Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Effects of Balanced Training and Testing Datasets on Effort-Aware Fault Prediction Models

To prioritize software quality assurance efforts, fault prediction models have been proposed to distinguish faulty modules from clean modules. The performances of such models are often biased due to the skewness or class imbalance of the datasets considered. To improve the prediction performance of these models, sampling techniques have been employed to rebalance the distribution of fault-prone and non-fault-prone modules. The effect of these techniques have been evaluated in terms of accuracy/geometric mean/F1-measure in previous studies; however, these measures do not consider the effort needed to fix faults. To empirically investigate the effect of sampling techniques on the performance of software fault prediction models in a more realistic setting, this study employs Norm(Popt), an effort-aware measure that considers the testing effort. We performed two sets of experiments aimed at (1) assessing the effects of sampling techniques on effort-aware models and finding the appropriate class distribution for training datasets (2) investigating the role of balanced training and testing datasets on performance of predictive models. Of the four sampling techniques applied, the over-sampling techniques outperformed the under-sampling techniques with Random Over-sampling performing best with respect to the Norm(Popt) evaluation measure. Also, performance of all the prediction models improved when sampling techniques were applied between the rates of (20-30)% on the training datasets implying that a strictly balanced dataset (50% faulty modules and 50% clean modules) does not result in the best performance for effort-aware models. Our results also indicate that performances of effort-aware models are significantly dependent on the proportions of the two types of the classes in the testing dataset. Models trained on moderately balanced datasets are more likely to withstand fluctuations in performance as the class distribution in the testing data varies.
Orientation-Cue Invariant Population Responses to Contrast-Modulated and Phase-Reversed Contour Stimuli in Macaque V1 and V2

Visual scenes can be readily decomposed into a variety of oriented components, the processing of which is vital for object segregation and recognition. In primate V1 and V2, most neurons have small spatio-temporal receptive fields responding selectively to oriented luminance contours (first order), while only a subgroup of neurons signal non-luminance defined contours (second order). So how is the orientation of second-order contours represented at the population level in macaque V1 and V2? Here we compared the population responses in macaque V1 and V2 to two types of second-order contour stimuli generated either by modulation of contrast or phase reversal with those to first-order contour stimuli. Using intrinsic signal optical imaging, we found that the orientation of second-order contour stimuli was represented invariantly in the orientation columns of both macaque V1 and V2. A physiologically constrained spatio-temporal energy model of V1 and V2 neuronal populations could reproduce all the recorded population responses. These findings suggest that, at the population level, the primate early visual system processes the orientation of second-order contours initially through a linear spatio-temporal filter mechanism. Our results of population responses to different second-order contour stimuli support the idea that the orientation maps in primate V1 and V2 can be described as a spatial-temporal energy map.
Hybrid Built-In Self-Test and Test Generation Techniques for Digital Systems

The technological development is enabling the production of increasingly complex electronic systems. All such systems must be verified and tested to guarantee their correct behavior. As the complexity grows, testing has become one of the most significant factors that contribute to the total development cost. In recent years, we have also witnessed the inadequacy of the established testing methods, most of which are based on low-level representations of the hardware circuits. Therefore, more work has to be done at abstraction levels higher than the classical gate and register-transfer levels. At the same time, the automatic test equipment based solutions have failed to deliver the required test quality. As a result, alternative testing methods have been studied, which has led to the development of built-in self-test (BIST) techniques. In this thesis, we present a novel hybrid BIST technique that addresses several areas where classical BIST methods have shortcomings. The technique makes use of both pseudorandom and deterministic testing methods, and is devised in particular for testing modern systems-on-chip. One of the main contributions of this thesis is a set of optimization methods to reduce the hybrid test cost while not sacrificing test quality. We have devel oped several optimization algorithms for different hybrid BIST architectures and design constraints. In addition, we have developed hybrid BIST scheduling methods for an abort-on-first-fail strategy, and proposed a method for energy reduction for hybrid BIST. Devising an efficient BIST approach requires different design modifications, such as insertion of scan paths as well as test pattern generators and signature analyzers. These modifications require careful testability analysis of the original design. In the latter part of this thesis, we propose a novel hierarchical test generation algorithm that can be used not only for manufacturing tests but also for testability analysis. We have also investigated the possibilities of generating test vectors at the early stages of the design cycle, starting directly from the behavioral description and with limited knowledge about the final implementation. Experiments, based on benchmark examples and industrial designs, have been carried out to demonstrate the usefulness and efficiency of the proposed methodologies and techniques.
A Double-Layered Covered Biliary Metal Stent for the Management of Unresectable Malignant Biliary Obstruction: A Multicenter Feasibility Study

