Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Checking XPath Expressions for Synchronization, Access Control and Reuse of Query Results on Mobile Clients

The evaluation of XPath expressions plays a central role in accessing XML documents and therefore may be used in XML database systems for different components. We demonstrate that different applications ranging from access control to transaction synchronization to the reuse of query results have very similar requirements to the evaluation of XPath expressions, which can be solved by the same two steps. Firstly, we compute from each XPath expression a regular expression of the selected node paths and right-shuffle predicate filters to the selected nodes. Secondly, we describe the treatment of predicate filters which may be used in XPath expressions for queries, access control, and synchronization, and present a fast predicate evaluator for these predicates. Finally, we introduce the concept of “fall-back decisions”, which allow us to use an incomplete but efficient theorem prover, which solves most cases in practice and guarantees correct fallback behavior for the other cases.
A generic hybrid recommender system based on neural networks

Content based recommender systems have the drawback of recommending only similar items to a user's particular taste, irrespective of the item's popularity. Collaborative Filtering based systems face the problem of data sparsity and expensive parameter training. In this paper, a combination of content-based, model and memory-based collaborative filtering techniques is used in order to remove these drawbacks and to present predicted ratings more accurately. The training of the data is done using feedforward backpropagation neural network and the system performance is analyzed under various circumstances like number of users, their ratings and system model.
Multivariate return period calculation via survival functions

The concept of return period is fundamental for the design and the assessment of many engineering works. In a multivariate framework, several approaches are available to its definition, each one yielding different solutions. In this paper, we outline a theoretical framework for the calculation of return periods in a multidimensional environment, based on survival copulas and the corresponding survival Kendall's measures. The present approach solves the problems raised in previous publications concerning the coherent foundation of the notion of return period in a multivariate setting. As an illustration, a practical hydrological application is presented.
Steering second-order tensor voting by vote clustering

Among the various diffusion MRI techniques, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is still most commonly used in clinical practice in order to investigate connectivity and fibre anatomy in the human brain. Besides its apparent advantages of a short acquisition time and noise robustness compared to other techniques, it suffers from its major weakness of assuming a single fibre model in each voxel. This constitutes a problem for DTI fibre tracking algorithms in regions with crossing fibres. Methods approaching this problem in a postprocessing step employ diffusion-like techniques to correct the directional information. We propose an extension of tensor voting in which information from voxels with a single fibre is used to infer orientation distributions in multi fibre voxels. The method is able to resolve multiple fibre orientations by clustering tensor votes instead of adding them up. Moreover, a new vote casting procedure is proposed which is appropriate even for small neighbourhoods. To account for the locality of DTI data, we use a small neighbourhood for distributing information at a time, but apply the algorithm iteratively to close larger gaps. The method shows promising results in both synthetic cases and for processing DTI-data of the human brain.
Do Authors with Stronger Bibliographic Coupling Ties Cite Each Other More Often?

Author bibliographic coupling is extended from bibliographic coupling concept and holds the view that two authors with more common references are more related and have more similar research interests. This study aims to examine the association between author bibliographic coupling strength and citation exchange in Information Science & Library Science and more specifically, in imetrics. The results show that there is a positive and significant association between these two factors in Information Science & Library Science and also in imetrics; however, the correlation is more significant among imetricians. This confirms the Merton's norm of universalism versus constructivists' particularism. A closer investigation of bibliographic coupling and citation networks among thirty highly cited imetricians shows that Thelwall, M. is in strong bibliographic coupling and citation relationships with the majority of authors in the network. He and BarIlan have the strongest ABC and citation relationships in the network. Rousseau, R. , Glanzel, W. , Bornmann, L. , Bar-Ilan, J., and Leydesdorff, L. are also in strong ABC relations with each other as well as other authors in the network. Conference Topic Citation and co-citation analysis
Distant energy transfer for artificial human implants

