Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Named Entity Recognition on Transcribed Broadcast News Guidelines for Participants

In the Named Entity Recognition (NER) task, systems are required to recognize different types of Named Entities (NEs) in Italian texts. As in the previous editions of EVALITA, we distinguish four NE types: Person (PER), Organization (ORG), Location (LOC) and Geo-Political Entities (GPE). Participant systems should identify both the correct extension and type of each NE. The output of participant systems is evaluated against a manually created gold standard. The task will be based on the ACE-LDC standards for the Entity Recognition and Normalization Task (LDC 2005), with all the adaptations needed to limit the task to the recognition of Named Entities ([Magnini et al. 2011], available for download from the NER task webpage at http://www.evalita.it/2011/tasks/NER). The main novelty introduced for the 2011 edition is the fact that the task is based on broadcast news (graciously provided by the local broadcaster RTTR) and consists of two separate subtasks:  Full task: participants will perform both automatic transcription of the news using an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system of their choice and recognition of the Named Entities within that transcript;  NER only: organizers will provide participants with the automatically created transcript of the news produced using a state-of-the-art ASR system and participants will perform Named Entity Recognition on this transcript. Participants can chose to participate in either one or both subtasks.
Interferon Gamma Gene Polymorphism (+874 T > A) and Chronic Hepatitis B in the Population of Gorgan, North-Eastern Iran

Background Based on differences in individual immune responses to the hepatitis B virus (HBV), between 5% and 10% of patients become persistently infected with the virus, which leads to the determination of chronic HBV. Cytokines such as interferon gamma (IFN-γ) are secretory proteins that play important roles in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Functional studies have demonstrated that the IFN + 874A/T gene polymorphism can increase or decrease the overall expression of IFN-gamma (γ) and ultimately determine the outcome of the infection. Objectives This study was performed to investigate the relationship between the IFN-γ + 874 gene polymorphism and susceptibility to chronic HBV infection. Methods Polymorphism detection analysis was performed on 598 subjects from North-Eastern Iran. The IFN-γ gene polymorphism (+ 874A/T) was genotyped through a specific sequence primer polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR). Results The frequencies of the AA, AT, and TT genotypes were 31%, 51%, and 18% in the chronic HBV patient group, and 40%, 45%, and 15% in the healthy control group, respectively. However, a lack of association of the + 874 polymorphism in the IFN-γ gene of those with chronic HBV infection was found. Evaluation of HBV association with this polymorphism was significant under the dominant genetic model (P = 0.04). Conclusions Ultimately, no association could be characterized between the polymorphism in IFN-γ + 874A/T and susceptibility to chronic HBV infection in this segment of the Iranian population (P > 0.05).
Post-Structuralist Game Theory

The manuscript offers a conceptualization and formalization of the notion of choice undecidability of an individual actor within a post-structural approach to social theory. In contrast to conventional decision theories which posit that the actors are able to delineate the set of alternative choices, this paper explores how choice undecidability shapes the decision-making process in strategic situations. Drawing a conceptual analogy and borrowing terminology from quantum mechanics, I use the technologies of quantum superposition and entanglement to suggest a framework for formally studying choice undecidability in a post-structuralist game theory. Contact: Prof. Badredine Arfi Dept. of Political Science Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901
New connection formulae for the q-orthogonal polynomials via a series expansion of the q-exponential

Using a realization of the q-exponential function as an infinite multiplicative series of the ordinary exponential functions we obtain new nonlinear connection formulae of the q-orthogonal polynomials such as q-Hermite, q-Laguerre and q-Gegenbauer polynomials in terms of their respective classical analogues.
The Lives, Aspirations, and Needs of Refugee and Immigrant Students With Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) in a Secondary Newcomer Program

Secondary schools in the United States have been changing with the increased arrival of refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE), especially at the secondary schools. Refugee SIFE are faced with barriers developing both language and academic skills. This article describes some of the findings of an ethnographic research study that was conducted in an urban secondary newcomer program with SIFE in Northeast United States. The findings suggest that the refugee SIFE were in dire need of psychological support, had many responsibilities outside of school, and had high aspirations for the future despite their limited knowledge of the U.S. educational system.
PERAN POLA ASUH ORANG TUA DALAM MEMBENTUK KETERAMPILAN SOSIAL REMAJA

