Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quasi-Stellar Objects, Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies, and Mergers

We test the hypothesis that QSOs are formed via strong tidal interactions or mergers, initially going through an ultraluminous infrared phase. Our approach is to look for traces of this phase in the host galaxies of QSOs. We select a sample of low-redshift bona fide QSOs that may be in a transitionary stage between ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) and QSOs. These objects, which we call transition QSOs, have an intermediate position in the far-infrared color-color diagram between the regions occupied by the two classes of objects. We carry out a systematic spectroscopic and imaging study of these objects in order to determine their interaction and star-forming histories. By modeling the spectra, we obtain ages for the recent starburst events in the host galaxies and interacting companions. We have discussed the first five objects in the sample in detail in previous publications; here we present results for the remaining four objects, and discuss the sample as a whole. We find that all nine transition QSOs are undergoing tidal interactions and that eight are major mergers. Every object also shows strong recent star-forming activity, and in at least eight cases this activity is directly related to the tidal interaction. The ages we derive for the starburst populations range from currently active star formation in some objects to poststarburst ages ≲300 Myr in others. There is also a clear connection between interactions, starbursts, and QSO activity. Seven of the QSOs in the sample are also ULIGs; statistical considerations show that the two phenomena are necessarily physically related in these objects. Our results imply one of two scenarios: (1) at least some ULIGs evolve to become classical QSOs, and the transition stage lasts ≲300 Myr; or (2) at least some QSOs are born under the same conditions as ULIGs, and their lifetime as QSOs lasts ≲300 Myr. We discuss other properties and trends found in the sample, and propose a model that accounts for all of them, as well as the youth of these systems.
Taste Coding in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract of the Awake, Freely Licking Rat

It is becoming increasingly clear that the brain processes sensory stimuli differently according to whether they are passively or actively acquired, and these differences can be seen early in the sensory pathway. In the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), the first relay in the central gustatory neuraxis, a rich variety of sensory inputs generated by active licking converge. Here, we show that taste responses in the NTS reflect these interactions. Experiments consisted of recordings of taste-related activity in the NTS of awake rats as they freely licked exemplars of the five basic taste qualities (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami). Nearly all taste-responsive cells were broadly tuned across taste qualities. A subset responded to taste with long latencies (>1.0 s), suggesting the activation of extraoral chemoreceptors. Analyses of the temporal characteristics of taste responses showed that spike timing conveyed significantly more information than spike count alone in almost one-half of NTS cells, as in anesthetized rats, but with less information per cell. In addition to taste-responsive cells, the NTS contains cells that synchronize with licks. Since the lick pattern per se can convey information, these cells may collaborate with taste-responsive cells to identify taste quality. Other cells become silent during licking. These latter “antilick” cells show a surge in firing rate predicting the beginning and signaling the end of a lick bout. Collectively, the data reveal a complex array of cell types in the NTS, only a portion of which include taste-responsive cells, which work together to acquire sensory information.
Checking Before Output May Not Be Enough Against Fault-Based Cryptanalysis

In order to avoid fault-based attacks on cryptographic security modules (e.g., smart-cards), some authors suggest that the computation results should be checked for faults before being transmitted. In this paper, we describe a potential fault-based attack where key bits leak only through the information whether the device produces a correct answer after a temporary fault or not. This information is available to the adversary even if a check is performed before output.
Color stereo vision using hierarchical block matching and active color illumination

Stereo is a well-known technique for obtaining depth information from digital images. Nevertheless, this technique still suffers from a lack in accuracy and/or long computation time needed to match stereo images. A new hierarchical algorithm using an image pyramid for obtaining dense depth maps from color stereo images is presented. We show that matching results of high quality are obtained when using the new hierarchical chromatic block matching algorithm. Most stereo matching algorithms can not compute correct dense depth maps in homogenous image regions. This paper shows that using an active color illumination will considerably improve the quality of the matching results. We present results for synthetic and for real images.
Evaluating the Importance of Various Implicit Factors in E-commerce

In this paper, we focus on the situation of a typical e-commerce portal employing personalized recommendation. Such website could, in addition to the explicit feedback, monitor many different patterns of implicit user behavior – implicit factors. The problem arises while trying to infer connections between observed implicit behavior and user preferences while some connections are obvious, others may not. We have selected several often used implicit factors and conducted online experiment on travel agency web site to find out which implicit factors could replace explicit ratings and (if there are more of them) how to combine their values. As utility functions determining recommending efficiency was selected click through rate and conversions rate. Our experiments corroborate importance of considering more implicit factors and their different weights. The best individual results were achieved by means of the scrolling factor, the best combination was Prior_to method (lexicographical ordering based on factor values).
Development of Maximized Total Capillary Surface: the quater power scaling law from developmental biology perspective

