Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey: source extraction and cross-identifications in confusion-dominated SPIRE images

We present the cross-identification and source photometry techniques used to process Herschel SPIRE imaging taken as part of the Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). Cross-identifications are performed in map-space so as to minimize source-blending effects. We make use of a combination of linear inversion and model selection techniques to produce reliable cross-identification catalogues based on Spitzer MIPS 24-mu m source positions. Testing on simulations and real Herschel observations shows that this approach gives robust results for even the faintest sources (S-250 similar to 10 mJy). We apply our new technique to HerMES SPIRE observations taken as part of the science demonstration phase of Herschel. For our real SPIRE observations, we show that, for bright unconfused sources, our flux density estimates are in good agreement with those produced via more traditional point source detection methods (SUSSEXtractor) by Smith et al. When compared to the measured number density of sources in the SPIRE bands, we show that our method allows the recovery of a larger fraction of faint sources than these traditional methods. However, this completeness is heavily dependent on the relative depth of the existing 24-mu m catalogues and SPIRE imaging. Using our deepest multiwavelength data set in the GOODS-N, we estimate that the use of shallow 24-mu m catalogues in our other fields introduces an incompleteness at faint levels of between 20-40 per cent at 250 mu m.
Mapping the information seeking process regarding the Personal Budget : comparing information seeking models and mapping information seeking phases among those in need of care

INTRODUCTION: The information seeking process of parents of children in special education was mapped. The research question in this matter is “How do parents of children in special education engage in information seeking phases when seeking information on the Personal Budget, and to what extent do these phases correspond with the information-seeking models proposed by Ellis (1989), Kuhlthau (1988), Savolainen (1995) and Wilson (1997)? METHODS: In order to answer this question, 33 in-depth interviews with parents of children who attend special education were conducted. RESULTS: The target group seeks information in the phases identified in the theories of Ellis (1989), Savolainen (1995) and Kuhlthau (1988). However, the order in which the phases were engaged in is not as static and defined as presented in the theories. Furthermore, contextual factors influence this process, such as the amount of information and the type of information which is gathered. CONCLUSION: A reviewed research framework is constructed in this study. In this model, it is shown that participants may go back and forth between information seeking phases, and may not engage in them at all. Additionally, direction, degree, pattern, seeking of orienting and practical information form contextual factors which influence the information seeking process.
What's New About Cloud Computing Security?

While the economic case for cloud computing is compelling, the security challenges it poses are equally striking. In this work we strive to frame the full space of cloud-computing security issues, attempting to separate justified concerns from possible over-reactions. We examine contemporary and historical perspectives from industry, academia, government, and “black hats”. We argue that few cloud computing security issues are fundamentally new or fundamentally intractable; often what appears “new” is so only relative to “traditional” computing of the past several years. Looking back further to the time-sharing era, many of these problems already received attention. On the other hand, we argue that two facets are to some degree new and fundamental to cloud computing: the complexities of multi-party trust considerations, and the ensuing need for mutual auditability.
Sobolev quasi-periodic solutions of multidimensional wave equations with a multiplicative potential

We prove the existence of quasi-periodic solutions for wave equations with a multiplicative potential on , d ⩾ 1, and finitely differentiable nonlinearities, quasi-periodically forced in time. The only external parameter is the length of the frequency vector. The solutions have Sobolev regularity both in time and space. The proof is based on a Nash–Moser iterative scheme as in []. The key tame estimates for the inverse linearized operators are obtained by a multiscale inductive argument, which is more difficult than for NLS due to the dispersion relation of the wave equation. We prove the ‘separation properties’ of the small divisors assuming weaker non-resonance conditions than in [].
Factors predisposing to claims and compensations for patient injuries following total hip and knee arthroplasty

