Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of misregistration on change detection

The impact of misregistration on the detection of changes in land cover has been evaluated using spatially degraded Landsat MSS images, focusing on simulated images of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Single-date images from seven areas were misregistered against themselves, and the statistical properties of the differences were analyzed. In the absence of any actual changes to the land surface, the consequences of misregistration were very marked even for subpixel misregistrations. Pairs of images from different time periods were then misregistered. For four densely covered areas, an error equivalent to greater than 50% of the actual differences in the NDVI, as measured by the semivariance, was induced by a misregistration of only one pixel. To achieve an error of only 10%, registration accuracies of 0.2 pixels or less are required. For three more sparsely vegetated areas with semiarid climates, a registration accuracy of between 0.5 and 1.0 pixel was sufficient to achieve an error of 10% or less. The results indicate that high levels of registration are needed for reliable monitoring of global change. >
Securing AODV Routing Protocol in MANET Based on Cryptographic Authentication Mechanism

In mobile ad hoc wireless network (MANET), secure communication is more challenging task due to its fundamental characteristics like infrastructure less, wireless link, distributed cooperation, dynamic topology, lack of association, resource constrained and physical vulnerability of node. In MANET, attacks can be broadly classified in two categories: routing attacks and data forwarding attacks. Any action not following rules of routing protocols belongs to routing attacks. The main objective of routing attacks to mislead or disrupt normal functioning of network by advertising false routing updates. On the other hand data forwarding attacks include actions such as modification or dropping of data packet that does not disrupt routing protocol. In this thesis work, we proposed a method to secure ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol. The proposed method provides security for routing packets and can efficiently prevent the attacks such as black hole, modifying routing information and impersonation. The proposed method uses hashed message authentication code (HMAC) function which provides fast message verification and sender as well as intermediate nodes authentication. We simulate and compare the proposed method with original AODV and secure AODV (SAODV) protocol using network simulator tool (NS2). Simulation result shows that proposed method minimizes the time delay and network routing load involved in computation and verification of security fields during route discovery process and performs better than the original AODV protocol in the presence of malicious nodes performing black hole attack.
MetaFlow : a Scalable SDN-based Metadata Lookup Service for Distributed File Systems in Data Centers

In large-scale distributed file systems, efficient metadata operations are critical since most file operations have to interact with metadata servers first. In existing distributed hash table (DHT) based metadata management systems, the lookup service could be a performance bottleneck due to its significant CPU overhead. Our investigations showed that the lookup service could reduce system throughput by up to 70%, and increase system latency by a factor of up to 8 compared to ideal scenarios. In this paper, we present MetaFlow, a scalable metadata lookup service utilizing software-defined networking (SDN) techniques to distribute lookup workload over network components. MetaFlow tackles the lookup bottleneck problem by leveraging B-tree, which is constructed over the physical topology, to manage flow tables for SDN-enabled switches. Therefore, metadata requests can be forwarded to appropriate servers using only switches. Extensive performance evaluations in both simulations and testbed showed that MetaFlow increases system throughput by a factor of up to 3.2, and reduce system latency by a factor of up to 5 compared to DHT-based systems. We also deployed MetaFlow in a distributed file system, and demonstrated significant performance improvement.
Methodological review of WTP and QALY frameworks for valuing environmental health risks to children

Background The lack of empirical surveys and associated lack of data in this area is a barrier to the provision of sound policy advice. Indeed, existing values used for monetisation of environment-related health impacts focus on adult populations and use scenarios that often do not match well with environmental scenarios. As such, there is concern that the continued use of existing estimates from unrelated contexts that do not take these factors into account may result in a misguided benefit-cost analyses, and in a possible misallocation of resources, especially when environmental policies with significant implications for children are under consideration. In this context, the OECD Environment Directorate implemented in 2006 a project on the valuation of environmental health impacts, with a particular focus on children: the VERHI Project. Objectives This three-year project (2006-2008) funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme of Research (contract number SSPE-CT-2005-006529) seeks to improve the incorporation of environment-related health impacts in policy-making. An original survey instrument will be applied in three OECD countries (United Kingdom, Italy and the Czech Republic) that have disparities in terms of important factors, such as social insurance systems, health care systems, social concern about the environment, etc. This survey will be developed so as to obtain methodologically comparable values for adults and children for similar risks, and will also seek to cast light on the context of the risk reduction, and on latency issues. Finally, the project will explore the potential for benefits transfer across countries with different socioeconomic characteristics.
Acu-TENS Reduces Breathlessness during Exercise in People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background. Exertional dyspnoea limits level of physical activity in people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This randomized, double-blinded, crossover study evaluated the effect of Acu-TENS, application of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on acupoints, on breathlessness during exercise in people with COPD. Methods. Twenty-one participants, mean% predicted FEV1 50 ± 21%, attended assessment followed by two intervention days, one week apart. On each intervention day, participants performed two endurance shuttle walk tests (ESWT) (Walk 1 and Walk 2). Walk 1 was performed without intervention and Walk 2 was performed with either Acu-TENS or Sham-TENS, in random order, for 45 minutes before and during Walk 2. Duration of each ESWT and dyspnoea score at isotime of Walk 1 and Walk 2 on each intervention day were compared. Between-group differences in ESWT duration and isotime dyspnoea were also compared. Results. At isotime of Walk 1 and Walk 2, Acu-TENS showed significant reduction in dyspnoea of −0.8 point (95% CI −0.2 to −1.4) but not in Sham-TENS [0.1 point (95% CI −0.4 to 0.6)]. Compared to Sham-TENS, Acu-TENS showed significant reduction in dyspnoea of −0.9 point (95% CI −0.2 to −1.6) while no between-group significance was found in ESWT duration. Conclusion. Acu-TENS alleviated dyspnoea during walking in people with COPD but did not increase walking duration.
Detecting Duplicate Records - A Case Study