Abstract —Quarter-power scaling of biological features withbody mass is commonly observed in a variety of organismsand is considered a universal law in biology. The origin of thequarter-power scaling law has been proposed to be a universalrequirement of a maximized hierarchical network for distributingmaterials (e.g., oxygen and nutrients) in any organism. We pro-pose a mathematical model for the development of a maximizedtotal capillary surface. This model quantitatively demonstrateshow body mass is related to the biological information controllingdevelopment of capillaries under the condition that the maximiza-tion of total capillary surface area is subject to the minimizationof the informational complexity. Keywords: Quarter power scaling law; Modeling of development ofcapillaries; Probabilistic counting I. I NTRODUCTION Kleiber’s law of allometric scaling states that the basalmetabolic rate of an organism is proportional to its mass to thepower (Kleiber, 1932; Schmidt-Nielsen, 1984). Empiricaldata for numerous biological variables in a large variety ofanimals and plants ﬁt allometric scaling relationships whichare simple multiples of a quarter-power (Schmidt-Nielsen,1984; cf. Brown
Blind Separation of Quasi-Stationary Sources: Exploiting Convex Geometry in Covariance Domain

This paper revisits blind source separation of instantaneously mixed quasi-stationary sources (BSS-QSS), motivated by the observation that in certain applications (e.g., speech) there exist time frames during which only one source is active, or locally dominant. Combined with nonnegativity of source powers, this endows the problem with a nice convex geometry that enables elegant and efficient BSS solutions. Local dominance is tantamount to the so-called pure pixel/separability assumption in hyperspectral unmixing/nonnegative matrix factorization, respectively. Building on this link, a very simple algorithm called successive projection algorithm (SPA) is considered for estimating the mixing system in closed form. To complement SPA in the specific BSS-QSS context, an algebraic preprocessing procedure is proposed to suppress short-term source cross-correlation interference. The proposed procedure is simple, effective, and supported by theoretical analysis. Solutions based on volume minimization (VolMin) are also considered. By theoretical analysis, it is shown that VolMin guarantees perfect mixing system identifiability under an assumption more relaxed than (exact) local dominance - which means wider applicability in practice. Exploiting the specific structure of BSS-QSS, a fast VolMin algorithm is proposed for the overdetermined case. Careful simulations using real speech sources showcase the simplicity, efficiency, and accuracy of the proposed algorithms.
Development and Pilot Testing of the Eating4two Mobile Phone App to Monitor Gestational Weight Gain

Background The number of pregnant women with a body mass index (BMI) of 30kg/m2 or more is increasing, which has important implications for antenatal care. Various resource-intensive interventions have attempted to assist women in managing their weight gain during pregnancy with limited success. A mobile phone app has been proposed as a convenient and cost-effective alternative to face-to-face interventions. Objective This paper describes the process of developing and pilot testing the Eating4Two app, which aims to provide women with a simple gestational weight gain (GWG) calculator, general dietary information, and the motivation to achieve a healthy weight gain during pregnancy. Methods The project involved the development of app components, including a graphing function that allows the user to record their weight throughout the pregnancy and to receive real-time feedback on weight gain progress and general information on antenatal nutrition. Stakeholder consultation was used to inform development. The app was pilot tested with 10 pregnant women using a mixed method approach via an online survey, 2 focus groups, and 1 individual interview. Results The Eating4Two app took 7 months to develop and evaluate. It involved several disciplines--including nutrition and dietetics, midwifery, public health, and information technology--at the University of Canberra. Participants found the Eating4Two app to be a motivational tool but would have liked scales or other markers on the graph that demonstrated exact weight gain. They also liked the nutrition information; however, many felt it should be formatted in a more user friendly way. Conclusions The Eating4Two app was viewed by participants in our study as an innovative support system to help motivate healthy behaviors during pregnancy and as a credible resource for accessing nutrition-focused information. The feedback provided by participants will assist with refining the current prototype for use in a clinical intervention trial.
Effects of high nutrient intake on the growth performance, intestinal morphology and immune function of neonatal intra-uterine growth-retarded pigs

