Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patterns and Sequences of Multiple Query Reformulations in Web Searching: A Preliminary Study

While some studies have investigated query reformulation in traditional online systems, there has been little understanding of how users reformulate their queries multiple times within search sessions on the Web. This paper reports on patterns and sequences of query reformulation based on query logs from a Web search engine. The data set contained only search sessions in which multiple query modifications were made. The analysis of data resulted in three facets of reformulation: content, format, and resource. Each facet was further categorized by 10 sub-facets. The results show that while most query reformulation involves content changes, about 15% of reformulation is related to format modifications. Six patterns of query reformulation emerged as a result of sequence analysis: specified reformulation, parallel reformulation, generalized reformulation, dynamic reformulation, format reformulation, and alternative reformulation. Each pattern is discussed with definitions and examples. The results indicate that both planned and situated aspects affect query reformulation in Web searching. The implications for new Web search engine tools and features are also discussed.
The Dark Matter Annihilation Signal from Galactic Substructure: Predictions for GLAST

We present quantitative predictions for the detectability of individual Galactic dark matter subhalos in gamma rays from dark matter pair annihilations in their centers. Our method is based on a hybrid approach, employing the highest resolution numerical simulations available (including the recently completed 1 billion particle Via Lactea II simulation), as well as analytical models, for extrapolating beyond the simulations’ resolution limit. We include a self-consistent treatment of subhalo boost factors, motivated by our numerical results, and a realistic treatment of the expected backgrounds that individual subhalos must outshine. We show that for reasonable values of the dark matter particle physics parameters (Mχ ∼ 50-500 GeV and ⟨ σ v⟩ ∼ 10−26-10−25 cm3 s−1) GLAST may very well discover a few, even up to several dozen, such subhalos at 5 σ significance, and some at more than 20 σ. We predict that the majority of luminous sources would be resolved with GLAST’s expected angular resolution. For most observer locations, the angular distribution of detectable subhalos is consistent with a uniform distribution across the sky. The brightest subhalos tend to be massive (median Vmax of 24 km s−1) and therefore likely hosts of dwarf galaxies, but many subhalos with Vmax as low as 5 km s−1 are also visible. Typically detectable subhalos are 20-40 kpc from the observer, and only a small fraction are closer than 10 kpc. The total number of observable subhalos has not yet converged in our simulations, and we estimate that we may be missing up to 3/4 of all detectable subhalos.
Exponential Stability of the PDAF with a Modified Riccati Equation in a Cluttered Environment

The probabilistic data association filter (PDAF) is known to provide better tracking performance than the standard Kalman filter (KF) in a cluttered environment. In this paper, the stability of the PDAF of Fortmann et al. (7), in the presence of uncertainties with regard to the origin of measurement, is investigated. The modified Riccati equation derived by approximating two random terms with their expectations is used to prove the stability of the PDAF. A new Lyapunov function based approach, which is different from the quantitative evaluation of Li and Bar-Shalom (17), is pursued. With the assumption that the system and observation noises are bounded, specific tracking error bounds are established. ronment. Li and Bar-Shalom (17) introduced another PDAF. The ap- proach of (17) is hybrid in the sense that a continuous-valued covariance matrix, as a function of a discrete-valued random variable, is used to characterize the performance of the algo- rithm considered. The covariance matrix is calculated off-line recursively using the modified Riccati equation, which is de- rived by replacing the measurement-dependent terms of the original stochastic Riccati equation with their conditional ex- pectations evaluated only over possible locations of measure- ments in the validation region. The dependence of the covari- ance matrix on the number of validated measurements, a dis- crete-valued random variable, is retained after the expectation operation. The approach of (17) has the merit that it yields a quantification of the transients of tracking divergence as well as substantially better accuracy than the approach of (7). However, an analytic proof of the stability and the bounded- ness of the tracking error in a heavily cluttered environment are not yet provided in (17). This paper is basically motivated by the lack of a stability proof of the PDAF. The exponential stability of the linear Kalman filter for es- timating time-varying parameters of a linear regression model, in which the regressors are stochastic and nonstationary, was investigated in (10). The conditions and techniques used in (10) are different from the traditional ones in the areas of sys- tem identification and adaptive signal processing. In this paper, the approach of (10) is utilized in proving the stability of the
Recent MD Results on Supercooled Thin Polymer Films

