Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EVOTLBO: A TLBO based Method for Automatic Test Data Generation in EvoSuite

Now-a-days software has a great impact on different aspects of human life. Software systems are responsible for safety of major critical tasks. To prevent catastrophic malfunctions, promising quality testing techniques should be used during software development. Software testing is an effective technique to catch defects, but it significantly increases the development cost. Therefore, automated testing is a major issue in software engineering. Search-Based Software Testing (SBST), specifically genetic algorithm, is the most popular technique in automated testing for achieving appropriate degree of software quality. In this paper TLBO, a swarm intelligence technique, is proposed for automatic test data generation as well as for evaluation of test results. The algorithm is implemented in EvoSuite, which is a reference tool for search-based software testing. Empirical studies have been carried out on the SF110 dataset which contains 110 java projects from the online code repository SourceForge and the results show that the TLBO provides competitive results in comparison with major genetic based methods.
Effects of ear-canal geometry and middle-ear pressure on wideband acoustic reflectance

In this thesis, complex wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) measurements of the middle ear are studied. The body of work presented here has three major components: (1) design of a hearing measurement probe and probe tip, (2) extraction of the effects of the residual ear canal (REC) and estimation of the WAI at the tympanic membrane (TM), and (3) analysis of the TM-WAI to characterize middle-ear conditions. Major contributions of this thesis include a pole-zero modeling method to estimate WAI at the TM (Robinson et al., 2013), and analysis of changes in WAI with static negative middle-ear pressure (NMEP) (Robinson et al., 2016). Additionally, an extensive review of the literature and theory underlying WAI measurements is presented, using both timeand frequency-domain analyses. (1) Measurement probe: The design of a WAI measurement probe and probe tip was conducted with Mimosa Acoustics (Champaign, IL). The inclusion of this work in the present document is primarily limited to the probe-tip project. Two-port network modeling techniques were applied to describe and extract the effects of a variable-area probe tip on WAI measurement. This procedure is effective up to at least 3-5 [kHz], depending on the quality of the probe calibration. (2) Reflectance factorization: Complex reflectance data may be fit to a pole-zero model, and factored into its all-pass and minimum-phase parts, representing the lossless ear canal and complex middle-ear reflectance respectively (Robinson et al., 2013). This provides an intuitive analysis of reflectance, which is computationally efficient and adaptable to non-ideal (e.g. bandlimited or noisy) data. A detailed comparison is performed between this method and other TM-WAI estimation methods in the literature. (3) Negative middle-ear pressure (NMEP): Thompson et al. (2015) trained eight subjects with normal middle-ear function to induce consistent NMEPs, quantified by the tympanic peak pressure (TPP), to study the effects of NMEP on distortion-product otoacoustic emissions. WAI data were also collected in that study, and are analyzed in this thesis using the reflectance factorization method (Robinson et al., 2016). For the 8 ears presented here, NMEP has the largest and most significant effect across ears from 0.8 to 1.9 [kHz], resulting in reduced power absorbance by the middle ear and cochlea. On average, NMEP causes a decrease in the power absorbance level for lowto mid-frequencies, and a small increase above about 4 [kHz]. The effects of NMEP on WAI quantities, including the absorbance level and TM impedance, vary considerably across ears. The complex WAI at the TM and fitted model parameters show NMEP effects consistent with an increased stiffness in the middle ear, which could originate from the TM, tensor tympani, annular ligament, or other middle ear structures.
Influence of Variations in Climatic Factors and Some Cultural Practices on Knot Disease Development on Oleaster and Olive Tree (Olea europaea L,) Northwest of Morocco

The present study is conducted to know the effect of certain cultural practices and the variation of temperature and humidity (bioclimatic stage, slope exposure) on the distribution and importance of the development of tuberculosis disease of olive trees, caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi (PSS), in Northwest of Morocco. 1584 trees of oleaster and olive trees (cuttings and grafts) were observed during the period 2013-2014 in several groves in the northwest regions of Morocco. The percentage of infection was calculated by the number of olive trees showing the symptoms of tuberculosis caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi. The intensity of the disease in the oleaster and the olive tree was determined by counting the number of knots. Original Research Article Rhimini et al.; ARRB, 24(1): 1-9, 2018; Article no.ARRB. 38771 2 The prospection was showed that olive plots are more or less attacked by tuberculosis in the northwest part region of Morocco and more apparent in olive trees in development station in Zoumi and in Boukkara (North and West oriented slopes of 68% and 28% respectively). The percentage of infection was very high in oleaster and graft plants (31% and 28% respectively) in two humid stations (Zoumi and Boukkara). The intensity of the tuberculosis disease showed that oleaster trees are most attacked. The development of olive trees is highly influenced by the symptoms in branches. The fruit size and weight were significantly higher in healthy olive trees than in those showing the symptoms of tuberculosis.
A reconfigurable 24 × 40 element transceiver ASIC for compact 3D medical ultrasound probes

