Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparative Study of Reformulation and Elicitation Feedback Types in Teaching English Verb Tense

This study examined the effects of two different kinds of corrective feedback, i.e. reformulation and elicitation on Iranian EFL learners’ use of verbs in different present tenses. Thirty-eight intermediate learners took part in this study. They were randomly divided into the reformulation group and the elicitation group. The treatment sessions lasted four weeks with two sessions in each week. Students in the reformulation treatment condition obtained higher significant mean scores than those who received elicitation corrective feedback. Results of this article indicated that feedback in the form of reformulation is more effective than elicitation and it had a potential importance on the outcome of learning English tenses.
The application in multicast of the P2P routing mechanisms based on the content addressing networks

Multicast technology introduces a number of new applications; meanwhile, it reduces the congestion of the network and releases the burden of the server. Those characteristics, such as reducing the occupied bandwidth, reducing server load, improving the quality of data transmission, are especially applicable to the needs of large bandwidth multimedia applications such as audio, Video. This new technology has become a hot topic in Internet circles, and to fundamentally change the network architecture. Although multicast technology has also brought some problems, such as routing instability, the network load imbalance, QoS fluctuations, but its application is still very wide.
Brains , Anticipations , Individual and Social Behavior : An Introduction to Anticipatory Behavior Systems

Research on anticipatory behavior in adaptive learning systems continues to gain more recognition and appreciation in various research disciplines. This book provides an overarching view on of anticipatory mechanisms in cognition, learning, and behavior. We connect the knowledge from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics with that of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cognitive robotics, and others. This introduction offers an overview over the contributions in this volume highlighting their interconnections and interrelations from an anticipatory behavior perspective. We first clarify the main foci of anticipatory behavior research. Next, we present a taxonomy of how anticipatory mechanisms may be beneficially applied in cognitive systems. With relation to the taxonomy, we then give an overview over the book contributions. The first book chapters provide surveys on currently known anticipatory brain mechanisms, anticipatory mechanisms in increasingly complex natural languages, and a fundamental challenge for artificial cognitive systems. Next, conceptualizations of anticipatory processes inspired by cognitive mechanisms are provided. The conceptualizations lead to individual, predictive challenges in vision and processing of event correlations over time. Next, anticipatory mechanisms in individual decision making and behavioral execution are studied. Finally, the book offers systems and conceptualizations that use anticipatory processes to improve social interaction.
THE INFLUENCE OF COMBINED POWER, GAS, AND THERMAL NETWORKS ON THE RELIABILITY OF SUPPLY

Modern gas-fired power stations are discussed as an alternative for replacing eventually decommissioned nuclear power stations. With an also increasing number of smallest-scale gas turbines, the importance of the gas network is hence likely to increase in coming years. The presence of converters as e.g. a combined cycle gas turbine raises the question if and to what extent the electrical network will be influenced by the chemical (i.e. gas) and thermal networks and vice-versa. Thus it makes sense to start simulating and analyzing these systems as combined or dependent systems. Furthermore, a user being supplied with electricity from the electrical network and indirectly from the chemical network can choose which network to use. He both has price arbitrage options as well as the option to achieve temporal redundancy of supply. This paper presents a method developed for investigations of the combined reliability analysis of the electrical, chemical and thermal supply. The applicability of the method is demonstrated with a case example investigating whether a load has a higher availability of supply because of additional indirect supply and whether the reliability of the electrical network could be reduced, because of the local converters helping to maintain the original level of availability of supply.
Impact of Bacterial and Human Genetic Variation on Staphylococcus aureus Infections

The clinical diversity of syndromes caused by Staphylococcus aureus arises from a complex interplay between host and pathogen. Genetic variation can result in increased susceptibility to infection within the host and an increased capacity for virulence within the pathogen, resulting in a wide array of clinical syndromes. This review presents evidence for the role of bacterial and human genetic variation in influencing the clinical outcome of S. aureus infections.
A survey of topologies and performance measures for large-scale networks

This article surveys important parameters for the design of large-scale network topology such as the YottaWeb topology. First, a wide range of performance measures to evaluate the behavior of envisaged topologies are presented, discussed and classified according to their meaning and their effectiveness on large-scale networks. Second, different types of topologies, from simple to more complex, are identified, and the features of k-ary n-cube topologies, such as ring, torus, and hypercube topologies, are surveyed and discussed. Full details and advantages of the recently introduced YottaWeb topology are pointed out, in the light of the predefined concepts. Finally, the application of the performance measures to the design of the topologies is surveyed.
A hybrid non-volatile SRAM cell with concurrent SEU detection and correction

