Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dialogue Act Classification, Higher Order Dialogue Structure, and Instance-Based Learning

The main goal of this paper is to explore the predictive power of dialogue context on Dialogue Act classification, both as concerns the linear context provided by previous dialogue acts, and the hierarchical context specified by conversational games. As our learning approach, we extend Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) as Feature LSA (FLSA), and combine FLSA with the k-Nearest Neighbor algorithm. FLSA adds richer linguistic features to LSA, which only uses words. The k-Nearest Neighbor algorithm obtains its best results when applied to the reduced semantic spaces generated by FLSA. Empirically, our results are better than previously published results on two different corpora, MapTask and CallHome Spanish. Linguistically, we confirm and extend previous observations that the hierarchical dialogue structure encoded via the notion of game is of primary importance for dialogue act recognition.
Hardware simulator design for LTE applications with time-varying MIMO channels

A hardware simulator facilitates the test and validation cycles by replicating channel artifacts in a controllable and repeatable laboratory environment. This paper presents new frequency domain and time domain architectures of the digital block of a hardware simulator of MIMO propagation channels. The two architectures are tested with LTE standard, in outdoor environment, using time-varying channels. The new architectures of the digital block are presented and designed on a Xilinx Virtex-IV FPGA. Their accuracy and latency are analyzed. The result shows that the architectures produce low occupation on the FPGA and have a small relative error of the output signals.
Data assimilation using NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies

The use of numerical prediction models are essential to modern society. Data assimilation is a technique that aims to increase the prediction accuracy by combining a model output with observational data, resulting in a state that is closer to the true state of the problem. Depending on the size of the model output and the number of observations to assimilate, the combination of these two sources of information may require intensive computing and become a challenge, even for supercomputers used in this type of application. Thus neural networks have been proposed as an alternative to perform high quality data assimilation at lower computational cost. This paper investigates the use of NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) in data assimilation. NEAT is capable of adapting the connections weights and the neural network topology using principles of evolutionary computation in a search for a minimum topology and best performance. In this work, two different models were used for testing: the Lorenz Attractor and Shallow Water model. The experiments compared the results obtained with NEAT and backpropagation neural networks, using as benchmark the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator (BLUE). In the experiment with the Lorenz Attractor, NEAT was able to emulate the data assimilation task with smaller error at lower computational cost. For the Shallow Water model, tested using different grid sizes, it was observed that the errors obtained with both neural networks were small, but NEAT showed high error values. On the other hand, NEAT always gets a topology with significantly fewer operations, and the computational cost difference increases with the grid size.
A survey for image resizing

Image resizing is a key technique for displaying images on different devices, and has attracted much attention in the past few years. This paper reviews the image resizing methods proposed in recent years, gives a detailed comparison on their performance, and reveals the main challenges raised in several important issues such as preserving an important region, minimizing distortions, and improving efficiency. Furthermore, this paper discusses the research trends and points out the possible hotspots in this field. We believe this survey can give some guidance for researchers from relevant research areas, offering them an overall and novel view.
Human SLC26A1 Gene Variants: A Pilot Study

Kidney stones are a global health problem, incurring massive health costs annually. Why stones recur in many patients remains unknown but likely involves environmental, physiological, and genetic factors. The solute linked carrier (SLC) 26A1 gene has previously been linked to kidney stones in mice. SLC26A1 encodes the sulfate anion transporter 1 (SAT1) protein, and its loss in mice leads to hyperoxaluria and calcium oxalate renal stones. To investigate the possible involvement of SAT1 in human urolithiasis, we screened the SLC26A1 gene in a cohort of 13 individuals with recurrent calcium oxalate urolithiasis, which is the commonest type. DNA sequence analyses showed missense mutations in seven patients: one individual was heterozygous R372H; 4 individuals were heterozygous Q556R; one patient was homozygous Q556R; and one patient with severe nephrocalcinosis (requiring nephrectomy) was homozygous Q556R and heterozygous M132T. The M132 amino acid in human SAT1 is conserved with 15 other species and is located within the third transmembrane domain of the predicted SAT1 protein structure, suggesting that this amino acid may be important for SAT1 function. These initial findings demonstrate genetic variants in SLC26A1 of recurrent stone formers and warrant wider independent studies of SLC26A1 in humans with recurrent calcium oxalate stones.
Digital TV: the effect of delay when watching football

