Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decentralized control for maintenance of strong connectivity for directed graphs

In order to accomplish cooperative tasks, decentralized systems are required to communicate among each other. Thus, maintaining the connectivity of the communication graph is a fundamental issue. Connectivity maintenance has been extensively studied in the last few years, but generally considering undirected communication graphs. In this paper we introduce a decentralized control and estimation strategy to maintain the strong connectivity property of directed communication graphs. The control strategy is initially developed for balanced digraphs, and is then extended to generic strongly connected digraphs, introducing a decentralized balancing algorithm. The control strategy is validated by means of analytical proofs and simulation results.
Considerations for Subgroups and Phenocopies in Complex Disease Genetics

The number of identified genetic variants associated to complex disease cannot fully explain heritability. This may be partially due to more complicated patterns of predisposition than previously suspected. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) may consist of multiple disease causing mechanisms, each comprised of several elements. We describe how the effect of subgroups can be calculated using the standard association measurement odds ratio, which is then manipulated to provide a formula for the true underlying association present within the subgroup. This is sensitive to the initial minor allele frequencies present in both cases and the subgroup of patients. The methodology is then extended to the χ2 statistic, for two related scenarios. First, to determine the true χ2 when phenocopies or disease subtypes reduce association and are reclassified as controls when calculating statistics. Here, the χ2 is given by, or for equal numbers of cases and controls. Second, when subgroups corresponding to heterogeneity mask the true effect size, but no reclassification is made. Here, the proportion increase in total sample size required to attain the same χ2 statistic as the subgroup is given as , and a python script to calculate and plot this value is provided at kirc.se. Practical examples show how in a study of modest size (1000 cases and 1000 controls), a non-significant SNP may exceed genome-wide significance when corresponding to a subgroup of 20% of cases, and may occur in heterozygous form in all cases. This methodology may explain the modest association found in diseases such as MS wherein heterogeneity confounds straightforward measurement of association.
GPU optimized computation of the artificial compressibility method

The paper introduces an optimized GPU based implementation of the artificial compressibility method, which is used to solve the incompressible Navier-Stoked equations. A finite difference approach has been chosen for the numerical solution of the continuity and momentum equations. The simulations have been performed on a two dimensional backward facing step problem discretized on a Marker and Cell grid, which is used in order to improve the stability of the solution. The computationally intensive parts of the algorithm are performed on the GPU, i.e. the computation of the velocities and of the pressure values at the grid nodes. Due to the lack of communication between the blocks of the GPU grid, the computations have been included in two separate kernels, and the outer loop which iterates through the time steps, has been kept on the CPU. Several optimization strategies have been applied for the two kernels and have lead to an incremental increase in performance. The opposite nature of the two kernels has lead to different optimum versions. The final versions of the kernels have been then used to perform a comparison between the CPU and the GPU version of the algorithms on three different grained grids. The results indicate a speed-up which varies from just under one order of magnitude for the coarsest grid up to two orders of magnitude for the finest grid.
Social instability stress differentially affects amygdalar neuron adaptations and memory performance in adolescent and adult rats

Adolescence is a time of developmental changes and reorganization in the brain. It has been hypothesized that stress has a greater neurological impact on adolescents than on adults. However, scientific evidence in support of this hypothesis is still limited. We treated adolescent (4-week-old) and adult (8-week-old) rats with social instability stress for 5 weeks and compared the subsequent structural and functional changes to amygdala neurons. In the stress-free control condition, the adolescent group showed higher fear-potentiated startle responses, larger dendritic arborization, more proximal dendritic spine distribution and lower levels of truncated TrkB than the adult rats. Social instability stress exerted opposite effects on fear-potentiated startle responses in these two groups, i.e., the stress period appeared to hamper the performance in adolescents but improved it in adult rats. Furthermore, whilst the chronic social stress applied to adolescent rats reduced their dendritic field and spine density in basal and lateral amygdala neurons, the opposite stress effects on neuron morphology were observed in the adult rats. Moreover, stress in adolescence suppressed the amygdala expression of synaptic proteins, i.e., full-length TrkB and SNAP-25, whereas, in the adult rats, chronic stress enhanced full-length and truncated TrkB expressions in the amygdala. In summary, chronic social instability stress hinders amygdala neuron development in the adolescent brain, while mature neurons in the amygdala are capable of adapting to the stress. The stress induced age-dependent effects on the fear-potentiated memory may occur by altering the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-TrkB signaling and neuroplasticity in the amygdala.
User-mode Linux