Abstraksi Tugas utama perkembangan remaja adalah menjalin relasi secara harmonis dengan orang-orang yang berada disekitarnya. Keterampilan sosial menjadi salah satu faktor yang membuat remaja menjadi kompeten dalam relasi yang dibangunnya. Salah satu faktor pembentukan keterampilan sosial adalah pola asuh. Pola asuh yang harmonis antara orang tua dengan remajanya memiliki kesempatan lebih besar mengembangkan keterampilan sosial yang tinggi (authoritative), dibandingkan dengan pola asuh authoritarian dan permissive. Melalui pola asuh yang diterapkan oleh orang tuanya, remaja memiliki kesempatan untuk belajar berhubungan dengan lingkungan sosial, selain itu remaja didalam berprilaku anak-anak biasanya mencontoh pada orang tua. Proses pembelajaran tersebut akan berhasil bila hubungan antara orang tua dan remajanya dapat terjalin dengan harmonis. Kata kunci : keterampilan sosial, pola asuh, remaja
High-efficiency multilayer blazed gratings for EUV and soft x-rays: recent developments

Multilayer coated blazed gratings with high groove density are the best candidates for use in high resolution EUV and soft x-ray spectroscopy. Theoretical analysis shows that such a grating can be potentially optimized for high dispersion and spectral resolution in a desired high diffraction order without significant loss of diffraction efficiency. In order to realize this potential, the grating fabrication process should provide a perfect triangular groove profile and an extremely smooth surface of the blazed facets. Here we report on recent progress achieved at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in fabrication of high quality multilayer coated blazed gratings. The blazed gratings were fabricated using scanning beam interference lithography followed by wet anisotropic etching of silicon. A 200 nm period grating coated with a Mo/Si multilayer composed with 30 bi-layers demonstrated an absolute efficiency of 37.6% in the 3rd diffraction order at 13.6 nm wavelength. The groove profile of the grating was thoroughly characterized with atomic force microscopy before and after the multilayer deposition. The obtained metrology data were used for simulation of the grating efficiency with the vector electromagnetic PCGrate-6.1 code. The simulations showed that smoothing of the grating profile during the multilayer deposition is the main reason for efficiency losses compared to the theoretical maximum. Investigation of the grating with cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy revealed a complex evolution of the groove profile in the course of the multilayer deposition. Impact of the shadowing and smoothing processes on growth of the multilayer on the surface of the sawtooth substrate is discussed.
Kindergarten children's perspectives on play and learning

ABSTRACT Practitioners in play-based learning contexts face the challenge of developing developmentally appropriate practices while meeting rigorous academic curriculum standards. To date, play and academic learning have been predominantly conceptualized from an adult perspective. Considering that children are key agents in classroom play contexts, it is important to understand their views on play and learning. The purpose of this study was to explore children’s perspectives on the connectedness between play and learning and understand whether their views are related to the play types observed in their classrooms. Photo elicitation interviews were conducted with 134 kindergarten students and 10 hours of observation were held in each of the 10 classrooms. Results indicate that children’s understanding of the connectedness between play and academic learning were related to teacher presence in play and the types of play environments available in their classrooms. Implications for practitioners and researchers alike are discussed.
Modularity of Mind

This article evaluates the idea of the modularity of mind and domain specificity. This concept has penetrated the behavioral disciplines, and in the case of some of these—for example, the cognitive study of religion—has even formed their foundation. Although the theoretical debate relating to the idea of modularity is ongoing, this debate has not been reflected in the use of modularity in behavioral research. The idea of domain specificity or modularity of mind is not without its controversies, and there is no consensus regarding its acceptance. Many neuroscientists, as well as several evolutionary psychologists and philosophers, have raised a number of objections that cannot remain overlooked. I will show the areas in which the idea is problematic, what attempts have been made to preserve it, and how social scientific research can move beyond post-Fodorian modularity without losing any valuable insights.
Barnier en de professioneelkritische instelling van de accountant

Barnier presenteert maatregelen die met name op de accountantsorganisatie als geheel zijn gericht, maar die uiteraard een impact hebben op de oordeelsvorming en het gedrag van individuele accountants. Echter, voor de professioneel-kritische instelling van de individuele accountant leiden de maatregelen van Barnier mogelijk niet altijd tot een optimale situatie. Op basis van het professional skepticism model van Nelson (2009) concluderen wij dat de maatregelen van Barnier vooral zijn gericht op het wegnemen van verkeerde prikkels (incentives) bij accountants. Barnier geeft echter onvoldoende expliciete aanknopingspunten met betrekking tot karaktertrekken, kennis, ervaring en training van de accountant.
Successful development and aging : theory and intervention

The trend of population aging encourages a search for workable interventions to support older adults in aging successfully. Yet, the question remains: how can successful aging best be approached in interventions and policy? There is an increasing awareness that aging does not just encompass physical domains, but also social and psychological domains. Additionally, the possible strengths inherent in aging are being recognized, in addition to deficits. Four important models and theories incorporate these new insights: Ryff’s model of Psychological Well-Being, the model of Selection, Optimization and Compensation, the Motivational Theory of Life-span Development, and the theory of Self-Management of Well-being. These models each add to a deeper understanding of aging well. However, the SMW theory is especially usable in interventions, because it is the most explicit about potential criteria of ‘success’ and it specifies concrete self-management abilities that – when explicitly linked to basic human physical and social needs – support successful aging. Interventions, based on the SMW theory, are discussed with respect to their applications in social and health care settings.
Developing a mobile location-based collaborative Recommender System for GIS applications

