Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing Parallelism while Instantiating ASP Programs

One of the most hard tasks performed by Answer Set Programming (ASP) systems is instantiation, which consists of generating variable-free programs equivalent to those given as input. The efficiency of this task is cr ucial for ASP systems performance especially in case of real-world applicatio ns where huge inputs are processed. We recently proposed a method that exploits the capabilities of multi-process or machines for the instantiation. This method confirmed to be effective espe cially when dealing with programs consisting of many rules. Here, we report s ome preliminary results on a rewriting-based strategy that makes the existing techniq ue exploitable even in case of programs with few rules.
A review of the use of information and communication technologies for dietary assessment

Presently used dietary-assessment methods often present difficulties for researchers and respondents, and misreporting errors are common. Methods using information and communication technologies (ICT) may improve quality and accuracy. The present paper presents a systematic literature review describing studies applying ICT to dietary assessment. Eligible papers published between January 1995 and February 2008 were classified into four assessment categories: computerised assessment; personal digital assistants (PDA); digital photography; smart cards. Computerised assessments comprise frequency questionnaires, 24 h recalls (24HR) and diet history assessments. Self-administered computerised assessments, which can include audio support, may reduce literacy problems, be translated and are useful for younger age groups, but less so for those unfamiliar with computers. Self-administered 24HR utilising computers yielded comparable results as standard methods, but needed supervision if used in children. Computer-assisted interviewer-administered recall results were similar to conventional recalls, and reduced inter-interviewer variability. PDA showed some advantages but did not reduce underreporting. Mobile phone meal photos did not improve PDA accuracy. Digital photography for assessing individual food intake in dining facilities was accurate for adults and children, although validity was slightly higher with direct visual observation. Smart cards in dining facilities were useful for measuring food choice but not total dietary intake. In conclusion, computerised assessments and PDA are promising, and could improve dietary assessment quality in some vulnerable groups and decrease researcher workload. Both still need comprehensive evaluation for micronutrient intake assessment. Further work is necessary for improving ICT tools in established and new methods and for their rigorous evaluation.
Pistachio Nut Consumption and Serum Lipid Levels

Objective: Clinical and epidemiological studies have reported the beneficial effects of tree nuts and peanuts on serum lipid levels. We studied the effects of consuming 15% of the daily caloric intake in the form of pistachio nuts on the lipid profiles of free-living human subjects with primary, moderate hypercholesterolemia (serum cholesterol greater than 210 mg/dL). Methods: Design: Randomized crossover trial. Setting: Outpatient dietary counseling and blood analysis. Subjects: 15 subjects with moderate hypercholesterolemia. Intervention: Fours weeks of dietary modification with 15% caloric intake from pistachio nuts. Measures of Outcome: Endpoints were serum lipid levels of total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, VLDL-C, triglycerides and apolipoproteins A-1 and B-100. BMI, blood pressure, and nutrient intake (total energy, fat, protein, and fiber) were also measured at baseline, during, and after dietary intervention. Results: No statistically significant differences were observed for total energy or percent of energy from protein, carbohydrate or fat. On the pistachio nut diet, a statistically significant decrease was seen for percent energy from saturated fat (mean difference, −2.7%; 95% CI, −5.4% to −0.08%; p = 0.04). On the pistachio nut diet, statistically significant increases were seen for percent energy from polyunsaturated fat (mean difference, 6.5%; 95% CI, 4.2% to 8.9%; p<.0001) and fiber intake (mean difference, 15g; 95% CI, 8.4g to 22g; p = 0.0003). On the pistachio diet, statistically significant reductions were seen in TC/HDL-C (mean difference, −0.38; 95% CI, −0.57 to −0.19; p = 0.001), LDL-C/HDL-C (mean difference, −0.40; 95% CI, −0.66 to −0.15; p = 0.004), B-100/A-1 (mean difference, −0.11; 95% CI, −0.19 to −0.03; p = 0.009) and a statistically significant increase was seen in HDL-C (mean difference, 2.3; 95% CI, 0.48 to 4.0; p = 0.02). No statistically significant differences were seen for total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-C, VLDL-C, apolipoprotein A-1 or apolipoprotein B-100. No changes were observed in BMI or blood pressure. Conclusion: A diet consisting of 15% of calories as pistachio nuts (about 2–3 ounces per day) over a four week period can favorably improve some lipid profiles in subjects with moderate hypercholesterolemia and may reduce risk of coronary disease.
$\alpha$-OMC: Cost-Aware Deep Learning for Mobile Network Resource Orchestration

