Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
5-859(a) Machine Learning Theory * Active Learning Overview (see Also Slides) * Margin Based Learning of Linear Separators 1 Margin Based Learning of Linear Separators

There has recently been substantial interest in using unlabeled data together with labeled data for machine learning. The motivation is that unlabeled data can often be much cheaper and more plentiful than labeled data, and so if useful information can be extracted from it that reduces dependence on labeled examples, this can be a significant benefit. There are currently two settings that have been considered to incorporate unlabeled data in the learning process. The first one is the so-called Semi-supervised Learning [2, 4], where, in addition to a set of labeled examples drawn at random from the underlying data distribution, the learning algorithm can also use a (usually larger) set of unlabeled examples from the same distribution. In this setting, unlabeled data becomes informative under additional assumptions and beliefs about the learning problem. Examples of such assumptions are the one used by Transductive SVM (namely, that the target function should cut through low density regions of the space), or by Co-training (namely, that the target should be self-consistent in some way). Unlabeled data is then potentially useful in this setting because it allows one to reduce search space from the whole set of hypotheses, down to the set of a-priori reasonable with respect to the underlying distribution. The second setting, an increasingly popular one for the past few years, is Active Learning [1, 5, 7]. Here, the learning algorithm has both the capability of drawing random unlabeled examples from the underlying distribution and that of asking for the labels of any of these examples, and the hope is that a good classifier can be learned with significantly fewer labels by actively directing the queries to informative examples. As opposed to the Semi-supervised learning setting, and similarly to the classical supervised learning settings (PAC and Statistical Learning Theory settings) the only prior belief about the learning problem in the Active Learning setting is that the target function (or a good approximation of it) belongs to a given concept class. Luckily, it turns out that for simple concept classes such as linear separators on the line one can achieve an exponential improvement (over the usual supervised learning setting) in the labeled data sample complexity, under no additional assumptions about the learning problem [1, 5]. 1 In general, however, for more complicated concept classes, the speed-ups achievable in the active learning setting depend on the match between the distribution over example-label pairs and …
Unsupervised learning of temporal receptive fields using convolutional RBM for ASR task

There has been a significant research attention for unsupervised representation learning to learn the features for speech processing applications. In this paper, we investigate unsupervised representation learning using Convolutional Restricted Boltzmann Machine (ConvRBM) with rectified units for speech recognition task. Temporal modulation representation is learned using log Mel-spectrogram as an input to ConvRBM. ConvRBM as modulation features and filterbank as spectral features were separately trained on DNNs and then system combination is used. With our proposed setup, ConvRBM features were applied to speech recognition task on TIMIT and WSJ0 databases. On TIMIT database, we achieved relative improvement of 5.93% in PER on test set compared to only filterbank features. For WSJ0 database, we achieved relative improvement of 3.63-4.3% in WER on test sets compared to filterbank features. Hence, DNN trained on ConvRBM with rectified units provide significant complementary information in terms of temporal modulation features.
Virtual Organisations Enabling Net-based Engineering *

New forms of organisations that are net-based have emerged due to new IC technologies. These organisations, often referred as Virtual Organisations (VOs) support all sorts of eWork, eBusiness and eCommerce activities. In particular, they support engineering work by offering to engineers through the Internet a set of new services. These services, as well as, the organisations offering them, are outlined in the paper. The paper presents the main types of VOs enabling net-based engineering, i.e.: engineering-related eCommerce VOs, information brokers for engineers, engineering networks, and virtual libraries. Their services are primarily information and tool delivery. Examples of them are described. As a conclusion, benefits for design engineers together with an industrial significance of new collaborative type of engineering work based upon these services is emphasised.
Comparison of the Dynamics and Functional Redundancy of the Arabidopsis Dynamin-Related Isoforms DRP1A and DRP1C during Plant Development1[W][OA]

Members of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) DYNAMIN-RELATED PROTEIN1 (DRP1) family are required for cytokinesis and cell expansion. Two isoforms, DRP1A and DRP1C, are required for plasma membrane maintenance during stigmatic papillae expansion and pollen development, respectively. It is unknown whether the DRP1s function interchangeably or if they have distinct roles during cell division and expansion. DRP1C was previously shown to form dynamic foci in the cell cortex, which colocalize with part of the clathrin endocytic machinery in plants. DRP1A localizes to the plasma membrane, but its cortical organization and dynamics have not been determined. Using dual color labeling with live cell imaging techniques, we showed that DRP1A also forms discreet dynamic foci in the epidermal cell cortex. Although the foci overlap with those formed by DRP1C and clathrin light chain, there are clear differences in behavior and response to pharmacological inhibitors between DRP1A and DRP1C foci. Possible functional or regulatory differences between DRP1A and DRP1C were supported by the failure of DRP1C to functionally compensate for the absence of DRP1A. Our studies indicated that the DRP1 isoforms function or are regulated differently during cell expansion.
Toward formalizing domain modeling semantics in language syntax

