Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ju n 20 02 Spin Networks for Non-Compact Groups

Spin networks are a natural generalization of Wilson loop functionals. They have been extensively studied in the case where the gauge group is compact and it has been shown that they naturally form a basis of gauge invariant observables. Physically the restriction to compact gauge groups is enough for the study of Yang-mills theories, however it is well known that non-compact groups naturally arise as internal gauge groups for Lorentzian gravity models. In this context, a proper construction of gauge invariant observables is needed. The purpose of the present work is to define the notion of spin network states for non-compact groups. We first build, by a careful gauge fixing procedure, a natural measure and a Hilbert space structure on the space of gauge invariant graph connections. Spin networks are then defined as generalized eigenvectors of a complete set of hermitic commuting operators. We show how the delicate issue of taking the quotient of a space by non compact groups can be address in term of algebraic geometry. We finally construct the full Hilbert space containing all spin network states. Having in mind applications to gravity, we illustrate our results for the groups SL(2,R) and SL(2,C). ∗e.mail:freidel@ens-lyon.fr †UMR 5672 du CNRS ‡e.mail: livine@cpt.univ-mrs.fr §Unité propre 7061 du CNRS
Intelligent Control of Battery Energy Storage for Multi-Agent Based Microgrid Energy Management

Microgrids can be considered as controllable units from the utility point of view because the entities of microgrids such as distributed energy resources and controllable loads can effectively control the amount of power consumption or generation. Therefore, microgrids can make various contracts with utility companies such as demand response program or ancillary services. Another advantage of microgrids is to integrate renewable energy resources to low-voltage distribution networks. Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) can effectively compensate the intermittent output of renewable energy resources. This paper presents intelligent control schemes for BESSs and autonomous energy management schemes of microgrids based on the concept of multi-agent systems. The proposed control scheme consists of two layers of decision-making procedures. In the bottom layer, intelligent agents decide the optimal operation strategies of individual microgrid entities such as BESSs, backup generators and loads. In the upper layer, the central microgrid coordinator (MGCC) coordinates multiple agents so that the overall microgrid can match the load reduction requested by the grid operator. The proposed control scheme is applied to Korea Power Exchange’s Intelligent Demand Response Program.
Let's shake hands! On the coordination of gestures of humanoids

Hand gestures are important means of expressivity for humanoids. In this paper by humanoid we understand user-controlled or autonomous virtual humans (VHs) or conversational agents (ECAs) [4] as well as human-like robots [18]. We cover both cases of human-humanoid and humanoid-humanoid interaction. The semantics, the morphology, the variations in performance of gestures reflecting cultural, affective and other characteristics of the speaker [8]. as well as general gesture movement laws [6] have been addressed Our focus in this paper is the issue of coordination of hand gestures to external signals. One type of coordination, alignment of speech-accompanying gestures to the speech, has been studied extensively, and different design principles have been formulated and implemented for specific applications with virtual humans [11, 13, 25]. In these cases, the phonological synchrony rule [15] have been taken as basis, usually resulting in gestures timed to the speech – even if it is generated by TTS. An exception is [24], where in assembly tasks, where a physical manipulation may be accomplished in a shorter or longer time, the speech is aligned to the manipulative hand gestures. Another domain where two-handed gestures play a role is sign language [9]. Also, mechanisms for fast planning for deictic gestures have been proposed [14]. Our ongoing research extends these works in the following aspects: • We propose a coordination scheme which is more general, allowing to take into consideration external events such as tempo indication or perceived state information about the interlocutor of the ECA. • We allow the declaration of coordination requirements on a low level of granularity, looking at different stages of gestures. Such a refined approach makes it possible to perform experiments on e.g. expressivity and style, and to include timing strategies as a means to fine-tune the gesturing behavior of a humanoid. • Our main interest is in reactive scheduling and planning of gestures with reference to an environment influencing the timing of the gestures. • We are using the (still under development) BML language for the formulation of scheduling requirements. As BML is meant to become a general-purpose markup language [3], our testing and extension of its constructs contributes to the development of this unifying language.
Rural Residency has a Protective Effect and Marriage is a Risk Factor for NAFLD

Background Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered the leading cause of liver disease worldwide. Although many previous studies have evaluated the potential risk factors of NAFLD, few studies have determined the effect of residency or marriage status on NAFLD. Objectives We aim to evaluate whether residency and marriage status increased the risk factors for NAFLD. Materials and Methods We utilized data from 5,052 participants, 18 years and older, from a cohort study conducted using 6,140 participants in northern Iran. The population was divided into 16 subgroups according to sex and age; the age groups had an interval of 10 years. We randomly selected the subjects from each subgroup in proportion to the size of each subpopulation group. Logistic regression analyses were conducted on NAFLD as an outcome of marriage status, residency (rural vs. urban), and other potential risk factors. Results We found that NAFLD had an inverse association with rural living in men (OR = 0.513, 0.422 - 0.622, P value < 0.001) and women (OR = 0.431, 0.345 - 0.539, P value < 0.001). Furthermore, we determined that NAFLD had a direct association with marriage status for men (OR = 2.770, 2.004 - 3.831, P value < 0.001) and women (OR = 1.241, 1.033 - 1.490, P value = 0.0209). Conclusions While rural living has a protective effect on NAFLD, marriage may be a potential risk factor for this condition.
NCLB: Conspiracy, Compliance, or Creativity?.

