups at x1). Also, Brezis and Nirenberg [3] gave a very useful variant of TCPT for applications using the principle of local linking (see also [12]). In this paper we shall give a proof of TCPT based on a “strong” deformation lemma (see Lemma 2.1 below) thus avoiding standard minimax techniques. In contrast to the previous work in this field, we prove in fact the Lusternik–Schnirel’man type
Adaptive H.264 Video Transmission over 802.11 Inter-Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

This paper focuses on video communications in intervehicular environments using the 802.11 ad hoc network protocol. In the first part of the work we present the results of transmission experiments between two cars equipped with 802.11 devices in two typical driving scenarios, urban and highway. Various video bitrates and packetization policies have been tested. The results show that the two scenarios differ in terms of link availability and SNR. Moreover, the video quality measured at the receiver by means of the PSNR value shows that the best packetization policy depends on the scenario. Building on these results, we design an algorithm which adapts the video packet size to the current driving conditions to improve the efficiency of the video transmission. Consistent perceptual quality gains in terms of PSNR value (up to about 3 dB) are achieved with respect to a fixed-policy transmission technique.
Economic analysis of the causes and consequences of social and emotional well-being in childhood

16 Declaration . 17 Copyright Statement . 18 Acknowledgements . 19 The Author . 20 Chapter One: Introduction and Literature Review . 21 1.1. Defining Social and Emotional Well-Being (SEW) . 24 1.2. Lifecourse Model of SEW . 27 1.3. Empricial Evidence on the Formation of SEW . 30 1.4. Childhood SEW and Later-Life Outcomes . 33 1.5. Effects of Interventions to Improve SEW . 42 Chapter Two: The Effects of In-Utero Exposure to Influenza on SEW in Childhood and Longevity . 46 2.
Noise-Resistant Mobile Positioning System Based on Code-Aided RSS Estimation

In recent years, research on mobile positioning techniques in wireless communications systems attracts a lot of interest due to the growing use of location-based applications for smart phones. This research proposes a code-aided received signal strength (RSS) estimator for a network-based positioning system. The proposed RSS estimator derives the channel noise by accumulating the minimum path metrics of the Viterbi decoder and then refines the RSS value as the input to the particle filter at each base station. Afterwards, the calculated distances at base stations are processed by convex optimization to locate the mobile device. This work develops a system to verify the positioning performance in the urban area. The simulation results show that the proposed system with the code-aided RSS estimation has 20 to 60-meter better performance than the same system with raw RSS information when SNR is smaller than 4dB. Compared to other corresponding SNR estimation methods, the proposed RSS estimation technique also has better performance especially in the lower SNR conditions.
From Syntax to Semantics. First Steps Towards Tectogrammatical Annotation of Latin

Assuming that collaboration between theoretical and computational linguistics is essential in projects aimed at developing language resources like annotated corpora, this paper presents the first steps of the semantic annotation of the Index Thomisticus Treebank, a dependency-based treebank of Medieval Latin. The semantic layer of annotation of the treebank is detailed and the theoretical framework supporting the annotation style is explained and motivated.
A Method for Stress Detection Based on FCM Algorithm

A method based on fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm is proposed to detect stress continuously in this study. The method calculates the exact stress value of each period and achieves a continuous stress curve. Biomedical signals used in this study were collected from drivers in a driving experience, and appropriate features are selected to form multi-dimensional feature-vectors. By using FCM algorithm, these feature-vectors are clustered to several clusters. Stress value of each period is calculated based on the membership degree between feature- vectors and clusters. The experience results by using signals acquired from some drivers' driving experiences show that the method may distinguish stress of different driving periods clearly, and the stress curve may give a direct-viewing of change of stress.
Efficiency of Constructed Wetland Vegetated with Cyperus alternifolius Applied for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

The treatment of municipal wastewater from Yazd city (center of Iran) by constructed wetland vegetated with Cyperus alternifolius was assessed. Two identical wetlands with a total working volume of 60 L and 10 cm sandy layer at the bottom were used. First wetland (W1) was control and had no Cyperus alternifolius plant. Second wetland (W2) had 100 Cyperus alternifolius shrubs with 40 cm height. Influent wastewater was provided from Yazd's septic tanks effluents and after a 4-day retention time in wetlands, reactors effluent was sampled for parameters analysis. Results show that chemical oxygen demand (COD), NO3 −–N, NH4 +–N, and PO4 −3–P in W1 were reduced to 72%, 88%, 32%, and 0.8%, and in W2, these parameters were removed in values of 83%, 81%, 47%, and 10%, respectively. In both wetlands, the highest and lowest removal efficiencies were related to COD and phosphorus, respectively. Also, the removed phosphorus can be released to stream when the soil saturated or influent phosphorus decreased and when the plant died. After a 4-day-retention time, the W2 wetland showed a statistically significantly lower COD and NH4 +–N in comparison with W2 wetland.
The Relationship Between Quality of Sleep and Emotional Empathy

