Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What Is the Best Thing to Do Next? A Tutorial on Intensional Data Management

We call data intensional when it is not directly available, but must be accessed through a costly interface. Intensional data naturally arises in a number of data management scenarios, such as crowdsourcing, Web crawling, or ontology-based data access. Such scenarios require us to model an uncertain view of the world, for which, given a query, we must answer the question “What is the best thing to do next? ” Once data has been retrieved, the knowledge of the world is revised. This tutorial is an introduction to intensional data management, with a review of the solutions brought in various areas of data management and machine learning, and of some challenging open problems.
Cost-Sensitive Action Model Learning

Action model learning can relieve people from writing planning domain descriptions from scratch. Real-world learners need to be sensitive to all kinds of expenses which it will spend in the learning. However, most of previous studies in this research line only considered the running time as the learning cost. In real-world applications, we will spend extra expense when we carry out actions or get observations, particularly for online learning. The learning algorithm should apply more techniques for saving the total cost when keeping a high rate of accuracy. The cost of carrying out actions and getting observations is the dominated expense in online learning. Therefore, we design a cost-sensitive algorithm to learn action models under partial observability. It combines three techniques to lessen the total cost: constraints, filtering and active learning. These techniques are used in observation reduction in action model learning. First, the algorithm uses constraints to confine the observation space. Second, it removes unnecessary observations by belief state filtering. Third, it actively picks up observations based on the results of the previous two techniques. This paper also designs strategies to reduce the amount of plan steps used in the learning. We performed experiments on some benchmark domains. It shows two results. For one thing, the learning accuracy is high in most cases. For the other, the algorithm dramatically reduces the total cost according to the definition of cost in this paper. Therefore, it is significant for real-world learners, especially, when long plans are unavailable or observations are expensive.
SNDDDE: sistema neuro-difuso para auxiliar no diagnóstico de doenças epilépticas

Introducao: Esta pesquisa aborda o desenvolvimento de um sistema neurodifuso para auxiliar no diagnostico de doencas epilepticas (SNDDDE). Sistemas neurodifusos representam o tipo mais comum de inteligencia artificial na medicina. O sistema neurodifuso contem conhecimento medico representado na forma de regras, unindo a forca de dois paradigmas: redes neurais artificiais e logica difusa. Objetivo: O maior interesse da pesquisa e examinar a aplicabilidade das operacoes aritmeticas difusas t-normas e tconormas, implementadas atraves de neuronios difusos. Resultados: Os resultados mostram que as operacoes aritmeticas difusas Soma/Produto de Einstein E/OU implementadas com o neuronio difuso proposto por Kwan-Cai obtiveram os melhores indices de acertos do sistema quando comparadas com as operacoes aritmeticas padroes max/min. Background: This research approaches the development of a neuro-fuzzy system to support the diagnosis of epileptic diseases (NFSDED). Neuro-fuzzy systems are the most common type of artificial intelligence in medicine. The neuro-fuzzy system contains medical knowledge represented by rules, gathering the strength of two paradigms: artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Objective: The main interest of the research is to examine the applicability of the t-norms and t-conorms fuzzy arithmetical operations, implemented by fuzzy neurons. Results: Show that the arithmetical operations of Einstein's Sum/Product AND/OR implemented with the fuzzy neuron proposed by Kwan-Cai obtained the highest rates of system hits, when compared to the min/max arithmetical operations.
Polygonal deformation of the dural sac in lumbar epidural lipomatosis: anatomic explanation by the presence of meningovertebral ligaments.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In patients with epidural lipomatosis, axial lumbar spine CT and MR images occasionally reveal a geometric, polygonal or stellar, shape of the dural sac. The purpose of this study was to define the anatomic structures responsible for this radiologic appearance. We hypothesized that meningovertebral ligaments could anchor the dura mater to the osteofibrous walls of the spinal canal and account for the geometric deformation of the dural sac. METHODS The epidural spaces were examined in 15 adult cadaveric and seven aborted fetal lumbar spines. For macroscopic studies, 70 adult vertebral segments were separated and dissected by removing the extradural fat. For microscopic examination, axial histologic sections were obtained from 35 fetal and five adult undissected vertebral segments. RESULTS Meningovertebral ligaments were observed in the median, paramedian, and lateral aspects of the anterior and posterior epidural spaces of both adult and fetal lumbar spines. These ligaments anchor the outer surface of the dura mater to the osteofibrous walls of the lumbar canal. They may form an irregular longitudinal septum partitioning the epidural space. Histologic examination demonstrated the fibroelastic composition of these ligaments and suggested their possible perivascular morphogenetic origin. CONCLUSION The morphologic and topographic features of the meningovertebral ligaments explain the polygonal, stellar, or Y-shaped deformation of the dural sac observed on axial CT and MR images in patients with lumbar epidural lipomatosis.
Exploiting Multigrain Parallelism in Pairwise Sequence Search on Emergent CMP Architectures

