Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pre-orders for reasoning about stability properties with respect to input of hybrid systems

Pre-orders on systems are the basis for abstraction based verification of systems. In this paper, we investigate pre-orders for reasoning about stability with respect to inputs of hybrid systems. First, we present a superposition type theorem which gives a characterization of the classical incremental input-to-state stability of continuous systems in terms of the traditional ε-δ definition of stability. We use this as the basis for defining a notion of incremental input-to-state stability of hybrid systems. Next, we present a pre-order on hybrid systems which preserves incremental input-to-state stability, by extending the classical definitions of bisimulation relations on systems with input, with uniform continuity constraints. We show that the uniform continuity is a necessary requirement by exhibiting counter-examples to show that weaker notions of input bisimulation with just continuity requirements do not suffice to preserve stability. Finally, we demonstrate that the definitions are useful, by exhibiting concrete abstraction functions which satisfy the definitions of pre-orders.
Estimating Statistics in Arbitrary Regions of Interest

We address the problem of estimating statistics in regions of interest (ROIs) containing both whole and partial pixels. Such ROIs arise frequently in vision problems such as segmentation and registration. For example, even where the control points of an ROI, say the vertices of a polygon, are forcibly aligned with the pixel grid, the connecting edges will rarely do so. In medical image analysis, for instance, this can be a cause of significant error. More generally, any cost function that includes statistics estimated from the image will often exhibit irregularities due to such partial pixels. Our proposed solution addresses this problem by correctly accounting for the partial pixel area. Moreover, the method has no arbitrary parameters such as bin widths or kernel sizes. It implicitly addresses the issue of independence and gives rise to continuous density estimates whose quality is, in principle at least, independent of the number of pixels in the ROI. We present results to compare our proposed method with conventional techniques such as weighted histograms and Parzen windowing.
Apparent diffusion coefficient normalization of normal liver

Abstract Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurement in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has been reported to be a helpful biomarker for detection and characterization of lesion. In view of the importance of ADC measurement reproducibility, the aim of this study was to probe the variability of the healthy hepatic ADC values measured at 3 MR scanners from different vendors and with different field strengths, and to investigate the reproducibility of normalized ADC (nADC) value with the spleen as the reference organ. Thirty enrolled healthy volunteers received DWI with GE 1.5T, Siemens 1.5T, and Philips 3.0T magnetic resonance (MR) systems on liver and spleen (session 1) and were imaged again after 10 to 14 days using only GE 1.5T MR and Philips 3.0T MR systems (session 2). Interscan agreement and reproducibility of ADC measurements of liver and the calculated nADC values (ADCliver/ADCspleen) were statistically evaluated between 2 sessions. In session 1, ADC and nADC values of liver were evaluated for the scanner-related variability by 2-way analysis of variance and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Coefficients of variation (CVs) of ADCs and nADCs of liver were calculated for both 1.5 and 3.0-T MR system. Interscan agreement and reproducibility of ADC measurements of liver and related nADCs between 2 sessions were found to be satisfactory with ICC values of 0.773 to 0.905. In session 1, the liver nADCs obtained from different scanners were consistent (P = 0.112) without any significant difference in multiple comparison (P = 0.117 to >0.99) by using 2-way analysis of variance with post-hoc analysis of Bonferroni method, although the liver ADCs varied significantly (P < 0.001). nADCs measured by 3 scanners were in good interscanner agreements with ICCs of 0.685 to 0.776. The mean CV of nADCs of both 1.5T MR scanners (9.6%) was similar to that of 3.0T MR scanner (8.9%). ADCs measured at 3 MR scanners with different field strengths and vendors could not be compared directly. Normalization of ADCs, however, may provide better reproducibility by overcoming these potential issues.
DUAL-PASSBAND FILTER USING SPIRAL RESONATORS

A novel compact dual-band bandpass filter using spiral resonators and input/output (source-load) direct coupling structure has been presented. Two different transmission paths are utilized to realize independently controllable central frequencies and bandwidths for each passband. In addition, three transmission zeros has been introduced to improve the frequency selectivity. A dual-passband filter centered at 2.41 GHz and 4.22 GHz is designed, simulated, and fabricated to demonstrate the performance of the proposed filter structure. The measured results show good agreement with the simulated ones.
Probabilistic collaborative filtering with negative cross entropy