The powering of human implants via inductive coupling has been an object of interest for the past two decades. This paper discusses some of the issues concerning a distant energy link used for supplying artificial human implants, operating at the frequency of 13.56 MHz. A procedure for the design of an energy-receiving coil is given for general applications. A design procedure is also developed, with focus on coils used for supplying human implants. The correctness of the analysis of this later design procedure has been verified by experimental results. Measurements with a human tissue simulant also show little deviation from the predictions.
Incremental redundancy hybrid ARQ schemes based on low-density parity-check codes

We study the throughput of hybrid automatic retransmission request (H-ARQ) schemes based on incremental redundancy (IR) over a block-fading channel. We provide an information-theoretic analysis assuming binary random coding and typical-set decoding. Then, we study the performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensembles with iterative belief-propagation decoding, and show that, under the hypothesis of infinite-length codes, LDPCs yield almost optimal performance. Unfortunately, standard finite-length LDPC ensembles incur a considerable performance loss with respect to their infinite-length counterpart, because of their poor frame-error rate (FER) performance. In order to recover part of this loss, we propose two simple yet effective methods: using a modified LDPC ensemble designed to improve the FER; and using an outer selective-repeat protocol acting on smaller packets of information bits. Surprisingly, these apparently very different methods yield almost the same performance gain and recover a considerable fraction of the optimal throughput, thus making practical finite-length LDPC codes very attractive for data wireless communications based on IR H-ARQ schemes.
Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication in mmWave-Enabled Massive MIMO Networks

Ultra-reliability and low latency are two key components in 5G networks. In this letter, we investigate the problem of ultra-reliable and low-latency communication in millimeter wave-enabled massive multiple-input multiple-output networks. The problem is cast as a network utility maximization subject to probabilistic latency and reliability constraints. To solve this problem, we resort to the Lyapunov technique, whereby a utility-delay control approach is proposed, which adapts to channel variations and queue dynamics. Numerical results demonstrate that our proposed approach ensures reliable communication with a guaranteed probability of 99.99%, and reduces latency by 28.41% and 77.11% as compared to baselines with and without probabilistic latency constraints, respectively.
The role of necrosis, acute hypoxia and chronic hypoxia in 18F-FMISO PET image contrast: a computational modelling study

Positron emission tomography (PET) using 18F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) is a promising technique for imaging tumour hypoxia, and a potential target for radiotherapy dose-painting. However, the relationship between FMISO uptake and oxygen partial pressure (PO2) is yet to be quantified fully. Tissue oxygenation varies over distances much smaller than clinical PET resolution (<100 μm versus ∼4 mm), and cyclic variations in tumour perfusion have been observed on timescales shorter than typical FMISO PET studies (∼20 min versus a few hours). Furthermore, tracer uptake may be decreased in voxels containing some degree of necrosis. This work develops a computational model of FMISO uptake in millimetre-scale tumour regions. Coupled partial differential equations govern the evolution of oxygen and FMISO distributions, and a dynamic vascular source map represents temporal variations in perfusion. Local FMISO binding capacity is modulated by the necrotic fraction. Outputs include spatiotemporal maps of PO2 and tracer accumulation, enabling calculation of tissue-to-blood ratios (TBRs) and time-activity curves (TACs) as a function of mean tissue oxygenation. The model is characterised using experimental data, finding half-maximal FMISO binding at local PO2 of 1.4 mmHg (95% CI: 0.3–2.6 mmHg) and half-maximal necrosis at 1.2 mmHg (0.1–4.9 mmHg). Simulations predict a non-linear non-monotonic relationship between FMISO activity (4 hr post-injection) and mean tissue PO2 : tracer uptake rises sharply from negligible levels in avascular tissue, peaking at ∼5 mmHg and declining towards blood activity in well-oxygenated conditions. Greater temporal variation in perfusion increases peak TBRs (range 2.20–5.27) as a result of smaller predicted necrotic fraction, rather than fundamental differences in FMISO accumulation under acute hypoxia. Identical late FMISO uptake can occur in regions with differing PO2 and necrotic fraction, but simulated TACs indicate that additional early-phase information may allow discrimination of hypoxic and necrotic signals. We conclude that a robust approach to FMISO interpretation (and dose-painting prescription) is likely to be based on dynamic PET analysis.
Persistent Replication of Hepatitis C Virus Replicons Expressing the β-Lactamase Reporter in Subpopulations of Highly Permissive Huh7 Cells