Hearing a neighbor cheer for a goal seconds before you see it can be very annoying. Currently, many people that upgrade their TV service from analog to digital TV are experiencing this. We briefly describe causes of these (relative) delays. To support this with practical evidence, we report field measurements of relative delays from 19 different receivers that show that up to 5 seconds occurs between technologies like IPTV, analogue cable, digital cable (both SD and HD), digital satellite, terrestrial and web TV. We present a controlled experiment that simulates the football watching experience with 18 participants watching clips in different rooms cheering over an audio connection. The results show that delays measured in practice disturb the experience significantly. Moreover it often took participants little time to find out if they were ahead or behind. Also many participants felt inclined to change their service to a provider with less delay. The results emphasize that delay is a quality factor that needs to be taken into account and minimized in digital TV. This is crucial for digital TV providers to entice consumers that want to be the ones to first cheer for a goal.
Toll-Like Receptors Expression in Follicular Cells of Patients with Poor Ovarian Response

Background Poor ovarian response (POR) to gonadotropin stimulation has led to a significant decline in success rate of fertility treatment. The immune system may play an important role in pathophysiology of POR by dysfunctions of cytokines and the growth factor network, and the presence of ovarian auto-antibodies. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression of toll-like receptors (TLR) 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and cyclooxygenase (COX) 2 genes in follicular cells and concentration of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), as major parts of innate immunity, in follicular fluid (FF) obtained from POR women in comparison with normal women. Materials and Methods In this case-control study, 20 infertile POR patients and 20 normal women took part in this study and underwent controlled ovarian stimulation. The FF was obtained from the largest follicle (>18 mm). The FF was centrifuged and cellular pellet was then used for evaluation of expression of TLRs and COX2 genes by real-time PCR. FF was used for quantitative analysis for IL-6, IL-8 and MIF by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results TLR1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and COX2 gene expression were significantly higher in POR (p<0.05). Concentration of IL-6, IL-8 and MIF proteins was significantly increased in POR compared with normal women (p<0.05). Conclusion These findings support the hypothesis that the immune system may be involved in pathophysiology of POR through TLRs.
The Prophetic Pulpit: Clergy, Churches, and Communities in American Politics

Clergy, churches and communities an overview of ELCA and Episcopal clergy congregational resources for clergy political action communities of concern - the context of clergy political activity the political voice of clergy leaders of the flock or lone rangers? clergy in electoral politics the local political participation of ELCA and Episcopal clergy sending a message to government - clergy conventional and unconventional contacting denominational politics - clergy opinions and actions regarding full communion conclusion - the evolution of clergy political activity.
Current Harmonics, Voltage Distortion, and Powers Associated with Electric Vehicle Battery Chargers Distributed on the Residential Power System

The harmonic performance of the networks of several types of electric vehicle (EV) battery chargers is documented. Cumulative effects at the substation level for random distributions of each of five different charger types are reported. Chargers with and without current- smoothing inductors and with and without controlled rectifiers for maintenance of constant current are included. Results are reported as magnitudes of expected harmonic current; active power; apparent, reactive, and distortive volt amperes; and power factor hour by hour over typical daily recharge cycles for the network of chargers. Results regarding comparisons among chargers demonstrate the desirability of including a current-smoothing inductor in the charging circuit and indicate that constant-current type chargers using controlled rectifiers generate significantly more harmonic current than the simple noncontrolled taper-current chargers. Typical third harmonic current values of 15 A per charger on the 120-V side and 20 A per phase on the 12.8-kV side for a network of chargers (at ten percent penetration of chargers into the residential distribution network) indicate the possibility for harmful effects to customer and utility equipment and for interference into communications circuits. The results reported here should be useful in both predicting harmful effects at various densities of EV chargers on the residential network and in designing chargers to minimize those effects. supported in part by the New England Electric System.
Interference Cancellation in Two Hop Multiuser Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, we consider a two hop cognitive radio network where there are multiple primary and secondary users. We propose the design of antenna weights at the source and relay based on zero forcing principles. These antenna weights are designed to cancel the interference among the secondary users while maintaining fairness, and to ensure interference free signals at each primary user. To analyze the performance of our proposed design, we derive new exact expressions for the signal to interference and noise ratio at each secondary user, which are subsequently used to analyze the error performance.
Notes on Biodiversity Conservation, The Rate of Interest and Discounting

