Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thesis Summary: Learning Search-Control Knowledge to Improve Plan Quality

Generating good, production-qualityplans is an essential element in transforming planners from research tools into real-world applications, but one that has been frequently overlooked in research on machine learning for planning systems. Most work has been aimed at improving the efficiency of planning (“speed-up learning”) or at acquiring or refining domain knowledge. This thesis focuses on learning search-control knowledge to improve the quality of the plans produced by the planner. Knowledge about plan quality in a domain comes in two forms: (a) a post-facto quality metric that computes the quality (e.g. the execution cost) of a plan, and (b) planning-time decision-control knowledge used to guide the planner towards producing higher-quality plans. The first kind of knowledge is not operational until after a plan is produced, but is exactly the kind typically available, in contrast to the far more complex operational decision-time knowledge. Learning operational quality control knowledge can be seen as a translation of domain knowledge and quality metrics into runtime decision guidance. The full automation of this mapping based on planning experience is the ultimate objective of this thesis. Given a domain theory, a domain-specific metric of plan quality, and problems which provide planning experience, the QUALITY architecture developed in this thesis automatically acquires operational control knowledge that effectively improves the quality of the plans generated. QUALITY can (optionally) learn from human experts who suggest improvements to the plans at the operator (plan step) level. We have designed two distinct domain-independent learning mechanisms to efficiently acquire quality control knowledge. They differ in the language used to represent the learned knowledge, namely control rules and control knowledge trees, and in the kinds of quality metrics for which they are best suited. QUALITY is fully implemented on top of the PRODIGY4.0 nonlinear planner. Its empirical evaluation has shown that the learned knowledge produces near-optimal plans (reducing before-learning plan execution costs up to 96%). Although the learning mechanisms and learned knowledge representations have been developed for PRODIGY4.0, the framework is general and addresses a problem that any planner that treats planning as a constructive decision-making process must confront.
Foot strike and injury rates in endurance runners: a retrospective study.

PURPOSE This retrospective study tests if runners who habitually forefoot strike have different rates of injury than runners who habitually rearfoot strike. METHODS We measured the strike characteristics of middle- and long-distance runners from a collegiate cross-country team and quantified their history of injury, including the incidence and rate of specific injuries, the severity of each injury, and the rate of mild, moderate, and severe injuries per mile run. RESULTS Of the 52 runners studied, 36 (69%) primarily used a rearfoot strike and 16 (31%) primarily used a forefoot strike. Approximately 74% of runners experienced a moderate or severe injury each year, but those who habitually rearfoot strike had approximately twice the rate of repetitive stress injuries than individuals who habitually forefoot strike. Traumatic injury rates were not significantly different between the two groups. A generalized linear model showed that strike type, sex, race distance, and average miles per week each correlate significantly (P < 0.01) with repetitive injury rates. CONCLUSIONS Competitive cross-country runners on a college team incur high injury rates, but runners who habitually rearfoot strike have significantly higher rates of repetitive stress injury than those who mostly forefoot strike. This study does not test the causal bases for this general difference. One hypothesis, which requires further research, is that the absence of a marked impact peak in the ground reaction force during a forefoot strike compared with a rearfoot strike may contribute to lower rates of injuries in habitual forefoot strikers.
Wireless real-time gamma radiation dosimetry system using MgO and CeO/sub 21/ thick film capacitors

In aggressive industrial processes, power plants and radioactive waste storage places it is important to monitor the level of radiation. To minimise personnel exposure a wireless system is presented, where thick film MgO and CeO2 capacitors with Ag interdigitated electrodes were used as prototype radiation sensors. MgO and CeO2 thick films were monitored during radiation exposure using a capacitance to digital converter system. A monotonic increase in the values of capacitance from 1.493 pF to 1.537 pF was recorded for MgO as a result of 32.55 mGy J-dose of A 137 Cs J-source. Counterpart CeO2 films were shown to be less susceptible to radiation. Moreover, the response of MgO sensor was monotonic over the whole range.
Open-Switch Fault Detection Method of a Back-to-Back Converter Using NPC Topology for Wind Turbine Systems

In wind turbine generation (WTG) systems, a back-to-back converter with a neutral-point-clamped (NPC) topology is widely used because this topology has more advantages than a conventional two-level topology, particularly when operating at high power. There are 12 switches in the NPC topology. An open-switch fault in the NPC rectifier of the back-to-back converter leads to the distortion of the input current and torque vibration in the system. Additionally, an open-switch fault in the NPC inverter of the back-to-back converter causes the distortion of the output current. Furthermore, the WTG system can break down in the worst case scenario. To improve the reliability of WTG systems, an open-switch fault detection method for back-to-back converters using the NPC topology is required. This study analyzes effects of inner and outer open-switch faults of the NPC rectifier and inverter and describes a novel open-switch fault detection method for all possible open-switch faults in the back-to-back converter.
Alignment of protein-coding sequences with frameshift extension penalties