Background/Aims The covered self-expandable metal stent (CMS) was developed to prevent tumor ingrowth-induced stent occlusion during the treatment of malignant biliary obstruction. However, complications such as cholecystitis, pancreatitis, and stent migration can occur after the endoscopic insertion of CMSs. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy and safety of a double-layered CMS (DCMS) for the management of malignant bile duct obstruction. Methods DCMSs were endoscopically introduced into 59 patients with unresectable malignant extrahepatic biliary obstruction at four tertiary referral centers, and the patient medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Results Both the technical and functional success rates were 100%. Procedure-related complications including pancreatitis, cholangitis, stent migration, and liver abscess occurred in five patients (8.5%). The median follow-up period was 265 days (range, 31 to 752 days). Cumulative stent patency rates were 68.2% and 40.8% at 6 and 12 months, respectively. At the final follow-up, the rate of stent occlusion was 33.9% (20/59), and the median stent patency period was 276 days (range, 2 to 706 days). Conclusions The clinical outcomes of DCMSs were comparable to the outcomes previously reported for CMSs with respect to stent patency period and complication rates.
Japan's Stagnant Nineties: A Vector Autoregression Retrospective

This paper uses a vector autoregression (VAR) approach to identify the driving forces of the growth slowdown in Japan during the 1990s. Negative shocks to both residential and nonresidential investment are shown to have been important determinants of the slowdown. Despite the collapse in asset prices, negative shocks to private consumption were relatively small. A surprising conclusion is that trends in public consumption had a dampening impact on activity in the nineties. The VAR estimations do not support the counterfactual conjecture that activity in Japan would have been significantly weaker in the absence of the expansionary shift in fiscal policy.
Constitutional and somatic methylation status of DMRH19 and KvDMR in Wilms tumor patients

The most frequent epigenetic alterations in Wilms tumor (WT) occur at WT2, assigned to 11p15. WT2 consists of two domains: telomeric domain 1 (DMRH19) that contains the IGF2 gene and an imprinted maternally expressed transcript (H19) and centromeric domain 2 (KvDMR) that contains the genes KCNQ1, KCNQ1OT1 and CDKN1C. In this work, we used pyrosequencing and MS-MLPA to compare the methylation patterns of DMRH19/KvDMR in blood and tumor samples from 40 WT patients. Normal constitutional KvDMR methylation indicated that most of the epigenetic alterations in WT occur at DMRH19. Constitutional DMRH19 hypermethylation (HM DMRH19) was observed in two patients with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Pyrosequencing and MS-MLPA showed HM DMRH19 in 28/34 tumor samples: 16/34 with isolated HM DMRH19 and 12/34 with concomitant HM DMRH19 and KvDMR hypomethylation, indicating paternal uniparental disomy. With the exception of one blood sample, the MS-MLPA and pyrosequencing findings were concordant. Diffuse or focal anaplasia was present in five tumor samples and was associated with isolated somatic HM DMRH19 in four of them. Constitutional 11p15 methylation abnormalities were present in 5% of the samples and somatic abnormalities in the majority of tumors. Combined analysis of DMRH19/KvDMR by pyrosequencing and MS-MLPA is beneficial for characterizing epigenetic anomalies in WT, and MS-MLPA is useful and reliable for estimation of DNA methylation in a clinical setting.
Interaction of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4, Integrin, and Src Tyrosine Kinase in Mechanical Hyperalgesia