This article shows that there is no regular relationship between the level of the rate of interest and the extent to which the conservation of biodiversity is favoured. Microeconomic examples are given in which a rise in the rate of interest adversely affects biodiversity conservation as well as other cases in which the opposite is the case. When these alternative possibilities are taken into account, they suggest that rises in the rate of interest (other things held constant) are more likely than not to aid biodiversity conservation. This is expected to be so when there considerable upfront costs are involved in economic strategies that bring about environmental changes so that in the initial periods the private net benefits from these changes are negative although subsequently they can become significantly positive. Consideration of macroeconomic models reinforces the view that there is no definite association between changes in biodiversity conservation and the rate of interest. This is so assuming that there is a positive association on the whole, between the rate of (man-made) capital accumulation (the investment level) and biodiversity loss. From macroeconomic models, it is clear an increase in the level of aggregate investment can be associated with a rise or fall in the rate of interest (and vice versa) depending on the circumstances. This is illustrated by using a simplified form of the loanable funds theory originally developed by Wicksell but is also consistent with other general theories of the rate of interest. In conclusion, doubts are raised about our ability to enforce a zero (or very low) social rate of discount in market or mixed economy. It is, however, suggested that if a low ceiling is put on the rate of interest, this will reduce savings and consequently, investment and would be favourable to biodiversity conservation given that an increase in the rate of (man-made) capital accumulation is the main contributor to biodiversity loss. Finally, it is noted that mainstream economic models measuring possible welfare streams give no weight to the conservation of biodiversity per se. Therefore, policies designed to achieve the sustainability objectives specified by these models can continue to favour biodiversity loss on economic grounds.
Pricing to Market in a Small Open Economy

The determinants of Norwegian import prices of manufactures are investigated over the period 1970(1)-1991(4). Multivariate cointegration analysis establishes a long-run relationship between import prices, foreign prices, the exchange rate, and domestic unit labor costs. Normalized on import prices, the long-run elasticities are 0.63 (foreign prices and the exchange rate) and 0.37 (domestic costs). Deviations from this relationship are highly significant in a structural import price equation, which also contains positive effects of growth in domestic demand and inflation as well as a negative effect from the Norwegian unemployment rate. The estimated parameters appear reasonably stable within the sample. Copyright 1996 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Research of UAV communication relay deployment problems in target reconnaissance mission

When UAVs carry out reconnaissance mission, it needs a reliable communication link as a guarantee for the purpose of transmitting the target intelligence data back to the ground control station. In most cases, is impossible to meet the demand of data transmission relying only on the Communication ability of one UAV. Through the use of multiple UAVs to build a communication relay link, is a feasible method to realize remote data transmission. In the presence of communication blind area and the limited number of available UAV, how to locate UAV reasonably, in order to get better communication relay link quality, is the focus of concern. The UAV deployment problem with single target and multi targets is modeled as AHOP problem and Steiner tree problem respectively. We propose the IBF algorithm based on Bellman-Ford algorithm, and propose the PGA algorithm based on the combination of Pareto solution and GA algorithm, to solve the problem of deploying UAV in the communication relay link with single and multi target respectively, carries out simulation test and analysis results, which shows the effectiveness of the IBF algorithm and PGA algorithm.
An artificial immune system model for knowledge extraction and representation

This paper presents an approach to knowledge extraction and representation based on an artificial immune system. The main idea is to extract the important concepts from a set of text documents, and find the relations between such concepts. At the end, a graph representation is obtained, which is intended to present a picture of the documentspsila contents. Some experiments were carried out in order to validate the proposed approach, and very promising results were obtained.
N ov 2 00 9 Dynamical modelling of superstatistical complex systems

We show how to construct the optimum superstatistical dynamical model for a given experimentally measured time series. For this purpose we generalise the superstatistics concept and study a Langevin equation with a memory kernel whose parameters fluctuate on a large time scale. It is shown how to construct a synthetic dynamical model with the same invariant density and correlation function as the experimental data. As a main example we apply our method to velocity time series measured in high-Reynolds number turbulent Taylor-Couette flow, but the method can be applied to many other complex systems in a similar way. Many complex systems in nature exhibit a rich structure of dynamics, described by a mixture of different stochastic processes on various time scales. It has become common to call such dynamical processes with time scale separation superstatistical [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. A fascinating feature is that many highly nonlinear equations , for example the Navier-Stokes equations, do effectively produce stochastic processes that can be very well approximated by linear stochastic differential equations with fluctuating parameters on a large time scale, i.e., superstatistical processes. Examples where super-statistical techniques have proved to be a powerful tool are Lagrangian trajectories of tracer particles in fully developed turbulence [4, 5], share price dynamics with volatility fluctuations [6, 7, 8], atmospheric and geophys-ical processes [9], random matrix theory [10] and random networks [11]. The basic idea underlying most of these models is that locally the system is described by a simple Gaussian stochastic process, and only on a large scale the mixture of various Gaussian processes with fluctuating variance leads to more complex behavior. So far the superstatistical model building has mainly concentrated on reproducing the correct stationary density of the nonlinear system under consideration. However , it is certainly important to incorporate dynamical information from the set of all higher-order correlation functions. In fact, experimentalists are often able to measure two relevant quantities, the stationary probability distribution of a fluctuating time series produced by the complex system under consideration, and the two-point correlation function for relatively small time scale differences. The purpose of this letter is to describe how to construct the optimum superstatistical model for a given complex system taking these two experimentally measured quantities as input. As a main example, we will construct a suitable superstatistical model for measured velocity time series in turbulent Taylor-Couette flow, which is in excellent …
TRACKIES: RoboCup-97 Middle-Size League World Cochampion