The dynamic and static properties of a supercooled (non-entangled) polymer melt are investigated via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The system is confined between two completely smooth and purely repulsive walls. The wall-to-wall separation (film thickness), $D$, is varied from about 3 to about 14 times the bulk radius of gyration. Despite the geometric confinement, the supercooled films exhibit many qualitative features which were also observed in the bulk and could be analyzed in terms of mode-coupling theory (MCT). Examples are the two-step relaxation of the incoherent intermediate scattering function, the time-temperature superposition property of the late time $\alpha$-process and the space-time factorization of the scattering function on the intermediate time scale of the MCT $\beta$-process. An analysis of the temperature dependence of the $\alpha$-relaxation time suggests that the critical temperature, $\Tc$, of MCT decreases with $D$. If the confinement is not too strong ($D \ge 10 {monomer diameter}$) the static structure factor of the film coincides with that of the bulk when compared for the same distance, $T-\Tc(D)$, to the critical temperature. This suggests that $T-\Tc(D)$ is an important temperature scale of our model both in the bulk and in the films.
Nanoseconds wavelength and space optical cross-connect switches for high performance optical networks

We present a nanoseconds optical cross-connect switch with wavelength, space, and time switching operation for high performance optical metro/access networks and data center networks. The fast optical switches can enhance the performance of optical networks by providing large-capacity switching capability and efficiently sharing the data plane resources by exploiting statistical multiplexing. Results on a 4x4 photonic integrated WDM switch will be presented and the roadmap to photonic integration of large port optical switches will be discussed.
Modeling the relationship between source code complexity and maintenance difficulty

Canonical correlation analysis can be a useful exploratory tool for software engineers who want to understand relationships that are not directly observable and who are interested in understanding influences affecting past development efforts. These influences could also affect current development efforts. In this paper, we restrict our findings to one particular development effort. We do not imply that either the weights or the loadings of the relations generalize to all software development efforts. Such generalization is untenable, since the model omitted many important influences on maintenance difficulty. Much work remains to specify subsets of indicators and development efforts for which the technique becomes useful as a predictive tool. Canonical correlation analysis is explained as a restricted form of soft modeling. We chose this approach not only because the terminology and graphical devices of soft modeling allow straightforward high-level explanations, but also because we are interested in the general method. The general method allows models involving many latent variables having interdependencies. It is intended for modeling complex interdisciplinary systems having many variables and little established theory. Further, it incorporates parameter estimation techniques relying on no distributional assumptions. Future research will focus on developing general soft models of the software development process for both exploratory analysis and prediction of future performance. <<ETX>>
Theta event-related synchronization is a biomarker for a morbid effect of alcoholism on the brain that may partially resolve with extended abstinence

Analyzing the induced (non‐stimulus‐phase‐locked) EEG activity elicited by targets in a three‐condition visual oddball task, Fein and colleagues have shown increased theta band event‐related synchronization (ERS) in two different samples of long‐term abstinent alcoholics (LTAA) compared with age‐ and gender‐comparable controls. The theta ERS effect in alcoholics was also shown to be independent of, and opposite in direction to, the reduced amplitude evoked (stimulus‐phase‐locked) activity typically found in alcoholics and those at genetic risk of developing alcoholism. This study extends these findings by applying time‐frequency analysis to target stimulus event‐related EEG to compare evoked and induced theta activity in 43 LTAA and 72 nonalcoholic controls with a group of 31 alcoholics who just recently initiated abstinence from alcohol (between 6‐ and 15‐week abstinent; referred to as short‐term abstinent alcoholics, STAA). Results demonstrated that (1) evoked theta power was reduced to the same degree in STAA and LTAA compared with nonalcoholic control participants, while (2) induced theta activity, measured by theta ERS, was increased in both STAA and LTAA relative to controls, but was also increased in STAA relative to LTAA. The STAA and LTAA groups did not differ on measures of alcohol use severity or family history of alcohol problems. These results, coupled with previous findings that show a relationship between stronger theta ERS and increased memory load and attention allocation, suggest that increased theta ERS may be a biomarker for a detrimental effect of chronic alcohol abuse on the brain – a detriment that may recover, at least partially, with extended abstinence.
Perceptions of Pacific Islander Students in Higher Education

A comprehensive inquiry about the experiences of Pacific-Islander students in higher education is sorely wanting. This study uncovered cultural predilections of Pacific-Islander students from the American-affiliated Pacific region related to their experiences in a Western setting. The University of Hawaii at Hilo (UH Hilo) serves as the backdrop to this exploration. As with any other institutes of higher education, UH Hilo is concerned about attracting, retaining, and graduating their students. With a considerably high Pacific-Islander student population attending UH Hilo, we are in a prime position to explore and examine factors that contribute to or hinder retention and graduation. More importantly, we have an opportunity to give voice to a population that is rarely identified in the higher education literature and continually obscured in the discourse of attainment. More than 90 Pacific-Islander students were recruited to participate in a series of focus groups and interviews. Seven overlapping themes emerged related to culture, identity, language, and barriers to retention and graduation. Findings confirmed some of the previous literature on the dichotomy of American versus traditional culture in general settings and identified other cultural variables that pose challenges to postsecondary education completion. Our findings provide the groundwork for further examination of postsecondary institutions’ capacity to respond to and include Pacific-Islander ways of being as a foundation for participation and support.
Analytical performance evaluation of a RF subcarrier modulated optical FSO system under the influence of atmospheric turbulence

