Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Riddle Generation using Word Associations

In knowledge bases where concepts have associated properties, there is a large amount of comparative information that is implicitly encoded in the values of the properties these concepts share. Although there have been previous approaches to generating riddles, none of them seem to take advantage of structured information stored in knowledge bases such as Thesaurus Rex, which organizes concepts according to the fine grained ad-hoc categories they are placed into by speakers in everyday language, along with associated properties or modifiers. Taking advantage of these shared properties, we have developed a riddle generator that creates riddles about concepts represented as common nouns. The base of these riddles are comparisons between the target concept and other entities that share some of its properties. In this paper, we describe the process we have followed to generate the riddles starting from the target concept and we show the results of the first evaluation we have carried out to test the quality of the resulting riddles.
Byzantine Agreement with Faulty Majority using Bounded Broadcast

Byzantine Agreement introduced in [Pease, Shostak, Lamport, 80] is a widely used building block of reliable distributed protocols. It simulates broadcast despite the presence of faulty parties within the network, traditionally using only private unicast links. Under such conditions, Byzantine Agreement requires more than 2/3 of the parties to be compliant. [Fitzi, Maurer, 00], constructed a Byzantine Agreement protocol for any compliant majority based on an additional primitive allowing transmission to any two parties simultaneously. They proposed a problem of generalizing these results to wider channels and fewer compliant parties. We prove that 2f < kh condition is necessary and sufficient for implementing broadcast with h compliant and f faulty parties using k-cast channels.
Irreducible Frequent Patterns in Transactional Databases

Irreducible frequent patters (IFPs) are introduced for transactional databases. An IFP is such a frequent pattern (FP),(x1,x2,.xn), the probability of which, P(x1,x2,.xn), cannot be represented as a product of the probabilities of two (or more) other FPs of the smaller lengths. We have developed an algorithm for searching IFPs in transactional databases. We argue that IFPs represent useful tools for characterizing the transactional databases and may have important applications to bio-systems including the immune systems and for improving vaccination strategies. The effectiveness of the IFPs approach has been illustrated in application to a classification problem.
Spectra of large block matrices

In a frequency selective slow-fading channel in a MIMO system, the channel matrix is of the form of a block matrix. This paper proposes a method to calculate the limit of the eigenvalue distribution of block matrices if the size of the blocks tends to infinity. While it considers random matrices, it takes an operator-valued free probability approach to achieve this goal. Using this method, one derives a system of equations, which can be solved numerically to compute the desired eigenvalue distribution. The paper initially tackles the problem for square block matrices, then extends the solution to rectangular block matrices. Finally, it deals with Wishart type block matrices. For two special cases, the results of our approach are compared with results from simulations. The first scenario investigates the limit eigenvalue distribution of block Toeplitz matrices. The second scenario deals with the distribution of Wishart type block matrices for a frequency selective slow-fading channel in a MIMO system for two different cases of $n_R=n_T$ and $n_R=2n_T$. Using this method, one may calculate the capacity and the Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise Ratio in large MIMO systems.
Stability Analysis for Regularized Least Squares Regression

We discuss stability for a class of learning algorithms with respect to noisy labels. The algorithms we consider are for regression, and they involve the minimization of regularized risk functionals, such as L(f) := 1/N sum_i (f(x_i)-y_i)^2+ lambda ||f||_H^2. We shall call the algorithm `stable' if, when y_i is a noisy version of f*(x_i) for some function f* in H, the output of the algorithm converges to f* as the regularization term and noise simultaneously vanish. We consider two flavors of this problem, one where a data set of N points remains fixed, and the other where N -> infinity. For the case where N -> infinity, we give conditions for convergence to f_E (the function which is the expectation of y(x) for each x), as lambda -> 0. For the fixed N case, we describe the limiting 'non-noisy', 'non-regularized' function f*, and give conditions for convergence. In the process, we develop a set of tools for dealing with functionals such as L(f), which are applicable to many other problems in learning theory.
Indefeasible Semantics and Defeasible Pragmatics

An account of utterance interpretation in discourse needs to face the issue of how the discourse context controls the space of interacting preferences. Assuming a discourse processing architecture that distinguishes the grammar and pragmatics subsystems in terms of monotonic and nonmonotonic inferences, I will discuss how independently motivated default preferences interact in the interpretation of intersentential pronominal anaphora. In the framework of a general discourse processing model that integrates both the grammar and pragmatics subsystems, I will propose a fine structure of the preferential interpretation in pragmatics in terms of defeasible rule interactions. The pronoun interpretation preferences that serve as the empirical ground draw from the survey data specifically obtained for the present purpose.
Discovery of linguistic relations using lexical attraction