Intra-uterine growth-retarded (IUGR) neonates have shown an impairment of postnatal intestinal development and function. We hypothesised that the immune function of IUGR neonates might be affected by increased nutrient intake (NI) during the suckling period. Therefore, we investigated the effects of high NI (HNI) on the growth performance, intestinal morphology and immunological response of IUGR and normal-birth weight (NBW) piglets. A total of twelve pairs of IUGR and NBW piglets (7 d old) were randomly assigned to two different nutrient-level formula milk groups. After 21 d of rearing, growth performance, the composition of peripheral leucocytes, serum cytokines and intestinal innate immune-related genes involved in the Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4–myeloid differentiation factor 88–NF-κB pathway were determined. The results indicated that IUGR decreased the average daily DM intake (ADMI) and the average daily growth (ADG). However, the ADMI and ADG were increased by HNI, irrespective of body weight. Likewise, serum cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β) and ileal gene expressions (TLR-4, TLR-9, TRAF-6 and IL-1β) were lower in IUGR piglets, whereas HNI significantly increased blood lymphocyte percentage and serum IL-10 concentrations, but decreased neutrophil percentage, serum IL-1β concentrations and ileal gene expressions (NF-κB and IL-1β). Furthermore, IUGR piglets with HNI exhibited lower serum concentrations of TNF-α and IL-1β than NBW piglets, and these alterations in the immune traits of IUGR piglets receiving HNI were accompanied by decreasing ileal gene expressions of TLR-4, TLR-9, NF-κB and IL-1β that are related to innate immunity. In conclusion, the present findings suggest that increased NI during the suckling period impaired the immune function of neonatal piglets with IUGR.
Two techniques for fast computation of constrained shortest paths

Computing constrained shortest paths is fundamental to some important network functions such as QoS routing, which is to find the cheapest path that satisfies certain constraints. In particular, finding the cheapest delay-constrained path is critical for real-time data flows such as voice calls. Because it is NP-complete, there has been much research into designing heuristic algorithms that solve the /spl epsiv/-approximation of the problem with an adjustable accuracy. A common approach is to discretize (i.e., scale and round) the link delay or link cost, which transforms the original problem to a simpler one solvable in polynomial time. The efficiency of the algorithms directly relates to the magnitude of the errors introduced during discretization. We propose two techniques that reduce the discretization errors, allowing faster algorithms to be designed. Reducing the overhead of the costly computation for constrained shortest paths is practically important for the design of a high-throughput QoS router, which is limited by both processing power and memory space. Our simulations show that the new algorithms reduce the execution time by an order of magnitude on power-law topologies with 1000 nodes. The reduction in memory space is similar. When there are multiple constraints, the improvement is more dramatic.
Effects of Speed, Cyclicity, and Dimensionality on Distancing, Time, and Preference in Human-Aerial Vehicle Interactions

This article will present a simulation-based approach to testing multiple variables in the behavior of a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (sUAV), inspired by insect and animal motions, to understand how these variables impact time of interaction, preference for interaction, and distancing in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Previous work has focused on communicating directionality of flight, intentionality of the robot, and perception of motion in sUAVs, while interactions involving direct distancing from these vehicles have been limited to a single study (likely due to safety concerns). This study takes place in a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) to maintain a sense of scale and immersion with the users, while also allowing for safe interaction. Additionally, the two-alternative forced-choice method is employed as a unique methodology to the study of collocated HRI in order to both study the impact of these variables on preference and allow participants to choose whether or not to interact with a specific robot. This article will be of interest to end-users of sUAV technologies to encourage appropriate distancing based on their application, practitioners in HRI to understand the use of this new methodology, and human-aerial vehicle researchers to understand the perception of these vehicles by 64 naive users. Results suggest that low speed (by 0.27m, p < 0.02) and high cyclicity (by 0.28m, p < 0.01) expressions can be used to increase distancing; that low speed (by 4.4s, p < 0.01) and three-dimensional (by 2.6s, p < 0.01) expressions can be used to decrease time of interaction; and low speed (by 10.4%, p < 0.01) expressions are less preferred for passability in human-aerial vehicle interactions.
Stoichiometry and Assembly of a Recombinant GABAA Receptor Subtype