(ABSTRACT) With the emerging hybrid multi-core and many-core compute platforms delivering unprecedented high performance within a single chip, and making rapid strides toward the commodity processor market, they are widely expected to replace the multi-core processors in the existing High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructures, such as large scale clusters, grids and supercomputers. On the other hand in the realm of bioinformatics, the size of genomic databases is doubling every 12 months, and hence the need for novel approaches to parallelize sequence search algorithms has become increasingly important. This thesis puts a significant step forward in bridging the gap between software and hardware by presenting an efficient and scalable model to accelerate one of the popular sequence alignment algorithms by exploiting multigrain parallelism that is exposed by the emerging multiprocessor architec-tures. Specifically, we parallelize a dynamic programming algorithm called Smith-Waterman both within and across multiple Cell Broadband Engines and within an nVIDIA GeForce General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU). Cell Broadband Engine: We parallelize the Smith-Waterman algorithm within a Cell node by performing a blocked data decomposition of the dynamic programming matrix followed by pipelined execution of the blocks across the synergistic processing elements (SPEs) of the Cell. We also introduce novel optimization methods that completely utilize the vector processing power of the SPE. As a result, we achieve near-linear scalability or near-constant efficiency for up to 16 SPEs on the dual-Cell QS20 blades, and our design is highly scalable to more cores, if available. We further extend this design to accelerate the Smith-Waterman algorithm across nodes on both the IBM QS20 and the PlayStation3 Cell cluster platforms and achieve a maximum speedup of 44, when compared to the execution times on a single Cell node. We then introduce an analytical model to accurately estimate the execution times of parallel sequence alignments and wavefront algorithms in general on the Cell cluster platforms. Lastly, we contribute and evaluate TOSS – a Throughput-Oriented Sequence Scheduler, which leverages the performance prediction model and dynamically partitions the available processing elements to simultaneously align multiple sequences. This scheme succeeds in aligning more sequences per unit time with an improvement of 33.5% over the na¨ıve first-come, first-serve (FCFS) scheduler. nVIDIA GPGPU: We parallelize the Smith-Waterman algorithm on the GPGPU by optimizing the code in stages, which include optimal data layout strategies, coalesced memory accesses and blocked data decomposition techniques. Results show that our methods provide a maximum speedup …
Future Internet (Dagstuhl Seminar 13131)

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 13131 "Future Internet". At the seminar, about 40 invited researchers from academia and industry discussed the promises, approaches, and open challenges of the Future Internet. This report gives a general overview of the presentations and outcomes of discussions of the seminar.
Guardians of the Gut – Murine Intestinal Macrophages and Dendritic Cells

Intestinal mononuclear phagocytes find themselves in a unique environment, most prominently characterized by its constant exposure to commensal microbiota and food antigens. This anatomic setting has resulted in a number of specializations of the intestinal mononuclear phagocyte compartment that collectively contribute the unique steady state immune landscape of the healthy gut, including homeostatic innate lymphoid cells, B, and T cell compartments. As in other organs, macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) orchestrate in addition the immune defense against pathogens, both in lymph nodes and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. Here, we will discuss origins and functions of intestinal DCs and macrophages and their respective subsets, focusing largely on the mouse and cells residing in the lamina propria.
Image retrieval based on projective invariance

