Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revisiting Gallager's error exponent analysis technique

We demonstrate a tight analysis of an expectation of a sum of exponents raised to some power, prevalent in, but not confined to, Gallager's bounding techniques. We show that the traditional analysis that uses Jensen's inequality, although tight in Gallager's random coding error exponent, might not be tight in general. Using the binary symmetric channel as an example, we show that Rc — the lowest rate at which Gallager's bound agrees with the sphere packing bound is the lowest rate for which Jensen's inequality is tight for a range of possible parameters.
Chip master planning: An efficient methodology to improve design closure and complexity management of ultra large chips

Mis-prediction is a dominant problem in nano-scale design that may diminish the quality of physical design algorithms or may even result in failing the design cycle convergence. In this paper, a new planning methodology is presented in which a masterplan of the chip is constructed in early levels of physical design and the rest of succeeding physical design stags operate considering this masterplan. The proposed planning design flow is used to wire planning and buffer resource planning in order to compare with conventional contributions. Experimental results show the considerable improvements in terms of performance, timing yield and buffer usage.
Quantitative computerized analysis of diffuse lung disease in high-resolution computed tomography.

An automated computerized scheme has been developed for the detection and characterization of diffuse lung diseases on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images. Our database consisted of 315 HRCT images selected from 105 patients, which included normal and abnormal slices related to six different patterns, i.e., ground-glass opacities, reticular and linear opacities, nodular opacities, honeycombing, emphysematous change, and consolidation. The areas that included specific diffuse patterns in 315 HRCT images were marked by three radiologists independently on the CRT monitor in the same manner as they commonly describe in their radiologic reports. The areas with a specific pattern, which three radiologists marked independently and consistently as the same patterns, were used as "gold standard" for specific abnormal opacities in this study. The lungs were first segmented from the background in each slice by use of a morphological filter and a thresholding technique, and then divided into many contiguous regions of interest (ROIs) with a 32x32 matrix. Six physical measures which were determined in each ROI included the mean and the standard deviation of the CT value, air density components, nodular components, line components, and multilocular components. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were employed for distinguishing between seven different patterns which included normals and six patterns associated with diffuse lung disease. The sensitivity of this computerized method for a detection of the six abnormal patterns in each ROI was 99.2% (122/123) for ground-glass opacities, 100% (15/15) for reticular and linear opacities, 88.0% (132/150) for nodular opacities, 100% (98/98) for honeycombing, 95.8% (369/385) for emphysematous change, and 100% (43/43) for consolidation. The specificity in detecting a normal ROI was 88.1% (940/1067). This computerized method may be useful in assisting radiologists in their assessment of diffuse lung disease in HRCT images.
A priori and a posteriori error analysis of finite element methods for plate models

The focus of this dissertation is in the theoretical and computational analysis of the discretization error indused by finite element methods for plate problems. For the Reissner–Mindlin plate model, regularity results with respect to the loading and a priori convergence estimates for the MITC finite elements are presented. The convergence results are valid uniformly with respect to the thickness parameter. In addition, we prove a local superconvergence result for the deflection approximation of MITC elements, and introduce a postprocessing method improving the accuracy of the approximation. The convergence results are confirmed by numerical computations. For the Kirchhoff–Love plate model, a new family of C-continuous, optimally convergent finite elements is introduced. Furthermore, we derive a reliable and efficient a posteriori error indicator and verify the results by benchmark computations. Another a posteriori error analysis is performed for the Morley plate element. AMS subject classifications: 65N30, 74S05, 74K20
Structured hierarchical models for neurons in the early visual system

The early visual system is composed of a set of anatomically distinct areas that are linked together in a hierarchy. This structure uses simple rules at each stage but supports an impressive array of processing capabilities. In order to capture the full range of these computations, neuronal models in these areas should include this hierarchical architecture. Neurons in the earliest stages receive information directly from sensory transducers, yielding linear-like visual representations that are closely tied to visual stimulation. Neurons further downstream are more abstract and nonlinear in their representation, being both more selective for relevant stimulus visual and invariant across irrelevant features. Despite these computational differences, individual neurons among all areas are anatomically similar and they can be described in simple terms; inputs are summed across dendritic synapses and arbors and outputs are generated by a spiking nonlinearity in the soma and axon hillock. This regularity can be exploited to build simple but powerful hierarchical models that approximate the stages of visual processing in cortex. A realistic model architecture can reduce, and in some cases eliminated altogether, the need for ad-hoc priors or regularizers. Incorporating physiological and anatomical constraints, and careful experimental design (including the choice of stimuli), simplifies models and allows for more direct and efficient estimation procedures. In this thesis I present a series of hierarchical models for neurons in the early visual system (V1 & V2) and show that they can accurately capture the computations performed by real neurons. I also demonstrate that a stage-wise structure avoids overfitting and that it allows for a more efficient estimation procedure than generic statistical models.
Advanced, Automatic Stream Surface Seeding and Filtering