Information systems are situated in and are representations of some business or organizational domain. Hence, understanding the application domain is critical to the success of information systems development. To support domain understanding, the application domain is represented in conceptual models. The correctness of conceptual models can affect the development outcome and prevent costly rework during later development stages. This paper proposes a method to restrict the syntax of a modeling language to ensure that only possible configurations of a domain can be modeled, thus increasing the likelihood of creating correct domain models. The proposed method, based on domain ontologies, captures relationships among domain elements via constraints on the language metamodel, thus restricting the set of statements about the domain that can be generated with the language. In effect, this method creates domain specific modeling languages from more generic ones. The method is demonstrated using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Specifically, it is applied to the subset of UML dealing with object behavior and its applicability is demonstrated on a specific modeling example.
Formal Specification and Verification of Separation Kernels: An Overview

Separation kernel, a fundamental software of safety and security critical systems, provides to its hosted software applications high-assurance partitioning and information flow control properties. The application of separation kernel in critical domain demands the correctness of the kernel by formal verification. To our knowledge, there does not exist a survey paper on this topic. This paper give an overview to the topic of formal specification and verification of the separation kernel. We overview the concept of separation kernel and formal verification, survey the state of the art on the topic after the year 2000, and summarize these works by comparing them and discussing some issues.
ACE Insertion/Deletion Polymorphism and Cardiovascular Effect of Hypercholesterolemia.

Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockade by angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers is now regarded as one of the pivotal treatment modalities for cardiovas-cular diseases (CVDs), indicating that the RAS plays a critical role in CVDs. Along with environmental factors , multiple studies reported that genetic factors affect RAS activity. Among a wide variety of RAS-related gene polymorphisms, insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of ACE has been most extensively investigated. A recent systematic review, including 34,993 patients in 40 studies, suggested that the ACE D allele was significantly associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction, especially in the Chinese population 1). However, the association of ACE D allele with the risk of myocardial infarction remains controversial because publication bias overestimated its risk. Some studies identified ACE I/D as a modifier of CVD risk factors, including age 2) , smoking 2) , and hypertension 3) , although not as a prognostic predictor. In the Hisayama Study, a prospective cohort study in Japan 4) , Kondo et al. reported an interesting effect modification between ACE I/D and hypercho-lesterolemia in predicting the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD). During the mean observational period of 16.2 years, 161 (7.6%) participants developed CHD. ACE I/D was never associated with CHD in Cox proportional hazards models. However, ACE I/ D modified an association between baseline hypercho-lesterolemia defined as ≥ 220 mg/dL and the incidence of CHD. In subjects with ACE and ID, hypercholesterolemia was significantly associated with the incidence of CVD (multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio 1.53 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06 2.20]). Their association was remarkably enhanced in subject with ACE DD (4.02 [1.799.02], P for interaction 0.03). The authors also showed that the serum total cholesterol level as a continuous variable provided a similar effect modification. The results of the Hisayama Study were contrary to a previous French case-control study, the Etude Cas-Temoin de l'Infarctus du Myocarde (ECTIM) study, including 610 male patients with myocardial infarction and 733 controls 5). The main exposure of interest was a composite of hyperlipidemia and/or obesity defined as plasma ApoB levels ≥ 125 mg/dL (the approximate median value in controls), use of lipid-lowering drugs, and/or a body mass index ≥ 26 kg/m 2 (the approximate median value in controls). Subjects with hyperlipidemia and/or obesity were at significantly higher risk of myocardial infarction among subjects with ACE /ID (crude odds ratio 3.33 [95%CI 2.294.84], calculated from the result), but not …
The nebulous nature of the …rm: An empirical study of corporate group structure in 16 developed economies

Though it is widely recognized that the stylized image of the …rm as a discrete organizational actor is at odds with the global reality, there has been relatively little progress toward assembling the type of systematic evidence necessary to replace this archetype. We take a step toward …lling this gap by combining insights from multiple theoretical perspectives to construct a novel set of measures of the internal cohesion of corporate groups (aka "business groups"), confederations of legally independent …rms linked by multiplex economic and social ties. Corporate groups provide an ideal context for developing a more globally balanced view of economic organization because these nebulous entities challenge conceptions rooted in the unitary image of the …rm, and in the American-inspired, market-based model of economic organization more generally. Using novel algorithms and techniques, we calculate the cohesion measures for a comprehensive data set including ownership and accounting information for approximately eight million European and 14 million American publicly-traded and closely-held companies. To identify structural archetypes in the data, we employ clustering analysis and a series of cross-country regression analyses. We …nd that corporate groups’a¢ liate
FAST GLOBAL IMAGE REGISTRATION USING RANDOM PROJECTIONS