We propose an image retrieval scheme based on projectively invariant features. Since cross-ratio is the fundamental invariant feature under projective transformations for points, we use that as the basic feature parameter. We compute the cross-ratios of point sets in quadruplets and a discrete representation of the distribution of the cross-ratio is obtained from the computed values. The distribution is used as the feature for retrieval purposes. The method is very effective in retrieving images, like buildings, having similar planar 3D structures.
Relationships between Language Teachers' Time-Management Skills, Creativity, and Burnout: A Mediation Analysis.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of language teachers` time management and creativity skills on their burnout levels. The sample consisted of 213 Iranian language teachers. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Creative Behavior Inventory (CBI) and Time Management Skills Questionnaire (TMSQ) were employed for data collection. By taking a Structural Equation Modeling approach, the study proposed a model that explored the direct effects of teacher creativity on burnout level of language teachers. Additionally, the study investigated the mediating role of time management skills on the correlations between teacher creativity and burnout levels. The results revealed that the total effects of creativity on all aspects of burnout dimensions were significant; however, after the intervention of time management as a variable, the effect of depersonalization proved insignificant; and, although still significant, for the other two subscales of burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization), the effect markedly decreased. Therefore, the mediation role of time management was rejected. La presente etude porte sur les effets de la gestion du temps et la creativite des enseignants sur leurs niveaux d’epuisement. L’echantillon des participants consistait en 213 enseignants de langue iraniens. L’inventaire d’epuisement mis au point par Maslach, l’inventaire du comportement creatif et un questionnaire portant sur les competences de gestion du temps, ont servi dans la collecte des donnees. Adoptant l’approche de la modelisation par equation structurelle, l’etude a propose un modele qui a explore les effets directs de la creativite des enseignants de langue sur leur niveau d’epuisement. De plus, l’etude s’est penchee sur le role de mediateur que pourraient jouer les competences en gestion du temps sur les correlations entre la creativite des enseignants et les niveaux d’epuisement. Les resultats indiquent que dans leur ensemble, les effets de la creativite sur tous les aspects de l’epuisement sont significatifs; toutefois, quand on introduisait la gestion du temps comme variable, l’effet de la depersonnalisation n’etait pas significatif. Quant aux deux autres sous-echelles de l’epuisement (epuisement emotif et depersonnalisation), l’effet a nettement diminue, tout en restant significatif. Le role de mediateur de la gestion du temps a donc ete rejete.
A Comparison of Leisure Time Spent in a Garden with Leisure Time Spent Indoors: On Measures of Restoration in Residents in Geriatric Care

During the past 20 years, findings have indicated that nature plays an active role in helping people recover from stress and fatigue. Two of the most cited theories in this field are Rachel and Stephen Kaplan's theory of recovery from Directed Attention Fatigue in nature and Roger Ulrich's theory of aesthetic and affective responses to natural environments and stress recovery. One aim of the present study is to test whether being outdoors in a green recreational environment causes people to be more focused, compared to being in a room indoors (in line with hypotheses suggested by the Kaplans). Another aim is to test whether people experience stress reduction, i.e. as evidenced by changes in blood pressure and heart rate, if they are placed in an environment with many green elements (in line with hypotheses suggested by Ulrich). The overall study design is that of an intervention study. Fifteen elderly persons living at a home for very elderly people participated. Their powers of concentration, blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and after an hour of rest in a garden or in an indoor setting. Seven elderly people were randomly chosen to have their first series of tests in a garden, while eight elderly people had their first series of tests indoors. The results indicate that powers of concentration increase for very elderly people after a visit to a garden outside the geriatric home in which they live, compared to that after resting indoors in their favourite room. The results did not show any effects on blood pressure or heart rate. It is suggested that having a one-hour rest outdoors in a garden setting plays a role in elderly people's powers of concentration, and could thereby affect their performance of activities of daily living. One important factor in this study was that both the outdoor environment and the indoor environment at the home were highly valued by participants.
Design of class E/F power amplifier with distributed active transformer architecture

