Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary Robotics: A New Scientific Tool for Studying Cognition

We survey developments in artificial neural networks, in behavior-based robotics, and in evolutionary algorithms that set the stage for evolutionary robotics (ER) in the 1990s. We examine the motivations for using ER as a scientific tool for studying minimal models of cognition, with the advantage of being capable of generating integrated sensorimotor systems with minimal (or controllable) prejudices. These systems must act as a whole in close coupling with their environments, which is an essential aspect of real cognition that is often either bypassed or modeled poorly in other disciplines. We demonstrate with three example studies: homeostasis under visual inversion, the origins of learning, and the ontogenetic acquisition of entrainment.
Model validation through experimental testbed: the fluid flow behavior example

This testbed practice paper presents our efforts to validate an analytical model for fluid flow behavior in wireless mesh networks with an experimental evaluation. We have developed a fluid model for multihop communication in wireless mesh networks and analyzed it with simulations. Now, we describe our efforts to reproduce the modeled and simulated network with an indoor WiFi mesh network and to measure flow parameters that allow us to verify that the underlying assumptions and the flow behavior can be matched in real networks. Our experiences emphasize the need to gap the bridge between simulations and experimental validation as well as the lack of tools to efficiently validate results. These findings are particularly true in wireless mesh networks where interference is beyond the control of the experiment and where nodes are distributed such that an easy coordination and monitoring of the nodes is not possible.
fMPE-MAP: improved discriminative adaptation for modeling new domains

Maximum a posteriori (MAP) adaptation and its discriminative variants, such as MMI-MAP (maximum mutual information MAP) and MPE-MAP (minimum phone error MAP), have been widely applied to acoustic model adaptation. This paper introduces a new adaptation approach, fMPE-MAP, which is an extension to the original fMPE (feature minimum phone error) algorithm, with the enhanced ability in porting Gaussian models and fMPE transforms to a new domain. We applied this approach to the SRI-ICSI 2007 NIST meeting recognition system, for which we ported our conversational telephone speech (CTS) and broadcast news (BN) models to the meeting domain. Experiments showed that the proposed fMPE-MAP approach has comparable or better performance than simply training the fMPE transform on combined data, in addition to the obvious speed advantage. In combination with MPE-MAP, we obtained about 20% relative word error rate reduction on a lecture meeting evaluation test set, over the models trained with the standard MAP approach.
A Bayesian Model of Category-Specific Emotional Brain Responses

Understanding emotion is critical for a science of healthy and disordered brain function, but the neurophysiological basis of emotional experience is still poorly understood. We analyzed human brain activity patterns from 148 studies of emotion categories (2159 total participants) using a novel hierarchical Bayesian model. The model allowed us to classify which of five categories—fear, anger, disgust, sadness, or happiness—is engaged by a study with 66% accuracy (43-86% across categories). Analyses of the activity patterns encoded in the model revealed that each emotion category is associated with unique, prototypical patterns of activity across multiple brain systems including the cortex, thalamus, amygdala, and other structures. The results indicate that emotion categories are not contained within any one region or system, but are represented as configurations across multiple brain networks. The model provides a precise summary of the prototypical patterns for each emotion category, and demonstrates that a sufficient characterization of emotion categories relies on (a) differential patterns of involvement in neocortical systems that differ between humans and other species, and (b) distinctive patterns of cortical-subcortical interactions. Thus, these findings are incompatible with several contemporary theories of emotion, including those that emphasize emotion-dedicated brain systems and those that propose emotion is localized primarily in subcortical activity. They are consistent with componential and constructionist views, which propose that emotions are differentiated by a combination of perceptual, mnemonic, prospective, and motivational elements. Such brain-based models of emotion provide a foundation for new translational and clinical approaches.
Validating and Restoring Defense in Depth Using Attack Graphs

Defense in depth is a common strategy that uses layers of firewalls to protect supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) subnets and other critical resources on enterprise networks. A tool named NetSPA is presented that analyzes firewall rules and vulnerabilities to construct attack graphs. These show how inside and outside attackers can progress by successively compromising exposed vulnerable hosts with the goal of reaching critical internal targets. NetSPA generates attack graphs and automatically analyzes them to produce a small set of prioritized recommendations to restore defense in depth. Field trials on networks with up to 3,400 hosts demonstrate that firewalls often do not provide defense in depth due to misconfigurations and critical unpatched vulnerabilities on hosts. In all cases, a small number of recommendations was provided to restore defense in depth. Simulations on networks with up to 50,000 hosts demonstrate that this approach scales well to enterprise-size networks
An Opportunistic STBC-OFDM Scheme with Reduced PAR in the Presence of Frequency Offset

