Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of techniques for learning and using mathematics and a study of their relationship to logical principles

Various techniques exist for learning mathematical concepts, like experimentation and exploration, respectively using mathematics, like modelling and simulation. For a clear application of such techniques in mathematics education, there should be a clear distinction between these techniques. A recently developed theory of fuzzy concepts can be applied to analyse the four mentioned concepts. For all four techniques one can pose the question of their relationship to deduction, induction and abduction as logical principles. An empirical study was conducted with 12-13 aged students, aiming at checking the three reasoning processes.
Experiments with Document and Query Representations for a Terabyte of Text

As part of the TREC 2006 Terabyte track, we conducted a range of experiments investigating the effects of larger test collections for both Adhoc and known-item topics. First, we looked at the amount of smoothing required for large-scale collections, and found that the largescale collections require little smoothing. Second, we investigated the relative effectiveness of various web-centric document representations based on document-text, incoming anchor-texts, and page titles. We found that these are of little value for the Adhoc task, but can provide crucial additional retrieval cues for the Named page finding task. Third, we studied the relative effectiveness of various query representations, both short and verbose statements of the topic of request, plus an intermediate query based on the most characteristic terms in the whole topic statement. We we found that using a more verbose query leads to an improvement of retrieval effectiveness.
Pollinators visit related plant species across 29 plant–pollinator networks

Understanding the evolution of specialization in host plant use by pollinators is often complicated by variability in the ecological context of specialization. Flowering communities offer their pollinators varying numbers and proportions of floral resources, and the uniformity observed in these floral resources is, to some degree, due to shared ancestry. Here, we find that pollinators visit related plant species more so than expected by chance throughout 29 plant–pollinator networks of varying sizes, with “clade specialization” increasing with community size. As predicted, less versatile pollinators showed more clade specialization overall. We then asked whether this clade specialization varied with the ratio of pollinator species to plant species such that pollinators were changing their behavior when there was increased competition (and presumably a forced narrowing of the realized niche) by examining pollinators that were present in at least three of the networks. Surprisingly, we found little evidence that variation in clade specialization is caused by pollinator species changing their behavior in different community contexts, suggesting that clade specialization is observed when pollinators are either restricted in their floral choices due to morphological constraints or innate preferences. The resulting pollinator sharing between closely related plant species could result in selection for greater pollinator specialization.
Displacement models for THUNDER actuators having general loads and boundary conditions

This paper summarizes techniques for quantifying the displacements generated in THUNDER actuators in response to applied voltages for a variety of boundary conditions and exogenous loads. The PDE models for the actuators are constructed in two steps. In the first, previously developed theory quantifying thermal and electrostatic strains is employed to model the actuator shapes which result from the manufacturing process and subsequent repoling. Newtonian principles are then employed to develop PDE models which quantify displacements in the actuator due to voltage inputs to the piezoceramic patch. For this analysis, drive levels are assumed to be moderate so that linear piezoelectric relations can be employed. Finite element methods for discretizing the models are developed and the performance of the discretized models are illustrated through comparison with experimental data.
The 2D Incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics Equations with only Magnetic Diffusion

This paper examines the global (in time) regularity of classical solutions to the two-dimensional (2D) incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations with only magnetic diffusion. Here the magnetic diffusion is given by the fractional Laplacian operator $(-\Delta)^\beta$. We establish the global regularity for the case when $\beta>1$. This result significantly improves previous work which requires $\beta>\frac{3}{2}$ and brings us closer to the resolution of the well-known global regularity problem on the 2D MHD equations with standard Laplacian magnetic diffusion, namely, the case when $\beta=1$.
Air and bone stimulation in vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in patients with unilateral Ménière’s disease and in controls

Abstract Objectives: To describe the vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) response to air-conducted sound (ACS) and bone-conducted vibration (BCV) in patients with unilateral definite Ménière's disease (MD), and the contribution to the usual ACS evaluation of the bone-air index (BAI) and interaural asymmetry ratio (IAR) in the diagnosis. Methods: A case–control study was designed. Fifty-one patients (25 men and 26 women) with an average age of 55 years, and 31 healthy volunteers with no history of vertigo and hearing loss, were included. The BAI was used as a new parameter to describe the amplitude of the response. Results: Only n10 latency ACS evoked was significantly longer than in controls. The ACS cVEMP p13-n23 amplitude of the affected ear of patients with MD was lower than in the non-affected ear (p = .023) and the control group (.001). The IAR was significantly higher in patients with MD both for the ACS and for the BCV cVEMP compared to the control group: p = . 004 and . 001, respectively. Significant differences were found in oVEMP n10-p16 amplitude between ACS and BCV in the patients with MD (p = .002). The BAI in oVEMP showed a significant increase in the affected ear compared to the control group (p = .001). The acoustic stimulus in cVEMP was the only one that showed significant differences in amplitude according to degree of hearing loss (p = .039). Conclusions: The joint use of an acoustic and vibratory stimulus is an interesting option to characterize the results in this group. The BAI provides useful complementary information, and also turns out to give added value to the traditional VEMP assessment by ACS. We recommend its use when Ménière's disease is suspected.
The Discrete Focal Stack Transform