User-mode Linux [2](UML) is the port of the Linux kernel to Linux. It implements a Linux virtual machine running on a Linux host. Its hardware is virtual, being constructed from resources provided by the host. UML can run essentially any application that can run on the host. The design and implementation of UML has been previously described[1]. This paper will describe the work that has taken place during the last year, including changes to what was described in the previous paper. This paper will also discuss new applications of UML involving integration of the virtual and host environments, along with other possibilties such as using UML as a clustering platform.
Motor competence is associated with physical fitness in four- to six-year-old preschool children

The health benefits of a physical active lifestyle and physical fitness from a young age are widely recognized as beneficial. This study examined the relationship between physical fitness and motor competence in children aged four- to six-years-old. A sample of 42 children (mean age 5.15 years, SD 0.56 year) participated in the study. To assess motor competence, each child completed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC). Physical fitness was measured by the Test of Physical Fitness (TPF), comprising nine different tasks including running, jumping, throwing and climbing. The results show a strong and significant correlation between motor competence and physical fitness within the sample (r = −0.614). Preschooler’s engagement in physical active play may explain the strong correlation between the two variables, as this type of activity will give more opportunity to increase fitness and to gain experience and practice which influences the rate and direction of motor development. Young children should have access to activities and environments that promote an active lifestyle.
Non-uniform micro-channel design for stacked 3D-ICs

Micro-channel cooling shows great potential in removing high density heat in 3D circuits. The current micro-channel heat sink designs spread the entire surface to be cooled with micro-channels. This approach, though might provide sufficient cooling, requires quite high pumping power. In this paper, we investigate the non-uniform allocation of micro-channels to provide sufficient cooling with less pumping power. Specifically, we decide the count, location and pumping pressure drop/flow rate of micro-channels such that acceptable cooling is achieved at minimum pumping power. Thermal wake effect and runtime pressure drop/flow rate control are also considered. The experiments showed that, compared with the conventional design which spreads micro-channels all over the chip, our non-uniform micro-channel design achieves 55–60% pumping power saving.
A Comparison between Poor and Rich People

This article reports two studies in which the relationship between income, income-satisfaction and life satisfaction in Germany and Russia was examined. In Study I, the effect of a major shift in income (either upward or downward) over a two year period on income-satisfaction and life satisfaction was investi­ gated. Compared to the reference group (Le., the average German or Russian), the upward group appeared to become somewhat more satisfied with their lives and income after two years, whereas the downward group became less satisfied to quite some extent. In Study II, it was examined whether there is a different relationship between income-satisfaction and life satisfaction for poor people and for rich people. It was found that in Germany there were slightly stronger top-down effects of life satisfaction on income-satisfaction than bottom-up effects of income­ satisfaction on life satisfaction for both poor and rich people, whereas in Russia strong bottom-up effects of income-satisfaction on life satisfaction were found for both groups. Results provide support for a combination of different theories, namely need, adaptation, loss aversion and personality theory.
Transnational electronic information corporations' location choice in China and its determinants based on GVC

Based on the global value chain (GVC) theory and the location theory of transnational corporations (TNCs), and using the database of TNCs listing in “2010 Fortune 500”, this paper conducts Random-effect panel Logit model to test empirically the main determinants of location choices conducted by affiliates of electronic information industry manufacturing fragment, R&D fragment and managing fragment within China's 30 provinces over the period 1994-2010. The research results clearly indicate that affiliates of internal industrial chain will consider similar factors when they conduct the location choice in China while the emphasis point has many differences. Market scale, market potential, human capital, port location distribution and institutional factors are the common location determinants, Wage level is the most different effects to these three value-added phases of location choice, and cheap labor force is an important factor for appealing electronic information multinational company manufacturing fragment, while towards other two links of location choice, it has non-significant effects.
Universality and short-wavelength approximations for chaotic wave scattering

We give an overview of wave scattering in open cavities in which the ray dynamics is chaotic. In the limit of short wavelengths certain properties emerge that are universal and do not depend on the details of the cavity. These universal features are described by random matrix theory. We discuss in particular results that characterize the transmission probabilities and transmission times of waves through the cavity. Short-wavelength approximations that use statistical properties of long rays are able to explain this universality.
Cognitive Dimensions of PrologSpace

We evaluate a new visual programming system PrologSpace. The system addresses classic issues of visual interfaces: layout, shape, colour, and iconography; and those of particular concern to visual programming: multiple views (visual abstractions), synchronised views, integration of visual and textual dimensions, visual debugging, cognitive dimensions, and the problems of scale. We describe the system and examine its cognitive dimensions. We conclude that PrologSpace has a set of cognitive dimensions that seems to enhance Prolog programming and that the system provides potential for teaching Prolog.
Knowledge, Action, and Context: A Process View on Knowledge Management

