Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Pull-push Algorithm Revisited - Improvements, Computation of Point Densities, and GPU Implementation

The pull-push algorithm is a well-known and very efficient pyramid algorithm for the interpolation of scattered data with many applications in computer graphics. However, the original algorithm is not very well suited for an implementation on GPUs (graphics processing units). In this work, several improvements of the algorithm are presented to overcome this limitation, and important details of the algorithm are clarified, in particular the importance of the correct normalization of the employed filters. Moreover, we present an extension for a very efficient estimate of the local density of sample points.
THE PSYCHIC TRUTH OF FICTION: PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF DRAMA AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Despite the seductive flicker of satellite television and the instantly accessible visual entertainment of computer games and DVD movies, people continue to read fiction and go the theatre. The fulfilment derived from immersion in the fictional worlds of books and the physicality of dramatic action endures, despite the technological onslaught of instant electronic gratification
Quantifying the Effect of Rare Timing Events with Settling-Time and Overshoot

For hard real-time systems, worst-case timing models are employed to validate whether timeliness properties, such as meeting deadlines, are always satisfied. We argue that such a deadline-interface should be generalised in view of two separate motivations: (a) applications can tolerate bounded non-satisfaction of timeliness properties due to inherent robustness or relaxed quality requirements, and (b) worst-case timing models do not expose the occurrence of certain rare yet predictable events. As a more expressive interface, we propose the Rare-Event with Settling-Time (REST) model wherein, during rare events nominal timing models can be violated up to a known bound. Such a violation may lead to non-satisfaction of the timeliness properties up to a certain bound. We characterise this bound in terms of (a) the longest interval when the deadlines are not met, which we call the settling-time, and (b) the maximum number of jobs that can miss deadlines during the settling-time called the overshoot. We propose two models of rare events, characterised on an interval domain. For a single stream of jobs, we provide methods to tightly compute the settling-time and overshoot. For multiple streams of jobs on a single processor, we show that amongst schedulers agnostic to the occurrence of the rare event, the EDF scheduler optimally minimises the settling-time. In contrast, RM is not optimal within the class of fixed priority schedulers.
Computer-Based Discrimination of Abnormal Stomachs Using Radiograms

The possibility of automating mass screening of gastric disease was studied by applying statistical pattern recognition methods to features extracted from standing position-anteroposterior radiograms by two approaches. A region of interest was defined to encompass the deformity of the apex or the sulcus angularis. The ability of the features to classify normal, ulcerated, and cancerous cases was evaluated by a typical method of discriminant analysis, the minimum Mahalanobis distance classification. The error classification rate was estimated by the leaving-one-out method. Best feature sets were selected by the forward sequential search. The separability of the samples and the properties of the features were inspected also by cluster analysis. For the selected feature sets, the error classification rate obtained by the discriminant analysis agreed well with results of the cluster analysis and of inspection by physicians. The selected features tended to belong to different feature clusters. This seems to validate the feature selection.
The latency of saccades, vergence, and combined eye movements in children and in adults.

PURPOSE To examine the latency of eye movements in three-dimensional space (saccade, vergence, and combined saccade-vergence) in children and adults. METHODS Fifteen normal children (4.5-12 years of age) and 15 normal adults (22-44 years of age) were tested. A standard paradigm was used to elicit pure lateral saccades at far and close viewing distance, pure vergence (convergence and divergence), and saccade combined with vergence movements. Horizontal eye movements from both eyes were recorded simultaneously by the oculometer, a photoelectric device. RESULTS The mean latency in saccades, vergence, and combined eye movements was longer in children than in adults; the variability of such latency values was also larger in children. There was a progressive decrease with age in mean latency. All latencies approached or reached adult levels at approximately 10 to 12 years of age. Latency of saccades at close viewing distance was shorter than that at far in both adults and children. Convergence latency was longer than divergence latency in adults and most of the children. Latency of components of combined movements was longer than that of corresponding pure movements. Children initiated combined movements by triggering the vergence component first, whereas adults did not show a dominant pattern. The percentage of synchronous start of the two components was significantly higher in adults. CONCLUSIONS Saccade- and vergence-triggering mechanisms are distinct and mature progressively and in parallel with age. The capacity for synchronization of the two components of combined eye movements develops more slowly and remains below adult level, even at the age of 12 years.
GPI-anchored influenza hemagglutinin induces hemifusion to both red blood cell and planar bilayer membranes