This paper describes the Discrete Focal Stack Transform (DFST) that computes the focal stack (a collection of photographs focused at different depths) from a lightfield. It proposes a new discretization of the Photography operator based on the interpolation of the lightfield by means of 4D trigonometric polynomials and an approximation to the integration process. Our approach combines the Fourier decomposition of the Photography operator with a generalization of the discrete Radon transform and provides a fast and exact computation of the focal stack. We also generalize our formulation to compute the modified laplacian stack that can be used to solve the depth estimation problem. Finally we provide some computational results that show the validity of the approach.
Cross-Language Speech Perception : Initial Capabilities and Developmental Change

This article reports three studies designed to increase our understanding of developmental changes in cross-language speech perception. In the first study, we compared adult speakers of English and Hindi on their ability to discriminate pairings from a synthetic voiced, unaspirated place-of-articulation continuum. Results indicated that English listeners discriminate two categories (ba vs. ~ta), whereas Hindi listeners discriminate three (ba vs. da, and da vs.Da). We then used stimuli from within this continuum in the next two experiments to determine (a) if our previously reported finding (Werker & Tees, 1984a) of a reorganization between 6 and 12 months of life from "universal" to "language-specific" phonetic perception would be evident using synthetic (rather than natural) stimuli in which the physical variability within and between categories could be controlled, and (b) whether the younger infants' sensitivity to nonnative speech contrasts is best explained by reference to the phonetic relevance or the physical similarity of the stimuli. In addition to replicating the developmental reorganization, the results indicate that infant speech perception is phonetically relevant. We discuss the implications of these results.
Cyanuric acid hydrolase: evolutionary innovation by structural concatenation

The cyanuric acid hydrolase, AtzD, is the founding member of a newly identified family of ring‐opening amidases. We report the first X‐ray structure for this family, which is a novel fold (termed the ‘Toblerone’ fold) that likely evolved via the concatenation of monomers of the trimeric YjgF superfamily and the acquisition of a metal binding site. Structures of AtzD with bound substrate (cyanuric acid) and inhibitors (phosphate, barbituric acid and melamine), along with mutagenesis studies, allowed the identification of the active site. The AtzD monomer, active site and substrate all possess threefold rotational symmetry, to the extent that the active site possesses three potential Ser–Lys catalytic dyads. A single catalytic dyad (Ser85–Lys42) is hypothesized, based on biochemical evidence and crystallographic data. A plausible catalytic mechanism based on these observations is also presented. A comparison with a homology model of the related barbiturase, Bar, was used to infer the active‐site residues responsible for substrate specificity, and the phylogeny of the 68 AtzD‐like enzymes in the database were analysed in light of this structure–function relationship.
Paying for permanence: Public preferences for contaminated site cleanup

We use conjoint choice questions to investigate the preferences of people in four cities in Italy for income and future/permanent mortality risk reductions delivered by contaminated site remediation policies. The VSL is €5.6 million for an immediate risk reduction. If the risk reduction takes place 20 years from now, the implied VSL is €1.26 million. Respondents’ implicit discount rate is 7%. The VSL depends on respondent characteristics, familiarity with contaminated sites, concern about the health effects of exposure to toxicants, having a family member with cancer, perceived usefulness of public programs and beliefs about the goals of government remediation programs.
Online Low-Rank Subspace Clustering by Basis Dictionary Pursuit

Low-Rank Representation (LRR) has been a significant method for segmenting data that are generated from a union of subspaces. It is also known that solving LRR is challenging in terms of time complexity and memory footprint, in that the size of the nuclear norm regularized matrix is n-by-n (where n is the number of samples). In this paper, we thereby develop a novel online implementation of LRR that reduces the memory cost from O(n2) to O(pd), with p being the ambient dimension and d being some estimated rank (d ≤ p ≪ n). We also establish the theoretical guarantee that the sequence of solutions produced by our algorithm converges to a stationary point of the expected loss function asymptotically. Extensive experiments on synthetic and realistic datasets further substantiate that our algorithm is fast, robust and memory efficient.
Distributed Compression in Sensor Networks using Linear Channel Codes

