Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Texture Classification Using Refined Histogram

In this correspondence, we propose a novel, efficient, and effective Refined Histogram (RH) for modeling the wavelet subband detail coefficients and present a new image signature based on the RH model for supervised texture classification. Our RH makes use of a step function with exponentially increasing intervals to model the histogram of detail coefficients, and the concatenation of the RH model parameters for all wavelet subbands forms the so-called RH signature. To justify the usefulness of the RH signature, we discuss and investigate some of its statistical properties. These properties would clarify the sufficiency of the signature to characterize the wavelet subband information. In addition, we shall also present an efficient RH signature extraction algorithm based on the coefficient-counting technique, which helps to speed up the overall classification system performance. We apply the RH signature to texture classification using the well-known databases. Experimental results show that our proposed RH signature in conjunction with the use of symmetrized Kullback-Leibler divergence gives a satisfactory classification performance compared with the current state-of-the-art methods.
Chemoenzymatic Design of Heparan Sulfate Oligosaccharides*

Heparan sulfate is a sulfated glycan that exhibits essential physiological functions. Interrogation of the specificity of heparan sulfate-mediated activities demands a library of structurally defined oligosaccharides. Chemical synthesis of large heparan sulfate oligosaccharides remains challenging. We report the synthesis of oligosaccharides with different sulfation patterns and sizes from a disaccharide building block using glycosyltransferases, heparan sulfate C5-epimerase, and sulfotransferases. This method offers a generic approach to prepare heparan sulfate oligosaccharides possessing predictable structures.
Using mechanical force to probe the mechanism of pausing and arrest during continuous elongation by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase

Escherichia coli RNA polymerase translocates along the DNA discontinuously during the elongation phase of transcription, spending proportionally more time at some template positions, known as pause and arrest sites, than at others. Current models of elongation suggest that the enzyme backtracks at these locations, but the dynamics are unresolved. Here, we study the role of lateral displacement in pausing and arrest by applying force to individually transcribing molecules. We find that an assisting mechanical force does not alter the translocation rate of the enzyme, but does reduce the efficiency of both pausing and arrest. Moreover, arrested molecules cannot be rescued by force, suggesting that arrest occurs by a bipartite mechanism: the enzyme backtracks along the DNA followed by a conformational change of the ternary complex (RNA polymerase, DNA and transcript), which cannot be reversed mechanically.
Testing phylogeographic predictions on an active volcanic island: Brachyderes rugatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on La Palma (Canary Islands)

Volcanic islands with well‐characterized geological histories can provide ideal templates for generating and testing phylogeographic predictions. Many studies have sought to utilize these to investigate patterns of colonization and speciation within groups of closely related species across a number of islands. Here we focus attention within a single volcanic island with a well‐characterized geological history to develop and test phylogeographic predictions. We develop phylogeographic predictions within the island of La Palma of the Canary Islands and test these using 69 haplotypes from 570 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase II sequence data for 138 individuals of Brachyderes rugatus rugatus, a local endemic subspecies of curculionid beetle occurring throughout the island in the forests of Pinus canariensis. Although geological data do provide some explanatory power for the phylogeographic patterns found, our network‐based analyses reveal a more complicated phylogeographic history than initial predictions generated from data on the geological history of the island. Reciprocal illumination of geological and phylogeographic history is also demonstrated with previous geological speculation gaining phylogeographic corroboration from our analyses.
Some Lower Bound Results for Set-Multilinear Arithmetic Computations

In this paper, we study the structure of set-multilinear arithmetic circuits and set-multilinear branching programs with the aim of showing lower bound results. We define some natural restrictions of these models for which we are able to show lower bound results. Some of our results extend existing lower bounds, while others are new and raise open questions. More specifically, our main results are the following: (1) We observe that set-multilinear arithmetic circuits can be transformed into shallow set-multilinear circuits efficiently, similar to depth reduction results of [VSBR83,RY08] for more general commutative circuits. As a consequence, we note that polynomial size set-multilinear circuits have quasi-polynomial size set-multilinear branching programs. We show that \emph{narrow} set-multilinear ABPs (with a restricted number of set types) computing the Permanent polynomial $\mathrm{PER}_n$ require $2^{n^{\Omega(1)}}$ size. A similar result for general set-multilinear ABPs appears difficult as it would imply that the Permanent requires superpolynomial size set-multilinear circuits. It would also imply that the noncommutative Permanent requires superpolynomial size noncommutative arithmetic circuits. (2) Indeed, we also show that set-multilinear branching programs are exponentially more powerful than \emph{interval} multilinear circuits (where the index sets for each gate is restricted to be an interval w.r.t.\ some ordering), assuming the sum-of-squares conjecture. This further underlines the power of set-multilinear branching programs. (3) Finally, we consider set-multilinear circuits with restrictions on the number of proof trees of monomials computed by it, and prove exponential lower bounds results. This raises some new lower bound questions.
Transshipment Between Competitive Retailers