Background and purpose Factors associated with malpractice claims are poorly understood. Knowledge of these factors could help to improve patient safety. We investigated whether patient characteristics and hospital volume affect claims and compensations following total hip arthroplasty (THA) and knee arthroplasty (TKA) in a no-fault scheme. Methods A retrospective registry-based study was done on 16,646 THAs and 17,535 TKAs performed in Finland from 1998 through 2003. First, the association between patient characteristics—e.g., age, sex, comorbidity, prosthesis type—and annual hospital volume with filing of a claim was analyzed by logistic regression. Then, multinomial logistic regression was applied to analyze the association between these same factors and receipt of compensation. Results For THA and TKA, patients over 65 years of age were less likely to file a claim than patients under 65 (OR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.46–0.72 and OR = 0.65, CI: 0.53–0.80, respectively), while patients with increased comorbidity were more likely to file a claim (OR = 1.17, CI: 1.04–1.31 and OR = 1.14, CI: 1.03-1.26, respectively). Following THA, male sex and cemented prosthesis reduced the odds of a claim (OR = 0.74, CI: 0.60–0.91 and OR = 0.77, CI: 0.60–0.99, respectively) and volume of between 200 and 300 operations increased the odds of a claim (OR = 1.29, CI: 1.01–1.64). Following TKA, a volume of over 300 operations reduced the probability of compensation for certain injury types (RRR = 0.24, CI: 0.08–0.72). Interpretation Centralization of TKA to hospitals with higher volume may reduce the rate of compensable patient injuries. Furthermore, more attention should be paid to equal opportunities for patients to file a claim and obtain compensation.
Live substrate positively affects root growth and stolon direction in the woodland strawberry, Fragaria vesca

Studies of clonal plant foraging generally focus on growth responses to patch quality once rooted. Here we explore the possibility of true plant foraging; the ability to detect and respond to patch resource status prior to rooting. Two greenhouse experiments were conducted to investigate the morphological changes that occur when individual daughter ramets of Fragaria vesca (woodland strawberry) were exposed to air above live (non-sterilized) or dead (sterilized) substrates. Contact between daughter ramets and substrate was prohibited. Daughter ramet root biomass was significantly larger over live versus dead substrate. Root:shoot ratio also increased over live substrate, a morphological response we interpret as indicative of active nutrient foraging. Daughter ramet root biomass was positively correlated with mother ramet size over live but not dead substrate. Given the choice between a live versus a dead substrate, primary stolons extended preferentially toward live substrates. We conclude that exposure to live substrate drives positive nutrient foraging responses in F. vesca. We propose that volatiles emitted from the substrates might be effecting the morphological changes that occur during true nutrient foraging.
The role of auditory transient and deviance processing in distraction of task performance: a combined behavioral and event-related brain potential study

Distraction of goal-oriented performance by a sudden change in the auditory environment is an everyday life experience. Different types of changes can be distracting, including a sudden onset of a transient sound and a slight deviation of otherwise regular auditory background stimulation. With regard to deviance detection, it is assumed that slight changes in a continuous sequence of auditory stimuli are detected by a predictive coding mechanisms and it has been demonstrated that this mechanism is capable of distracting ongoing task performance. In contrast, it is open whether transient detection—which does not rely on predictive coding mechanisms—can trigger behavioral distraction, too. In the present study, the effect of rare auditory changes on visual task performance is tested in an auditory-visual cross-modal distraction paradigm. The rare changes are either embedded within a continuous standard stimulation (triggering deviance detection) or are presented within an otherwise silent situation (triggering transient detection). In the event-related brain potentials, deviants elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN) while transients elicited an enhanced N1 component, mirroring pre-attentive change detection in both conditions but on the basis of different neuro-cognitive processes. These sensory components are followed by attention related ERP components including the P3a and the reorienting negativity (RON). This demonstrates that both types of changes trigger switches of attention. Finally, distraction of task performance is observable, too, but the impact of deviants is higher compared to transients. These findings suggest different routes of distraction allowing for the automatic processing of a wide range of potentially relevant changes in the environment as a pre-requisite for adaptive behavior.
An Efficient User Authentication Scheme with Smart Cards for Wireless Communications

Since 2004, several user authentication schemes purpose to provide user anonymity in wireless communication have been announced, however, many of them failed to provide user anonymity, actually. In 2011, Li and Lee proposed a secure user authentication scheme for wireless communications. Differently from the previous researches, Li and Lee claimed two more session keys to enhance entire security of the scheme. However, to fulfil their claim, Li and Lee adopted Diffie-Hellman key agreement method in their scheme, and it required plenty of resources. Thus, in this paper, we point out inefficiency of Li and Lee’s scheme and propose a more efficient user authentication scheme for wireless communications.
Corn and Soybean Yield Indicators Using Remotely Sensed Vegetation Index

Precision farming involves crop management in parcels smaller than field size. Yield prediction models based on early growth stage parameters are one desired goal to enable precision farming approaches to improve production. To accomplish this goal, spatial data at a suitable scale describing the variability of yield, crop condition at certain growth stages, soil nutrient status, agronomic factors, moisture status, and weed/pest pressures are required. This paper discusses the potential application of aerial imaging to monitor and predict the potential yield for corn and soybean at various growth stages in the season. Included in the analyses were aerial images, yield monitor data and soil grid sampling. The relationship between remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and yield was best at 9 m spatial resolution. Preliminary results indicate that it is possible to use NDVI to estimate the potential yield for soybean and corn when canopy reaches full cover.
Very Low Bit Rate Semantic Compression of Natural Outdoor Images.

