Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design influence on player retention: A method based on time varying survival analysis

This paper proposes a method to help understanding the influence of a game design on player retention. Using Far Cry® 4 data, we illustrate how playtime measures can be used to identify time periods where players are more likely to stop playing. First, we show that a benchmark can easily be performed for every game available on Steam using publicly available data. Then, we introduce how survival analysis can help to model the influence of game variables on player retention. Game environment and player characteristics change over time and tracking systems already store those changes. But existing model which deals with time varying covariate cannot scale on huge datasets produced by video game monitoring. That is why we propose a model that can both deal with time varying covariates and is well suited for big datasets. As a given game variable can have a changing effect over time, we also include time-varying coefficients in our model. We used this survival analysis model to quantify the effect of Far Cry 4 weapons usage on player retention.
A Low Voltage Four-Quadrant Analog Multiplier Using Triode-MOSFETs

A low voltage four-quadrant analog multiplier circuit is presented. Based on triode region operation of MOSFET, the multiplier circuit can be simply realized by connecting a pair of PMOS with three flipped voltage follower circuits. As a result, the proposed circuit is compact and can be operated under low voltage supply. Circuit simulation using SPICE with 0.35 micron CMOS model parameter shows that under 1.5 V single supply the proposed multiplier provides linear range of more than 50% of voltage supply (measured from THD less than 1%) and small signal bandwidth is higher than 95 MHz while the entire circuit consumes 46.4 muW of electrical power
A Note on Threshold Schemes with Disenrollment

Blakley, Blakley, Chan and Massey conjectured a lower bound on the entropy of public broadcast in a threshold scheme with disenrollment capability. In this paper, we first show that the con- jecture need not be true in general. Then we estab- lish a tight lower bound on the entropy of public in- formation by introducing one property to the defini- tion of threshold schemes with disenrollment. We also present a scheme that achieves the lower bound.
Security and the Political Economy of International Migration

How does migration affect the security of advanced industrial states, and how does the security environment shape the way states deal with international migration? Migration rests at the nexus of three dimensions of security, including geopolitical interests, material production, and internal security. I argue that migration policy is an integral instrument of state grand strategy in this context, and that examining levels of threat on each facet of security at a given point in time can largely explain variation in policy. I test a series of hypotheses drawn from this security framework using a case-study method that examines policy development in four advanced industrial states, including the United States, Germany, France, and Great Britain in the period 1945–present.
Identification of Genotype 3 Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) in Serum and Fecal Samples from Pigs in Thailand and Mexico, Where Genotype 1 and 2 HEV Strains Are Prevalent in the Respective Human Populations

ABSTRACT Hepatitis E virus (HEV), the causative agent of hepatitis E, is an important public health concern in many developing countries. Increasing evidence indicates that hepatitis E is a zoonotic disease. There exist four major genotypes of HEV, and HEV isolates identified in samples from pigs belong to either genotype 3 or 4. Genotype 1 and 2 HEVs are found exclusively in humans. To determine whether genotype 1 and 2 HEVs also exist in pigs, a universal reverse transcription-PCR assay that is capable of detecting all four HEV genotypes was used to test for the presence of HEV RNA in serum and/or fecal samples from pigs in Thailand, where genotype 1 human HEV is prevalent, and from pigs in Mexico, where genotype 2 human HEV was epidemic. In Thailand, swine HEV RNA was detected in sera from 10/26 pigs of 2 to 4 months of age but not in sera from 50 pigs of other ages. In Mexico, swine HEV RNA was detected in 8/125 sera and 28/92 fecal samples from 2- to 4-month-old pigs. Antibodies to swine HEV were also detected in about 81% of the Mexican pigs. A total of 44 swine HEV isolates were sequenced for the open reading frame 2 gene region. Sequence analyses revealed that all swine HEV isolates identified in samples from pigs in Thailand and Mexico belong to genotype 3. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that minor branches associated with geographic origin exist among the swine HEV isolates. The results indicated that genotype 1 or 2 swine HEV does not exist in pigs from countries where the respective human HEV genotype 1 or 2 is prevalent. It is likely that only genotype 3 and 4 HEV strains have zoonotic potential.
Coevolution of TH1, TH2, and TH17 Responses during Repeated Pulmonary Exposure to Aspergillus fumigatus Conidia

