Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing Prediction Models for Active Learning in Recommender Systems

Recommender systems help web users to address informa- tion overload. Their performance, however, depends on the amount of information that users provide about their preferences. Users are not willing to provide information for a large amount of items, thus the quality of recommendations is aected. Active learning for recommender systems has been proposed in the past, to acquire preference informa- tion from users. Early active learning methods for recommender systems used as underlying model either memory-based approaches or the aspect model. However, matrix factorization has been recently demonstrated (especially after the Netix challenge) as being superior to memory-based approaches or the aspect model. Therefore, it is promising to develop ac- tive learning methods based on this prediction model. In this paper, we thoroughly compare matrix factorization with the aspect model to nd out which one is more suitable for applying active learning in recom- mender systems. The results show that beside improving the accuracy of recommendations, the matrix factorization approach also results in drastically reduced user waiting times, i.e., the time that the users wait before being asked a new query. Therefore, it is an ideal choice for using active learning in real-world applications of recommender systems.
Advanced finite-difference methods for seismic modeling

Advanced finite-difference methods for seismic modeling Yang Liu1,2 and Mrinal K Sen2 State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resource and Prospecting (China University of Petroleum, Beijing), Beijing, 102249, China The Institute for Geophysics, John A. and Katherine G. Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Road, R2200 Austin, TX 78758, USA E-mail: wliuyang@vip.sina. com, mrinal@ig.utexas. edu
Flexible Grouping for Enhanced Energy Utilization Efficiency in Battery Energy Storage Systems

As a critical subsystem in electric vehicles and smart grids, a battery energy storage system plays an essential role in enhancement of reliable operation and system performance. In such applications, a battery energy storage system is required to provide high energy utilization efficiency, as well as reliability. However, capacity inconsistency of batteries affects energy utilization efficiency dramatically; and the situation becomes more severe after hundreds of cycles because battery capacities change randomly due to non-uniform aging. Capacity mismatch can be solved by decomposing a cluster of batteries in series into several low voltage battery packs. This paper introduces a new analysis method to optimize energy utilization efficiency by finding the best number of batteries in a pack, based on capacity distribution, order statistics, central limit theorem, and converter efficiency. Considering both battery energy utilization and power electronics efficiency, it establishes that there is a maximum energy utilization efficiency under a given capacity distribution among a certain number of batteries, which provides a basic analysis for system-level optimization of a battery system throughout its life cycle. Quantitative analysis results based on aging data are illustrated, and a prototype of flexible energy storage systems is built to verify this analysis.
Asynchronous 10MS/s 10-Bit SAR ADC for Wireless Network

—This paper presents a low power asynchronous 10-bit Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC implemented in 0. 18μm CMOS process. The ADC is realized fully differentially with a split capacitor array to lower power cost and improve the speed. To further enhance power efficiency and high speed for a relatively moderate resolution, a new asynchronous dynamic logic is utilized to lower the digital power. The multiple-phase clock is generated by a ring-oscillator structure which avoids the high external clock. Offset of the dynamic clocked-comparator is also calibrated through adjusting the threshold voltage. The ADC consumes 500uw at Vdd=1.8v and 10M/s sampling rate.
Identification algorithm for piecewise affine systems with bounded disturbances

This paper presents a new identification algorithm for Piecewise Affine Autoregressive exogenous (PWARX) models in the presence of bounded disturbances. This problem includes the estimation of both parameters of the sub-models and the polyhedral partition of the regressor domain. The proposed algorithm proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, it associates each data point to the most suitable sub-model and realizes the identification of the parameters of each sub-model. This stage is based on an Outer Bounding Ellipsoid (OBE) type algorithm suitable for system identification with bounded disturbances. In the second stage, the algorithm achieves the estimation of the parameter defining the polyhedral partition. A numerical example is given so as to illustrate performance of the algorithm.
High-Betweenness Proteins in the Yeast Protein Interaction Network

Structural features found in biomolecular networks that are absent in random networks produced by simple algorithms can provide insight into the function and evolution of cell regulatory networks. Here we analyze “betweenness” of network nodes, a graph theoretical centrality measure, in the yeast protein interaction network. Proteins that have high betweenness, but low connectivity (degree), were found to be abundant in the yeast proteome. This finding is not explained by algorithms proposed to explain the scale-free property of protein interaction networks, where low-connectivity proteins also have low betweenness. These data suggest the existence of some modular organization of the network, and that the high-betweenness, low-connectivity proteins may act as important links between these modules. We found that proteins with high betweenness are more likely to be essential and that evolutionary age of proteins is positively correlated with betweenness. By comparing different models of genome evolution that generate scale-free networks, we show that rewiring of interactions via mutation is an important factor in the production of such proteins. The evolutionary and functional significance of these observations are discussed.
An Object Store for The Walnut Kernel