This speech addresses the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and educators' and policymakers' reactions to it. The talk focuses on three ways people are responding to the Act. Some, according to the speaker, consider the law to be malevolent'and a conspiracy by the Bush Administration to start handing education over to private corporations. This camp suggests that NCLB seeks to undermine education because it does not provide adequate funding to support all the changes the act requires. Others respond to NCLB by worrying about compliance. State departments of education staff, central-office staff of local school districts, and local administrators are spending a lot of time, according to the speaker, trying to figure out exactly what the law means and how to implement it. The third way people are responding to NCLB is largely hypothetical as of yet. The speaker suggests that educators should seize NCLB as an opportunity for creativity, not in implementing the law, but in using it to improve teacher quality and to enable all students to become academically proficient. (WFA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. NCLB: Conspiracy, Compliance, or Creativity?
Access Control of XML Documents and Business Rule Processing for Advanced Information Exchange

In this paper, we summarize our research results obtained through the COE program. Our topics are classified into two categories. One is access control of XML documents, and the other is business rule processing for e-commerce. The former is dealing with various aspects of regulating access to XML documents, so that unauthorized access to data can be prevented. The latter is dealing with formal treatment of business rules for advanced automated e-commerce systems. We studied modeling and querying business rules, and extracting business rules from Web pages. We also describe two topics in more detail, one is relevancy-based access control of XML documents, and the other is extracting global policies for efficient access control of XML documents
Real time expression recognition using correlation and support vector machine

Facial expressions deliver rich information about human emotion and play an essential role in human communications. This paper presents a design and evaluation of a novel computational model that categorizes facial expressions in real time video for the reason of automating human computer interfaces. It highlights the main system components, methodology for the development of the prototype and some research challenges. The concepts of correlation have been used to detect the face in video sequences and multiclass SVM is used for classification. The method has been evaluated in terms of recognition accuracy using a well known Facial Expression database, Japanese Female Facial Expression database as well as using the database of face images of the authors. The experimental results show the effectiveness of our scheme.
THE EFFECT OF GAMES ON VOCABULARY RETENTION

Learning English has become a necessity during this century. Consequently, it is utilized in different institutions in Palestine such as schools, universities, hospitals, etc. Therefore, it is taught in schools by using different methods. Thus, in order to comprehend the language efficiently, it has to be taught in creative and interesting methods and using games inside the classroom in one of these methods. The study aims to figure out the efficiency of using games inside classrooms and to answer the research questions. The study was conducted during the first semester of 2018/2019, in which 20 participants were enrolled. The researchers collected data using pretest; posttest and class observation. The study continued for two months. In that, students were introduced to unfamiliar vocabulary through games. The findings of the research revealed the efficiency of utilizing games in the educational process. Accordingly, games help students to retain unfamiliar vocabulary, to associate new information with their surroundings and to develop their language and communicative skills.
Synchronization between Background Activity and Visually Evoked Potential Is Not Mirrored by Focal Hyperoxygenation: Implications for the Interpretation of Vascular Brain Imaging

We performed an electroencephalography and optical topography study simultaneously exploring electrophysiological and vascular response magnitude as a function of stimulus frequency. To elicit a response in the visual cortex, subjects were exposed to flicker frequencies varying from 1 to 25 Hz (1 Hz steps, eyes closed). Extending the standard view to compare magnitudes of the evoked neuronal to the evoked vascular response, we additionally investigated modulations of α-power, a marker of “background” EEG activity. The results show two discrepancies between the electrophysiological and vascular response: (1) VEP and α-power exhibit a discontinuous peak when stimulating at the individual α-frequency (IAF) (∼10–11 Hz), indicating resonance between background oscillations and evoked response; this is not mirrored by the vascular response. (2) The vascular response, in contrast, steadily increases up to a maximum at 7–8 Hz and slightly decreases with higher frequencies. This continuous frequency dependence is partly reflected by the decrease in α-power up to frequencies of 8–9 Hz and a slight increase in α-power beyond the IAF resonance. Although indicating an inverse relationship between α-power and vascular response, the frequency dependence of the evoked response does not show such a correlation. Thus, electrophysiological resonance between an individual's α-frequency and isofrequent stimulation is not mirrored by the vascular response. Also, spontaneous background EEG activity is an important modulator of the vascular response magnitude. We discuss these deviations from a simple one-to-one translation between evoked potential and vascular response amplitude in the light of questions concerning synchronization, attenuation, and induction of background oscillations such as the α-rhythm.
Aerosol Optical Depth measurements at 340 nm with a Brewer spectrophotometer and comparison with Cimel sunphotometer observations at Uccle, Belgium