Relevance-Based Language Models are an effective IR approach which explicitly introduces the concept of relevance in the statistical Language Modelling framework of Information Retrieval. These models have shown to achieve state-of-the-art retrieval performance in the pseudo relevance feedback task. In this paper we propose a novel adaptation of this language modeling approach to rating-based Collaborative Filtering. In a memory-based approach, we apply the model to the formation of user neighbourhoods, and the generation of recommendations based on such neighbourhoods. We report experimental results where our method outperforms other standard memory-based algorithms in terms of ranking precision.
Toward a Critical Race Nepantlera Methodology: Embracing Liminality in Anti-Colonial Research

Given the inequitable opportunities and marginalizing experiences for undocumented Students of Color, this manuscript builds on the work of previous Scholars of Color to challenge the traditional roles of researchers during the data collection process. Guided by critical race theory, nepantleras, and Chicana feminist epistemology, the article proposes a critical race nepantlera methodology (CRNM). CRNM entails a reflexive and reciprocal approach that guides the research process and is rooted in anti-colonial social justice actions. Two exemplars from previous studies elaborate on CRNM and the relevance to critically conscious researchers, particularly when conducting studies with undocumented Students of Color.
Sedimentology and play potential of the late Neoproterozoic Buah Carbonates of Oman

The search for new exploration plays in Oman, and recent successes in the Ara Group, has rejuvenated the interest of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) in the stratigraphy of the pre-Ara Group. Below the Ara Group, the late Neoproterozoic Nafun Group comprises five formations. The Buah is the youngest of these formations, and represents the most promising exploration target. Accordingly, an integrated outcrop and subsurface study was initiated to better understand the distribution of the Buah depositional facies. High-resolution chemostratigraphy and field gamma-ray surveys were used to correlate outcrop data with the PDO subsurface database. These studies resulted in the reconstruction, with an unprecedented accuracy, of the distribution of the depositional environments at Buah time throughout Oman. This study indicates that the Buah was deposited on a distally-steepened carbonate ramp, during a highstand systems tract, as a shallowing and upward-coarsening cycle. Good reservoir facies (peloidal-ooidal grainstones) are ubiquitous in the shallow-water Buah sections, making up continuous sheets for tens of kilometers. Karst and fracture development at the top of the Buah may improve the reservoir quality, as in the case of the Makarem gas field in Oman. Buah reservoirs are generally capped by the Ara salt, except on structural highs where the top seal is provided by mudstones of the middle Haima Supergroup. The Buah off-ramp basinal facies represent potential source rocks with total organic carbon values ranging from 2.5–3.5 %.
Vision-based posture assessment to detect and categorize compensation during robotic rehabilitation therapy

A vision-based posture assessment system for real-time monitoring of upper-limb robotic rehabilitation therapy is developed. The system is capable of automatically detecting and categorizing compensatory movements during robotic exercises and could be used in prompting the patient into the correct pose. A consumer depth camera and skeleton tracking algorithms were used to track the pose of the patient in real-time, and to extract a set of discriminating features which correlated with various posture modes. A multi-class classifier capable of incorporating temporal dynamics was trained to identify and categorize the most common types of compensation at high accuracy (86% per frame). A simple multi-stage active learning strategy was used to minimize the amount of manual annotation needed in providing the classifier with training data.
Unified Loop Closing and Recovery for Real Time Monocular SLAM

We present a unified method for recovering from tracking fail ure and closing loops in real time monocular simultaneous localisation and mapping. Within a graph-based map representation, we show that recovery and loop closing both reduce to the creation of a graph edge. We describe and implement a bag-of-words appearance model for ranking potential loop closures, and a robust method for using both structure and image appearance to confirm likely matches. The resulting system closes loops and recovers from failures while mapping thousands of landmarks, all in real time.
Placing Photos with a Multimodal Probability Density Function

Knowing the location where a photograph was taken provides us with data that could be useful in a wide spectrum of applications. With the advance of digital cameras, and with many users exchanging their digital cameras for GPS-enabled mobile phones, photographs annotated with geographical locations are becoming ever more present on photo-sharing websites such as Flickr. However there is still a mass of content that is not geotagged, meaning that algorithms for efficient and accurate geographical estimation of an image are needed. This paper presents a general model for effectively using both textual metadata and visual features of photos to automatically place them on a world map with state-of-the-art performance. In addition, we explore how information from user-modelling can be fused with our model, and investigate the effect such modelling has on performance.
Is there a Case for Exchange Rate Induced Productivity Changes