In [(S. Diggavi et al., 2003),(S. Das et al., 2005, 2006)] opportunistic space-time block codes were presented for flat-fading channels. In this paper, we propose an opportunistic STBC-OFDM for frequency-selective channels with an unequal error protection capability making it attractive for multimedia applications. Our new scheme optimizes the tradeoff between coding gain and peak-to-average ratio while minimizing inter-carrier interference in the presence of carrier frequency offset. We show that our scheme achieves a 2 dB reduction in PAR over the conventional scheme.
Association study of CARD8 (p.C10X) and NLRP3 (p.Q705K) variants with rheumatoid arthritis in French and Tunisian populations

The objective of the study was to investigate the association of caspase activating and recruitment domain 8 (CARD8) and nucleotide‐binding oligomerization domain, leucine‐rich repeat and pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) polymorphisms with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Tunisian and French populations. CARD8 (c.30T>A, rs2043211) and NLRP3 (c.2113C>A, rs35829419) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 100 French RA trio families and 141 Tunisian patients with RA and 191 unrelated healthy controls, using TaqMan® allelic discrimination assay. The genetic analyses for the association and linkage in French families were performed using the comparison of allelic frequencies (AFBAC), the genotype relative risk (GRR) and the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT). Data for case and control samples were analysed by chi‐square‐test, GRR and odds ratio (OR). No significant differences between alleles and genotypes frequencies were detected in French trio and Tunisian patients with RA and controls, either with CARD8 or with NLRP3 SNPs both in French and in Tunisian populations. Moreover, stratifying patients according to the presence of rheumatoid factor (RF), anti‐cyclic peptides antibodies (ACPA), erosion, nodules, other autoimmune disease or HLA‐DRB1*04‐positive subgroups did not show any significant association with CARD8 or NLRP3 (P ≥ 0.05). This study suggests that variations in the innate immunity genes CARD8 (p.C10X) and NLRP3 (p.Q705K) have no effect on RA susceptibility either in the Tunisian or in the French population.
Exhumation of a migmatite complex along a transpressive shear zone: inferences from the Variscan Juzbado–Penalva do Castelo Shear Zone (Central Iberian Zone)

High-grade metamorphic rocks associated with S-type granites are recorded in the Central Iberian Zone, Iberian Variscides. Though most of these occur as inferred metamorphic core complexes affiliated with detachment faults, others, such as the Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo–Lumbrales Anatectic Complex, crop out between low-grade metamorphic rocks separated by steeply-dipping strike-slip shear zones, such as the Juzbado–Penalva do Castelo Shear Zone. Our structural analysis has been able to constrain two major deformation stages during the Variscan D3: (a) D3a ductile deformation event, with clear sinistral kinematic criteria; and (b) D3b thrusting ductile–brittle deformation event. The petrological investigation confirmed the jump in metamorphic grade between the host rocks and the anatectic complex. P–T estimates on calc-silicate rocks interlayered with the metapelites of the anatectic complex provided minimum metamorphic peak conditions of T = 761 ± 50°C and P = 5.0 ± 1.0 kbar. However, petrological modelling results show that P–T conditions must have exceeded T > 800°C. Both structural and geothermobarometric data support a two-step model for the exhumation of the Anatectic Complex, including a 5 – 8 km vertical exhumation along a 65 – 100 km horizontal displacement due to a simple shear-dominated transpression mechanism during the Variscan D3 events. Supplementary material: The petrology data, mineral chemistry analyses of the calc-silicate units and EPMA analytical conditions, and the P–T modelling methodology can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare. c.3785648
Oral Infection With a Periodontal Pathogen Accelerates Early Atherosclerosis in Apolipoprotein E–Null Mice

Objective—Because recent epidemiologic evidence suggests that periodontal infections may increase the risk of atherosclerosis and related events in humans, we assessed the impact of oral inoculation with the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis on atherogenesis in hypercholesterolemic apolipoprotein E–null mice. Methods and Results—In the absence of alterations in distinct risk factors, P gingivalis infection exacerbated the early stages of atherogenesis in this model. Infected animals displayed evidence of local periodontal infection, as the severity of alveolar bone loss, the hallmark of periodontitis, was increased. Generalized activation of host inflammatory responses was evident in infected mice, as demonstrated by serum IgG response to P gingivalis and elevated levels of interleukin-6. P gingivalis DNA was localized in the aortic tissue from a limited number of infected mice but not in any noninfected controls. Infected mice displayed enhanced vascular activation, as suggested by increased aortic expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and tissue factor. Conclusions—Oral infection with P gingivalis accelerates early atherosclerosis. Thus, uncovering the underlying mechanisms is critical for the design of preventive and therapeutic strategies targeting atherosclerotic vascular disease and its sequelae.
Traffic-aware networking for video streaming service using SDN