Due to the overwhelming volume of image data present on the Internet and World Wide Web, it is necessary to have new, intelligent methods for image representation and analysis. Semantic-based compression is a technique for conveying high-level contextual information that can describe concepts such as image content, video sequences, 3D environments and sound. This paper describes a method that can obtain compression ratios of up to 2000:1 for high resolution colour natural outdoor images. It will be argued that for fast browsing and retrieval of images within a large database, a cartoon-like image representation, termed a `Quick- Sketch'', that allows the user to discern the original image content, is sufficient. Using neural network technologies to obtain a semantic classification of image content, we propose a method that encodes an image as a set of labels and region boundaries. The decoding and reconstruction process then involves the regeneration of region shapes from the boundary information and label based generation of colour and texture for each region using computer graphics techniques.
The effect of ruminal phosphate concentration on the absorption of calcium , phosphorus and magnesium from the reticulo-rumen of the sheep

I . The absorption rates of calcium, inorganic phosphate (Pi) and magnesium were determined from buffered solutions placed in the temporarily isolated and washed reticulo-rumen of conscious sheep. The basic composition of these solutions was similar to that found in supernatant fractions of ultracentrifuged rumen contents. 2. The Pi concentrations studied in these solutions were 2, 8.7, 14, 17.3 and 38 mmol/l. The initial concentration of Ca was 2.0 mmol/l and that of Mg was 2.5 mmol/l in all experiments. 3. Increasing the Pi concentration in the rumen solution from 2 to 38 mmol/l resulted in increases in the net absorption rates of both Ca and Pi, and a decrease in the potential difference across the wall of the rumen. 4. Similarly, increasing the Pi concentration from 2 to 17.3 mmol/l resulted in an increase in the net absorption rate of Mg from the rumen. 5. Mineral analysis of strained rumen fluid or a 30000 g centrifugate of strained rumen fluid revealed a reduced P, concentration in sheep fed on frozen spring grass as opposed to the pellet + hay diet. The values obtained were within the range studied.
Lignin-degrading peroxidases in Polyporales: an evolutionary survey based on 10 sequenced genomes

The genomes of three representative Polyporales (Bjerkandera adusta, Phlebia brevispora and a member of the Ganoderma lucidum complex) were sequenced to expand our knowledge on the diversity of ligninolytic and related peroxidase genes in this Basidiomycota order that includes most wood-rotting fungi. The survey was completed by analyzing the heme-peroxidase genes in the already available genomes of seven more Polyporales species representing the antrodia, gelatoporia, core polyporoid and phlebioid clades. The study confirms the absence of ligninolytic peroxidase genes from the manganese peroxidase (MnP), lignin peroxidase (LiP) and versatile peroxidase (VP) families, in the brown-rot fungal genomes (all of them from the antrodia clade), which include only a limited number of predicted low redox-potential generic peroxidase (GP) genes. When members of the heme-thiolate peroxidase (HTP) and dye-decolorizing peroxidase (DyP) superfamilies (up to a total of 64 genes) also are considered, the newly sequenced B. adusta appears as the Polyporales species with the highest number of peroxidase genes due to the high expansion of both the ligninolytic peroxidase and DyP (super)families. The evolutionary relationships of the 111 genes for class-II peroxidases (from the GP, MnP, VP, LiP families) in the 10 Polyporales genomes is discussed including the existence of different MnP subfamilies and of a large and homogeneous LiP cluster, while different VPs mainly cluster with short MnPs. Finally, ancestral state reconstructions showed that a putative MnP gene, derived from a primitive GP that incorporated the Mn(II)-oxidation site, is the precursor of all the class-II ligninolytic peroxidases. Incorporation of an exposed tryptophan residue involved in oxidative degradation of lignin in a short MnP apparently resulted in evolution of the first VP. One of these ancient VPs might have lost the Mn(II)-oxidation site being at the origin of all the LiP enzymes, which are found only in species of the order Polyporales.
Zero Cycles on Singular Varieties and Their Desingularisations

We use pro cdh-descent of K-theory to study the rela- tionship between the zero cycles on a singular variety X and those on its desingularisation X ' . We prove many cases of a conjecture of S. Bloch and V. Srinivas, and relate the Chow groups of X to the Kerz-Saito Chow group with modulus of Xrelative to its exceptional fibre.
CORP: Cooperative rateless code protocol for vehicular content dissemination

