Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fragmentation of the Adriatic Promontory: New Chronological Constraints From Neogene Shortening Rates Across the Southern Alps (NE Italy)

The eastern Southern Alps are located at the northern tip of the Adria microplate, which imposes 2.0–2.5 mm/year of N‐S‐convergence relative to stable Eurasia. We map surface evidence of recent folding/faulting in this area from a 5‐m Digital Elevation Model (DEM). In the eastern part of the belt, observations reveal a 30‐km‐wide zone of active folding composed of at least five growing anticlines. The most recent ones warped the postglacial alluvial surface by <10 m. Combining these findings with published geological and geophysical data allows us to infer that active thrusting occurs along a single deeply rooted thrust, which accommodates the indentation of the Adriatic crust. Resolving the observed pattern of uplift on the inferred fault geometry indicates that NNE‐SSW shortening across the eastern Southern Alps has occurred at a rate of about 1.5 mm/year over the postglacial period. On the other hand, a balanced cross section for the eastern Southern Alps at the scale of the upper crust constrains a minimum of 43 km of finite shortening over the last 14 Ma, yielding a shortening rate of about 3 mm/year, which is 2 times higher than the postglacial shortening rate. This decrease in the shortening rate is associated to the Pleistocene activation of new thrusts that is compatible with a change in the direction of compression. The inferred local change in the kinematics of thrusting during the Pleistocene is consistent with a change from Nubia‐imposed to Adria‐imposed convergence indicating that the fragmentation of the Adriatic promontory could have occurred 1–2 Ma ago.
Descriptive consistency and social desirability in self‐and peer reports

In the present study, 300 subjects were administered 20 sets of four trait‐descriptive terms where aspects of content and evaluation were unconfounded (e.g. firm, severe, lenient, and lax). Each subject was also evaluated by three peers using the same sets of four trait terms. Moreover, the subjects responded to several personality inventories and rating scales, and they were also described on these rating scales by their peers. The results showed that the subjects frequently ascribed to themselves or to their peers two favourable trait terms that were descriptively inconsistent (e.g. firm, lenient). A measure of individual differences in socially desirable responding was constructed by summing all desirable responses. Subjects who described themselves in a socially desirable manner were less neurotic and more conscientious according to self‐reports as well as peer reports. Several implications of the findings are discussed, and the present SD measure is compared with several well‐known desirability scales.
Dynamic body VSLAM with semantic constraints

Image based reconstruction of urban environments is a challenging problem that deals with optimization of large number of variables, and has several sources of errors like the presence of dynamic objects. Since most large scale approaches make the assumption of observing static scenes, dynamic objects are relegated to the noise modelling section of such systems. This is an approach of convenience since the RANSAC based framework used to compute most multiview geometric quantities for static scenes naturally confine dynamic objects to the class of outlier measurements. However, reconstructing dynamic objects along with the static environment helps us get a complete picture of an urban environment. Such understanding can then be used for important robotic tasks like path planning for autonomous navigation, obstacle tracking and avoidance, and other areas. In this paper, we propose a system for robust SLAM that works in both static and dynamic environments. To overcome the challenge of dynamic objects in the scene, we propose a new model to incorporate semantic constraints into the reconstruction algorithm. While some of these constraints are based on multi-layered dense CRFs trained over appearance as well as motion cues, other proposed constraints can be expressed as additional terms in the bundle adjustment optimization process that does iterative refinement of 3D structure and camera / object motion trajectories. We show results on the challenging KITTI urban dataset for accuracy of motion segmentation and reconstruction of the trajectory and shape of moving objects relative to ground truth. We are able to show average relative error reduction by 41 % for moving object trajectory reconstruction relative to state-of-the-art methods like TriTrack[16], as well as on standard bundle adjustment algorithms with motion segmentation.
Oscillation-Based Test Structure and Method for OTA-C Filters

This paper describes a design for testability technique for operational transconductance amplifier and capacitor filters using an oscillation-based test topology. The oscillation-based test structure is a vectorless output test strategy easily extendable to built-in self-test. The proposed methodology converts filter under test into a quadrature oscillator using very simple techniques and measures the output frequency. The oscillation frequency may be considered as a digital signal and it can be evaluated using digital circuitry therefore the test time is very small. These characteristics imply that the proposed method is very suitable for catastrophic and parametric faults testing and also effective in detecting single and multiple faults. The validity of the proposed method has been verified using comparison between faulty and fault-free simulation results of two integrator loop and Tow-Thomas filters. Simulation results in 0.25 mum CMOS technology show that the proposed oscillation-based test strategy for OTA-C filters has 87% fault coverage and with a minimum number of extra components, requires a negligible area overhead.
Personal Map: Automatically Modeling the User's Online Social Network