Databases play an important role in today's IT based economy. Many industries and systems depend on the accuracy of databases to carry out operations. Therefore, the quality of the information stored in the databases, can have significant cost implications to a system that relies on information to function and conduct business. Often, in the real world, entities have two or more representations in databases. Duplicate detection is the process of identifying multiple representations of same real world entities. The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough study on different methods used for detecting duplicate records. And also this paper discussed about the different duplication detection tools in detail.
Expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in luminal epithelium during the growth and regression of rat uterus.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a processivity factor of DNA synthesis, has often been used as a marker that reveals proliferating cells. However, it also plays a role other than in DNA replication. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the expression of PCNA and cell proliferation, and also its relation to cell death in the uterine epithelium under various hormonal conditions. Rats with regular estrous cycles were killed at various stages of the cycle, and their uteri were removed for the detection of PCNA and apoptosis by immunohistochemical and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end-label staining respectively. There was an inverse relationship between the expression of PCNA and apoptosis in the uterine epithelium during the estrous cycle. From diestrus to proestrus, the expression of PCNA increased, and few apoptotic cells were detected in the luminal epithelium. However, at estrus, apoptosis occurred markedly, and the expression of PCNA disappeared. To study further the effects of estrogen on PCNA expression and cell growth in the uterus, rats were ovariectomized and then implanted s.c. with estrogen capsules 2 weeks later. In ovariectomized rats, only a few PCNA-positive cells were observed in the uterine epithelium. After estrogen treatment, PCNA was expressed strongly in the luminal and glandular epithelia. In these rats, the removal of estrogen capsules resulted in apoptotic death and surprisingly strong PCNA expression in the cells of luminal epithelium. Our results demonstrate that PCNA is expressed not only in the estrogen-stimulated uterine growth, but also in the processes of regression induced by the withdrawal of estrogen. Although the expression of PCNA has been reported to represent cell proliferation, our results implicate functions other than cell replication for PCNA in the uterus.
A Quantum Computational Learning Algorithm

An interesting classical result due to Jackson allows polynomial-time learning of the function class DNF using membership queries. Since in most practical learning situations access to a membership oracle is unrealistic, this paper explores the possibility that quantum computation might allow a learning algorithm for DNF that relies only on example queries. A natural extension of Fourier-based learning into the quantum domain is presented. The algorithm requires only an example oracle, and it runs in O(sqrt(2^n)) time, a result that appears to be classically impossible. The algorithm is unique among quantum algorithms in that it does not assume a priori knowledge of a function and does not operate on a superposition that includes all possible states.
Pengaruh Kecerdasan Emosional Terhadap Tingkat Pemahaman Akuntansi, Kepercayaan Diri Sebagai Variabel Pemoderasi

Penelitian bertujuan untuk menguji apakah kecerdasan emosional yang terdiri dari lima komponen yaitu kesadaran diri, pengaturan diri, motivasi, empati, dan keterampilan sosial berpengaruh terhadap tingkat pemahaman akuntansi. Penelitian ini juga bertujuan untuk mengetahui adanya peran kepercayaan diri sebagai variabel moderating mempengaruhi kecerdasan emosional terhadap tingkat pemahaman akuntansi. Selain itu juga penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat adanya perbedaan kecerdasan emosional antara mahasiswa yang memiliki kepercayaan diri yang kuat dengan mahasiswa yang memiliki kepercayaan tinggi lemah. Alat ukur untuk mengukur tingkat pemahaman akuntansi adalah nilai rata-rata akuntansi PA1, PA2, AKM1, AKM2, AKL, audit1, audit2, dan TA. Analisis yang digunakan adalah regresi linear sederhana, MRA, dan uji T. Hasil analisis menyatakan bahwa kecerdasan emosional hanya berpengaruh signifikan terhadap pengaturan diri dan motivasi. Dan memiliki peran sebagai variabel quasi moderator hanya terhadap motivasi. Hasil penelitian ini dapat memberikan kontribusi ke universitas dalam rangka untuk menyusun kurikulum dan dapat memberikan masukan kepada mahasiswa untuk mengembangkan kecerdasan emosional dan kepercayaan dir
Approaches to the computerized assessment of free text responses