Under fusogenic conditions, fluorescent dye redistributed from the outer monolayer leaflet of red blood cells (RBCs) to cells expressing glycophosphatidylinositol-anchored influenza virus hemagglutinin (GPI- HA) without transfer of aqueous dye. This suggests that hemifusion, but not full fusion, occurred (Kemble, G. W., T. Danieli, and J. M. White. 1994. Cell. 76:383-391). We extended the evidence for hemifusion by labeling the inner monolayer leaflets of RBCs with FM4-64 and observing that these inner leaflets did not become continuous with GPI-HA- expressing cells. The region of hemifusion-separated aqueous contents, the hemifusion diaphragm, appeared to be extended and was long-lived. But when RBCs hemifused to GPI-HA-expressing cells were osmotically swollen, some diaphragms were disrupted, and spread of both inner leaflet and aqueous dyes was observed. This was characteristic of full fusion: inner leaflet and aqueous probes spread to cells expressing wild-type HA (wt-HA). By simultaneous video fluorescence microscopy and time-resolved electrical admittance measurements, we rigorously demonstrated that GPI-HA-expressing cells hemifuse to planar bilayer membranes: lipid continuity was established without formation of fusion pores. The hemifusion area became large. In contrast, for cells expressing wt-HA, before lipid dye spread, fusion pores were always observed, establishing that full fusion occurred. We present an elastic coupling model in which the ectodomain of wt-HA induces hemifusion and the transmembrane domain, absent in the GPI-HA-expressing cells, mediates full fusion.
Stochastic simulation of three dimensional variation of soil salinity in a paddy rice soil

In this study, 56 ECa profiles, which inversed by the EM38 linear model with Tikhonov regularization method, were selected as the original datum of 3D variation. The spatial variability of ECa at ten depths was simulated by the SGS method. It was shown that not only the spatial distribution characteristics of the original data, but also the volatility of the distribution was well simulated by the SGS method. The layers were stacked one by one. The contour map of ECa displayed a spatial distribution with a high salinity level in the east corner, and low salinity level in the west and northern corner. The salinity in the bottom of southeast is higher, and the salinity distribution for all layers had a similar trend. The ECa value increased with the increase of the soil depth at the vertical orientation.
Optimization of a reduced-complexity decoding algorithm for LDPC codes by density evolution

In this paper, an algorithm for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with reduced complexity is presented. The complexity reduction is achieved by calculating a linear function for updating the check nodes in each iteration, instead of an exponential and logarithmic function. The parameters of the linear function are optimized by density evolution. Simulation results show that there is nearly no loss in the performance by using this approximation compared to the exact calculation of the belief propagation decoding algorithm, even for very large block lengths.
Simple Gradecast Based Algorithms

Gradecast is a simple three-round algorithm presented by Feldman and Micali. The current work presents a very simple synchronous algorithm that utilized Gradecast to achieve Byzantine agreement. Two small variations of the presented algorithm lead to improved algorithms for solving the Approximate agreement problem and the Multi-consensus problem. An optimal approximate agreement algorithm was presented by Fekete, which supports up to 1 n Byzantine nodes and has message complexity of O(n k ), where n is the number of nodes and k is the number of rounds. Our solution to the approximate agreement problem is optimal,
Megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics: An overview of recent developments

This paper introduces and summarizes the special issue on megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics. We provide a brief historical overview and show how the papers in this issue have extended the field by compiling new databases and making important theoretical contributions. In addition, we discuss several studies that use text corpora to build distributional semantic models to tackle various interesting problems in psycholinguistics. Finally, as is the case across the papers, we highlight some methodological issues that are brought forth via the analyses of such datasets.
Interactive effects of COMT Val108/158Met and MTHFR C677T on executive function in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is characterized by heritable deficits in executive function. Two common, functional polymorphisms, catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) Val108/158Met and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, have separately been associated with executive function performance in schizophrenia. Given the closely related biochemistry of MTHFR and COMT, it is plausible that the T and Val alleles act synergistically to impair executive function. This investigation of 185 outpatients with schizophrenia examined the interactive effects of these two polymorphisms on Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) performance. Two WCST measures consistently associated with schizophrenia, perseverative errors and inability to generate categories, were contrasted among compound COMT‐MTHFR genotype groups. Individuals homozygous for the COMT Val allele who also carried at least one copy of the MTHFR T allele exhibited a significantly higher percentage of perseverative errors than patients in the other genotype groups. While the T allele also exerted a negative effect on category generation, COMT genotype did not contribute to category performance. It is plausible that cumulative effects of the MTHFR T and COMT Val alleles on intracellular methylation profiles and prefrontal dopamine transmission underlie their interactive effect on perseverative errors. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The KIT whole-body human motion database

