Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital filter synthesis based on an algorithm to generate all minimal signed digit representations

In this paper, the authors propose an algorithm to find all the minimal signed digit (MSD) representations of a constant and present an algorithm to synthesize digital filters based on the MSD representation. The hardware complexity of a digital signal processing system is dependent on the number system used for the implementation. Although the canonical signed digit (CSD) representation is widely employed, as it is unique and guarantees the minimal number of nonzero digits for a constant, the MSD representation provides multiple representations that have the same number of nonzero digits as the CSD representation. The proposed filter synthesis algorithm utilizes this redundancy of the MSD representation to make common subexpressions, as many as possible, leading to smaller filters. By applying the proposed algorithm to the hardware synthesis of finite impulse response filters, the authors obtained multiplier blocks that are 7% smaller than those generated from the CSD representation.
Bayesian Model Merging for Unsupervised Constituent Labeling and Grammar Induction

Recent research on unsupervised grammar induction has focused on inducing accurate bracketing of sentences. Here we present an efficient, Bayesian algorithm for the unsupervised induction of syntactic categories from such bracketed text. Our model gives state-of-the-art results on this task, using gold-standard bracketing , outperforming the recent semi-supervised approach of (Haghighi and Klein, 2006), obtaining an F 1 of 76.8% (when appropriately relabeled). Our algorithm assigns comparable likelihood to unseen text as the treebank PCFG. Finally, we discuss the metrics used and linguistic relevance of the results.
Chronic stress and antidepressant agomelatine induce region‐specific changes in synapsin I expression in the rat brain

The antidepressant agomelatine acts as a melatonergic receptor (MT1/MT2) agonist and 5‐HT2C receptor antagonist. Agomelatine has demonstrated efficacy in treating depression, but its neurobiological effects merit further investigation. Preclinical studies reported that agomelatine enhances adult hippocampal neurogenesis and increases expression of several neuroplasticity‐associated molecules. Recently, we showed that agomelatine normalizes hippocampal neuronal activity and promotes neurogenesis in the stress‐compromised brain. To characterize further the effects of this antidepressant in the stressed brain, here we investigated whether it induces changes in the expression of synapsin I (SynI), a regulator of synaptic transmission and plasticity. Adult male rats were subjected to daily footshock stress and agomelatine treatment for 3 weeks. Their brains were subsequently stained for total and phosphorylated SynI. Chronic footshock and agomelatine induced region‐specific changes in SynI expression. Whereas chronic stress increased total SynI expression in all layers of the medial prefrontal cortex, agomelatine treatment abolished some of these effects. Furthermore, chronic agomelatine administration decreased total SynI expression in the hippocampal subregions of both stressed and nonstressed rats. Importantly, chronic stress decreased the fraction of phosphorylated SynI in all layers of the medial prefrontal cortex as well as selectively in the outer and middle molecular layers of the hippocampal dentate gyrus. These stress effects were at least partially abolished by agomelatine. Altogether, our data show that chronic stress and agomelatine treatment induce region‐specific changes in SynI expression and its phosphorylation. Moreover, agomelatine partially counteracts the stress effects on SynI, suggesting a modulation of synaptic function by this antidepressant. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Validity of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scales (SRP-III Full and Short Versions) in a Community Sample

The psychometric properties of the 64-item Self-Report Psychopathy Scale–III (SRP-III) and its abbreviated 28-item SRP–Short Form (SRP-SF) seem promising. Still, cross-cultural evidence for its construct validity in heterogeneous community samples remains relatively scarce. Moreover, little is known about the interchangeability of both instruments. The present study addresses these research gaps by comparing the SRP-III and SRP-SF factorial construct validity and nomological network in a Belgian community sample. The four-factor model of psychopathy was evaluated (N = 1,510) and the SRP scales’ relationship with various external correlates (i.e., attachment, bullying and victimization, right-wing attitudes, right-wing authoritarianism, and response styles) was examined (n = 210). Both SRP versions demonstrated a good fit for the four-factor model and a considerable overlap with the nomological network of psychopathy. The results suggested that the SRP-SF provides a viable alternative to the SRP-III for assessment in the community. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Success for pacific learners : the impact of tertiary education strategies

This project examined the impact of the 3 successive tertiary education strategies (2002-2007; 2007-2012 and 2010-2015) on how tertiary education institutions have developed their support for Pacific learners. Findings show that the Pasifika objectives within each of the 3 strategies are considered to be an important signal to Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) that success for Pasifika learners is a significant and continuing government priority and that the strategies are seen as an important enabler of change. These objectives have raised the priority for action to support Pasifika learners, unlocked resources for Pasifika initiatives and promoted the inclusion of Pasifika priorities on the strategic agendas of TEIs. It was noted however, this influence is only one of a number of internal and external, and local and national influences on enhancing success for Pasifika learners.
Discover Academic Experts in Novel Social Network Model

