Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Length and Quality of Lagged-Product Autocorrelation Estimates

The sample autocorrelation function is defined with the mean lagged products of random observations. It is the inverse Fourier transform of the raw periodogram. Both contain the same information and the quality of the sample autocorrelation, as a representation of data, is as poor as that of a raw periodogram. The autocorrelation function can be estimated much more accurately with a parametric time series method. A MATLABreg computer program automatically selects the type and the order of the best time series model for stochastic observations with unknown characteristics. The parametric estimate of the autocorrelation function has always a better accuracy than the mean-lagged-product estimates. Parametric estimates will die out eventually. They allow an objective answer to the question how long the autocorrelation function really is.
An action research project to explore and develop family therapists' experiences of using systemic art and music techniques in a CAMHS setting

This study explores family therapists’ experiences of using systemic art and music techniques in a CAMHS setting and charts how these techniques were developed through an action research process. As a music therapist and family and systemic psychotherapist, I have used techniques in my practice that combine ideas from the Arts therapies with systemic therapy. This study was born from my curiosity to explore if these ideas and techniques could be expanded into the field of family therapy as a useful adjunct to our work with words. The study involved recruiting participants from three NHS family therapy teams, with each team becoming a participant set. Through an action learning process, in which each set was convened consecutively, given opportunities to learn music and art techniques, try them out in their practice and report back via focus groups and consultation, feedback was gained which influenced the input for the next set. Through this process techniques were explored in depth, ideas were developed and new insights gained which not only highlighted the difference music and art can bring, but also bought attention to family therapy creativity and identity, and how change is realised and embedded within teams. The research was analysed using thematic analysis, paying particular attention to Braun and Clark’s (2006) phases of thematic analysis. I also used Massey’s (2011) model of clarifying the kinds of data that emerge in focus group research to help the initial analysis, and paid attention to context and process throughout the analysis, as outlined by Vicesk (2010).
A Combined Layer-Based Approach for the Segmentation of Document Images

There are many challenges addressed in MRC compression, such as the segmentation of the document into foreground and background layers, represented as a binary mask. Usually, the resulting quality of a MRC compression method depends on the segmentation algorithm used to compute the binary mask. The aim of this work is to leverage state-of-the-art techniques in document segmentation allowing further content, such as text or images, to be exploited in an efficient way. Then, a novel methodology is proposed that leads to increasing document segmentation performance for MRC compression scheme.
Image segmentation in a kernel-induced space

A novel level set multiphase image segmentation method combined with kernel mapping is presented. A kernel function maps implicitly the original data into data of a higher dimension so that the piecewise constant model becomes applicable. The goal is to consider several types of noise by a single model. Gradient flow equations are iteratively derived in order to minimize the segmentation functional with respect to the partition, in a first step, and the regions parameters in a second step. Using a common kernel function, we verified the effectiveness of the method by a quantitative and comparative performance evaluation over experiments on synthetic images, as well as a variety of real images such as medical, SAR, and natural images.
A game theoretical model for signature selection in non-cooperative IrLDS-OFDMA system

In irregular low density signature-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (IrLDS-OFDM) random access system, since no uplink scheduling is performed, each user randomly picks one low density signature (LDS) with different density factor, and spreads the symbols with LDS in the time-frequency domain. In this paper, we propose a game theoretical model to describe this non-cooperative uplink multiple access. Specifically, the original multi-action game is decomposed into several degraded games for simplification. The strategies which achieve Nash equilibrium in the degraded games are then combined with certain rules, and as a result, a SNR threshold based density factor selection method is derived to achieve the Nash equilibrium. Simulations show that the proposed method can achieve better throughput than random signature selection.
Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice Reverse Engineering Web Applications: the Ware Approach

SUMMARY The rapid, progressive diffusion of Web applications in several productive contexts of our modern society is laying the foundations of a renewed scenario of software development, where one of the emerging problems is that of defining and validating cost-effective approaches for maintaining and evolving these software systems. Due to several factors, the solution to this problem is not straightforward. The heterogeneous and dynamic nature of components making up a Web application, the lack of effective programming mechanisms for implementing basic software engineering principles in it, and undisciplined development processes induced by the high pressure of a very short time-to-market, make Web application maintenance a challenging problem. A relevant issue consists of reusing the methodological and technological experience in the sector of traditional software maintenance, and exploring the opportunity of using reverse engineering to support effective Web application maintenance. This paper presents an approach for defining reverse engineering processes involving Web applications. The approach has been used to implement a process, including reverse engineering methods and a supporting software tool, that helps to understand existing undocumented Web applications to be maintained or evolved, through the reconstruction of UML diagrams. The proposed reverse engineering process has been submitted to a validation experiment, the results of which showed the usability of the process for reverse engineering Web applications with different characteristics, and highlighted possible areas for improvement of its effectiveness. The experiment and the lessons learned from it are presented in the paper.
Smart Sensing Strip Using Monolithically Integrated Flexible Flow Sensor for Noninvasively Monitoring Respiratory Flow