The placement or seeding of stream surfaces in 3D ﬂow ﬁelds faces a number of challenges. These challenges include perception, occlusion, and the appropriate representation of ﬂow characteristics. A variety of streamline seeding approaches exist, little corresponding work is presented for stream surfaces. We present a novel automatic stream surface seeding and ﬁltering algorithm. Our approach is designed to capture the characteristics of the ﬂow utilizing illustrative techniques to alleviate occlusion and provide options for ﬁltering. We deﬁne and prioritize a set of seeding curves at the domain boundaries from isolines computed from a derived scalar ﬁeld. We detail the generation of an initial set of surfaces from the set of seeding curves, and discuss a technique for effective surface termination. We then present an algorithm that automatically seeds new interior surfaces, to represent locations not captured by the boundary seeding, at a user speciﬁed separation from the initial surface set. The results demonstrate satisfactory domain coverage and effective visualizations on a variety of simulations.
A Reconfigurable and Biologically Inspired Paradigm for Computation Using Network-On-Chip and Spiking Neural Networks

FPGA devices have emerged as a popular platform for the rapid prototyping of biological Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) applications, offering the key requirement of reconfigurability. However, FPGAs do not efficiently realise the biologically plausible neuron and synaptic models of SNNs, and current FPGA routing structures cannot accommodate the high levels of interneuron connectivity inherent in complex SNNs. This paper highlights and discusses the current challenges of implementing scalable SNNs on reconfigurable FPGAs. The paper proposes a novel field programmable neural network architecture (EMBRACE), incorporating low-power analogue spiking neurons, interconnected using a Network-on-Chip architecture. Results on the evaluation of the EMBRACE architecture using the XOR benchmark problem are presented, and the performance of the architecture is discussed. The paper also discusses the adaptability of the EMBRACE architecture in supporting fault tolerant computing.
Functional Differentiation in the Human Auditory and Language Areas Revealed by a Dichotic Listening Task

The human auditory cortex plays a special role in speech recognition. It is therefore necessary to clarify the functional roles of individual auditory areas. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine cortical responses to speech sounds, which were presented under the dichotic and diotic (binaural) listening conditions. We found two different response patterns in multiple auditory areas and language-related areas. In the auditory cortex, the medial portion of the secondary auditory area (A2), as well as a part of the planum temporale (PT) and the superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (ST), showed greater responses under the dichotic condition than under the diotic condition. This dichotic selectivity may reflect acoustic differences and attention-related factors such as spatial attention and selective attention to targets. In contrast, other parts of the auditory cortex showed comparable responses to the dichotic and diotic conditions. We found similar functional differentiation in the inferior frontal (IF) cortex. These results suggest that multiple auditory and language areas may play a pivotal role in integrating the functional differentiation for speech recognition.
Web Accessibility for Disabled: A Case Study of Government Websites in Pakistan

It is the era of information technology and governments around the world opting for electronic government and official websites are now under the use of a diverse population for the purpose of information retrieval. A number of disabled persons are becoming the part of this society but they are ignored when web projects are planned and developed. If this practice of software development is kept continuing then disabled persons would not take the advantage in the electronic government era. This study evaluates the websites of central government in Pakistan including all ministries and divisions using accessibility evaluation tools based on World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) web accessibility standards. Functional accessibility evaluator and total validator are the tools which are used for the evaluation process. The results shows that most of the web sites are not developed according to the accessibility standards for disabled persons. In the light of these results, recommendations are made to improve the accessibility of these websites for disable persons.
A Simple but Realistic Model of Floating-Point Computation