A number of recent studies on social networks are based on a characteristic which includes assortative mixing, high clustering, short average path lengths, broad degree distributions and the existence of community structure. Here, a model has been developed in the domain ofâ€˜Academic collaboration' which satisfies all the above characteristics, based on some existing social network models. In addition, this model facilitates interaction between various communities (academic/research groups). This model gives very high clustering coefficient by retaining the asymptotically scale-free degree distribution. Here the community structure is raised from a mixture of random attachment and implicit preferential attachment. In addition to earlier works which only considered Neighbor of Initial Contact (NIC) as implicit preferential contact, we have considered Neighbor of Neighbor of Initial Contact (NNIC)also. This model supports the occurrence of a contact between two Initial contacts if the new vertex chooses more than one initial contacts. This ultimately will develop a complex social network rather than the one that was taken as basic reference.
Instance-Level Segmentation with Deep Densely Connected MRFs

Our aim is to provide a pixel-level object instance labeling of a monocular image. We build on recent work [27] that trained a convolutional neural net to predict instance labeling in local image patches, extracted exhaustively in a stride from an image. A simple Markov random ﬁeld model using several heuristics was then proposed in [27] to derive a globally consistent instance labeling of the image. In this paper, we formulate the global labeling problem with a novel densely connected Markov random ﬁeld and show how to encode various intuitive potentials in a way that is amenable to efﬁcient mean ﬁeld inference [13]. Our potentials encode the compatibility between the global labeling and the patch-level predictions, contrast-sensitive smoothness as well as the fact that separate regions form different instances. Our experiments on the challenging KITTI benchmark [8] demonstrate that our method achieves a signiﬁcant performance boost over the baseline [27].
Statistics on graph reduction of SASL programs

The execution has been studied of four small and four medium‐sized SASL programs, when interpreted by a variant of Turner's combinator reducer. Size, structure and composition of the combinator graph have been analysed at frequent intervals during the reduction process. The most interesting results are summarized and discussed. Nodes of the graph live rather short lives and are usually not shared. Cycles are rare, and linear lists are often short. In most aspects the behaviour of the graph is quite ordinary in the sense that a simple model is sufficient to obtain a good approximation.
Analysis of noise coupling from a power distribution network to signal traces in high-speed multilayer printed circuit boards

As layout density increases in highly integrated multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs), the noise that exists in the power distribution network (PDN) is increasingly coupled to the signal traces, and precise modeling to describe the coupling phenomenon becomes necessary. This paper presents a model to describe noise coupling between the power/ground planes and signal traces in multilayer systems. An analytical model for the coupling has been successfully derived, and the coupling mechanism was rigorously analyzed and clarified. Wave equations for a signal trace with power/ground noise were solved by imposing boundary conditions. Measurements in both the frequency and time domains have been conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed model.
Democracy in Modern Spain

This book, written by three of the world's leading experts on Spanish politics, is the first comprehensive study of the origins and basic character of Spain's democratic political system. It analyses the regime's core political institutions, its political parties and party systems, patterns of electoral behaviour, the evolution of Spain's political culture, and the impact of these social and institutional changes on public policy processes and outputs. The authors survey those aspects of Spanish society and politics that had contributed to the country's inability to sustain a stable and d'emocratic regime prior to the 1970s. They argue that the successful" transition to and consolidation of democracy was made possible by socioeconomic modernisation, cultural change, and by decisions made by political elites in the establishment of core democratic institutions and the conduct of electoral competition. This book is based on over 500 hours of interviews with Spanish political elites, extensive analyses of survey data, and other original research.
The Theory Practices Gap among Nursing and Midwifery Students in Palestine