The Personal Map provides an automated visual overview of the user’s online social network, which can be used in lieu of user-generated contact lists. We explored people’s mental models of their social networks by having them draw whom they cared about, and then developed the Personal Map to automatically visualize these models. Our automated models use past email behavior to infer whom users care about, and how users implicitly cluster or organize contacts in their minds. A user test of the Personal Map indicates that people found it both accurate and compelling. We integrated the underlying model into users’ everyday email through a list of most important and related contacts, and studied its usage. While some people used the list of related contacts, they did not care for its dynamic nature, leading to new user interface designs.
Environmental Health: a Global Access Science Source Estimation of Health Effects of Prenatal Methylmercury Exposure Using Structural Equation Models

Background: Observational studies in epidemiology always involve concerns regarding validity, especially measurement error, confounding, missing data, and other problems that may affect the study outcomes. Widely used standard statistical techniques, such as multiple regression analysis, may to some extent adjust for these shortcomings. However, structural equations may incorporate most of these considerations, thereby providing overall adjusted estimations of associations. This approach was used in a large epidemiological data set from a prospective study of developmental methyl-mercury toxicity.
MULTISCALE EDGE DETECTION AND IMAGE SEGMENTATION ( MonPmPO 3 )

Abstract : In this paper, we propose a novel multi−scale edge detection and vector field design scheme. We show that using multi−scale techniques edge detection and segmentation quality on natural images can be improved significantly. Our approach eliminates the need for explicit scale selection and edge tracking. Our method favors edges that exist at a wide range of scales and localize these edges at finer scales. This work is then extended to multi−scale image segmentation using our anisotropic diffusion scheme.
Intrusion-tolerant Enclaves

Despite our best efforts, any sufficiently complex computer system has vulnerabilities. It is safe to assume that such vulnerabilities can be exploited by attackers who will be able to penetrate the system. Intrusion tolerance attempts to maintain acceptable service despite such intrusions. This paper presents an application of intrusion-tolerance concepts to Enclaves, a software infrastructure for supporting secure group applications. Intrusion tolerance is achieved via a combination of Byzantine fault-tolerant protocols and secret sharing techniques.
Visual Search Does Not Remain Efficient When Executive Working Memory Is Working

Working memory (WM) has been thought to include not only short-term memory stores but also executive processes that operate on the contents of memory. The present study examined the involvement of WM in search using a dual-task paradigm in which participants performed visual search while manipulating or simply maintaining information held in WM. Experiments 1a and 2a involved executive WM tasks that required counting backward from a target digit and sorting a string of letters alphabetically, respectively. In both experiments, the search slopes in the dual-task condition were significantly steeper than those in a search-alone condition, indicating that performing the WM manipulation tasks influenced the efficiency of visual search. In contrast, when information was simply maintained in WM (Experiments 1b and 2b), search slopes did not differ between the single- and dual-task conditions. These results suggest that WM resources related to executive functions may be required in visual search.
Broad Specificity of Mammalian Adenylyl Cyclase for Interaction with 2′,3′-Substituted Purine- and Pyrimidine Nucleotide Inhibitors

Membrane adenylyl cyclases (mACs) play an important role in signal transduction and are therefore potential drug targets. Earlier, we identified 2′,3′-O-(N-methylanthraniloyl) (MANT)-substituted purine nucleotides as a novel class of highly potent competitive mAC inhibitors (Ki values in the 10 nM range). MANT nucleotides discriminate among various mAC isoforms through differential interactions with a binding pocket localized at the interface between the C1 and C2 domains of mAC. In this study, we examine the structure/activity relationships for 2′,3′-substituted nucleotides and compare the crystal structures of mAC catalytic domains (VC1:IIC2) bound to MANT-GTP, MANT-ATP, and 2′,3′-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl) (TNP)-ATP. TNP-substituted purine and pyrimidine nucleotides inhibited VC1:IIC2 with moderately high potency (Ki values in the 100 nM range). Elongation of the linker between the ribosyl group and the MANT group and substitution of N-adenine atoms with MANT reduces inhibitory potency. Crystal structures show that MANT-GTP, MANT-ATP, and TNP-ATP reside in the same binding pocket in the VC1:IIC2 protein complex, but there are substantial differences in interactions of base, fluorophore, and polyphosphate chain of the inhibitors with mAC. Fluorescence emission and resonance transfer spectra also reflect differences in the interaction between MANT-ATP and VC1:IIC2 relative to MANT-GTP. Our data are indicative of a three-site mAC pharmacophore; the 2′,3′-O-ribosyl substituent and the polyphosphate chain have the largest impact on inhibitor affinity and the nucleotide base has the least. The mAC binding site exhibits broad specificity, accommodating various bases and fluorescent groups at the 2′,3′-O-ribosyl position. These data should greatly facilitate the rational design of potent, isoform-selective mAC inhibitors.
Sequencing ASMT Identifies Rare Mutations in Chinese Han Patients with Autism