Orchestrating resources in 5G and beyond-5G systems will be substantially more complex than it used to be in previous generations of mobile networks. In order to take full advantage of the unprecedented possibilities for dynamic reconfiguration offered by network softwarization and virtualization technologies, operators have to embed intelligence in network resource orchestrators. We advocate that the automated, data-driven decisions taken by orchestrators must be guided by considerations on the cost that such decisions involve for the operator. We show that such a strategy can be implemented via a deep learning architecture that forecasts capacity rather than plain traffic, thanks to a novel loss function named $\alpha$-OMC. We investigate the convergence properties of $\alpha$-OMC, and provide preliminary results on the performance of the learning process in case studies with real-world mobile network traffic.
Open-label placebo treatment in chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract This randomized controlled trial was performed to investigate whether placebo effects in chronic low back pain could be harnessed ethically by adding open-label placebo (OLP) treatment to treatment as usual (TAU) for 3 weeks. Pain severity was assessed on three 0- to 10-point Numeric Rating Scales, scoring maximum pain, minimum pain, and usual pain, and a composite, primary outcome, total pain score. Our other primary outcome was back-related dysfunction, assessed on the Roland–Morris Disability Questionnaire. In an exploratory follow-up, participants on TAU received placebo pills for 3 additional weeks. We randomized 97 adults reporting persistent low back pain for more than 3 months' duration and diagnosed by a board-certified pain specialist. Eighty-three adults completed the trial. Compared to TAU, OLP elicited greater pain reduction on each of the three 0- to 10-point Numeric Rating Scales and on the 0- to 10-point composite pain scale (P < 0.001), with moderate to large effect sizes. Pain reduction on the composite Numeric Rating Scales was 1.5 (95% confidence interval: 1.0-2.0) in the OLP group and 0.2 (−0.3 to 0.8) in the TAU group. Open-label placebo treatment also reduced disability compared to TAU (P < 0.001), with a large effect size. Improvement in disability scores was 2.9 (1.7-4.0) in the OLP group and 0.0 (−1.1 to 1.2) in the TAU group. After being switched to OLP, the TAU group showed significant reductions in both pain (1.5, 0.8-2.3) and disability (3.4, 2.2-4.5). Our findings suggest that OLP pills presented in a positive context may be helpful in chronic low back pain.
Regulation of BCL-X splicing reveals a role for the polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTBP1/hnRNP I) in alternative 5′ splice site selection

Alternative splicing (AS) modulates many physiological and pathological processes. For instance, AS of the BCL-X gene balances cell survival and apoptosis in development and cancer. Herein, we identified the polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTBP1) as a direct regulator of BCL-X AS. Overexpression of PTBP1 promotes selection of the distal 5′ splice site in BCL-X exon 2, generating the pro-apoptotic BCL-Xs splice variant. Conversely, depletion of PTBP1 enhanced splicing of the anti-apoptotic BCL-XL variant. In vivo cross-linking experiments and site-directed mutagenesis restricted the PTBP1 binding site to a polypyrimidine tract located between the two alternative 5′ splice sites. Binding of PTBP1 to this site was required for its effect on splicing. Notably, a similar function of PTBP1 in the selection of alternative 5′ splice sites was confirmed using the USP5 gene as additional model. Mechanistically, PTBP1 displaces SRSF1 binding from the proximal 5′ splice site, thus repressing its selection. Our study provides a novel mechanism of alternative 5′ splice site selection by PTBP1 and indicates that the presence of a PTBP1 binding site between two alternative 5′ splice sites promotes selection of the distal one, while repressing the proximal site by competing for binding of a positive regulator.
Data Updating and Query in Real-Time Data Warehouse System

The issue of data updating is the most important issue facing organizations deploying real-time data warehouse solutions. This paper discussed the real-time data warehouse implement method, proposed feasible real-time data warehouse architecture based on SOA. This SOA based real-time data warehouse architecture uses the Web service to pack the various source database systems, and the various changed data was captured by the data capture Web service. When it comes to the data transformation and flow, the update strategy based on Web service and XML are used for the real data warehouse real-time updating. Also the multi-level real-time data cache is used for real-time data storage. Using this real-time data warehouse architecture, we can implement the real-time data warehouse easily.
Landslide investigation : from morphodynamic mapping to hazard assessment . A case-study in the Romanian Subcarpathians : Muscel catchment