The automated assessment of student's essays is regarded by many as the Holy Grail of computer aided assessment. Whilst a few people search for the grail, many more deny its existence. This paper describes the various approaches that have been taken over the last 40 years in an attempt to solve the problems involved with the computerized assessment of free text. The earliest approaches were founded in simple style analysis. Systems, such as Project Essay Grade (PEG), were developed upon the idea that certain surface features of an essay could be manipulated in such a way as to predict the grade that a human examiner would assign to an essay. Other methods, such as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), also take a statistical approach to marking, but focus on actual textual content, analyzing groupings and context. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) originally attempted to tackle the problem from a classification point of view whilst more recent work by ETS bears similarities to PEG in its statistical approach. Most of the methods currently being developed have been shown to be capable of generating essay scores that correlate with a human grader's scores at least as well as two human graders correlate with each other. A novel approach being adopted by the authors to allow the comparison of students' essays against a model answer involves the use of theories developed for interlingual machine translation. A few different methods for knowledge representation, and their current uses in machine translation are presented. Panlingua, an idea for knowledge representation developed by Chaumont Devin, is based on semantic network research. Using a system of nodes over four layers it attempts to model how the brain might translate from sensory patterns it sees or hears at the top level, through syntactic and semantic levels, to a representation of understanding at the deepest level. Another approach to machine translation involves work done by Bonnie Dorr at the University of Maryland based on Lexical Conceptual Structure (LCS) theory. This allows the knowledge represented in a text to be translated into a language independent data structure. These theories provide a way of representing knowledge that is not reliant on the surface syntax of the text representing the knowledge. This will hopefully allow 'fuzzy matching' of sentences which have different syntactic structures but similar semantic meaning. The authors will be looking at the possibility of grading essays via a comparison of these data structures.
The relation between language and mental state reasoning

Children’s understanding of the human mind develops steadily during the kindergarten years. In the present chapter, we discuss how children’s conceptual representations of the mind make contact with language. We focus on two domains: the understanding of the conditions that lead to knowledge (source monitoring), and the ability to attribute knowledge to oneself and others (Theory of Mind). Specifically we ask whether language provides the representational resources necessary for representing mental states and whether cross-linguistic differences in encoding of mental states influence sensitivity to the features that distinguish the conditions that allow people to gain knowledge. Empirical findings in these domains strongly suggest that language scaffolds the development of these cognitive abilities without altering the underlying conceptual representations of mental states.
Effects of Kasugamycin on the Translatome of Escherichia coli

It is long known that Kasugamycin inhibits translation of canonical transcripts containing a 5’-UTR with a Shine Dalgarno (SD) motif, but not that of leaderless transcripts. To gain a global overview of the influence of Kasugamycin on translation efficiencies, the changes of the translatome of Escherichia coli induced by a 10 minutes Kasugamycin treatment were quantified. The effect of Kasugamycin differed widely, 102 transcripts were at least twofold more sensitive to Kasugamycin than average, and 137 transcripts were at least twofold more resistant, and there was a more than 100-fold difference between the most resistant and the most sensitive transcript. The 5’-ends of 19 transcripts were determined from treated and untreated cultures, but Kasugamycin resistance did neither correlate with the presence or absence of a SD motif, nor with differences in 5’-UTR lengths or GC content. RNA Structure Logos were generated for the 102 Kasugamycin-sensitive and for the 137 resistant transcripts. For both groups a short Shine Dalgarno (SD) motif was retrieved, but no specific motifs associated with resistance or sensitivity could be found. Notably, this was also true for the region -3 to -1 upstream of the start codon and the presence of an extended SD motif, which had been proposed to result in Kasugamycin resistance. Comparison of the translatome results with the database RegulonDB showed that the transcript with the highest resistance was leaderless, but no further leaderless transcripts were among the resistant transcripts. Unexpectedly, it was found that translational coupling might be a novel feature that is associated with Kasugamycin resistance. Taken together, Kasugamycin has a profound effect on translational efficiencies of E. coli transcripts, but the mechanism of action is different than previously described.
Auditory synapses to song premotor neurons are gated off during vocalization in zebra finches