GABAA receptors are ligand-gated chloride ion channels that are presumed to be pentamers composed of α, β, and γ subunits. The subunit stoichiometry, however, is controversial, and the subunit arrangement presently is not known. In this study the ratio of subunits in recombinant α1β3γ2 receptors was determined in Western blots from the relative signal intensities of antibodies directed against the N terminus or the cytoplasmic loop of different subunits after the relative reactivity of these antibodies had been determined with GABAA receptor subunit chimeras composed of the N-terminal domain of one and the remaining part of the other subunit. Via this method a subunit stoichiometry of two α subunits, two β subunits, and one γ subunit was derived. Similar experiments investigating the composition of α1β3 receptors expressed on the surface of human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells cotransfected with α1 and β3 subunits resulted in a stoichiometry of two α and three β subunits. Density gradient centrifugation studies indicated that combinations of α1β3γ2 or α1β3 subunits expressed in HEK 293 cells are able to form pentamers, whereas combinations of α1γ2 or β3γ2 subunits predominantly form heterodimers. These results provide valuable information on the mechanism of GABAAreceptor assembly and support the conclusion that GABAAreceptors are pentamers in which a total of four alternating α and β subunits are connected by a γ subunit.
Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk in young women

Oestrogen exposure has long been considered to be a main risk factor of breast cancer. More recently, interest has also focused on the possible carcinogenic influence from oestrogen metabolites, such as catechol oestrogens. O-methylation, catalysed by Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT), is one pathway by which the potentially carcinogenic catechol oestrogens can be inactivated. The gene coding for COMT protein contains a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), resulting in an amino acid shift Val → Met, which has been shown to determine high- and low-activity configuration of the enzyme. We hypothesized that the low-activity allele, COMTMet, may be implicated in early onset breast cancer. In the present case–control study, including 126 young breast cancer patients (≤ 36 years) and 117 healthy female blood donors, we analysed the association between COMTMet genotype and risk of breast cancer. No significant difference in the frequency of low-/high-activity alleles was found between cases and controls, indicating that the polymorphism, as a single factor, may not contribute to breast carcinogenesis in young women. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
Cortical activation during word processing in late bilinguals: Similarities and differences as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare cortical organization of the first (L1, Russian) and second (L2, English) languages. Six fluent Russian–English bilinguals who acquired their second language postpuberty were tested with words and nonwords presented either auditorily or visually. Results showed that both languages activated similar cortical networks, including the inferior frontal, middle frontal, superior temporal, middle temporal, angular, and supramarginal gyri. Within the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), L2 activated a larger cortical volume than L1 during lexical and phonological processing. For both languages, the left IFG was more active than the right IFG during lexical processing. Within the left IFG, the distance between centers of activation associated with lexical processing of translation equivalents across languages was larger than the distance between centers of activation associated with lexical processing of different words in the same language. Results of phonological processing analyses revealed different centers of activation associated with the first versus the second language in the IFG, but not in the superior temporal gyrus (STG). These findings are discussed within the context of the current literature on cortical organization in bilinguals and suggest variation in bilingual cortical activation associated with lexical, phonological, and orthographic processing.
Automatic Functional Stress Pattern Generation for SoC Reliability Characterization

Reliability testing is increasingly used not only to reduce Infant Mortality effects, but also for Reliability Characterization. This paper first discusses the characteristics of the stimuli to be used during Reliability Characterization experiments, and outlines the importance of adopting a functional approach. Secondly, the paper describes a novel approach to automatically generate suitable stress patterns to be used during the Reliability characterization process of Systems-on-chip. The generation process uses an evolutionary algorithm driven by suitable state toggling-related metrics purposely defined in the paper.Costs and benefits of the proposed approach are highlighted, supported by the results gathered on a test vehicle released on a 90nm technology.
Attention–memory training yields behavioral and academic improvements in children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder comorbid with a learning disorder

Background Recent studies have suggested that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may benefit from computerized cognitive training. Therapy implementation is especially complicated when ADHD is associated with learning disorders (LDs). This study tested the efficacy of a computer-based cognitive training program, namely, computerized cognitive training (CCT), in children with ADHD comorbid with an LD (ADHD-LD), with or without psychostimulant medication. Materials and methods After diagnostic evaluations, 27 children with ADHD-LD (8 unmedicated and 19 medicated) participated in CCT, which is intended to improve attention, memory, reasoning, visual processing, and executive functioning. The participants completed 24 1-hour sessions over 3 months. Neuropsychometric and standardized academic test results before and after training were compared to assess treatment efficacy. Shapiro–Wilk normality tests were applied, and subsequent Wilcoxon tests were used to identify significant differences in pre-versus post-training performance. Results After CAT, children diagnosed with ADHD-LD showed 1) improvements in trained skills, measured directly within the software and indirectly by external psychometric tests; 2) improvements in attention, memory, and some executive functioning; 3) improvements in academic performance, particularly in mathematics; and 4) reductions in maladaptive behavioral features. Conclusion The present findings suggest that cognitive training programs should be explored further as potential adjunctive therapies to improve outcomes in children with ADHD-LD.