Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resource-constrained geometric network optimization

WC study a variety of geometric network optimization prob lcms on a set of points, in which we are given a resource bound, a, on the total length of the network, and our ob jcctivc is to maximize the number of points visited (or the total “value” of points visited), In particular, we resolve the well-publicized open problem on the approximabiity of the rooted “orienteering problem” for the case in which the sites are given as points in the plane and the network required is a cycle. We obtain a 2approximation for this problem, We also obtain approximation algorithms for variants of this problem in which the network required is a tree (S-approximation) or a path Q-approximation). No prior approximation bounds were known for any of these problems, We also obtain improved approximation algorithms for geometric instances of the unrooted orienteering problem, where we obtain a 2-approximation for both the cycle and tree versions of the problem on points in the plane, as well as a G-approximation for the tree version in edge-weighted graphs, E’urther, we study generalizations of the basic orienteering problem, to the case of multiple roots, sites that are polygonnl regions, etc., where we again give the first known approximation results. Our methods are based on some new tools which may be of interest in their own right: (1) some new results on m-
A connectionist actor-critic algorithm for faster learning and biological plausibility

We propose a novel biologically plausible actor-critic algorithm using policy gradients in order to achieve practical, model-free reinforcement learning. It does not rely on backpropagation and is the first neural actor-critic relying only on locally available information. We show it has an advantage over pure policy gradients methods for motor learning performance in the polecart problem. We are also able to closely simulate the dopaminergic signaling patterns in rats when confronted with a two cue problem, showing that local, connectionist models can effectively model the functioning of the intrinsic reward system.
Process Mining in Non-Stationary Environments

Process Mining uses event logs to discover and analyse busi- ness processes, typically assumed to be static. However as businesses adapt to change, processes can be expected to change. Since one application of process mining is ensuring conformance to prescribed processes or rules, timely detection of change is important. We consider process mining in such non-stationary environments and show that using a probabilistic view of processes, timely and confident detection of change is possible.
Copper Nanowires and Their Applications for Flexible, Transparent Conducting Films: A Review

Cu nanowires (NWs) are attracting considerable attention as alternatives to Ag NWs for next-generation transparent conductors, replacing indium tin oxide (ITO) and micro metal grids. Cu NWs hold great promise for low-cost fabrication via a solution-processed route and show preponderant optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. In this study, we report a summary of recent advances in research on Cu NWs, covering the optoelectronic properties, synthesis routes, deposition methods to fabricate flexible transparent conducting films, and their potential applications. This review also examines the approaches on protecting Cu NWs from oxidation in air environments.
CLARITY at the TREC 2011 Microblog Track

For the first year of the TREC Microblog Track the CLARITY group concentrated on a number of areas, investigating the underlying term weighting scheme for ranking tweets, incorporating query expansion to introduce new terms into the query, as well as introducing an element of temporal re-weighting based on the temporal distribution of assumed relevant microblogs.
Infrared monitoring of OH/IR stars near the Galactic Center

We have monitored 102 fields of size 1 × 1 within ∼0.7 of the Galactic Center for 1200 days in the K band. Each field was centered on one of the OH/IR stars found by Lindqvist et al. (1992). Infrared colours J−K,H−K andK−Lwere also obtained. Periods have been determined for 80 known OH/IR stars, including 5 from Sjouwerman (1997), and a further 29 previously unknown long-period variables (LPVs) of large (> 0.5 mag.) K amplitude. The overall period distribution of the variables extends from ∼200 days to ∼1100 days and it is dominated by LPVs withP 300 days near the Galactic Center have lower luminosities and higher wind expansion velocities vexp at a given period than similar stars in the Galactic bulge or solar vicinity, indicating that the metal abundance of Galactic Center stars is ∼2-4 times solar. Another consequence of the observed low luminosities of the Galactic Center LPVs is that the (Mbol, logP ) and (K, logP ) relations must be metallicity dependent, at least for metallicities of solar or above. The maximum periods and luminosities of Galactic Center LPVs exceed those of bulge LPVs suggesting that there are AGB stars near the Galactic Center which are more massive than any stars in the bulge. AGB masses up to ∼4 M are relatively common, with a few AGB stars having masses up to ∼7 M . There should be ∼1000 main-sequence precursors in the same volume for each of these massive AGB stars. The high expansion velocity (vexp > 18 km s) OH/IR stars are separated from the lower expansion velocity OH/IR stars in the (Mbol, logP ) diagram: this separation suggests that the stars with higher vexp have higher metallicity, as well as being younger. The overall results suggest that ongoing star formation and metal enrichment have occurred near the Galactic Center.
Mentoring minority graduate students: issues and strategies for institutions, faculty, and students