An analytical approach is developed to evaluate the carrier to noise ratio and bit error rate of a free space optical link with RF subcarrier modulation taking into account the effect of weak atmospheric turbulence which is modeled as log-normal distribution. A close form expression for the carrier to noise ratio conditioned on a given turbulence at the output of a direct detection is developed. Average CNR and BER are then evaluated by averaging the results are evaluated in terms of bit error rate and power penalty suffered by the system due to turbulence at a given BER for several system parameters link turbulence variance, system parameters like turbulence variance, link distance, data rate, RF modulation index etc.
A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION INTO HOW YOGA CAN ELEVATE LEARNING CAPABILITIES IN SCHOOL-GOING CHILDREN

Is YOGA really helpful in elevating the learning capabilities of students or is just another pampered term for an organic life. The present work makes an investigation into whether or not yoga is actually helpful in enhancing the cognitive abilities of the students. At most academic institutions, yoga has been accepted as a holistic system for improving the physical and mental abilities of the students. The schools and the educators have found this to be an effective mechanism for its purpose but an evidence-based component is yet to be seen. The wellness program has found its believers and practitioners across the world; however it is very important to understand yoga about what it offers in real terms. This study does a systematic analysis of the available literature on yoga and how it affects the learning capabilities of the students in a school – cognitive, academic and psychological. The qualitative investigation does an objective analysis of the available journals, reports and academic papers in order to highlight the factual evidences.
Nanosilver induces a non-culturable but metabolically active state in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have raised expectations for the protection of medical devices and consumer products against biofilms. The effect of silver on bacteria is commonly determined by culture-dependent methods. It is as yet unknown if silver-exposed bacteria can enter a metabolically active but non-culturable state. In this study, the efficacy of chemically synthesized AgNPs and silver as silver nitrate (AgNO3) against planktonic cells and biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa AdS was investigated in microtiter plate assays, using cultural as well as culture-independent methods. In liquid medium, AgNPs and AgNO3 inhibited both planktonic growth and biofilm formation. The efficacy of AgNPs and AgNO3 against established, 24 h-old biofilms and planktonic stationary-phase cells was compared by exposure to silver in deionized water. Loss of culturability of planktonic cells was always higher than that of the attached biofilms. However, resuspended biofilm cells became more susceptible to AgNPs and AgNO3 than attached biofilms. Thus, the physical state of bacteria within biofilms rendered them more tolerant to silver compared with the planktonic state. Silver-exposed cells that had become unculturable still displayed signs of viability: they contained rRNA, determined by fluorescent in situ hybridization, as an indicator for potential protein synthesis, maintained their membrane integrity as monitored by differential live/dead staining, and displayed significant levels of adenosine triphosphate. It was concluded that AgNPs and AgNO3 in concentrations at which culturability was inhibited, both planktonic and biofilm cells of P. aeruginosa were still intact and metabolically active, reminiscent of the viable but non-culturable state known to be induced in pathogenic bacteria in response to stress conditions. This observation is important for a realistic assessment of the antimicrobial properties of AgNPs.
FORCED CIRCLING IN MONKEYS FOLLOWING LESIONS OF THE FRONTAL LOBES

PRIMATES from which the cortex of one cerebral hemisphere has been removed circle in walking toward the side of the lesion; such animals also show contralateral hemiparesis together with deviation of head and eyes toward the side of the lesion. With all types of progression there is rotatory movement which appears to be involuntary and purposeless and becomes accentuated under emotional stimuli such as rage, fear, or the sight of food. Deviation of head and eyes, and circling occur in hemidecorticate cats and dogs, as well as in subhuman primates. After lesions of the frontal lobes, Hitzig (16) observed the same symptoms in dogs and attributed the phenomena to paralysis of the trunk muscles of one side. In 1895 Bianchi (3) noted that monkeys with “prefrontal” ablations circle toward the side of the lesion, due, he thought, to visual and to “intellectual “disturbances. In man also conjugate deviation of the head and eyes appears after certain cortical lesions, and many focal epileptic attacks begin with turning of head and eyes (10). In the following experiments an attempt has been made to analyze in the monkey (Macaca mulatta) the physiological factors involved in circling, and to localize the cortical area responsible for this symptom.
Against Sequence Priming: Evidence from Constituents and Distituents in Corpus Data

Structural priming, i.e., the tendency to repeat linguistic material, can be explained by two alternative representational assumptions: either as the repetition of hierarchical representations generated by syntactic rules, or as the repetition of lexical sequences. We present two studies that test these explanations by investigating priming effects in a dialogue corpus. We compare syntactic constituents with distituents, i.e., part-of-speech pairs that cross constituent boundaries. We find a reliable short-term priming effect for constituents, but no priming for distituents. This result supports the rulebased view of priming, which does not predict priming of distituents. The data are incompatible with a sequence priming analysis, which cannot distinguish between constituents and distituents. In a second corpus study, we study long-term priming and find priming effects for both constituents and distituents. This indicates that the mechanism underlying longterm adaptation is substantially different from short-term priming.
Do X-ray binary spectral state transition luminosities vary?

