Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aspects of material culture at the Iron Age capital on the Kerkenes Dag in Central Anatolia

The exceptional Iron Age capital on the Kerkenes Dag in the upland centre of modern Turkey is the largest pre-Hellenistic city in Anatolia. It appears to have been a new foundation established at the end of the seventh century BC. It was destroyed by fire and its 7 km. of stone defences thrown down in, it seems, the mid sixth century BC after which all but the acropolis of this 250 hectare site was abandoned. Recent research has revealed considerable evidence for Phrygian culture, including architecture, inscriptions and graffiti. This paper selectively summarises these new discoveries while making a preliminary attempt to place them within a wider Anatolian setting.
Human cooperation in social dilemmas: comparing the Snowdrift game with the Prisoner's Dilemma

Explaining the evolution of cooperation among non-relatives is one of the major challenges for evolutionary biology. In this study, we experimentally examined human cooperation in the iterated Snowdrift game (ISD), which has received little attention so far, and compared it with human cooperation in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD), which has become the paradigm for the evolution of cooperation. We show that iteration in the ISD leads to consistently higher levels of cooperation than in the IPD. We further demonstrate that the most successful strategies known for the IPD (generous Tit-for-Tat and Pavlov) were also successfully used in the ISD. Interestingly, we found that female players cooperated significantly more often than male players in the IPD but not in the ISD. Moreover, female players in the IPD applied Tit-for-Tat-like or Pavlovian strategies significantly more often than male players, thereby achieving significantly higher pay-offs than male players did. These data demonstrate that the willingness to cooperate does not only depend on the type of the social dilemma, but also on the class of individuals involved. Altogether, our study shows that the ISD can potentially explain high levels of cooperation among non-relatives in humans. In addition, the ISD seems to reflect the social dilemma more realistically than the IPD because individuals obtain immediate direct benefits from the cooperative acts they perform and costs of cooperation are shared between cooperators.
Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-1380

Abbreviations List of maps and tables Acknowledgements 1. The idea of Italy and the sources of Italian History 2. Frederick II 3. Popes, emperors and communes 1250-1380 4. The family 5. The nobility 6. Party, conflict and the popolo 7. Party-leaders and signori 8. The countryside 9. Merchants, workers and workless 10. Food, war and government 11. Religious life 12. The difficult years 1340-80 Index
Optimal Budget Allocation in the Evaluation of Simulation-Optimization Algorithms

To efficiently evaluate simulation-optimization algorithms, we propose three different performance measures and their respective estimators. Only one estimator achieves the canonical Monte Carlo convergence rate O(T−1/2), while the other two converge at the sub-canonical rate of O(T−1/3). For each estimator, we study how the computational budget should be allocated between the execution of the optimization algorithm and the assessment of the output, so that the mean squared error of the estimator is minimized.
Long Waves in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean: A View from a Geostationary Satellite

During 1975, westward-moving long waves with a period of about 25 days and a wavelength of 1000 kilometers were observed at a sea surface temperature front in the equatorial Pacific on infrared images obtained by a geostationary environmental satellite system. The absence of these waves during 1976, and the above-average equatorial sea surface temperatures during 1976, may be related to a decrease in the southeasterly trade winds during that year.
Optoelectronic nonlinear transient computing with multiple delays

In this contribution, we report on a versatile electro-optic setup performing photonic nonlinear transient computing. The setup is making use of a hybrid analogue and digital architecture. A photonic part is ruling the dynamics, with a tunable nonlinear transformation performed by the operating point of a Mach-Zehnder modulator. An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is also used to emulate the delay (usually achieved via the time of flight of the light information in a fiber), but also to emulate other specific and easily reconfigurable functionalities. The FPGA indeed allowed to design a multiple delayed feedback architecture, thus improving the connectivity of the virtual network of nodes emulated by the delay dynamics. We also implemented in-line processing features, such as the Readout processing which is usually performed off-line in most of the previous results.
Electric Energy Metering Mechanism Based on Opportunistic Electromagnetic Coupling and Big Data Resonant Cavity with Network Scheduling

—Large scale electric energy measurement has the problems of big scale of data, difficult of network scheduling and low measurement accuracy. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposed the electric energy measurement mechanism based on the electromagnetic coupling system and the big data resonant cavity. Firstly, based on the opportunity coupling mechanism, the electromagnetic opportunity structure and the opportunity control parameters, the electric energy metering opportunity electromagnetic coupling system is constructed. The system has the ability to improve the working efficiency and the energy efficiency of the electromagnetic coupling system. Secondly, the influence of the power transmission network on the electric energy measurement is further eliminated by constructing a resonant cavity based on big data and using the near field opportunity. Finally, to the circuit quality factor of the big data resonant cavity could be obtained based on the combination between capacitance of the capacitor and the parallel diode and the opportunistic electromagnetic coupling system. The experimental results show that, compared with the current transformer ratio test instrument, the proposed algorithm has the advantages of high real-time, high precision and high efficiency etc.
Comparison of acceptability of and preferences for different methods of measuring blood pressure in primary care