This work has been motivated by two long term goals: to understand how humans learn language and to build programs that can understand language. Using a representation that makes the relevant features explicit is a prerequisite for successful learning and understanding. Therefore, I chose to represent relations between individual words explicitly in my model. Lexical attraction is defined as the likelihood of such relations. I introduce a new class of probabilistic language models named lexical attraction models which can represent long distance relations between words and I formalize this new class of models using information theory. Within the framework of lexical attraction, I developed an unsupervised language acquisition program that learns to identify linguistic relations in a given sentence. The only explicitly represented linguistic knowledge in the program is lexical attraction. There is no initial grammar or lexicon built in and the only input is raw text. Learning and processing are interdigitated. The processor uses the regularities detected by the learner to impose structure on the input. This structure enables the learner to detect higher level regularities. Using this bootstrapping procedure, the program was trained on 100 million words of Associated Press material and was able to achieve 60% precision and 50% recall in finding relations between content-words. Using knowledge of lexical attraction, the program can identify the correct relations in syntactically ambiguous sentences such as "I saw the Statue of Liberty flying over New York. " (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
logic programs into

In the context of the Semantic Web, several approaches to the combination of ontologies, given in terms of theories of classical ﬁrst-order logic and rule bases, have been proposed. They either cast rules into classical logic or limit the interaction between rules and ontologies. Autoepistemic logic (AEL) is an attractive formalism which allows to overcome these limitations, by serving as a uniform host language to embed ontologies and nonmonotonic logic programs into it. For the latter, so far only the propositional setting has been considered. In this paper, we present three embeddings of normal and three embeddings of disjunctive non-ground logic programs under the stable model semantics into ﬁrst-order AEL. While all embeddings correspond with respect to objective ground atoms, diﬀerences arise when considering non-atomic formulas and combinations with ﬁrst-order theories. We compare the embeddings with respect to stable expansions and autoepistemic consequences, considering the embeddings by themselves, as well as combinations with classical theories. Our results reveal diﬀerences and correspondences of the embeddings and provide useful guidance in the choice of a particular embedding for knowledge combination.
The workshop on internet topology (wit) report

Internet topology analysis has recently experienced a surge of interest in computer science, physics, and the mathematical sciences. However, researchers from these different disciplines tend to approach the same problem from different angles. As a result, the field of Internet topology analysis and modeling must untangle sets of inconsistent findings, conflicting claims, and contradicting statements.On May 10-12, 2006, CAIDA hosted the Workshop on Internet topology (WIT). By bringing together a group of researchers spanning the areas of computer science, physics, and the mathematical sciences, the workshop aimed to improve communication across these scientific disciplines, enable interdisciplinary cross-fertilization, identify commonalities in the different approaches, promote synergy where it exists, and utilize the richness that results from exploring similar problems from multiple perspectives.This report describes the findings of the workshop, outlines a set of relevant open research problems identified by participants, and concludes with recommendations that can benefit all scientific communities interested in Internet topology research.
Monkeys in the Middle: Parasite Transmission through the Social Network of a Wild Primate

In wildlife populations, group-living is thought to increase the probability of parasite transmission because contact rates increase at high host densities. Physical contact, such as social grooming, is an important component of group structure, but it can also increase the risk of exposure to infection for individuals because it provides a mechanism for transmission of potentially pathogenic organisms. Living in groups can also create variation in susceptibility to infection among individuals because circulating levels of immunosuppressive hormones like glucocorticoids often depend on an individual’s position within the group’s social structure. Yet, little is known about the relative roles of socially mediated exposure versus susceptibility in parasite transmission among free-living animal groups. To address this issue, we investigate the relationship between host dominance hierarchy and nematode parasite transmission among females in a wild group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata yakui). We use social network analysis to describe each individual female’s position within the grooming network in relation to dominance rank and relative levels of infection. Our results suggest that the number of directly-transmitted parasite species infecting each female, and the relative amount of transmission stages that one of these species sheds in faeces, both increase with dominance rank. Female centrality within the network, which shows positive associations with dominance hierarchy, is also positively associated with infection by certain parasite species, suggesting that the measured rank-bias in transmission may reflect variation in exposure rather than susceptibility. This is supported by the lack of a clear relationship between rank and faecal cortisol, as an indicator of stress, in a subset of these females. Thus, socially mediated exposure appears to be important for direct transmission of nematode parasites, lending support to the idea that a classical fitness trade-off inherent to living in groups can exist.
Preferential Orthopyroxene Serpentinization and Implications for Seismic Velocity Interpretation in the Fore‐Arc Mantle

