Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constructing neuro-fuzzy systems with TSK fuzzy rules and hybrid SVD-based learning

In this paper, an architecture of fuzzy neural networks with Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy rules is proposed. A novel learning algorithm [1]-[2] with self-organizing ability and fast learning rules is also presented. In the structure identification phase of our method, fuzzy IF-THEN rules are extracted with a self-constructing rule generation algorithm. In the parameter identification phase, a hybrid learning algorithm is used, in which the consequent parameters are derived optimally by a recursive SVD-based least squares estimator (RSVD) and the precondition parameters are tuned by the backpropagation algorithm. Simulation results have demonstrated that a more compact structure with a faster convergence rate and smaller mean square errors can be achieved by the proposed approach.
An Endurance-Aware Metadata Allocation Strategy for MLC NAND Flash Memory Storage Systems

This paper presents a reliability-aware metadata allocation strategy called scatter-single-level cell (SLC) for multiple-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory storage systems. In scatter-SLC, metadata is kept in least significant bit (LSB) pages and corresponding most significant bit (MSB) pages are bypassed. Without partitioning SLC and MLC blocks, scatter-SLC can eliminate the unbalanced lifetime between SLC and MLC blocks while achieving the similar error rate as the method to store metadata in SLC blocks. We implemented scatter-SLC on a real-hardware platform. The experiment results show that scatter-SLC can reduce uncorrectable page errors by 93.54% while incurring less than 1% time overhead on average compared with the previous work.
PACT : A Pattern-Annotated Course Toolkit

From the first primitive individual that passed along knowledge of how to use a tool to the medieval training of priests and monks to the classroom of a modern research institution, education has played a vital role is shaping human progress and society. Over this time span the contents of the educational messages and the mechanisms used to deliver and structure them have steadily evolved. As early as the 1770s, pedagogy was being viewed as a science meriting extensive study [1]. The works of Lev Vygotsky (early 1900s) and Jean Piaget (mid 1900s), among others, added a level of formalism to the study of human learning. The societal acceptance of lifelong learning (continuing education among adults) over the past fifty years has further solidified the role of education in the modern world. A strong and well-rounded education is now seen as a requirement to compete and survive in the modern world with significance that rivals even that first early human who taught the next generation how to use tools to hunt.
Clustering in Additive Mixed Models with Approximate Dirichlet Process Mixtures using the EM Algorithm

We consider additive mixed models for longitudinal data with a nonlinear time trend. As random effects distribution an approximate Dirichlet process mixture is proposed that is based on the truncated version of the stick breaking presentation of the Dirichlet process and provides a Gaussian mixture with a data driven choice of the number of mixture components. The main advantage of the specification is its ability to identify clusters of subjects with a similar random effects structure. For the estimation of the trend curve the mixed model representation of penalized splines is used. AnExpectation-Maximization algorithm is given that solves the estimation problem and that exhibits advantages over Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches, which are typically used when modeling with Dirichlet processes. The method is evaluated in a simulation study and applied to body mass index profiles of children.
Fish-like underwater microrobot with 3 DOF

It is our purpose to develop an underwater microrobot that has the characteristics of flexibility, driven by a low voltage, good response and safety in body. We propose a prototype model of an underwater microrobot utilizing an ICPF (ionic conducting polymer film) actuator as the servo actuator to realize swimming motion with 3 DOF. A biomimetic fish-like microrobot using an ICPF actuator as a propulsion tail fin and a buoyancy adjuster for a microrobot swimming structure in water or aqueous medium has been developed. The overall size of the underwater microrobot prototype shaped as a fish is 45mm in length, 10 mm in width and 4 mm in thickness. There is a pair of fins and a buoyancy adjuster. The characteristics of the underwater microrobot is measured by changing the frequency and amplitude of input voltage. The experimental results indicate that the swimming speed of the proposed underwater micro robot can be controlled by changing the frequency of input voltage; the moving direction (upward or downward) can be controlled by changing the amplitude and the frequency of input voltage.
Social Networking and Transnational Capitalism

0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0mm 5.4pt 0mm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0mm; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become a key component of users’ experience of the internet. Whilst much has been made of the social dynamics of online SNS, the influence of the structures and operations of these sites – and the business models behind them - on users is rarely accounted for. This paper argues that behind the social behaviours supported by SNS, there is a growing shift towards viewing online communities as commodities, and SNS as an extension of mainstream capitalist ideologies fostered by existing patterns of commercialization and consumption. Using the works of Gramsci, Gill and Hardt & Negri to provide a critical grounding, this paper explores the popular SNS site ‘Facebook’ and suggests that SNS may feel to the users to be free, social, personal, but in fact SNS are business as usual.
Nonacceleration of Sagittarius A*: Implications for Galactic Structure