Abstract. The Langley Plot Method (LPM) is adapted for the retrieval of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) values at 340 nm from Brewer#178 sun scan measurements between 335 and 345 nm (convoluted with the band pass function of the Cimel sunphotometer filter at 340 nm) performed in Uccle, Belgium. The use of sun scans instead of direct sun measurements simplifies the comparison of the AOD values with quasi-simultaneous Cimel sunphotometer values. Also, the irradiance at 340 nm is larger than the one at 320.1 nm due to lower ozone absorption, thus improving the signal to noise ratio. For the selection of the cloudless days (from now on referred to as calibration quality clear days), a new set of criteria is proposed. With the adapted method, individual clear sky AOD values, for which the selection criteria are also presented in this article, are calculated for a period from September 2006 until the end of August 2010. These values are then compared to quasi-simultaneous Cimel sunphotometer measurements, showing a very good agreement (the correlation coefficient, the slope and the intercept of the regression line are respectively 0.974, 0.968 and 0.011), which proves that good quality observations can be obtained from Brewer sun scan measurements at 340 nm. The analysis of the monthly and seasonal Brewer AODs at Uccle is consistent with studies at other sites reporting on the seasonal variation of AODs in Europe. The highest values can be observed in summer and spring, whereas more than 50% of the winter AODs are lower than 0.3. On a monthly scale, the lowest AOD are observed in December and the highest values occur in June and April. No clear weekly cycle is observed for Uccle. The current cloud-screening algorithm is still an issue, which means that some AOD values can still be influenced by scattered clouds. This effect can be seen when comparing the calculated monthly mean values of the Brewer with the AERONET measurements.
Truthful Mechanisms for Scheduling Selfish Related Machines Using ACO

Task scheduling is a major challenge in parallel and distributed systems. Task scheduling techniques in distributed systems are usually based on trusting the Accuracy of the information about the status of resources. In a commercial multi- Cloud environment, individual providers are focused towards increasing their own profits and do not care about the utility of users and other providers. In such an environment, we cannot trust the information presented by the providers.To address the scheduling problem in a commercial multi-Cloud environment using reverse auctions, propose a new truthful mechanism for scheduling single tasks on the set of resources. Then adapt the proposed mechanism to dynamically schedule workflow applications. A new pricing model and truthful scheduling mechanism to find the best resource for executing a task, Ant Colony Optimization is introduced. The proposed system is used to dynamically schedule multiple tasks using multiple servers. Also task rescheduling is achieved when the task is not completed within the time.The monetary cost and execution time of the task is more concentrated in the proposed system.
Fast Training of Convolutional Neural Networks via Kernel Rescaling

Training deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) is a time consuming task that may take weeks to complete. In this article we propose a novel, theoretically founded method for reducing CNN training time without incurring any loss in accuracy. The basic idea is to begin training with a pre-train network using lower-resolution kernels and input images, and then refine the results at the full resolution by exploiting the spatial scaling property of convolutions. We apply our method to the ImageNet winner OverFeat and to the more recent ResNet architecture and show a reduction in training time of nearly 20% while test set accuracy is preserved in both cases.
Context-aware recommendations from implicit data via scalable tensor factorization