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine mentoring relationships involving minority graduate students in the USA.Design/methodology/approach – The authors take a multifaceted approach to providing strategies to improve the opportunities of minority students to acquire mentors by directing attention to institutional practices, faculty development, and the behaviors of students themselves.Findings – Mentoring relationships provide critical personal and professional development opportunities throughout one's career. These relationships are especially important for racial minorities who often lack access to informal networks and information that is required to be successful in academic and professional environments in which they are under‐represented. The lack of mentors for minority graduate students is important to consider given the potential impact of this experience for minority graduate students’ retention and subsequent success, but also for the future diversity of the discipline (especially i.
Asymmetrical Gauss Mixture Models for Point Sets Matching

The probabilistic methods based on Symmetrical Gauss Mixture Model(SGMM)[4, 13, 8] have achieved great success in point sets registration, but are seldom used to find the correspondences between two images due to the complexity of the non-rigid transformation and too many outliers. In this paper we propose an Asymmetrical GMM(AGMM) for point sets matching between a pair of images. Different from the previous SGMM, the AGMM gives each Gauss component a different weight which is related to the feature similarity between the data point and model point, which leads to two effective algorithms: the Single Gauss Model for Mismatch Rejection(SGMR) algorithm and the AGMM algorithm for point sets matching. The SGMR algorithm iteratively filters mismatches by estimating a non-rigid transformation between two images based on the spatial coherence of point sets. The AGMM algorithm combines the feature information with position information of the SIFT feature points extracted from the images to achieve point sets matching so that much more correct correspondences with high precision can be found. A number of comparison and evaluation experiments reveal the excellent performance of the proposed SGMR algorithm and AGMM algorithm.
A Novel Method to Reduce Time Investment When Processing Videos from Camera Trap Studies

Camera traps have proven very useful in ecological, conservation and behavioral research. Camera traps non-invasively record presence and behavior of animals in their natural environment. Since the introduction of digital cameras, large amounts of data can be stored. Unfortunately, processing protocols did not evolve as fast as the technical capabilities of the cameras. We used camera traps to record videos of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber). However, a large number of recordings did not contain the target species, but instead empty recordings or other species (together non-target recordings), making the removal of these recordings unacceptably time consuming. In this paper we propose a method to partially eliminate non-target recordings without having to watch the recordings, in order to reduce workload. Discrimination between recordings of target species and non-target recordings was based on detecting variation (changes in pixel values from frame to frame) in the recordings. Because of the size of the target species, we supposed that recordings with the target species contain on average much more movements than non-target recordings. Two different filter methods were tested and compared. We show that a partial discrimination can be made between target and non-target recordings based on variation in pixel values and that environmental conditions and filter methods influence the amount of non-target recordings that can be identified and discarded. By allowing a loss of 5% to 20% of recordings containing the target species, in ideal circumstances, 53% to 76% of non-target recordings can be identified and discarded. We conclude that adding an extra processing step in the camera trap protocol can result in large time savings. Since we are convinced that the use of camera traps will become increasingly important in the future, this filter method can benefit many researchers, using it in different contexts across the globe, on both videos and photographs.
An Approach to Test Data Generation for Killing Multiple Mutants

Software testing is an important technique for assurance of software quality. Mutation testing has been identified as a powerful fault-based technique for unit testing, and there has been some research on automatic generation of test data for mutation testing. However, existing approaches to this kind of test data generation usually generate test data according to one mutant at one time. Thus, more test data that are needed for achieving a given mutation score. In this paper, we propose a new approach to generating one test data according to multiple mutants that are mutated at the same location at one time. Thus, our approach can generate smaller test suite that can achieve the same mutation testing score. To evaluate our approach, we implemented a prototype tool based on our approach and carried out some preliminary experiments. The experimental results show that our approach is more cost-effective
Characterization of Termination for Linear Homogeneous Programs