Although the transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) has been implicated in the process of osmomechanical transduction, it appears to make little contribution to the normal somatosensory detection of mechanical stimuli. However, evidence suggests that it may play an important role in mechanical hyperalgesia. In the present study, we examined the common requirement for TRPV4 in mechanical hyperalgesia associated with diverse pain models and investigated whether the very close association observed between TRPV4 and mechanical hyperalgesia, regardless of etiology, reflects a close functional connection of TRPV4 with other molecules implicated in mechanical transduction. In models of painful peripheral neuropathy associated with vincristine chemotherapy, alcoholism, diabetes, and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome therapy, mechanical hyperalgesia was markedly reduced by spinal intrathecal administration of oligodeoxynucleotides antisense to TRPV4. Similarly, mechanical hyperalgesia induced by paclitaxel, vincristine, or diabetes was strongly reduced in TRPV4 knock-out mice. We also show that α2β1 integrin and Src tyrosine kinase, which have been implicated in mechanical transduction, are important for the development of mechanical hyperalgesia, and that their contribution requires TRPV4. Furthermore, we establish a direct interaction between TRPV4, α2 integrin, and the Src tyrosine kinase Lyn in sensory neurons. We suggest that TRPV4 plays a role in mechanotransduction, as a component of a molecular complex that functions only in the setting of inflammation or nerve injury.
Cluster Mass Function in Mixed Models

We study the cluster mass function in mixed dark matter (MDM) models, using two COBE-normalized simulations with Ωh = 0.26, n = 1.2 and Ωh = 0.14, n = 1.05, both with two massive neutrinos (models MDM1 and MDM2, respectively). For the sake of comparison, we also simulate a tilted cold dark matter model with spectral index n = 0.8 (TCDM), also COBE normalized. We argue that, in our nonhydrodynamical simulations, where cold dark matter (CDM) particles describe both actual CDM and baryons, the galaxy distribution traces CDM particles. Therefore, we use them to define clusters and their velocities to work out cluster masses. Since CDM particles are more clustered than hot dark matter (HDM) and therefore have, on average, greater velocities, this leads to significant differences from Press & Schechter (PS) predictions. Such predictions agree with simulations if both HDM and CDM are used to define clusters. If this criterion is adopted, however, we see that (1) MDM corresponds to δc values slightly but systematically greater than CDM; and (2) such δc exhibit a scale dependence: on scales ~1014 M☉, we find δc ~ 1.7 or 1.8 for CDM or MDM, respectively, while at greater scales the required δc decreases, and a substantial cluster excess is found at the large-mass end (M > 1015 M☉). Clusters defined through CDM in MDM models, on the other hand, are less numerous than PS estimates by a factor of ~0.3 at the low-mass end; the factor becomes ~0.6-0.8, depending on the mix, on intermediate-mass scales (~4-5 h-1 1014 M☉), and almost vanishes on the high-mass end. Therefore, (1) MDM models expected to overproduce clusters over intermediate scales are viable; (2) the greater reduction factor at small scales agrees with the observational data dependence on the cluster mass M (which, however, may be partially due to sample incompleteness); (3) the higher spectral normalization is felt at large scales, where MDM models produce more objects (hence, large clusters) than CDM. MDM1 even exceeds the findings of Donahue et al., while MDM2 is consistent with them. Simulations are performed using a parallel algorithm worked out from the Couchman AP3M serial code, but allowing for different particle masses and used with variable time steps. This allowed us to simulate a cubic box with sides of 360 h-1 Mpc, reaching a Plummer resolution of 40.6 h-1 kpc, using (3×)1803 particles.
Primary Visual Cortex Represents the Difference Between Past and Present

