Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A vector-based, multidimensional scanpath similarity measure

A great need exists in many fields of eye-tracking research for a robust and general method for scanpath comparisons. Current measures either quantize scanpaths in space (string editing measures like the Levenshtein distance) or in time (measures based on attention maps). This paper proposes a new pairwise scanpath similarity measure. Unlike previous measures that either use AOI sequences or forgo temporal order, the new measure defines scanpaths as a series of geometric vectors and compares temporally aligned scanpaths across several dimensions: shape, fixation position, length, direction, and fixation duration. This approach offers more multifaceted insights to how similar two scanpaths are. Eight fictitious scanpath pairs are tested to elucidate the strengths of the new measure, both in itself and compared to two of the currently most popular measures - the Levenshtein distance and attention map correlation.
Model-based factor analysis of dynamic sequences of cardiac positron emission tomography

Factor analysis has been pursued as a means to decompose dynamic cardiac PET images into different tissue types based on their unique physiology. In this work we present a novel method that combines physiological models of factor relationships into the decomposition process. A one-compartment model describes the exchange between blood and myocardium. Two models are compared for describing the relationship between right and left blood chambers of the heart and are validated using simulation data and serial 82Rb imaging with variable infusion durations. Superior results are achieved in the simulation data using the gamma-variate (GV) model compared to the shifted-gamma-variate model (SGV). However, no significant differences in reproducibility of structures were observed in the 82Rb images. Model-based factor analysis using the GV model and the one-compartment model is a promising approach for decomposition of Rb dynamic PET images.
A survey of seamless vertical handoff schemes for Wi-Fi/WiMAX heterogeneous networks

One of the most important issues in wireless and mobile communication technologies is to provide seamless handoff when a mobile node(MN) moves between different access networks. In this paper we have taken Wi-Fi/WiMAX heterogeneous networks in to consideration and reviewed the various seamless handoff schemes for vertical handoff between Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks at different layers. We assume the mobile terminals in our proposed network support IEEE 802.11 and IEEE802.16e dual interface. And also we have compared the schemes based on different criteria viz., handoff latency, packet loss, to provide a better QoS in real-time user scenarios. The comparison reveals the pros and cons of each scheme and aids to adopt a better scheme to achieve seamless handoff in next generation wireless networks.
Approaching avoidance registers from the perspective of documentary linguistics

In many Australian Aboriginal as well as some Southern African speech communities, specific language varieties are used between, in reference to, or in the presence of certain kin relations. These varieties, by some labelled ‘avoidance registers’, deviate from the neutral registers in various ways: by substituting all or some lexical items, by manipulating grammatical categories, and/or by distinctive stylistic modifications. The avoidance registers are part of a wider social avoidance behaviour which is prescribed between specific kin relations. In this dissertation, I approach avoidance registers from the perspective of documentary linguistics. More specifically, the aim is to discuss whether there is a place for them within a larger language documentation, and also which specific issues surround their documentation. Avoidance registers are shown to display a wide array of unique and intriguing features, which make them strong candidates for inclusion in the documentation of a language, not to mention the value they may have for individual communities. Their documentation involves difficulties relating to their endangerment and to the fact that they are inseparable from the context in which they are used, immediate as well as cultural. However, insights gained from the documentation of avoidance registers and associated behaviour can be extended to language documentation in general, and may aid theory-building within the field of documentary linguistics. Table of
An Empirical Analysis of Automated Verification of Wireless Security Protocols

Formal verification of security protocols is an important step in the design of security protocols. It helps to reduce the potential of designing faulty protocols and thus increases the confidence in their use. Automated techniques reduce the potential for human errors during verification. This paper presents an empirical study of an automated proving system on the analysis of two wireless communication protocols. The automated system uses the CS modal logic implemented on a layered proving tree-based proving engine. The analysis demonstrates the accuracy of the automated systems in finding protocol flaws. Also the system is shown to be efficient both in terms of time and memory resources.
Building Graphical Models from Relational Databases for Context-Aware Querying

Context-aware plays an important role in modern society, especially to preference queries for user preferences depend on user current contexts. Popular mobile devices such as GPS, sensors and RFIDs produce context information to facilitate user right information acquisition. Due to that relational database is a powerful and sophisticated tool to manage large amount of data efficiently, context information can be taken as data items stored in the relational databases. To evaluate context-aware queries, graphical models are built from these relational data thus context-aware queries can be realized to query the constructed graphical models. To build a graphical model, user-defined methods are time-consuming and notefficient. To solve this problem, sophisticated database techniques are thoroughly exploited as well as synthesizingpowerful ideas for defining probability distributions over relational domains to learn the graphical models, then query the learned models to realize context-awareness.
Temporal organization of off-glides in American English