Collaborative recommender system recommends items to the user based on what actions that other users in the same environment did in the past. This paper focuses on recommending popular places based on behavior of Global Positioning System (GPS) traces to multiple users. Collecting different reviews of popular places from multiple visitors is an explicit way to help Recommender System to rate these places. A Genetic Algorithm is used in predicting the interest of the user for unvisited locations, based on implicit and explicit ratings. Then, Recommender System sorts the rated places in descending order by their rates. The places that have the highest rates in most number of users are recommended by the system. Collaborative Recommender system advises the user to go to the best place via mobile according to other users' preferences in places and the nearest place from user's location. Then the system shows the direction to this place on the map via user's mobile.
Multiple target implementation for a doubly fed induction generator based on direct power control under unbalanced and distorted grid voltage

This paper presents a multiple target implementation technique for a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) under unbalanced and distorted grid voltage based on direct power control (DPC). Based on the mathematical model of DFIG under unbalanced and distorted voltage, the proportional and integral (PI) regulator is adopted to regulate the DFIG average active and reactive powers, while the vector PI (VPI) resonant regulator is used to achieve three alternative control targets: (1) balanced and sinusoidal stator current; (2) smooth instantaneous stator active and reactive powers; (3) smooth electromagnetic torque and instantaneous stator reactive power. The major advantage of the proposed control strategy over the conventional method is that neither negative and harmonic sequence decomposition of grid voltage nor complicated control reference calculation is required. The insensitivity of the proposed control strategy to DFIG parameter deviation is analyzed. Finally, the DFIG experimental system is developed to validate the availability of the proposed DPC strategy under unbalanced and distorted grid voltage.
Green Colored Lenses: Worldviews and Motivated Reasoning in the Case of Local Water Scarcity

Studies linking local issue severity to public opinion often treat the effect as homogeneous, suggesting a straightforward relationship between issue exposure and policy opinions. It is more likely that individuals perceive local issues in conditional ways. We advance a theory of motivated reasoning whereby worldviews act as a lens through which individuals interpret the world around them. When the observed environment conforms to individuals’ prior beliefs, they will be even more likely to perceive risk and call for policy action. When the information presented to them is incongruent with their worldview, increasing issue severity will have a minimal effect. We test our theory by combining an indicator of water scarcity with data from two nationally representative, probability-based panel surveys about water issues in the United States. Analyzing interactive models predicting risk perception and policy preferences, we find that water scarcity drives individuals with opposing environmental worldviews even further apart.
Physical Modeling Synthesis Update

Recent research in physical modeling of musical instruments for purposes of sound synthesis is reviewed. Recent references, results, and outstanding problems are highlighted for models of strings, winds, brasses, percussion, and acoustic spaces. Emphasis is placed on digital waveguide models and the musical acoustics research on which they are based.
A Training Model for Fuzzy Classification System

In recent years, Fuzzy Logic is considerably used as an intelligent technique to solve the ambiguous problems which are in the human life. Classification of emotions is one of the challenging problems deals with natural conditions of human face, linguistic and paralanguage. As the understanding of emotions, is highly depended on the facial expressions, in this paper a feature based hybrid system is proposed to classify the facial expressions to the basic emotions. The core of expression recognition system is a Mamdani-type fuzzy rule based system to model mathematically the natural conditions. Also, with the purpose of making better performance of fuzzy rule based system, Genetic learning Processes designed for parameter optimization to improve the accuracy and robustness of the system under adverse conditions. To evaluate the system performance, images from Cohn-Kanade database were used and the accuracy rate of 92 % was obtained.
Deformations of Coxeter hyperplane arrangements and their characteristic polynomials

Let A be a Coxeter hyperplane arrangement, that is the arrangement of reflecting hyperplanes of an irreducible finite Coxeter group. A deformation of A is an affine arrangement each of whose hyperplanes is parallel to some hyperplane of A. We survey some of the interesting combinatorics of classes of such arrangements, reflected in their characteristic polynomials.
High Level Fusion and Predictive Situational Awareness with Probabilistic Ontologies

The change of focus in modern warfare from individual platforms to the network has caused a concomitant shift in supporting concepts and technologies. Greater emphasis is placed on interoperability and composeability. New technologies such as SOA and semantically aware systems have come into the spotlight. This paper argues that just as the problem space demands interoperability of diverse technologies, so must the solution space. In other words, not only are new approaches needed, but they must also come together as a seamlessly interoperable technological tool set. This can be accomplished only via a consistent multi-disciplinary approach. In this paper, we present some of the major requirements of today’s Predictive Situation Awareness Systems (PSAW), propose our approach as a coordinated mix between state-of-the-art research efforts, and present the architecture for enabling our approach.
Resting Tension Affects eNOS Activity in a Calcium-Dependent Way in Airways