ABSTRACT Aspergillus fumigatus, a ubiquitous airborne fungus, can cause invasive infection in immunocompromised individuals but also triggers allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis in a subset of otherwise healthy individuals repeatedly exposed to the organism. This study addresses a critical gap in our understanding of the immunoregulation in response to repeated exposure to A. fumigatus conidia. C57BL/6 mice were challenged intranasally with A. fumigatus conidia weekly, and leukocyte composition, activation, and cytokine production were examined after two, four, and eight challenges. Approximately 99% of A. fumigatus conidia were cleared within 24 h after inoculation, and repeated exposure to A. fumigatus conidia did not result in hyphal growth or accumulation of conidia with time. After 2 challenges, there was an early influx of neutrophils and regulatory T (Treg) cells into the lungs but minimal inflammation. Repeated exposure promoted sustained expansion of the draining lymph nodes, while the influx of eosinophils and other myeloid cells into the lungs peaked after four exposures and then decreased despite continued A. fumigatus challenges. Goblet cell metaplasia and low-level fibrosis were evident during the response. Repeated exposure to A. fumigatus conidia induced T cell activation in the lungs and the codevelopment by four exposures of TH1, TH2, and TH17 responses in the lungs, which were maintained through eight exposures. Changes in CD4 T cell polarization or Treg numbers did not account for the reduction in myeloid cell numbers later in the response, suggesting a non-T-cell regulatory pathway involved in dampening inflammation during repeated exposure to A. fumigatus conidia.
Intrageneric variation in antipredator responses of coral reef fishes affected by ocean acidification: implications for climate change projections on marine communities

Our planet is experiencing an increase in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) unprecedented in the past 800 000 years. About 30% of excess atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, thus increasing the concentration of carbonic acid and reducing the ocean's pH. Species able to survive the physiological stress imposed by ocean acidification may still suffer strong indirect negative consequences. Comparing the tolerance of different species to dissolved CO2 is a necessary first step towards predicting the ecological impacts of rising CO2 levels on marine communities. While it is intuitive that not all aquatic species will be affected the same way by CO2, one could predict that closely related species, sharing similar life histories and ecology, may show similar tolerance levels to CO2. Our ability to create functional groups of species according to their CO2 tolerance may be crucial in our ability to predict community change in the future. Here, we tested the effects of CO2 exposure on the antipredator responses of four damselfish species (Pomacentrus chrysurus, Pomacentrus moluccensis, Pomacentrus amboinensis and Pomacentrus nagasakiensis). Although being sympatric and sharing the same ecology and life history, the four congeneric species showed striking and unexpected variation in CO2 tolerance, with CO2‐induced loss of response to predation risk ranging from 30% to 95%. Using P. chrysurus as a model species, we further tested if these behavioural differences translated into differential ability to survive predators under natural conditions. Our results indicate that P. chrysurus larvae raised under CO2 levels predicted by 2070 and 2100 showed decreased antipredator responses to risk, leading to a five‐ to sevenfold increase in predation‐related mortality in the first few hours of settlement. Examining ocean acidification, along with other environmental variables, will be a critical step in further evaluating ecological responses to predicted climatic change.
A loop representation for the quantum Maxwell field

Quantization of the free Maxwell field in Minkowski space is carried out using a loop representation and shown to be equivalent to the standard Fock quantization. Because it is based on coherent state method, this framework may be useful in quantum optics. It is also well suited for the discussion of issues related to flux quantization in condensed matter physics. The authors' own motivation, however, came from a non-perturbative approach to quantum gravity. The concrete results obtained in this work for the Maxwell field provide independent support for that approach. In addition, they offer some insight into the physical interpretation of the mathematical structures that play, within this approach, an essential role in the description of the quantum geometry at Planck scale.
Physical and Mechanical Properties of Heat-treated Domestic Yellow Poplar

Recently, yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) is getting attention in Korea due to the fast growing and high yield and quality of lumber. But, it is thought that the color difference between heartwood and sapwood may restrict the practical use of it. This study was aimed to enhance the 김광모⋅박정환⋅박병수⋅손동원⋅박주생⋅김운섭⋅김병남⋅심상로 18 value of yellow poplar lumber by the color control using high temperature heat-treatment, which had been tried for domestic cedar (Kim et al., 2009). The material properties including surface color of yellow poplar lumber were evaluated according to heat treatment conditions. The difference of color between sapwood and heartwood could be reduced by heat treatment at a temperature about 200°C. Long heating time was more effective in reducing the difference. The Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC) of heat-treated wood was as low as 50 percent of the control. The result obviously indicates that heat-treated wood is more dimensionally stable in the change of moisture condition. The durability against wood rotting fungi also increased by the heat-treated, but it was not so effective as the case of cedar. The changes of mechanical properties of heat-treated yellow poplar were very similar to that of heat-treated cedar. In order to develop new use of heat-treated yellow poplar, the changes of mechanical properties should be considered. There were no significant changes in microscopic structure which may cause changes in mechanical properties. Further study of heat-treated wood is needed to scrutinize the causes of changes of material properties.
TLR3 Signaling Promotes the Induction of Unique Human BDCA-3 Dendritic Cell Populations