We tabulate the luminosities of the soft-to-hard state transitions of all X-ray binaries for which there exist good X-ray flux measurements at the time of the transition, good distance estimates, and good mass estimates for the compact star. We show that the state transition luminosities are at about 1-4% of the Eddington rate, markedly smaller than those typically quoted in the literature, with a mean value of 2%. Only the black hole candidate GRO J 1655-40 and the neutron star systems Aql X-1 and 4U 1728-34 have measured state transition luminosities inconsistent with this value at the 1σ level. GRO J 1655-40, in particular, shows a state transition luminosity below the mean value for the other sources at the 4σ level. This result, combined with the known inner disk inclination angle (the disk is nearly parallel to the line of sight) from GRO J 1655-40's relativistic jets suggest that the hard X-ray emitting region in GRO J 1655-40 can have a velocity of no more than about β = 0.68, with a most likely value of about β = 0.52, and a minimum speed of β = 0.45, assuming that the variations in state transition luminosities are solely due to relativistic beaming effects. The variance in the state transition luminosities suggests an emission region with a velocity of ∼0.2c. The results are discussed in terms of different emission models for the low/hard state. We also discuss the implications for measuring the dimensionless viscosity parameter α. We also find that if its state transitions occur at typical luminosities, then GX 339-4 is likely to be at a distance of at least 7.6 kpc, much further than typically quoted estimates.
Cognitive Factors Affecting Subjective Probability Assessment Cognitive Factors Affecting Subjective Probability Assessment

Prior probabilities are central to Bayesian statistics. The Bayesian paradigm assumes that people can express uncertainty in terms of subjective probability distributions. This article will consider Hogarth's 1975 assessment that \man is a selective, sequential information processing system with limited capacity,. ill-suited for assessing probability distributions. " Particular attention will be paid to when people make nor-matively \good" or \poor" probability assessments, what techniques are eeective in eliciting \good," coherent probability assessments, and on how these ideas are relevant to the practicing Bayesian statistician. While there are situations where experts can make well-calibrated judgments, it will be argued that more research needs to be done into the eeects of expertise, training, and feedback.
Singular spectrum analysis for time series with missing data

Geophysical time series often contain missing data, which prevents analysis with many signal processing and multivariate tools. A modification of singular spectrum analysis for time series with missing data is developed and successfully tested with synthetic and actual incomplete time series of suspended‐sediment concentration from San Francisco Bay. This method also can be used to low pass filter incomplete time series.
Some aspects of hypersonic flow over power law bodies

This study concerns the hypersonic flow over blunt bodies in two specific cases. The first is the case when the Mach number is infinite and the ratio of the specific heats approaches one. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘Newtonian limit’. The second is the case of infinite Mach number and very large streamwise distance from the blunt nose with a strong shock wave, or the ‘blast wave limit’. In both cases attention is restricted to power law bodies. Experiments are described of such flows at M∞ = 7·55 in air. The Newtonian flow over bodies of the shape y ∞ xm at zero incidence is shown to be divisible into three regions: the attached layer at small x, the free layer and the blast wave region. As m increases from zero, the free-layer region reduces in extent until it disappears at m = 1/(2+j) (j = 1 and 0 for axisymmetric and plane flow respectively). A difficulty arises in a transition solution of the type given by Freeman (1962b) connecting the free layer with the blast wave result. At m > 2/(3+j) the attached layer merges smoothly into the Lees-Kubota solution which replaces the blast-wave result in this range. In the blast wave limit, solutions were obtained for flow over axisymmetric power law shapes in the range ½γ < m < ½. Second-order results taking account of the body shape are given. These solutions are compared with experimental results obtained in air at a free stream Mach number of 7·55 and stagnation temperature of 630 °K, as well as with numerical solutions at Mach number of 100. The numerical method is tested by comparing solutions corresponding to the experimental conditions with experiment.
ROBUST REAL-TIME LOCALIZATION OF SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS IN THE EYE SUGERY SIMULATOR ( EYESI )

In this paper we propose a real-time solution to localize the surgical instruments in an eye surgery simulator, EyeSi. The hardware consists of three synchronized cameras that capture the movements of the instruments, and an FPGA card for grabbing and preprocessing the images. The surgical instruments are localized using the method of Hough transform combined with the technique of stereo vision. The proposed method is robust to noise and low quality camera images. A fast algorithm of voting in Hough transform is also proposed.