Real-time 3D ultrasonic imaging requires a matrix of transducer elements with a number of elements that readily exceeds the number of channels of a conventional imaging system. This paper presents an ASIC, realized in a high-voltage 0.18 μm BCDMOS process, that interfaces a piezo-electric transducer array of 24 × 40 elements, directly integrated on top of the ASIC, to an imaging system using only 24 transmit and receive channels by means of a reconfigurable switch matrix and row-level low-noise amplifiers. Each element is associated with a compact bootstrapped high-voltage transmit/receive switch and programmable logic that enables a variety of imaging modes to be realized. The ASIC has been successfully used in a 3D imaging experiment.
A Relaxed Ranking-Based Factor Model for Recommender System from Implicit Feedback

Implicit feedback based recommendation has recently been an important task with the accumulated user-item interaction data. However, it is very challenging to produce recommendations from implicit feedback due to the sparseness of data and the lack of negative feedback/rating. Although various factor models have been proposed to tackle this problem, they either focus on rating prediction that may lead to inaccurate top-k recommendations or are dependent on the sampling of negative feedback that often results in bias. To this end, we propose a Relaxed Ranking-based Factor Model, RRFM, to relax pairwise ranking into a SVM-like task, where positive and negative feedbacks are separated by the soft boundaries, and their non-separate property is employed to capture the characteristic of unobserved data. A smooth and scalable algorithm is developed to solve group- and instance- level's optimization and parameter estimation. Extensive experiments based on real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of our approach.
04 09 14 3 v 2 4 N ov 2 00 4 The Cat oRules

The oRules of state reduction are applied to the Schrödinger cat experiment. It is shown that these rules can unambiguously describe the conscious state of the cat, as well as an outside observer at any time during the experiment. Two versions of the experiment are considered. In version I, the conscious cat is made unconscious by a mechanism that is triggered by a radioactive decay. In version II, the sleeping cat is made conscious by an alarm clock that is triggered by a radioactive decay.
A non-invasive fibrosis score predicts treatment outcome in chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Objective. The results of a previous study suggest that an index calculated according to the formula (normalized ASAT×PK-INR)×100/thrombocyte count (×109/L; GUCI) may reflect liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The aims of the present study were (i) to validate the association between the Göteborg University Cirrhosis Index (GUCI) score and liver fibrosis and (ii) to evaluate the utility of this index in predicting the outcome of antiviral treatment. Material and methods. A total of 269 patients with chronic HCV infection, stratified according to HCV genotype (1/4 versus 2/3) participated in a phase III trial using pegylated interferon α-2a and ribavirin (DITTO study). Retrospective analyses of the baseline GUCI scores and assessments of pretreatment liver biopsies using the Ishak protocol were performed. Cut-off GUCI scores were calculated to distinguish patients with a high or low probability of sustained viral response (SVR). Results. Striking associations between GUCI and Ishak fibrosis stages (stages 0–2 versus stages 3–4, p=0.0002, stages 3–4 versus stages 5–6, p=0.002) were observed. In patients with genotype 1 or 4, a GUCI score below 0.33 was associated with a rapid viral response to antiviral treatment and an SVR rate of 80%. Ninety-two percent of patients (92/101) with a SVR had a pretreatment GUCI score below 1.11. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the GUCI score appropriately reflects the stage of liver fibrosis in HCV-infected patients, and predicts initial viral kinetics as well as treatment outcome in patients infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4.
Optimal on-line built-in self-test structure for system-reliability improvement

This paper presents a bio-inspired technique for the generation of a deterministic test pattern generator. In contrast to conventional methods, the proposed evolutionary-based approach reduces the gate count of a built-in self-test structure, which is used for the automatic fault detection. The reduced-gate-count structure is needed to achieve the test structure with a smaller hardware area overhead, while still satisfying the reliability constraints. The presented optimization approach searches concurrently for the optimal combination of the register cells structure, the test patterns order in the generated test sequence, and the bit order of the test patterns. A comparison of the results with similar studies shows the efficiency of the proposed evolutionary approach, which is therefore very useful in the design of robust and fault-tolerant systems, while maintaining the minimum size of the hardware overhead.
GIS APPROACHES FOR ESTIMATION OF RESIDENTIAL-LEVEL AMBIENT PM CONCENTRATIONS