A diamondlike carbon film is deposited in the surface of a substrate by exposing the surface to an argon ion beam containing a hydrocarbon. The current density in the ion beam is low during initial deposition of the film. Subsequent to this initial low current condition, the ion beam is increased to full power. At the same time a second argon ion beam is directed toward the surface of the substrate. The second ion beam has an energy level much greater than that of the ion beam containing the hydrocarbon. This addition of energy to the system increases mobility of the condensing atoms and serves to remove lesser bound atoms.
A 1V 11fJ/conversion-step 10bit 10MS/s asynchronous SAR ADC in 0.18µm CMOS

This paper presents a 10-bit SAR ADC using a variable window function to reduce the unnecessary switching in DAC network. At 10-MS/s and 1-V supply, the ADC consumes only 98 µW and achieves an SNDR of 60.97 dB, resulting in an FOM of 11 fJ/Conversion-step. The prototype is fabricated in a 0. 18µm CMOS technology.
A Convergence Scheme for Digital Video/Audio Broadcasting Network and Broadband Wireless Access Network

This paper introduces a convergence scheme for digital video/audio broadcasting (BCT) network and broadband wireless access (BWA) network. This convergence scheme supports the architecture based on both PMP topology and mesh topology. It works in the mode of time division with full spectrum multiplexing. Its frame length, BCT time-slot length and BWA time-slot length are adaptive to the arrival traffic and the whole network performance. Then the transmission and the process delay of the token and the performance of the network were analyzed. The main method used is based on M/G/l queue with vacation and time-limited service. The generating function and the mean values for the traffic load distribution in BCT BS and BWA BSs were given. Then it was simulated on the self-similar traffic background and compare with the fixed time-slot allocation scheme. This scheme can reduce the Hurst parameter in some extent.
High-performance Implicit Communication in a Distributed System

Designers of distributed systems frequently encounter the classic trade-off between ease of use and performance. The communication delays of a distributed application impose a major limitation on its speed. Therefore, distributed operating systems often provide application-level tools for fine tuning the communication process. While these tools can improve performance, they complicate the application.
An Efficient Method for End-to-end Available Bandwidth Measurement1

In known telecommunication systems comprising two separate radio systems each one using its own clock signal for defining its channels multiplexed in time, said radio systems cause too much interference with each other. By introducing a coupling between both radio systems for creating a predefined phase difference between their channels by adjusting at least one of said clock signals, the interference can be reduced, in particular in case said phase difference is continuously altered in time, by increasing or decreasing said phase difference all the time.
A novel technique to study the time course of morphological and functional vascular responses to hypertension in conscious rats

Assessment of morphological vascular responses to exposure to cardiovascular risk factors in experimental animals requires ex vivo experiments that do not allow assessment of the time course of vascular alterations in individual subjects. We used a slit‐lamp biomicroscope (resolution <1 μm) to photograph the long posterior ciliary artery (LPCA) of the iris in conscious normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY, n=10) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR, n=10) on regular‐salt diet (RS) and in SHR (n=10) on high‐salt diet (HS). The same segment along the LPCA was imaged in consecutive weekly imaging sessions and an imaging software was used to determine the wall to lumen (W/L) ratio. After 4 weeks systolic blood pressure (SBP) did not change in WKY (115±5 vs. 111±5 mmHg) and SHR‐RS (148±7 vs. 155±3 mmHg) but increased significantly in SHR‐HS (139±5 mmHg vs. 166±6 mmHg, p<0.05). The time course of the changes in W/L ratio of the LPCA mirrored the time course of the SBP changes. While W/L ratio did not change in WKY‐RS (+12±10%) and SHR‐RS (+18±17%), there was a 39±14% increase in W/L ratio in SHR‐HS. Since the LPCA was not dilated pharmacologically the W/L ratio assessed in this study may reflect the combination of morphologic alterations and changes in vascular tone. In vivo imaging of the LPCA may allow assessment of the time course of morphological and functional vascular responses to hypertension in conscious rats. (Supported by the American Heart Association)
Universal Steganalysis Using Color Correlation and Feature Fusion

A new universal steganalysis algorithm using YUV color space conversion and feature combination of DCT (discrete cosine transform) and DWT (discrete wavelet transform) domains is proposed. It follows the philosophy introduced in in which the features are calculated from the luminance and chrominance components of the images. Instead of using single wavelet high-order statistics for luminance component of the image, it extracts features both in DCT and DWT domains, and substitute the wavelet high-order statistics with the moments of wavelet characteristic function which is more sensitive to steganography. Then a nonlinear SVM classifier is trained on a database of images to construct a universal steganalyzer. Applying the scheme to detect the steg images produced by Jsteg, F5 and Outguess, the experimental results have shown the proposed algorithm get an average detection accuracy of 84.1%, indicate that this method offers improved performance.
Relational Convolution, Generalised Modalities and Incidence Algebras