We estimate that observations by Backer and collaborators over the past two decades constrain the time derivative of the proper motion of Sgr A* to be less than 0.14 mas yr-2. Using this result and a measurement by Eckart & Genzel of σ ~ 560 km s-1 for the velocity dispersion of the star cluster within 0. ″3 of Sgr A*, we derive the following implications. First, if the nuclear star cluster is dominated by a massive black hole, then either Sgr A* is directly associated with that black hole or it orbits the black hole with a radius ≲40 AU. Under this assumption, and adopting vLSR = 220 ± 10 km s-1, the Galactocentric distance is therefore R0 = 7.5 ± 0.4 kpc. If the star cluster is not assumed to contain a massive black hole, Sgr A* is constrained to move slower than 55 km s-1 (1 σ) relative to the center of mass of the cluster. This is too weak a limit to provide useful constraints on Galactic structure, but we show that it could be improved by more than one order of magnitude over the next decade. Such an improvement would eliminate the need to make any assumption about a black hole in the derivation of R0.
Effects of light on alertness

: Besides affecting vision, light exerts powerful non-visual effects on a wide range of biological functions and behaviors, such as modulating circadian rhythm, melatonin suppression, and acute alertness. Comprehensive studies on the effect of light on human circadian rhythm now lead more researchers to pay attention to the effects of light on acute alertness. Here, we summarized (1) different measures of alertness, (2) factors that may influence the effect of light on alertness like illuminance, exposure, timing, wavelength and color temperature, (3) promising applications of the alerting effect of light in some affective disorders, circadian rhythm, and office lighting, and (4) future directions focusing on investigation of neural mechanisms, optimal lighting characteristics, and potential confounds.
Notice of RetractionOrganization based on space syntax for shared parking in central business district

The idea of smart growth has been accepted by many farseeing cities around the world. Their goals are to concentrate growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl. Against this background, shared parking which needs less space but provides more parking spaces is welcome in urban area. However, it has been still a challenge for traffic engineers and metropolitan governors to make parking garages and lots in large-scale area, especially in the central business distribution, shared as an integrated one. This paper tries to adopt traffic organization to solve the problem of shared parking. First, it introduces space syntax which is a paradigm of city and modifies its behavioral hypotheses for motor vehicles. Then, it improves the traffic system by making use of space syntax in traffic organization combining with parking guidance and information system (PGIS). Finally, it presents the application of this method in Yanghuyuan micro center business district (MCBD), which is located in Changsha, China.
Radiation capture and conversion efficiencies of Miscanthus sacchariflorus, M. sinensis and their naturally occurring hybrid M. × giganteus

Miscanthus is a rhizomatous C4 grass of great interest as a biofuel crop because it has the potential to produce high yields over a wide geographical area with low agricultural inputs on marginal land less suitable for food production. At the moment, a clonal interspecific hybrid Miscanthus × giganteus is the most widely cultivated and studied in Europe and the United States, but breeding programmes are developing newer more productive varieties. Here, we quantified the physiological processes relating to whole season yield in a replicated plot trial in Wales, UK. Light capture and conversion efficiency were parameterized for four carefully selected genotypes (M. sinensis, M. sacchariflorus and Miscanthus × giganteus). Differences in the canopy architecture in mature stands as measured by the extinction coefficient (k) were small (0.55–0.65). Sensitivity analysis on a mathematical model of Miscanthus was performed to quantify the accumulative intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (iPAR) in the growing season using (i) k, (ii) variation in the thermal responses of leaf expansion rate, (iii) base temperature for degree days and (iv) date start of canopy expansion. A 10% increase in k or leaf area per degree day both had a minimal effect on iPAR (3%). Decreasing base temperature from 10 to 9 °C gave an 8% increase in iPAR. If the starting date for canopy expansion was the same as shoot emergence date, then the iPAR increases by 12.5%. In M. × giganteus, the whole season above ground and total (including below ground) radiation‐use efficiency (RUE) ranged from 45% to 37% higher than the noninterspecific hybrid genotypes. The greater yields in the interspecific hybrid M. × giganteus are explained by the higher RUE and not by differences in iPAR or partitioning effects. Studying the mechanisms underlying this complex trait could have wide benefits for both fuel and food production.
Alpha-Structural Recursion and Induction (Extended Abstract)