For better interpretation of seismic tomography data of the hydrated fore‐arc mantle, we examined conditions of nonstoichiometric hydration of peridotite reported by a previous experimental study (i.e., preferential orthopyroxene (Opx) serpentinization and resultant talc formation) at 500–580 °C and under 0.8–1.8 GPa. The corresponding seismic velocity was calculated by considering the talc production. Talc formed under all the experimental conditions even in the olivine‐dominated system, in which the olivine to Opx ratio was 7:3 by weight. The amount of talc produced was comparable to that of serpentine at high temperature and low pressure and increased with increasing temperature and decreasing pressure due to decreasing contribution of olivine in the reaction. We also present a natural case of preferential Opx reaction in the Horoman peridotite complex, Japan, on the basis of its strong similarity in textures and mineral phases to our experimental products obtained at 0.8–1.3 GPa. Calculations on seismic velocities of hydrated harzburgite using the Voigt‐Reuss‐Hill averaging scheme showed that the formation of talc along with antigorite leads to a decrease in P wave (Vp) and S wave velocities (Vs) but no remarkable increase in Vp/Vs due to the lower Vp/Vs value of talc (~1.60) compared with that of antigorite (~1.77). Such a seismic anomaly has been observed in the shallow mantle wedge of the southern Western Alps subduction zone, where suppressed water supply from the subducted continental lithosphere might allow the persistence of talc produced by the preferential Opx reaction.
Secure Broadcasting

Wyner's wiretap channel is extended to parallel broadcast channels and fading channels with multiple receivers. In the first part of the paper, we consider the setup of parallel broadcast channels with one sender, multiple intended receivers, and one eavesdropper. We study the situations where the sender broadcasts either a common message or independent messages to the intended receivers. We derive upper and lower bounds on the common-message-secrecy capacity, which coincide when the users are reversely degraded. For the case of independent messages we establish the secrecy sum-capacity when the users are reversely degraded. In the second part of the paper we apply our results to fading channels: perfect channel state information of all intended receivers is known globally, whereas the eavesdropper channel is known only to her. For the common message case, a somewhat surprising result is proven: a positive rate can be achieved independently of the number of intended receivers. For independent messages, an opportunistic transmission scheme is presented that achieves the secrecy sum-capacity in the limit of large number of receivers. Our results are stated for a fast fading channel model. Extensions to the block fading model are also discussed.
Effectiveness of Air Filters in Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Previous studies have evaluated the effectiveness of air filters in mitigating the symptoms of allergic rhinitis (AR). However, these studies have yielded inconsistent results. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effectiveness of air filters for patients with AR. For this, we comprehensively searched the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases to identify relevant articles. The results are presented in terms of standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) values with the fixed-effects model (FEM) and random-effects model (REM). Eight randomized controlled trials were included in our meta-analysis. Of these, three had a parallel design and five had a crossover design. Regarding clinical outcomes, pooled analyses performed using patients’ nighttime and daytime symptom scores revealed SMD values of −0.21 (95% CI: −0.35 to −0.07 (FEM) and −0.35 to −0.08 (REM)) and −0.16 (95% CI: −0.30 to −0.03 (both FEM and REM)), respectively. However, no significant changes were noted in the SMD values when assessing medication use, quality of life (QoL), or peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR). In conclusion, air filters may help alleviate symptoms associated with AR; however, their effects on medication use, QoL, and PEFR appear to be limited. This systemic review and meta-analysis is registered with CRD42022380560.
On the hardness of distinguishing mixed-state quantum computations

This paper considers the following problem. Two mixed-state quantum circuits Q/sub 0/ and Q/sub 1/ are given, and the goal is to determine which of two possibilities holds: (i) Q/sub 0/ and Q/sub 1/ act nearly identically on all possible quantum state inputs, or (ii) there exists some input state /spl rho/ that Q/sub 0/ and Q/sub 1/ transform into almost perfectly distinguishable outputs. This may be viewed as an abstraction of the problem that asks, given two discrete quantum mechanical processes described by sequences of local interactions, are the processes effectively the same or are they different? We prove that this promise problem is complete for the class QIP of problems having quantum interactive proof systems, and is therefore PSPACE-hard. This is in contrast to the fact that the analogous problem for classical (probabilistic) circuits is in AM, and for unitary quantum circuits is in QMA.
Coding Theory and Uniform Distributions