Convolution is a ubiquitous operation in mathematics and computing. The Kripke semantics for substructural and interval logics motivates its study for quantale-valued functions relative to ternary relations. The resulting notion of relational convolution leads to generalised binary and unary modal operators for qualitative and quantitative models, and to more conventional variants, when ternary relations arise from identies over partial semigroups. Convolution-based semantics for fragments of categorial, linear and incidence (segment or interval) logics are provided as qualitative applications. Quantitative examples include algebras of durations and mean values in the duration calculus.
A New Approach for PAPR Reduction of NC-OFDM System Based on Cognitive Radio

Cognitive radio (CR) is one kind of emerging intelligence wireless communication technology. The OFDM transfer technology can't be used freely in CR because of its own defect--the high PAPR. The authors have studied the interference between the cognitive user and the licensed user when they are using OFDM system to transfer data in the environment of cognitive radio, and then invent a new PTS method to reduce PAPR.
Academic clickbait: articles with positively-framed titles, interesting phrasing, and no wordplay get more attention online.

This article is about whether the factors which drive online sharing of non-scholarly content also apply to academic journal titles. It uses Altmetric scores as a measure of online attention to articles from Frontiers in Psychology published in 2013 and 2014. Article titles with result-oriented positive framing and more interesting phrasing receive higher Altmetric scores, i.e., get more online attention. Article titles with wordplay and longer article titles receive lower Altmetric scores. This suggests that the same factors that affect how widely non-scholarly content is shared extend to academia, which has implications for how academics can make their work more likely to have more impact.
DPICache: A Distributed Program Image Cache for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks, like other computing platforms, require software updates from time to time due to software bugs, new functionality, better understanding of the surrounding environment or new applications. Physically connecting to and reprogramming each node is usually not feasible and often impossible. A number of wireless code distribution and reprogramming techniques have been presented. In this paper we present a novel technique to efficiently update any nodes that were lost during programming periods. Our experiments demonstrate a 57% decrease of bytes sent over the air when updating nodes that previously missed updates.
Impact of land use patterns and agricultural practices on water quality in the Calapooia River Basin of western Oregon

Agricultural practices, including tillage, fertilization, and residue management, can affect surface runoff, soil erosion, and nutrient cycling. These processes, in turn, may adversely affect (1) quality of aquatic resources as habitat for amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, (2) costs of treating surface and ground water to meet drinking water standards, and (3) large-scale biogeochemistry. This study characterized the surface water sources of nitrogen (N) (total, nitrate [NO3−], ammonium [NH4+], and dissolved organic N) and sediment active within 40 subbasins of the Calapooia River Basin in western Oregon in monthly samples over three cropping years. The subbasins included both independent and nested drainages, with wide ranges in tree cover, agricultural practices, slopes, and soils. Sediment and N form concentrations were tested against weather and agricultural practice variables. Subbasin land use ranged from 96% forest to 100% agriculture. Average slopes varied from 1.3% to 18.9%, and surface water quality ranged from 0.5 to 43 mg L−1 (ppm) total N maxima and 29 to 249 mg L−1 suspended sediment maxima. Total N during the winter was positively related to percentage landcover of seven common agricultural crops (nongrass seed summer annuals, established seed crops of perennial ryegrass [Lolium perenne L.], tall fescue [Schedonorus phoenix {Scop.} Holub], orchardgrass [Dactylis glomerata L.], clover [Trifolium spp.], and newly planted stands of perennial ryegrass and clover) and negatively related to cover by trees and one seed crop, Italian (annual) ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). Results for NO3− and total N were highly similar. Sediment concentrations were most strongly related to rainfall totals during periods of 4 and 14 days prior to sampling, with smaller effects of soil disturbance. Fourier analysis of total N over time identified four prominent groups of subbasins: those with (1) low, (2) medium, and (3) high impacts of N (up to 2, 8, and 21 mg L−1, respectively) and a strong cyclical signal peaking in December and (4) those with very high impact of N (up to 43 mg L−1) and a weak time series signal. Preponderance of N in streams draining agriculturally dominated subbasins was in the form of the NO3− ion, implying mineralization of N that had been incorporated within plant tissue following its initial application in the spring as urea-based fertilizer. Since mineralization is driven by seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns, changes in agronomic practices designed to reduce prompt runoff of fertilizer are unlikely to achieve to more than ~24% reduction in N export to streams.
Towards accurate mobility and radio link modeling for IEEE 802.15.6 wearable body sensor networks