Data dissemination in vehicular networks has been a challenge due to unpredictable network dynamics and channel unreliability. In fact, conventional approaches that rely on TCP or UDP do not perform well and cannot consistently guarantee reliable communications. A potential solution to these problems involves using erasure-correcting codes to make UDP transmissions reliable. However, it is also important to note that, due to vehicular mobility and road obstacles, connections among nodes can be as short as a few seconds. Therefore, in a communication between two nodes, the delay between node discovery and data exchange must be minimized. In this paper we present CORP, a Cooperative Rateless Protocol that exploits the reliability of the rateless coding approach while performing fast and efficient dissemination through cooperating nodes within the network. The use of rateless codes and unicast connections places minimal constraints on the delay between node discovery and data transmission, thus simplifying and rendering feasible the content reliable download even in a highly dynamic scenario. Results from simulations reveal that performance improves as more and more nodes cooperate. In sum, CORP yields important improvements in terms of speed of dissemination when compared to traditional approaches such as TCP.
Children’s and adolescents’ conceptions of personhood

Children’s and adolescents’ narratives of interpersonal experiences can inform our understanding of developmental shifts in the use of personhood concepts. We present results from two studies (ns = 90, 112) with children aged five to 16 years. In the first study, children were asked to describe one positive and another negative experience with a friend, and in the second study, to describe a time when they were a victim and another time when they were a perpetrator of harm. Across both studies, results supported previous findings suggesting that psychological, relational, trait, and identity personhood conceptions become more prominent with age, whereas activity, physical, and material conceptions become less prominent with age. However, our results also revealed that, within the context of real-life experiences, psychological conceptions become evident at earlier ages than suggested by children’s responses to the structured tasks employed in previous research. In addition, we found age-related increases in the simultaneous use of psychological and relational conceptions of persons, especially in narratives of negative experiences. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for social development.
L1/2 Sparsity Constrained Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Hyperspectral Unmixing

Hyperspectral unmixing is a crucial preprocessing step for material classification and recognition. In the last decade, nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) and its extensions have been intensively studied to unmix hyperspectral imagery and recover the material end-members. As an important constraint, sparsity has been modeled making use of L1 or L2 regularizers. However, the full additivity constraint of material abundances is often overlooked, hence, limiting the practical efficacy of these methods. In this paper, we extend the NMF algorithm by incorporating the L1/2 sparsity constraint. The L1/2-NMF provides more sparse and accurate results than the other regularizers by considering the end-member additivity constraint explicitly in the optimisation process. Experiments on the synthetic and real hyperspectral data validate the proposed algorithm.
Tracing the dynamic changes in perceived tonal organization in a spatial representation of musical keys.

The cognitive representation of harmonic and tonal structure in Western music is investigated using a tone-profile technique. In this method listeners rate how well single tones (any one of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale) follow a musical element such as a scale, chord, or cadence. Very stable rating profiles reflecting the tonal hierarchies in major and minor keys are obtained, which, when intercorrelated and analyzed using multidimensional scaling, produce a four-dimensional spatial map of the distances between keys. The keys are located on the surface of a torus, in which the circle of fifths and the parallel and relative relations between major and minor keys are represented. In addition, single chords (major, minor, diminished, and dominant seventh) are found to be closely associated with the major and minor keys in which they play harmonic functions. The developing and changing sense of key during sequences of chords is traced by obtaining probe tone ratings following each chord in 10 different sequences, 8 of which contain modulations (changes) between keys. Modulations between closely related keys are found to be effected more immediately than are modulations between relatively distant keys. In all cases beyond the initial chord, the sense of the prevailing key is stronger than that produced by the last heard chord in isolation. Thus, listeners integrate harmonic functions over multiple chords, developing a sense of key that may need to be reevaluated as additional chords are sounded. It is suggested that the perceived relations between chords and keys and between different keys are mediated through an internal representation of the hierarchy of tonal functions of single tones in music. Music consists of tones varying in pitch, serve to highlight rhythmic patterns, further duration, loudness, and timbre, but the per- emphasize phrase structure, and distinguish ception of music extends well beyond the between tones constituting the primary meregistration of these physical attributes of lodic line and tones serving more ornamental the musical stimulus. Indeed, music contains or harmonic functions. Timbral characterconsiderable structure even in the relations istics may additionally provide important that obtain among the individual tones. For cues for the overall structure of the musical example, the durations are such that metri- composition.