Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scalable Multimodal Search with Distributed Indexing by Sparse Hashing

Multimedia search systems must deal with an increasingly large and heterogeneous amount of data. Several challenges exist when deploying real-world search engines for such data. Existing literature does not properly tackle the many efficiency issues that such task requires. In this paper, we address several of the key efficiency aspects required to deploy a distributed search engine, capable of handling several millions of multimedia documents. The search engine builds on a framework designed to: first, ease the distribution of documents and queries across cluster-nodes, second, index media efficiently for fast similarity search and third aggregate ranked results from several heterogeneous sources. Moreover, the proposed framework is flexible enough to support several state-of-the-art indexing and aggregation techniques. At the heart of the indexing architecture lies an inverse index structure optimized for sparse hashes, that speeds up the retrieval of similar descriptors. To leverage the distributed nature of the search framework, the proposed aggregation technique offers a low temporal complexity overhead and it is agnostic to the index type (a key aspect to support simultaneous modalities). A comprehensive evaluation with both general IR metrics and efficiency metrics, provides a unique assessment of the several efficiency bottlenecks faced by a search engine. In addition, we test the scalability of the search framework to multiple index sizes, i.e., up to 5 million documents per cluster-node.
Comparing different approaches for Incremental Checkpointing : The Showdown

The rapid increase in the number of cores and nodes in high performance computing (HPC) has made petascale computing a reality with exascale on the horizon. Harnessing such computational power presents a challenge as system reliability deteriorates with the increase of building components of a given single-unit reliability. Today’s high-end HPC installations require applications to perform checkpointing if they want to run at scale so that failures during runs over hours or days can be dealt with by restarting from the last checkpoint. Yet, such checkpointing results in high overheads due to often simultaneous writes of all nodes to the parallel file system (PFS), which reduces the productivity of such systems in terms of throughput computing. Recent work on checkpoint/restart (C/R) has shown that incremental C/R techniques can reduce the amount of data written at checkpoints and thus the overall C/R overhead and impact on the PFS. The contributions of this work are twofold. First, it presents the design and implementation of two memory management schemes that enable incremental checkpointing. We describe unique approaches to incremental checkpointing that do not require kernel patching in one case and only require minimal kernel extensions in the other case. The work is carried out within the latest Berkeley Labs Checkpoint Restart (BLCR) as part of an upcoming release. Second, we evaluate the two schemes in terms of their system overhead for single-node microbenchmarks and multi-node cluster workloads. In short, this work is the final showdown between page write bit (WB) protection and dirty bit (DB) page tracking as a hardware means to support incremental checkpointing. Our results show savings of the DB approach over WB approach in almost all the tests. Further, DB has the potential of a significant reduction in kernel activity, which is of utmost relevance for proactive fault tolerance where an immanent fault can be circumvented if DB-based live migrations moves a process away from hardware about to fail.
Squeezing of a nanomechanical resonator by quantum nondemolition measurement and feedback

We analyze squeezing of the nanoresonator state produced by periodic measurement of position by a quantum point contact or a single-electron transistor. The mechanism of squeezing is the stroboscopic quantum nondemolition measurement generalized to the case of continuous measurement by a weakly coupled detector. The magnitude of squeezing is calculated for the harmonic and stroboscopic modulations of measurement, taking into account detector efficiency and nanoresonator quality factor. We also analyze the operation of the quantum feedback, which prevents fluctuations of the wave packet center due to measurement back-action. Verification of the squeezed state can be performed in almost the same way as its preparation; a similar procedure can also be used for the force detection with sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit.
Spatial search processing in embedded devices

Focusing on applying a spatial database management system to embedded devices, we present a spatial search processing method. First, we consider disk storage space to be a severe constraint in embedded devices, we propose a spatial index tree based on the PMR quadtree to reduce the required disk storage space. Second, since we consider it necessary to shorten the processing time for a spatial search in embedded devices, we present efficient range search algorithm in our index tree. The simulation results show that our index tree has a smaller disk storage space requirement than conventional index trees, and our range search method does not require as many disk accesses as conventional methods.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Produces More Immediate and Prolonged Synaptic Plasticity Deficits in the Juvenile Female Hippocampus