This paper is based on observations that competing retailers have the option of either agreeing in advance to transship excess inventory to each other or seeing unsatisfied customers switch to the competitor for a substitute. A transshipment game and a substitution game between competing retailers is studied. After establishing the existence and uniqueness of a pure-strategy Nash Equilibrium in retail prices and safety stocks for each game, we show that transshipment never leads to a lower retail price and a higher safety stock, so transshipment never leads to a situation that definitely benefits consumers. We also show that when the transshipment price is low and competition strong (perhaps because of low retailer differentiation), retailers should prefer consumers substituting. However, when the transshipment price is high and competition weak (with high retailer differentiation), then transshipment benefits them. Transshipment becomes less attractive as competition increases or retailer differentiation decreases. Competitive retailers serving the same market need to be cautious in agreeing to transship because they face larger opportunity costs than retailers serving independent markets. The results provide guidance for management as well as for public policy regarding transshipment in a competitive market.
Robust Permanence and Impermanence for the Stochastic Replicator Dynamic

Garay and Hofbauer (2003) propose sufficient conditions for robust permanence and impermanence of the deterministic replicator dynamic. We reconsider these conditions in the context of the stochastic replicator dynamic, which is obtained from its deterministic analog by introducing Brownian perturbations of payoffs. When the deterministic replicator dynamic is permanent and the noise level small, the stochastic dynamic admits a unique ergodic distribution whose mass is concentrated near the maximal interior attractor of the unperturbed system; thus, permanence is robust against small unbounded stochastic perturbations. When the deterministic dynamic is impermanent and the noise level small or large, the stochastic dynamic converges to the boundary of the state space at an exponential rate. ∗We acknowledge financial support under Swiss National Science Foundation Grants 200021-1036251/1 and 200020-11231611 and U.S. National Science Foundation Grant SES-0617753. We also thank Gerard Ben Arous and Patrick Cattiaux for useful discussions.
HMM-based Spanish speech synthesis using CBR as F 0 estimator

Hidden Markov Models based text-to-speech (HMM-TTS) synthesis is a technique for generating speech from trained statistical models where spectrum, pitch and durations of basic speech units are modelled altogether. The aim of this work is to describe a Spanish HMM-TTS system using CBR as a F0 estimator, analysing its performance objectively and subjectively. The experiments have been conducted on a reliable labelled speech corpus, whose units have been clustered using contextual factors according to the Spanish language. The results show that the CBR-based F0 estimation is capable of improving the HMM-based baseline performance when synthesizing nondeclarative short sentences and reduced contextual information is available.
IFN-γ Production by Memory Helper T Cells Is Required for CD40-Independent Alloantibody Responses

Cognate T–B cell interactions and CD40–CD154 costimulation are essential for productive humoral immunity against T-dependent Ags. We reported that memory CD4 T cells can deliver help to B cells and induce pathogenic IgG alloantibodies in the absence of CD40–CD154 interactions. To determine cytokine requirements for CD40-independent help, we used CD40−/− mice containing differentiated subsets of donor-reactive memory Th cells as heart allograft recipients. Th1 and Th17, but not Th2, memory CD4 T cells elicited high titers of anti-donor Ab. Abs induced by Th17 memory CD4 T cells had decreased reactivity against donor MHC class I molecules and inferior ability to cause complement deposition in heart allografts compared with Abs induced by Th1 cells, suggesting a requirement for IFN-γ during CD40-independent help. IFN-γ neutralization inhibited helper functions of memory CD4 T cells in both CD40−/− recipients and wild type recipients treated with anti-CD154 mAb. Our results suggest that IFN-γ secreted by pre-existing memory helper cells determines both isotype and specificity of donor-reactive alloantibodies and can thus affect allograft pathology. This information may be valuable for identifying transplant patients at risk for de novo development of pathogenic alloantibodies and for preventing alloantibody production in T cell–sensitized recipients.
Haematogones in the peripheral blood of adults: a four‐colour flow cytometry study of 102 patients

Haematogones have been extensively characterized in bone marrow, but not in the peripheral blood (PB). We studied 102 PB samples from adult patients with a sensitive flow cytometry method. Sixty‐six of 102 samples (65%) contained detectable haematogones, ranging from 0·01% to 1·3% of white blood cells (median 0·06%, mean 0·13%). Of 66 cases with complete blood count data, 51 had absolute haematogone counts of 0·00037–0·105 × 109/l (median 0·0054 × 109/l, mean 0·012 × 109/l). PB haematogones belonged exclusively to the most mature maturational stage. These findings have implications for PB analysis of minimal residual disease in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and follicular lymphoma.
The plastid chromosome of Atropa belladonna and its comparison with that of Nicotiana tabacum: the role of RNA editing in generating divergence in the process of plant speciation.

