Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration; Keith Sawyer; Basic Books, NY, 2007; 274 pp., $26.95. If you're involved in a business that depends on sustained innovation (and which doesn't? )-especially if you're a manager who can influence decisions and resources-then add this to your reading list. Keith Sawyer's writing is direct, clear, even friendly, and the text is unencumbered by ponderous footnotes and thick quotations. An associate professor of psychology at Washington University, St. Louis, Sawyer's personal hobbies of jazz and improv theater appear again and again to support his thesis that innovation is a product of groups, and that the solitary genius is a myth. But the scope of the book is more than that: it covers the important and current thinking about fostering innovation in the Internet-enabled age. By my own reading and experience in a research-driven Fortune 500 corporation, the innovation literature is converging on a number of "best practices. " Sawyer captures them well, and with his well-chosen supporting anecdotes these are reason enough to read the book and get to work applying these lessons in your organization: * Poorly structured, lazy brainstorming is practiced so frequently and is so wasteful, we can't have enough books that reveal its flaws and how to improve upon it. Sawyer's treatment is excellent. * Sustained innovation depends on having many irons in the fire, with the corollary that failure will be frequent and must be supported. * Myths about lone geniuses need bursting. Even those who work alone stand on the shoulders of giants, and implementation always needs teamwork and has its own continuing need for creative problem solving. The risk of propagating the solitary genius concept (to the exclusion of other possibilities) is that organizations will fail to support "messy" teams. * Innovation happens at the "edge of chaos"; either too much or too little structure is destructive. * Clusters are important. It may seem risky to have many firms in one location competing for a common pool of talent, but history shows that a crossfertilizing, dynamic environment is more innovative and sustainable. * The Internet and related communications standards are flattening the world at an unprecedented pace; the Web empowers enormous networks of individual innovators. Standing still is not an option. Group Genius also benefits from: * Annotated Notes: Sawyer has made a wise choice to keep the prose simple and fast-moving, but as a result, major ideas sometimes jump off the page as bald assertions (for example, ". . . the most effective . . . groups are self-managing. . . . without being directed by a leader."). The annotated notes at the end of the book provide good counterweight and credibility to the breezy style. * Frequent Checklists: The book is sprinkled with bulleted lists of do's and don'ts, which stitch the storytelling narrative together into practical advice. …
1 Investigating CRC Polynomials that Correct Burst Errors

Error correction (instead of retransmission) can improve energy efficiency and lifetime of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we concentrate on burst errors and error-correcting Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRCs). We describe an optimized method for finding error-correcting CRC polynomials as maximum data length per frame increases. Our results show that the CCITT-16 polynomial (which is used by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and by TinyOS) can correct 5-bit bursts in up to 156 bits of data as well as 4-bit bursts in as high as 1500 bits of data. For maximum errorcorrection capability, particular 16-bit CRC polynomials can correct 7-bit bursts in up to 184 bits of data, whereas other 16-bit CRC polynomials can correct 6-bit bursts in up to 803 bits of data.
A multiple-switch high-voltage DC-DC converter

Series connection of power devices has evolved into a mature technique and is widely applied in HV DC power systems. Static and dynamic voltage balance is ensured by shunting individual devices with dissipative snubbers. The snubber losses become pronounced for increased operating frequencies and adversely affect power density. Capacitive snubbers do not exhibit these disadvantages, but they require a zero-voltage switching mode. Super-resonant power converters facilitate the principle of zero-voltage switching. A high-voltage DC-DC power converter with multiple series-connected devices is proposed. It allows the application of nondissipating snubbers to assist the voltage sharing between the multiple series-connected devices and lowers turnoff losses. Simulation results obtained with a circuit simulator are validated in an experimental power converter operating with two series-connected devices. The behavior of the series connection is examined for MOSFETs and IGBTs by both experimental work with a 2 kW prototype and computer simulation. Applications can be found in traction and heavy industry, where the soft-switching power converter is directly powered from a high-voltage source.
Congestion Games for Distributed Radio Access Selection in Broadband Networks

Nowadays networks are characterized by the abundance of diverse Radio Access Interfaces (RAI) in the same operating area. The various wireless interfaces can belong to the same Radio Access Technology or not. In such a scenario, a mobile user will be able to select selfishly one of the available radio interfaces in order to enhance its own performance. Therefore, the radio access selection policy is vital and must be designed astutely to avoid resource wastage. In this paper, the RAI selection process is apprehended as a congestion game which is a class of noncooperative games in which users share a common set of limited resources. The cost sustained by a given user depends upon the congestion impact inflected by other users sharing the same resource. Devising distributed resource sharing schemes that optimize user air interface selection depends crucially on the existence of Nash equilibria for the modelling congestion games. In this paper, we model the downlink access for three main broadband technologies (WiMAX, WiFi and 3.5G HSDPA) and study the existence of pure Nash equilibria for various multi-RAI scenarios involving those technologies.
The Phonetics and Phonology of Stop Lenition in Korean