A model of floating-point computation, intended as a basis for efficient portable mathematical software, is presented. The model involves only simple familiar concepts, expressed in a small set of environment parameters. Using these, both a program and its documentation can tailor themselves to the host computer. First, the model numbers, a conventional four-parameter system of floating-point numbers, are introduced. The parameters are the base, the precision, and the minimum and maximum exponents. They must be chosen so that the result of a basic arithmetic operation on model numbers is no less accurate than the result that would be obtained by chopped arithmetic in the model system. Also, the result of a basic operation on operands between model numbers must be bounded by the results of the same operation on the neighboring model numbers. These ideas are summarized in a few fundamental axioms, which enable the machine-independent properties of numerical programs to be stated and proved. The main conclusion is that the model supports conventional, worst case, forward or backward error analyses with only minor qualifications. The model is simple in the sense that its axioms are more easily stated and understood than the detailed operational rules of most floating-point processors. It is realistic in the sense that real computers exhibit most of the forms of behavior (or misbehavior) that it allows, but nearly always conform to its rules.
Teacher efficacy in the Free State province of South Africa

This study operationalised the self-efficacy construct and applied it to the assessment of teachers' self-efficacious behaviours with respect to the new educational perspective in the Free State Province after May 10, 1994. Data sources included 1 128 sampled primary and secondary urban school teachers from 93 schools. The variables studied were School Category, Gender, and Teaching experience as independent variables. The dependent variable was Self-efficacy. After factorial analyses and the use of three-way ANOVA, the findings revealed a significant effect for the School Category with respect to Teacher Administrative Responsibilities (TAR), Teacher Classroom Organisation (TCO), and Teacher in Relationship with Others (TRO) as dependent variables. This pattern was inconsistent with Gender and Teaching Experience. A discussion, interpretation of the results, and suggestion for future research in this realm are rendered.
Effectiveness of hepatic parenchyma lithotomy of hepatolithiasis

Abstract To investigate the clinical significance of hepatic parenchyma incision by lithotomy near the second hepatic portal area for the treatment of complex hepatolithiasis. A retrospective study was conducted with 35 patients who had complicated hepatolithiasis in our hospital from January 2008 to December 2013, who underwent hepatic parenchyma incision by lithotomy near the second hepatic portal area. The perioperative and long-term outcomes included the stone clearance rate, operative morbidity and mortality, and the stone recurrence rate. Patients with a preoperative diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma were excluded from the study. All patients with hepatic duct stones were mainly located at S2, S4, and S8 regions. Surgical methods included were hepatic parenchyma incision by lithotomy near the second hepatic portal area, or by combined partial hepatectomy. The mean follow-up period was 51 months. One patient died during hospitalization. The surgical morbidity was 17.6%, stone clearance rate was 88.2%, and final clearance rate was 94.1% followed by postoperative choledochoscopic lithotripsy. The stone recurrence rate was 15.6% and the occurrence of postoperative cholangitis was 11.8% during the follow-up period. Hepatic parenchyma incision by lithotomy near the second hepatic portal area is safe with satisfactory short and long-term outcome results for complicated hepatolithiasis.
Unreliable Tracking Ability of the Third-Generation FloTrac/Vigileo™ System for Changes in Stroke Volume after Fluid Administration in Patients with High Systemic Vascular Resistance during Laparoscopic Surgery