In this paper accurate mobility and radio link modeling for intra-body communication is presented. The proposed enhanced mobility and radio link models introduce space and time variations to existing IEEE 802.15. 6 channel models which can be used for better performance evaluation of new and existing algorithms and protocols. The contributions of this paper are in many folds. First, an accurate pathloss model is developed using real-time motion capture trace which provide dynamic distances for the space-time variations and temporal correlation in time. Further, the accurate mobility model is used to distinguish Line of Sight (LOS), Non Line Of Sight (NLOS) and periodic (or time varying) radio links. Second, a comprehensive radio link modeling approach is proposed, including the computations of SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), BER (Bit Error Rate) and PER (Packet Error Rate) which are accurately evaluated after achieving realistic pathloss across all the links locations. Finally, we assess the impact of the proposed enhanced models on the performance evaluation of the IEEE 802.15. 6 MAC protocol. The obtained results show between 10% to 30% lower packet delivery (depending on the considered mobility scenarios and physical layer parameters) due to accurate modeling.
Successful Return of a Wild Infant Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) to its Natal Group after Capture by Poachers

We report the successful return of an infant chimpanzee, aged approximately nine months, to her mother following the infant’s capture by poachers. The infant received only minor wounds in the incident, but her mother received severe wounds from hunters’ dogs during the capture. One of us (DK) was able to confiscate the infant from the hunters without incident. She was kept in fairly isolated surroundings in order to minimize disease transmission from humans, until the fate of her mother was determined. Following five days in captivity, we successfully returned the infant to her mother. The infant and mother appear to be in fine health eighteen months later. This case of a return of a dependant infant to its mother is perhaps the only successful record for wild chimpanzees, in part because we are able to follow the chimpanzees in question. The outcome was dependant on a number of factors that led to the successful return and acceptance of the infant, such as quick identification and confiscation of the infant, relatively good health of mother and infant, and brief separation time of the mother-infant pair.
Effects of sustained serotonin reuptake inhibition on the firing of dopamine neurons in the rat ventral tegmental area.

BACKGROUND Selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are efficacious in depression because of their ability to increase 5-HT neurotransmission. However, owing to a purported inhibitory effect of 5-HT on dopamine (DA) neuronal activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), this increase in 5-HT transmission might result in a suppression of the firing activity of DA neurons. Since the mesolimbic DA system plays an important role in motivation and reward, a potential decrease in the firing of DA neurons may lead, in some patients, to a lack of adequate response to SSRIs. METHODS We administered the SSRIs citalopram or escitalopram in rats. We determined DA neuronal activity using in-vivo electrophysiology. RESULTS Sustained administration of escitalopram robustly decreased the firing rate and burst activity of DA neurons. There was no difference in the mean number of spontaneously active DA neurons per tract among the 3 groups (citalopram, escitalopram, control). This inhibition was reversed by the selective 5-HT(2C) receptor antagonist SB 242084. Citalopram, however, did not alter the overall firing rate but inhibited the burst activity of DA neurons. LIMITATIONS Our experiments were carried out with the rats under general anesthesia. Therefore, under such conditions the absolute changes produced by SSRIs may heve been different from those occurring in freely moving rats. The exact location of the 5-HT(2C) receptors mediating the inhibitory effects of the SSRIs could not be determined in these studies. CONCLUSION The difference between escitalopram and citalopram in their effect on DA neuronal activity may be explained by the higher efficacy of escitalopram as a 5-HT reuptake inhibitor. Since the inhibitory effect of escitalopram on DA neuronal activity is mediated via 5-HT(2C) receptors, antagonists of these receptors might be effective adjuncts in SSRI-resistant depression.
Effects of robot-assisted activity for elderly people and nurses at a day service center

Mental commit robots have been developed to provide psychological, physiological, and social effects in human beings through physical interaction. The appearance of these robots is designed to emulate real animals such as a cat or a seal. The seal robot was developed especially for therapeutic applications. Seal robots have been applied to assisting the activity of the elderly at a day service center. In order to investigate the effects of seal robots on elderly people, their mood was evaluated using face scales (which express moods by identifying the appropriate facial illustration) and questionnaires. Changes in reaction to stress in the elderly was measured using urinary tests. In addition, stress of nursing staff was investigated. Their mental state was evaluated using a "burnout scale. " The day service center was provided with seal robots for five weeks. As a result, the feelings of elderly people improved by the interaction with the robots. Urinary tests showed that their ability to overcome stress were also improved. Moreover, the stress levels of the nursing staff decreased because the elderly people required less supervision when interacting with the robots. Consequently, the seal robots were judged to be useful at institutions for the elderly, such as the day service center.