Clinical experience is one of the most significant sources of stress and anxiety producing components of the nursing program. Clinical training, not only gives students the opportunity to transfer what they have learnt during theory into the unfamiliar and complex clinical practice environments. It also helps students learn a variety of skills, such as how to establish communication, make decisions and work as a member of a team. The purpose of this study was to identify nursing and midwifery students’ problems during clinical practice at the baccalaureate nursing program in Palestine. Descriptive cross-sectional study design was utilized. A stratified sample of 340 nursing and midwifery students was recruited. Data were collected on a self-administered questionnaire. The sample was derived from students who had experienced clinical practice among the students in the department of nursing and midwifery sciences in Al-Quds University in Palestine. The study started with 340 students, including 155 males and 185 females. The final analysis was conducted with 330 participants comprising 151 (45.8%) males and 179 (54.2%) females. The majority of respondents stated that they did perceive a difference between what they were taught in the classroom compared to what was used in their clinical experiences with 237 (71.8%) responding yes and 93 (28.2%) responding no. Approximately, half of the students perceived the extent of the gap between theoretical & practical side with 138 (41.8%) responding big. Therefore, nursing facilitators should train and make more researches to identifying more problems and working to enhancing these problems to have a professions nursing and midwifery in our life.
Instruction Scheduling Using MAX − MIN Ant Colony Optimization

Instruction scheduling is a fundamental step for a mapping an application to a computational device. It takes a behavioral application specification and produces a schedule for the instructions onto a collection of system processing units. The objective is to minimize the completion time of the given application while effectively utilizing the computational resources. The instruction scheduling problem is NP-hard, thus it is necessary to develop effective heuristic methods in order to provide a qualitative scheduling solution. In this paper, we present a novel instruction scheduling algorithm using MAX-MIN Ant Colony Optimization approach. The algorithm utilizes a unique hybrid approach by combining the ant colony meta-heuristic with list scheduling. The algorithm uses local and global heuristics that dynamically adjust to the input application. Compared with a number of different list scheduling heuristics, our algorithm generates better results over all the tested benchmarks. Furthermore, we show that our algorithm consistently achieves a near optimal solution.
Challenging HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination in Southeast Asia: Past Successes and Future Priorities

2 The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental institution that seeks to improve the wellbeing and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council conducts biomedical, social science, and public health research and helps build research capacities in developing countries. Established in 1952, the Council is governed by an international board of trustees. Its New York headquarters supports a global network of regional and country offices. Acknowledgments This review was greatly assisted by contributions from the following people. I am grateful for their comments, suggestions, and the generous amount of time they spent discussing projects and ideas with me.
Analysis of Optimization Experiments

The typical practice for analyzing industrial experiments is to identify statistically significant effects with a 5% level of significance and then to optimize the model containing only those effects. In this article, we illustrate the danger in utilizing this approach. We propose methodology using the practical significance level, which is a quantity that a practitioner can easily specify. We also propose utilizing empirical Bayes estimation, which gives shrinkage estimates of the effects. Interestingly, the mechanics of statistical testing can be viewed as an approximation to empirical Bayes estimation, but with a significance level in the range of 15–40%. We also establish the connections that our approach has with a less known but intriguing technique proposed by Taguchi, known as the beta coefficient method. A real example and simulations are used to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed methodology.
Gender Differences in Science Achievement, Science Self-concept, and Science Values

This study investigates gender differences in science achievement, self-concept of science ability, and subjective science values, based on TIMSS 1999 and 2003 database. The sample in the analyses presented including 5772 (TIMSS 1999) and 5739 (TIMSS 2003) Taiwanese eighth graders. All statistics showed that gender differences became smaller over time. However, the gender differences in the upper and lower levels deserved continued investigation. At lower level, girls average performance were better than boys and had smaller score variation. At upper level, boys outperformed girls and had larger variance. In addition, boys outnumbered girls in the top 25% in science performance. No matter the direction of gender differences at each quarter, boys always had higher self-concept of ability and subjective science values. It evidenced that gender differences in self-concept and science values did not parallel diminishing differences in actual achievement. When students’ achievement levels were controlled, science self-concept and values were more highly related to science achievement for high achievers.
Chandra observations of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 3256

We present a detailed analysis of high-resolution Chandra observations of the merger system NGC 3256, the most infrared-luminous galaxy in the nearby universe. The X-ray data show that several discrete sources embedded in complex diffuse emission contribute 20 per cent of the total emission in the 0.5–10 keV energy range). The compact sources are hard and extremely bright and their emission is probably dominated by accretion-driven processes. Both galaxy nuclei are detected with LX3–10×1040 erg s1. No evidence is found for the presence of an active nucleus in the southern nucleus, contrary to previous speculation. Once the discrete sources are removed, the diffuse component has a soft spectrum that can be modelled by the superposition of three thermal plasma components with temperatures kT=0.6, 0.9 and 3.9 keV. Alternatively, the latter component can be described as a power law with index Γ3. Some evidence is found for a radial gradient of the amount of absorption and temperature of the diffuse component. We compare the X-ray emission with optical, Hα and NICMOS images of NGC 3256 and find a good correlation between the inferred optical/near-infrared and X-ray extinctions. Although inverse Compton scattering could be important in explaining the hard X-rays seen in the compact sources associated with the nuclei, the observed diffuse emission is probably of thermal origin. The observed X-ray characteristics support a scenario in which the powerful X-ray emission is driven solely by the current episode of star formation.
Immunochemical studies on blood groups LXII. Fractionation of hog and human A, H, and AH blood group active substance on insoluble immunoadsorbents of Dolichos and Lotus lectins