This paper presents a smart sensing strip for noninvasively monitoring respiratory flow in real time. The monitoring system comprises a monolithically-integrated flexible hot-film flow sensor adhered on a molded flexible silicone case, where a miniaturized conditioning circuit with a Bluetooth4.0 LE module are packaged, and a personal mobile device that wirelessly acquires respiratory data transmitted from the flow sensor, executes extraction of vital signs, and performs medical diagnosis. The system serves as a wearable device to monitor comprehensive respiratory flow while avoiding use of uncomfortable nasal cannula. The respiratory sensor is a flexible flow sensor monolithically integrating four elements of a Wheatstone bridge on single chip, including a hot-film resistor, a temperature-compensating resistor, and two balancing resistors. The monitor takes merits of small size, light weight, easy operation, and low power consumption. Experiments were conducted to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of monitoring and diagnosing respiratory diseases using the proposed system.
Study on adaptive Kalman filtering algorithms in human movement tracking

During the rehabilitation process, the movements of the post-stroke patients need to be localized and learned so that incorrect movements can be instantly identified and modified. This is vital and necessary for patients to recover and improve their mobility toward normal life. This paper presents an adaptive Kalman filter algorithm for position estimation of patients' movements. In order to improve the performance of dynamic performance of the filter, a modified adaptive filtering algorithm is investigated. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed adaptive algorithm is verified by simulation results.
The Prosodic Structure of Function Words The Prosodic Structure of Function Words

It seems likely that all languages make a distinction between words belonging to functional categories and those belonging to lexical categories, a distinction which roughly coincides with the sets of open and closed class items. Nouns, verbs and adjectives constitute the class of lexical categories in English, conjunctions and other sorts of particles fall into the class of functional categories. The distinction between lexical and functional categories plays an important role it happens that words belonging to functional categories display phonological properties significantly different from those of words belonging to lexical 1 The research for this paper was carried out in part with the support of NSF grant BNS-86-17827. This paper is a slightly revised version of a paper appearing in Signal to Syntax, ed. Both these versions involve a substantial revision of an earlier 1993 manuscript which circulated under the same title.
Factors influencing the stability of a filtrable agent of chicken leukosis and sarcoma.

Attempts to purify a filtrable agent of leukosis and sarcoma have met with little success, mainly because of its lability in partially purified preparations (14). The purpose of the experiments described in this paper was to study factors that would enhance the stability of this agent. The agent used in this work (agent 13 of Stubbs and Furth) is able to produce leukosis, endothelioma, and sarcoma in chickens (22). Kabat and Furth (14) succeeded in concentrating it to only a moderate degree because of its lability after partial purification, and because of the presence of normal tissue components sedimentable at about the same speed as the agent. The soluble portion of the sediments obtained by centrifugating tumor extracts at 27,000 r. p. m. for 1 hour contained a variable fraction of the original activity and 0.6 to 8 per cent of the nitrogen of the original material (14, Table I). A more concentrated preparation was obtained when the extract was treated with sodium sulfate and centrifuged twice at high speed, but there was considerable loss of total activity as large quantities of the high speed sediments remained insoluble (14, Table VI). Kirschbaum, Stern, and Hooker (15) centrifuged leukotic plasma or tissue extract one or two times at 30,000 r . p . m. The resuspended sediments carried part of, or all, the activity of the original material. Large amounts of these fractions were needed to produce leukosis, however, since the materials were injected undiluted. Claude succeeded in isolating from Rous sarcoma I a highly purified fraction, the total activity of which was higher than that of the original tumor extract (9) because of the removal of inhibitory substances (7, 16). The minimum active dose was estimated to correspond to about 2,000 elementary granules of the agent. Particles of similar size were found in normal adult and embryonic chicken tissues (8).
E3SN: Efficient security scheme for sensor networks

