Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic generation of fantasy role-playing modules

Fantasy role playing games are a type of pencil-and-paper game in which a group of players, moderated by a referee, engage in cooperative story telling. This study leverages earlier level map generation technology to substantially automate the production of modules for fantasy role playing games. A goblin outpost is used as an example type of module for demonstrating the system. Advantages of the system include being able to produce a large number of different but tactically similar adventure modules with substantial control of content and feel by the designer. In addition to presenting a modified version of the map generator, the system presented in this study also automatically identifies rooms, abstracts the room adjacency relation, and populates the rooms with monsters, traps, and treasure. A example module, complete except for monster descriptions, is presented demonstrating proof of concept. Multiple maps for the goblin outpost are presented for contrast and a number of future directions for improvement are outlined.
AIDE: a step toward metric-based interface development tools

Automating any part of the user interface design and evaluation process can help reduce development costs. This paper presents a metric-based tool called AIDE (semi-Automated Interface Designer and Evaluator) which assists designers in creating and evaluating layouts for a given set of interface controls. AIDE is an initial attempt to demonstrate the potential of incorporating metrics into user interface development tools, Analyzing the interfaces produced using AIDE provides encouraging feedback about the potential of this technique.
The Effect of Antineoplastic Drugs in a Male Spontaneous Mammary Tumor Model

Male breast cancer is a rare disease. The limited number of clinical cases has led to the primary treatments for men being derived from female breast cancer studies. Here the transgenic strain FVB/N-Tg(MMTV-PyVT)634Mul/J (also known as PyVT) was used as a model system for measuring tumor burden and drug sensitivity of the antineoplastic drugs tamoxifen, cisplatin, and paclitaxel on tumorigenesis at an early stage of mammary carcinoma development in a male mouse model. Cisplatin treatment significantly reduced tumor volume, while paclitaxel and tamoxifen did not attenuate tumor growth. Cisplatin treatment was shown to induce apoptosis, grossly observed by reduced tumor formation, through reduced Bcl-2 and survivin protein expression levels with an increase in caspase 3 expression compared to control tumors. Tamoxifen treatment significantly altered the hormone receptor expression levels of the tumor, while additionally upregulating Bcl-2 and Cyclin D1. This suggests an importance in hormonal signaling in male breast cancer pathogenesis. The results of this study provide valuable information toward the better understanding of male breast cancer and may help guide treatment decisions.
SLAPv: A service level agreement enforcer for virtual networks

In this paper we propose SLAPv, an efficient control system for service level agreements (SLAs) in virtual network environments. SLAPv fills a gap in the design of SLA enforcers by introducing the following set of control features: (i) verification of physical resource usage, (ii) retrieval of real-time profiles of virtual routers, and (iii) enforcement of the adequate usage of resources. Furthermore, SLAPv punishes virtual networks that do not respect their contracts. The control relies on fuzzy logic to enforce resource allocation according to usage profile of routers and the system load. The punishment depends on the exceeding violating value, and on the system load. Results obtained from a developed prototype show the efficiency of the proposed system under different conditions and strategic policies. Tests performed with RIPv2 running on virtual networks show that, for high load scenarios, misbehaving routers are forced to rapidly enter in conformity to their SLAs in less than five seconds.
RDMA Capable iWARP over Datagrams

iWARP is a state of the art high-speed connection-based RDMA networking technology for Ethernet networks to provide InfiniBand-like zero-copy and one-sided communication capabilities over Ethernet. Despite the benefits offered by iWARP, many data center and web-based applications, such as stock-market trading and media-streaming applications, that rely on data gram-based semantics (mostly through UDP/IP) cannot take advantage of it because the iWARP standard is only defined over reliable, connection-oriented transports. This paper presents an RDMA model that functions over reliable and unreliable data grams. The ability to use data grams significantly expands the application space serviced by iWARP and can bring the scalability advantages of a connectionless transport to iWARP. In our previous work, we had developed an iWARP data gram solution using send/receive semantics showing excellent memory scalability and performance benefits over the current TCP-based iWARP. In this paper, we demonstrate an improved iWARP design that provides true RDMA semantics over data grams. Specifically, because traditional RDMA semantics do not map well to unreliable communication, we propose RDMA Write-Record, the first and the only method capable of supporting RDMA Write over both unreliable and reliable data grams. We demonstrate through a proof-of-concept software implementation that data gram-iWARP is feasible for real-world applications. Our proposed RDMA Write-Record method has been designed with data loss in mind and can provide superior performance under conditions of packet loss. It is shown through micro-benchmarks that by using RDMA capable data gram-iWARP a maximum of 256% increase in large message bandwidth and a maximum of 24.4\% improvement in small message latency can be achieved over traditional iWARP. For application results we focus on streaming applications, showing a 24% improvement in memory usage and up to a 74% improvement in performance, although the proposed approach is also applicable to the HPC domain.
A cross-cultural comparison of the Portuguese and German Generation Y in terms of power distance, uncertainty avoidance and future orientation