We present necessary and sufficient conditions for the termination of linear homogeneous programs.We also develop a powerful computational method to determine termination for this class of programs. Our complete characterization of termination for such programs is based on linear algebraic methods. We reduce the verification of the termination problem to checking the orthogonality of a well determined vector space and a certain vector, both related to loops in the program. Moreover, we provide theoretical results and symbolic computational methods guaranteeing the soundness, completeness and numerical stability of the approach. Finally, we show that it is enough to interpret variable values over a specific countable number field, or even over its ring of integers, when one wants to check termination over the reals.
Active Storage Framework for Object-based Storage Device

Active storage provides a service migration mechanism for applications to exploit processing capabilities in storage devices. However, in recent research, the model of service execution still remains passive request-driven mode. In self-management situation, a mechanism for automatic service execution is necessary. To address this problem, an active storage framework for object-based storage device is presented, which provides a hybrid approach to combine request-driven model and policy-driven model. Based on the requirements of active storage, some enhancements are added into the current version T10 OSD specification. Finally, a file system example shows that, with the help of the active storage mechanism, network delay can be dramatically reduced
Mechanism of aromatic amine carcinogen bypass by the Y-family polymerase, Dpo4

Bulky DNA damage inhibits DNA synthesis by replicative polymerases and often requires the action of error prone bypass polymerases. The exact mechanism governing adduct-induced mutagenesis and its dependence on the DNA sequence context remains unclear. In this work, we characterize Dpo4 binding conformations and activity with DNA templates modified with the carcinogenic DNA adducts, 2-aminofluoene (AF) or N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene (AAF), using single-molecule FRET (smFRET) analysis and DNA synthesis extension assays. We find that in the absence of dNTPs, both adducts alter polymerase binding as measured by smFRET, but the addition of dNTPs induces the formation of a ternary complex having what appears to be a conformation similar to the one observed with an unmodified DNA template. We also observe that the misincorporation pathways for each adduct present significant differences: while an AF adduct induces a structure consistent with the previously observed primer-template looped structure, its acetylated counterpart uses a different mechanism, one consistent with a dNTP-stabilized misalignment mechanism.
Scaling Results for a Closed Queueing Network with a Stochastic Link

In this paper we provide asymptotic scaling results for a closed feedback queueing network of two nodes: a first come first served node, and an infinite server node. The packet service times at the FCFS node are a sequence of i.i. d random variables, while the service times at the other node are deterministic. We show that it is possible to scale the parameters of the network in such a way as to achieve both high utilization, and low delay. We show how these asymptotics may apply to an internet of the future, with high bandwidth in the network core, and variable bandwidth provided by wireless access links. We provide both analytical and simulation results to suggest strongly that it is an inevitable consequence of random service times at wireless links that the size of queueing fluctuations at the access node must grow with the scaling (system bandwidth). This is in contrast to the queueing behaviour at core network nodes. Keywords—Sliding Window Flow Control, Wireless Links, Closed Queueing Networks, Network Scaling, Link Utilisa-
Buffering against academic loneliness: The benefits of social media-based peer support during postgraduate study

Although the support provided by social relationships may be essential to a successful student transition, the transition to postgraduate study has had little consideration from a social support perspective. The study described in this article investigated the role played by social support in postgraduate taught students’ adjustment to university, and how social media contributes to this support. Thematic analysis indicated that participants benefitted most from specialised support from peers dealing with similar academic challenges. Facebook groups showed potential as a platform for building supportive peer networks. However, the heightened visibility of communications on this platform led some participants towards Facebook Messenger as a medium for peer contact. The study suggested that, in order to meet postgraduates’ needs, institutions could ensure postgraduate students have sufficient opportunity for collaboration within their cohorts. In addition, while social media may aid this process, students’ individual communication preferences may inevitably influence their engagement with particular platforms.
Introduction 1. Huntingtin: the Huntington's Disease Protein 1.1. Huntingtin: an Overview

Huntingtin is a large, 348kDa, widely expressed, predominantly cytoplasmic protein that can also be found in the nucleus (Xia, 2003; Kegel, 2002). The interest in huntingtin comes from the fact that an expansion in the variable CAG tract in its encoding gene causes Huntington's disease (HD), an inherited, fatal, autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterized by selective loss of the striatal neurons (HDCRG, 1993). The dominant character of HD has directed most of the initial interest towards the acquired toxic gain-of-function by mutant huntingtin but, accumulating data point out that loss of wild-type huntingtin function plays also a role in the disease (Cattaneo, 2001). Even if HD pathology is triggered by the presence of the mutation, it has been suggested that some of the disease features may be explained by the loss-of-function from the normal form of the protein. One of these is the selective vulnerability of the striatum and of the deeper layers of the cortex, to undergo degeneration, even if huntingtin is
An exploration of the Velten Mood Induction Procedure on psychological symptomology

