Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ASNets: A Benchmark Dataset of Aligned Social Networks for Cross-Platform User Modeling

Aligning heterogeneous online social networks is a highly beneficial task proposed in recent years. It targets at automatically aligning accounts from multiple networks by whether they are held by the same natural person. Aligning the networks can improve personalized services by cross-platform user modeling, and is the prerequisite for cross-network analysis. However, there is currently no public benchmark dataset available due to its recency. As performances of this task depend highly on the dataset, experiments using different private datasets are not directly comparable. Therefore, in this paper we propose ASNets, a benchmark dataset with two sets of aligned social networks. With this dataset, we can now properly evaluate different approaches and compare them fairly. The two sets of aligned networks have 328,224 and 141,614 aligned users respectively, covering multilingual usage (Chinese and English) and various types of social networks including general purposed networks, review sites and microblogging sites. We describe the collecting methodology and statistics in details, and evaluate several state-of-the-art network aligning approaches. Beside introducing the dataset, we further propose several potential research directions that benefit from ASNets.
The Syntax and Prosody of Weak Pronouns in Chamorro

In the modular linguistic theory assumed by many generative linguists, phonology and syntax are interconnected but fundamentally independent components of grammar. The effects of syntax on phonology are mediated by prosodic structure, a representation of prosodic constituents calculated from syntactic structure but not isomorphic to it. Within this overall architecture, I investigate the placement of weak pronouns in the Austronesian language Chamorro. Certain Chamorro pronominals can be realized as prosodically deficient weak pronouns that typically occur right after the predicate. I showthat these pronouns are second-position clitics whose placement is determined not syntactically, but prosodically: they occur after the leftmost phonological phrase of their intonational phrase. My analysis of these clitics assumes that lexical insertion is late and can affect and be affected by prosodic phrase formation-assumptions consistent with the view that the mutual interaction of phonology and syntax is confined to the postsyntactic operations that translate syntactic structure into prosodic structure.
Acute Effect of Static and Dynamic Stretching on Hip Dynamic Range of Motion During Instep Kicking in Professional Soccer Players

Amiri-Khorasani, M, Abu Osman, NA, and Yusof, A. Acute effect of static and dynamic stretching on hip dynamic range of motion during instep kicking in professional soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 25(6): 1647-1652, 2011—The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of static and dynamic stretching within a pre-exercise warm-up on hip dynamic range of motion (DROM) during instep kicking in professional soccer players. The kicking motions of dominant legs were captured from 18 professional adult male soccer players (height: 180.38 ± 7.34 cm; mass: 69.77 ± 9.73 kg; age: 19.22 ± 1.83 years) using 4 3-dimensional digital video cameras at 50 Hz. Hip DROM at backward, forward, and follow-through phases (instep kick phases) after different warm-up protocols consisting of static, dynamic, and no-stretching on 3 nonconsecutive test days were captured for analysis. During the backswing phase, there was no difference in DROM after the dynamic stretching compared with the static stretching relative to the no-stretching method. There was a significant difference in DROM after the dynamic stretching compared with the static stretching relative to the no-stretching method during (a) the forward phase with p < 0.03, (b) the follow-through phase with p < 0.01, and (c) all phases with p < 0.01. We concluded that professional soccer players can perform a higher DROM of the hip joint during the instep kick after dynamic stretching incorporated in warm-ups, hence increasing the chances of scoring and injury prevention during soccer games.
Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products

Concerns related to the environment are evident in the increasingly ecologically conscious marketplace. Using various statistical analyses, investigats the demographic, psychological and behavioral profiles of consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Finds that this segment of consumers were more likely to be females, married and with at least one child living at home. They reported that today’s ecological problems are severe, that corporations do not act responsibly toward the environment and that behaving in an ecologically favorable fashion is important and not inconvenient. They place a high importance on security and warm relationships with others, and they often consider ecological issues when making a purchase. Managerial implications for green marketers and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Information geometric complexity of entropic motion on curved statistical manifolds

Physical systems behave according to their underlying dynamical equations which, in turn, can be identified from experimental data. Explaining data requires selecting mathematical models that best capture the data regularities. Identifying dynamical equations from the available data and statistical model selection are both very difficult tasks. Motivated by these fundamental links among physical systems, dynamical equations, experimental data and statistical modeling, we discuss in this invited Contribution our information geometric measure of complexity of geodesic paths on curved statistical manifolds underlying the entropic dynamics of classical physical systems described by probability distributions. We also provide several illustrative examples of entropic dynamical models used to infer macroscopic predictions when only partial knowledge of the microscopic nature of the system is available. Finally, we present entropic arguments to briefly address complexity softening effects due to statistical embedding procedures.
Single-machine scheduling with past-sequence-dependent delivery times and deteriorating jobs