Supervisory Committee Dr. Brian R. Christie (Division of Medical Sciences) Supervisor Dr. Craig E. Brown (Division of Medical Sciences) Departmental Member Dr. Robert L. Chow (Department of Biology) Outside Member Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of disability in individuals under 45 years of age, with mild TBI (mTBI) accounting for the majority of cases. The juvenile brain is in a period of robust synaptic reorganization and myelination, making adolescence a particularly vulnerable time to incur a TBI. Learning and memory deficits that involve the hippocampal formation are often observed following mTBI in adults. To examine this issue in the juvenile brain, we assessed changes in hippocampal synaptic plasticity following closed-head mTBI in male and female Long-Evans rats (25-28 days of age). Synaptic plasticity of field excitatory post-synaptic potentials (fEPSPs) was assessed using in vitro electrophysiology at either one hour, one day, seven days, or 28 days following mTBI in the dentate gyrus (DG) and the cornu ammonis area 1 (CA1) regions of the hippocampus. In female rats, the CA1 region ipsilateral to the impact showed a significant reduction in long-term potentiation (LTP) as early as one hour following mTBI. Similar LTP deficits were apparent at one day in the DG, and persisted to 28 days following injury. In male rats, a deficit in both DGand CA1-LTP was maximal in the ipsilateral hemisphere by seven days following injury, but these deficits did not persist to 28 days post-injury. These data suggest that the juvenile brain is susceptible to mTBI-induced impairments in plasticity, and sex and regional differences are apparent in the expression and recovery of synaptic plasticity following mTBI.
Clients’ participation in software projects: comparative case study between an agile and a ‘traditional’ software company

One of the main characteristics of agile software development is the active and continuous participation and involvement of the clients throughout the project. According to agile proponents, this leads to building ‘the right’ product and to satisfied clients. In this paper we present a comparative study of two Dutch software development companies in respect to client participation and its impact on the project. One of the companies is purely agile while the other is following a traditional software development approach. Our study suggests that active clients’ participation is not an exclusive attribute of agile projects and that it can be successfully integrated (and implemented) in a traditional project as well. Further, the study shows that by involving clients, software companies have the chance to get higher customer satisfaction, regardless whether or not they implement agile software development processes. Although our study is not quantitative, we think that it is indicative about the impact of the factor “client’s participation” on the client’s satisfaction.
Respiratory viruses and exacerbations of asthma in adults.

OBJECTIVE--To study the role of respiratory viruses in exacerbations of asthma in adults. DESIGN--Longitudinal study of 138 adults with asthma. SETTING--Leicestershire Health Authority. SUBJECTS--48 men and 90 women 19-46 years of age with a mean duration of wheeze of 19.6 years. 75% received regular treatment with bronchodilators; 89% gave a history of eczema, hay fever, allergic rhinitis, nasal polyps, or allergies; 38% had been admitted to hospital with asthma. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Symptomatic colds and asthma exacerbations; objective exacerbations of asthma with > or = 50 l/min reduction in mean peak expiratory flow rate when morning and night time readings on days 1-7 after onset of symptoms were compared with rates during an asymptomatic control period; laboratory confirmed respiratory tract infections. RESULTS--Colds were reported in 80% (223/280) of episodes with symptoms of wheeze, chest tightness, or breathlessness, and 89% (223/250) of colds were associated with asthma symptoms. 24% of 115 laboratory confirmed non-bacterial infections were associated with reductions in mean peak expiratory flow rate > or = 50 l/min through days 1-7 and 48% had mean decreases > or = 25 l/min. 44% of episodes with mean decreases in flow rate > or = 50 l/min were associated with laboratory confirmed infections. Infections with rhinoviruses, coronaviruses OC43 and 229E, influenza B, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, and chlamydia were all associated with objective evidence of an exacerbation of asthma. CONCLUSIONS--These findings show that asthma symptoms and reductions in peak flow are often associated with colds and respiratory viruses; respiratory virus infections commonly cause or are associated with exacerbations of asthma in adults.
Regulación emocional y psicopatología: :: : modelo de vulnerabilidad/resiliencia Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: the Vulnerability/ Resilience Approach

Introduction: Emotion regulation is a key feature of emotional behavior. Moreover, studies from affective neuroscience and developmental psychology have shown that emotion regulation ability is an important source of psychopathology. However, an integrative approach among these research programs is required. Material and methods: Based on relevant experimental data, the rationale of a putative model of psychopathology is presented. Conclusion: Taking into account psychobiological (tonic brain asymmetries) and behavioral variables (reflective functions/abilities) we propose a vulnerability/resilience model.
Face de-identification with expressions preservation

This paper addresses an application that has not been much explored, the de-identification of faces with expressions preservation in images. With the huge amount of images and videos shared on the Internet, protecting the identity of people in the data becomes crucial. Removing the identity information is often referred as de-identification. In this paper, we propose a novel de-identification process that preserves the important clues on the face for further behavior or emotions analysis. It is a difficult problem because obtaining the anonymity implies deteriorating the main face components. At the opposite, analyzing the expressions requires keeping enough information on the face such as, for instance, the gaze or the corners of the lips. Our approach relies on face and key points detection, followed by a variational adaptive filtering. Experimental results show the potential of the proposed method and open new insights for image dissemination or video broadcasting.
Three-level boosting MPPT control with reduced number of sensors