In “traditional” open economy macroeconomic theory, productivity growth is taken as exogenous relative to changes in the nominal exchange rate or in the exchange rate regime. The idea, however, is frequently raised that movements in the exchange rate can have an impact on productivity. One mechanism that focuses on demand-side effects, often referred to as the competitiveness approach, emphasizes the export growth effect of an exchange rate depreciation and the productivity consequences of that growth.1 Another heterodox stream of literature, which focuses on the supply-side consequences of a sustained real exchange rate depreciation, argues that it can contribute to lower productivity growth and a larger productivity gap between the depreciating country and the leading countries. This is actually quite an old idea among policy-makers, central bankers, and businessmen and was one of the reasons a nation would prefer a “hard currency. ” Porter (1990), in his well-known book on global competitiveness and growth, pointed out that depreciations can reduce growth, and an overvalued exchange rate can sometimes contribute to productivity growth
Foreign Owned Companies and Financial Performance. A Case Study on Companies Listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the relation between the foreign ownership and firm performance. The study was conducted for the companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange, in the first, second and third categories. The financial companies and the credit institutions were excluded from the sample. The final sample included 63 companies. Return on Assets and Return on Equity are used for measuring the financial and economic performance of the firm. The foreign ownership is measured by the percentage of shares held by foreign investors. Econometric tools like linear regression analysis are used for analysis. The results of the study suggest that there is no significant link between firm performance and the existence of foreign capital.
Does Savoring Mediate the Relationships between Explanatory Style and Mood Outcomes

Research has shown that explanatory style predicts negative mood outcomes as well as positive mood outcomes, but the mechanisms by which this occurs are unclear. We investigated here whether the manner in which people savor life events might help explain these relationships. Specifically, we examined whether amplifying and dampening savoring mediated the associations between pessimistic and optimistic explanatory styles on the one hand, and positive and negative mood outcomes on the other. A sample of 103 university students completed self-report measures of explanatory style (ASQ), savoring (WOSC), and a variety of mood outcomes (i.e., happiness, life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety). A manifest variable path model showed that: a) amplifying savoring mediated between optimism and positive mood; and b) dampening savoring mediated between pessimism and negative mood. Also, as expected, dampening savoring was a significant negative predictor of positive mood outcomes, and both optimism and pessimism were significant predictors of positive mood outcomes. Altogether these results provide support for several conclusions. First, explanatory style seemed to significantly impact in predictable ways on positive and negative mood states: optimism positively predicted positive outcomes and pessimism positively predicted negative outcomes. And second, savoring significantly mediated the influence of explanatory style on both positive and negative mood states. This latter finding suggests that positive and negative expectations about life significantly shape how individuals react to and regulate positive events in their life.
Comparative analysis of calcineurin signaling between Candida dubliniensis and Candida albicans

Candida dubliniensis, an emerging fungal pathogen, is the closest known species to the established pathogenic species Candida albicans. Despite the fact that these two species share > 80% genome sequence identity, they exhibit distinct properties such as less hyphal growth, reduced pathogenicity and increased sensitivity to sodium stress and elevated temperatures in C. dubliniensis compared with C. albicans. It is, however, largely unknown whether signaling pathways are conserved in the two Candida species. Calcineurin signaling is known to be required for hyphal growth in Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus fumigatus but remains elusive in C. albicans. Our recent study showed that calcineurin plays a clearly demonstrable role in controlling hyphal growth, drug tolerance and virulence in C. dubliniensis. Here, we extend our studies and show that calcineurin is conserved in controlling endoplasmic reticulum stress but distinct in governing pH homeostasis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that azole or echinocandin drugs in combination with the calcineurin inhibitor FK506 exhibit a synergistic effect against C. dubliniensis wild-type and echinocandin-resistant strains. The involvement of calcineurin in a variety of fungal virulence attributes and as a target for fungicidal synergism with azoles and echinocandins highlights the potential of combination therapy with calcineurin inhibitors for treating Candida infections.
Episodic Specificity in Acquiring Thematic Knowledge of Novel Words from Descriptive Episodes