Systems, apparatus and methods are disclosed for disposing of radioactive waste materials by placing them into a container such as a steel drum, together with cement or other solidifying agent and water or other suitable liquid in amounts sufficient to provide eventually a solidified mixture of predetermined amounts of cement or other solidifying agent and radioactive material, closing the drum, agitating the mixture in the drum for mixing the contents, and then storing the drum for at least a period of time sufficient to permit partial decay of radioactive materials or to await available time for shipment. Also disclosed are remotely controlled apparatus for handling both empty and filled drums, for placing the drums in and removing drums from enclosed drumming equipment where they have been filled and agitated, for accurately placing the drums containing radioactive material in storage, and for removing the drums from storage and loading them on a vehicle for transportation. All of these operations are done by remote control with a high degree of safety to the operators and maintenance personnel from radiation and freedom of the ambient from radiation pollution.
Effects of Age and Initial Risk Perception on Balloon Analog Risk Task: The Mediating Role of Processing Speed and Need for Cognitive Closure

According to the dual-process theoretical perspective adopted in the presented research, the efficiency of deliberative processes in decision making declines with age, but experiential processes are relatively well-preserved. The age-related differences in deliberative and experiential processes in risky decision-making were examined in this research by applying the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). We analyzed the influence of age on risk acceptance and decision-making performance in two age groups of female participants (younger adults, n = 81; older adults, n = 76), with additional experimental manipulation of initial risk perception. We predicted and confirmed that aging significantly worsens performance on the behavioral BART measures due to age-related decline in deliberative processes. Older participants were found to exhibit significantly higher risk aversion and lower BART performance, and the effect of age was mediated by cognitive (processing speed) and motivational (need for cognitive closure) mechanisms. Moreover, older adults adapt to the initial failure (vs. success) similarly, as younger adults due to preserved efficiency of experiential processes. These results suggest future directions for minimizing negative effects of aging in risky decision-making and indicate compensatory processes, which are preserved during aging.
Balancing the Risks and Benefits of Genomic Data Sharing: Genome Research Participants’ Perspectives

Background: Technological advancements are rapidly propelling the field of genome research forward, while lawmakers attempt to keep apace with the risks these advances bear. Balancing normative concerns of maximizing data utility and protecting human subjects, whose privacy is at risk due to the identifiability of DNA data, are central to policy decisions. Research on genome research participants making real-time data sharing decisions is limited; yet, these perspectives could provide critical information to ongoing deliberations. Methods: We conducted a randomized trial of 3 consent types affording varying levels of control over data release decisions. After debriefing participants about the randomization process, we invited them to a follow-up interview to assess their attitudes toward genetic research, privacy and data sharing. Results: Participants were more restrictive in their reported data sharing preferences than in their actual data sharing decisions. They saw both benefits and risks associated with sharing their genomic data, but risks were seen as less concrete or happening in the future, and were largely outweighed by purported benefits. Conclusion: Policymakers must respect that participants’ assessment of the risks and benefits of data sharing and their privacy-utility determinations, which are associated with their final data release decisions, vary. In order to advance the ethical conduct of genome research, proposed policy changes should carefully consider these stakeholder perspectives.
Ultrasound evidence of sexual difference in fetal size in first trimester.

Boys born at term weigh on average 50-150 g more than girls and are 0 5-1 0 cm longer. ' 2 At 1 year of age these differences have;kncreased to 0-5 kg and 1-2 cm. ' Conversely, among babies born prematurely a weight difference between the two sexes can be detected only in the last eight to 12 weeks before term. ' These observations have led to the assumption that the sexual difference in weight and size is hormone dependent. In order to establish local normal tables of fetal growth a series of normal pregnancies were studied by ultrasonic scanning. Quite unexpectedly, male fetuses were already on average larger than female ones at the first measurement in the 8th to 12th week. Therefore a genetic rather than a hormonal mechanism is probably behind the sexual difference in fetal size.
Evolutionary potential of thermal preference and heat tolerance in Drosophila subobscura