There is growing evidence for the usefulness of name permutations when dealing with syntax involving names and name-binding. In particular they facilitate an attractively simple formalisation of common, but often technically incorrect uses of structural recursion and induction for abstract syntax trees mod- ulo -equivalence. At the heart of this formalisation is the notion of nitely sup- ported mathematical objects. This paper explains the idea in as concrete a way as possible and gives a new derivation within higher-order logic of principles of -structural recursion and induction for -equivalence classes from the ordinary versions of these principles for abstract syntax trees.
IS / IT CAPABILITY AND S TRATEGIC I NFORMATION S YSTEM P LANNING ( SISP ) SUCCESS

Successful planning of Information Systems (SISP) is perhaps going to be more problematic in today’s world of rapid change and uncertainty. SISP is a cornerstone of the information system discipline and very little attention has been paid to its success based on the resource based view of the firm (RBV). This paper provides a model for IT capability and strategic information system planning success, by considering environmental and organizational factors that may influence this relationship in a contingency model. A review of existing IT capability and SISP literature is given to identify the opportunities in building successful SISP. A model is developed by hypothesizing IT capability as independent variable leads to SISP success as dependent variable; in which organizational & environmental influences are considered as moderating variables. The control variables are firm size, firm structure, and industry type. The study proposes a model to conceptualize the relationship between IT capabilities and SISP success and contingency factors moderating that relationship. This paper explains the ways of exploiting IT capabilities as specialized and integrated knowledge of the firm in IT area to create a more successful SISP. The researchers believe that the aim to build a model for SISP success based on RBV theory is important because this new perspective will be helpful for gaining a superior assessment and better underpinning of the SISP from a knowledge based perspective.
Evans' Normal Form Theorem Revisited

Evans defined quasigroups equationally, and proved a Normal Form Theorem solving the word problem for free extensions of partial Latin squares. In this paper, quasigroups are redefined as algebras with six basic operations related by triality, manifested as coupled right and left regular actions of the symmetric group on three symbols. Triality leads to considerable simplifications in the proof of Evans' Normal Form Theorem, and makes it directly applicable to each of the six major varieties of quasigroups defined by subgroups of the symmetric group. Normal form theorems for the corresponding varieties of idempotent quasigroups are obtained as immediate corollaries.
Review Getting Formal with Dopamine and Reward

[this issue of Neuron]). The structures included the do-pamine system, as many of the stimulation sites were in close proximity to axons of dopamine neurons or to amphetamine, and nicotine lead to increases in dopa-Cambridge CB2 3DY mine concentration in the ventral striatum and frontal United Kingdom cortex, which appears to be a crucial mechanism of drug addiction. In view of these well-established results, several studies investigated neuronal mechanisms of Recent neurophysiological studies reveal that neurons reward by studying the impulse activity of single neurons in certain brain structures carry specific signals about in the dopamine system and other presumptive reward past and future rewards. Dopamine neurons display structures. In particular, we were interested to under-a short-latency, phasic reward signal indicating the stand which specific information about rewards would difference between actual and predicted rewards. The be coded by the different neuronal systems. signal is useful for enhancing neuronal processing and The present review comprises seven sections which learning behavioral reactions. It is distinctly different (1) summarize the basic neurophysiological results ob-from dopamine's tonic enabling of numerous behav-tained from dopamine neurons; (2) interpret these re-ioral processes. Neurons in the striatum, frontal cor-sults in relation to formal issues of animal learning the-tex, and amygdala also process reward information ory; (3) make a case for different functions depending but provide more differentiated information for identi-on the time courses of dopamine fluctuations and com-fying and anticipating rewards and organizing goal-pare the reward processing with other functions of do-directed behavior. The different reward signals have pamine systems; (4) assess how the dopamine reward complementary functions, and the optimal use of re-signal influences postsynaptic structures to mediate the wards in voluntary behavior would benefit from inter-known behavioral functions of reward; (5) compare the actions between the signals. Addictive psychostimu-reward coding of dopamine neurons with other brain lant drugs may exert their action by amplifying the structures and discuss how neurons might use the re-dopamine reward signal. ward information for controlling goal-directed behavior, decision-making, and intentional behavior; (6) suggest Introduction hypotheses on how addictive drugs might abuse the The discovery of neurons synthesizing and releasing the dopamine reward signal; and (7) provide an outlook on neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain has prompted future experiments on dopamine and reward. a number of interesting proposals concerning their function. Following such far-fetched suggestions as an Basic Results involvement in regulating blood pressure, more recent Cell bodies of dopamine neurons …
Metal-Organic Framework of Lanthanoid Dinuclear Clusters Undergoes Slow Magnetic Relaxation