Songbirds use auditory feedback to learn and maintain their songs, but how feedback interacts with vocal motor circuitry remains unclear. A potential site for this interaction is the song premotor nucleus HVC, which receives auditory input and contains neurons (HVCX cells) that innervate an anterior forebrain pathway (AFP) important to feedback-dependent vocal plasticity. Although the singing-related output of HVCX cells is unaltered by distorted auditory feedback (DAF), deafening gradually weakens synapses on HVCX cells, raising the possibility that they integrate feedback only at subthreshold levels during singing. Using intracellular recordings in singing zebra finches, we found that DAF failed to perturb singing-related synaptic activity of HVCX cells, although many of these cells responded to auditory stimuli in non-singing states. Moreover, in vivo multiphoton imaging revealed that deafening-induced changes to HVCX synapses require intact AFP output. These findings support a model in which the AFP accesses feedback independent of HVC. DOI:http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.01833. 001
The Lower Visual Search Efficiency for Conjunctions Is Due to Noise and not Serial Attentional Processing

Models of human visual processing start with an initial stage with parallel independent processing of different physical attributes or features (e.g., color, orientation, motion). A second stage in these models is a temporally serial mechanism (visual attention) that combines or binds information across feature dimensions. Evidence for this serial mechanism is based on experimental results for visual search. I conducted a study of visual search accuracy that carefully controlled for low-level effects: physical similarity of target and distractor, element eccentricity, and eye movements. The larger set-size effects in visual search accuracy for briefly flashed conjunction displays, compared with feature displays, are quantitatively predicted by a simple model in which each feature dimension is processed independently with inherent neural noise and information is combined linearly across feature dimensions. The data are not predicted by a temporally serial mechanism or by a hybrid model with temporally serial and noisy processing. The results do not support the idea that a temporally serial mechanism, visual attention, binds information across feature dimensions and show that the conjunction-feature dichotomy is due to the noisy independent processing of features in the human visual system.
On the Closure Properties of Robotic Grasping

The form-closure and force-closure properties of robotic grasp ing are investigated. Loosely speaking, these properties are related to the capability of the robot to inhibit motions of the workpiece in spite of externally applied forces. In this article, form-closure is considered as a purely geometric property of a set of unilateral (contact) constraints, such as those applied on a workpiece by a mechanical fixture, while force-closure is related to the capability of the particular robotic device being considered to apply forces through contacts. The concepts of partial form- and force-closure properties are introduced and discussed, and an algorithm is proposed to obtain a synthetic geometric description of partial form-closure constraints. Al though the literature abounds with form-closure tests, proposed algorithms for testing force-closure are either approximate or computationally expensive. This article proves the equiva lence of force-closure analysis with the study of the equilibria of an ordinary differential equation, to which Lyapunov's di rect method is applied. This observation leads to an efficient algorithm for assessing the force-closure property of the grasp.
Translating discrete-time simulink to lustre

We present a method of translating discrete-time Simulink models to Lustre programs. Our method consists of three steps: type inference, clock inference, and hierarchical bottom-up translation. In the process, we explain and formalize the typing and timing mechanisms of Simulink. The method has been implemented in a prototype tool called S2L, which has been used in the context of a European research project to translate two automotive controller models provided by Audi.
Bioenergetic Mechanism for Nisin Resistance, Induced by the Acid Tolerance Response of Listeria monocytogenes

ABSTRACT This study examined the bioenergetics of Listeria monocytogenes, induced to an acid tolerance response (ATR). Changes in bioenergetic parameters were consistent with the increased resistance of ATR-induced (ATR+) cells to the antimicrobial peptide nisin. These changes may also explain the increased resistance of L. monocytogenes to other lethal factors. ATR+ cells had lower transmembrane pH (ΔpH) and electric potential (Δψ) than the control (ATR−) cells. The decreased proton motive force (PMF) of ATR+ cells increased their resistance to nisin, the action of which is enhanced by energized membranes. Paradoxically, the intracellular ATP levels of the PMF-depleted ATR+ cells were ∼7-fold higher than those in ATR− cells. This suggested a role for the FoF1 ATPase enzyme complex, which converts the energy of ATP hydrolysis to PMF. Inhibition of the FoF1 ATPase enzyme complex by N′-N′-1,3-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide increased ATP levels in ATR− but not in ATR+ cells, where ATPase activity was already low. Spectrometric analyses (surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry) suggested that in ATR+ listeriae, the downregulation of the proton-translocating c subunit of the FoF1 ATPase was responsible for the decreased ATPase activity, thereby sparing vital ATP. These data suggest that regulation of FoF1 ATPase plays an important role in the acid tolerance response of L. monocytogenes and in its induced resistance to nisin.