Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Nature and Origin of Heavy Tails in Retweet Activity

Modern social media platforms facilitate the rapid spread of information online. Modelling phenomena such as social contagion and information diffusion are contingent upon a detailed understanding of the information-sharing processes. In Twitter, an important aspect of this occurs with retweets, where users rebroadcast the tweets of other users. To improve our understanding of how these distributions arise, we analyse the distribution of retweet times. We show that a power law with exponential cutoff provides a better fit than the power laws previously suggested. We explain this fit through the burstiness of human behaviour and the priorities individuals place on different tasks.
Acanthaceae Juss. no Parque Estadual Restinga de Bertioga, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

RESUMO A vegetação de restinga é formada por comunidades costeiras diversificadas, determinadas por fatores abióticos, como a topografia e a influência flúvio-marinha. As informações sobre a composição florística das restingas do litoral central do Estado de São Paulo são deficientes, poucos trabalhos referem a ocorrência de Acanthaceae nesse ecossistema e, quando o fazem, não há descrição das espécies. Foram encontradas dez espécies dos seguintes gêneros no Parque Estadual Restinga de Bertioga (PERB): Aphelandra, Avicennia, Brillantaisia, Justicia, Hygrophila, Herpetacanthus, Lepidagathis e Ruellia. Este trabalho apresenta uma chave de identificação das espécies, descrições, informações sobre habitat e distribuição geográfica e fotografias das espécies.
The Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics NUMBER ? ? ? MARCH 2013 1 – 18 The Design of Eman , an Experiment Manager

We present eman, a tool for managing large numbers of computational experiments. Over the years of our research in machine translation (MT), we have collected a couple of ideas for efficient experimenting. We believe these ideas are generally applicable in (computational) research of any field. We incorporated them into eman in order to make them available in a command-line Unix environment. The aim of this article is to highlight the core of the many ideas. We hope the text can serve as a collection of experiment management tips and tricks for anyone, regardless their field of study or computer platform they use. The specific examples we provide in eman’s current syntax are less important but they allow us to use concrete terms. The article thus also fills the gap in eman documentation by providing some high-level overview.
Don't just listen, use your imagination: Leveraging visual common sense for non-visual tasks

Artificial agents today can answer factual questions. But they fall short on questions that require common sense reasoning. Perhaps this is because most existing common sense databases rely on text to learn and represent knowledge. But much of common sense knowledge is unwritten - partly because it tends not to be interesting enough to talk about, and partly because some common sense is unnatural to articulate in text. While unwritten, it is not unseen. In this paper we leverage semantic common sense knowledge learned from images - i.e. visual common sense - in two textual tasks: fill-in-the-blank and visual paraphrasing. We propose to “imagine” the scene behind the text, and leverage visual cues from the “imagined” scenes in addition to textual cues while answering these questions. We imagine the scenes as a visual abstraction. Our approach outperforms a strong text-only baseline on these tasks. Our proposed tasks can serve as benchmarks to quantitatively evaluate progress in solving tasks that go “beyond recognition”. Our code and datasets are publicly available.
Recherche locale : stratégie du moins bon améliorant

Déterminer par recherche locale une solution approchée à un problème d’optimisation combinatoire consiste à transformer une configuration intiale en lui appliquant des modifications locales au moyen d’une relation de voisinage. De nombreuses métaheuristiques de recherche locale ont été définies (algorithmes de descente, recherche tabou, recuit simulé, recherche locale itérée, etc), et diffèrent principalement dans leur stratégie de sélection des mouvements à appliquer. En particulier, les algorithmes de descente, ou climbers, représentent un moyen simple d’atteindre des optimums locaux, et sont employés comme briques de base de nombreuses métaheuristiques avancées. D’une manière générale, les climbers utilisent soit la stratégie du meilleur améliorant, soit la stratégie du premier améliorant. La stratégie du meilleur améliorant consiste à générer et évaluer l’ensemble du voisinage à chaque étape de la recherche, en sélectionnant à chaque fois le mouvement conduisant à la configuration voisine de la meilleure qualité. La stratégie du premier améliorant consiste à accepter le premier voisin de meilleure qualité que la configuration courante, ce qui évite ainsi de devoir générer la totalité du voisinage à chaque étape de la recherche. Dans une étude récente [1], nous avons montré que la stratégie du premier améliorant permet souvent d’atteindre des optimums locaux de meilleure qualité que la stratégie du meilleur améliorant, en particulier sur les instances difficiles. Intuitivement, en choisissant la pente la plus raide du paysage de recherche, la stratégie du meilleur améliorant tend à orienter la recherche sur le premier pic du paysage, tandis que choisir le premier améliorant permet à la recherche de grimper plus doucement et peut ainsi conduire à des zones potentiellement plus intéressantes. Pour cette raison, il nous a semblé intéressant d’étudier la stratégie du moins bon améliorant, afin de déterminer si choisir systématiquement le voisin de plus petite amélioration permet de ralentir suffisament la convergence pour éviter de nombreux otpimums locaux de mauvaise qualité.
Cerebral Autoregulation During Moderate Hypothermia in Rats