This paper presents a hybrid non-volatile (NV) SRAM cell with a new scheme for SEU tolerance. The proposed NVSRAM cell consists of a 6T SRAM core and a Resistive RAM (RRAM), made of a 1T and a Programmable Metallization Cell (PMC). The proposed cell has concurrent error detection (CED) and correction capabilities; CED is accomplished using a dual-rail checker, while correction is accomplished by utilizing the restore operation; data from the non-volatile memory element is copied back to the SRAM core. The dual-rail checker utilizes two XOR gates each made of 2 inverters and 2 ambipolar transistors, hence, it has a hybrid nature. Extensive simulation results are provided. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme is very efficient in terms of numerous figures of merit such as delay and circuit complexity and thus applicable to integrated circuits such as FPGAs requiring secure on-chip non-volatile storage (i.e. LUTs) for multi-context configurability.
AUCTIONS: AN INTRODUCTION

This is a detailed introduction to auction theory. It begins with a simple analysis of standard auctions and then uses a strikingly simple general solution of symmetric private values auctions to prove the payoff equivalence of many auction rules. The basic framework is then modified to admit risk aversion, multi-unit and repeated auctions as well as collusion. Then follows an introduction to optimal auctions, with and without stochastic entry, and to common value auctions and the winner's curse problem. The survey closes with a sample of applications, from the regulation of natural monopolies to price competition in oligopoly and the government securities market. Copyright 1996 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Glutamine depletion impairs cellular stress response in human leucocytes

During sepsis and major trauma the blood glutamine (Gln) level is reduced. The administration of Gln can improve the outcome of these patients. However, the mechanism of this beneficial effect of Gln is poorly understood. In the course of critical illness leucocytes are confronted with cytotoxic inflammatory mediators. To protect themselves against these factors, cells express heat shock proteins (HSP). Previous studies have shown that the expression of the major inducible HSP (HSP70) is improved by high Gln concentrations above 4 mM. In this study we investigated whether Gln depletion, such as observed during critical illness, has an effect on HSP70 expression. Human lymphocytes exposed for 2 h to 42 degrees C showed a 3-fold increase in HSP70 expression (P<0.01). A preceding Gln starvation period over 3 days had no influence on this increase. However, when Gln is reduced during the stress response, HSP70 expression is impaired. A reduction of Gln from 0.5 mM (physiological) to 0.125 mM (pathological) led to a 40% lower HSP70 level (P<0.002). In contrast, increasing Gln concentrations (up to 2 mM) had only minor stimulatory effects (about 15%). This Gln-dependency of heat mediated HSP70 expression was observed in resting as well as proliferating lymphocytes. Our data indicate that during periods of reduced plasma Gln levels the stress response of human lymphocytes is impaired. Thus, Gln may be essential to minimize the susceptibility of leucocytes to cytotoxic inflammatory mediators. This is a new aspect of the protective effect of Gln supplementation in critically ill patients.
Book review: Deborah Cameron and Ivan Panović, Working with Written Discourse

in Baker (2005). The book closes with a call to action research in the Conclusion, but – unlike earlier work, especially Baker (2008), which draws on subjectivity to link an underlying queer theoretic/poststructuralist position to the practice of action research – does not so clearly link subjectivity to an underlying theoretical position. An equally important part of the book, alongside the theoretical groundwork it lays out, is its focus on quantitative methods and the sheer practicalities of corpus linguistics for people unfamiliar with the discipline. Baker introduces various statistical tests and how they translate into interpretations of the data. He emphasizes the hazards of making unwarranted generalizations from your corpus, the effect that individuals can have on the data, and the difficulties associated with searching for some patterns (e.g. those not reducible to a string searches or those that are ‘covert’). This title could easily serve as an undergraduate textbook for a course on corpus linguistics, and in this capacity it would ideally be supplemented by more detailed explanation and motivation of the different methods and theoretical debates that are showcased in successive chapters. For instance, Chapter 2 introduces both Spearman rank order correlations and Manhattan distance, but it is unlikely that the discussion is simple enough for a non-statistician to engage with, nor clear enough for other readers to be able to reconstruct the conceptual baggage that they carry. If used as a teaching text, Baker’s book would benefit from a discussion of the different statistical techniques, the assumptions and theoretical commitments that underpin them and the debates that surround them, or from cross-referencing to resources that explain these in greater detail. Notwithstanding these criticisms, our overall impression of this book is very favourable. Ehrlich et al.’s (2014) section on methods for studying language and gender has a lacuna in respect of corpus linguistics, and Baker’s latest title certainly helps to fill that gap. This book raises many germane questions about the directions of language and gender research and the potential and challenges associated with using corpus methods in the development of the field. It reaches out to new readers as well as seeking to forge the interdisciplinary bridges that Baker says he has felt himself stretched to make in his own career.
Information Transmission and Vehicle Recalls: The Role and Regulation of Recall Notification Letter