Melatonin is involved in the regulation of circadian and seasonal rhythms and immune function. Prior research reported low melatonin levels in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). ASMT located in pseudo-autosomal region 1 encodes the last enzyme of the melatonin biosynthesis pathway. A previous study reported an association between ASD and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs4446909 and rs5989681 located in the promoter of ASMT. Furthermore, rare deleterious mutations were identified in a subset of patients. To investigate the association between ASMT and autism, we sequenced all ASMT exons and its neighboring region in 398 Chinese Han individuals with autism and 437 healthy controls. Although our study did not detect significant differences of genotypic distribution and allele frequencies of the common SNPs in ASMT between patients with autism and healthy controls, we identified new rare coding mutations of ASMT. Among these rare variants, 4 were exclusively detected in patients with autism including a stop mutation (p.R115W, p.V166I, p.V179G, and p.W257X). These four coding variants were observed in 6 of 398 (1.51%) patients with autism and none in 437 controls (Chi-Square test, Continuity Correction p = 0.032, two-sided). Functional prediction of impact of amino acid showed that p.R115W might affect protein function. These results indicate that ASMT might be a susceptibility gene for autism. Further studies in larger samples are needed to better understand the degree of variation in this gene as well as to understand the biochemical and clinical impacts of ASMT/melatonin deficiency.
Multiscale modeling approach for hierarchical aligned aggregated small area health data

When data are aggregated from a finer to a coarser geographical level, there will be loss of information known as the scaling problem in geography. To address the scaling problem, we propose to use a joint convolution model that describes the risk variation at both the finer and coarser levels simultaneously by sharing both the correlated and the uncorrelated components. We compare our model with the naive approach that ignores the scale effect in real and simulated data in a range of criteria such as deviance information criterion (DIC), Watanabe-Akaike information criterion, and mean square prediction error (MSPE). We found that our multiscale model is better than the naive model.
Validation of stereo matching for robot navigation

This paper presents results from experiments on visual stereo matching for robot navigation. Visual features are stereo paired with respect to their pixel position. Stereo triangulating all paired visual features results in a set of landmarks whereof a subset are true landmarks. Constraining the horizontal disparity limits the amount of spurious matches. The stereo matching is validated by finding which landmarks survives short motions measured with a complementary navigation system, like odometry, thus transferring the stereo matching problem from two to three dimensional space and robot motion is estimated from the landmarks surviving the motion. The results from our experiments show that the spurious matching algorithm for stereo matching validation works and that the system is able to estimate the motion.
X-ray computed tomography imaging of a tumor with high sensitivity using gold nanoparticles conjugated to a cancer-specific antibody via polyethylene glycol chains on their surface

Abstract Contrast agents are often used to enhance the contrast of X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging of tumors to improve diagnostic accuracy. However, because the iodine-based contrast agents currently used in hospitals are of low molecular weight, the agent is rapidly excreted from the kidney or moves to extravascular tissues through the capillary vessels, depending on its concentration gradient. This leads to nonspecific enhancement of contrast images for tissues. Here, we created gold (Au) nanoparticles as a new contrast agent to specifically image tumors with CT using an enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Au has a higher X-ray absorption coefficient than does iodine. Au nanoparticles were supported with polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains on their surface to increase the blood retention and were conjugated with a cancer-specific antibody via terminal PEG chains. The developed Au nanoparticles were injected into tumor-bearing mice, and the distribution of Au was examined with CT imaging, transmission electron microscopy, and elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The results show that specific localization of the developed Au nanoparticles in the tumor is affected by a slight difference in particle size and enhanced by the conjugation of a specific antibody against the tumor.
Effects of typical, atypical, and no antipsychotic drugs on visual contrast detection in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Visual contrast detection has been reported in some studies to be normal in schizophrenia patients, but in other studies impairments have been reported. Because contrast detection in the visual processing system is mediated by dopamine, and because the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia involves blocking dopamine postsynaptic receptor sites, the authors investigated the effects of dopamine-blocking antipsychotic drugs on visual contrast detection in schizophrenia. METHOD Visual contrast detection thresholds were measured in healthy subjects and schizophrenia patients receiving typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs; a two-alternative, forced-choice psychophysical method was used. Also included were six patients receiving no antipsychotic treatment as well as clinically unaffected first-degree relatives of the schizophrenia patients. RESULTS Patients receiving atypical antipsychotic drugs showed unimpaired visual contrast detection, those given typical antipsychotic drugs exhibited higher visual contrast detection thresholds, and the unmedicated schizophrenic patients showed visual contrast detection thresholds significantly below those of healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS Dopamine modulation via D(2) receptor blockade affects sensory processes in schizophrenia, shifting visual contrast detection from hypersensitivity in the unmedicated state to normal and even to hyposensitive levels. Thus, antipsychotic drug treatment may account for the inconsistent reports concerning visual contrast detection in schizophrenia.
Deriving backtracking monad transformers