The nuclear and plastid genomes of the plant cell form a coevolving unit which in interspecific combinations can lead to genetic incompatibility of compartments even between closely related taxa. This phenomenon has been observed for instance in Atropa-Nicotiana cybrids. We have sequenced the plastid chromosome of Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), a circular DNA molecule of 156,688 bp, and compared it with the corresponding published sequence of its relative Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) to understand how divergence at the level of this genome can contribute to nuclear-plastid incompatibilities and to speciation. It appears that (1) regulatory elements, i.e., promoters as well as translational and replicational signal elements, are well conserved between the two species; (2) genes--including introns--are even more highly conserved, with differences residing predominantly in regions of low functional importance; and (3) RNA editotypes differ between the two species, which makes this process an intriguing candidate for causing rapid reproductive isolation of populations.
Hybrid Drowsy SRAM and STT-RAM Buffer Designs for Dark-Silicon-Aware NoC

The breakdown of Dennard scaling prevents us from powering all transistors simultaneously, leaving a large fraction of dark silicon. This crisis has led to innovative work on power-efficient core and memory architecture designs. However, the research for addressing dark silicon challenges with network-on-chip (NoC), which is a major contributor to the total chip power consumption, is largely unexplored. In this paper, we comprehensively examine the network power consumers and the drawbacks of the conventional power-gating techniques. To overcome the dark silicon issue from the NoC's perspective, we propose DimNoC, a dim silicon scheme, which leverages recent drowsy SRAM design and spin-transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM) technology to replace pure SRAM-based NoC buffers. In particular, we propose two novel hybrid buffer architectures: 1) a hierarchical buffer architecture, which divides the input buffers into a set of levels with different power states and 2) a banked buffer architecture, which organizes the drowsy SRAM and the STT-RAM in different banks, and accesses them in an interleaved fashion to hide the long write latency of STT-RAM. In addition, our hybrid buffer design enables NoC data retention mechanism by storing packets in drowsy SRAM and nonvolatile STT-RAM in a lossless manner. Combined with flow control schemes, the NoC data retention mechanism can improve network performance and power simultaneously. Our experiments over real workloads show that DimNoC can achieve 30.9% network energy saving, 20.3% energy-delay product reduction, and 7.6% router area reduction compared with pure SRAM-based NoC design.
Assessment of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate and Perfluorooctanoic Acid Exposure Through Fish Consumption in Italy

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are pollutants of anthropic origin with possible side effects on human health. Diet, and in particular fish and seafood, is considered the major intake pathway for humans. The present study investigated the levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination in twenty-five samples of fresh fillet of five widely consumed fish species purchased from large retailers in Italy, to be used for an estimation of the Italian population exposure to these contaminants. PFOS and PFOA were found in all samples, at concentrations up to 1896 (mean=627 ng/kg) and 487 ng/kg (mean = 75 ng/kg), respectively, confirming the role of fish as high contributor to human exposure. However, a remarkable inter-species variability was observed, and multiple factors were suggested as potentially responsible for such differences, suggesting that the preferential consumption of certain species could likely increase the intake, and thus the exposure. The exposure estimates for both average and high fish consumers resulted far below the tolerable daily intakes for PFOS and PFOA in all age groups, confirming the outcomes of EFSA’s scientific report. In particular, the calculated total dietary exposure for the 95th percentile consumers belonging to the toddler age class, the most exposed group, resulted equal to 9.72 ng/kg body weight (BW)/day for PFOS and 8.39 ng/kg BW/day for PFOA.
Error-Correcting Codes for Semiconductor Memory Applications: A State-of-the-Art Review

This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of error-correcting codes for computer semiconductor memory applications. The construction of four classes of error-correcting codes appropriate for semiconductor memory designs is described, and for each class of codes the number of check bits required for commonly used data lengths is provided. The implementation aspects of error correction and error detection are also discussed, and certain algorithms useful in extending the error-correcting capability for the correction of soft errors such as α-particle-induced errors are examined in some detail.
Occurrence of refeeding syndrome in adults started on artificial nutrition support: prospective cohort study