We present a large-scale whole-body human motion database consisting of captured raw motion data as well as the corresponding post-processed motions. This database serves as a key element for a wide variety of research questions related e.g. to human motion analysis, imitation learning, action recognition and motion generation in robotics. In contrast to previous approaches, the motion data in our database considers the motions of the observed human subject as well as the objects with which the subject is interacting. The information about human-object relations is crucial for the proper understanding of human actions and their goal-directed reproduction on a robot. To facilitate the creation and processing of human motion data, we propose procedures and techniques for capturing of motion, labeling and organization of the motion capture data based on a Motion Description Tree, as well as for the normalization of human motion to an unified representation based on a reference model of the human body. We provide software tools and interfaces to the database allowing access and efficient search with the proposed motion representation.
Lane Change and Merge Maneuvers for Connected and Automated Vehicles: A Survey

Intelligence in vehicles has developed through the years as self-driving expectations and capabilities have increased. To date, the majority of the literature has focused on longitudinal control topics (e.g. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Cooperative ACC (CACC), etc.). To a lesser extent, there have been a variety of research articles specifically dealing with lateral control, e.g., maneuvers such as lane changes and merging. This paper provides a survey of this particular area of vehicle automation. The key topics addressed are control systems, positioning systems, communication systems, simulation modeling, field tests, surroundings vehicles, and human factors. Overall, there has been some successful research and field testing in lane change and merge maneuvers; however, there is a strong need for standardization and even more research to enable comprehensive field testing of these lateral maneuvers, so that commercial implementation of automated vehicles can be realized.
Centre de Referència en Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Working Paper n o 127 Cost Uncertainty and Taxpayer Compliance

The existence of a private cost borne by audited taxpayers a ects the tax enforcement policy. This is so because tax auditors will face now two sources of uncertainty, namely, the typical one associated with taxpayers’ income and that associated with the taxpayers’ idiosyncratic attitude towards tax compliance. Moreover, the inspection policy can be exposed to some randomness from the taxpayers’ viewpoint due to the uncertainty about the audit cost borne by the tax authority. In this paper we provide an unified framework to analyze the e ects of all these sources of uncertainty in a model of tax compliance with strategic interaction between auditors and taxpayers. We show that more variance in the distribution of the taxpayers’ private cost of evading raises both tax compliance and the ex-ante welfare of taxpayers. The e ects of the uncertainty about the audit cost faced by the tax authority are generally ambiguous. We also discuss the implications of our model for the regressive (or progressive) bias of the e ective tax system. This paper has benefited from comments made by participants in the Encuentro de Economia Pública (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and by two anonymous referees of this Journal. Of course, they should not bear any responsibility for the remaining errors. Financial support from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (Spanish Ministry of Finance), Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through grants SEC2003-306 and HI2001-0039, and from the Generalitat of Catalonia through the Barcelona Economics program of CREA and grant SGR2001-00162 is gratefully acknowledged. Correspondence address: Jordi Caballé. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d’Economia i d’Història Econòmica. Edifici B. 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona). Spain. Phone: (34)-935.812. 367. Fax: (34)-935.812. 012. E-mail: Jordi.Caballe@uab.es Barcelona Economics WP no 127
A Map of the Interactome Network of the Metazoan C. elegans

To initiate studies on how protein-protein interaction (or “interactome”) networks relate to multicellular functions, we have mapped a large fraction of the Caenorhabditis elegans interactome network. Starting with a subset of metazoan-specific proteins, more than 4000 interactions were identified from high-throughput, yeast two-hybrid (HT=Y2H) screens. Independent coaffinity purification assays experimentally validated the overall quality of this Y2H data set. Together with already described Y2H interactions and interologs predicted in silico, the current version of the Worm Interactome (WI5) map contains ∼5500 interactions. Topological and biological features of this interactome network, as well as its integration with phenome and transcriptome data sets, lead to numerous biological hypotheses.
Nasal Oxytocin Administration Reduces Food Intake without Affecting Locomotor Activity and Glycemia with c-Fos Induction in Limited Brain Areas