Design of a fully integrated power amplifier (PA) with distributed active transformer (DAT) architecture is introduced in this paper. PA achieves high efficiency and high power performance necessary for long range Internet of Thing (IoT) wireless communication systems. The amplifier is implemented in a 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology with 3.3 V supply voltage and achieves a peak output power of +32dBm and a gain of +15dBm while operating at 10GHz. The amplifier has a peak drain efficiency of 35% and peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 47%. The chip has an area of 1.3mm2 including pads.
TNRT profiles with the Nucleus Research Platform 8 system

This study investigates the effect of the Nucleus CI24RE implant's neural response telemetry (NRT) system, which has less internal noise compared to its predecessor, the CI24M/R implant, on the NRT threshold (TNRT) profile across the array. CI24M/R measurements were simulated by ignoring CI24RE measurements with response amplitudes below 50 uV. Comparisons of the estimated TNRTs from the CI24RE measurements and the CI24M/R simulations suggest that, apart from a constant level difference, the TNRT profiles from the newer implant generally would not have differed very much from those of its predecessor. This view was also reflected by principal component analysis (PCA) results which revealed a ‘shift’ component similar to that reported by Smoorenburg et al (2002). On the whole, there is no indication that current practices of using the TNRT profiles for assisting with speech processor programming need to be revised for the CI24RE implant.
The effects of endophyte-infected tall fescue consumption on diet utilization and thermal regulation in cattle.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of endophyte fungus (Acremonium coenophialum) ingestion in tall fescue diets and environmental temperature on heat dissipation and diet utilization by cattle. In Exp. 1, 12 Angus heifers (average weight 244 kg) were allotted by weight to either an endophyte-free (E-) or endophyte-infected (E+; 381 ppb of ergovaline) diet. Environmental temperature varied between 22 and 32 degrees C. Voluntary DM and water intakes were similar (P > .10) among treatments. Rectal temperatures and concentrations of prolactin in plasma were lower (P < .05) after ingestion of the E+ diet. Plasma triiodothyronine, thyroxine, and cortisol concentrations were not affected by diet. In Exp. 2, 24 Holstein steers (average weight 114 kg) were allotted by weight to either E- or E+ (285 ppb of ergovaline) and one of two environmental temperatures (22 or 32 degrees C). At 32 degrees C, feed intake was reduced by 22%, and water consumption was increased by 62% compared with steers housed at 22 degrees C. Consumption of E+ reduced feed intake by 10% but did not influence water consumption. Plasma concentration of prolactin was decreased (P < .05) within 48 h after consumption of E+. Rectal temperatures increased in response to both environmental temperature (P < .05) and E+ consumption (P = .06). Digestibilities of DM and OM for E+ were 9% lower (P < .05) than for E-. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Using repeated game for maximizing high priority data trustworthiness in Wireless Sensor Networks

Due to the fast boom of security threats in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) sensitive applications, we propose a game-theoretic protection approach for sensor nodes in a clustered WSN based on a repeated game. The proposed game model is developed for detecting malicious sensor nodes that drop the high priority packets (HPPs) aiming at maximizing the high priority data trustworthiness (HPT). Simulation results indicate the improved HPT of the proposed protection model which attains the Pareto optimal HPT as compared to a non-cooperative defense mechanism.
Four approaches to capacity building in health: consequences for measurement and accountability

SUMMARY The term capacity building has been used in respect of a wide range of strategies and processes which have the ultimate aim of improved health practices which are sustainable. After defining capacity building, this paper explores the processes and strategies associated with four distinct approaches to capacity building, considers the role of funding bodies and begins to question how these factors impact on the evaluation of capacity building.
Differential regulation of human antigen-specific Th1 and Th2 lymphocyte responses by isozyme selective cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase inhibitors.