Using data on correction rates for vehicle recalls in the United States from 2007 to 2010, we investigate information transmission from manufacturers to owners regarding the defects of recalled vehicles. We pay special attention to the role of the language manufacturers use to convey each recall’s seriousness in the letters they send to owners to explain the nature of the defects in their vehicles, and the possible consequences if the defects are not fixed. We find that recalls linked to riskier defects, defined by the type of equipment affected in the vehicles, are associated with higher correction rates. Interestingly, the content of recall notification letters plays an important role in increasing correction rates because the letters convey information to owners above and beyond baseline information about which part of their vehicles can present problems. We also find that, in a number of cases, the language that manufacturers use to explain the risks to owners are worryingly milder than the descriptions the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) use, resulting in significantly lower correction rates. We conclude that information transmission to owners regarding recalls should be more clearly regulated since the language affects drivers’ likelihood of taking their cars to be fixed. We advocate that the NHTSA return to the pre-2001 practice of assigning hazard levels to all recalls, and that the agency consider making sure manufacturers clearly communicate recall rating information to vehicle owners. Our results indicate that these practices would result in higher correction rates, remove faulty cars from the roads, and, consequently, save lives.
Adaptive Combination of Behaviors in an Agent Tracking number : E 0392

Agents are of interest mainly when confronted to complex tasks. We propose a methodology for the automated design of such agents (in the framework of Markov Decision Processes) in the case where the global task can be decomposed into simpler -possibly concurrentsub-tasks. This is accomplished by automatically combining basic behaviors using Reinforcement Learning methods. Basic behaviors can be either learned or reused from previous tasks since they will not need to be tuned to the new task. Furthermore, the agents designed by our methodology are highly scalable as, without further refinement of the global behavior, they can automatically combine several instances of the same basic behavior to take into account concurrent occurences of the same subtask.
The transfer problem: A complete characterization

The transfer problem is defined by the possibility for a donor country to end up better off after having given away some resources to another country. The simplest version of that problem can be formulated in a two consumer exchange economy with fixed total resources. Existence of a transfer problem at some equilibrium is known to be equivalent to instability in the case of two goods. This characterization is extended to an arbitrary number of goods by showing that a transfer problem exists at a (regular) equilibrium if and only if this equilibrium has an index value equal to -1. Samuelson's conjecture that there is no transfer problem at tatonnement stable equilibria is therefore true for any number of goods.
An adaptive MAC protocol for efficient utilization of available spectrum bandwidth

Cognitive Radio has been proposed as a promising technology to solve today's spectrum scarcity problem. Most part of frequency spectrum is already allocated for existing wireless systems. Cognitive radio technology has aroused people's interest in utilizing unused spectrum of the legacy systems. Due to the stochastic behavior or the available channels in cognitive radio networks, it has been a matter of primary concern how to effectively use the randomly available spectrum resources. In this paper, we propose an error-adaptive MAC protocol which enhances throughput of cognitive radio networks, by switching between error-recovery mode and dual-transmit mode according to the channel status. When the link status is not good, additional channels acquired from the legacy network are used for the frame error recovery. On the other hand, in case the wireless medium is stable and reliable, the extra channels can be used to increase the throughput of cognitive devices. The simulation results also show that, by adaptively changing the transmission modes, one can significantly enhance the throughput of cognitive radio networks.
An Implementation of Face-to-Face Grounding in an Embodied Conversational Agent

When people have a face-to-face conversation, they don't just spout information blindly-they work to make sure that both participants understand what has been said. This process of ensuring that what has been said is added to the common ground of the conversation is called grounding. This thesis explores recent research into the verbal and nonverbal means for grounding, and presents an implementation of a face-to-face grounding system in an embodied conversational agent that is based on a model of grounding extracted from the research. This is the first such agent that supports nonverbal grounding, and so this thesis represents both a proof of concept and a guide for future work in this area, showing that it is possible to build a dialogue system that implements face-to-face grounding between a human and an agent based on an empirically-derived model. Additionally, this thesis describes a vision system, based on a stereo-camera head-pose tracker and using a recently proposed method for head-nod detection, that can robustly and accurately identify head nods and gaze state. Thesis Supervisor: Justine Cassell Title: Associate Professor, MIT Media Laboratory
Neurophysiological characteristics of acts of remembering in the process of positive ageing / Características neurofisiológicas de los actos de recuerdo en el proceso de envejecimiento positivo