In a paper about pretty printing J. Hughes introduced two fundamental techniques for deriving programs from their specification, where a specification consists of a signature and properties that the operations of the signature are required to satisfy. Briefly, the first technique, the term implementation, represents the operations by terms and works by defining a mapping from operations to observations --- this mapping can be seen as defining a simple interpreter. The second, the context-passing implementation, represents operations as functions from their calling context to observations. We apply both techniques to derive a backtracking monad transformer that adds backtracking to an arbitrary monad. In addition to the usual backtracking operations --- failure and nondeterministic choice --- the prolog cut and an operation for delimiting the effect of a cut are supported.
Efficient multi-ported memories for FPGAs

Multi-ported memories are challenging to implement with FPGAs since the provided block RAMs typically have only two ports. We present a thorough exploration of the design space of FPGA-based soft multi-ported memories by evaluating conventional solutions to this problem, and introduce a new design that efficiently combines block RAMs into multi-ported memories with arbitrary numbers of read and write ports and true random access to any memory location, while achieving significantly higher operating frequencies than conventional approaches. For example we build a 256-location, 32-bit, 12-ported (4-write, 8-read) memory that operates at 281 MHz on Altera Stratix III FPGAs while consuming an area equivalent to 3679 ALMs: a 43% speed improvement and 84% area reduction over a pure ALM implementation, and a 61% speed improvement over a pure "multipumped" implementation, although the pure multipumped implementation is 7.2x smaller.
Classifying and filtering blind feedback terms to improve information retrieval effectiveness

The classification of blind relevance feedback (BRF) terms described in this paper aims at increasing precision or recall by determining which terms decrease, increase or do not change the corresponding information retrieval (IR) performance metric. Classification and IR experiments are performed on the German and English GIRT data, using the BM25 retrieval model. Several basic memory-based classifiers are trained on different feature sets, grouping together features from different query expansion (QE) approaches. Combined classifiers employ the results of the basic classifiers and correctness predictions as features. The best combined classifiers for German (English) yield 22.9% (26.4%) and 5.8% (1.9%) improvement for term classification wrt. precision and recall compared to the best basic classifiers. IR experiments based on this term classification have also been performed. Filtering out different types of BRF terms shows that selecting feedback terms predicted to increase precision improves the average precision significantly compared to experiments without BRF. MAP is improved by +19.8% compared to the best standard BRF experiment (+11% for German). BRF term classification also increases the number of relevant and retrieved documents, geometric MAP, and P@10 in comparison to standard BRF. Experiments based on an optimal classification show that there is potential for improving IR effectiveness even more.
Doing Social science in regions of conflict: – Snowball sampling in Armenia

This paper is a short introduction to one of the methods, snowballing, which is used by social scientists working in conflict or what is considered ‘hard to reach’ areas. While the method have been used in many other contexts where there is no immediate dangers and uncertainty is low, it has proven useful in mitigating at least the majority of risks that are facing the scientist in these types of environments. The paper takes it outset in the context of Armenia and research into the relationship between mining multinational and local communities. While the example used in this papers does not take its outset from an area in direct conflict e.g. War, it does show how research can be conducted in regions where the threat of conflict is ever present and where sample populations are ‘hard to reach’.
Neutrophil recruitment and increased permeability during acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide.

The intranasal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mice triggers a huge influx of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) into the airway spaces, with a peak at 48 h. The increase in protein concentration, an index of microvascular permeability, displayed a different pattern, i.e., a first increase with a plateau between 3 and 24 h followed by a second increase peaking at 72 h. When mice were depleted of circulating PMNs, the increase in protein concentration was inhibited at 3 h but not at 24 h. The lack of PMN involvement at 24 h was confirmed by 1) in situ activation of exudated PMNs present in the air spaces on intranasal administration of LPS and 2) induction of the migration of PMNs sequestered in lung vessels on intraperitoneal administration of LPS. These findings show that the increase in microvascular permeability during lung inflammation is due to at least two distinct mechanisms, an early one related to the neutrophil influx and a delayed one occurring even under neutropenic conditions.