Primary care p 254 Blood pressure is probably the most common measurement used in clinical practice and the most common reason for initiation of long term treatment. Recent guidelines for the use of ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure recommend its use in both initial diagnosis (before starting treatment) and assessing control.1 If ambulatory monitoring is to be used more often we need evidence about its acceptability. Anecdotal reports of its acceptability exist, 2 3 and one large study found that the major drawback was sleep disturbance.4 It is not clear if patients regard such inconvenience and disturbance as worth while to obtain accurate readings or what patients feel about the alternatives. One study of home blood pressure monitoring suggested that patients found it acceptable.5 No study has yet explored the main issues for patients about the acceptability of the different methods of measuring …
Pareto-optimal hardware for substitution boxes

In this paper, we propose a methodology based on genetic programming to automatically generate hardware designs of substitution boxes necessary for many cryptosystems such as DES encryption system. We aim at evolving minimal hardware specifications, which minimize both space (i.e. required gate number), response time (i.e. encryption and decryption time) and dissipated power. We compare our results against existing and well-known designs, which were produced by human designers using conventional methods.
Explorative graph visualization

Network structures (graphs) have become a natural part of everyday life and their analysis helps to gain an understanding of their inherent structure and the real-world aspects thereby expressed. The exploration of graphs is largely supported and driven by visual means. The aim of this thesis is to give a comprehensive view on the problems associated with these visual means and to detail concrete solution approaches for them. This is done on all three levels involved: the data level, the representation level, and the task level. In a first step, the intricate dependencies on the representation level alone are discussed for the case of implicit tree visualizations. With the awareness of the representation issues involved, a second step takes the characteristics on data level into account, which are most importantly graph size and graph type. Their influence on the visualization design are discussed specifically for large trees and bipartite graphs. Finally, with bringing in the task level, the entire exploration workflow from computational preprocessing to the interaction with the visualization can be captured and thus discussed in terms of its consequences for the visualization design. This includes issues of necessary confirmative elements in the exploratory analysis, as well as selecting appropriate data sets from a heterogeneous data pool for an analysis. Concrete visualization techniques are introduced to underline the value of this comprehensive discussion for supporting explorative graph visualization.
Fast online video image sequence recognition with statistical methods

In this paper a fast method to recognize image sequences is presented. It is based on a discrete statistical model consisting of a vector quantizer and a special probabilistic neural net giving an estimation for the a posteriori probability P(SEQUENCE|DATA), which allows to classify image sequences without applying rules depending on the content of the sequence. The simple feature extraction also allows the classification with discrete hidden Markov models. As an application we present results from a test conducted for the classification of various gestures done by human beings in front of a video camera for both classification methods, which gave promising recognition results in real time.
Analyzing first impressions of warmth and competence from observable nonverbal cues in expert-novice interactions

In this paper we present an analysis from a corpus of dyadic expert-novice knowledge sharing interactions. The analysis aims at investigating the relationship between observed non-verbal cues and first impressions formation of warmth and competence. We first obtained both discrete and continuous annotations of our data. Discrete descriptors include non-verbal cues such as type of gestures, arms rest poses, head movements and smiles. Continuous descriptors concern annotators' judgments of the expert's warmth and competence during the observed interaction with the novice. Then we computed Odds Ratios between those descriptors. Results highlight the role of smiling in warmth and competence impressions. Smiling is associated with increased levels of warmth and decreasing competence. It also affects the impact of others non-verbal cues (e.g. self-adaptors gestures) on warmth and competence. Moreover, our findings provide interesting insights about the role of rest poses, that are associated with decreased levels of warmth and competence impressions.
Male‐specific lethal 2, a dosage compensation gene of Drosophila, undergoes sex‐specific regulation and encodes a protein with a RING finger and a metallothionein‐like cysteine cluster.