Lanthanoid metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) can adopt a variety of new structures due to the large coordination numbers of Ln metal ions, and Ln-MOFs are expected to show new luminescence and magnetic properties due to the localized f electrons. In particular, some Ln metal ions, such as Dy(III) and Tb(III) ions, work as isolated quantum magnets when they have magnetic anisotropy. In this work, using 4,4′,4″-s-triazine-2,4,6-triyl-tribenzoic acid (H3TATB) as a ligand, two new Ln-MOFs, [Dy(TATB)(DMF)2] (1) and [Tb(TATB)(DMF)2] (2), were obtained. The Ln-MOFs contain Ln dinuclear clusters as secondary building units, and 1 underwent slow magnetic relaxation similar to single-molecule magnets.
Thinking Green: Toward Swedish FrameNet++

Access to multi-layered lexical, grammatical and semantic information representing text content is a prerequisite for efficient automatic understanding and generation of natural language. A FrameNet is considered a valuable resource for both linguistics and language technology research that may contribute to the achievement of these goals. Currently, FrameNet-like resources exist for a few languages,1 including some domain-specific and multilingual initiatives (Dolbey et al., 2006; Boas, 2009; Uematsu et al., 2009; Venturi et al., 2009), but are unavailable for most languages, including Swedish, although there have been some pilot studies exploring the semi-automatic acquisition of Swedish frames (Johansson & Nugues, 2006; Borin et al., 2007). At the University of Gothenburg, we are now embarking on a project to build a Swedish FrameNet-like resource. A novel feature of this project is that the Swedish FrameNet will be an integral part of a larger many-faceted lexical resource. Hence the name Swedish FrameNet++ (SweFN++).
Total Quality Management, strategic orientation and organizational performance: the case of Spanish companies

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between strategy and Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation, as well as the impact of the adaptation of both to organizational performance. We have used the emphasis on cost leadership, differentiation on marketing and differentiation on innovation as strategic dimensions to develop four great strategic configurations. The degrees of implementation of the TQM elements in each of them, as well as their associations to the various types of performances have been studied. Our results significantly support the hypotheses proposed, and suggest differences in TQM implementation depending on the selected strategy. It is also noticed that companies with greater degrees of co-alignment between their strategies and TQM are those with the highest levels of performance.
Rapid and highly sensitive detection of pyocyanin biomarker in different Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections using gold nanoparticles modified sensor

Successful antibiotic treatment of infections relies on accurate and rapid identification of the infectious agents. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is implicated in a wide range of human infections that almost complicated and become life threating especially in immunocompromised and critically ill patients. Conventional microbiological methods take more than 3 days to obtain accurate results. Pyocyanin is a distinctive electroactive biomarker for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Here, we have developed a rapid diagnostic (polyaniline) PANI gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) modified indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode that showed 100% sensitivity for pyocyanin in culture of Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates and high selectivity for pyocyanin at low concentration when measured in the presence of other substances like ascorbic acid, uric acid, and glucose as interferences. The constructed electrode was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The determined linear range for pyocyanin detection was from 238 µM to 1.9 µM with a detection limit of 500 nM. Compared to the screen-printed electrode used before, the constructed electrode showed a 4-fold enhanced performance.
Shadowed non-local image guided filter

Guided image filter has been widely used in image processing. Considering the Non-local model is an excellent method for global information accumulation, the non-local image guided filter has been proposed and shown good performance in many image processing tasks by utilizing the non-local similarity of the guidance image. In this paper, we introduce a shadowed non-local image guided filter derived from the concept of shadowed sets. The shadowed non-local model applies more reliable non-local information by suppressing the low similarity values of the guidance image to zero and boosting high similarity values to the maximum of the non-local similarity set. The thresholds of suppression and boosting are determined automatically based on the concept of shadowed sets. Experimental results on several image processing tasks including image denoising, depth super-resolution, and image dehazing demonstrate the superiority of shadowed set based approach.
Social life logging: can we describe our own personal experience by using collective intelligence?

A famous Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka left a statement "The whole is other than the sum of its parts. " Similarly, collective intelligence such as social tagging exposes a social milieu that cannot be obtained from the descriptions of each individual. Previous automatic (or passive) life logging projects mainly focused on recording the individual life activity however, sometimes it is difficult to recollect the situation from their own perspective logs alone. In this project, we propose a social life logging system called "KiokuHacker" (Kioku means memory in Japanese) that encourages the user to describe their life activity by using a massive amount of processed geotagged social tagging from the Internet. The result of a one year user test not only shows that our social life logging system encourages the user's reminiscence which the user cannot recollect by oneself but also indicates that the user evokes their reminiscence which is not directly related with to the tags/scenes the system displayed.