Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Automated (F) LTL Test Oracle for Testing with Requirements

Especially for safety-critical systems, we might want to express desired system properties in precise formal requirements. Verifying that a system then adheres to these requirements is obviously quite crucial. Complementing related methods like model checking or runtime monitors, for testing and most importantly debugging recognized problems, we would certainly be interested in automated test oracles for deriving program spectra. Such program spectra containing the details of the executions and the oracle's verdicts have been shown to be an effective reasoning basis for debugging purposes. In this paper, we show how to automatically derive such a test oracle via a special satisfiability encoding. In particular, we instantiate a dedicated SAT problem in conjunctive normal form directly from the requirements and a test case's execution data. As our experiments illustrate, our approach shows attractive performance and can be fully automated.
The RUCA Project and Digital Inclusion

The XO (OLPC's "one hundred dollar laptop") is under evaluation by the Brazilian Government as a possible educational tool and also as a means of promoting digital inclusion. The laptops would be distributed to school children to use during classes and to take home. The RUCA project was created to validate the network capabilities of the XOs. In this paper we focus on one particular aspect of these tests, namely the feasibility of the XO as a digital inclusion aid device. The premise to be tested is the following. If children take their laptops home would they be able to communicate to each other and with the school? Will the novel 802.11s implementation (the first implementation of the IEEE draft) be successful in forming a mesh network to interconnect children in a low cost, infra-structure free environment? Will its performance suffice? Here, we present some answers that indicate that although further testing is still required, the results are encouraging.
Reliability Evaluation for Multi-State Markov Repairable Systems with Redundant Dependencies

Abstract In multi-state systems with load-sharing, the load will be redistributed among working units while some units go to failure. Hence dependencies exit among units. To model the evolution of these systems, a multi-state Markov repairable system with redundant dependencies is introduced in this paper. More than two states are allowed for each unit of the system, including perfect working, deterioration and complete failure. The state transition rate of each working unit is a function of the number of functioning units and is quantified by a redundant dependence function. A two-dimensional vector, whose elements denote respectively the number of units that are in perfect and degraded operating states, is presented to describe accurately the performance of the system. The state space of the system is divided into distinct state sets according to the value of the vector. The visit probability to a specified state set (the acceptable, excellent, operating and warning state sets), the time to the first system failure and the steady-state distribution of sojourn time in the acceptable state set are discussed. Markov theory and aggregated stochastic process theory are used to get these reliability indices. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the results obtained in the paper. The impact of redundant dependencies in the system is also considered.
Stereoscopic Visual Attention-Based Regional Bit Allocation Optimization for Multiview Video Coding

We propose a Stereoscopic Visual Attention- (SVA-) based regional bit allocation optimization for Multiview Video Coding (MVC) by the exploiting visual redundancies from human perceptions. We propose a novel SVA model, where multiple perceptual stimuli including depth, motion, intensity, color, and orientation contrast are utilized, to simulate the visual attention mechanisms of human visual system with stereoscopic perception. Then, a semantic region-of-interest (ROI) is extracted based on the saliency maps of SVA. Both objective and subjective evaluations of extracted ROIs indicated that the proposed SVA model based on ROI extraction scheme outperforms the schemes only using spatial or/and temporal visual attention clues. Finally, by using the extracted SVA-based ROIs, a regional bit allocation optimization scheme is presented to allocate more bits on SVA-based ROIs for high image quality and fewer bits on background regions for efficient compression purpose. Experimental results on MVC show that the proposed regional bit allocation algorithm can achieve over % bit-rate saving while maintaining the subjective image quality. Meanwhile, the image quality of ROIs is improved by dB at the cost of insensitive image quality degradation of the background image.
Limit cycles in a digitally controlled buck converter

We describe the mathematical model of a digitally controlled buck converter. This model is an autonomous discrete-time discontinuous piecewise-linear dynamical system in three dimensions. Investigating this system, we find its equilibrium points, describe the shape and size of possible limit cycles (i.e. stable periodic motions), and derive conditions for their existence and non-existence.
Informing priorities for coaching education: Perspectives from youth sport leaders

Central to the ability of successfully facilitating sport participation toward positive developmental outcomes is the youth sport leader. Youth sport leaders are responsible for addressing the many stressors and risk factors that youth encounter in both sport and life. However, a majority of youth sport leaders do not receive coaching education or training, especially in regard to youth development. The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the various factors, which affect youth sport leaders, their team, and the community in which they coach. The four key areas of team building/teamwork, parental influence/involvement, sportsmanship, and teaching life skills emerged. By better understanding the issues within youth sport, researchers will be more aware of the most relevant issues to guide future research and to inform the development of coaching education. Moreover, youth sport leaders will be better equipped and prepared to maximize youth development through sport participation.
miR-486-5p suppresses prostate cancer metastasis by targeting Snail and regulating epithelial–mesenchymal transition