Background Refeeding syndrome is a potentially life-threatening condition characterised by severe intracellular electrolyte shifts, acute circulatory fluid overload and organ failure. The initial symptoms are non-specific but early clinical features are severely low-serum electrolyte concentrations of potassium, phosphate or magnesium. Risk factors for the syndrome include starvation, chronic alcoholism, anorexia nervosa and surgical interventions that require lengthy periods of fasting. The causes of the refeeding syndrome are excess or unbalanced enteral, parenteral or oral nutritional intake. Prevention of the syndrome includes identification of individuals at risk, controlled hypocaloric nutritional intake and supplementary electrolyte replacement. Objective To determine the occurrence of refeeding syndrome in adults commenced on artificial nutrition support. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Large, single site university teaching hospital. Recruitment period 2007–2009. Participants 243 adults started on artificial nutrition support for the first time during that admission recruited from wards and intensive care. Main outcome measures Primary outcome: occurrence of the refeeding syndrome. Secondary outcome: analysis of the risk factors which predict the refeeding syndrome. Tertiary outcome: mortality due to refeeding syndrome and all-cause mortality. Results 133 participants had one or more of the following risk factors: body mass index <16–18.5≥(kg/m2), unintentional weight loss >15% in the preceding 3–6 months, very little or no nutritional intake >10 days, history of alcohol or drug abuse and low baseline levels of serum potassium, phosphate or magnesium prior to recruitment. Poor nutritional intake for more than 10 days, weight loss >15% prior to recruitment and low-serum magnesium level at baseline predicted the refeeding syndrome with a sensitivity of 66.7%: specificity was >80% apart from weight loss of >15% which was 59.1%. Baseline low-serum magnesium was an independent predictor of the refeeding syndrome (p=0.021). Three participants (2% 3/243) developed severe electrolyte shifts, acute circulatory fluid overload and disturbance to organ function following artificial nutrition support and were diagnosed with refeeding syndrome. There were no deaths attributable to the refeeding syndrome, but (5.3% 13/243) participants died during the feeding period and (28% 68/243) died during hospital admission. Death of these participants was due to cerebrovascular accident, traumatic injury, respiratory failure, organ failure or end-of-life causes. Conclusions Refeeding syndrome was a rare, survivable phenomenon that occurred during hypocaloric nutrition support in participants identified at risk. Independent predictors for refeeding syndrome were starvation and baseline low-serum magnesium concentration. Intravenous carbohydrate infusion prior to artificial nutrition support may have precipitated the onset of the syndrome.
Assessing motivations for suicide attempts: development and psychometric properties of the inventory of motivations for suicide attempts.

This study describes the psychometric properties of the Inventory of Motivations for Suicide Attempts (IMSA). The IMSA was designed to comprehensively assess motivations for suicide emphasized by major theories of suicidality. The IMSA was administered to two samples of recent suicide attempters, undergraduates (n = 66) and outpatients (n = 53). The IMSA exhibited a reliable two-factor structure in which one factor represented Intrapersonal motivations related to ending emotional pain, and the second represented Interpersonal motivations related to communication or help-seeking. Convergent validity and divergent validity of IMSA scales were supported by expected patterns of correlations with another measure of suicide motivations. In addition, the IMSA scales displayed clinical utility, in which greater endorsement of intrapersonal motivations was associated with greater intent to die, whereas greater endorsement of interpersonal motivations was associated with less lethal intent and greater likelihood of rescue. Findings suggest the IMSA can be of use for both research and clinical purposes when a comprehensive assessment of suicide motivations is desired.
Testing Linear Factor Pricing Models With Large Cross Sections: A Distribution-Free Approach

In this article, we develop a finite-sample distribution-free procedure to test the beta-pricing representation of linear factor pricing models. In sharp contrast to extant finite-sample tests, our framework allows for unknown forms of nonnormalities, heteroscedasticity, and time-varying covariances. The power of the proposed test procedure increases as the time series lengthens and/or the cross section becomes larger. So the criticism sometimes heard that nonparametric tests lack power does not apply here, since the number of test assets is chosen by the user. This also stands in contrast to the usual tests that lose power or may not even be computable if the number of test assets is too large. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
An experimental comparison of naive Bayesian and keyword-based anti-spam filtering with personal e-mail messages

The growing problem of unsolicited bulk e-mail, also known as “spam”, has generated a need for reliable anti-spam e-mail filters. Filters of this type have so far been based mostly on manually constructed keyword patterns. An alternative approach has recently been proposed, whereby a Naive Bayesian classifier is trained automatically to detect spam messages. We test this approach on a large collection of personal e-mail messages, which we make publicly available in “encrypted” form contributing towards standard benchmarks. We introduce appropriate cost-sensitive measures, investigating at the same time the effect of attribute-set size, training-corpus size, lemmatization, and stop lists, issues that have not been explored in previous experiments. Finally, the Naive Bayesian filter is compared, in terms of performance, to a filter that uses keyword patterns, and which is part of a widely used e-mail reader.
High level activity recognition using low resolution wearable vision

This paper presents a system aimed to serve as the enabling platform for a wearable assistant. The method observes manipulations from a wearable camera and classifies activities from roughly stabilized low resolution images (160 × 120 pixels) with the help of a 3-level Dynamic Bayesian Network and adapted temporal templates. Our motivation is to explore robust but computationally inexpensive visual methods to perform as much activity inference as possible without resorting to more complex object or hand detectors. The description of the method and results obtained are presented, as well as the motivation for further work in the area of wearable visual sensing.