Purpose – Existing cross-cultural literature is indecisive as to whether Generation Y can be characterized with attributes that suggest the group to be culturally equal across borders. The literature’s disagreement led to this study’s purpose to answer the question whether the Portuguese and German Generation Y have significant and empirical cultural differences regarding GLOBE’s defined cultural dimensions Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance and Future Orientation. Methodology – Primary data was collected with a quantitative online survey. The identical GLOBE questionnaire was used to obtain the data from the Generation Y cohort. Findings – The dissertation confirmed evident and significant differences between the Portuguese and German Generation Y within each of the three researched cultural dimensions. Research limitations – It is unclear whether the participants can be representative for the entire Generation Y as the age group was not well distributed within Generation Y’s defined date of birth between 1980-1999. Practical implications – Organizations can gain an understanding about the cultural similarities and differences of the Portuguese and German Generation Y cohort. Originality – To the author’s knowledge this is the first research regarding the cross-cultural comparison of the Portuguese and German Generation Y regarding the cultural dimensions Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance and Future Orientation.
Sliding window-based analysis of multiple foreign exchange trading systems by using soft computing techniques

Considerable effort has been made by researchers from various areas of science to forecast financial time series such as stock market and foreign exchange market. Recent studies have shown that the market can be outperformed by trading systems built with soft computing techniques. This paper aims to compare different trading systems based on support vector regression (SVR), growing hierarchical self-organizing maps (GHSOM) and genetic algorithms (G A) when tested against nine currency pairs of the foreign exchange market (Forex). The experiments were performed using the sliding window strategy. The results showed that the GA-based trading systems outperformed the SVR+GHSOM model when evaluated by four performance metrics, including an statistical test.
Context-aware mobility management in HetNets: A reinforcement learning approach

The use of small cell deployments in heterogeneous network (HetNet) environments is expected to be a key feature of 4G networks and beyond, and essential for providing higher user throughput and cell-edge coverage. However, due to different coverage sizes of macro and pico base stations (BSs), such a paradigm shift introduces additional requirements and challenges in dense networks. Among these challenges is the handover performance of user equipment (UEs), which will be impacted especially when high velocity UEs traverse picocells. In this paper, we propose a coordination-based and context-aware mobility management (MM) procedure for small cell networks using tools from reinforcement learning. Here, macro and pico BSs jointly learn their long-term traffic loads and optimal cell range expansion, and schedule their UEs based on their velocities and historical rates (exchanged among tiers). The proposed approach is shown to not only outperform the classical MM in terms of UE throughput, but also to enable better fairness. In average, a gain of up to 80% is achieved for UE throughput, while the handover failure probability is reduced up to a factor of three by the proposed learning based MM approaches.
The influence of class structure on program comprehension

This thesis describes and reports on two sets of empirical studies investigating the ease of comprehension of Object Oriented (OO) programs, including the underlying various types of knowledge that can be present in the program text during the process of comprehension. The two empirical studies are referred to as the Car and the Line-Edit. These are two well established programming problems in the early literature from the Psychology of programming research. Both novice and experienced OO programmers were asked to undertake comprehension tasks based on a paper and pen exercise and a set of comprehension questions associated with either an OO or a non OO programming version of the Car or the Line-Edit. The studies focus on the elements of class concept, problem characteristics, and solution decompositions and their effect on the comprehension of different types of knowledge which are present in the program text. It is found that OO programs are better understood than of the non OO programs. It is also found that the class concept, problem characteristics, and solution decompositions are empirically to be the influential elements in the comprehension of OO programs, especially for Control Flow, State, and Problem Classes types of knowledge. An empirical grounded based model of OO program comprehension is proposed; the model forms a framework to the future empirical studies that focus on the critical aspects of the OO program comprehension. The thesis suggests a knowledge-based categorisation of the example programs. This categorisation should be embodied for better OO program comprehension amongst novices. The methodological issues for future investigations are also discussed. In particular it is suggested that different OO versions of the same program should be used as the experimental material as the next step.
Trends in biological joint resurfacing