We introduce an algorithm for the alignment of protein- coding sequences accounting for frameshifts. The main specificity of this algorithm as compared to previously published protein-coding sequence alignment methods is the introduction of a penalty cost for frameshift ex- tensions. Previous algorithms have only used constant frameshift penal- ties. This is similar to the use of scoring schemes with affine gap penalties in classical sequence alignment algorithms. However, the overall penalty of a frameshift portion in an alignment cannot be formulated as an affine function, because it should also incorporate varying codon substitution scores. The second specificity of the algorithm is its search space being the set of all possible alignments between two coding sequences, under the classical definition of an alignment between two DNA sequences. Previous algorithms have introduced constraints on the length of the alignments, and additional symbols for the representation of frameshift openings in an alignment. The algorithm has the same asymptotic space and time complexity as the classical Needleman-Wunsch algorithm.
The Role of Moral Disengagement on Social Bullying in Dyadic Very Best Friendships

ABSTRACT This study examined the self-regulatory process of moral disengagement in adolescent social bullying. Moral disengagement was assessed at the individual level, as well as within reciprocated very best friendships. At the dyadic level, this study investigated the role of friendship quality in moderating the influence of a very best friend’s moral disengagement on adolescents’ social bullying. The sample consisted of 710 mainly White students (306 males, 12–17 years). Results showed adolescents’ proneness to moral disengagement was associated with increased social bullying. Further, a very best friend’s moral disengagement was associated with higher social bullying for those who perceived positive qualities in their friendship. The findings highlight the importance of close friends in fostering adolescents’ social bullying.
The Elgar Companion to Innovation and Knowledge Creation

This unique Companion provides a comprehensive overview and critical evaluation of existing conceptualizations and new developments in innovation research. It draws on multiple perspectives of innovation, knowledge and creativity from economics, geography, history, management, political science and sociology. The Companion brings together leading scholars to reflect upon innovation as a concept (Part I), innovation and institutions (Part II), innovation and creativity (Part III), innovation, networking and communities (Part IV), innovation in permanent spatial settings (Part V), innovation in temporary, virtual and open settings (Part VI), innovation, entrepreneurship and market making (Part VII), and the governance and management of innovation (Part VIII).
A novel region-based approach to visual concept modeling using web images

A novel region-based approach is proposed to model semantic concepts using web images. Web images are mined to obtain multiple visual patterns automatically that then are used to model a semantic concept. First, the salient region groups corresponding to the representative visual patterns of a concept are mined and selected as positive samples. Next, a representative visual pattern is built in each salient region group by using a BDA classifier. Finally all the visual patterns are aggregated to describe the concept by using a BDA ensemble approach. Because the proposed method models a semantic concept utilizing multiple visual patterns, it enhances the visual variability of a visual model when learning from diverse web images and improves the robustness of the visual model in handling segmentation-related uncertainties. Experiment results demonstrate our method performs well on generic images including not only "object" concepts, but also complex "scene" concepts.
Mental Simulation, Tacit Theory, and the Threat of Collapse

According to the theory theory of folk psychology, our engagement in the folk psychological practices of prediction, interpretation and explanation draws on a rich body of knowledge about psychological matters. According to the simulation theory, in contrast, a fundamental role is played by our ability to identify with another person in imagination and to replicate or re-enact aspects of the other person’s mental life. But on each side of the theory versus simulation debate there are significant differences of approach. On the theory-theory side, some use the term ‘theory’ in a narrow sense to require that the body of knowledge about psychological matters should be organised around generalisations that have the status of psychological laws. Others use the term in a more inclusive sense to encompass any body of information or misinformatio n about psychology. Some theory theorists say that the theory is learned, either by processes analogous to scientific investigation or else by cultural transmission. Others say that the theory is, to a considerable extent, innate. On the simulation-theory side, some think of mental simulation as restricted to the re-enactment of rational transitions in thought. Others contrast the simulation approach with accounts of mental-state attribution that make use of an assumption of rationality. Some abstract away from questions about cognitive machinery and describe simulation in personal-leve l folk psychological terms. Others regard the simulation theory as a contribution to cognitive science. 1
Signatures of Anderson localization in the ionization rates of periodically driven Rydberg states