In Drosophila the equalization of X‐linked gene products between males and females, i.e. dosage compensation, is the result of a 2‐fold hypertranscription of most of these genes in males. At least four regulatory genes are required for this process. Three of these genes, maleless (mle), male‐specific lethal 1 (msl‐1) and male‐specific lethal 3 (msl‐3), have been cloned and their products have been shown to interact and to bind to numerous sites on the X chromosome of males, but not of females. Although binding to the X chromosome is negatively correlated with the function of the master regulatory gene Sex lethal (Sxl), the mechanisms that restrict this binding to males and to the X chromosome are not yet understood. We have cloned the last of the known autosomal genes involved in dosage compensation, male‐specific lethal 2 (msl‐2), and characterized its product. The encoded protein (MSL‐2) consists of 769 amino acid residues and has a RING finger (C3HC4 zinc finger) and a metallothionein‐like domain with eight conserved and two non‐conserved cysteines. In addition, it contains a positively and a negatively charged amino acid residue cluster and a coiled coil domain that may be involved in protein‐protein interactions. Males produce a msl‐2 transcript that is shorter than in females, due to differential splicing of an intron of 132 bases in the untranslated leader. Using an antiserum against MSL‐2 we have shown that the protein is expressed at a detectable level only in males, where it is physically associated with the X chromosome. Our observations suggest that MSL‐2 may be the target of the master regulatory gene Sxl and provide the basic elements of a working hypothesis on the function of MSL‐2 in mediating the 2‐fold increase in transcription that is characteristic of dosage compensation.
Testability analysis for software components

In this paper, we propose to use the static single assignment form, which was originally proposed for code optimization in compilation techniques, in order to transform software components into a data-flow representation. Thus, hardware testability concepts can be used to analyze the testability of components that are described by C or Ada programs. Such a testability analysis helps designers during the specification phases of their components and testers during the testing phases to evaluate and eventually to modify the design.
In Vitro Activities of Retigeric Acid B Alone and in Combination with Azole Antifungal Agents against Candida albicans

ABSTRACT The vitro antifungal activity of retigeric acid B (RAB), a pentacyclic triterpenoid from the lichen species Lobaria kurokawae, was evaluated alone and in combination with fluconazole, ketoconazole, and itraconazole against Candida albicans using checkerboard microdilution and time-killing tests. The MICs for RAB against 10 different C. albicans isolates ranged from 8 to 16 μg/ml. A synergistic action of RAB and azole was observed in azole-resistant strains, whereas synergistic or indifferent effects were observed in azole-sensitive strains when interpreted by a separate approach of the fractional inhibitory concentration index and ΔE model (the difference between the predicted and measured fungal growth percentages). In time-killing tests, we used both colony counts and a colorimetric assay to evaluate the combinational antifungal effects of RAB and azoles, which further confirmed their synergistic interactions. These findings suggest that the natural product RAB may play a certain role in increasing the susceptibilities of azole-resistant C. albicans strains.
A Defect in Collagen Receptor-Ca2+ Signaling System in Platelets from Cattle with Chediak-Higashi Syndrome

Summary Decreased platelet aggregation to collagen is a cause for bleeding diathesis of Chediak-Higashi syndrome (CHS). We investigated whether the collagen receptor-Ca2+ signaling system was impaired in platelets from cattle affected with CHS. A collagen-induced increase in cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) was depressed in CHS platelets, which was accompanied by a decrease in the production of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. When the influences of endogenous arachidonic acid metabolites and ADP were excluded, convulxin or collagen-related peptide, which are specific agonists for the collagen receptor GPVI, increased [Ca2+]i in both normal and CHS platelets. In contrast, rhodocytin, which was thought to activate another collagen receptor GPIa/IIa, increased [Ca2+]i in CHS platelets to a lesser extent than in normal ones. Cytochalasin D, an actin polymerization inhibitor, depressed the response to collagen or rhodocytin but not the response to convulxin. Adhesion of CHS platelets to acid soluble type I collagen, which was mediated by GPIa/IIa, was similar to that of normal platelets. These results suggest that a defect in the rhodocytin-sensitive pathway is responsible for decreasing the response to collagen in CHS platelets. It remains to be determined which receptor is associated with the mechanism.
Enhancing Image Security Using DNA Cryptography and Reversible Texture Synthesis

Along with the emergence of the digital era, the security has become a major issue in the field of wireless communication and data storage. Cryptography and steganography has been considered as a dependable solution for this problem but it has its own limits. In this project, a new field of cryptography known as DNA cryptography is used along with texture synthesis to provide a better alternative to the traditional cryptographic and steganography methods. The advantage of using this method is that it provides a double layer security of cryptography and steganography. The DNA cryptography helps in converting the secret image in to a coded format and texture synthesis shall help in hiding the coded image. The texture synthesis approach provides mainly three advantages. First, it provides hiding capacity that is proportional to size of stego texture image. Second, a steganalytic algorithm will find it extremely difficult to break this approach. Third, the reversible capability will allow the recovery of source texture without any deterioration. The DNA cryptography used itself provides a two-fold security that includes both mathematical and biological compatibility. Key wordscryptography, steganography, texture
A 3-dB multilayer coupler with UC-PBG structure