In this paper we propose a traffic-aware networking technique by using software-defined networking (SDN) to precisely and promptly identify video streaming packets. We performed experiments on our SDN testbed. Compared with the existing deep packet inspection (DPI) method, the proposed SDN-enabled traffic-aware packet routing technique can reduce the latency by 75% and increase the success rate for traffic identification up to 138%.
Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding

Group dancing is a ubiquitous human activity that involves exertive synchronized movement to music. It is hypothesized to play a role in social bonding, potentially via the release of endorphins, which are analgesic and reward-inducing, and have been implicated in primate social bonding. We used a 2 × 2 experimental design to examine effects of exertion and synchrony on bonding. Both demonstrated significant independent positive effects on pain threshold (a proxy for endorphin activation) and in-group bonding. This suggests that dance which involves both exertive and synchronized movement may be an effective group bonding activity.
Motion fields for interactive character locomotion

We propose a novel representation of motion data and control that enables characters with both highly agile responses to user input and natural handling of arbitrary external disturbances. The representation organizes motion data as samples in a high dimensional generalization of a vector field we call a 'motion field'. Our runtime motion synthesis mechanism freely 'flows' in the motion field and is capable of creating novel and natural motions that are highly-responsive to the real time user input, and generally not explicitly specified in the data.
Bootstrapping ontology alignment methods with APFEL

Ontology alignment is a prerequisite in order to allow for interoperation between different ontologies and many alignment strategies have been proposed to facilitate the alignment task by (semi-)automatic means. Due to the complexity of the alignment task, manually defined methods for (semi-)automatic alignment rarely constitute an optimal configuration of substrategies from which they have been built. In fact, scrutinizing current ontology alignment methods, one may recognize that most are not optimized for given ontologies. Some few include machine learning for automating the task, but their optimization by machine learning means is mostly restricted to the extensional definition of ontology concepts. With APFEL (Alignment Process Feature Estimation and Learning) we present a machine learning approach that explores the user validation of initial alignments for optimizing alignment methods. The methods are based on extensional and intensional ontology definitions. Core to APFEL is the idea of a generic alignment process, the steps of which may be represented explicitly. APFEL then generates new hypotheses for what might be useful features and similarity assessments and weights them by machine learning approaches. APFEL compares favorably in our experiments to competing approaches.
Translators at work with TRANSTYPE: Resource and Evaluation.

TRANSTYPE is an interactive machine translation prototype which has been designed at RALI with the hope that it could efficiently assist translators in their day work. During spring 2001, the latest version of our prototype was evaluated in an in situ setting. We first describe our evaluation protocol and then analyse the data we obtained. Second, we know that TRANSTYPE has been emulated and a few clones of it are already available. Therefore we have decided to open our log-files to the small but growing TRANSTYPE community. We believe such a database to be a helpful resource for both the researchers involved in the TRANSTYPE project, and also for all those interested in observing translators at work. Third, we briefly describe a free TRANSTYPE Player tool that we have developped; that is, a JAVA application which allows a given log-file to be played back.
A Statistical Spoken Dialogue System using Complex User Goals and Value Directed Compression

This paper presents the first demonstration of a statistical spoken dialogue system that uses automatic belief compression to reason over complex user goal sets. Reasoning over the power set of possible user goals allows complex sets of user goals to be represented, which leads to more natural dialogues. The use of the power set results in a massive expansion in the number of belief states maintained by the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) spoken dialogue manager. A modified form of Value Directed Compression (VDC) is applied to the POMDP belief states producing a near-lossless compression which reduces the number of bases required to represent the belief distribution.
A new transceiver architecture for multi-user MIMO communication based on mixture of linear and non-linear reception

In this paper, a new transceiver architecture for K-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) broadcast channels (BCs) based on linear and non-linear mixture reception is proposed as an alternative to conventional fully linear zero-forcing (ZF) downlink beamforming. In the new transceiver architecture, two closely-aligned users are paired as a group, and superposition coding and non-linear successive cancellation (SIC) reception based on Pareto-optimal design is applied to each closely-aligned two-user group, while ZF beamforming is maintained across roughly-orthogonal groups. Numerical results show that the proposed new architecture yields non-trivial gain over conventional full ZF beamforming by mitigating the performance degradation of full ZF beamforming caused by closely-aligned channel vectors.
A general formula for channel capacity

A formula for the capacity of arbitrary single-user channels without feedback (not necessarily information stable, stationary, etc.) is proved. Capacity is shown to equal the supremum, over all input processes, of the input-output inf-information rate defined as the liminf in probability of the normalized information density. The key to this result is a new converse approach based on a simple new lower bound on the error probability of m-ary hypothesis tests among equiprobable hypotheses. A necessary and sufficient condition for the validity of the strong converse is given, as well as general expressions for /spl epsiv/-capacity. >
Miniature hygrometric hot flush recorder as an objective indicator of hot flushes: a validation study