In this paper, we address the problem of distributed compression in sensor networks. We first propose a distributed compression technique for camera sensor networks, where independent wireless devices are used to acquire and transmit images of a certain scene from different viewing positions. Our approach uses some geometrical information in order to estimate the correlation in the visual data. This correlation, which is related to the structure of the plenoptic function, can then be used to reduce the overall transmission rate from the sensors to a common central receiver. Our approach allows for a flexible allocation of the bit-rates amongst the encoders and can be made resilient to a fixed number of occlusions. Finally, we show that our distributed coding approach can be extended to general binary sources. The technique we propose uses linear channel codes and can achieve any point of the Slepian-Wolf achievable rate region.
Learning by Doing with Constrained Growth Rates: An Application to Energy Technology Policy

Learning by doing methodology attributes cost reductions of a technology to cumulative investment and experience. This paper argues that in addition market growth rates must also be considered. Historically growth rates have been limited in most sectors, thus allowing for feedback in the learning process. When market growth is below the ‘optimal’ rate, the marginal value of additional investment could be a multiple of the direct learning benefit. Analytic and numeric models quantify this impact - emphasizing the need for tailored technology policy in addition to carbon pricing. Implications for the modeling of endogenous technological change are discussed. Isoard, S. and A. Soria (1997). “Learning curves and returns to scale dynamics: Evidence from the emerging renewable energy technologies. ” IPTS Working Paper Series 97/05.
Model Checking Programmable Router Configurations with Spin

In this paper we describe the use of model checking techniques in the application area of programmable networks. Programmable networks offer the ability to customize router behaviour at run time, thus increasing flexibility of network administration. Programmable network routers are configured using domain-specific languages. The ability to evolve router programs dynamically creates potential for misconfigurations. By exploiting domain-specific abstractions, we are able to translate router configurations into Promela and validate them using the Spin model checker, thus providing reasoning support for our domain-specific language. To evaluate our approach we use our configuration language to express the IETF’s Differentiated Services specification and show that industrial-sized DiffServ router configurations can be validated using Spin on a standard PC.
Intentional memory and online data collection: A test of the effects of animacy and threat on episodic memory

ABSTRACT As research in the behavioural sciences increasingly relies on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for recruiting participants, it is an empirical question whether an intentional memory experiment could be conducted online and whether performance of MTurk participants and college students would be comparable. College students and MTurk participants viewed threatening and nonthreatening items that were animate or inanimate and completed a recall test. Recent research indicates that human memory systems evolved to prioritise survival-relevant information, including animacy of items. The results of both studies indicated that participants recalled more animate than inanimate items and recalled more threatening items than nonthreatening items. The results indicate that it is possible to conduct memory experiments online and that results match patterns found in laboratory studies of the animacy effect (Nairne, VanArsdall, Pandeirada, Cogdill, & LeBreton, 2013), but that researchers should include safeguards to ensure the online participants are attending to and following directions.
Performance of cooperative amplify-and-forward protocols in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Cooperative diversity is a technique where the diversity associated with spatially distributed users is exploited to overcome violent fading in wireless channels. In vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems, where fading is severe due to mobility of both transmitters and receivers, cooperative diversity is an acceptable technique to enhance the performance of high-rate communications. In this paper, we investigate a single-relay half-duplex system and deal with the performance of three time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) amplify-and-forward protocols over double-Rayleigh fading channels. In a mobile-to-mobile (M2M) communication system, the communication channel is often modeled as a cascaded Rayleigh fading channel. We determine pairwise error probability (PEP) for the studied protocols, then we investigate optimal power allocation for these cooperative protocols, where the optimality is determined in terms of minimizing the bit error rate (BER) of the system. Based on the relay position and modulation type, optimization of power allocated to source and relay results performance improvement up to 3dB for Protocols I and II, and up to 7dB for Protocol III.
A Unique Approach of Noise Elimination from Electroencephalography Signals between Normal and Meditation State