Background and Purpose Little is known about the effects of hypothermia on cerebral autoregulation. The present study was designed to examine cerebral blood flow responses to controlled hemorrhagic hypotension in normothermic and hypothermic rats. Methods Cortical blood flow was measured with a laser-Doppler flowmeter in halothane-anesthetized rats assigned to one of three groups: normothermic group 1(n=8) with a pericranial temperature of ≈36.5°C or hypothermic group 2 (n=8) or group 3 (n=8) with a pericranial temperature of ≈30.5°C. In group2, a Paco2 of ≈40 mm Hg was maintained without correction for body temperature. To evaluate the role of Paco2, in group 3 animals Paco2, was kept at ≈40 mm Hg as corrected for body temperature. In all animals, the mean arterial blood pressure was reduced by hemorrhage in increments of 10 mm Hg every 2 minutes. Results In group 1 animals, a typical autoregulatory curve was observed with cerebral blood flow first falling at or below 75% of baseline at a mean arterial pressure of 57 ±15 mm Hg (mean±SD). Absolute normotensive cerebral blood flow in group2 fell to ≤75% of baseline at a mean arterial pressure of 73±21 mm Hg. In group3, no evidence of autoregulation was seen. Cerebral blood flow reached values ≤75% of baseline at a mean arterial pressure of 82±14 mm Hg, whereas calculated cerebrovascular resistance failed to show any compensatory vasodilation as the mean arterial pressure decreased. Conclusions Different Paco2 management schemes used during hypothermia may have profound effects on cerebral blood flow and on autoregulation. If Paco2 is maintained at 40 mm Hg after correction for temperature, autoregulation is abolished. If uncorrected Paco2 is maintained at ≈40 mm Hg, some degree of autoregulation is preserved, albeit with a right-shifted “knee. ”
Long-Run Impacts of Unions on Firms: New Evidence from Financial Markets, 1961-1999

We estimate the effect of new unionization on firms? equity value over the 1961-1999 period using a newly assembled sample of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) representation elections matched to stock market data. Event-study estimates show an average union effect on the equity value of the firm equivalent to a cost of at least $40,500 per unionized worker. At the same time, point estimates from a regression-discontinuity design comparing the stock market impact of close union election wins to close losses are considerably smaller and close to zero. We find a negative relationship between the cumulative abnormal returns and the vote share in support of the union, allowing us to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings. Using the magnitudes from the analysis, we calibrate a structural median voter model of endogenous union determination in order to conduct counterfactual policy simulations of policies that would marginally increase the ease of unionization.
Characteristics of Wind Velocity and Temperature Change Near an Escarpment-Shaped Road Embankment

Artificial structures such as embankments built during the construction of highways influence the surrounding airflow. Various types of damage can occur due to changes in the wind velocity and temperature around highway embankments. However, no study has accurately measured micrometeorological changes (wind velocity and temperature) due to embankments. This study conducted a wind tunnel test and field measurement to identify changes in wind velocity and temperature before and after the construction of embankments around roads. Changes in wind velocity around an embankment after its construction were found to be influenced by the surrounding wind velocity, wind angle, and the level difference and distance from the embankment. When the level difference from the embankment was large and the distance was up to 3H, the degree of wind velocity declines was found to be large. In changes in reference wind velocities around the embankment, wind velocity increases were not proportional to the rate at which wind velocities declined. The construction of the embankment influenced surrounding temperatures. The degree of temperature change was large in locations with large level differences from the embankment at daybreak and during evening hours when wind velocity changes were small.
Local/global scene flow estimation

The scene flow describes the 3D motion of every point in a scene between two time steps. We present a novel method to estimate a dense scene flow using intensity and depth data. It is well known that local methods are more robust under noise while global techniques yield dense motion estimation. We combine local and global constraints to solve for the scene flow in a variational framework. An adaptive TV (Total Variation) regularization is used to preserve motion discontinuities. Besides, we constrain the motion using a set of 3D correspondences to deal with large displacements. In the experimentation our approach outperforms previous scene flow from intensity and depth methods in terms of accuracy.
Comparing tag scheme variations using an abstract machine generator