The purified lectins from Lotus tetragonolobus and Dolichos biflorus were coupled to Sepharose 2B to make insoluble adsorbents for purification and fractionation of blood group A and H active glycoproteins. With both adsorbents, hog gastric mucin A + H blood substance (HGM), purified by phenol-ethanol precipitation, yielded fractions showing only A, only H, or AH activities. The AH fraction was obtained when the adsorbent column was overloaded with HGM and its A and H specificities seem to be carried on the same molecules since they were not separable by chromatography on either column. However A and H specificities of blood group substance from the stomach of a presumably heterozygous individual hog were both on the same molecules as they too could not be fractionated on either column. Analytical properties of the isolated fractions were generally similar to those of the unfractionated material, the purfied A substances had a higher galactosamine/fucose ratio than did the H substances. Although the original A + H showed very little specific optical rotation, the separated A and H substances rotated positively and negatively, respectively. The lectin-Sepharose adsorbents have also proven useful in isolating A or H substances directly from the crude commercial hog gastric mucin. Blood group A2 substance from a human ovarian cyst yielded two fractions on the Lotus-Sepharose column; the effluent did not interact with the Lotus lectin but precipitated the Ulex and Dolichos lectins and anti-A, and appears to contain type 1 H determinants. The other fraction reacted with Lotus and Ulex lectin as well as with Dolichos and anti-A.
JOINT CENTER FOR HOUSING STUDIES of Harvard University

Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including copyright notice, is given to the source. We are deeply indebted to Jim Carey for his invaluable consultation and for providing us with the opportunity to do this research, and to Oliver Zeng for his outstanding work in developing the loan-matching routine.
The Effect of Texture Relief on Perception of Slant from Texture

Texture can be an effective source of information for perception of slant and curvature. A computational assumption required for some texture cues is that texture must be flat along a surface. There are many textures which violate this assumption, and have some sort of texture relief: variations perpendicular to the surface. Some examples include grass, which has vertical elements, or scattered rocks, which are volumetric elements with 3-D shapes. Previous studies of perception of slant from texture have not addressed the case of textures with relief. The experiments reported here test judgments of slant for textures with various types of relief, including textures composed of bumps, columns, and oriented elements. The presence of texture relief was found to affect judgments, indicating that perception of slant from texture is not robust to violations of the flat-texture assumption. For bumps and oriented elements, slant was underestimated relative to matching flat textures, while for columns textures, which had visible flat top faces, perceived slant was equal or greater than for flat textures. The differences can be explained by the way different types of texture relief affect the amount of optical compression in the projected image, which would be consistent with results from previous experiments using cue conflicts in flat textures. These results provide further evidence that compression contributes to perception of slant from texture.
Super-resolution image reconstruction

Super-resolution image reconstruction is a technique to reconstruct high resolution image or video from a sequence of low resolution images. The super resolution method is summarized in this paper. The frequency domain method, non-uniform interpolation, POCS method, iterative back projection method, Bayesian approach, regularization method are both discussed for super-resolution image reconstruction.
Pathways to Social Justice: Urban Teachers' Uses of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy as a Conduit for Teaching for Social Justice

article explores issues surrounding teaching for social justice in urban schools. Us- ing qualitative methods, our study examined the ways in which seven urban teachers used culturally relevant pedagogy as a mechanism for teaching for social justice. We found that by adhering to the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy (e.g. personal ac- countability and cultural critique), our participants helped their students think critically about how social injustices affected their lives. The implications of our findings suggest that while the constraints inherent in urban schools perpetuate the injustices of social reproduction, the implementation of culturally relevant and social justice pedagogies help prepare students to effect change in their communities and the broader society.
Comparative Study on Foreground Detection Algorithms for Human Detection

The objective of this paper is to develop an approach to objectively evaluate foreground detection algorithms. The purpose of the desired application is human detection in images sequences. This paper presents in a first part the state of the art on foreground detection algorithms. In a second part, we use realistic synthetic videos to perform our evaluation. This kind of videos is very interesting for the evaluation study because it permits to evaluate the influences of some artifacts (changing light, video quality, shadow). We use a common metric to quantify the efficiency of the 11 selected algorithms. Time computation is also considered.