This article describes a milestone in our research efforts toward the real robot competition in RoboCup. We participated in the middle-size league at RoboCup-97, held in conjunction with the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Nagoya, Japan. The most significant features of our team, TRACKIES, are the application of a reinforcement learning method enhanced for real robot applications and the use of an omnidirectional vision system for our goalie that can capture a 360-degree view at any instant in time. The method and the system used are shown with competition results.
Generating Fixtures for JavaScript Unit Testing (T)

In today's web applications, JavaScript code interacts with the Document Object Model (DOM) at runtime. This runtime interaction between JavaScript and the DOM is error-prone and challenging to test. In order to unit test a JavaScript function that has read/write DOM operations, a DOM instance has to be provided as a test fixture. This DOM fixture needs to be in the exact structure expected by the function under test. Otherwise, the test case can terminate prematurely due to a null exception. Generating these fixtures is challenging due to the dynamic nature of JavaScript and the hierarchical structure of the DOM. We present an automated technique, based on dynamic symbolic execution, which generates test fixtures for unit testing JavaScript functions. Our approach is implemented in a tool called ConFix. Our empirical evaluation shows that ConFix can effectively generate tests that cover DOM-dependent paths. We also find that ConFix yields considerably higher coverage compared to an existing JavaScript input generation technique.
Coupled nitrate N and O stable isotope fractionation by a natural marine plankton consortium

The stable nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotope ratios (15N/14N and 18O/16O, respectively) of nitrate (NO3-) were measured during incubations of freshly collected seawater to investigate the effect of light intensity on the isotope fractionation associated with nitrate assimilation and possible co-occurring regeneration and nitrification by in situ plankton communities. Surface seawater was collected off the coast of Vancouver, Canada, in late fall and in late summer and was incubated under different laboratory light conditions for 10 and 30 days, respectively. In the late summer experiments, parallel incubations were supplemented with 15NH4+ and H218O tracers to monitor co-occurring nitrification. Differences in irradiance in the fall incubations resulted in reduced nitrate consumption at low light, but had no distinguishable impact on the N-isotope isotope effect (15e) associated with NO3- assimilation, which ranged between 5 and 8‰. The late-summer community incubations, in contrast, showed reduced growth rates at low light and more elevated 15e of 11.9 ± 0.4‰, compared to 8.4 ± 0.3‰ at high-light conditions. The seasonal differences could reflect physiological adaptations of the fall plankton community to reduced irradiance, such that their incubation at low light did not elicit the increase in proportional cellular nitrate efflux required to raise the isotope effect. In both the fall and summer incubations, the ratio of the coincident rises in the δ15N and δ18O of NO3- was comparable to previous monoculture phytoplankton experiments, with a ∆δ18O:∆δ15N of ~1, regardless of light level. A decoupling of ∆δ18O:∆δ15N is expected if nitrification occurs concomitantly with nitrate assimilation. The lack of such decoupling is best explained by the absence of significant nitrification in any of our study’s treatments, an interpretation supported by our inability to identify any tracer 15N and 18O uptake into the NO3- pool in the late-summer community incubations.
The Role Of Uncertainty On U.S. Obesity: An Application Of Control Theory

This paper considers the problem of a consumer that cares about her health, which we proxy by deviations from current weight to ideal weight, and derives utility from eating and disutility from performing physical activity while taking into account the uncertainty associated with calorie consumption and physical activity. Using U.S. data, we find that uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of physical activity produces a larger cautionary response. Moreover, it is harder to learn and is more important to the agent than the uncertainty regarding the calorie content of food. These results can help policymakers design more cost effective policies.
The Dissemination Of Accounting Research And Performance Reviews: The Role Of Publication Forms

This project is supported financially by the CICYT research grants # 01-0657 and SEJ-2004-08176-C02-01. I would like to thank Jose Carlos Molina for assisting with the management of the database. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association (Seville, 2003); the Accounting, Business and Financial History Conference (Cardiff, 2003); and the World Congress of Accounting Historians (Oxford, Mississippi, 2004). I am grateful to the participants at these conferences and to Garry Carnegie, Mahmoud Ezzamel, Kari Lukka, and Steve Walker for their helpful suggestions.