Due to its high-efficiency characteristics, the three-level boost converter is often connected between the PV panels and the regulated DC bus to transfer the PV energy efficiently. In the literature, an additional voltage balancing control loop is required to balance the capacitor voltages via sensing the capacitor voltages. In this paper, the three-level boosting MPPT Control with reduced number of sensors is proposed. Only PV current (i.e. the inductor current) is sensed to achieve MPPT and to balance the capacitor voltages. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the proposed method.
Tree Species Identity Shapes Earthworm Communities

Earthworms are key organisms in forest ecosystems because they incorporate organic material into the soil and affect the activity of other soil organisms. Here, we investigated how tree species affect earthworm communities via litter and soil characteristics. In a 36-year old common garden experiment, replicated six times over Denmark, six tree species were planted in blocks: sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), beech (Fagus sylvatica), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Norway spruce (Picea abies), pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) and lime (Tilia cordata). We studied the chemical characteristics of soil and foliar litter, and determined the forest floor turnover rate and the density and biomass of the earthworm species occurring in the stands. Tree species significantly affected earthworm communities via leaf litter and/or soil characteristics. Anecic earthworms were abundant under Fraxinus, Acer and Tilia, which is related to calcium-rich litter and low soil acidification. Epigeic earthworms were indifferent to calcium content in leaf litter and were shown to be mainly related to soil moisture content and litter C:P ratios. Almost no earthworms were found in Picea stands, likely because of the combined effects of recalcitrant litter, low pH and low soil moisture content.
Characterizing implicit information during peer review meetings

Disciplines like software engineering evolve over time by studying some practices and feeding back those results to improve the practice. The empirical approach presented in the paper is used to analyze the nature of the information shared during peer review meetings (PRMs) held in an industrial software engineering project. The results obtained show that although a PRM is categorized as a verification practice, it is also a golden opportunity for project personnel to share information about technical solutions, a decision's rationale or quality guidelines. The contribution of PRMs is not restricted to the rapid detection of anomalies; they also provide the opportunity for project team members to share implicit information. PRM efficiency cannot solely be measured through an anomaly detection rate.
Empirical methods for ontology engineering in bone marrow transplantation

I report here on a small preparatory study in ontology construction. It explored T-cell depletion, a special issue in bone marrow transplantation (BMT). The target ontology aims at supporting WWW summarizing in BMT. As a result I propose a case-specific research design backed up by thesaurus construction methods and a systematic field research grounding. It integrates domain experts / future users and system developers. At conceptualization and formalization time, the research procedure joins current ontology engineering methods and formats.
Route and spectrum selection in dynamic spectrum networks

Efficient spectrum allocation in dynamic spectrum systems is a challenging problem, particularly for multi-hops transmissions. The inter-dependence between route selection and spectrum management makes it important to examine interaction between the two and the corresponding performance and com- plexity tradeoffs. In this paper, we explore two design method- ologies: a decoupled design where these tasks are carried out independently by different protocol layers, and a collaborative design that integrates them into a single task. Experimental results show that the collaborative design, if well-provisioned, offers significant performance improvement compared to the decoupled design. I. INTRODUCTION
Ontology-Based Reasoning in Requirements Elicitation

This paper introduces an ontology-based reasoning method for requirements elicitation. We start with an ontology structure contains knowledge of functional requirements and relations among them. We then propose a framework to elicit requirements using ontology: First we map initial requirements to functions in domain ontology. After that, we use rules and relations among functions to reason for errors and potential requirements. Using that result, analysts can generate questions to customers and correctly and efficiently revise requirements. We have been developing an ontology-based checking tool for requirements elicitation based on our method.
Three-dimensional shape perception from chromatic orientation flows

The role of chromatic information in 3-D shape perception is controversial. We resolve this controversy by showing that chromatic orientation flows are sufficient for accurate perception of 3-D shape. Chromatic flows required less cone contrast to convey shape than did achromatic flows, thus ruling out luminance artifacts as a problem. Luminance artifacts were also ruled out by a protanope's inability to see 3-D shape from chromatic flows. Since chromatic orientation flows can only be extracted from retinal images by neurons that are responsive to color modulations and selective for orientation, the psychophysical results also resolve the controversy over the existence of such neurons. In addition, we show that identification of 3-D shapes from chromatic flows can be masked by luminance modulations, indicating that it is subserved by orientation-tuned neurons sensitive to both chromatic and luminance modulations.
A non-linear neural network technique for updating of river flow forecasts