This paper tests the hypothesis that offglides /j/ and /w/ are best analyzed as a syllable coda through examining the temporal organization of offglide gestures within a syllable. Kinematic data were collected from four American English speakers using realtime MRI. The gesture timing of offglides was compared in singleton and complex coda contexts to determine whether offglides exhibit local gestural coordination with the preceding vowel, as would have been predicted by the non-competitive coordination model hypothesized for complex coda. Results show a temporal shift of the offglides when other coda consonants are present, suggesting a different coordination relationship for offglides in English. Accordingly, we propose a unique gestural organization that involves competitive coupling to account for the current findings, which captures both the findings and their dual phonological nature.
The role of the peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐α (PPAR‐α) in the regulation of acute inflammation

The peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐α (PPAR‐α) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand‐dependent transcription factors related to retinoid, steroid, and thyroid hormone receptors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of the PPAR‐α receptor on the development of acute inflammation. To address this question, we used two animal models of acute inflammation (carrageenan‐induced paw edema and carrageenan‐induced pleurisy). We report here that when compared with PPAR‐α wild‐type mice, PPAR‐α knockout mice (PPAR‐αKO) mice experienced a higher rate of the extent and severity when subjected to carrageenan injection in the paw edema model or to carrageenan administration in the pleurisy model. In particular, the absence of a functional PPAR‐α gene in PPAR‐αKO mice resulted in a significant augmentation of various inflammatory parameters (e.g., enhancement of paw edema, pleural exudate formation, mononuclear cell infiltration, and histological injury) in vivo. Furthermore, the absence of a functional PPAR‐α gene enhanced the staining (immunohistochemistry) for FAS ligand in the paw and in the lung and the expression of tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin‐1β in the lungs of carrageenan‐treated mice. In conclusion, the increased inflammatory response observed in PPAR‐αΚΟ mice strongly suggests that a PPAR‐α pathway modulates the degree of acute inflammation in the mice.
Modeling Transmission Potential of Mosquitoes Vectors of Topical Diseases

Vector-borne tropical diseases such as Malaria and Dengue are a leading cause of children mortality. Because in many situations no specific treatment and/or vaccine are available, mosquito control remains the unique prevention tool. A better knowledge of the vector transmission potential can be gained through the development of stochastic models. The mosquito Aedes aegypti transmits the dengue haemorrhagic fever which affected in 1998, 1,200,000 people worldwide with 3,628 deaths. Ae. aegypti field data were collected in French Guiana and the mosquito’s biological parameters were analyzed and modeled according to the Maximum Likelihood Theory. The results were related to the environmental conditions and used to build a dynamical flow-chart through mosquito physiological stages. The vector infective status was introduced in the model with the vectorial capacity concept. The simulated vectorial capacity was found to fluctuate more or less simultaneously and in the same direction as the number of dengue cases. This model will be now validated, computerized and adapted to vector control. Index Terms – Computer-based vector control, Dengue Fever, modeling, vector transmission potential. Florence Fouque is an entomologist with the Pasteur Institute of French Guiana, Laboratory of medical Entomology, B.P. 6010, 97300 Cayenne, cedex. E-mail: ffouque@pasteur-cayenne.fr. Dominique Bicout is a physician with the Unity of Biomathematics, National Institute of Agronomic Research/Veterinary National School of Lyon, 1, Av. Bourgelat, 69280 Marcy l’Etoile, France. E-mail: bicout@ill.fr. Philippe Sabatier is a Biostatistician, Head of the Unity of Biomathematics, National Institute of Agronomic Research/Veterinary National School of Lyon, 1, Av. Bourgelat, 69280 Marcy l’Etoile, France. E-mail: sabatier@clermont.inra. fr.
Thinking about thinking aloud: a comparison of two verbal protocols for usability testing

We report on an exploratory experimental comparison of two different thinking aloud approaches in a usability test that focused on navigation problems in a highly nonstandard Web site. One approach is a rigid application of Ericsson and Simon's (for original paper see Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data, MIT Press (1993)) procedure. The other is derived from Boren and Ramey's (for original paper see ibid., vol. 43, no. 3, p. 261-278 (2000)) proposal based on speech communication. The latter approach differs from the former in that the experimenter has more room for acknowledging (mm-hmm) contributions from subjects and has the possibility of asking for clarifications and offering encouragement. Comparing the verbal reports obtained with these two methods, we find that the process of thinking aloud while carrying out tasks is not affected by the type of approach that was used. The task performance does differ. More tasks were completed in the B and R condition, and subjects were less lost. Nevertheless, subjects' evaluations of the Web site quality did not differ, nor did the number of different navigation problems that were detected.
Exploring the Uncharted Export: An Analysis of Tourism-Related Foreign Expenditure with International Spend Data