ABSTRACT Progress toward development of better therapies for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been hampered by poor understanding of HCV biology and the lack of biological assays suitable for drug screening. Here we describe a powerful HCV replication system that employs HCV replicons expressing the β-lactamase reporter (bla replicons) and subpopulations of Huh7 cells that are more permissive (or “enhanced”) to HCV replication than naïve Huh7 cells. Enhanced cells represent a small fraction of permissive cells present among naïve Huh7 cells that is enriched during selection with replicons expressing the neomycin phosphotransferase gene (neo replicons). The level of permissiveness of cell lines harboring neo replicons can vary greatly, and the enhanced phenotype is usually revealed upon removal of the neo replicon with inhibitors of HCV replication. Replicon removal is responsible for increased permissiveness, since this effect could be reproduced either with alpha interferon or with an HCV NS5B inhibitor. Moreover, adaptive mutations present in the replicon genome used during selection do not influence the permissiveness of the resulting enhanced-cell population, suggesting that the mechanisms governing the permissiveness of enhanced cells are independent from viral adaptation. Because the β-lactamase reporter allows simultaneous quantitation of replicon-harboring cells and reporter activity, it was possible to investigate the relationship between genome replication activity and the frequency with which transfected genomes can establish persistent replication. Our study demonstrates that differences in the replication potential of the viral genome are manifested primarily in the frequency with which persistent replication is established but modestly affect the number of replicons observed per replicon-harboring cell. Replicon copy number was found to vary over a narrow range that may be defined by a minimal number required for persistent maintenance and a maximum that is limited by the availability of essential host factors.
Gyroscopic Wave Energy Generator for Fish Farms and Rigs

Norway has an opportunity to harvest ocean wave energy through gyroscopic precession as an alternative source of renewable energy, within practical limitations. This research assesses the energy extracted by gyroscopic wave energy generators and their use to provide supplementary power to fish farms and lighting on oilrigs. This project implements the Moving Frame Method (MFM) in dynamics to model the extracted power from a gyroscopic wave energy generator. The MFM leverages Lie Group Theory, Cartan’s moving frames and a new notation from the discipline of geometrical physics. Continuing, the Principle of Virtual Work extracts the equations of motion from the structure of the Special Orthogonal Group. However, the MFM supplements its analysis with a novel application of the restriction on the variations of the angular velocities. This research extends previous work as follows: it accounts for motor torques, it opens a placeholder for buoyancy, and it solves the full 3D set of equations (without assuming negligible yaw). After showing how to obtain the suite of descriptive equations of motion, this project integrates them, however with a relatively simple integration scheme. To complete each step in the analysis, the rotation matrix is updated using the Cayley Hamilton Theorem and the Rodriguez formula. Finally, the results are displayed using the Web Graphics Library such that the actual numerical analysis and display happens on cell phones.
A new endosulfan-degrading fungus, Mortierella species, isolated from a soil contaminated with organochlorine pesticides

Two new aerobic endosulfan-degrading fungal strains, Mortierella sp. strains W8 and Cm1-45, were isolated from soil contaminated with organochlorine pesticides. This is the first report on the biodegradation of endosulfan by Zygomycota. The strains isolated in this work degraded more than 70% and 50% of α and β-endosulfan, respectively, over 28 days at 25°C, whereas 8.2 μM of each a and β-endosulfan was added as the initial concentration in liquid cultures. Only a small amount of endosulfan sulfate, a persistent metabolite, was detected in both cultures, while these strains could not degrade endosulfan sulfate when incubated with endosulfan sulfate as the initial substrate. Both strains generate endosulfan diol as a first step in the degradation of endosulfan and then undergo further conversion to endosulfan lactone. The formation of these intermediates was confirmed by GC-MS. Mortierella spp. might be present as hyphae in contaminated soil because they were isolated using the soil washing method; therefore, these Mortierella spp. strains have potential for the bioremediation of contaminated sites with endosulfan.
Voice input/output interface for online searching: some design and human factor considerations