In this paper, unique approach is presented for the electroencephalography (EEG) signals analysis. This is based on Eigen values distribution of a matrix which is called as scaled Hankel matrix. This gives us a way to find out the number of Eigen values essential for noise reduction and extraction of signal in singular spectrum analysis. This paper gives us an approach to classify the EEG signals between normal condition (Controlled) and meditation condition, the extraction of various patterns, the EEG signal filtering and the noise removal from the signals. Different parameters are used as features for classification during subject’s normal EEG segments and at the time of practicing Meditation. The results showed positive approach for noise removal in both EEG signals.
Towards Using Web-Crawled Data for Domain Adaptation in Statistical Machine Translation

This paper reports on the ongoing work focused on domain adaptation of statistical machine translation using domain-specific data obtained by domain-focused web crawling. We present a strategy for crawling monolingual and parallel data and their exploitation for testing, language modelling, and system tuning in a phrase-based machine translation framework. The proposed approach is evaluated on the domains of Natural Environment and Labour Legislation and two language pairs: English‐French and English‐Greek.
Monitoring the Twitter sentiment during the Bulgarian elections

We present a generic approach to real-time monitoring of the Twitter sentiment and show its application to the Bulgarian parliamentary elections in May 2013. Our approach is based on building high quality sentiment classification models from manually annotated tweets. In particular, we have developed a user-friendly annotation platform, a feature selection procedure based on maximizing prediction accuracy, and a binary SVM classifier extended with a neutral zone. We have also considerably improved the language detection in tweets. The evaluation results show that before and after the Bulgarian elections, negative sentiment about political parties prevailed. Both, the volume and the difference between the negative and positive tweets for individual parties closely match the election results. The later result is somehow surprising, but consistent with the prevailing negative sentiment during the elections.
AdS Boundary Conditions and the Topologically Massive Gravity∕CFT Correspondence

The AdS/CFT correspondence provides a new perspective on recurrent questions in General Relativity such as the allowed boundary conditions at infinity and the definition of gravitational conserved charges. Here we review the main insights obtained in this direction over the last decade and apply the new techniques to Topologically Massive Gravity. We show that this theory is dual to a non‐unitary CFT for any value of its parameter μ and becomes a Logarithmic CFT at μ = 1.
Molecular Subtyping of Pancreatic Cancer: Translating Genomics and Transcriptomics into the Clinic

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal malignancies, and insights into both personalized diagnosis and intervention of this disease are urgently needed. The rapid development of sequencing technologies has enabled the successive completion of a series of genetic and epigenetic sequencing studies of pancreatic cancer. The mutational landscape of pancreatic cancer is generally portrayed in terms of somatic mutations, structural variations, epigenetic alterations and the core signaling pathways. In recent years, four significant molecular subtype classifications of pancreatic cancer have been proposed based on the expression of transcription factors and downstream targets or the distribution of structural rearrangements. Increasing researches focus on the identification of somatic mutations and other genetic aberrations that drive pancreatic cancer has led to a new era of precision medicine based on molecular subtyping. However, few known molecular classifications are used to guide clinical strategies. Specific scientific, regulatory and ethical challenges must be overcome before genomic and transcriptomic discoveries can be translated into the clinic.
A transformation strategy for multi-device menus and toolbars

The increasing variety of different devices with different screen size, interaction paradigms and application areas raises the need for new technologies of cross-device development. Automatic transformation of user interfaces between devices of different screen size and interaction devices can increase the speed of multi-device software development and decrease the costs for testing and maintenance while providing inter- and intra-device consistency. Therefore transformation strategies have to be developed and evaluated. In this article we introduce a classification scheme for such transformation strategies. An example transformation strategy for menus and toolbars supporting the migration between desktop PCs an palm-sized devices has been developed and evaluated.
High Voltage Dc Transmission 2

1.0 Introduction Interconnecting HVDC within an AC system requires conversion from AC to DC and inversion from DC to AC. We refer to the circuits which provide conversion from AC to DC as rectifiers and the circuits which provide conversion from DC to AC as inverters. The term converter is used to generically refer to both rectifiers and inverters. Converter technologies are based on use of switching devices collectively referred to in the HVDC community as valves. Valves may be non-controlled or controlled. A non-controlled valve behaves as a diode, appearing as  a closed switch when forward-biased (voltage is positive), resulting in the device being " on " ;  an open switch when reverse-biased (voltage is negative), resulting in the device being " off. " A controlled valve has a similar characteristic except it requires a gate pulse to turn on, i.e., it appears as  a closed switch when forward-biased (voltage is positive) AND the gate is pulsed, resulting in the device being " on "  an open switch when reverse-biased (voltage is negative), resulting in the device being " off. "