The Curvature sector of the Romanian Subcarpathians represents one of the most complex petrographic and structural relief units in Romania. This area, part of Vrancea Seismic Region (the most active sub-crustal earthquake province in Europe), is a sector of intense folded and faulted Neogene Molasse and Paleogene Flysch deposits. The Muscel Catchment (19 km) is a typical small Subcarpathian catchment, situated at the limit between molasse and flysch deposits, a contact obvious in relief morphology and morphometry, as well as in the typology of slope processes.The first landslide investigations (1968-1980) were based on qualitative and quantitative assessment, consisting in repeated, large-scale geomorphological mapping (Bălteanu, 1975). These maps depicted the seasonal, annual and multianual dynamics of present-day slope processes, over the 1969-1972 interval. The landslide susceptibility map, based on an inventory of more than 140 shallow (mostly translational) and medium-seated slides, obtained through field mapping, DGPS and aerial photos, used bivariate statistical analysis. The influence of precipitation, as the main triggering factor, was assessed by the Angot Pluvial Index, whose values were used to outline dry-to-rainy intervals, listing them in landslide-triggering precipitation favorability classes, each class corresponding to certain values assigned. The result was a semi-quantitative assessment of landslide hazard, based on the Angot individual component, which proved to be helpful in pointing out the correlation between the monthly values of precipitation involved in landslide dynamics. It is a method that may be used when there are certain gaps concerning information on the landslide frequency-magnitude relationship.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute the Fiscal Multiplier and Spillover in a Global Liquidity Trap

We consider the fiscal multiplier and spillover in an environment in which two countries are caught simultaneously in a liquidity trap. Using an optimizing two-country sticky price model, we show that the fiscal multiplier and spillover are contrary to those predicted in textbook economics. For the country with government expenditure, the fiscal multiplier exceeds one, the currency depreciates, and the terms of trade worsen. The fiscal spillover is negative if the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption is less than one and positive if the parameter is greater than one. Incomplete stabilization of marginal costs due to the existence of the zero lower bound is a crucial factor in understanding the effects of fiscal policy in open economies. and the staff of the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies (IMES), the Bank of Japan, for their useful comments. The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.
Online Prediction at the Limit of Zero Temperature

We design an online algorithm to classify the vertices of a graph. Underpinning the algorithm is the probability distribution of an Ising model isomorphic to the graph. Each classification is based on predicting the label with maximum marginal probability in the limit of zero-temperature with respect to the labels and vertices seen so far. Computing these classifications is unfortunately based on a #P-complete problem. This motivates us to develop an algorithm for which we give a sequential guarantee in the online mistake bound framework. Our algorithm is optimal when the graph is a tree matching the prior results in [1]. For a general graph, the algorithm exploits the additional connectivity over a tree to provide a per-cluster bound. The algorithm is efficient, as the cumulative time to sequentially predict all of the vertices of the graph is quadratic in the size of the graph.
Multi-Class Composite N-gram Language Model for Spoken Language Processing Using Multiple Word Clusters

In this paper, a new language model, the Multi-Class Composite N-gram, is proposed to avoid a data sparseness problem for spoken language in that it is difficult to collect training data. The Multi-Class Composite N-gram maintains an accurate word prediction capability and reliability for sparse data with a compact model size based on multiple word clusters, called Multi-Classes. In the Multi-Class, the statistical connectivity at each position of the N-grams is regarded as word attributes, and one word cluster each is created to represent the positional attributes. Furthermore, by introducing higher order word N-grams through the grouping of frequent word successions, Multi-Class N-grams are extended to Multi-Class Composite N-grams. In experiments, the Multi-Class Composite N-grams result in 9.5% lower perplexity and a 16% lower word error rate in speech recognition with a 40% smaller parameter size than conventional word 3-grams.
SPE-170801-MS Evaluation of Gas Adsorption in Marcellus Shale

Production from shale gas reservoirs plays an important role in natural gas supply in the United States. Horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing are the two key enabling technologies for the economic development of these shale gas reservoirs. It is believed that gas in shale reservoirs is mainly composed of free gas within fractures and pores and adsorbed gas in organic matter (kerogen). It is generally assumed in the literature that the monolayer Langmuir isotherm describes gas adsorption behavior in shale gas reservoirs. However, in this work, we have analyzed several experimental measurements of methane adsorption from the Marcellus Shale core samples that deviate from the Langmuir isotherm, but obey the BET (Brunauer, Emmett and Teller) isotherm. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to find that gas adsorption in a shale gas reservoir behaves like multilayer adsorption. Consequently, investigation of this specific gas desorption effect is important for accurate evaluation of well performance and completion effectiveness in shale gas reservoirs based on the BET isotherm. The difference in calculating original gas in place based on both isotherms is discussed. We also perform history matching with one production well from the Marcellus Shale and evaluate the contribution of gas desorption to the well’s performance. History matching shows that gas adsorption obeying the BET isotherm contributes more to overall gas recovery than gas adsorption obeying Langmuir isotherm, especially early time in production. This work provides better understanding of gas desorption in shale gas reservoirs and updates our current analytical and numerical models for simulation of shale gas production.
PAPR reduction in LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation using low-complexity joint interleaving technique