A novel broadside coupled stripline coupler with a uniplanar compact photonic bandgap (UC-PBG) structure is presented. Construction of the coupler is based on a stripline with two-dimensional periodically etched ground plane. The slow-wave phenomenon has been predicted and observed. Numerical and experimental investigations show an enhanced backward coupling effect. The usefulness of both phenomena in the coupler construction has been verified experimentally.
Reliability-based server selection for heterogeneous VANETs

Heterogeneous wireless networks are capable of providing customers with better services while service providers can offer more applications to more customers with lower costs. To provide services, some applications rely on existing servers in the network. In a vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) some mobile nodes may function as servers. Due to high mobility of nodes and short lifetime of links, server-to-client and server-to-server communications become challenging. In this paper we propose to enhance the performance of server selection by taking link reliability into consideration in the server selection mechanism, thereby avoiding extra client-to-server hand-offs and reducing the need of server-to-server synchronization. As a case study we focus on location management service in a heterogeneous VANET. We provide a routing algorithm for transactions between location servers and mobile nodes. We assume that location servers are vehicles equipped with at least one longrange and one short-range radio interfaces, whereas regular nodes (clients) are only equipped with a short-range radio interface. The primary goal of our design is to minimize hand-offs between location servers while limiting the delays of location updates. Taking advantage of vehicle mobility patterns, we propose a mobility-aware server selection scheme and show that it can reduce the number of hand-offs and yet avoid large delays during location updates. We present simulation results to show that proposed scheme significantly lowers the costs of signaling and rate of server hand-offs by increasing the connection lifetimes between clients and servers.
Performance bounds for turbo-coded modulation systems

We apply the standard union bound to turbo-coded modulation systems with maximum-likelihood decoding. To illustrate the methodology, we explicitly derive the bounds for the 2-bits/s/Hz 16 QAM system. Generalization of this bound to other turbo-coded modulation systems is straightforward. As in the case of the standard union bound for turbo codes, we expect these bounds to be useful for rather large values of signal-to-noise ratios, i.e., signal-to-noise ratios for which the code rate is smaller than the corresponding cutoff rate. The bound is based on "uniform interleaving" just as its counterpart for standard turbo coding. The derived bound provides a tool for comparing coded modulation schemes having different component codes, interleaver lengths, mappings, etc., using maximum-likelihood decoding. It is also useful in studying the effectiveness of various suboptimal decoding algorithms. The bounding technique is also applicable to other coded-modulation schemes such as serially concatenated coded modulation.
An Assessment of the Extent of Child Maltreatment Using Administrative Databases

This study examined the extent of violence toward children and factors associated with child maltreatment in Florida using a cohort of children (N = 499,330) who were adjudged to be victims of maltreatment between July 1, 1996, and June 30, 2003. To assess the extent of maltreatment, five indicators were proposed and examined. Multivariate analyses found that prior referral, having more than one type of maltreatment during an initial incident, and caregiver absence best predicted the recurrence of maltreatment. Caregivers’ alcohol and substance use were strong predictors of neglect and threatened harm but not of abuse. Finally, multilevel analyses found that older, nonminority girls with histories of prior referrals were significantly (psuedo-zs > 2.00) more likely to experience high degrees of incident severity. Caregivers’ substance use, excluding alcohol, also was significantly linked to incident severity. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Toronto Composite Empathy Scale in Greek dental students.

INTRODUCTION Empathy levels of health practitioners are related to patient satisfaction and treatment outcomes. The Toronto Composite Empathy Scale (TCES) was recently developed to assess cognitive and emotional empathy levels in both professional and personal spheres, and tested in an English-speaking sample of dental students. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometrics of the Greek version of the TCES. MATERIALS AND METHODS The TCES was translated into Greek and administered to all of the dental students at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. A random subset of students completed the questionnaire twice for test-retest analysis. RESULTS Nearly all (96.5%) of the students completed the questionnaire. The internal consistencies of each of the four subscales were generally acceptable (Cronbach's alphas: 0.676-0.805), and the scale showed good discriminant and convergent validities (r's for discriminant validity: 0.217 and 0.103; r's for convergent validity: 0.595 and 0.700). Test-retest reliabilities ranged from 0.478 to 0.779. After eliminating items that fell on both cognitive and emotional factors, a rotated factor analysis indicated that the items loaded on two cognitive and three emotional factors. DISCUSSION Our results indicate that the Greek version of the TCES has good psychometric properties. The factor analysis indicates that the emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy are distinct, supporting the need to address both aspects in studies of empathy. CONCLUSIONS The Greek version of the TCES is a reliable and valid tool for the measurement of cognitive and emotional empathy, in both professional and personal life, in Greek dental students.