Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of a High-Resolution Polarimetric SAR Automatic Target Recognition System

targets were used to study the performance of these algorithms. The prescreener required a low threshold to detect most of the targets in the data, which resulted in a high density of false alarms. The discriminator and classifier stages then reduced this false-alarm density by a factor of 100. We improved targetdetection performance by using fully polarimetric imagery processed by the polarimetric whitening filter (PWF), rather than by using single-channel imagery. In addition, the PWF-processed imagery improved the probability of correct classification in a four-class (tank, armored personnel carrier, howitzer, or clutter) classifier.
Contextualizing Mathematics: Teaching Problem Solving to Secondary Students With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a multicomponent mathematics intervention (modified schema-based instruction, video anchors, and goal setting with self-graphing) on mathematical problem-solving skills of secondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Three participants were taught to solve percent of change word problems, which involved calculating the discounted price of an item or activity after using a coupon and then determining whether they had enough money to make the purchase. Results of the multiple probe across participant design indicate a functional relation between the intervention and problem solving, and all participants were able to generalize skills from word problems to real-world stimuli (i.e., coupons, receipts, menus). Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Execution profile driven speedup estimation for porting sequential code to GPU

Parallelization of an existing sequential application to achieve a good speed-up on a data-parallel infrastructure is quite difficult and time consuming effort. One of the important steps towards this is to assess whether the existing application in its current form can be parallelized to get the desired speedup. In this paper, we propose a method of analyzing an existing sequential source code that contains data-parallel loops, and give a reasonably accurate prediction of the extent of speedup possible from this algorithm. The proposed method performs static and dynamic analysis of the sequential source code to determine the time required by various portions of the code, including the data-parallel portions. Subsequently, it uses a set of novel invariants to calculate various bottlenecks that exists if the program is to be transferred to a GPGPU platform and predicts the extent of parallelization necessary by the GPU in order to achieve the desired end-to-end speedup. Our approach does not require creation of GPU code skeletons of the data parallel portions in the sequential code, thereby reducing the performance prediction effort. We observed a reasonably accurate speedup prediction when we tested our approach on multiple well-known Rodinia benchmark applications, a popular matrix multiplication program and a fast Walsh transform program.
Association between growth rates, age at first calving and subsequent fertility, milk production and survival in Holstein-Friesian heifers

Age at first calving (AFC) affects the profitability of dairy enterprises. This study examined the relationships between AFC and subsequent fertility, milk production and survival up to third calving in UK Holstein-Friesian heifers; Study 1 comprised 134 consecutively born heifers from the same herd (AFC 764 ± 8 days) and Study 2 contained 445 heifers born on 17 farms (AFC 796 ± 6 days). Growth rates and fertility during rearing were monitored and animals were subsequently divided into four AFC groups for analysis: 30 months. The actual AFC reflected both growth rate and heifer fertility, with later calving heifers already lighter by 6 months of age. The proportion conceiving to first service was highest (93% and 84% for Studies 1 and 2, respectively) for the youngest AFC group. Fertility in the first lactation was best in cows calving at 23 - 25 months and worst in the oldest AFC group. Milk production parameters in the first and second lactations were broadly similar between AFC groups but significantly more heifers with an AFC 44% of their days alive spent in milk production compared with only 18% - 40% in cows calving at ≥26 months. Hence cows with an AFC 0.75 kg/d up to 15 months and good heifer fertility and resulted in the best subsequent performance.
Perception of point light displays of speech by normal-hearing adults and deaf adults with cochlear implants

Normal-hearing (NH) adults display audiovisual enhancement when degraded auditory input (e.g., words, sentences) is paired with point -light displays (PLDs) of speech, which isolate the kinematic properties of a speaker’s face [10]. Do deaf adults who use cochlear implants (CIs) benefit in the same way? Does feedback influence NH adults’ performance? In the present study, we investigated audiovisual (AV) word recognition using PLDs of speech in postlingually deaf adults with CIs and NH adults. Both groups displayed evidence of AV enhancement with PLDs. Moreover, NH participants’ Visual-alone performance improved over time with Auditory-alone and AV feedback. These results suggest that NH and CI adults were sensitive to the kinematic properties in speech represented in the PLDs, and they were able to use kinematics to improve their word recognition performance even with highly degraded visual displays of speech. In addition, NH adults were able to use temporal cues from Auditory-alone and AV feedback to improve their word recognition performance with point -light visual displays of speech.
The Impact of Heat Waves on Mortality in Seven Major Cities in Korea