Sleep loss is known to severely disturb individuals’ mood and emotion processing. Here, we tested the hypothesis that quality of sleep is predictive of individuals’ performance on a task evaluating emotional empathy. We tested 34 healthy undergraduate students [19 males, mean (SD) age = 21.82 (3.26) years; mean (SD) education = 14.98 (1.91) years] recruited through the University of Calgary research participation system. We collected objective (actigraphy) and subjective (questionnaires and self-reports) sleep measures to characterize individuals’ sleep quality, and asked participants to solve a computerized emotional empathy task. We first performed a dimensionality reduction analysis on the sleep-related measures, which resulted in six principal components, and then ran a stepwise multiple regression analysis to investigate the sleep measures that best predicted participants’ scores on the emotional empathy task. We found that subjective sleep quality, together with sleep phase, best predicted participants’ empathic sensitivity to negative images while they explicitly evaluated the emotions of others (i.e., direct component of emotional empathy). Also, subjective sleep quality resulted to be the best predictor of participants’ arousal state in response to negative images, which is an implicit manifestation of their empathic experience (i.e., indirect component of emotional empathy). In both cases, lower subjective sleep quality was associated with lower empathic sensitivity to negative stimuli. Finally, sleep duration best predicted average empathic responses to stimuli of all valences, with shorter sleep durations associated with lower average empathic responses. Our findings provide evidence of a significant relationship between individuals’ quality of sleep and their ability to share the emotions experienced by others. These findings may have important implications for individuals employed in professions requiring social interaction and empathic experience coupled with schedules that interfere with nighttime sleep.
EAA/EMQN best practice guidelines for molecular diagnosis of Y-chromosomal microdeletions: state-of-the-art 2013

The molecular diagnosis of Y‐chromosomal microdeletions is a common routine genetic test which is part of the diagnostic workup of azoospermic and severe oligozoospermic men. Since 1999, the European Academy of Andrology (EAA) and the European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EMQN) have been actively involved in supporting the improvement of the quality of the diagnostic assays by publication of the laboratory guidelines for molecular diagnosis of Y‐chromosomal microdeletions and by offering external quality assessment trials. The present revision of the 2004 laboratory guidelines summarizes all the clinical novelties related to the Y chromosome (classic, partial and gene‐specific deletions, genotype–phenotype correlations, methodological issues) and provides an update on the results of the quality control programme. These aspects also reflect the consensus of a large group of specialists present at a round table session during the recent Florence‐Utah‐Symposium on ‘Genetics of male infertility’ (Florence, 19–21 September, 2013). During the last 10 years the gr/gr deletion has been demonstrated as a significant risk factor for impaired sperm production. However, the screening for this deletion type in the routine diagnostic setting is still a debated issue among experts. The original basic protocol based on two multiplex polymerase chain reactions remains fully valid and appropriate for accurate diagnosis of complete AZF deletions and it requires only a minor modification in populations with a specific Y chromosome background. However, in light of novel data on genotype–phenotype correlations, the extension analysis for the AZFa and AZFb deletions is now routinely recommended. Novel methods and kits with excessively high number of markers do not improve the sensitivity of the test, may even complicate the interpretation of the results and are not recommended. Annual participation in an external quality control programme is strongly encouraged. The 12‐year experience with the EMQN/EAA scheme has shown a steep decline in diagnostic (genotyping) error rate and a simultaneous improvement on reporting practice.
Cuidado materno y seguridad del apego antes del primer año de vida