The demand for high data rates in both the uplink and the downlink has motivated the use of carrier aggregation (CA) of several portions of the spectrum up to 100 MHz in LTE-Advanced, while maintaining backward compatibility with LTE release 8. One of the main practical challenges that comes with CA is the severe increase of peak-to-average-power-ratio (PAPR) of the corresponding generated time-domain OFDM signal, thus affecting the power amplifier (PA) efficiency, and hence the transmission coverage. This paper proposes a low-complexity joint interleaving technique to reduce the PAPR of carrier aggregated signals. Several CA scenarios were analyzed using our proposed technique. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed technique can achieve the same PAPR reduction performance as that of the partial selective mapping (PSLM) technique with 66% reduction in terms of real multiplication and addition operations for the case of three aggregated component carriers (CCs).
Organisational Culture of Construction Joint Ventures: Case Studies in Hong Kong

Culture can be regarded as a system of shared meanings that organises values into mental programmes which guide the behaviours of people within communities – notably, nations and organisations. Organisational culture involves cognition, affect and behaviour and reflects customary thinking, feeling and acting that are attributed to a particular group of people as they learn to cope with their environment. Largely, behaviours of organisations depend on the decisions and business strategies of top management and are greatly influenced by culture. There is a close relationship between the characteristics of organisational culture in a joint venture (JV) organisation and the parent companies; often, the organisational culture of the (most) powerful parent company dominates. That reflection relates to the top management’s strategy and the allocation of authority among JV partners. The two case studies investigate the organisational culture of international JV projects in Hong Kong that pool resources from parents with different cultural backgrounds. One of the case studies compares the JV organizational culture with the parent companies from UK, Hong Kong and mainland China. The organizational cultures of the parent companies are consistent with their own national cultural characteristics but, in the JV where more than one national culture is involved, the JV organizational culture is highly influenced by the dominant national culture of the management team. In the second case study, the project director is seconded from the dominant parent company. That JV exhibits cultural characteristics which show a synergy of elements from the founding parents but with emphasis on the culture of the dominant partner in the JV.
FAR-UV SPECTROSCOPY OF THE PLANET-HOSTING STAR WASP-13: HIGH-ENERGY IRRADIANCE, DISTANCE, AGE, PLANETARY MASS-LOSS RATE, AND CIRCUMSTELLAR ENVIRONMENT

Several transiting hot Jupiters orbit relatively inactive main-sequence stars. For some of those, the log R HK ′ ? > activity parameter lies below the basal level (−5.1). Two explanations have been proposed so far: (i) the planet affects the stellar dynamo, (ii) the log R HK ′ ? > measurements are biased by extrinsic absorption, either by the interstellar medium (ISM) or by material local to the system. We present here Hubble Space Telescope/COS far-UV spectra of WASP-13, which hosts an inflated hot Jupiter and has a measured log R HK ′ ? > value (−5.26), well below the basal level. From the star’s spectral energy distribution we obtain an extinction E ( B − V ) ? > = 0.045 ± 0.025 mag and a distance d = 232 ± 8 pc. We detect at ≳4σ lines belonging to three different ionization states of carbon (C i, C ii, and C iv) and the Si iv doublet at ∼3σ. Using far-UV spectra of nearby early G-type stars of known age, we derive a C iv/C i flux ratio–age relation, from which we estimate WASP-13's age to be 5.1 ± 2.0 Gyr. We rescale the solar irradiance reference spectrum to match the flux of the C iv 1548 doublet. By integrating the rescaled solar spectrum, we obtain an XUV flux at 1 AU of 5.4 erg s−1 cm−2. We use a detailed model of the planet’s upper atmosphere, deriving a mass-loss rate of 1.5 × 1011 g s−1. Despite the low log R HK ′ ? > value, the star shows a far-UV spectrum typical of middle-aged solar-type stars, pointing toward the presence of significant extrinsic absorption. The analysis of a high-resolution spectrum of the Ca ii H&K lines indicates that the ISM absorption could be the origin of the low log R HK ′ ? > value. Nevertheless, the large uncertainty in the Ca ii ISM abundance does not allow us to firmly exclude the presence of circumstellar gas.