Speech is rapidly evolving as a very important Man-Ma chine interface in information retrieval applications, and the British Library has recently awarded a grant jointly to the Departments of Information Studies and Computer Science, The Queen's University of Belfast, to investigate the use of a voice input/output interface for online searching. In this paper we describe the aims and background of our project as well as the feasibility, benefits and human factor issues involved in the development and implementation of speech-based interfaces.
A Comparative Study of Relaying Schemes with Decode and Forward over Nakagami-m Fading Channels

Although relaying can be very beneficial for wireless systems, understanding which relaying schemes can achieve specific performance objectives under realistic fading is crucial. In this paper we present a general framework for modeling and evaluating the performance of dual-hop decode-and-forward (DF) relaying schemes over independent and not necessarily identically distributed (INID) Nakagami-m fading channels. We obtain closed-form expressions for the statistics of the instantaneous output signal-to-noise ratio of repetitive transmission with selection diversity. Furthermore, we present a unified statistical overview of other three significant relaying schemes with DF, one based on repetitive transmission with maximal-ratio diversity and the other two based on relay selection (RS). To compare the considered schemes, we present closed-form and analytical expressions for the outage probability and the average symbol error probability under various modulation methods, respectively. Importantly, it is shown that when the channel state information for RS is perfect, RS-based schemes always outperform repetitive ones. Furthermore, when the direct link between the source and the destination nodes is sufficiently strong, relaying may not result in any gains, and it should be switched off.
Reconstruction of the postsubiculum head direction signal from neural ensembles

Head direction cells change their firing rates as a function of the orientation of an animal within an environment. Typically, these cells display a unimodal tuning curve with maximal firing at the cell's preferred direction. As different cells have different preferred directions, the population of cells has been hypothesized to represent the orientation of the animal within the environment. Previous research has shown that pairs of simultaneously recorded head direction cells respond similarly to cue manipulations, suggesting that a population of head direction cells acts in concert to represent the animal's orientation within its environment. Ensembles of head direction cells were recorded from the postsubiculum from rats foraging in an open field. Directional responses of each cell were quantified by the nonparametric Watson's U2 statistic, a measure which makes no explicit assumptions of tuning curve shape. Directionally responsive cells were then used to reconstruct each animal's orientation within the open field using population vector, optimal‐linear estimator, and Bayesian methods. The results indicated that postsubiculum contained a complete representation of the animal's orientation. The internal consistency of a neural ensemble can be assessed by comparing the ensemble activity to the expected activity given the reconstructed orientation. This has been termed the “coherency” of the neural ensemble. Reconstruction error decreased as the coherency of the orientation representation increased, indicating that coherency could be used to measure a level of confidence in the representation quality. Because coherency is a linear measure dependent only on internal variables, coherency may be a behaviorally relevant measure used to ascertain the animal's confidence in its representation of orientation. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
United-pulse: feeling your partner's pulse

This paper introduces a device that creates remote intimacy by the use of two rings named "united-pulse". Each ring can measure the wearer's heartbeat and send it to the partner's ring. Hereby, artificial corporeality is created between the couple. By means of a working prototype, united-pulse has been successfully tested. Among the 28 participants the prototype has attracted large interest. Through the heartbeat -- the essential vital sign -- a feeling of being very close to the partner is provided. Touching the ring allows a small moment of intimacy in situations where emotional support is needed.
3He lung imaging in an open access, very‐low‐field human magnetic resonance imaging system