La relacion entre el cuidado materno (sensibilidad) y la seguridad del apego del nino (conducta de base segura) ha sido corroborada en diferentes contextos y edades. Sin embargo, existe ausencia de estudios que la hayan estudiado antes del primer ano de vida. La presente investigacion analizo esta relacion en un grupo de 32 madres peruanas de 19 a 44 anos de nivel socioeconomico bajo y sus hijos de 8 a 10 meses. La sensibilidad fue evaluada a traves del Q-sort del Comportamiento Materno (MBQS; Pederson & Moran, 1995) y la seguridad del apego mediante el Q-sort del Apego (Waters, 1995). Los resultados muestran que existe una relacion directa y significativa entre ambas y que las separaciones fisicas juegan un rol importante en esta relacion.
Improving menu interaction: a comparison of standard, force enhanced and jumping menus

In this paper we show how a model centered analysis of the usage of the mouse click interaction action in graphical user interfaces can be used to create a new menu system. The analysis identifies a possible new usage of the click action in cascading pull-down menus which can make it easier for the user during menu navigation and selection. A new menu system which is easy to implement, the ""Jumping Menu"", is introduced. The new menu system warps the screen cursor to the right into open sub-menu levels when a mouse click is detected inside a parent item. The Jumping Menu was compared with standard pull-down menus and force enhanced menus in a user experiment. The results show that the Jumping Menu and a force enhanced menu can facilitate menu interaction and that they are promising alternatives to conventional menu systems. Based on the results, a prediction model for selection times in Jumping Menus is developed.
An Improved Group Mobility Model for Mobile Adhoc Network based on Unified Relationship Matrix

Most of the MANET protocols are evaluated by simulation environments. The validation is meaningful when they use realistic mobility models. Once the nodes have been initially distributed, the mobility model dictates the movement of the nodes within the network. If this movement is unrealistic, the simulation results obtained may not correctly reflect the true performance of the protocols. The majority of existing mobility models for adhoc networks do not provide realistic movement. Most of the mobile nodes are directly or indirectly handled by human beings so mobility model based on social network theory predicts the node movements more realistic. Major challenges of these models are identifying the community and predicting the behavior of each node and each community. Our paper reinforces the model and overcome the challenges by using Unified Relationship Matrix which identifying the community structure more accurately and helps to predict the behaviour of a MANET. Unified Relationship Matrix helps to represent the relationships of inter and intra type of nodes among the various community groups with in the given terrain. It solves the node duplication among various heterogeneous community groups and identifies the correct community structure.
Mantle structure and dynamic topography in the Mediterranean Basin

We study the contribution of mantle flow to surface deformation within the Mediterranean Basin. Flow is modeled numerically based on lateral changes in mantle temperature estimated from tomography models. We find that modeling results are significantly affected by the properties of the selected tomography models. Shear‐velocity models based on surface‐wave observations achieve the highest resolution of upper‐mantle structure, and, as a result, are most successful in predicting microplate motion and dynamic topography.
Micro-Lending for Small Farmers in Bangladesh: Does It Affect Farm Households' Land Allocation Decision?

Despite higher profitability of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs), it has long been hypothesized that lack of access to credit is one of the main reasons, why farmers in developing countries continue to allocate a portion of their land to traditional crop varieties. The empirical testing of this hypothesis has generated a large body of literature with differing conclusions. This paper re-examines the issue in the context of a specially designed group based lending programs for small farmers in Bangladesh, who neither have access to formal sources of credit nor do they qualify to become members of other micro-credit organizations. Two measures of access to credit, credit limit and amount borrowed at a given point in time, have been used to analyze the determinants of farm households' land allocation decision. Under a variety of model specifications, formulated within Heckman's two-step method, the results show that credit limits from the lending programs and informal sources are significant determinants of small farmers' decision to cultivate HYV.
BDDCS Predictions, Self-Correcting Aspects of BDDCS Assignments, BDDCS Assignment Corrections, and Classification for more than 175 Additional Drugs

The biopharmaceutics drug disposition classification system was developed in 2005 by Wu and Benet as a tool to predict metabolizing enzyme and drug transporter effects on drug disposition. The system was modified from the biopharmaceutics classification system and classifies drugs according to their extent of metabolism and their water solubility. By 2010, Benet et al. had classified over 900 drugs. In this paper, we incorporate more than 175 drugs into the system and amend the classification of 13 drugs. We discuss current and additional applications of BDDCS, which include predicting drug-drug and endogenous substrate interactions, pharmacogenomic effects, food effects, elimination routes, central nervous system exposure, toxicity, and environmental impacts of drugs. When predictions and classes are not aligned, the system detects an error and is able to self-correct, generally indicating a problem with initial class assignment and/or measurements determining such assignments.
Quality Monitoring for Laser Welding Based on High-Speed Photography and Support Vector Machine