The visual system is confronted with rapidly changing stimuli in everyday life. It is not well understood how information in such a stream of input is updated within the brain. We performed voltage-sensitive dye imaging across the primary visual cortex (V1) to capture responses to sequences of natural scene contours. We presented vertically and horizontally filtered natural images, and their superpositions, at 10 or 33 Hz. At low frequency, the encoding was found to represent not the currently presented images, but differences in orientation between consecutive images. This was in sharp contrast to more rapid sequences for which we found an ongoing representation of current input, consistent with earlier studies. Our finding that for slower image sequences, V1 does no longer report actual features but represents their relative difference in time counteracts the view that the first cortical processing stage must always transfer complete information. Instead, we show its capacities for change detection with a new emphasis on the role of automatic computation evolving in the 100-ms range, inevitably affecting information transmission further downstream.
Gene expression is differentially regulated by neurotransmitters in embryonic neuronal cortical culture

Neurotransmitters and their receptors have been involved in both proper brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders. The role that nicotinic receptors play in immature cortical neurons was initially investigated by gene profiling using Affymetrix DNA arrays. Both short (15 min) and prolonged (18 h) treatments with nicotine did not induce modification in gene expression, whereas a significant down‐regulation of c‐fos protein levels was observed after 18 h treatment. Conversely, a brief treatment with the glutamatergic agonist NMDA triggered up‐regulation of immediate early genes and transcription factors, which remained unaffected by pre‐treatment for 18 h with nicotine. Calcium imaging studies revealed that NMDA activated a sustained increase in intracellular calcium concentration in the majority of neurons, whereas nicotine evoked only a transient calcium increase in a smaller percentage of neurons, suggesting that the calcium signalling response was correlated with activation of gene expression. Nicotine effects on immature cortical neurons perhaps do not require gene regulation but may be still acting on signalling pathways.
Observed Antarctic Interannual Climate Variability and Tropical Linkages

AbstractThis study reviews the mechanisms associated with Antarctic–tropical climate linkages and presents new analyses of the seasonality and spatial patterns of tropical climate signals in the Antarctic for the late 1950s to the present. Tropical climate signals are primarily communicated to the Antarctic via the Pacific–South America (PSA) pattern and the southern annular mode (SAM). The impacts of these circulation patterns and their tropical linkages are evident in regressions of seasonally stratified Antarctic station temperature data and annually resolved ice core records on global fields of sea surface temperature, sea level pressure, and precipitation. Temperature and ice core anomalies in the Antarctic Peninsula region and adjoining areas of West Antarctica are significantly impacted by the PSA, interpreted as a Rossby wave train driven by anomalous tropical deep convection during ENSO events. This pattern is most evident in the austral spring, consistent with recent studies, suggesting that atm.
ERPs Differentially Reflect Automatic and Deliberate Processing of the Functional Manipulability of Objects

It is known that the functional properties of an object can interact with perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes. Previously we have found that a between-subjects manipulation of judgment instructions resulted in different manipulability-related memory biases in an incidental memory test. To better understand this effect we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while participants made judgments about images of objects that were either high or low in functional manipulability (e.g., hammer vs. ladder). Using a between-subjects design, participants judged whether they had seen the object recently (Personal Experience), or could manipulate the object using their hand (Functionality). We focused on the P300 and slow-wave event-related potentials (ERPs) as reflections of attentional allocation. In both groups, we observed higher P300 and slow wave amplitudes for high-manipulability objects at electrodes Pz and C3. As P300 is thought to reflect bottom-up attentional processes, this may suggest that the processing of high-manipulability objects recruited more attentional resources. Additionally, the P300 effect was greater in the Functionality group. A more complex pattern was observed at electrode C3 during slow wave: processing the high-manipulability objects in the Functionality instruction evoked a more positive slow wave than in the other three conditions, likely related to motor simulation processes. These data provide neural evidence that effects of manipulability on stimulus processing are further mediated by automatic vs. deliberate motor-related processing.
Defending Against Statistical Steganalysis