The most common cause of death from prostate cancer (PCa) is metastases. There is an increasing body of evidence that microRNAs play an important role in the development of PCa by regulating target genes involved in tumor metastasis. Here, we identified that expression of miR-486-5p was decreased in metastatic C4-2 cells compared to non-metastatic LNCaP cells. Further validation in clinical samples showed that miR-486-5p expression was significantly decreased in metastatic PCa tissues compared to localized PCa tissues. Functional studies demonstrated that increased miR-486-5p expression can suppress cell migration and the invasive ability of C4-2 cells. Moreover, Snail, a key regulator of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition, was verified as a target gene of miR-486-5p. In conclusion, these findings suggest that miR-486-5p plays a suppressive role in mediating the migration and invasion of PCa by directly suppressing the protein expression of Snail and may provide a potential therapeutic target for the disease.
Synthetic Post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Evolution: Basic Models and Applications to Disk Populations

We explore the realm of post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars from a theoretical viewpoint, by constructing a synthetic population of transition objects, proto-planetary nebulae, planetary nebula nuclei (PNNs), and post-planetary nebula objects. We use the Monte Carlo procedure to filter out the populations according to a given set of assumptions. We explore the parameter space by studying the effects of the initial mass function (IMF), the initial mass-final mass relation (IMFMR), the transition time (ttr), the envelope mass at the end of the envelope ejection (M), the planetary nebula (PN) lifetime tPN, and the hydrogen- and helium-burning phases of the central stars. The results are discussed on the basis of the H-R diagram distributions, the MV - t plane, and mass histograms. We found that (1) the dependence of the synthetic populations on the assumed IMF and IMFMR is generally mild; (2) the M indetermination produces very high indeterminations in the ttr and thus in the resulting post-AGB populations; and (3) the synthetic models give a test check for the ratio of He- to H-burning PNNs. In this paper, disk post-AGB populations are considered. Future applications will include Magellanic Cloud PNs and populations of bulges and elliptical galaxies.
Study on LZW algorithm for embedded instruction memory

Diminishing instruction size is playing an increasingly important role for decreasing the dissipation power in portable computing and wireless communication markets and embedded system. We study compression instructions with LZW algorithm for three programs under two RISC processors. Implementation of algorithm on the offline-instructions is examined to measure the compression ratio. This study is useful for compressed code systems where instructions are stored in a compressed format and decompressed on demand. The result is a significant reduction on the size of the instruction memory and power consumption as well. Our scheme supposes untouched architecture of processor and retains all the processor functions by doing compression process on the 32- bit instruction format. This paper is a step of designing decompressor unit according to LZW in terms of small size instruction memory and low-power embedded system.
Noisy Submodular Maximization via Adaptive Sampling with Applications to Crowdsourced Image Collection Summarization

We address the problem of maximizing an unknown submodular function that can only be accessed via noisy evaluations. Our work is motivated by the task of summarizing content, e.g., image collections, by leveraging users' feedback in form of clicks or ratings. For summarization tasks with the goal of maximizing coverage and diversity, submodular set functions are a natural choice. When the underlying submodular function is unknown, users' feedback can provide noisy evaluations of the function that we seek to maximize. We provide a generic algorithm — ExpGreedy — for maximizing an unknown submodular function under cardinality constraints. This algorithm makes use of a novel exploration module— TopX — that proposes good elements based on adaptively sampling noisy function evaluations. TopX is able to accommodate different kinds of observation models such as value queries and pairwise comparisons. We provide PAC-style guarantees on the quality and sampling cost of the solution obtained by ExpGreedy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in an interactive, crowdsourced image collection summarization application.
Caps on Political Lobbying: Reply