We describe a new method for efficiently computing the global optimum of least squares registration problems based on the recently developed theory of signal processing using random projections. The method is especially attractive for large scale registration problems where the goal is to register many images to a standard template. We test our new algorithm using real images of cells' nuclei and show our method can outperform more traditional dimension reduction methods such as projections onto lower dimensional B-spline function spaces
EVALITA Goes Social: Tasks, Data, and Community at the 2016 Edition

EVALITA, the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for the Italian language, was organised for the ﬁfth time in 2016. Six tasks, covering both re-reruns as well as completely new tasks, and an IBM-sponsored challenge, attracted a total of 34 submissions. An innovative aspect at this edition was the focus on social media data, especially Twitter, and the use of shared data across tasks, yielding a test set with layers of annotation concerning PoS tags, sentiment information, named entities and linking, and factuality information. Differently from the previous edition(s), many systems relied on a neural architecture, and achieved best results when used. From the experience and success of this edition, also in terms of dissemination of information and data, and in terms of collaboration between organisers of different tasks, we collected some reﬂections and suggestions that prospective EVALITA chairs might be willing to take into account for future editions.
Quasi-Monopolar Stimulation: A Novel Electrode Design Configuration for Performance Optimization of a Retinal Neuroprosthesis

In retinal neuroprostheses, spatial interaction between electric fields from various electrodes – electric crosstalk – may occur in multielectrode arrays during simultaneous stimulation of the retina. Depending on the electrode design and placement, this crosstalk can either enhance or degrade the functional characteristics of a visual prosthesis. To optimize the device performance, a balance must be satisfied between the constructive interference of crosstalk on dynamic range and power consumption and its negative effect on artificial visual acuity. In the present computational modeling study, we have examined the trade-off in these positive and negative effects using a range of currently available electrode array configurations, compared to a recently proposed stimulation strategy – the quasi monopolar (QMP) configuration – in which the return current is shared between local bipolar guards and a distant monopolar electrode. We evaluate the performance of the QMP configuration with respect to the implantation site and electrode geometry parameters. Our simulation results demonstrate that the beneficial effects of QMP are only significant at electrode-to-cell distances greater than the electrode dimensions. Possessing a relatively lower activation threshold, QMP was found to be superior to the bipolar configuration in terms of providing a relatively higher visual acuity. However, the threshold for QMP was more sensitive to the topological location of the electrode in the array, which may need to be considered when programming the manner in which electrode are simultaneously activated. This drawback can be offset with a wider dynamic range and lower power consumption of QMP. Furthermore, the ratio of monopolar return current to total return can be used to adjust the functional performance of QMP for a given implantation site and electrode parameters. We conclude that the QMP configuration can be used to improve visual information-to-stimulation mapping in a visual prosthesis, while maintaining low power consumption.
Paradoxes of improving performance management (sytems) in public administration.

New public management set off a new wave of performance management efforts in government. Recent performance literature has documented the shortcomings of performance management and provided recommendations on how to improve it. This emerging issues’ contribution revisits this literature and makes a distinction between recommendations for better implementation of what are seen as essentially good systems (single loop learning) on the one hand, and recommendations that target the performance management systems themselves (double loop learning) on the other. It is argued that in complex settings, performance management may benefit from new ways of carrying out performance management. It is suggested that performance management needs to be more agile, more decentralised and more political.
Relay Precoding for Non-Regenerative MIMO Relay Systems with Partial CSI in the Presence of Interferers

In this paper, a relay precoding problem is considered in a non-regenerative multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) relay system, when multiple interferers exist near the destination. The relay has the perfect channel state information (CSI) of the source-relay link and only the covariance information of the relay-destination link. Also, we assume that the training signals of the interferers are known at the destination, and thus, the covariance information of the channels from the interferers to the destination can be estimated at the destination and the information is fed back to the relay. For this scenario, the structure of the optimal relay precoder is derived to maximize the average capacity seen by the relay under a relay transmit power constraint. For the derivation of the optimal relay precoder, a new partial ordering result for the outage probability and the ergodic capacity of spatially correlated MIMO channels is derived. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme considerably improves the performance. Overall, the contributions of this paper are twofold: i) a new partial ordering result for MIMO channels is derived and ii) the structure of the optimal relay precoder is derived using the partial ordering result.
A framework of international joint ventures exit: A resource dependence and learning perspective