Evolutionary change of thermal traits (i.e., heat tolerance and behavioural thermoregulation) is one of the most important mechanisms exhibited by organisms to respond to global warming. However, the evolutionary potential of heat tolerance, estimated as narrow‐sense heritability, depends on the methodology employed. An alternative adaptive mechanism to buffer extreme temperatures is behavioural thermoregulation, although the association between heat tolerance and thermal preference is not clearly understood. We suspect that methodological effects associated with the duration of heat stress during thermal tolerance assays are responsible for missing this genetic association. To test this hypothesis, we estimated the heritabilities and genetic correlations for thermal traits in Drosophila subobscura, using high‐temperature static and slow ramping assays. We found that heritability for heat tolerance was higher in static assays (h2 = 0.134) than in slow ramping assays (h2 = 0.084), suggesting that fast assays may provide a more precise estimation of the genetic variation of heat tolerance. In addition, thermal preference exhibited a low heritability (h2 = 0.066), suggesting a reduced evolutionary response for this trait. We also found that the different estimates of heat tolerance and thermal preference were not genetically correlated, regardless of how heat tolerance was estimated. In conclusion, our data suggest that these thermal traits can evolve independently in this species. In agreement with previous evidence, these results indicate that methodology may have an important impact on genetic estimates of heat tolerance and that fast assays are more likely to detect the genetic component of heat tolerance.
DropNeuron: Simplifying the Structure of Deep Neural Networks

Deep learning using multi-layer neural networks (NNs) architecture manifests superb power in modern machine learning systems. The trained Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are typically large. The question we would like to address is whether it is possible to simplify the NN during training process to achieve a reasonable performance within an acceptable computational time. We presented a novel approach of optimising a deep neural network through regularisation of net- work architecture. We proposed regularisers which support a simple mechanism of dropping neurons during a network training process. The method supports the construction of a simpler deep neural networks with compatible performance with its simplified version. As a proof of concept, we evaluate the proposed method with examples including sparse linear regression, deep autoencoder and convolutional neural network. The valuations demonstrate excellent performance. The code for this work can be found in this http URL
The role of evaluation in AI and law: an examination of its different forms in the AI and law journal

This paper explores the presence and forms of evaluation in articles published in the journal Artificial Intelligence and Law for the ten-year period from 2005 through 2014. It represents a meta-level study of some the most significant works produced by the AI and Law community, in this case nearly 140 research articles published in the AI and Law journal. It also compares its findings to previous work conducted on evaluation appearing in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL). In addition, the paper highlights works harnessing performance evaluation as one of their chief scientific tools and the means by which they use it. It extends the argument for why evaluation is essential in formal Artificial Intelligence and Law reports such as those in the journal. As in the case of two earlier works on the topic, it pursues answers to the questions: how good is the system, algorithm or proposal? , how reliable is the approach or technique? , and, ultimately, does the method work? The paper investigates the role of performance evaluation in scientific research reports, underscoring the argument that a performance-based 'ethic' signifies a level of maturity and scientific rigor within a community. In addition, the work examines recent publications that address the same critical issue within the broader field of Artificial Intelligence.
Automatisierter Entwurf nichtlinearer prädiktiver Regler für Dieselmotoren (Automated Development of Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Diesel Engines)

Im Beitrag wird ein modellgestütztes prädiktives Regelungskonzept basierend auf sukzessiv linearisierten Streckenmodellen vorgestellt. Zur schnellen Reglerentwicklung steht eine automatisierte Entwicklungskette mit Formelmanipulation, Codeerzeugung und Erprobung in der Simulation zur Verfügung. Der vorgestellte Ansatz zeichnet sich besonders durch hohe Flexibilität und Erweiterbarkeit auch für hochintegrative Regelungsaufgaben am Dieselmotor aus. A model based predictive control based on successively linearised models is presented. For rapid control prototyping an integrated development environment has been developed. The presented approach is highly flexible and scalable and can be used particularly for control of diesel engines in highly integrated systems.
Assessing linguistically aware fuzzy matching in translation memories

The concept of fuzzy matching in translation memories can take place using linguistically aware or unaware methods, or a combination of both. We designed a flexible and time-efficient framework which applies and combines linguistically unaware or aware metrics in the source and target language. We measure the correlation of fuzzy matching metric scores with the evaluation score of the suggested translation to find out how well the usefulness of a suggestion can be predicted, and we measure the difference in recall between fuzzy matching metrics by looking at the improvements in mean TER as the match score decreases. We found that combinations of fuzzy matching metrics outperform single metrics and that the best-scoring combination is a non-linear combination of the different metrics we have tested.
90 Aging Skin: Some Psychosomatic Aspects