Abstract. A non-linear Auto-Regressive Exogenous-input model (NARXM) river flow forecasting output-updating procedure is presented. This updating procedure is based on the structure of a multi-layer neural network. The NARXM-neural network updating procedure is tested using the daily discharge forecasts of the soil moisture accounting and routing (SMAR) conceptual model operating on five catchments having different climatic conditions. The performance of the NARXM-neural network updating procedure is compared with that of the linear Auto-Regressive Exogenous-input (ARXM) model updating procedure, the latter being a generalisation of the widely used Auto-Regressive (AR) model forecast error updating procedure. The results of the comparison indicate that the NARXM procedure performs better than the ARXM procedure. Keywords: Auto-Regressive Exogenous-input model, neural network, output-updating procedure, soil moisture accounting and routing (SMAR) model
How does politics affect electronic healthcare adoption

In the 21 century, the term e-healthcare has become the common buzzword in the world. Its popularity is directly related to the rate of its adoption and benefits that it offers to individuals and governments. Among the common benefits include reduction in medical errors, improvements on physician efficiency, improvement in physician-patient relationship and an increase in the quality of care delivered. Despite all these benefits, politics is one among the obstacles hindering its adoption. In this paper we analyse how politics at local, national and international levels affect e-healthcare adoption and thereafter we suggest appropriate alternatives to overcome these obstacles.
MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION OF PROPELLER NOISE MODULATION CHARACTERISTICS

Propeller cavitation noise in the high frequency regime is broadband and yet audibly rhythmic. The study of these processes are important because the shaft and blade rates, as well as other identifying features of the ship, can in principle be inferred from propeller noise modulation characteristics. Conventional wisdom has been that propeller noise is an amplitude modulation of a wide sense stationary random process carrier. We show here that this assumption is wrong and that propeller noise actually often has a time-dependent spectral shape in addition to amplitude modulation characteristics. Motivated by this, we model the ship’s propeller noise as a general periodicallycorrelated (PC) random process which allows for time-dependent spectral characteristics in addition to amplitude modulation and then derive its maximum likelihood estimator under the weak signal assumption. The new estimator is demonstrated on actual merchant ship noise data.
Data Mining In Direct Marketing Databases

In direct marketing large amounts of customer data are collected that might have some complex, non linear relation to customer behavior. Data mining techniques can ooer insight in these relations. In this paper we give a basic introduction in the application of data mining to direct marketing. Best practices for data selection, algorithm selection and evaluation of results are described and illustrated with a number of real world cases. We suggest two lines of research which we consider important to put data mining in the hands of the marketeer: automating data mining techniques and integration of data mining in an open knowledge management framework.
Traffic Optimization for Multimodal Cooperative Networks

In this paper, we study the traffic optimization problem for a heterogeneous traffic network by considering utility functions of data and voice traffic. We also study the performance of multimodal networks, where other modes of communication like wires, infrared links may operate in addition to wireless nodes to improve the performance of the wireless network. We assume the presence of an additional wired channel between the wireless nodes in an example network. We solve the traffic optimization problem by maximizing the sum of utilities of all voice and data users in the network and calculate the optimal rates that can be allocated to data and voice. We also divide transmit power between the wireless channel and the wired channel for a source-destination pair wireless network and a cooperative diamond relay network, implemented with Laneman protocol separately using constrained optimization techniques and performance is analyzed in terms of outage probability expressions. We show that optimal power allocation to a wired channel between the source and a relay separated by a poor wireless channel improves performance with few assumptions on the characteristics of the wire and over a range of transmit powers.
“Great Shows, Thanks to You”: From Participatory Culture to “Quality TV” in Amazon’s Pilot Season

Launched in 2013, Amazon Studios’s Pilot Season reportedly offers an alternative to the conventional Hollywood development cycle by soliciting viewer feedback through short surveys and star reviews to determine which projects are developed into original series. However, while Amazon Studios publicly assures us that viewers “Call the Shots,” the company has swiftly navigated away from such participatory discourse. Through a discursive analysis of promotional materials, executive and talent interviews, and responses from trade presses and critics, this article unpacks how Amazon Studios diminished the import of viewer feedback at the first sign of significant attention from the critical community and subsequently shifted to promotional discourses centered on markers of “Quality TV. ” This case ultimately demonstrates that, as discursive strategies, participatory culture and Quality TV serve distinctive functions for the industry, with the former often relegated to attention-seeking gimmick and the latter functioning as a powerful tool of legitimation.