Spatial estimations are increasingly used to estimate geocoded ambient particulate matter (PM) concentrations in epidemiologic studies because measures of daily PM concentrations are unavailable in most U.S. locations. This study was conducted to a) assess the feasibility of large-scale kriging estimations of daily residential-level ambient PM concentrations, b) perform and compare cross-validations of different kriging models, c) contrast three popular kriging approaches, and d) calculate SE of the kriging estimations. We used PM data for PM with aerodynamic diameter </= 10 microm (PM10) and aerodynamic diameter </= 2.5 microm (PM2.5) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the year 2000. Kriging estimations were performed at 94,135 geocoded addresses of Women's Health Initiative study participants using the ArcView geographic information system. We developed a semiautomated program to enable large-scale daily kriging estimation and assessed validity of semivariogram models using prediction error (PE) , standardized prediction error (SPE) , root mean square standardized (RMSS) , and SE of the estimated PM. National- and regional-scale kriging performed satisfactorily, with the former slightly better. The average PE, SPE, and RMSS of daily PM10 semivariograms using regular ordinary kriging with a spherical model were 0.0629, -0.0011, and 1.255 microg/m3, respectively ; the average SE of the estimated residential-level PM10 was 27.36 microg/m3. The values for PM2.5 were 0.049, 0.0085, 1.389, and 4.13 microg/m3, respectively. Lognormal ordinary kriging yielded a smaller average SE and effectively eliminated out-of-range predicted values compared to regular ordinary kriging. Semiautomated daily kriging estimations and semivariogram cross-validations are feasible on a national scale. Lognormal ordinary kriging with a spherical model is valid for estimating daily ambient PM at geocoded residential addresses.
A Model of the Hemodynamic Response and Oxygen Delivery to Brain

A recent nonlinear system by Friston et al. (2000. NeuroImage 12: 466-477) links the changes in BOLD response to changes in neural activity. The system consists of five subsystems, linking: (1) neural activity to flow changes; (2) flow changes to oxygen delivery to tissue; (3) flow changes to changes in blood volume and venous outflow; (4) changes in flow, volume, and oxygen extraction fraction to deoxyhemoglobin changes; and finally (5) volume and deoxyhemoglobin changes to the BOLD response. Friston et al. exploit, in subsystem 2, a model by Buxton and Frank coupling flow changes to changes in oxygen metabolism which assumes tissue oxygen concentration to be close to zero. We describe below a model of the coupling between flow and oxygen delivery which takes into account the modulatory effect of changes in tissue oxygen concentration. The major development has been to extend the original Buxton and Frank model for oxygen transport to a full dynamic capillary model making the model applicable to both transient and steady state conditions. Furthermore our modification enables us to determine the time series of CMRO(2) changes under different conditions, including CO(2) challenges. We compare the differences in the performance of the "Friston system" using the original model of Buxton and Frank and that of our model. We also compare the data predicted by our model (with appropriate parameters) to data from a series of OIS studies. The qualitative differences in the behaviour of the models are exposed by different experimental simulations and by comparison with the results of OIS data from brief and extended stimulation protocols and from experiments using hypercapnia.
Resilient Information Networks for Coordination of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

Abstract Foodborne disease outbreaks are increasingly being seen as a greater concern by public health authorities. It has also become a global research agenda to identify improved pathways to coordinating outbreak detection. Furthermore, a significant need exists for timely coordination of the detection of potential foodborne disease outbreaks to reduce the number of infected individuals and the overall impact on public health security. This study aimed to offer an effective approach for coordinating foodborne disease outbreaks. First, we identify current coordination processes, complexities, and challenges. We then explore social media surveillance strategies, usage, and the power of these strategies to influence decision-making. Finally, based on informal (social media) and formal (organizational) surveillance approaches, we propose a hybrid information network model for improving the coordination of outbreak detection. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:186-198)
A systematic molecular dynamics study of nearest-neighbor effects on base pair and base pair step conformations and fluctuations in B-DNA

It is well recognized that base sequence exerts a significant influence on the properties of DNA and plays a significant role in protein–DNA interactions vital for cellular processes. Understanding and predicting base sequence effects requires an extensive structural and dynamic dataset which is currently unavailable from experiment. A consortium of laboratories was consequently formed to obtain this information using molecular simulations. This article describes results providing information not only on all 10 unique base pair steps, but also on all possible nearest-neighbor effects on these steps. These results are derived from simulations of 50–100 ns on 39 different DNA oligomers in explicit solvent and using a physiological salt concentration. We demonstrate that the simulations are converged in terms of helical and backbone parameters. The results show that nearest-neighbor effects on base pair steps are very significant, implying that dinucleotide models are insufficient for predicting sequence-dependent behavior. Flanking base sequences can notably lead to base pair step parameters in dynamic equilibrium between two conformational sub-states. Although this study only provides limited data on next-nearest-neighbor effects, we suggest that such effects should be analyzed before attempting to predict the sequence-dependent behavior of DNA.
Policy disputes in path-vector protocols