In the present paper we introduce and study finite point subsets of a special kind, called optimum distributions, in the n-dimensional unit cube. Such distributions are closely related with known (delta,s,n)-nets of low discrepancy. It turns out that optimum distributions have a rich combinatorial structure. Namely, we show that optimum distributions can be characterized completely as maximum distance separable codes with respect to a non-Hamming metric. Weight spectra of such codes can be evaluated precisely. We also consider linear codes and distributions and study their general properties including the duality with respect to a suitable inner product. The corresponding generalized MacWilliams identities for weight enumerators are briefly discussed. Broad classes of linear maximum distance separable codes and linear optimum distributions are explicitely constructed in the paper by the Hermite interpolations over finite fields.
Design patterns for functional strategic programming

We believe that design patterns can be an effective means of consolidating and communicating program construction expertise for functional programming, just as they have proven to be in object-oriented programming. The emergence of combinator libraries that develop a specific domain or programming idiom has intensified, rather than reduced, the need for design patterns.In previous work, we introduced the fundamentals and a supporting combinator library for functional strategic programming. This is an idiom for (general purpose) generic programming based on the notion of a functional strategy: a first-class generic function that can not only be applied to terms of any type, but which also allows generic traversal into subterms and can be customised with type-specific behaviour.This paper seeks to provide practising functional programmers with pragmatic guidance in crafting their own generic programs using functional strategies. To this end, we propose a novel description format for functional design patterns, and we initiate a catalogue of strategy design patterns. These design patterns aim at consolidating strategic programming expertise in accessible form.
On Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Cross-Layer Design: Joint Power Control and Routing for Ad Hoc Networks

A hierarchical cross-layer design approach is proposed to increase energy efficiency in ad hoc networks through joint adaptation of nodes' transmitting powers and route selection. The design maintains the advantages of the classic OSI model, while accounting for the cross-coupling between layers, through information sharing. The proposed joint power control and routing algorithm is shown to increase significantly the overall energy efficiency of the network, at the expense of a moderate increase in complexity. Performance enhancement of the joint design using multiuser detection is also investigated, and it is shown that the use of multiuser detection can increase the capacity of the ad hoc network significantly for a given level of energy consumption.
Performance of Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio in Presence of Impulsive Interference

We analyze the performance of coherent impulsive-radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) channel in presence of the interference generated by concurrent transmissions of the systems with the same impulsive radio. We derive a novel algorithm, using Monte-Carlo method, to calculate a lower bound on the rate that can be achieved using maximum-likelihood estimator. Using this bound we show that such a channel is very robust to interference, in contrast to the nearest-neighbor detector.
Big Earth data: disruptive changes in Earth observation data management and analysis?

ABSTRACT Turning Earth observation (EO) data consistently and systematically into valuable global information layers is an ongoing challenge for the EO community. Recently, the term ‘big Earth data’ emerged to describe massive EO datasets that confronts analysts and their traditional workflows with a range of challenges. We argue that the altered circumstances must be actively intercepted by an evolution of EO to revolutionise their application in various domains. The disruptive element is that analysts and end-users increasingly rely on Web-based workflows. In this contribution we study selected systems and portals, put them in the context of challenges and opportunities and highlight selected shortcomings and possible future developments that we consider relevant for the imminent uptake of big Earth data.
Interactive GigaVoxels

: We propose a new approach for the interactive rendering of large highly detailed scenes. It is based on a new representation and algorithm for large and detailed volume data, especially well suited to cases where detail is concentrated at the interface between free space and clusters of density. This is for instance the case with cloudy sky, landscape, as well as data currently represented as hypertextures or volumetric textures. Existing approaches do not efﬁciently store, manage and render such data, especially at high resolution and over large extents. Our method is based on a dynamic generalized octree with MIP-mapped 3D texture bricks in its leaves. Data is stored only for visible regions at the current viewpoint, at the appropriate resolution. Since our target scenes contain many sparse opaque clusters, this maintains low memory and bandwidth consumption during exploration. Ray-marching allows to quickly stops when reaching opaque regions. Also, we efﬁciently skip areas of constant density. A key originality of our algorithm is that it directly relies on the ray-marcher to detect missing data. The march along every ray in every pixel