Yeon-Koo Che and Ian L. Gale (1998) (CG, hereafter) studied the impact of imposing a cap on lobbying expenditures. They showed that a cap may lead to (a) greater expected aggregate expenditure, and (b) a less efficient allocation of a political prize. In their comment, Todd Kaplan and David Wettstein (2006) (KW, hereafter) show that if the cap is not rigid (i.e., its impact on the cost of lobbying is continuous) it has no effect. KW employ the same basic framework as CG, except for the assumption that a bid of x costs a lobbyist c(x) for a strictly increasing, continuous function, c . Imposition of a cap raises costs to the strictly increasing, continuous function, c . To see why the cap has no effect on lobbying expenditures in that setting, think of a lobbyist choosing a cost, c [0, ), rather than a bid. The lobbyist who chooses the higher cost necessarily makes the higher bid because the lobbyists have the same strictly increasing cost function. The functional relationship between bids and costs does not matter, so the cap has no effect. We explore the reasons for the different results and we show that CG’s results can still hold in a more general environment. Two components underlie CG’s analysis: (a) a cap will constrain the stronger lobbyist, thereby leveling the playing field; and (b) this will intensify competition, raising the expected aggregate expenditure. In the case of KW’s nonrigid cap, the first effect does not arise since the stronger lobbyist can always outspend the weaker one. This does not vitiate the second component, however. As will be seen, when the cap has an equalizing effect, it will intensify competition, with the predicted effect on expenditures. Below we characterize the precise nature of an “equalizing shift” in costs. More important, we will describe plausible circumstances under which a nonrigid cap can generate an equalizing shift when lobbyists differ in their costs of lobbying. (For instance, one lobbyist could be a more effective fundraiser than the other.) In such a case, a cap on lobbying reduces the competitive gap between the lobbyists, and it may cause the expected aggregate expenditure and the probability of misallocation to rise, just as in CG.
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff; Hundred Years of Impact on Stereochemistry in the Netherlands.

The first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the Dutch physical chemist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff in 1901, exactly hundred years ago. His impact on the chemical sciences is unparalleled with concepts ranging from tetrahedra to thermodynamics. He reshaped the discipline of chemistry at a very young age. Through the years, Van 't Hoff has inspired many Dutch scientists to perform research on novel stereochemical concepts. The picture shows stereochemical models, which Van 't Hoff produced himself.
High-Dose Intravenous Ribavirin Therapy for Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis

ABSTRACT Two patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) were treated safely and effectively with high doses of intravenous ribavirin combined with intraventricular alpha interferon. The ribavirin concentrations maintained in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid were higher than those which inhibit SSPE virus replication in vitro and in vivo.
A Singing Voice Synthesizer Controlled by the Arm Motions

A singing voice synthesizer controlled by user's arm motion is proposed for an entertainment tool. The system measured three dimensional position of the hand and wrist angle using magnetic motion sensor. The measured values determine loudness, pitch, depth of vibrato, and phoneme for the synthesized vowel-like sound. In order to make users synthesize high-quality sound without long training, the system employs an intuitive mapping from the motion to sound parameters. Two evaluation experiments were carried out. The first experiment revealed that users could learn to control loudness and pitch using this mapping in 23 minutes on the average. The second experiment indicated a quantization process in pitch determination to be effective to improve perceptual quality of the synthesized sound.
Natural language, knowledge representation, and logical form

Abstract : Current natural language understanding systems generally maintain a strict division between the parsing processes and the representation that supports general reasoning about the world. This paper examines why these two forms of processing are separated, determines the current advantages and limitations of this approach, and identifies the inherent limitations of the approach. I will point out some fundamental problems with the models as they are defined today and suggest some important directions of research in natural language and knowledge representation. In particular, I will argue that one of the crucial issues facing future natural language systems is the development of knowledge representation formalisms that can effectively handle ambiguity.
Research and Implementation of OEP Search Based on API-monitoring

OEP (Original Entry Point) search is the first and foremost step in unpacking. At present, it lacks generic and automated OEP search method for numerous types of packers. This paper discusses general methods of OEP search and proposes an OEP search method based on API-monitoring. Then the paper presents a generic OEP search strategy based on the combination of existing methods. Empirical test shows that the new method is able to deal with most common packers and has good generality and accuracy.
Slabs in the lower mantle and their modulation of plume formation