Tourism is one of the most important economic activities in the world: for many countries it represents the single largest product in their export basket. However, it is a product difficult to chart: "exporters" of tourism do not ship it abroad, but they welcome importers inside the country. Current research uses social accounting matrices and general equilibrium models, but the standard industry classifications they use make it hard to identify which domestic industries cater to foreign visitors. In this paper, we make use of open source data and of anonymized and aggregated transaction data giving us insights about the spend behavior of foreigners inside two countries, Colombia and the Netherlands, to inform our research. With this data, we are able to describe what constitutes the tourism sector, and to map the most attractive destinations for visitors. In particular, we find that countries might observe different geographical tourists' patterns - concentration versus decentralization -; we show the importance of distance, a country's reported wealth and cultural affinity in informing tourism; and we show the potential of combining open source data and anonymized and aggregated transaction data on foreign spend patterns in gaining insight as to the evolution of tourism from one year to another.
Gathering insights on disease etiology from gene expression profiles of healthy tissues

MOTIVATION Gene expression profiles have been widely used to study disease states. It may be possible, however, to gather insights into human diseases by comparing gene expression profiles of healthy organs with different disease incidence or severity. We tested this hypothesis and developed an approach to identify candidate genes associated with disease development by focusing on cancer incidence since it varies greatly across human organs. RESULTS We normalized organ-specific cancer incidence by organ weight and found that reproductive organs tend to have a higher mass-normalized cancer incidence, which could be due to evolutionary trade-offs. Next, we performed a genome-wide scan to identify genes whose expression across healthy organs correlates with organ-specific cancer incidence. We identified a large number of genes, including genes previously associated with tumorigenesis and new candidate genes. Most genes exhibiting a positive correlation with cancer incidence were related to ribosomal and transcriptional activity, translation and protein synthesis. Organs with enhanced transcriptional and translational activation may have higher cell proliferation and therefore be more likely to develop cancer. Furthermore, we found that organs with lower cancer incidence tend to express lower levels of known cancer-associated genes. Overall, these results demonstrate how genes and processes that predispose organs to specific diseases can be identified using gene expression profiles from healthy tissues. Our approach can be applied to other diseases and serve as foundation for further oncogenomic analyses. CONTACT jp@senescence.info SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Optimal experimental design of human appraisals for modeling consumer preferences in engineering design

Human appraisals are becoming increasingly important in the design of engineering systems to link engineering design attributes to customer preferences. Human appraisals are used to assess consumers’ opinions of a given product design, and are unique in that the experiment response is a function of both the product attributes and the respondents’ demographic attributes. The design of a human appraisal is characterized as a split-plot design, in which the respondent demographic attributes form the whole-plot factors while the product attributes form the split-plot factors. The experiments are also characterized by random block effects, in which the design configurations evaluated by a single respondent form a block. An experimental design algorithm is needed for human appraisal experiments because standard experimental designs often do not meet the needs of these experiments. In this work, an algorithmic approach to identify the optimal design for a human appraisal experiment is developed, which considers the effects of respondent fatigue and the block and split-plot structure of such a design. The developed algorithm seeks to identify the experimental design which maximizes the determinant of the Fisher Information Matrix, labeled as the D-criterion of a given design. The algorithm is derived assuming an ordered logit model will be used to model the rating responses. The advantages of this approach over competing approaches for minimizing the number of appraisal experiments and model-building efficiency are demonstrated using an automotive interior package human appraisal as an example.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Compact Ultra-Wideband Bandpass Filters Using Composite Microstrip&#8211;Coplanar-Waveguide Structure