The skin, especially the facial skin, is a powerful organ of communication and one of the most easily visible indicators of age, health, and disease, and of various socially important attributes such as social status, wealth, and sexual attractiveness [1]. The face is the part of the body invested with the greatest interpersonal meaning and is the focus of attention during communication. The aging of the facial skin secondary to both intrinsic and extrinsic factors (e.g., photodamage and smoking) and the development of hyperfunctional facial lines due to repeated expression of emotion over time can lead to aging of the appearance. Over the last several decades, the cultural and social meanings of growing old have changed and old age has started to acquire increasingly negative connotations. Often normal intrinsic aging is viewed as a medical and social problem that needs to be addressed by health-care professionals. The idea that chronological age itself does not signal the beginning of old age, and that one can get older without the signs of aging, has become increasingly prevalent, with a high value placed by the society on the maintenance of a youthful appearance [1]. Facial appearance and expressions, for example, as a result of the corrugator muscle activity of the forehead (resulting in a frown), play a substantial role in the expression of emotions in addition to signaling attributes such as age [2]. From a Darwinian evolutionary perspective [3], the interpretation of facial expression is an integral component of interpersonal communication and tends to be universal and constant across time and cultures [2]. The face is the focus of human communication and facial expressions have evolved as a means of nonverbal communication and as a way of enhancing verbal communication [2]. The repeated expression of emotion over time produces hyperfunctional facial lines. The presence of these lines when the face is at repose may give the person an aged appearance or give an erroneous impression of emotions or personality characteristics. As the skin ages and the support of the underlying cutaneous structures is lost, more wrinkles and folds develop, and
Machine Learning of Hybrid Classification Models for Decision Support

Machine learning methods used for decision support must achieve (a) high accuracy of decisions they recommend, and (b) deep understanding of decisions, so decision makers could trust them. Methods for learning implicit, non-symbolic knowledge provide better predictive accuracy. Methods for learning explicit, symbolic knowledge produce more comprehensible models. Hybrid machine learning models combine strengths of both knowledge representation model types. In this paper we compare predictive accuracy and comprehensibility of explicit, implicit, and hybrid machine learning models for several standard medical diagnostics, electronic commerce, e-marketing and financial decision making problems. Their applicability in different environments desktop, mobile and cloud computing is briefly analyzed. Machine learning methods from Weka and R/Revolution environments are used.
Age-related macular degeneration: a target for nanotechnology derived medicines

Despite the fact that the retina is a fairly accessible portion of the central nervous system, there are virtually no treatments for early age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is a degenerative retinal disease that causes progressive loss of central vision and is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss and legal blindness in individuals over the age of 50. Both environmental and genetic components play a role in its development. AMD is a multifactorial disease with characteristics that include drusen, hyperpigmentation and/or hypopigmentation of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), geographic atrophy and, in a subset of patients, late-stage choroidal neovascularization (CNV). Drugs that inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have proven effective in treating late-stage CNV, but optimal means of drug delivery remains to be determined. Microscopic particles, whose size is on the nanometer scale, show considerable promise for drug delivery to the retina, for gene therapy, and for powering prosthetic “artificial retinas. ” This article summarizes the pathophysiology of AMD stressing potential applications from nanotechnology.
Dermoscopic Features of Small, Medium, and Large-Sized Congenital Melanocytic Nevi

Background Congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) are present at birth. It is well known that the presence of large-sized congenital nevus in early life could predict a major risk of developing melanoma. Objective To investigate the clinical and dermoscopic features of the CMN, to search for and highlight any differences between small-sized, medium-sized, large-sized CMN. Methods A nonrandomized observational study was performed. A total of 108 melanocytic nevi were analysed by clinical and dermoscopic examination. Results Of the subjects, 57.4% were aged less than 16 years, 42.6% were aged 16 and more. Of the nevi, 26 had reticular pattern (24.1%), 35 had globular pattern (32.4%), 13 had reticular-globular pattern (12.0%), 16 had homogeneous pattern (14.8%), 6 had reticular-homogeneous pattern (5.6%), 2 had globular-homogeneous pattern (1.9%), 7 had cobblestone pattern (6.5%), 3 had reticular patchy pattern (2.8%). Atypical dots and globules, focal hypopigmentation and perifollicular hypopigmentation are the most common dermoscopic features of CMN. The rarest dermoscopic feature is the blue-whitish veil. Conclusion Most of the dermoscopic features related with dysplastic nevi up to the present, such as atypical dots and globules, focal hypopigmentation, perifollicular hypopigmentation were observed in CMN, in our study. Congenital nevus and dysplastic nevi may share the same dermoscopic features, therefore it is important to know it is found at birth or not.