Background: Understanding the health impacts of heat waves is important, especially given anticipated increases in the frequency, duration, and intensity of heat waves due to climate change. Objectives: We examined mortality from heat waves in seven major Korean cities for 2000 through 2007 and investigated effect modification by individual characteristics and heat wave characteristics (intensity, duration, and timing in season). Methods: Heat waves were defined as ≥ 2 consecutive days with daily mean temperature at or above the 98th percentile for the warm season in each city. We compared mortality during heat-wave days and non-heat-wave days using city-specific generalized linear models. We used Bayesian hierarchical models to estimate overall effects within and across all cities. In addition, we estimated effects of heat wave characteristics and effects according to cause of death and examined effect modification by individual characteristics for Seoul. Results: Overall, total mortality increased 4.1% [95% confidence interval (CI): –6.1%, 15.4%] during heat waves compared with non-heat-wave days, with an 8.4% increase (95% CI: 0.1%, 17.3%) estimated for Seoul. Estimated mortality was higher for heat waves that were more intense, longer, or earlier in summer, although effects were not statistically significant. Estimated risks were higher for women versus men, older versus younger residents, those with no education versus some education, and deaths that occurred out of hospitals in Seoul, although differences among strata of individual characteristics were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Our findings support evidence of mortality impacts from heat waves and have implications for efforts to reduce the public health burden of heat waves.
Sound Shift and Metathesis in Three Pre-School Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic Children: A Case Study

This study is a case study which describes the speech of three pre-school Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic children. The data of this study are collected through tape-recording them. Through the analysis, it is concluded that the phonetic processes which exist in the informants’ speech include assimilation, elision, gemination, nasalization and tafxiim and the main ones are sound shift and metathesis. It has been noted that the study informants pronounce some consonants which are difficult to be pronounced by other children living in the same city; those consonants are either regularly shifted to in the production of other consonants or as part of ordinary words containing such sounds. Sometimes, more than one process is available in the production of some words. The consonantal changes existing in the informants’ speech are many compared with the vocalic ones which are very few.
Introspective perception: Learning to predict failures in vision systems

As robots aspire for long-term autonomous operations in complex dynamic environments, the ability to reliably take mission-critical decisions in ambiguous situations becomes critical. This motivates the need to build systems that have situational awareness to assess how qualified they are at that moment to make a decision. We call this self-evaluating capability as introspection. In this paper, we take a small step in this direction and propose a generic framework for introspective behavior in perception systems. Our goal is to learn a model to reliably predict failures in a given system, with respect to a task, directly from input sensor data. We present this in the context of vision-based autonomous MAV flight in outdoor natural environments, and show that it effectively handles uncertain situations.
Hypoxia Regulates Alternative Splicing of HIF and non-HIF Target Genes

Hypoxia is a common characteristic of many solid tumors. The hypoxic microenvironment stabilizes hypoxia-inducible transcription factor 1α (HIF1α) and 2α (HIF2α/EPAS1) to activate gene transcription, which promotes tumor cell survival. The majority of human genes are alternatively spliced, producing RNA isoforms that code for functionally distinct proteins. Thus, an effective hypoxia response requires increased HIF target gene expression as well as proper RNA splicing of these HIF-dependent transcripts. However, it is unclear if and how hypoxia regulates RNA splicing of HIF targets. This study determined the effects of hypoxia on alternative splicing (AS) of HIF and non-HIF target genes in hepatocellular carcinoma cells and characterized the role of HIF in regulating AS of HIF-induced genes. The results indicate that hypoxia generally promotes exon inclusion for hypoxia-induced, but reduces exon inclusion for hypoxia-reduced genes. Mechanistically, HIF activity, but not hypoxia per se is found to be necessary and sufficient to increase exon inclusion of several HIF targets, including pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1). PDK1 splicing reporters confirm that transcriptional activation by HIF is sufficient to increase exon inclusion of PDK1 splicing reporter. In contrast, transcriptional activation of a PDK1 minigene by other transcription factors in the absence of endogenous HIF target gene activation fails to alter PDK1 RNA splicing. Implications: This study demonstrates a novel function of HIF in regulating RNA splicing of HIF target genes. Mol Cancer Res; 12(9); 1233–43. ©2014 AACR.
What Is the Neon Abundance of the Sun?