The treatment of osteochondral lesions and osteoarthritis remains an ongoing clinical challenge in orthopaedics. This review examines the current research in the fields of cartilage regeneration, osteochondral defect treatment, and biological joint resurfacing, and reports on the results of clinical and pre-clinical studies. We also report on novel treatment strategies and discuss their potential promise or pitfalls. Current focus involves the use of a scaffold providing mechanical support with the addition of chondrocytes or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), or the use of cell homing to differentiate the organism’s own endogenous cell sources into cartilage. This method is usually performed with scaffolds that have been coated with a chemotactic agent or with structures that support the sustained release of growth factors or other chondroinductive agents. We also discuss unique methods and designs for cell homing and scaffold production, and improvements in biological joint resurfacing. There have been a number of exciting new studies and techniques developed that aim to repair or restore osteochondral lesions and to treat larger defects or the entire articular surface. The concept of a biological total joint replacement appears to have much potential. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2013;2:193–9.
Virtual Extreme Programming Workbench : a support tool for practitioners of extreme programming in a distributed environment

The Extreme Programming software development methodology relies heavily on the colocation of the team members. Outsourcing and teleworking is becoming more common nowadays, meaning that XP practitioners need to adapt their daily XP practices for a distributed setting. In most cases the distributed teams use (existing) tools that is a direct translation of a practice without thinking about interaction design and social interfaces. For this reason the Virtual Extreme Programming Workbench is introduced, which is a proposed tool that incorporates the extreme programming practices and adheres to the XP philosophy of being social.
Theory of Z boson decays

The precision data on Z boson decays from LEP-I and SLC colliders are compared with the predictions based on the minimal standard theory. The Born approximation of the theory is based on three most accurately known observables: Gµ - the four fermion coupling constant of muon decay, mZ - the mass of the Z boson, and (mZ) - the value of the running fine structure constant at the scale of mZ. The electroweak loop corrections are expressed, in addition, in terms of the masses of higgs, mH, of the top and bottom quarks, mt and mb, and of the strong interaction constant s(mZ). The main emphasis of the review is focused on the one-electroweak-loop approximation. Two electroweak loops have been calculated in the literature only partly. Possible manifestations of new physics are briefly discussed.
An adaptive distributed predictive control strategy for temperature regulation in a multizone office building

In recent years, Model Based Predictive Control (MPC) constitutes an important research trend in the control of advanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in order to find a compromise between the energy savings and the occupant thermal comfort. In this paper an innovative MPC strategy for indoor temperature regulation in a three-zones building is presented. Two different strategies of adaptive MPC are proposed to achieve even higher performances ensuring temperature regulation on the basis of the occupancy level of each building zone. Furthermore, a comparison between decentralized and distributed MPC configurations is showed to demonstrate the effectiveness of MPC distributed approach in terms of computational costs and control results.
Patient Identification for Telehealth Programs

Telehealth provides an opportunity to reduce healthcare costs through remote patient monitoring, but is not appropriate for all individuals. Our goal was to identify the patients for whom telehealth has the greatest impact. Challenges included the high variability of medical costs and the effect of selection bias on the cost difference between intervention patients and controls. Using Medicare claims data, we computed cost savings by comparing each telehealth patient to a group of control patients who had similar healthcare resource utilization. These estimates were then used to train a predictive model using logistic regression. Filtering the patients based on the model resulted in an average cost savings of $10K, an improvement over the current expected loss of $2K (without filtering).
Effect of Auxins on Mechanical Injury Induced Oxidative Stress in Prunus sp. Rootstocks

The effect of exogenously applied auxins on oxidative stress was studied in six rootstock selections of Prunus cerasus, P. mahaleb and P. fruticosa aiming at the effect of phytohormones on the level of the lipid peroxidation (LP). Standard rootstock PHL-A was used as a control. Leaves were collected on 0, 1, 3 and 7 day of inserting cuttings into the rooting substrate. Auxin mixture consisted of 0.8% α-naphthylacetic acid and 0.5% indolebutyric acid. Differences in intensity of the LP between auxin-treated and -untreated cuttings were examined. Almost all of investigated selections had lower LP intensity after auxin application (11.4-47.2%). The most prominent change was in leaves of PHL-A (49.2%). LP-lowering effect were recorded in leaves of P. fruticosa (56.9%) on 7 day and in P. mahaleb on 1 and 3 day (5.9, 5.8%). Intensity of LP could be used as one of the biochemical parameters in further rootstock selection and production.
Gluonic phases and phase diagram in neutral two flavor dense QCD

A numerical analysis of several phases in the cold neutral two flavor dense quark matter is realized. In the analysis, besides the normal, single plane wave LOFF, and color superconducting 2SC/g2SC phases, we also include two gluonic phases (the gluonic cylindrical phase II and the gluonic color-spin locked one). It is shown that these two gluonic phases are dynamically realized and, on the basis of this analysis, the phase diagram with respect to the coupling strength in this medium is suggested. In particular, it is shown that the gluonic phases are energetically favorable in a wide region of the parameter space. On the other hand, there also exists a window where the LOFF phase is stable. The 2SC state and the normal one are realized in the strong and weak coupling regimes, respectively, as was expected.
Macro for Computing Point Estimates and Confidence Intervals of Effect Sizes Associated with Mediation Analysis