The border gateway protocol, BGP, is currently the only interdomain routing protocol employed on the Internet. As required of any interdomain protocol, BGP allows policy-based metrics to override distance-based metrics and enables each autonomous system to independently define its routing policies with little or no global coordination. Varadhan et al. (1996) have shown that there are collections of routing policies that together are not safe in the sense that they can cause BGP to diverge. That is, an unsafe collection of routing policies can result in some autonomous systems exchanging BGP routing messages indefinitely, without ever converging to a set of stable routes. In this paper we present sufficient conditions on routing policies that guarantee BGP safety. We use a new formalism, called the simple path vector protocol (SPVP), that is designed to capture the underlying semantics of any path vector protocol such as BGP. We identify a certain circular set of relationships between routing policies at various autonomous systems that we call a dispute cycle. We show that systems with no dispute cycles are guaranteed to be safe. While these include systems whose policies are consistent with shortest paths under some link metric, the class of systems with no dispute cycles is strictly larger.
Differential Maternal Feeding Practices, Eating Self-Regulation, and Adiposity in Young Twins

OBJECTIVE: Restrictive feeding is associated with childhood obesity; however, this could be due to other factors that drive children to overeat and parents to restrict (eg, child genetics). Using a twin design to better control for confounders, we tested differences in restrictive feeding within families in relation to differences in twins’ self-regulatory eating and weight status. METHODS: Sixty-four same-gender twin pairs (4–7 years old) were studied with their mothers. Child caloric compensation ability (COMPX% index) was assessed by using a laboratory-based protocol. The Child Feeding Questionnaire assessed mothers’ self-reported feeding styles toward each twin. Child BMI (kg/m2) and BMI z score were calculated by using measured weight and height; percent body fat and waist circumference were also assessed. Partial correlations examined within-twin pair differences in Child Feeding Questionnaire subscales in relation to within-twin pair differences in anthropometry and caloric compensation (COMPX%). RESULTS: Differences in maternal restriction were significantly associated with within-pair differences in child COMPX% and BMI z score. Mothers reported more restriction toward the heavier and more poorly compensating twin. Additionally, within-pair differences in parental pressure to eat were associated with significant differences in BMI z score, percent body fat, and waist circumference. Mothers were more pressuring toward the lighter twin. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers vary in their feeding practices, even among same-gender twin pairs, which might influence differences in adiposity. Future research needs to elucidate cause-and-effect and intervention implications regarding parental restriction and pressure-to-eat prompts.
CBRA: A Novel Game Theory, Cell-Degree based Resource Allocation Mechanisms in WiMax Wireless Network

Now-a-days, WiMax becomes one of the hottest broadband wireless technologies. Resource allocation plays a vital role in IEEE 802.16, which enhances cell degree and overall throughput of the system. In this paper work, a novel game theory, cell-degree based resource allocation (CBRA) methodology is proposed. The User/Base Station (BS) assesses the data rate, and the QoS parameter such as bandwidth, latency, jitter, cell loss ratio, cell error ratio. Subsequently, the comparison of BS by User Equipment (UE) is scrutinized to estimate the cell degree with the high value of BS. The degree of user SINR dispersion is introduced as the major parameter for allocating the resource. Also enhanced the fairness of the users, by acquiring a fair share of system resource along with the relay station (RS). The experimental analysis depicts that the proposed CBRA algorithm which incorporates the network throughput, user fairness and game theory. This accomplishes higher network throughput to bandwidth consumption ratio than the existing greedy approaches.
Testing the Temporal Relationship Between Maternal and Adolescent Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in a Community Sample

Transactional models have been used to explain the relationship between maternal depression and child behavioral problems; however, few studies have examined transactional models for maternal depression and adolescent depression and anxiety. Using an autoregressive cross-lagged analysis, we examined the longitudinal association between maternal and adolescent depression to determine the extent to which maternal depression influences adolescent depression and anxiety, and vice versa, over the course of a 4-year period. Participants were a community sample of 277 mother–adolescent dyads with offspring 10 to 14 years of age at the 1st year used in the analyses (43.7% female; 35% African American, 2.9% Hispanic/Latino). Depressive symptoms were assessed using maternal self-report (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977), and adolescent depression and anxiety were assessed by self-report (Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale; Chorpita, Yim, Moffitt, Umemoto, & Francis, 2000). The final model, χ2(14) = 23.74, p = . 05 (TLI = .97, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .05), indicated that maternal depression was significantly associated with adolescent depression 2 years later. Of interest, adolescent depression did not significantly predict maternal depression, and the association between maternal and adolescent depression was not moderated by gender, age, or ethnicity. The association between maternal depression and adolescent anxiety was weaker than that observed for adolescent depression. Results suggest that the transaction model of maternal depression may not extend to adolescent depression and anxiety. Furthermore, maternal depression can have an enduring effect on adolescent depression, and continued research and clinical monitoring over extended periods is warranted.