This paper addresses some single-machine scheduling problems with past-sequence-dependent (p-s-d) delivery times and deteriorating jobs. By the past-sequence-dependent (p-s-d) delivery times, we mean that the delivery time of any job is proportional to the job’s waiting time. It is assumed that the deterioration process reflects a increase in the process time as a function of the job’s starting time. This paper shows that the single-machine scheduling problems to minimize the makespan and the total completion time are polynomially solvable under the proposed model. It further shows that the problems to minimize the total weighted completion time, discounted total weighted completion time and total tardiness are polynomially solvable under certain conditions.
Joint Motion Similarity (JMS)-Based Human Action Recognition Using Kinect

Human action recognition has been a research topic due to challenges such as viewpoint variation and self-occlusion. Recently the cost-effective 3D sensor like Kinect makes it possible to combat these problems. In this paper, we propose a human action recognition method according to the similarity property of the joint motion, divide the human body into several clusters, and use feature extraction and classification method for each clusters. Then each class is weighted and the maximal weighted distance is obtained for action recognition. Experimental results show that the proposed approach not only achieves better action recognition accuracy than current methods, but also significantly reduces the computation cost.
Learning to teach: the pilot programme to improve faculty members teaching skills at the University of Milano-Bicocca

In connection with recent researches on the educational development of faculty members both national and international, this paper presents a pilot training programme to improve faculty members teaching skills at the University of Milano-Bicocca, called “Teaching large classroom”. It started in 2016-2017. This project, structured in a 12 hours workshop, is linked to the studies on primary school teacher training and educational development conducted by the author and also to the francophone tradition on educational development in higher education. The paper shows the theoretical framework of the training, its methodological premises and the first results of the pilot programme. Apprendere per insegnare: il progetto pilota di formazione didattica ai docenti dell’Universita Bicocca Il presente contributo, ponendosi in continuita con gli studi sullo sviluppo professionale dei docenti universitari in ambito italiano e internazionale, si propone di descrivere il progetto di formazione didattica rivolto ai docenti dell’Universita degli Studi di Milano Bicocca e denominato “Workshop di didattica per la grande aula”, avviato nel corso dell’anno accademico 2016-2017. Tale progetto si iscrive nella traiettoria di ricerca avviata dall’autrice nel campo della formazione degli insegnanti e, facendo riferimento alla tradizione francofona sulle metodologie di formazione dei docenti nell’higher education si struttura in un workshop intensivo di 12 ore. In questa sede si illustrano le premesse teoriche e metodologiche del presente progetto e si presentano i primi risultati dell’edizione pilota.
First Language Attrition as a Function of Age at Onset of Bilingualism: First Language Attainment of Turkish-English Bilinguals in the United Kingdom

This investigation aimed to provide insights into the controversial debate on the role that age at onset of bilingualism plays in human language capacity with a focus on what it entails for first language (L1) attrition. L1 performance of Turkish immigrants (n = 57) in the United Kingdom with age at onset ranging between 7 and 34 years was compared to that of Turkish monolingual controls (n = 29) across two linguistic properties: structural complexity and accent. Findings generally showed that although the immigrants achieved nativelike proficiency with respect to the overall structural complexity of their L1, this was not the case for accent as those with an earlier age of onset were less likely to sound like native Turkish speakers. We discuss these findings in relation to two competing theoretical models of age effects and suggest that attrition data need to be better accommodated within these models. Open Practices: This article has been awarded an Open Materials badge. All materials are publicly accessible via the IRIS Repository at https://www.iris-database.org. Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science: https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki.
Link Quality and MAC-Overhead Aware Predictive Preemptive Multipath Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In Ad Hoc networks, route failure may occur due to less received power, mobility, congestion and node failures. Many approaches have been proposed in literature to solve this problem, where a node predicts pre-emptively the route failure that occurs with the less received power. However, these approaches encounter some difficulties, especially in scenario without mobility where route failures may arise. In this paper, we propose an improvement of AOMDV protocol called LO-PPAOMDV (Link Quality and MAC-Overhead aware Predictive Preemptive AOMDV). This protocol is based on new metric combine two routing metrics (Link Quality, MAC Overhead) between each node and one hop neighbor. Also we propose a cross-layer networking mechanism to distinguish between both situations, failures due to congestion or mobility, and consequently avoiding unnecessary route repair process. The LO-PPAOMDV was implemented using NS-2. The simulation results show that our approach improves the overall performance of the network. It reduces the average end to end delay, the routing overhead, and increases the throughput and packet delivery fraction of the network.
Hyperplanes of dual polar spaces of rank 3 with no subquadrangular quad