ObjectiveHot flushes are a very common symptom of menopause for which many women seek medical help. Accurate assessment of clinical severity and of the impact of treatment is limited by a lack of methods for objective hot flush recording. The aim of the current study is to test the diagnostic value of a miniature hygrometric hot flush recorder (HFR). MethodsThe HFR was tested in 50 women with severe postmenopausal hot flushes. Results were compared with recordings in 27 asymptomatic postmenopausal women, 12 premenopausal women, and 12 age-matched healthy men. The number of HFR events was compared with the number of diary-reported hot flushes. ResultsHealthy young women and men had a mean (SEM) of 17.3 (1.3) HFR events/day. Asymptomatic postmenopausal women had 13.6 (1.4) HFR events/day, whereas symptomatic postmenopausal women had 21.0 (1.0) HFR events/day (P < 0.001). The number of HFR events in symptomatic women was significantly higher than the number of diary-reported hot flushes (mean [SEM], 13.8 [0.6] hot flushes/d) (P < 0.001). HFR sensitivity to diary-reported hot flushes was 55.1%, with 61.4% specificity. ConclusionsThe miniature hygrometric HFR has limited sensitivity and specificity. It detects sweating in general but does not differentiate between natural sweating and hot flush–related sweating. However, it may become useful as a tool for improving the data quality of diary-reported hot flushes.
Power line communication front-ends based on ADSL technology

The practical implementation of communication over power lines (PLC) using an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) front-end is discussed. Both PLC and ADSL modems are based on the same principle of using their respective transmission medium in a frequency range they were never originally designed for. One property both technologies share is the large power that is required when transmitting signals onto the communication medium. The frequency ranges are also comparable. Therefore, ADSL front-ends are evaluated as a power line interface. This paper presents the front-end topology and discusses the signal-to noise measurements that were performed to determine, using Shannon's theorem, the theoretical data throughput.
Creating Buzz

Social interaction promotes the spread of values, attitudes, and behaviors. Here, we report on neural responses to ideas that are destined to spread. We scanned message communicators using functional MRI during their initial exposure to the to-be-communicated ideas. These message communicators then had the opportunity to spread the messages and their corresponding subjective evaluations to message recipients outside the scanner. Successful ideas were associated with neural responses in the communicators’ mentalizing systems and reward systems when they first heard the messages, prior to spreading them. Similarly, individuals more able to spread their own views to others produced greater mentalizing-system activity during initial encoding. Unlike prior social-influence studies that focused on the individuals being influenced, this investigation focused on the brains of influencers. Successful social influence is reliably associated with an influencer-to-be’s state of mind when first encoding ideas.
AFFERENT PATHWAYS INVOLVED IN CARDIOVASCULAR ADJUSTMENTS INDUCED BY HYPERTONIC SALINE RESUSCITATION IN RATS SUBMITTED TO HEMORRHAGIC SHOCK

The peripheral hyperosmolarity elicited by intravenous infusion of hypertonic saline (HS) can be beneficial in treating hemorrhagic shock. However, the neural mechanisms involved in this resuscitation remain unknown. The present study sought to determine the effects of selective baroreceptor denervation on arterial blood pressure response during HS resuscitation in rats submitted to hemorrhagic shock. Male Wistar rats (280-320 g) were anesthetized with thiopental sodium (40 mg/kg, i.v.), and the femoral artery and jugular vein were cannulated for MAP and heart rate recording and HS infusion (3 mol/L NaCl; 0.18 mL/100 g body weight, >2 min). Hemorrhagic shock was obtained by withdrawing blood over 30 min until a MAP of 60 mmHg was obtained. This level of MAP was maintained for a further 30 min through subsequent blood withdrawal or reinfusion. Next, animals were divided into selective aortic and/or carotid denervation or sham groups before infusing HS. Results showed that in the sham group (n = 12), HS infusion increased MAP to levels close to baseline (from 65 ± 3 to 112 ± 5 mmHg, 10 min after HS). In the aortic denervated group (n = 10), HS infusion also increased MAP (from 54 ± 3 to 112 ± 5 mmHg, 10 min after HS). In contrast, in the carotid denervation group (n = 8), the increase in MAP induced by HS infusion was abolished (from 53 ± 3 to 73 ± 12 mmHg, 10 min after HS). These results indicate that in hemorrhaged rats, HS infusion produces a pressor effect that is likely to be mediated through carotid rather than aortic baroreceptors.