We provide a statistical characterization of the ionization yield of one-dimensional, periodically driven Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen, in the spirit of Anderson localization theory. We find excellent agreement with predictions for the conductance across an Anderson localized, quasi-one-dimensional, disordered wire, in the semiclassical limit of highly excited atomic initial states. For the moderate atomic excitations typically encountered in state of the art laboratory experiments, finite-size effects induce significant deviations from the solid state picture. However, large-scale fluctuations of the atomic conductance prevail and are robust when averaged over a finite interval of driving field amplitudes, as inevitably done in the experiment.
Declarative specialization of object-oriented programs

Designing and implementing generic software components is encouraged by languages such as object-oriented ones and commonly advocated in most application areas. Generic software components have many advantages among which the most important is reusability. However, it comes at a price: genericity often incurs a loss of efficiency.This paper presents an approach aimed at reconciling genericity and efficiency. To do so, we introduce declarations to the Java language to enable a programmer to specify how generic programs should be specialized for a particular usage pattern. Our approach has been implemented as a compiler from our extended language into standard Java.
In search of transparency for EU law-making: Trilogues on the cusp of dawn

Who controls the information that is part of the EU legislative processes and is the process as a whole under control? This article explores the legal framework and the applicability of that framework to evolving informal practices by the three key institutions (EP, Council, Commission) involved in the EU legislative process. Given the legislative deadlock on an updated transparency regulation, there are challenges relating to the opacity of Council and Member State positions, legal advice and the so-called four-column documents, which are used to map out progress in interinstitutional negotiations. Currently, the institutions themselves keep control and adopt the relevant rules as a matter of internal (or interinstitutional) working arrangements. We argue that when the institutions exercise legislative functions they are in fact exercising highly political functions that define the fundamental policy choices of the Union’s action. This requires not only passive transparency in the form of access to documents but also proactive transparency by the institutions themselves.
Title : Acoustic and laryngographic measures of the laryngeal reflexes of linguistic prominence and vocal effort in Germana

This study uses acoustic and physiological measures to compare laryngeal reflexes of global changes in vocal effort to the effects of modulating such aspects of linguistic prominence as sentence accent, induced by focus variation, and word stress. Seven speakers were recorded by using a laryngograph. The laryngographic pulses were preprocessed to normalize time and amplitude. The laryngographic pulse shape was quantified using open and skewness quotients and also by applying a functional version of the Principal Component Analysis. Acoustic measures included the acoustic open quotient and spectral balance in the vowel /e/ during the test syllable. The open quotient and the laryngographic pulse shape indicated a significantly shorter open phase for loud speech than for soft speech. Similar results were found for lexical stress, suggesting that lexical stress and loud speech are produced with a similar voice source mechanism. Stressed syllables were distinguished from unstressed syllables by their open phase and pulse shape, even in the absence of sentence accent. Evidence for laryngeal involvement in signaling focus, independent of fundamental frequency changes, was not as consistent across speakers. Acoustic results on various spectral balance measures were generally much less consistent compared to results from laryngographic data.
Time of Arrival Estimation for WLAN Indoor Positioning Systems using Matrix Pencil Super Resolution Algorithm

The accuracy of prediction of time of arrival (TOA) in wireless local area networks (WLAN) is the most important parameter for indoor positioning systems. This paper presents the application of super resolution matrix pencil (MP) algorithm for TOA estimation for indoor positioning application. Also it presents the results of frequency sweep measurements of indoor channel for the WLAN IEEE 801.11 standards (a, b, and g ). The simulation and experimental results show that MP can accurately estimate TOA and has superior performance over the Fourier transform technique. Also the computational complexity of the proposed technique is compared with the ESPRIT and root-MUSIC algorithms.
Asymptotic Laws for Joint Content Replication and Delivery in Wireless Networks

We investigate the scalability of multihop wireless communications, a major concern in networking, for the case that users access content replicated across the nodes. In contrast to the standard paradigm of randomly selected communicating pairs, content replication is efficient for certain regimes of file popularity, cache, and network size. Our study begins with the detailed joint content replication and delivery problem on a 2-D square grid, a hard combinatorial optimization. This is reduced to a simpler problem based on replication density, whose performance is of the same order as the original. Assuming a Zipf popularity law, and letting the size of content and network both go to infinity, we identify the scaling laws and regimes of the required link capacity, ranging from O(√N) down to O(1) .
Scalable communication architecture for network-attached accelerators