Sensor networks are widely used in various areas and applications, and the need for effective security systems is increasingly essential. But most security systems are based on complex algorithms that require a high complexity and energy consumption, thus have undesirable consequences. To reduce them, a new security system called E3SN is defined. It is based on an invertible and flexible key dependent matrix to mix the contents of the packets. Our proposal can achieve simultaneously the information's confidentiality, packet's integrity and source's authentication, with a minimum of computational complexity, communication overhead and memory consumption. This matrix is secret and only the transmitter and receiver can produce it in counter mode. We evaluate our system by comparing E3SN to AES algorithm, considered reliable and robust in several standards of sensor networks such as ZigBee, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The results show that the proposed technique is much more efficient than AES, with the same quality of cryptography.
Isolation and Characterization of a Fructosyltransferase Gene from Streptococcus mutans GS-5 SETSUKO SATO

A fructosyltransferase (FTF) gene from Streptococcus mutans GS-5 has been isolated from a XL47.1 clone bank. The gene was contained on an 11.7-kilobase GS-5 DNA fragment and was initially subcloned into plasmid pACYC184 as a 5.4-kilobase HindUI fragment. However, further analysis revealed that transcription of the FTF gene was initiated at the P1 promoter contained on the vector. It was possible to subclone the FTF gene with its presumed promoter as a 3.4-kilobase EcoRI fragment to produce the chimeric plasmid pSS22 expressing FTF activity. The cloned enzyme was purified to apparent homogeneity after ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration, and DEAE-Bio-Gel-A chromatography followed by preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified enzyme displayed a lower molecular weight (63,000) compared with the multiple activities detected in the culture fluids of strain GS-5. In addition, storage of the purified enzyme resulted in the formation of even lower-molecular-weight enzymatically active species. These results suggested that proteolytic degradation of the FTF occurs both in S. mutans and in Escherichia coli. In addition, a comparison of the properties of the cloned enzyme with those previously characterized from another serotype c S. mutans strain suggests that multiple FTF genes may be present in these organisms.
An autosomal dominant periodic fever associated with AA amyloidosis in a north Indian family maps to distal chromosome 1q.

OBJECTIVE To investigate genetic susceptibility in the first Indian family identified as having an autosomal dominantly inherited periodic fever syndrome. The inflammatory disease was characterized chiefly by arthralgia, skin rashes, and AA amyloidosis. METHODS Markers from known periodic fever susceptibility loci were investigated in 7 affected and 11 healthy members of a north Indian family. These included the TNFRSF1A locus (formerly known as TNFRI), which is involved in autosomal dominant tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic syndrome on chromosome 12p13, the familial Mediterranean fever locus (MEFV) on chromosome 16p13, the hyperimmunoglobulinemia D and periodic fever syndrome (HIDS) locus on chromosome 12q24, and the Muckle-Wells syndrome/familial cold urticaria (MWS/FCU) locus on distal chromosome 1q44. RESULTS Linkage to both TNFRSF1A and MEFV was definitively excluded, and DNA sequencing of these genes revealed no mutations. Furthermore, there was no evidence of linkage to the HIDS locus. In contrast, significant logarithm of odds scores for 5 markers from the MWS/FCU region were obtained in this family, and the disease segregated with the same haplotype in all affected members. CONCLUSION We have identified an inherited inflammatory disease in a north Indian family with clinical features overlapping some of those of MWS and FCU. The susceptibility gene maps to distal chromosome 1q44, a region already implicated in both MWS and FCU. Different mutations in the same (or a closely related) gene may be responsible for an inflammatory disease with a broad phenotype among diverse ethnic populations.
Recruiting the Student-athlete: An Examination of the College Decision Process

The purpose of this study was to create and evaluate a new instrument rooted in a strong theoretical background to more aptly measure and understand factors influencing college decisions of student-athletes. To accomplish this goal, four commonly used instruments and one semi-structured interview were dissected. Upon dissection, like/identical items from each past instrument were grouped together creating a 52 items instrument. Each of the 52 items was then reviewed in reference to the social exchange theory. Those fitting the theoretical framework were kept, while those do fitting the theory were dropped. The instrument was then sent to a panel of reviewers leading to small modifications within the instrument. In the end, a 28 items instrument with face and content validity was left. This instrument was then distributed to current student-athletes at a midsize, Southeastern University. A total of 102 usable questionnaires were returned. Analysis of the results found each of the ascribed factors to be important to student-athletes when choosing a college. Furthermore, the application of the social exchange theory allowed for a discussion of why various factors were found to be more or less valued by student-athletes.
Pronoun Translation and Prediction with or without Coreference Links