Measures of effect size are recommended to communicate information on the strength of relationships. Such information supplements the reject/fail-to-reject decision obtained in statistical hypothesis testing. Because sample effect sizes are subject to sampling error, as is any sample statistic, computing confidence intervals for these statistics is a useful strategy to represent the magnitude of uncertainty about the corresponding population effect sizes. This paper provides a SAS macro that uses bootstrapping to compute confidence intervals for an effect size associated with mediation analysis models. Using SAS/IML, the macro produces point and interval estimates of an Rsquared effect size that represents the proportion of variance accounted for by the mediated effect. This paper provides the macro programming language, as well as an example of the macro call and output. Finally, the results from a simulation study investigating the accuracy and precision of the estimates are presented.
A path-independent integral and the approximate analysis of strain

Abstract : An integral is exhibited which has the same value for all paths surrounding a class of notches in two-dimensional deformation fields of linear or non-linear elastic materials. The integral may be evaluated almost by inspection for a few notch configurations. Also, for materials of the elastic- plastic type (treated through a deformation rather than incremental formulation) , with a linear response to small stresses followed by non-linear yielding, the integral may be evaluated in terms of Irwin's stress intensity factor when yielding occurs on a scale small in comparison to notch size. On the other hand, the integral may be expressed in terms of the concentrated deformation field in the vicinity of the notch tip. This implies that some information on strain concentrations is obtainable without recourse to detailed non-linear analyses. Such an approach is exploited here. Applications are made to: Approximate estimates of strain concentrations at smooth ended notch tips in elastic and elastic-plastic materials, A general solution for crack tip separation in the Barenblatt-Dugdale crack model, leading to a proof of the identity of the Griffith theory and Barenblatt cohesive theory for elastic brittle fracture and to the inclusion of strain hardening behavior in the Dugdale model for plane stress yielding, and An approximate perfectly plastic plane strain analysis, based on the slip line theory, of contained plastic deformation at a crack tip and of crack blunting.
A Case for FPGA Accelerators in the Cloud

Hardware accelerators use custom architectures to significantly speed up computations in a wide range of domains. As performance scaling in server-class CPUs slows, we propose integration of hardware accelerators in the cloud as a way to maintain a positive performance trend. Field programmable gate arrays represent the ideal resource for such integration since they can be reprogrammed as needs change and allow dynamic sharing of communication infrastructure among multiple accelerators. We briefly discuss service levels for cloud accelerators and make a case for adoption.
A Lower Bound for the Laplacian Eigenvalues of a Graph-Proof of a Conjecture by Guo

We show that if μj is the j-th largest Laplacian eigenvalue, and dj is the j-th largest degree (1 j n) of a connected graph 蚠 on n vertices, then μj dj − j + 2 (1 j n − 1). This settles a conjecture due to Guo.
Interactive parameter adaptation tool for image segmentation

This paper describes an Interactive Parameter Adaptation Tool (IPAT) for determining parameters to control texture based segmentation of Regions of Interest (ROI) on images. This tool enables non-image processing experts to interact with evolutionary algorithms to produce a set of ROI segmentation parameters that are capable of segmenting ROI in response to existing system constraints.
Korean Red Ginseng Induced Cardioprotection against Myocardial Ischemia in Guinea Pig

This study was designed to evaluate the protective effect of Korean red ginseng (KRG) against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in isolated guinea pig heart. KRG has been shown to possess various ginsenosides, which are the major components of Panax ginseng. These components are known naturally occurring compounds with beneficial effects and free radical scavenging activity. The heart was induced to ischemia for 60 min, followed by 120 min reperfusion. The hearts were randomly allocated into five groups (n=8 for each group): normal control (N/C), KRG control, I/R control, 250 mg/kg KRG group and 500 mg/kg KRG group. KRG significantly increased hemodynamics parameters such as aortic flow, coronary flow and cardiac output. Moreover, KRG significantly increased left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP), the maximal rate of contraction (+dP/dtmax) and maximal rate of relaxation (-dP/dtmax). Also, treatment of KRG ameliorated electrocardiographic index such as the QRS, QT and RR intervals. Moreover, KRG significantly suppressed the lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase-MB fraction and cardiac troponin I and ameliorated the oxidative stress markers such as malondialdehyde and glutathione. KRG was standardized through ultra performance liquid chromatograph analysis for its major ginsenosides. Taken together, KRG has been shown to prevent cardiac injury by normalizing the biochemical and oxidative stress.