The alteration of resting tension (RT) from 0.5 g to 2.5 g increased significantly airway smooth muscle contractions induced by acetylcholine (ACh) in rabbit trachea. The decrease in extracellular calcium concentration [Ca2+]o from 2 mM to 0.2 mM reduced ACh-induced contractions only at 2.5 g RT with no effect at 0.5 g RT. The nonselective inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) increased ACh-induced contractions at 2.5 g RT. The inhibitor of inducible NOS, S-methylsothiourea or neuronal NOS, 7-nitroindazole had no effect. At 2.5 g RT, the reduction of [Ca2+]o from 2 mM to 0.2 mM abolished the effect of L-NAME on ACh-induced contractions. The NO precursor L-arginine or the tyrosine kinase inhibitors erbstatin A and genistein had no effect on ACh-induced contractions obtained at 2.5 g RT. Our results suggest that in airways, RT affects ACh-induced contractions by modulating the activity of epithelial NOS in a calcium-dependent, tyrosine-phosphorylation-independent way.
Impact of Partitioning Cache Schemes on the Cache Hierarchy of SMT Processors

Power consumption is becoming an increasingly important component of processor design. As technology node shrinks both static and dynamic power become more relevant. This is particularly critical for the cache hierarchy. Previous implementations mainly focus on reducing only one kind of power in the cache, either static or dynamic. However, for a more robust approach that will remain relevant as technology continues to shrink, both aspects of power need to be addressed. Recent processors, e.g. Intel Core or IBM Power8, implement simultaneous multithreading (SMT) cores to hide high memory latencies. In these systems, the dynamic energy in the L1 cache is even more stressed since this cache level is shared by several threads running on the same core. This paper proposes and evaluates the use of phase adaptive caches in all structures of a 3-level cache hierarchy of a SMT cores. Compared to the use of conventional caches, our work results on significant dynamic and leakage energy savings with scarce performance impact.
Events Unrelated to Crime Predict Criminal Sentence Length

In United States District Courts for federal criminal cases, prison sentence length guidelines are established by the severity of the crime and the criminal history of the defendant. In this paper, we investigate the sentence length determined by the trial judge, relative to this sentencing guideline. Our goal is to create a prediction model of sentencing length and include events unrelated to crime, namely weather and sports outcomes, to determine if these unrelated events are predictive of sentencing decisions and evaluate the importance weights of these unrelated events in explaining rulings. We find that while several appropriate features predict sentence length, such as details of the crime committed, other features seemingly unrelated, including daily temperature, baseball game scores, and location of trial, are predictive as well. Unrelated events were, surprisingly, more predictive than race, which did not predict sentencing length relative to the guidelines. This is consistent with recent research on racial disparities in sentencing that highlights the role of prosecutors in making charges that influence the maximum and minimum recommended sentence. Finally, we attribute the predictive importance of date to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case, United States v. Booker, after which sentence length more frequently fell near the guideline minimum and the range of minimum and maximum sentences became more extreme.
Proceedings of the Third International ERCIM Symposium on Software Evolution ( Software Evolution 2007 ) Package Evolvability and its Relationship with Refactoring

In this paper, we address a set of research questions investigating trends in changes to an open-source system (OSS). An interesting ‘peak and trough’ effect trend was found to exist in the system studied, suggesting that developer activity comprises of a set of high and low periods. Trends in overall changes applied to the system were complemented with empirical evidence in refactoring data for the same system; this showed a similar peak and trough effect but at different versions of the same system. This result suggests a contrasting motivation between regular maintenance practice and that of refactoring. Our analysis of high-level package trends informed some interesting cross-comparisons with refactoring practice, and some insights into why refactoring might be applied after a burst of regular change activity, rather than consistently. We use data extracted from seven Java OSS as a basis for our refactoring analysis.
Massively parallel simulation of brain-scale neuronal network models

Biologically detailed computational models of large-scale neuronal networks have now become feasible due to the development of increasingly powerful massively parallel supercomputers. We report here about the methodology involved in simulation of very large neuronal networks. Using conductance-based multicompartmental model neurons based on Hodgkin-Huxley formalism, we simulate a neuronal network model of layers II/III of the neocortex. These simulations, the largest of this type ever performed, were made on the Blue Gene/L supercomputer and comprised up to 8 million neurons and 4 billion synapses. Such model sizes correspond to the cortex of a small mammal. After a series of optimization steps, performance measurements show linear scaling behavior both on the Blue Gene/L supercomputer and on a more conventional cluster computer. Results from the simulation of a model based on more abstract formalism, and of considerably larger size, also shows linear scaling behavior on both computer architectures.