Conventional and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (cDCs and pDCs) are the two populations of DCs that can be readily identified in human blood. Conventional DCs have been subdivided into CD1c+, or blood dendritic cells antigen (BDCA) 1 and CD141+, or BDCA-3, DCs, each having both unique gene expression profiles and functions. BDCA-3 DCs express high levels of toll-like receptor 3 and upon stimulation with Poly I:C secrete IFN-β, CXCL10, and IL-12p70. In this article, we show that activation of human BDCA-3 DCs with Poly I:C induces the expression of activation markers (CD40, CD80, and CD86) and immunoglobulin-like transcript (ILT) 3 and 4. This Poly I:C stimulation results in four populations identifiable by flow cytometry based on their expression of ILT3 and ILT4. We focused our efforts on profiling the ILT4− and ILT4+ DCs. These ILT-expressing BDCA-3 populations exhibit similar levels of activation as measured by CD40, CD80, and CD86; however, they exhibit differential cytokine secretion profiles, unique gene signatures, and vary in their ability to prime allogenic naïve T cells. Taken together, these data illustrate that within a pool of BDCA-3 DCs, there are cells poised to respond differently to a given input stimulus with unique output of immune functions.
The effect of dietary fibre isolates on gastric secretion, acidity and emptying

1. In six volunteers, the effect of intragastric administration of different water-soluble chemical isolates of dietary fibre on gastric secretion, acidity and emptying was studied. 2. At 30 min after administration of the test meals, the stomach contents were completely aspirated and the volume, pH, phenol red concentration, total titratable acidity and different electrolytes were measured. 3. Compared with the control meal, the pH and unionized (combined) hydrogen concentrations were significantly higher (P < 0.05) following most of the fibre-containing meals, while the total titratable acid concentration was not significantly different. None of the fibre-containing meals appreciably altered the volume or type of gastric secretion but had a low-grade variable effect on gastric emptying. 4. It is concluded that most dietary fibre isolates, although having a definite and notable buffering effect on the acid in the stomach, have a minimal effect on gastric secretion and a variable and small effect on gastric emptying.
High Performance Word Sense Alignment by Joint Modeling of Sense Distance and Gloss Similarity

In this paper, we present a machine learning approach for word sense alignment (WSA) which combines distances between senses in the graph representations of lexical-semantic resources with gloss similarities. In this way, we significantly outperform the state of the art on each of the four datasets we consider. Moreover, we present two novel datasets for WSA between Wiktionary and Wikipedia in English and German. The latter dataset in not only of unprecedented size, but also created by the large community of Wiktionary editors instead of expert annotators, making it an interesting subject of study in its own right as the first crowdsourced WSA dataset. We will make both datasets freely available along with our computed alignments.
Phrase-based Part-of-Speech Tagging

This paper presents a new approach to part-of-speech (POS) tagging in which the basic unit being tagged is a contiguous sequence of words rather than a single word. We run experiments on two different tagsets: the UPENN treebank and a treebank annotated with more ambiguous tags that have a semantic component. We show that the phrase-based system alone is a respectable tagger that exceeds the performance of the ME tagger on the ambiguous tagset. Moreover, when a log-linear model is built using features from both phrase-and word-based techniques, the tagging accuracy improved on both of our data sets yielding the highest reported performance to date on the more ambiguous tagset.
An open-label multicenter study to assess the safety of dextromethorphan/quinidine in patients with pseudobulbar affect associated with a range of underlying neurological conditions