The Idiap NLP Group has participated in both DiscoMT 2015 sub-tasks: pronoun-focused translation and pronoun prediction. The system for the first sub-task combines two knowledge sources: gram matical constraints from the hypothesized coreference links, and candidate translations from an SMT decoder. The system for the second sub-task avoids hypothesizing a coreference link, and uses instead a large set of source-side and target-side features from the noun phrases surrounding the pronoun to train a pronoun predictor.
An integrated approach for modelling of multivariate data based on statistical principles and neural networks

For multivariate systems, empirical modelling using statistical methods is an issue in the presence of multicollinearity. Recently, neural networks provide a wide class of general-purpose, flexible non-linear non-parametric mapping, ignoring the fact of underlying data property. In this work, a composite system is designed to integrate the statistical principles of multivariate data, particularly multicollinearity, into the neural network architecture. The designed system is trained and validated with a simulated database based on the extent of correlation structure among the input variables. A real-life case with a large multi-dimensional system is illustrated under the proposed system.
Impact of the Pro12Ala Polymorphism of the PPAR-Gamma 2 Gene on Metabolic and Clinical Characteristics in the Palestinian Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Peroxisome proliferators activated receptor-gamma2 (PPARγ2) represents the transcriptional master regulator of adipocyte differentiation and therefore has been suggested as a candidate gene for obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. The objective of the study was to investigate for the first time the potential association of the most common variant Pro12Ala (p.P12A) substitution of the PPARγ2 gene with body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, plasma total cholesterol, LDL and HDL cholesterol, and plasma triglyceride in a sample of 202 (138 females and 64 male) type 2 diabetic Palestinians. Genotyping of the PPARγ2 p.P12A polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. The A12 allele was associated with lower fasting plasma glucose (P = .03) but had no influence on blood pressure, BMI, or other metabolic parameters. In obese patients, the p.P12A substitution was associated with elevated total plasma cholesterol levels (P = .02) and a tendency toward increased LDL cholesterol level (P = .06). In conclusion, the p.P12A variant of the PPARγ2 may influence cardiovascular risk through effects on lipid metabolism in obese T2D Palestinian patients.
MVPlex Assay for Direct Detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Naris and Other Swab Specimens

ABSTRACT We evaluated the MVPlex assay (Geneco Biomedical Products), which uses target-enriched multiplex PCR amplification followed by liquid array identification, for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from 307 dual-swab specimens. By using a combination of culture (Trypticase soy agar-5% sheep blood agar and Columbia CNA agar-5% sheep blood) and an FDA-approved MRSA PCR assay as the “gold standard,” the MVPlex MRSA assay and culture were found to have sensitivities of 97.8% and 84.4% (P = 0.002) and specificities of 95.8% and 98.6% (P < 0.05), respectively.
On Specifying Web Services Using UDDI Improvements

Web services are interoperable (software) components that can be used in application integration and component-based application development. This paper analyses possible contributions of the emerging Web service architecture to settle open issues that both application integration as well as component-based application development have in common and thereby focuses on the specification of components. Within the Web service architecture, specification is standardized by the UDDI framework, which is at first analyzed based on some general requirements for specification frameworks. Hereafter various extensions to the UDDI framework are proposed and elaborated in detail. They improve the specification of Web services by providing additional information about various aspects: security, performance, behaviour, coordination, implemented terminology (semantics), and implemented processes (pragmatics). Accordingly, a mix of specialized (formal) notations for the particular specifications is proposed. The resulting specification framework is ordered using a thematic grouping that consists of white, yellow, blue and green pages.
Estágios de mudança de comportamento e barreiras percebidas à prática de atividade física em idosos residentes em uma cidade de médio porte do Brasil

The aim was to analyze the prevalence of the stages of behavior change (BCS) and the perceived barriers to physical activity in older people residents in a medium size city of Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Seventy-nine older people participated of the study. The BCS was assessed by the Questionnaire of Behavior Chance Stages and those on perception of barriers by the Questionnaire on Barriers to the Practice of Physical Activity in Older People (QBPPAE). Statistical analyses was comprised by the Chi- square test (p<0.05). Data showed that: a) 64,6% of the older people do not practice physical activity and only 22,8% of them have been practicing it on a regular basis for more than 6 months; b) The most perceived barriers were: "Active enough", "Too old"; "Need to rest" and; "Disease or injury"; c) The BCS seems modulate significantly the perception of barriers (p<0.05). We can conclude that: a) most of the older people are in the pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation stages of the BCS, yet; b) gender influences almost nothing with perception of barriers and; c) the BCS interferes with the type of perceived barriers. Such conclusions support the suggestions that it is necessary to develop specific strategies for different stages of behavior change if it is to minimize the barriers. This may help to find the most effective way to change to more active lifestyle in the elderly.