Numerical mantle convection models indicate that subducting slabs can reach the core‐mantle boundary (CMB) for a wide range of assumed material properties and plate tectonic histories. An increase in lower mantle viscosity, a phase transition at 660 km depth, depth‐dependent thermal expansivity, and depth‐dependent thermal diffusivity do not preclude model slabs from reaching the CMB. We find that ancient slabs could be associated with lateral temperature anomalies ∼500°C cooler than ambient mantle. Plausible increases of thermal conductivity with depth will not cause slabs to diffuse away. Regional spherical models with actual plate evolutionary models show that slabs are unlikely to be continuous from the upper mantle to the CMB, even for radially simple mantle structures. The observation from tomography showing only a few continuous slab‐like features from the surface to the CMB may be a result of complex plate kinematics, not mantle layering. There are important consequences of deeply penetrating slabs. Our models show that plumes preferentially develop on the edge of slabs. In areas on the CMB free of slabs, plume formation and eruption are expected to be frequent while the basal thermal boundary layer would be thin. However, in areas beneath slabs, the basal thermal boundary layer would be thicker and plume formation infrequent. Beneath slabs, a substantial amount of hot mantle can be trapped over long periods of time, leading to “mega‐plume” formation. We predict that patches of low seismic velocity may be found beneath large‐scale high seismic velocity structures at the core‐mantle boundary. We find that the location, buoyancy, and geochemistry of mega‐plumes will differ from those plumes forming at the edge of slabs. Various geophysical and geochemical implications of this finding are discussed.
Altered intrinsic regional brain spontaneous activity in patients with comitant strabismus: a resting-state functional MRI study

Objective To investigate the underlying regional homogeneity (ReHo) of brain-activity abnormalities in patients with comitant strabismus (CS) and their relationship with behavioral performance. Methods Twenty patients with CS (ten men and ten women) and 20 (ten men and ten women) age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. The ReHo method was used to assess local features of spontaneous brain activities. Patients with CS were distinguished from HCs by receiver operating characteristic curve. Correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationship between the observed mean ReHo values of the different brain areas and behavioral performance. Results Compared to HCs, the patients with CS showed significantly increased ReHo values in the right inferior temporal cortex/fusiform gyrus/cerebellum anterior lobe, right lingual gyrus, and bilateral cingulate gyrus. We did not find any relationship between the observed mean ReHo values of the different brain areas and behavioral performance. Conclusion CS causes dysfunction in many brain regions, which may explain the fusion compensation in CS.
SEARCHING FOR DESIGN METHODS An Excursion to Design Methods and Analysis of the Change Process in EMO Organization

This final thesis called "Searching for Design Methods" is an excursion to the broad field of user-centred design methods and teamwork practices and an attempt to improve the present design process of EAS applications. The final thesis reports the results of a participatory action research where the purpose has been to study the change process of the work practices of a design team. My position in this process has been to explore, select and introduce new possible design methods, communication and collaborative tools for the team and to initiate and steer the change process together with the System Manager. The final thesis aims at answering the main research question: "How to improve the present design process? ". The research question has been divided into several items such as: the analysis of the present design process, evaluation of suitable design methodologies, analysis on how to integrate the users in the design process, analysis on evaluation criteria and evaluation of the ways to improve the collaboration and communication practices inside the design team. The outcome of the process is a changed design process, the documentation and analysis. The experience of the action research is drawn into a set of design guidelines and a model of user-centred design process.
CD4 Cell Levels during Treatment for Tuberculosis (TB) in Ethiopian Adults and Clinical Markers Associated with CD4 Lymphocytopenia

Background The clinical correlations and significance of subnormal CD4 levels in HIV-negative patients with TB are unclear. We have determined CD4 cell levels longitudinally during anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) in patients, with and without HIV co-infection, and their associations with clinical variables. Method Adults diagnosed with TB (maximum duration of ATT for 2 weeks, and with no history of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-positive subjects) were included consecutively in eight out-patient clinics in Ethiopia. Healthy individuals were recruited for comparison at one of the study health centers. Data on patient characteristics and physical findings were collected by trained nurses following a structured questionnaire at inclusion and on follow-up visits at 2 and 6 months. In parallel, peripheral blood CD4 cell levels were determined. The evolution of CD4 cell levels during ATT was assessed, and the association between clinical characteristics and low CD4 cell levels at baseline was investigated using regression analysis. Results In total, 1116 TB patients were included (307 HIV-infected). Among 809 HIV-negative patients, 200 (25%) had subnormal CD4 cell counts (<500 cells/mm3), with <350 cells/mm3 in 82 (10%) individuals. CD4 cell levels increased significantly during the course of ATT in both HIV+ and HIV- TB-patients, but did not reach the levels in healthy subjects (median 896 cells/mm3). Sputum smear status, signs of wasting (low mid upper arm circumference (MUAC)), and bedridden state were significantly associated with low CD4 cell counts. Conclusion A high proportion of Ethiopian TB patients have subnormal CD4 cell counts before starting treatment. Low CD4 cell levels are associated with smear positive disease and signs of wasting. The continuous increase of CD4 cell counts during the course of ATT suggest a reversible impact of active TB on CD4 cell homeostasis, which may be considered in interpretation of CD4 cell counts in HIV/TB co-infected subjects.