Let D be a thick dual polar space of rank 3, and let H be a hyperplane of D. Calling the elements of D points, lines and quads, we call a quad aNH singular if H V a 1⁄4 P? V a for some point P, subquadrangular if H V a is a subquadrangle, and ovoidal if H V a is an ovoid. A point P A H of a quad a is said to be deep with respect to a if P? V aHH, and it is called deep if P? HH. We investigate hyperplanes H of D such that no quad is subquadrangular. We generalize a result of Shult proving that, if all quads are singular, then the polar space P 1⁄4 D is an orthogonal polar space Q6ðKÞ for some (not necessarily finite) field K, and the hyperplane H is a split Cayley hexagon HðKÞ. If both singular and ovoidal quads exist, then one of the following holds: 1. H 1⁄4 6 P AO P ? where O is an ovoid of a quad o. 2. There exists one deep point P A H such that all quads containing P are singular and the remaining quads are ovoidal. 3. The set P of deep points with respect to the singular quads is a locally singular hyperplane of a dual polar space D0. D0 is the dual of an orthogonal polar space P0GQ6ðKÞ for some field K and P0 is a subspace of the dual P of D where the lines of P0 are lines of P. The set P together with the lines of D contained in H form a split Cayley hexagon HðKÞ. The hyperplane H contains all points of D on lines of HðKÞ.
An Adaptive Fuzzy Weight PSO Algorithm

In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive fuzzy weight parameter PSO Algorithm (FPSO). In the improved algorithm, the inertia weight reserves its decreasing property after fuzzy treatment, and the position is controlled by fuzzy parameter. Simulations have been done to illustrate that the improved algorithm can regulate global search and local search, and has better search accuracy than the basic PSO and the linear decreasing inertia weight particle swarm optimization (WPSO).
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Diagnosis and Evaluation of Disease Severity

Results: The review of literature showed that clinical findings, imaging studies, and laboratory investigations are commonly used for the diagnosis and the evaluation of disease severity in NAFLD. The results of non-invasive methods are sometimes inconclusive. The histological information is necessary for confirming the NAFLD diagnosis in this occasion. Meanwhile, invasiveness and possible complications make the liver biopsy an unacceptable method for most patients. It is not recommended routinely when the clinical and paraclinical findings are apparently in favor of NAFLD. Conclusions: In view of the limitations of the above-mentioned modalities, liver biopsy remains the gold standard method for documentation of diagnosis and estimation of disease severity in NAFLD.Considering the increasing prevalence of obesity and insulin resistance syndrome worldwide, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a major health concern. Early diagnosis and proper management might prevent disease progression. The aim of this article is to review the current knowledge on the diagnosis and evaluation of disease severity in NAFLD.
Effect of Inorganic Ions on Fenton's Reagent Catalytic Degradation of Phenol in Water

The effect of inorganic ions on Fenton¡¯s reagent to degrade phenol in water is studied. Experimental results show that ferric ions can enhance the catalyst-oxidation ability of Fenton¡¯s reagent. Phosphate, chloride ions, copper ions and carbonate ions will suppress the catalyst-oxidation ability, and the inhibition ability of ions is: H2PO4->Cl->Cu2+>HCO3-~CO32-. For the ions of sulfate radical, nitrate radical and ammonium, the effect of these ions on theFenton¡¯s reagent was not found. On the other hand, the action mechanics of inhibition of the inorganic are discussed.
STATISTICAL PROCESSING AND NEURAL NETWORK MODELS FOR ECONOMIC TIME SERIES

The paper is devoted to the presentation of methods of economic time series analysis and modelling using the Box-Jenkins methodology, the signal processing approach and the feedforward conventional/fuzzy neural network technique. Some results on our research on time series modelling with emphasis on potential improving forecast accuracy are presented here. The assessment of the particular models has been made using the root mean square error.
Microwave motion induced synthetic aperture radiometer using sparse array

Several studies have been performed on microwave aperture synthesis carried out from a moving platform, in order to achieve high spatial resolution with a small number of antennas. In this paper, the limitations of previous developed Motion Induced Synthetic Aperture Radiometer systems are discussed, and an improved observation model, imaging method, and antenna array configuration are presented. An observation model and an imaging method suitable for imaging extended sources are developed, which is a more practical consideration than a point source. It is found that the antenna array configuration used in previous studies causes significant degradation of imaging performance. To improve this, the use of a sparse array is proposed. The sparse T‐shaped array is designed and discussed based on the analysis of spatial frequency coverage. The proposed sparse T‐shaped array can cover a spatial frequency plane efficiently, resulting in a better imaging performance than that of previously developed aperture synthesis systems that used moving platform. The improvement in performance is demonstrated by simulating the point source response, which shows the reduced sidelobes.
Rituals of Fertility and the Sacrifice of Desire: Nazarite Women's Performance in South Africa