Recent studies have considered oxytocin (Oxt) as a possible medicine to treat obesity and hyperphagia. To find the effective and safe route for Oxt treatment, we compared the effects of its nasal and intraperitoneal (IP) administration on food intake, locomotor activity, and glucose tolerance in mice. Nasal Oxt administration decreased food intake without altering locomotor activity and increased the number of c-Fos-immunoreactive (ir) neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, the area postrema (AP), and the dorsal motor nucleus of vagus (DMNV) of the medulla. IP Oxt administration decreased food intake and locomotor activity and increased the number of c-Fos-ir neurons not only in the PVN, AP, and DMNV but also in the nucleus of solitary tract of the medulla and in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. In IP glucose tolerance tests, IP Oxt injection attenuated the rise of blood glucose, whereas neither nasal nor intracerebroventricular Oxt affected blood glucose. In isolated islets, Oxt administration potentiated glucose-induced insulin secretion. These results indicate that both nasal and IP Oxt injections reduce food intake to a similar extent and increase the number of c-Fos-ir neurons in common brain regions. IP Oxt administration, in addition, activates broader brain regions, reduces locomotor activity, and affects glucose tolerance possibly by promoting insulin secretion from pancreatic islets. In comparison with IP administration, the nasal route of Oxt administration could exert a similar anorexigenic effect with a lesser effect on peripheral organs.
Improving Software Product Management Processes : a detailed view of the Product Software Knowledge Infrastructure

Nowadays, a huge amount of software is being developed worldwide. Mainly among SMEs (small-to-medium enterprises), there are a lot of companies that focus on the development of product software. In order to manage software products effectively, implementing software product management processes in the organization is essential. Unfortunately, hardly any schooling is available in the area of SPM. In this thesis, a beginning will be made with the elaboration of a product software knowledge infrastructure (PSKI) that should help companies improve their product management process using method increments. The foundation for this elaboration lies in data about the current state of SPM, gathered from six product software companies. Also, two techniques will be elaborated that are a fundamental part of the PSKI. In addition to this, a core aspect of the PSKI is elaborated in a proof-of-concept. Combined, these deliverables form a strong basis for further research. PUBLIC VERSION June 17, 2010
Epigenetic Therapy for Breast Cancer

Both genetic and epigenetic alterations can control the progression of cancer. Genetic alterations are impossible to reverse, while epigenetic alterations are reversible. This advantage suggests that epigenetic modifications should be preferred in therapy applications. DNA methyltransferases and histone deacetylases have become the primary targets for studies in epigenetic therapy. Some DNA methylation inhibitors and histone deacetylation inhibitors are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as anti-cancer drugs. Therefore, the uses of epigenetic targets are believed to have great potential as a lasting favorable approach in treating breast cancer.
Priority encoding transmission

We introduce a novel approach for sending messages over lossy packet-based networks. The new method, called Priority Encoding Transmission, allows a user to specify a different priority on each segment of the message. Based on the priorities, the sender uses the system to encode the segments into packets for transmission. The system ensures recovery of the segments in order of their priority. The priority of a segment determines the minimum number of packets sufficient to recover the segment. We define a measure for a set of priorities, called the rate, which dictates how much information about the message must be contained in each bit of the encoding. We develop systems for implementing any set of priorities with rate equal to one. We also give an information-theoretic proof that there is no system that implements a set of priorities with rate greater than one. This work has applications to multi-media and high speed networks applications, especially in those with bursty sources and multiple receivers with heterogeneous capabilities. <<ETX>>
A comparative study of two usability evaluation methods using a web-based e-learning application

Usability evaluation of e-learning applications is a maturing area, which addresses interfaces, usability and interaction from human-computer interaction (HCI) and pedagogy and learning from education. The selection of usability evaluation methods (UEMs) to determine usability problems is influenced by time, cost, efficiency, effectiveness, and ease of application. Heuristic evaluation (HE) involves evaluation by experts with expertise in the domain area and/or HCI. This comparative evaluation study investigates the extent to which HE identifies usability problems in a web-based learning application and compares the results with those of survey evaluations among end-users (learners). Severity rating was conducted on a consolidated set of usability problems and further comparison of findings was done on the major and minor problems. The results of HE correspond closely with those of the survey. However the four expert evaluators identified more problems than the 61 learners and identified 91% of the learners' problems, when major problems only were considered. HE by a competent and balanced set of experts showed itself to be an appropriate, efficient and effective UEM for e-learning applications.
A functional test generation technique for RTL datapaths

This paper presents an automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) technique applicable to register transfer level (RTL) datapath circuits which are usually very hard-to-test due to the presence of complex loop structures. Although to achieve high fault coverage it is essential to symbolically simulate all possible execution paths, we have come up with a case splitting mechanism which makes use of path sensitization information from the faulty location to primary outputs so that the size of formulae to be solved is significantly reduced. Experimental results show robustness and reliability of our method compared to the state-of-the-art RTL ATPG techniques. In addition, the results indicate that, in comparison with [8], with case splitting the ATPG time has been reduced by 22%-41%.