The current study examined whether thematic relations of the novel words could be acquired via descriptive episodes, and if yes, whether it could be generalized to thematically related words in a different scenario. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision task was used where the novel words served as primes for target words in four conditions: (1) corresponding concepts of the novel words, (2) thematically related words in the same episodes as that in learning condition, (3) thematically related words in different episodes, or (4) unrelated words served as targets. Event related potentials elicited by the targets revealed that compared to the unrelated words, the corresponding concepts and thematically related words in the same episodes elicited smaller N400s with a frontal-central distribution, whereas the thematically related words in different episodes elicited an enhanced late positive component. Experiment 2 further showed a priming effect of the corresponding concepts on the thematically related words in the same episodes as well as in a different episode, indicating that the absence of a priming effect of the learned novel words on the thematically related words in different episode could not be attributed to inappropriate selection of thematically related words in the two conditions. These results indicate that only the corresponding concepts and the thematically related words in the learning episodes were successfully primed, whereas the thematic association between the novel words and the thematically related words in different scenarios could only be recognized in a late processing stage. Our findings suggest that thematic knowledge of novel words is organized via separate scenarios, which are represented in a clustered manner in the semantic network.
Queuing-theoretical multi-user dynamic spectrum allocation & sharing mechanism in multi-channel cognitive radio networks

Recently, cognitive radio has been proposed to improved the spectrum resource utilization efficiency. The secondary users (SUs) are allowed to sense, detect and access the frequency bands that are not currently being in use by primary users (PUs). In fact, SUs always have no knowledge about PUs' exact communication mechanism. In order to guarantee PUs' communication quality of service (QoS) and satisfy SUs' demand of using spectrum resource, it is a challenging task to find the spectrum sensing and access mechanism. When there are multiple SUs and multiple channels, the spectrum allocation and spectrum sharing must be considered. In this paper, we propose a multi-user spectrum allocation and multi-channel spectrum sharing mechanism for the SUs confronting with unknown primary behavior and study the interference to PUs caused by their dynamic access. The interference caused by SUs was analysis utilizing the Renewal Theory. Under the constraints of the interference to PUs and the secondary network's stability, the queuing theory is utilized to obtain the maximum average data rate of SUs. Through lots of simulations, we verify the effectiveness of our analysis.
Factors related to the relative survival of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in a population-based study in France: does socio-economic status have a role?

The survival of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma has increased during the last decade as a result of addition of anti-CD20 to anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Although the trend is encouraging, there are persistent differences in survival within and between the USA and European countries suggesting that non-biological factors play a role. Our aim was to investigate the influence of such factors on relative survival of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. We conducted a retrospective, multicenter, registry-based study in France on 1165 incident cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma between 2002 and 2008. Relative survival analyses were performed and missing data were controlled with the multiple imputation method. In a multivariate analysis, adjusted for age, sex and International Prognostic Index, we confirmed that time period was associated with a better 5-year relative survival. The registry area, the medical specialty of the care department (onco-hematology versus other), the time to travel to the nearest teaching hospital, the place of treatment (teaching versus not-teaching hospital -borderline significance), a comorbidity burden and marital status were independently associated with the 5-year relative survival. Adjusted for first-course treatment, inclusion in a clinical trial and treatment discussion in a multidisciplinary meeting were strongly associated with a better survival outcome. In contrast, socio-economic status (determined using the European Deprivation Index) was not associated with outcome. Despite therapeutic advances, various non-biological factors affected the relative survival of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The notion of lymphoma-specific expertise seems to be essential to achieve optimal care management and reopens the debate regarding centralization of these patients’ care in hematology/oncology departments.
Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro Antimicrobial Evaluation of Fused Pyrano[3,2-e]tetrazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidines and Diazepines

A series of novel pyranochromene-containing tetrazoles fused with pyrimidinethiones, pyrimidines, and diazepines 3a–f, 4a–f, and 5a–f were synthesized by condensation of the corresponding tetrazoles 2a–f with carbon disulfide, benzaldehyde, and 4-methoxy phenacyl bromide, respectively. The compound 2a–f was obtained by reaction of pyrano[3,2-c]chromenes 1a–f with sodium azide. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds 2a–f to 5a–f were established on the basis of their elemental analyses, IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and mass spectral data. All of the title compounds were subjected to in vitro antibacterial testing against four pathogenic strains and antifungal screening against two fungi. Preliminary results indicate that some of them exhibited promising activities and that they deserve more consideration as potential antimicrobials.
Studying the Growth of Mordell-Weil

We study the growth of the Mordell-Weil groups E(Kn) of an elliptic curve E as Kn runs through the intermediate fields of a Zp-extension. We describe those Zp-extensions K1/K where we expect the ranks to grow to infinity. In the cases where we know or expect the rank to grow, we discuss where we expect to find the submodule of universal norms.