With close to one million members, the Church of the Nazarites ("ibandla lamaNazaretha") is one of the most popular indigenous religious communities in South Africa. Founded in 1910 by Isaiah Shembe, it offers South Africans - particularly disadvantaged black women and girls - a way to remake and reconnect to ancient sacred traditions disrupted by colonialism and apartheid. Ethnomusicologist Carol Muller explores the everyday lives of Nazarite women through their religious songs and dances, dream narratives and fertility rituals, which come to life both musically and visually on CD-ROM. Against the backdrop of South Africa's turbulent history, Muller shows how Shembe's ideas of female ritual purity developed as a response to a regime and culture that pushed all things associated with women, cultural expression and Africanness to the margins. Carol Muller also includes details of her own journey, as a young, white South African woman, to the "other" side of a divided society.
A 64 Kbytes ISL-TAGE branch predictor

The ISL-TAGE predictor consists in a TAGE predictor combined with a loop predictor (to predict loops) , a Statistical Corrector predictor and an Immediate Update Mimicker, IUM. A TAGE predictor [4] constitutes the core of the ISL-TAGE predictor. The TAGE predictor (Section 2) captures most of the correlation on the branch outcomes for very long histories. But sometimes TAGE fails to predict loops with constant number of iterations. The loop predictor (Section 3 ) is used to predict these loops. TAGE also fails to predict branches that are not strongly correlated, but only statistically biased. The Statistical Corrector predictor (Section 4) is in in charge of tracking these statistically correlated branches that are not correctly predicted by the TAGE predictor. The TAGE predictor must be updated at retire time to avoid pollution by the wrong path; this delayed update induces extra mispredictions compared with an optimistic at fetch time update. The Immediate Update Mimicker (Section 5) aims at limiting these extra mispredictions through predicting branches with inflight non-retired occurrences. The parameters of the submitted ISL-TAGE predictor are summarized in Section 6 .
High-resolution time of arrival estimation method for synthetic band chirp-signals using compressed sensing

A microwave radar system is a useful tool for terrain surface measurement even in adverse weather or darkness. Most important specification of a radar system is range resolution, which is strictly determined by the frequency bandwidth of transmitted signal. However, due to the legal regulation of radio wave emission, its frequency band is strictly limited. In the case that the maximum and minimum frequencies of the signal are fixed, the normal range resolution is same, but there is a severe problem of TOA ambiguity, when the effective bandwidth is considerably lower. To solve this problem, we introduce the compressed sensing (CS) approach. The results from numerical simulation show that our method can suppress the TOA ambiguity even that actual bandwidth of transmitted signal is quite narrower.
Stroke units versus general medical wards, I: twelve- and eighteen-month survival: a randomized, controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The long-term effect on survival of treatment in stroke units is still under debate. The hypothesis that a stroke unit with short length of stay increases 1-year and 18-month survival rates was tested in this study. METHODS A quasi-randomized, controlled study was undertaken among 802 patients > or =60 years old admitted to the Central Hospital of Akershus in Norway with a diagnosis of stroke between January 1, 1993, and February 1, 1995. All patients with onset of symptoms <24 hours before admittance were included and enrolled and were followed until death or to the end of the observation 18 months after stroke. Patients were allocated to a stroke unit (n=364) or a general medical ward (n=438). RESULTS Case fatality within the first 10 days was 8.2% among patients in the stroke unit and 15.1% among patients in the general medical ward (P=.0019). One-year survival among patients treated in the stroke unit was 70.6% and in the general medical wards 64.6% (P=.026); 18-month survival rates were 65.1% and 58.0%, respectively (P=.021). Among patients with cerebral hemorrhage, 10-day case fatality was 24.5% and 51.6% (P=.004) in favor of the stroke unit. CONCLUSIONS Stroke units increase survival rates among stroke patients compared with general medical wards. The effect on survival occurs early after the stroke and sustains during at least 18 months of observation.
Examination of Social Media Attitudes and Loneliness Levels of Secondary Education Students with Regard to Gender and Sport

The purpose of the study was to examine secondary school students' attitudes towards social media and their loneliness levels in terms of gender and whether they do sports or not. The sample of the study consisted of 175 female and 269 male secondary school stıdents. To collect data personal information form, Social Media Attitude Scale (Otrar ve Argın, 2013) and UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980) were used to in this study. Independent t test analysis was conducted to examine whether the participants' social media attitudes and loneliness levels differed with regard to gender and do sport. According to the results, there was no significant difference in social media attitudes (t = -.832, p > .05) with regard to gender. However, loneliness levels of the participants seems to be significantly different with regard to gender (t = -6.513, p = .000). When the participants were examined whether they do sports or not, there was not any significant difference in social media attitudes (t = -.427, p> .05). However, the levels of loneliness was significantly found to be different in terms of doing sports or not (t = -3.675, p = .000). Furthermore, there was not a significant relationship between social media attitudes and loneliness (p > .05). It can be concluded that sport and regular physical activity can be considered as a means to provide environments where individuals will feel far away from the feeling of loneliness and that they will feel themselves more valuable.