We have evolved a series of 13 complete solar models that utilize different assumed heavy-element compositions. Models that are based upon the heavy-element abundances recently determined by Asplund and coworkers are inconsistent with helioseismological measurements. However, models in which the neon abundance is increased by 0.4-0.5 dex to log N(Ne) = 8.29 ± 0.05 [on the scale in which log N(H) = 12] are consistent with the helioseismological measurements even though the other heavy-element abundances are in agreement with the determinations of Asplund et al. These results sharpen and strengthen an earlier study by Antia & Basu. The predicted solar neutrino fluxes are affected by the uncertainties in the composition by less than their 1 σ theoretical uncertainties.
Deviations from the Flux-Recurrence Time Relationship in GS 1826–238: Potential Transient Spectral Changes

The low-mass X-ray binary GS 1826–238 is presently unique for its consistently regular bursting behavior. In previous Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) measurements between 1997 November and 2002 July, this source exhibited (nearly) limit-cycle bursts with recurrence times that decreased proportionately as the persistent flux increased. Here we report additional measurements of the burst recurrence time by RXTE, Chandra, and XMM-Newton, as well as observations of optical bursts. On a few occasions we measured burst recurrence times which deviated significantly from the earlier flux-recurrence time relationship, and most of these bursts occurred earlier than would be predicted based on the X-ray flux level. The epochs with early bursts were also accompanied by unusual broadband timing signatures, with the entire power spectrum shifting to higher frequencies. Concurrent XMM-Newton observations during one of these occasions, in 2003 April, indicate that an additional soft component may be present in the spectrum containing enough flux (≈30% of the total) to account for the burst recurrence time discrepancy. A self-consistent interpretation for the increase in soft flux and accompanying timing changes during 2003 April is that the accretion disk extends down to smaller radial distances from the source than during the other observing epochs. The RXTE observations since 2003 April show that the spectral and timing properties have nearly returned to the previously established level.
Methodology for optimal bus placement to integrate wind farm optimizing power flows

This paper proposes an alternative algorithm to locate the optimal bus placement to integrate wind farms based on the criterion of minimizing the electrical losses using the solution of the power flow problem to identify the best connection point. The wind farm is modeled as a negative load being possible to connect this power generation to the possible connection buses and obtaining the power flow solution for each different connection point as a generation change or displacement. The IEEE 14, 30 and 57 bus test systems have been used to validate the proposed methodology. The results have shown the optimal bus among a possible set of them that causes minimum losses when a wind farm is integrated to it.
“It Was Raining All the Time!”: Ex Post Tourist Weather Perceptions

The importance of weather for tourism is now widely recognized. However, no research has so far addressed weather events from retrospective viewpoints, and, in particular, the role of “extreme” events in longer-term holiday memories. To better understand the character of ex post weather experiences and their importance in destination image perceptions and future travel planning behavior, this exploratory study addressed a sample of 50 tourists from three globally important source markets: Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Results indicate that weather events do not dominate long-term memories of tourist experiences. Yet, weather events are important in shaping destination image, with “rain” being the single most important weather variable negatively influencing perceptions. Results also suggest that weather events perceived as extreme can involve considerable emotions. The study of ex post traveler memories consequently makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the complexity of “extreme weather” events for tourist demand responses.
Fair Resource Allocation Toward Ubiquitous Coverage in OFDMA-Based Cellular Relay Networks With Asymmetric Traffic

Next-generation wireless networks are preoccupied with the provision of very high data rates in a ubiquitous and fair manner throughout the service area. Toward that end, the deployment of fixed relays by the operators has become an accepted network architecture for which orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) is the envisioned air interface, and efficient resource utilization is imperative. In contrast to the current literature, this paper presents a novel throughput-optimal formulation, which performs joint intracell routing and scheduling, in accordance with the emerging OFDMA-based cellular relay networks employing two-hop half-duplex relaying. Low-complexity iterative algorithms are devised to solve the formulated optimization over two consecutive subframes (the base station transmits, followed by the relay stations) using queue-length coupling. We first show that the network capacity, below which the policy is throughput optimal, has been significantly increased, compared with the previously proposed quasi-full-duplex relaying (FDR) scheme, at a slight complexity increase. Hence, throughput fairness and ubiquity have been improved at high traffic loads, aside from the substantial improvement in both queue-awareness and latency. Second, we show that, without empirical priority weights, our efficient implementation of throughput-optimal scheduling achieves a ubiquitous and fair service within each class of users (with symmetric traffic) and across classes of asymmetric traffic in a relative sense on different time scales. Load balancing among only the active relays could still be jointly realized with the resource allocation.
Bimanual Input for Tablet Devices with Pressure and Multi-Touch Gestures

In this paper we present the results of a study investigating the control of simultaneous non-dominant hand (NDH) pressure input and dominant hand (DH) pinch, swipe and rotate gesture input on a touchscreen tablet device. We investigate the effect of NDH pressure input on DH gesture accuracy, and vice versa, to support the design of bimanual interaction techniques for tablet devices. Our results suggest that pressure negatively affects DH touchscreen gesture performance; however, pressure targeting accuracy for each gesture was still high (86% overall). Our results show that participants were able to achieve high levels of accuracy using DH swipe gestures (the simplest gesture in the study) suggesting that the ability to perform a simultaneous combination of pressure and touchscreen gesture input depends on the complexity of the dominant hand action involved.
Declarative Optimization-Based Drama Management ( DODM ) in the Interactive Fiction Anchorhead