In this paper we study, in the context of a WAM-based abstract machine for Prolog, how variations in the encoding of type information in tagged words and in their associated basic operations impact performance and memory usage.We use a high-level language to specify encodings and the associated operations. An automatic generator constructs both the abstract machine using this encoding and the associated Prolog-to-bytecode compiler. Annotations in this language make it possible to impose constraints on the final representation of tagged words, such as the effectively addressable space (fixing, for example, the word size of the target processor / architecture), the layout of the tag and value bits inside the tagged word, and how the basic operations are implemented. We evaluate a large number of combinations of the different parameters in two scenarios: a) trying to obtain an optimal general-purpose abstract machine and b) automatically generating a specially-tuned abstract machine for a particular program. We conclude that we are able to automatically generate code featuring all the optimizations present in a hand-written, highly-optimized abstract machine and we can also obtain emulators with larger addressable space and better performance
Rapid response system: Let???s not get carried away!

To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Dr. Winters and colleagues (1) and the accompanying editorial (2) published in the May 2007 issue of Critical Care Medicine. Although there have been no compelling reasons to believe in rapid response systems as the standard of care based on the current literature, they clearly have been adopted by many institutions and have significant support from many doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators. The big question we would like to raise is the following. Can rapid response systems universally be implemented, including at smaller community hospitals? With the current shortage of intensivists, we are skeptical that it will be feasible! Any further studies to assess the impact of rapid response systems on outcome and mortality need to address a very important but frequently ignored issue, namely the educational impact on senior trainees, especially those in internal medicine that are pursuing a career as hospitalists. Future hospitalists should be familiar with managing common acute medical problems such as acute heart failure, acute coronary syndrome, asthma, acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or acute gastrointestinal bleeding, because they might be the only available doctors in those hospitals that are expected to deal with the problems. In our institution, for example, no matter how easily the situation can be managed, the intensive care team headed by an attending intensivist takes control of patient management as soon as the patient arrives, leaving the primary service on the side lines. Trainees have complained that they are deprived of the opportunities to manage the acute problems, and feel that this is affecting their overall level of competence. Trainees have seldom run a code or been really in charge of dealing with unstable patients. Frequently, the primary team does not even know that their patient is not doing well, and a condition is called on their patients by the nursing staff without letting them know first. They feel that they are frequently out of the loop. Although we think that we are providing the best care for the patients for the time being, we are not sure about the long-term impact on training of future doctors at the societal level when they are the sole caregivers of patients in the new institution. One suggestion we have is that when the code is called, we as intensivists should let the trainee deal with the problem as we watch and supervise them very closely and offer immediate help if things are not going well.
Fair Simulation for Nondeterministic and Probabilistic Buechi Automata: a Coalgebraic Perspective

Notions of simulation, among other uses, provide a computationally tractable and sound (but not necessarily complete) proof method for language inclusion. They have been comprehensively studied by Lynch and Vaandrager for nondeterministic and timed systems; for B\"{u}chi automata the notion of fair simulation has been introduced by Henzinger, Kupferman and Rajamani. We contribute to a generalization of fair simulation in two different directions: one for nondeterministic tree automata previously studied by Bomhard; and the other for probabilistic word automata with finite state spaces, both under the B\"{u}chi acceptance condition. The former nondeterministic definition is formulated in terms of systems of fixed-point equations, hence is readily translated to parity games and is then amenable to Jurdzi\'{n}ski's algorithm; the latter probabilistic definition bears a strong ranking-function flavor. These two different-looking definitions are derived from one source, namely our coalgebraic modeling of B\"{u}chi automata. Based on these coalgebraic observations, we also prove their soundness: a simulation indeed witnesses language inclusion.
A handover decision algorithm from LTE-advanced to Wireless Mesh Network

Using Wi-Fi hotspot is increasingly adopted by operators as it boosts network capacity. For that reason, several studies have been carried out to define the best approaches to route IP flows from LTE through Wi-Fi. In this paper, we investigate the IP flows handover problem from an LTE-A network to a Wireless Mesh network (WMN) owned by the operator. We propose a new handover decision algorithm hosted in the Packed Data Network Gateway (P-GW). It depends on the radio link contention, End to End delay and the traffic type. Simulation shows significant gain as the percentage of flows derived through the WMN reaches 100% for the first scenario and exceed 47% for the second one, which leads to decrease LTE-network congestion and allows the operator to deliver real time and non-real time services with a low cost solution.
THE STUDY ON GENERAL SECURE MULTI-PARTY COMPUTATION