An Exploration of the Velten Mood Induction Procedure on Psychological Symptomology by Carla Nanette Perlotto Dr. Douglas P. Ferraro, Examination Committee Chair Professor of Psychology University of Nevada, Las Vegas The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Velten (1968) Mood Induction Procedure (VMIP) on psychological symptomology. Velten created a series of 60 statements designed to produce a particular mood: elated, depressed, or neutral. The VMIP came out of the cognitive movement, has undergone permutations over time, and other MIPs have been developed. Criticisms of the MIPs are discussed. The VMIP is feasible as a therapeutic tool due to flexibility and ease of use. In this study, the VMIP was utilized to induce an elated, depressed, or neutral mood. Hypotheses included: for elated condition (EC), report of symptoms would decrease; for depressed condition (DC), report o f symptoms would increase; for the neutral condition (NC), there would be no change, and the DC would show a greater change than the EC, and both would show greater change than the NC. A total of 314 participants were given three measures in a pretest/posttest design: the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist-Revised (MAACL-R), the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-
Systematic literature review on economic implications and pharmacoeconomic issues of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVES To provide a state of the art of economic analyses applied to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS A systematic literature review on economic consequences and pharmacoeconomic issues of RA was performed. RESULTS 127 valid articles were examined in this review. Generally, the financial impact of RA is substantial for health-care systems and society worldwide, although differences exist among national economies. Both direct and indirect (i.e. loss of productivity) costs contribute to economic burden of RA and must be taken into account when estimating overall impact to society. Disease severity, disease activity, age and socioeconomic status have been found to be the most relevant predictors of cost increase in RA. Moreover, introduction of biological anti-rheumatic agents has significantly raised direct medical costs in certain patients, but has also led to marked improvements in reducing disease activity, joint damage, and productivity loss in many of these patients. RA has also a significant impact on all aspects of quality of life; recent publications on health utility scores showed RA to be one of the diseases associated with poorest quality of life. CONCLUSIONS RA represents a clinical and economic burden for healthcare systems. Although attributable RA costs have been extensively evaluated over the last decades, several issues, especially concerning the use of expensive therapies, must be addressed and frequently updated. Future research should also provide health economic evidence from usual practice settings, and on the economic impact of different therapeutic approaches to pursue specific clinical targets in individual patients.
Chapter 5 Collective Construction with Robot Swarms

Social insects build large, complex structures, which emerge through the collective actions of many simple agents acting with no centralized control or preplanning. These natural systems inspire the research topic of collective construction, in which the goal is to engineer artificial systems that build in a similar way, with swarms of simple robots producing desired structures. In this chapter I review work on the design and realization of such systems. Robots in these systems act independently, in unknown numbers and with no fixed timing, using only local information and no explicit communication; the system takes a high-level design as input, and is guaranteed to produce a structure matching that design, without requiring the details of the construction process to be specified. Stigmergy (indirect communication through manipulation of a shared environment) and convention (tacit agreement due to the use of a common set of rules shared by all robots) are useful principles for implicit coordination that make these collective behaviors possible. I outline current progress in this area and future directions.
Studies of adaptive control methods based on VSC for trajectory tracking of robotic manipulators

Control methods are studied based on Variable Structure Control(VSC) thoery to make the trajectory tracking errors and response time of robotic manipulators be significantly reduced. By combining VSC and PID, a new control method has been proposed intially to improve the precision of the trajectory tracking. Furthermore, an adaptive fast control method based on VSC, which is to improve the performance of the reaching motion of conventional VSC method, is presented. The reaching motion would be optimized by proposing an adaptive reaching velocity, which can adjust to the changes of the errors as well as reduce chattering. The simulation results of a three degrees of freedom(DOF) robotic manipulator model have demonstrated that the performance of the two proposed methods is stable, with faster responses. Actually, the effectiveness of adaptive fast control method based on VSC has been further confirmed via experiments by the control of a two DOF robotic manipulator. Thus, the proposed adaptive fast control method based on VSC is superior to the conventional control methods.