On the road to Exascale computing, novel communication architectures are required to overcome the limitations of host-centric accelerators. Typically, accelerator devices require a local host CPU to configure and operate them. This limits the number of accelerators per host system. Network-attached accelerators are a new architectural approach for scaling the number of accelerators and host CPUs independently. In this paper, the communication architecture for network-attached accelerators is described which enables remote initialization and control of the accelerator devices. Furthermore, an operative prototype implementation is presented. The prototype accelerator node consists of an Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor and an EXTOLL NIC. The EXTOLL interconnect provides new features to enable accelerator-to-accelerator direct communication without a local host. Workloads can be dynamically assigned to CPUs and accelerators at run-time in an N to M ratio. The latency, bandwidth, and performance of the low-level implementation and MPI communication layer are presented. The LAMMPS molecular dynamics simulator is used to evaluate the communication architecture. The internode communication time is improved by up to 47%.
University student perspectives on institutional non-disclosure of disability and learning challenges: reasons for staying invisible

ABSTRACT Students with disabilities (SWD) in Australian higher education need to disclose to their institution to access a range of ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support their learning. Nationally, 5.8% of the university population disclose their disability to their institution. It is suspected that there is a much larger population of students who choose non-disclosure, and therefore decide not to access support. Very little is known about the reasons for non-disclosure as this group represents a hidden population in higher education. The research reported here is based on a survey of undergraduate students in one regional Australian university where disability was reframed as ‘learning challenge’. This identified the institutionally non-disclosed group. This research identified that there were sound reasons for non-disclosure, students continually weigh up potential disclosure during their study, and students have difficulty with the disclosure process. We conclude that institutions need to understand that they have an invisible group of non-disclosing SWD in their student populations and that, to meet their learning challenges, universities need to support changes to policies, procedures and curriculum design.
Soil CO 2 evolution and root respiration in 11 year-old Loblolly Pine ( Pinus taeda ) Plantations as Affected by Moisture and Nutrient Availability

We measured soil CO2 evolution rates with (Sff) and without (Sms) the forest floor litter and root respiration monthly in 11-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantations during the fourth year of fertilization and irrigation treatments. Values of Sff ranged from less than 1 µmol·m-2·s-1 during the winter to greater than 5 µmol·m-2·s-1 in late spring. Average Sff was significantly greater in unfertilized relative to the fertilized stands; however, there was no difference in average Sms among treatments. Soil temperature and the mass of the forest floor (litter) explained most of the difference in Sff among treatments. Soil temperature and volumetric water content accounted for 70% of the seasonal variation in Sff. Annual carbon efflux from the soil averaged 14.1 Mg·ha-1 per year for all treatments. Most of the evolved carbon was derived from root respiration (50-73%). Net ecosystem productivity was -1.1 and 6.9 Mg C·ha-1 per year for the unfertilized and fertilized stands, respectively. At age 11, t.
Detecting Gene Regulation Relations from Microarray Time Series Data

Microarrays are important tools in the quest to map the gene regulation networks of cells. A common use of microarrays result in time series pairs that indicates how the output of one gene affects another. Substantial efforts have been made towards identifying pairs of microarray time series that indicate that one gene is a regulator for another. However, most approaches make assumptions about the behavior of the regulation relation time series pairs and then attempt to identify microarray time series pairs with similar profiles. Such approaches are only partially successful and frequently cannot identity microarray times series pairs that are known to be regulation pairs. In this work, we present a new machine learning approach utilizing a set of Hidden Markov Model, HMMs, for scoring temporal relationships between gene expressions that uses a training set of known regulation relation that avoids the need to assume a specific regulation profile.
Making WAVES: On the design of architectures for low-end distributed virtual environments

Different hardware platforms are best suited for different tasks in simulating a virtual world. Any distributed virtual world must be prepared to support communication among a large and heterogeneous set of software and hardware devices. By developing a scalable environment for virtual worlds based on heterogeneous platforms, researchers can utilize existing hardware, and so can begin to do research without a large capital outlay. For these reasons, it is imperative to explore the architectural constraints placed on a virtual world by distribution and parallelism. The author examines what it means to distribute functionality such as simulation, interaction detection and messaging in a virtual world, how to "scale up" such a world, and how to deal with communication delays. The WAVES (WAterloo Virtual Environment System) architecture attempts to address these concerns. <<ETX>>
The method of an audit of software containing in digital drives

The audit of digital drives content, including hard disks, is an essential part of the audit in automated systems, including an aim to ensure the integrity of the software, and also with a view to establish the facts of use of third-party software. In this article we propose a method that allows identifying executable files compiled from the same source code for different versions of operating systems and also with minor changes to the source code.