In order to improve the prediction ability of welding quality during high-power disk laser welding, a new approach was proposed and applied in the classification of the dynamic features of metal vapor plume. Six features were extracted through the color image processing method. Three features, including the area of plume, number of spatters, and horizontal coordinate of plume centroid, were selected based on the classification accuracy rates and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients. A support vector machine model was adopted to classify the welding quality status into two categories, good or poor. The results demonstrated that the support vector machine model established according to the selected features had satisfactory prediction and generalization ability. The classification accuracy rate was higher than 90%, and the model could be applied in the prediction of welding quality during high-power disk laser welding.
Speaker adaptation for continuous density HMMs: a review

This paper reviews some popular speaker adaptation schemes that can be applied to continuous density hidden Markov models. These fall into three families based on MAP adaptation; linear transforms of model parameters such as maximum likelihood linear regression; and speaker clustering/speaker space methods such as eigenvoices. The strengths and weaknesses of each adaptation family are discussed along with extensions that have been proposed to improve the basic schemes which result in a number of hybrid approaches. A number of general extensions are discussed which include methods for improved unsupervised adaptation and discriminative adaptation. There is also a brief discussion of speaker normalisation and the relationship to model-based adaptation. The paper includes a brief discussion of other factors that directly interact with speaker adaptation of HMMs is included, such as adaptation to the acoustic environment and speaker-specific pronunciation dictionaries.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples: The Client Change Process and Therapist Interventions

This article presents psychotherapy process research findings related to the forgiveness and reconciliation model, known as the Attachment Injury Resolution Model (AIRM), within the context of emotionally focused therapy for couples (EFT). Outcomes for EFT as an intervention for general relationship distress and AIRM have been successfully tested. Audiotapes of nine resolved and nine nonresolved EFT couple cases were used to study the client change process, the validity of AIRM, and EFT interventions used at each stage of the model. Study findings suggest resolved couple clients engaged deeply with their internal experience were more deliberate and controlled in their processing and more affiliative in their interpersonal responses in comparison with nonresolved couples. Resolved versus nonresolved client in-session performances were discriminated on the basis of four model components. These were associated with significant shifts from secondary reactive emotions to primary attachment–related emotional processing of the injurious incident and with interactions that focus on shaping emotional responsiveness. Key EFT
High Quality Thermostat Control by Reinforcement Learning - A Case Study

High Quality Thermostat Control by Reinforcement Learning A Case Study Martin Riedmiller Institut f ur Logik, Komplexit at und Deduktionssysteme Universit at Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany e-mail: riedml@ira.uka. de Abstract| Temperature control is an important issue in many manufacturing processes. The requirement for high precision, fast reaction to disturbances, time delays of varying length due to considerably changing characteristics of the respective production process make it a challenging application eld for the improvement and development of reinforcement learning techniques. The article shows some rst results on the application of a neural reinforcement learning controller to a thermostat control problem. Open problems are discussed and some ideas for further research directions are presented. to appear in: Proceedings of CONALD '98, CMU, Pittsburgh I. A Thermostat Controller In many manufacturing applications it is important to keep a liquid (water, oil, chemical substance) at a certain temperature. Reasons for this may be that a chemical reaction only has the desired outcome, if the temperature is kept within (very) tight bounds. This is the case for example in wafer production processes, but many more industrial applications exist. They considerably vary with respect to the quality and the amount of the liquids used, resulting in a broad range of di erent process characteristics. This variety makes it very di cult and costly to design a controller that shows good control characteristics in every application situation. Reinforcement learning seems to be a promising approach to overcome this problem by learning to adapt the control law to varying scenarios. A. System description The following hardware structure is a common apparatus for liquid temperature control with a very broad application range ( gure 1): There is a heating device which is used to directly heat a liquid within a smaller internal tank (about 1 liter). This liquid is then pumped through a tube which is going through a larger external tank, thereby emitting energy and thus heating the liquid in the external tank (typically 10 60 liters). The temperature of the liquid in the external tank thus can be controlled by rst heating the internal liquid. The Theat T ext Pump T int Power Fig. 1. Typical hardware structure to control the liquid temperature in the external tank (right) temperature of the external liquid now depends on many parameters: the quality of the internal and the external liquid, the amount of internal liquid that is pumped through the tube per minute, the size of the interval and the external tank, the environment temperature, external disturbances, the quality of the tube, and so on.