This paper, pertaining to the design of a new security model with multiparty computation for security, aims to study the rational model and UC (universal composability) model as well as design a security protocol for the requirements of the models. The structures of secret sharing agreement, fair computation agreement, bit analysis agreement and the applications of these agreements on security multiparty computation are investigated in the study. Moreover, the study also explores network application technology, such as electronic auction, electronic voting, encrypted data computation and threshold cryptology. This paper further analyzes the combination of rational model and security multiparty computation and proposes a new rational secret sharing method with two rational participants to improve previous methods. Based on (m + n, t + 1) threshold, a new (m+ n, t1 + t2) threshold, utilizing the definition of specific permission secret sharing, is proposed and a respondent rational secret sharing protocol is constructed. This paper further studies the theories of UC model and proposes a UC security highperformance voting agreement, which is based on bilinear pairing and secret sharing, by replacing zero-knowledge proof with the new encoding method. Furthermore, this paper studies other applications of security multiparty protocol, such as threshold cryptology and electronic auctions, and constructs more secure agreements with higher performance.
Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data

Recent studies find that cash remains a dominant payment choice for small-value transactions despite the prevalence of alternative means of payment such as debit and credit cards. For policy makers an important question is whether consumers truly prefer using cash or merchants restrict card usage. Using the Bank of Canada’s 2009 Method of Payment Survey, we estimate a generalized multinomial logit model of payment choices to extract individual heterogeneity (demand-side factors) while controlling for merchants’ acceptance of cards (supply-side factors). Based on a counterfactual exercise where we assume universal card acceptance among merchants, we find that some consumers would decrease their cash usage but the magnitude of this decrease is small. Our results imply that the use of cash in small-value transactions is driven mainly by consumers’ preferences.
Survey of SSC12 Regions Affecting Fatty Acid Composition of Intramuscular Fat Using High-Density SNP Data

Fatty acid composition is a critical aspect of pork because it affects sensorial and technological aspects of meat quality and it is relevant for human health. Previous studies identified significant QTLs in porcine chromosome 12 for fatty acid profile of back fat (BF) and intramuscular fat (IMF). In the present study, 374 SNPs mapped in SSC12 from the 60K Porcine SNP Beadchip were used. We have combined linkage and association analyses with expression data analysis in order to identify regions of SSC12 that could affect fatty acid composition of IMF in longissimus muscle. The QTL scan showed a region around the 60-cM position that significantly affects palmitic fatty acid and two related fatty acid indexes. The Iberian QTL allele increased the palmitic content (+2.6% of mean trait). This QTL does not match any of those reported in the previous study on fatty acid composition of BF, suggesting different genetic control acting at both tissues. The SNP association analyses showed significant associations with linolenic and palmitic acids besides several indexes. Among the polymorphisms that affect palmitic fatty acid and match the QTL region at 60 cM, there were three that mapped in the Phosphatidylcholine transfer protein (PCTP) gene and one in the Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase ∝ gene (ACACA). Interestingly one of the PCTP SNPs also affected significantly unsaturated and double bound indexes and the ratio between polyunsaturated/monounsaturated fatty acids. Differential expression was assessed on longissimus muscle conditional on the genotype of the QTL and on the most significant SNPs, according to the results obtained in the former analyses. Results from the microarray expression analyses, validated by RT-qPCR, showed that PCTP expression levels significantly vary depending on the QTL as well as on the own PCTP genotype. The results obtained with the different approaches point out the PCTP gene as a powerful candidate underlying the QTL for palmitic content.
Cations Form Sequence Selective Motifs within DNA Grooves via a Combination of Cation-Pi and Ion-Dipole/Hydrogen Bond Interactions

The fine conformational subtleties of DNA structure modulate many fundamental cellular processes including gene activation/repression, cellular division, and DNA repair. Most of these cellular processes rely on the conformational heterogeneity of specific DNA sequences. Factors including those structural characteristics inherent in the particular base sequence as well as those induced through interaction with solvent components combine to produce fine DNA structural variation including helical flexibility and conformation. Cation-pi interactions between solvent cations or their first hydration shell waters and the faces of DNA bases form sequence selectively and contribute to DNA structural heterogeneity. In this paper, we detect and characterize the binding patterns found in cation-pi interactions between solvent cations and DNA bases in a set of high resolution x-ray crystal structures. Specifically, we found that monovalent cations (Tl+) and the polarized first hydration shell waters of divalent cations (Mg2+, Ca2+) form cation-pi interactions with DNA bases stabilizing unstacked conformations. When these cation-pi interactions are combined with electrostatic interactions a pattern of specific binding motifs is formed within the grooves.