The human lung and its functions are extremely sensitive to gravity; however, the conventional high‐field magnets used for most laser‐polarized 3He MRI of the human lung restrict subjects to lying horizontally. Imaging of human lungs using inhaled laser‐polarized 3He gas is demonstrated in an open‐access very‐low‐magnetic‐field (<5 mT) MRI instrument. This prototype device employs a simple, low‐cost electromagnet, with an open geometry that allows variation of the orientation of the imaging subject in a two‐dimensional plane. As a demonstration, two‐dimensional lung images were acquired with 4‐mm in‐plane resolution from a subject in two orientations: lying supine and sitting in a vertical position with one arm raised. Experience with this prototype device will guide optimization of a second‐generation very‐low‐field imager to enable studies of human pulmonary physiology as a function of subject orientation. Magn Reson Med 53:745–749, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Biomedical Event Annotation with CRFs and Precision Grammars

This work describes a system for the tasks of identifying events in biomedical text and marking those that are speculative or negated. The architecture of the system relies on both Machine Learning (ML) approaches and hand-coded precision grammars. We submitted the output of our approach to the event extraction shared task at BioNLP 2009, where our methods suffered from low recall, although we were one of the few teams to provide answers for task 3.
Catecholamines Relax Detrusor through β2-Adrenoceptors in Mouse and β3-Adrenoceptors in Man

(-)-Isoproterenol [4-[1-hydroxy-2-[(1-methylethyl)amino]ethyl]-1,2-benzene diol hydrochloride] relaxes murine detrusor through β-adrenoceptors (ARs); however, the β-AR subtypes involved are unknown. β2-ARs have been associated with caveolae, plasma-lemmal scaffolding domains that are absent in caveolin-1 (cav-1) knockout (KO) mice. Here, we studied detrusor responses in the absence and presence of β-AR subtype-selective antagonists in wild-type (WT) and cav-1 KO mice. To inquire whether the murine detrusor model is relevant to man, β-AR subtypes that mediate (-)-isoproterenol-evoked human detrusor relaxation were investigated. In WT mice, (-)-isoproterenol concentration-dependently relaxed the KCl (40 mM)-precontracted detrusor (-logEC50M = 8.04, Emax = 62%). The effects of (-)-isoproterenol were surmountably antagonized by the β2-AR-selective antagonist ICI 118,551 [(±)-1-[2,3-(dihydro-7-methyl-1H-inden-4-yl)oxy]-3-[(1-methylethyl)amino]-2-butanol] (pKB = 9.28) but not affected by the β1-AR-selective antagonist CGP 20712 [1-[2-((3-carbamoyl-4-hydroxy)phenoxy)ethylamino]-3-[4-(1-methyl-4-trifluoromethyl-2-imidazolyl)phenoxy]-2-propanol] and β3-AR-selective L-748,337 [(S)-M-[4-[2-[3-[3-[acetamidomethyl)phenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]-amino]-ethyl]-phenylbenzsulfonamide)], suggesting involvement of β2-AR only. The cav-1 KO detrusor displayed significant contractile dysfunction. (-)-Isoproterenol was less potent and efficient in relaxing detrusor from cav-1 KO (-logEC50M, 7.76; Emax = 44%), but ICI 118,551 caused similar antagonism (pKB = 9.15), suggesting that β2-AR function persisted in cav-1 KO. The β3-AR-selective antagonist L-748,337 in the presence of ICI 118,551 and CGP 20712 caused additional blockade of (-)-isoproterenol effects in cav-1 KO, consistent with a β3-AR involvement during relaxation and suppression of this effect in WT. (-)-Isoproterenol relaxed human detrusor muscle precontracted with carbachol (-logEC50M = 6.39, Emax = 52%). However, the effects of (-)-isoproterenol in human detrusor were not blocked by CGP 20712 or ICI 118,551 but antagonized by L-748,337 (pKB = 7.65). We conclude that murine detrusor relaxation occurs via β2-AR, and loss of caveolae does not perturb β2-AR function but unmasks an additional activation of β3-AR. In contrast, detrusor relaxation in man is mediated exclusively via β3-AR.