Although international joint ventures (IJVs) have been a dominant market entry mode for years, high failure rates have been reported. Hence, an important part of research on IJVs focuses on success in terms of survival or persistence. The literature on IJV survival and exit (i.e., termination), however, has important limitations. Addressing these limitations, I offer an IJV exit framework and corresponding propositions that apply resource dependence and learning theories. The framework illustrates how specific determinants influence the likelihood of an IJV's persistence or termination through liquidation, internalization or sell-off. It extends the uni-directional notion of the current IJV learning theory and illustrates that parental learning does not necessarily lead to an IJV's internalization, whereas absent learning does not inevitably result in an IJV's persistence. Furthermore, this article shows how particular aspects of a firm's culture such as uncertainty avoidance affect the exit of IJVs.
(S)‐Armepavine inhibits human peripheral blood mononuclear cell activation by regulating Itk and PLCγ activation in a PI‐3K‐dependent manner

Chinese herbs are useful edible and medicinal plants for their immune modulatory functions. We have proven that (S)‐armepavine (C19H23O3N; MW313) from Nelumbo nucifera inhibits the proliferation of human PBMCs activated with PHA and improves autoimmune diseases in MRL/MpJ‐lpr/lpr mice. In the present study, the pharmacological activities of (S)‐armepavine were evaluated in PHA‐activated PBMCs. The results showed that (S)‐armepavine suppressed PHA‐induced PBMC proliferation and genes expression of IL‐2 and IFN‐γ without direct cytotoxicity. Inhibition of NF‐AT and NF‐κB activation suggested phospholipase Cγ (PLCγ)‐mediated Ca2+ mobilization and protein kinase C activation were blocked by (S)‐armepavine. Phosphorylation of PLCγ is regulated by lymphocyte‐specific kinase (Lck), ZAP‐70, and IL‐2‐inducible T cell kinase (Itk). We found (S)‐armepavine inhibited PHA‐induced phosphorylation of Itk and PLCγ efficiently but did not influence Lck or ZAP‐70 phosphorylation. In addition, ZAP‐70‐mediated pathways, such as the association of linker for activation of T cells with PLCγ and activation of ERK, were also intact in the presence of (S)‐armepavine. Finally, reduction of phosphoinositide 3,4,5‐trisphosphate formation and Akt phosphorylation suggested that (S)‐armepavine inhibited Itk, and PLCγ phosphorylation might be a result of the influence of PI‐3K activation. Addition of exogenous IL‐2 or PMA/A23187 rescued PBMC proliferation in the presence of (S)‐armepavine. Therefore, we concluded that (S)‐armepavine inhibited PHA‐induced cell proliferation and cytokine production in a major way by blocking membrane‐proximal effectors such as Itk and PLCγ in a PI‐3K‐dependent manner.
Anomaly detection in IP networks with principal component analysis

In this paper, we study the application of PCA to the IP network anomaly detection. The algorithm is based on detecting changes in traffic feature distribution aggregated by sample entropy. This method of detection has originally been proposed to detect anomalous traffic on origin-destination flows in backbone networks. We have adjusted the algorithm so that it works with network traffic captured from a single network interface. This makes the algorithm possible to be implemented in any IP networks. The experimental result shows that our implementation can detect some types of known anomaly. As the algorithm is also able to detect unknown types of anomaly, it is also possible to be implemented as preliminary detection system.
Trends in prevalence of asthma and allergy in Finnish young men: nationwide study, 1966-2003

Recent reports on time trends in atopic disease suggest that the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis has levelled off in some European countries after several decades of increasing.1 2 We reported earlier that the prevalence of asthma in young Finnish men remained stable from 1926 to 1961 but started to rise steeply during the 1960s; a sixfold, virtually linear increase in asthma prevalence was found between 1966 and 1989, in parallel with increases in indicators of disabling asthma (on the basis of the percentage of men exempted from military service at call-up owing to asthma and of men discharged during service as a result of asthma). 3 We examined whether similar trends have continued during the subsequent 13 years (1990-2003). As data on current trends in prevalence of allergic conditions are scarce, we also examined the trends in prevalence of allergic rhinitis and eczema from 1966 to 2003 among these young men. In Finland, about 98% of all men aged 18-19 are examined to establish their fitness for …
Radiation-Hardened Point-of-Load Buck Regulators for Space Applications

The effects of radiation on electronic components in the space environment are a key concern for spacecraft designers. As space-grade Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Digital Signal Processor (DSP), ASIC, and SRAM power-management designs increase in power and complexity, while shifting to lower and tighter tolerance supply voltages, the use of radiation-hardened DC-to-DC power converters has become critical, in order to maintain highly-reliable operation in these harsh environments. This paper presents a practical power-management solution for space, defense and commercial/industrial applications that require small size, design versatility, and radiation tolerance.