Compact ultra-wideband bandpass filters are proposed based on the composite microstrip-coplanar-waveguide (CPW) structure. In this study, the microstrip-CPW transitions and the CPW shorted stubs are adopted as quasi-lumped-circuit elements for realizing a three-pole high-pass filter prototype. By introducing a cross-coupled capacitance between input and output ports of this high-pass filter and suitably designing the transition stretch stubs, a compact three-pole ultra-wideband bandpass filter is implemented with two transmission zeros located close to the passband edges. To further improve the selectivity, two microstrip shorted stubs are added to implement a five-pole ultra-wideband bandpass filter with good out-of-band response. Being developed from the quasi-lumped elements, and not from the transmission lines, the proposed ultra-wideband filters have sizes more compact than those of the published wideband filters. The proposed ultra-wideband filters have the merits of compact size, flat group delay, good insertion/return loss, and good selectivity. Agreement between simulated and measured responses of these filters is demonstrated
Scheduling mixed-model assembly lines with genetic algorithms: the Aprilia case study

The two authors deal with the topic of the final assembly scheduling realized by the use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs). The objective of the research was to study in depth the use of GA for scheduling mixed-model assembly lines and to propose a model able to produce feasible solutions according to the particular requirements of an important Italian motorbike company, the Aprilia group, as well as to capture the results of this change in terms of better operational performances. In the Aprilia case study, the scheduling problem is made more complex by the “chessboard shifting” of work teams. Therefore, a complex model for scheduling mixed-model assembly lines is required. An application of the GAs is proposed in order to test their effectiveness and robustness. The short elaboration time and the robustness of the final assembly plans, obtained during the test-stage, confirm that the choice was right and suggest the use of GAs in other complex manufacturing systems.
Use of Pooled Urine Samples and Automated DNA Isolation To Achieve Improved Sensitivity and Cost-Effectiveness of Large-Scale Testing for Chlamydia trachomatis in Pregnant Women

ABSTRACT The success of large-scale screening for Chlamydia trachomatis depends on the availability of noninvasive samples, low costs, and high-quality testing. To evaluate C. trachomatis testing with pregnant women, first-void urine specimens from 750 consecutive asymptomatic pregnant women from the Rotterdam area (The Netherlands) were collected. Initially, we investigated the performance of three different DNA isolation methods with 350 of these urines and 70 pools of 5 of the same subset of urine samples. The routinely used COBAS AMPLICOR test was compared to the COBAS AMPLICOR test with prior DNA isolation by use of the MagNA Pure large-volume kit and the MagNA Pure bacterial DNA isolation kit. The latter combination provided the best DNA test for pooled urines, with a sensitivity twice that of the other methods. Next, using all 750 urines, the COBAS AMPLICOR performance for individual testing was compared to pooled testing with the standard COBAS AMPLICOR procedure and subsequently to pooled testing with COBAS AMPLICOR in combination with the MagNA Pure bacterial DNA isolation kit. The sensitivity of COBAS AMPLICOR was 65% on individual and 42% on pooled urines but improved to 92% on pooled urines with the MagNA Pure bacterial DNA isolation kit, making this combination the best screening method. The C. trachomatis prevalence in this population appeared to be 6.4%. Additionally, the cost of the combined MagNA Pure bacterial DNA isolation kit and COBAS AMPLICOR method on pooled urines was only 56% of the cost of the standard COBAS AMPLICOR test applied to individual urines. Costs per positive case detected in the combined method were 39% of standard costs.
An Integer Programming-Based Bound for Locally Repairable Codes

The locally repairable code (LRC) studied in this paper is an [n, k] linear code of which the value at each coordinate can be recovered by a linear combination of at most r other coordinates. The central problem in this paper is to determine the largest possible minimum distance for LRCs. First, an integer programming-based upper bound is derived for any LRC. Then, by solving the programming problem under certain conditions, an explicit upper bound is obtained for LRCs with parameters n<sub>1</sub> > n<sub>2</sub>, where n<sub>1</sub> = ⌈(n/r + 1)⌉ and n2 = n<sub>1</sub>(r +1)-n. Finally, an explicit construction for LRCs attaining this upper bound is presented over the finite field F<sub>2</sub><sub>m</sub>,where m ≥ n<sub>1</sub>r. Based on these r ≤ √n - 1 has been definitely determined, which is of great results, the largest possible minimum distance for all LRCs with significance in practical use.
Stateful Declassification Policies for Event-Driven Programs

We propose a novel mechanism for enforcing information flow policies with support for declassification on event-driven programs. Declassification policies consist of two functions. First, a projection function specifies for each confidential event what information in the event can be declassified directly. This generalizes the traditional security labelling of inputs. Second, a stateful release function specifies the aggregate information about all confidential events seen so far that can be declassified. We provide evidence that such declassification policies are useful in the context of Java Script web applications. An enforcement mechanism for our policies is presented and its soundness and precision is proven. Finally, we give evidence of practicality by implementing and evaluating the mechanism in a browser.