A drama manager guides a player through a story experience by modifying the experience in reaction to the player’s actions. Declarative optimization-based drama management (DODM) casts the drama-management problem as an optimization problem: The author declaratively specifies a set of plot points in a story, a set of actions the drama manager can take, and an evaluation function that rates a particular story. The drama manager then takes the actions in a way that attempts to maximize story quality. Peter Weyhrauch reported good results using a variant of game-tree search to optimize the use of drama-manager actions. We attempt to replicate these results on another story, Anchorhead, and show that search does not perform very well in general, especially on larger and more complex stories. However, we believe that this is a problem with the specific optimization method, not the general approach, and report some results demonstrating the plausibility of applying reinforcement-learning techniques to compute a policy instead of search.
How the X-ray spectrum of a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy may be reflection-dominated

A model for the inner regions of accretion flows is presented where, owing to disc instabilities, cold and dense material is clumped into deep sheets or rings. Surrounding these density enhancements is hot, tenuous gas where coronal dissipation processes occur. We expect this situation to be most relevant when the accretion rate is close to Eddington and the disc is radiation-pressure-dominated, and so may apply to narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies. In this scenario, the hard X-ray source is obscured for most observers, and so the detected X-ray emission would be dominated by reflection off the walls of the sheets. A simple Comptonization calculation shows that the large photon-indices characteristic of NLSls would be a natural outcome of two reprocessors closely surrounding the hard X-ray source. We test this model by fitting the XMM-Newton spectrum of the NLS1 1H 0707-495 between 0.5 and 11 keV with reflection-dominated ionized disc models. A very good fit is found with three different reflectors each subject to the same Γ = 2.35 power law. An iron overabundance is still required to fit the sharp drop in the spectrum at around 7 ke V. We note that even a small corrugation of the accretion disc may result in Γ > 2 and a strong reflection component in the observed spectrum. Therefore, this model may also explain the strength and the variability characteristics of the MCG-6-30-15 Fe Ka line. The idea needs to be tested with further broad-band XMM-Newton observations of NLSls.
Additive effect of Lactobacillus acidophilus L-92 on children with atopic dermatitis concomitant with food allergy

Background Atopic dermatitis (AD) in infants is often related to food allergies (FA). The beneficial effects of lactic acid bacteria towards allergic diseases have been reported, but there are few reports on their effect and preferable dosages on AD in young children with concomitant FA. Objective To examine additional effects of two different dose of paraprobiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus L-92 (L-92) on the clinical treatment in young children afflicted by AD with diagnosed or suspected FA. Methods Fifty-nine AD young children from 10 months to 3 years old, with FA or who had not started to ingest specific food(s) because of high specific IgE levels, were recruited and randomly allocated into L-92 group (daily intake of 20 mg L-92/day) and placebo group. Participants were given test sample with conventional treatment for AD over a 24-week period. The severity of eczema was evaluated using SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index before intervention, and at 4, 12, and 24 weeks after intervention. Results After 24 weeks of intervention, a significant decrease in SCORAD was observed only in the L-92 group when compared with the baseline values. Significant decreases in thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) and total IgE were also detected 24 weeks after intake in the L-92 group compared with the placebo group. Conclusion It was suggested that intake of sufficient amounts of L-92 works as an adjunctive treatment of young children afflicted by AD with diagnosed or suspected FA.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study of White Matter Damage in Chronic Meningitis

Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and cryptococcal meningitis (CM) are two of the most common types of chronic meningitis. This study aimed to assess whether chronic neuro-psychological sequelae are associated with micro-structure white matter (WM) damage in HIV-negative chronic meningitis. Nineteen HIV-negative TBM patients, 13 HIV-negative CM patients, and 32 sex- and age-matched healthy volunteers were evaluated and compared. The clinical relevance of WM integrity was studied using voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) magnetic resonance imaging. All of the participants underwent complete medical and neurologic examinations, and neuro-psychological testing. Differences in DTI indices correlated with the presence of neuro-psychological rating scores and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis during the initial hospitalization. Patients with CM had more severe cognitive deficits than healthy subjects, especially in TBM. There were changes in WM integrity in several limbic regions, including the para-hippocampal gyrus and cingulate gyrus, and in the WM close to the globus pallidus. A decline in WM integrity close to the globus pallidus and anterior cingulate gyrus was associated with worse CSF analysis profiles. Poorer DTI parameters directly correlated with worse cognitive performance on follow-up. These correlations suggest that WM alterations may be involved in the psychopathology and pathophysiology of co-morbidities. Abnormalities in the limbic system and globus pallidus, with their close relationship to the CSF space, may be specific biomarkers for disease evaluation.