Abstract ‘Acts of remembering’ refer to the conscious cognitive process that facilitates recognition of socioculturally relevant events. This study presents an analysis of the differences and similarities between the morphological characteristics and architecture of Event-Related Potentials associated with the visual recognition of cultural events, by comparing a group of older adults (n = 15) with a group of young adults (n = 17). The results show similar modulations in the N1, P2, P300 and N400 components while a differential modulation appears in N200, a component that has been associated with attentional processes. Two ways of interpreting the results are put forward: one suggests that with age come greater difficulties for cognitive processing and the other suggests that older adults have a particular interest in this type of material.
Efficient Decomposition of Dense Matrices over GF(2)

In this work we describe an efficient implementation of a hierarchy of algorithms for the decomposition of dense matrices over the field with two elements (GF(2)). Matrix decomposition is an essential building block for solving dense systems of linear and non-linear equations and thus much research has been devoted to improve the asymptotic complexity of such algorithms. In this work we discuss an implementation of both well-known and improved algorithms in the M4RI library. The focus of our discussion is on a new variant of the M4RI algorithm - denoted MMPF in this work -- which allows for considerable performance gains in practice when compared to the previously fastest implementation. We provide performance figures on x86_64 CPUs to demonstrate the viability of our approach.
Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior : Predicting the Use of Public Transportation '

An expanded version of the theory of planned hehavior (TPB) was used to predict and explain public transportation use. A pre-post design was used to examine changes in university students' bus ridership after the implementation of a universal bus pass (U-pass) program. Bus ridership significantly incrcascd aftcr the U-pass was implemented and associated changes in attitudes and beliefs about transportation modes were found. In both phases, students' public transportation use was well predicted by the original TPB. However, 2 additional constructs-a descriptivc norm. and the interaction between intcntion and perceived behavioral control~~~significantly improved prediction in both phases of the study. These constructs might be useful additions to the original TPB, at least in this behavioral domain.
Portfolio and consumption decisions under ambiguity for regime switching mean returns

This paper analyzes, in a continuous-time setting, dynamic consumption and portfolio decisions under ambiguity when the expected return is unobservable and follows a two-state Markov chain. Ambiguity is modeled by Chen and Epstein (2002)’s recursive multiple priors utility. Learning about investment opportunities introduces intertemporal hedging of ambiguity, which has the effect of mitigating hedging demand in addition to its impact on the mean-variance efficient allocation. Ambiguity can enrich the set of relation between the optimal portfolio allocation and the investment horizon. By calibrating the learning dynamics to the market data, we find that (1) moderate ambiguity aversion can generate optimal portfolio strategies that are nearly myopic; the optimal strategies with high ambiguity aversion are less sensitive to innovations in beliefs than the instantaneous mean-variance efficient strategies and (2) ambiguity reduces the welfare loss from ignoring learning. JEL: G11; E21; D81; C61
Field Testing of Feedforward Collective Pitch Control on the CART2 Using a Nacelle-Based Lidar Scanner

This work presents the results from a field test of LIDAR assisted collective pitch control using a scanning LIDAR device installed on the nacelle of a mid-scale research turbine. A nonlinear feedforward controller is extended by an adaptive filter to remove all uncorrelated frequencies of the wind speed measurement to avoid unnecessary control action. Positive effects on the rotor speed regulation as well as on tower, blade and shaft loads have been observed in the case that the previous measured correlation and timing between the wind preview and the turbine reaction are accomplish. The feedforward controller had negative impact, when the LIDAR measurement was disturbed by obstacles in front of the turbine. This work proves, that LIDAR is valuable tool for wind turbine control not only in simulations but also under real conditions. Furthermore, the paper shows that further understanding of the relationship between the wind measurement and the turbine reaction is crucial to improve LIDAR assisted control of wind turbines.
Observable Form of a Timed Finite State Machine

This paper is devoted to the problem of an observable form for a given Timed Finite State Machine. This problem, together with the problem of the number of states in the observable form, has theoretical value, since it shows the way to build an observable form, and answers the question, does an observable form exist for any TFSM. Also it has a practical use in testing, since Finite State Machine methods of test generation rely on the fact that specification of a system is an observable FSM and those methods are intended to be applied for TFSMs.