The main purpose of steganography is to hide the occurrence of communication. While most methods in use today are invisible to an observer's senses, mathematical analysis may reveal statistical anomalies in the stego medium. These discrepancies expose the fact that hidden communication is happening. This paper presents improved methods for information hiding. One method uses probabilistic embedding to minimize modifications to the cover medium. Another method employs error-correcting codes, which allow the embedding process to choose which bits to modify in a way that decreases the likelihood of being detected. In addition, we can hide multiple data sets in the same cover medium to provide plausible deniability. To prevent detection by statistical tests, we preserve the statistical properties of the cover medium. After applying a correcting transform to an image, statistical steganalysis is no longer able to detect the presence of steganography. We present an a priori estimate to determine the amount of data that can be hidden in the image while still being able to maintain frequency count based statistics. This way, we can quickly choose an image in which a message of a given size can be hidden safely. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we present statistical tests for the JPEG image format and explain how our new method defeats them.
THE ROLE OF STAR FORMATION AND AN AGN IN DUST HEATING OF z = 0.3–2.8 GALAXIES. I. EVOLUTION WITH REDSHIFT AND LUMINOSITY

We characterize infrared spectral energy distributions of 343 (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies from z = 0.3–2.8. We diagnose the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) by decomposing individual Spitzer mid-IR spectroscopy into emission from star formation and an AGN-powered continuum; we classify sources as star-forming galaxies (SFGs), AGNs, or composites. Composites comprise 30% of our sample and are prevalent at faint and bright S24, making them an important source of IR AGN emission. We combine spectroscopy with multiwavelength photometry, including Herschel imaging, to create three libraries of publicly available templates (2–1000 μm). We fit the far-IR emission using a two-temperature modified blackbody to measure cold and warm dust temperatures (Tc and Tw). We find that Tc does not depend on mid-IR classification, while Tw shows a notable increase as the AGN grows more luminous. We measure a quadratic relationship between mid-IR AGN emission and total AGN contribution to LIR. AGNs, composites, and SFGs separate in S8/S3.6 and S250/S24, providing a useful diagnostic for estimating relative amounts of these sources. We estimate that >40% of IR-selected samples host an AGN, even at faint selection thresholds (S24 > 100 μJy). Our decomposition technique and color diagnostics are relevant given upcoming observations with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Equilibrium Discovery and Preopening Mechanisms in an Experimental Market

We experimentally analyze how to design preopening mechanisms facilitating coordination on high equilibrium liquidity and gains from trade. We allow a call auction to be preceded by a preopening or not, preopening orders to be binding or not, and the opening time to be deterministic or random. When the preopening is nonbinding, traders place manipulative orders, reducing the credibility of preplay communication. Random market opening deters manipulation, but also hinders communication by making it costly. Gains from trade are maximized when preopening orders are binding. This enables some traders to place early limit orders, attracting further liquidity. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi. org/10.1287/mnsc.2013. 1787 . This paper was accepted by Wei Xiong, finance.
Near-Optimal Resource Allocation for Type-II HARQ Based OFDMA Networks Under Rate and Power Constraints

We address the problem of multiuser power and bandwidth allocation for a general class of OFDMA-based wireless networks that employ a Type-II hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mechanism along with practical modulation and coding schemes (MCSs). This problem is formulated as minimizing the sum transmit power required to satisfy individual goodput constraints without exceeding maximum allowable per-link or per-node transmit power levels. We assume that the resource manager has only statistical knowledge of the channel state information (CSI) of the Rayleigh-distributed fast-fading links of the network. Using a tight approximation of the goodput, we propose an algorithm allowing computation of the corresponding optimal resource allocation. We finally provide an efficient selection of the different MCSs that can be coupled with the proposed resource allocation algorithm to significantly boost its performance.