Albeit the implicit feedback based recommendation problem - when only the user history is available but there are no ratings - is the most typical setting in real-world applications, it is much less researched than the explicit feedback case. State-of-the-art algorithms that are efficient on the explicit case cannot be automatically transformed to the implicit case if scalability should be maintained. There are few implicit feedback benchmark data sets, therefore new ideas are usually experimented on explicit benchmarks. In this paper, we propose a generic context-aware implicit feedback recommender algorithm, coined iTALS. iTALS applies a fast, ALS-based tensor factorization learning method that scales linearly with the number of non-zero elements in the tensor. We also present two approximate and faster variants of iTALS using coordinate descent and conjugate gradient methods at learning. The method also allows us to incorporate various contextual information into the model while maintaining its computational efficiency. We present two context-aware variants of iTALS incorporating seasonality and item purchase sequentiality into the model to distinguish user behavior at different time intervals, and product types with different repetitiveness. Experiments run on six data sets shows that iTALS clearly outperforms context-unaware models and context aware baselines, while it is on par with factorization machines (beats 7 times out of 12 cases) both in terms of recall and MAP.
Prenatal and Postnatal Tobacco Exposure and Behavioral Problems in 10-Year-Old Children: Results from the GINI-plus Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Background Prenatal and postnatal tobacco exposure have been reported to be associated with behavioral problems. However, the magnitude of the association with tobacco exposure at specific periods of exposure is unclear. Objective We assessed the relative risk of behavioral problems in children who had been exposed to tobacco smoke in utero and postnatally. Methods We analyzed data from a prospective birth cohort study in two cities in Germany: the German Infant Nutrition Intervention. Our sample included 5,991 children born between 1995 and 1998 as well as their parents. We measured behavioral problems using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at follow-up 10 years after birth. According to prespecified SDQ cutoff values, children were classified as “normal,” “borderline,” or “abnormal” according to the subscales “emotional symptoms,” “conduct problems,” “hyperactivity/inattention,” “peer-relationship problems,” and a total difficulties score. Smoke exposure and further covariates were assessed using parent questionnaires. Results Compared with children not exposed to tobacco smoke, children exposed both pre- and postnatally to tobacco smoke had twice the estimated risk [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.4–3.1] of being classified as abnormal according to the total difficulties score of the SDQ at 10 years of age. Children who were only prenatally exposed had a 90% higher relative risk (95% CI, 0.9–4.0), whereas children who were only postnatally exposed had a 30% higher relative risk (95% CI, 0.9–1.9). These results could not be explained by confounding by parental education, father’s employment, child’s time spent in front of computer or television screen, being a single father or mother, or mother’s age. Conclusions Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke is associated with behavioral problems in school-age children. Although our findings do not preclude the influence of postnatal exposure, prenatal exposure seems to be more important.
Diamonds on the Hat: globular clusters in the Sombrero galaxy (M104)

Images from the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys are used to carry out a new photometric study of the globular clusters (GCs) in M104, the Sombrero galaxy. The primary focus of our study is the characteristic distribution function of linear sizes (SDF) of the GCs. We measure the effective radii for 652 clusters with PSF-convolved King and Wilson dynamical model fits. The SDF is remarkably similar to those measured for other large galaxies of all types, adding strong support to the view that it is a “universal” feature of globular cluster systems. We use the Sombrero and Milky Way data and the formation models of Baumgardt & Kroupa (2007) to develop a more general interpretation of the size distribution function for globular clusters. We propose that the shape of the SDF that we see today for GCs is strongly influenced by the early rapid mass loss during their star forming stage, coupled with stochastic differences from cluster to cluster in the star formation efficiency (SFE) and their initial sizes. We find that the observed SDF shape can be accurately predicted by a simple model in which the protocluster clouds had characteristic sizes of 0.9 ± 0.1 pc and SFEs of 0.3 ± 0.07. The colors and luminosities of the M104 clusters show the clearly defined classic bimodal form. The blue sequence exhibits a mass/metallicity relation (MMR), follow′
Analysis and Improvements of a Light-weight Authentication Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Now, security plays an important role in wireless sensor networks architecture. Dr. Oscar proposed a light-weight authentication scheme for wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we show that there are some security flaws in Oscar’s light-weight authentication scheme: an attacker and a sensor node can collude to make the attacker join in the wireless sensor network, the sensor node cannot resist the DOS attacks via using other illegitimate sensor nodes and encryption keys of the sensor nodes can be obtained by capturing the node. To fix these problems, we present some improvements. These cannot only solve the above security flaws in Oscar’s scheme, but also only make slight effect in the efficiency, security and other features of the Oscar’s scheme.
The Dark Side of Ethical Robots

Concerns over the risks associated with advances in Artificial Intelligence have prompted calls for greater efforts toward robust and beneficial AI, including machine ethics. Recently, roboticists have responded by initiating the development of so-called ethical robots. These robots would, ideally, evaluate the consequences of their actions and morally justify their choices. This emerging field promises to develop extensively over the next few years. However, in this paper, we point out an inherent limitation of the emerging field of ethical robots. We show that building ethical robots also inevitably enables the construction of unethical robots. In three experiments, we show that it is remarkably easy to modify an ethical robot so that it behaves competitively, or even aggressively. The reason for this is that the cognitive machinery required to make an ethical robot can always be corrupted to make unethical robots. We discuss the implications of this finding to the governance of ethical robots. We conclude that the risks that unscrupulous actors might compromise a robot's ethics are so great as to raise serious doubts over the wisdom of embedding ethical decision making in real-world safety-critical robots, such as driverless cars.