Abstract Background: Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is associated with neurological disorders or injury affecting the brain, and characterized by frequent, uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing that are exaggerated or unrelated to the patient’s emotional state. Clinical trials establishing dextromethorphan and quinidine (DM/Q) as PBA treatment were conducted in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or multiple sclerosis (MS). This trial evaluated DM/Q safety in patients with PBA secondary to any neurological condition affecting the brain. Objective: To evaluate the safety and tolerability of DM/Q during long-term administration to patients with PBA associated with multiple neurological conditions. Methods: Fifty-two-week open-label study of DM/Q 30/30 mg twice daily. Safety measures included adverse events (AEs), laboratory tests, electrocardiograms (ECGs), vital signs, and physical examinations. Clinical trial registration: #NCT00056524. Results: A total of 553 PBA patients with >30 different neurological conditions enrolled; 296 (53.5%) completed. The most frequently reported treatment-related AEs (TRAEs) were nausea (11.8%), dizziness (10.5%), headache (9.9%), somnolence (7.2%), fatigue (7.1%), diarrhea (6.5%), and dry mouth (5.1%). TRAEs were mostly mild/moderate, generally transient, and consistent with previous controlled trials. Serious AEs (SAEs) were reported in 126 patients (22.8%), including 47 deaths, mostly due to ALS progression and respiratory failure. No SAEs were deemed related to DM/Q treatment by investigators. ECG results suggested no clinically meaningful effect of DM/Q on myocardial repolarization. Differences in AEs across neurological disease groups appeared consistent with the known morbidity of the primary neurological conditions. Study interpretation is limited by the small size of some disease groups, the lack of a specific efficacy measure and the use of a DM/Q dose higher than the eventually approved dose. Conclusions: DM/Q was generally well tolerated over this 52 week trial in patients with PBA associated with a wide range of neurological conditions.
Eigenvalue Interlacing for Certain Classes of Matrices with Real Principal Minors

Two common properties of Z-matrices and Hermitian matrices are considered: (1) The eigenvalue interlacing property, i.e., the two smallest real eigenvalues of a matrix are interlaced by the smallest real eigenvalue of any principal submatrix of order one less. (2) The positive GLP property, i.e., if a matrix has a positive sequence of * The research of these authors was supported by their joint grant No. 85-00153 from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel. t This work was carried out in part while this author was visiting the University of Wisconsin, Madison. LINEAR ALGEBRA AND ITS APPLICATIONS 88/89:373-403 (1987) 373 © Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 1987 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, NY 10017 0024-3795/87/ $3.50 374 D. HERSHKOWITZ, V. MEHRMANN, AND H. SCHNEIDER generalized leading principal minors, then all the principal minors of the matrix are positive. The relationship between these properties as well as related properties is examined in general.
Structural Breaks in Financial Time Series

This paper reviews the literature on structural breaks in financial time series. The second section discusses the implications of structural breaks in financial time series for statistical inference purposes. In the third section we discuss change-point tests in financial time series, including historical and sequential tests as well as single and multiple break tests. The fourth section focuses on structural break tests of financial asset returns and volatility using the parametric versus nonparametric classification as well as tests in the long memory and the distribution of financial time series. In concluding we provide some areas of future research in the subject.
K-BOX: a query-by-singing based music retrieval system

In this paper, we present an efficient query-by-singing based musical retrieval system. We first combine multiple Support Vector Machines by classifier committee learning to segment the sentences from a song automatically. Many new methods in manipulating Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) matrix are studied and compared for optimal feature selection. Experiments show that the 3rd coefficient is the most relevant to music comparison out of 13 coefficients and the proposed simplified MFCC feature is able to achieve a reasonable trade-off between accuracy and efficiency. To improve system efficiency, we re-organize the database by a new two-stage clustering scheme in both time space and feature space. We combine K-means algorithm and dynamic time wrapping similarity measurement for feature space clustering. We also propose a new method for model-selection of K-means algorithm. Experiments show that the proposed approach can achieve more than 30 percent increase in accuracy while speed up more than 16 times in average query time.
Explaining and Forecasting Euro Area Exports: Which Competitiveness Indicator Performs Best?

From a conceptual point of view there is little consensus of what should be the “ideal indicator” of international cost and price competitiveness as each of the standard measures typically employed has its own merits and drawbacks. This calls for addressing the question from an empirical angle, searching for the indicator that best explains and helps forecast export developments. This paper constitutes a first attempt to systematically compare the properties of the alternative cost and price competitiveness measures of the euro area. Although they diverge sometimes, we find little evidence that there is one indicator consistently outperforming the other in terms of explaining and forecasting euro area exports. This suggests that the measures based on consumer and producer prices, which offer some advantages in terms of quality and timeliness, are good approximations of euro area price and cost competitiveness. JEL Classification: F17, F31, F41
Design and Test of 3 D-MAPS , a 3 D Die-Stack Many-Core Processor

3D-MAPS is a test vehicle for evaluating the architectural implications of microprocessors designed using 3D integration technology. The 3D-MAPS processor is a five-layer stack consisting of logic, cache, and DRAM layers. Testing such a 3D design presents several unique challenges. Our test architecture is a custom design, borrowing from the IEEE 1149.1 and 1500 standards. The design goals were to minimize pin count, maximize graceful degradation, and ensure complete diagnostic capability of the chip.