Background The FloTrac/Vigileo™ system does not thoroughly reflect variable arterial tones, due to a lack of external calibration. The ability of this system to measure stroke volume and track its changes after fluid administration has not been fully evaluated in patients with the high systemic vascular resistance that can develop during laparoscopic surgery. Methods In 42 patients undergoing laparoscopic prostatectomy, the stroke volume derived by the third-generation FloTrac/Vigileo™ system (SV-Vigileo), the stroke volume measured using transesophageal echocardiography (SV-TEE) as a reference method, and total systemic vascular resistance were evaluated before and after 500 ml fluid administration during pneumoperitoneum combined with the Trendelenburg position. Results Total systemic vascular resistance was 2159.4 ± 523.5 dyn·s/cm5 before fluid administration. The SV-Vigileo was significantly higher than the SV-TEE both before (68.8 ± 15.9 vs. 57.0 ± 11.0 ml, P < 0.001) and after (73.0 ± 14.8 vs. 64.9 ± 12.2 ml, P = 0.003) fluid administration. During pneumoperitoneum combined with the Trendelenburg position, Bland-Altman analysis for repeated measures showed a 53.8% of percentage error between the SV-Vigileo and the SV-TEE. Four-quadrant plot (69.2% of a concordance rate) and polar plot analysis (20.6° of a mean polar angle, 16.4° of the SD of a polar angle, and ±51.5° of a radial sector containing 95% of the data points) did not indicate a good trending ability of the FloTrac/Vigileo™ system. Conclusions The third-generation FloTrac/Vigileo™ system may not be useful in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery, based on unreliable performance in measuring the stroke volume and in tracking changes in the stroke volume after fluid administration during pneumoperitoneum combined with the Trendelenburg position.
Prehospital Utility of Rapid Stroke Evaluation Using In-Ambulance Telemedicine: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Background and Purpose— Prehospital evaluation using telemedicine may accelerate acute stroke treatment with tissue-type plasminogen activator. We explored the feasibility and reliability of using telemedicine in the field and ambulance to help evaluate acute stroke patients. Methods— Ten unique, scripted stroke scenarios, each conducted 4 times, were portrayed by trained actors retrieved and transported by Houston Fire Department emergency medical technicians to our stroke center. The vascular neurologists performed remote assessments in real time, obtaining clinical data points and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stroke Scale, using the In-Touch RP-Xpress telemedicine device. Each scripted scenario was recorded for a subsequent evaluation by a second blinded vascular neurologist. Study feasibility was defined by the ability to conduct 80% of the sessions without major technological limitations. Reliability of video interpretation was defined by a 90% concordance between the data derived during the real-time sessions and those from the scripted scenarios. Results— In 34 of 40 (85%) scenarios, the teleconsultation was conducted without major technical complication. The absolute agreement for intraclass correlation was 0.997 (95% confidence interval, 0.992–0.999) for the NIH Stroke Scale obtained during the real-time sessions and 0.993 (95% confidence interval, 0.975–0.999) for the recorded sessions. Inter-rater agreement using &kgr;-statistics showed that for live-raters, 10 of 15 items on the NIH Stroke Scale showed excellent agreement and 5 of 15 showed moderate agreement. Matching of real-time assessments occurred for 88% (30/34) of NIH Stroke Scale scores by ±2 points and 96% of the clinical information. Conclusions— Mobile telemedicine is reliable and feasible in assessing actors simulating acute stroke in the prehospital setting.
Idiotypic repertoire of anti-hen eggwhite lysozyme antibodies probed with hybridomas. Selection after immunization of an IdX marker common to antibodies of distinct epitope specificity

A panel of hybridoma antibodies obtained from lymphoid cells that were fused during a primary response ("early") or a secondary response ("late") gave results concordant with analysis of conventional, in vivo- produced anti-lysozyme idiotypes: early antibodies did not display the predominant anti-hen eggwhite lysozyme idiotype (IdX-HEL), whereas late antibodies all displayed IdX-HEL. Furthermore, individual late hybridomas could each remove the entire anti-IdX-HEL activity by absorption, whereas early hybridomas could not. The epitope specificities of the hybridomas in both the early and late populations were heterogenous. We conclude that epitypic specificity in the response to HEL is determined independently from idiotypic specificity and that the predominant idiotype is selected for during the maturation of the anti-lysozyme response.
Evaluation of speaker normalization for suicidality assessment

When reviewing his clinical experience in treating suicidal patients, one of the authors observed that successful predictions of suicidality were often based on the patient’s voice independent of content. Using the Gaussian mixture model to represent the mel-cepstral features of voiced speech, speech of suicidal persons can be distinguish from that of depressed and control persons. The question then becomes can warping of the frequency axis improve the classification. The results show that warping of the frequency axis using the third format or Gaussian mixture model technique produces the best classification results.
Muscle Activity Restriction Taping Technique simulates the reduction in foot-ground clearance in the elderly

The reduced foot-ground clearance manifested in the healthy elderly is a major cause of tripping, potentially resulting in the loss of balance and falling. Hence, there is a critical need to study the foot-ground clearance deficiencies in the elderly. However, such studies are limited by the risks posed by experimental conditions to the health and safety of this population. As a solution, the present study proposes a new Muscle Activity Restriction Taping Technique (MARTT) to simulate the reduced foot-ground clearance of the elderly in healthy young adults. MARTT aims to restrict the range of contraction of the tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles involved in the ankle's dorsal and plantar flexion, respectively. The effectiveness of MARTT in simulating the reduced foot-ground clearance in continuous walking was verified in three young adults during treadmill and overground walking. The results revealed that MARTT could successfully simulate the reduced clearance, specifically the minimum toe clearance (MTC), and other gait characteristics of the healthy elderly, such as reduced single-support phase, shortened step length, and lower walking speed.