The relation between knowledge and action is discussed. It is shown that knowledge comprises two aspects, a dynamic one and an expectative one. The former refers to control of individual action, while the latter refers to expectation of success of possible action. Both views ground on success of action as point of reference. In this respect propositional knowledge does not differ from practical knowledge. This view is compared to the analytical characterization of knowledge as justified true belief. Consequences for knowledge management (KM) are discussed.
mRNP granules

Messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) granules are dynamic, self-assembling structures that harbor non-translating mRNAs bound by various proteins that regulate mRNA translation, localization, and turnover. Their importance in gene expression regulation is far reaching, ranging from precise spatial-temporal control of mRNAs that drive developmental programs in oocytes and embryos, to similarly exquisite control of mRNAs in neurons that underpin synaptic plasticity, and thus, memory formation. Analysis of mRNP granules in their various contexts has revealed common themes of assembly, disassembly, and modes of mRNA regulation, yet new studies continue to reveal unexpected and important findings, such as links between aberrant mRNP granule assembly and neurodegenerative disease. Continued study of these enigmatic structures thus promises fascinating new insights into cellular function, and may also suggest novel therapeutic strategies in various disease states.
Early Prosodic Acquisition in Bilingual Infants: The Case of the Perceptual Trochaic Bias

Infants start learning the prosodic properties of their native language before 12 months, as shown by the emergence of a trochaic bias in English-learning infants between 6 and 9 months (Jusczyk et al., 1993), and in German-learning infants between 4 and 6 months (Höhle et al., 2009, 2014), while French-learning infants do not show a bias at 6 months (Höhle et al., 2009). This language-specific emergence of a trochaic bias is supported by the fact that English and German are languages with trochaic predominance in their lexicons, while French is a language with phrase-final lengthening but lacking lexical stress. We explored the emergence of a trochaic bias in bilingual French/German infants, to study whether the developmental trajectory would be similar to monolingual infants and whether amount of relative exposure to the two languages has an impact on the emergence of the bias. Accordingly, we replicated Höhle et al. (2009) with 24 bilingual 6-month-olds learning French and German simultaneously. All infants had been exposed to both languages for 30 to 70% of the time from birth. Using the Head Preference Procedure, infants were presented with two lists of stimuli, one made up of several occurrences of the pseudoword /GAba/ with word-initial stress (trochaic pattern), the second one made up of several occurrences of the pseudoword /gaBA/ with word-final stress (iambic pattern). The stimuli were recorded by a native German female speaker. Results revealed that these French/German bilingual 6-month-olds have a trochaic bias (as evidenced by a preference to listen to the trochaic pattern). Hence, their listening preference is comparable to that of monolingual German-learning 6-month-olds, but differs from that of monolingual French-learning 6-month-olds who did not show any preference (Höhle et al., 2009). Moreover, the size of the trochaic bias in the bilingual infants was not correlated with their amount of exposure to German. The present results thus establish that the development of a trochaic bias in simultaneous bilinguals is not delayed compared to monolingual German-learning infants (Höhle et al., 2009) and is rather independent of the amount of exposure to German relative to French.
Mica: A Web-Search Tool for Finding API Components and Examples

Because software libraries are numerous and large, learning how to use them is a common and problematic task for experienced programmers and novices alike. Internet search engines such as Google have emerged as important resources to help programmers successfully use APIs. However, observations of programmers using Web search have revealed problems and inefficiencies in their use. We present a new prototype search tool called Mica that augments standard Web search results to help programmers find the right API classes and methods given a description of the desired functionality, and help programmers find examples when they already know which methods to use. Mica works by using the Google Web APIs to find relevant pages, and then analyzing the content of those pages to extract the most relevant programming terms and to classify the type of each result
Soft-decision list decoding of hermitian codes

This paper proposes the first complete soft-decision list decoding algorithm for Hermitian codes based on the Koetter-Vardy's Reed-Solomon code decoding algorithm. For Hermitian codes, interpolation processes trivariate polynomials which are defined over the pole basis of a Hermitian curve. In this paper, the interpolated zero condition of a trivariate polynomial with respect to a multiplicity matrix M is redefined followed by a proof of the validity of the soft-decision scheme. This paper also introduces a new stopping criterion for the algorithm that tranforms the reliability matrix Pi to the multiplicity matrix M. Geometric characterisation of the trivariate monomial decoding region is investigated, resulting in an asymptotic optimal performance bound for the soft-decision decoder. By defining the weighted degree upper bound of the interpolated polynomial, two complexity reducing modifications are introduced for the soft-decision scheme: elimination of unnecessary interpolated polynomials and pre-calculation of the coefficients that relate the pole basis monomials to the zero basis functions of a Hermitian curve. Our simulation results and analyses show that soft-decision list decoding of Hermitian code can outperform Koetter-Vardy decoding of Reed-Solomon code which is defined in a larger finite field, but with less decoding complexity.
POLITICAL COMMUNICATIVE AGENTS