Our study explores the relative efficacy of phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors on antigen-specific Th1 and Th2 clonal responses. Proliferative responses for both phenotypes were down-regulated by the PDE4 inhibitor, rolipram, but not the PDE3 inhibitor, siguazodan. The Th2 clones were more sensitive than the Th1 clones to PDE4 inhibition (P < .05 at 10 and 100 microM rolipram). The addition of 1 microM of the adenylyl cyclase activator, isoproterenol, significantly decreased both the EC50 and IC50 of rolipram in both phenotypes (P < .05). Gene expression for interleukin-4, interleukin-5, or interferon-gamma, assessed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, was down-regulated by the PDE4 inhibitor, but not the PDE3 inhibitor, in each respective clone. Cytokine protein secretion paralleled the results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for IL-4 and interferon-gamma (P < .01 for each). No differential efficacy on cytokine generation parameters between T helper phenotypes was apparent. Rolipram treatment significantly elevated intracellular cyclic AMP (adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate) in clonal T cells (P < .01 for Th1 or Th2 clones); these elevations were consistently greater in the Th2 clones (P < .05). Finally, Th1 cells showed reduced gene expression for the PDE4C isoform and a lack of gene expression for the PDE4D isoform by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, compared to the Th2 cells. These data demonstrate the potent immunomodulatory efficacy of PDE4 inhibition on antigen-specific T cell clones. The enhanced sensitivity of Th2 cells to PDE4 inhibition may be due, in part, to the differential expression of PDE4 isoforms between Th1 and Th2 cells.
Functional anatomy of the mammalian sperm flagellum

The eukaryotic flagellum is the organelle responsible for the propulsion of the male gamete in most animals. Without exception, sperm of all mammalian species use a flagellum for swimming. The mammalian sperm has a centrally located 9 + 2 arrangement of microtubule doublets and hundreds of accessory proteins that together constitute an axoneme. However, they also possess several characteristic peri‐axonemal structures that make the mammalian sperm tail function differently. These modifications include nine outer dense fibers (ODFs) that are paired with the nine outer microtubule doublets of the axoneme, and are anchored in a structure called the connecting piece located at the base. The presence of the ODFs and connecting piece, and the absence of a basal body, dictate that physical forces generated by the dynein motors are transmitted to the base of the flagellum through the ODFs. Mammalian sperm flagella also possess a mitochondrial and a fibrous sheath that encircle most of the axoneme. These sheaths and the ODFs add mechanical rigidity to the flagellum creating the functional effect of increasing bend wavelength, which requires the entrainment of more dynein motors in the production of a single wave. The sheaths also act as a retinaculum and maintain the integrity of the central axoneme when large bending torques are generated by dynein. Large torque production is crucial to the process of hyperactivation and the unique motility transitions associated with effective fertilizing capacity. Consequently, these specialized anatomical features are essential for the effective interaction of sperm with the female reproductive tract and ovum. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Smartphone Addiction: (Focused Depression, Aggression and Impulsion) among College Students

In this study, a survey was conducted to examine the relationship among smartphone addiction tendency, depression, aggression and impulsion in college students. The data were collected via structural questionnaires completed by 353 college students located in Cheonan who agreed to participate in this study. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between smartphone addiction and depression, and there were positive correlations among smartphone addiction, aggression and impulsion. Hierarchial regression analysis was used to determine the influence of smartphone addiction tendency and to identify its correlation with depression, aggression and impulsions. First step hierarchy that controlled general characteristics shows that gender (p<.001) influenced smartphone addiction. Explanatory power for explaining the smartphone addiction of the control variables is found to be 5.6%. Including independent variables Model 2 shows a significant increase and the explanatory power for explaining the smartphone addiction is 31.2% (p<.001).