This article presents an overview of literature concerning the interface between communication sciences and computer sciences. The author reports on how persuasion has been worked by artificial agents in political contexts. He introduces the hardwired and the softwired versions of persuasive features, then he presents the persuasive and nonpersuasive artificial agents, and he also describes how communication theories and theorists have been computationally modeled. A discussion of the linkage between political artifacts and artifact politics (specially to political videogames), as well as artificial persuasive agents involved in politics is included.
A pr 2 00 7 A brief review of abelian categorifications

This article contains a review of categorifications of semisimple representations of various rings via abelian categories and exact endofunctors on them. A simple definition of an abelian categorification is presented and illustrated with several examples, including categorifications of various representations of the symmetric group and its Hecke algebra via highest weight categories of modules over the Lie algebra sln. The review is intended to give non-experts in representation theory who are familiar with the topological aspects of categorification (lifting quantum link invariants to homology theories) an idea for the sort of categories that appear when link homology is extended to tangles. 1 A simple framework for categorification Categorification. The Grothendieck group K(B) of an abelian category B has as generators the symbols [M ], where M runs over all the objects of B, and defining relations [M2] = [M1] + [M3], whenever there is a short exact sequence 0 −→ M1 −→ M2 −→ M3 −→ 0. An exact functor F between abelian categories induces a homomorphism [F ] between their Grothendieck groups. Let A be a ring which is free as an abelian group, and a = {ai}i∈I a basis of A such that the multiplication has nonnegative integer coefficients in this basis:
On Developing a Technology Acceptance Model for Pervasive Computing

Since the majority of proposed pervasive computing applications rely heavily on infrastructure that is not yet widely available, understanding long-term usage and acceptance is of utmost importance for determining if a technology/application is worth the required investment. Yet performing such an evaluation is difficult before the necessary infrastructure is available. We propose developing a mathematical model to predict user acceptance over time of pervasive computing applications based on the user’s perception of usefulness, ease-of-use, social influence, trustworthiness and integration. This paper is a first step towards a predictive model of user acceptance in pervasive computing environments. We conclude the paper outlining the next steps to fully instantiate the model. Ultimately, the model can be used to direct research efforts and resources towards those applications most likely to be used by people.
QCRI $@$ DSL 2016: Spoken Arabic Dialect Identification Using Textual Features

The paper describes the QCRI submissions to the task of automatic Arabic dialect classification into 5 Arabic variants, namely Egyptian, Gulf, Levantine, North-African, and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The training data is relatively small and is automatically generated from an ASR system. To avoid over-fitting on such small data, we carefully selected and designed the features to capture the morphological essence of the different dialects. We submitted four runs to the Arabic sub-task. For all runs, we used a combined feature vector of character bi-grams, tri-grams, 4-grams, and 5-grams. We tried several machine-learning algorithms, namely Logistic Regression, Naive Bayes, Neural Networks, and Support Vector Machines (SVM) with linear and string kernels. However, our submitted runs used SVM with a linear kernel. In the closed submission, we got the best accuracy of 0.5136 and the third best weighted F1 score, with a difference less than 0.002 from the highest score.
Mercury‐associated DNA hypomethylation in polar bear brains via the LUminometric Methylation Assay: a sensitive method to study epigenetics in wildlife

In this paper we describe a novel approach that may shed light on the genomic DNA methylation of organisms with non‐resolved genomes. The LUminometric Methylation Assay (LUMA) is permissive for genomic DNA methylation studies of any genome as it relies on the use of methyl‐sensitive and ‐insensitive restriction enzymes followed by polymerase extension via Pyrosequencing technology. Here, LUMA was used to characterize genomic DNA methylation in the lower brain stem region from 47 polar bears subsistence hunted in central East Greenland between 1999 and 2001. In these samples, average genomic DNA methylation was 57.9% ± 6.69 (SD; range was 42.0 to 72.4%). When genomic DNA methylation was related to brain mercury (Hg) exposure levels, an inverse association was seen between these two variables for the entire study population (P for trend = 0.17). After dichotomizing animals by gender and controlling for age, a negative trend was seen amongst male animals (P for trend = 0.07) but no associations were found in female bears. Such sexually dimorphic responses have been found in other toxicological studies. Our results show that genomic DNA methylation can be quantitatively studied in a highly reproducible manner in tissue samples from a wild organism with a non‐resolved genome. As such, LUMA holds great promise as a novel method to explore consequential questions across the ecological sciences that may require an epigenetic understanding.