Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Color Channels, Not Color Appearance or Color Categories, Guide Visual Search for Desaturated Color Targets

In this article, we report that in visual search, desaturated reddish targets are much easier to find than other desaturated targets, even when perceptual differences between targets and distractors are carefully equated. Observers searched for desaturated targets among mixtures of white and saturated distractors. Reaction times were hundreds of milliseconds faster for the most effective (reddish) targets than for the least effective (purplish) targets. The advantage for desaturated reds did not reflect an advantage for the lexical category “pink,” because reaction times did not follow named color categories. Many pink stimuli were not found quickly, and many quickly found stimuli were not labeled “pink. ” Other possible explanations (e.g., linear-separability effects) also failed. Instead, we propose that guidance of visual search for desaturated colors is based on a combination of low-level color-opponent signals that is different from the combinations that produce perceived color. We speculate that this guidance might reflect a specialization for human skin.
Controlled biosynthesis of odd-chain fuels and chemicals via engineered modular metabolic pathways

Microbial systems are being increasingly developed as production hosts for a wide variety of chemical compounds. Broader adoption of microbial synthesis is hampered by a limited number of high-yielding natural pathways for molecules with the desired physical properties, as well as the difficulty in functionally assembling complex biosynthetic pathways in heterologous hosts. Here, we address both of these challenges by reporting the adaptation of the butanol biosynthetic pathway for the synthesis of odd-chain molecules and the development of a complementary modular toolkit to facilitate pathway construction, characterization, and optimization in engineered Escherichia coli. The modular feature of our pathway enables multientry and multiexit biosynthesis of various odd-chain compounds at high efficiency. By varying combinations of the pathway and toolkit enzymes, we demonstrate controlled production of propionate, trans-2-pentenoate, valerate, and pentanol, compounds with applications that include biofuels, antibiotics, biopolymers, and aroma chemicals. Importantly, and in contrast to a previously used method to identify limitations in heterologous amorphadiene production, our bypass strategy was effective even without the presence of freely membrane-diffusible substrates. This approach should prove useful for optimization of other pathways that use CoA-derivatized intermediates, including fatty acid β-oxidation and the mevalonate pathway for isoprenoid synthesis.
Cycles and Commutative Algebra

We describe several applications of the theory of cycles to questions in Commutative Algebra. The main topic is the use of the theory of local Chern characters to answer some questions on modules of finite homological dimension. This paper is based on talks given at the conference on cycles in Morelia, Mexico in June 2003.
Adélie Penguin Foraging Location Predicted by Tidal Regime Switching

Penguin foraging and breeding success depend on broad-scale environmental and local-scale hydrographic features of their habitat. We investigated the effect of local tidal currents on a population of Adélie penguins on Humble Is. , Antarctica. We used satellite-tagged penguins, an autonomous underwater vehicle, and historical tidal records to model of penguin foraging locations over ten seasons. The bearing of tidal currents did not oscillate daily, but rather between diurnal and semidiurnal tidal regimes. Adélie penguins foraging locations changed in response to tidal regime switching, and not to daily tidal patterns. The hydrography and foraging patterns of Adélie penguins during these switching tidal regimes suggest that they are responding to changing prey availability, as they are concentrated and dispersed in nearby Palmer Deep by variable tidal forcing on weekly timescales, providing a link between local currents and the ecology of this predator.
Characterization of performance of TCP/IP over PPP and ATM over asymmetric links

The objective of this paper is to characterize and analyze the performance of TCP/IP when used over point-to-point protocol (PPP) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) on asymmetric links. This will allow us to gain insight into this new protocol architecture used in the asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) access network and to investigate the related quality of service (QoS) issues. Using simulation, we verified the effects of asymmetry on the performance of TCP and additional throughput degradation caused by segmentation at the ATM layer. This study was done for unidirectional and bidirectional data transfer using different traffic mixes. We also quantified the improvement in the downstream throughput obtained by delaying the TCP acknowledgements and using TCP/IP header compression. Although these techniques are effective for unidirectional TCP/IP data transfer over asymmetric links, they do not prove as effective for bidirectional traffic, and the problem further exacerbates when ATM enters the scenario. Hence, there is a need for additional enhancements in such scenarios. Further, we modified the existing protocol stack model to implement PPP encapsulation over the ATM adaptation layer (AAL5). We characterized and analyzed the effect of the additional PPP overhead on system performance in terms of throughput degradation and additional delay. We also evaluated the use of TCP/IP header compression for improving performance in presence of PPP encapsulation.
People counting system by using kinect sensor

This paper presents a people counting system as an application of a people counting method. The method uses depth and vision data captured by a low-cost Kinect sensor. The sensor is placed perpendicular to the ceiling. The perception of the people is achieved by using water filling method. A new approach called as people tracking increases the performance of the people counting system. Some real applications are given to show the efficiency of the proposed approach.
Introspective service interface synthesis in business networks

Service mismatches involve the adaptation of structural and behavioural interfaces of services, which in practice incurs long lead times through manual, coding e ort. We propose a framework, complementary to conventional service adaptation, to extract comprehensive and seman- tically normalised service interfaces, useful for interoperability in large business networks and the Internet of Services. The framework supports introspection and analysis of large and overloaded operational signa- tures to derive focal artefacts, namely the underlying business objects of services. A more simpli ed and comprehensive service interface layer is created based on these, and rendered into semantically normalised in- terfaces, given an ontology accrued through the framework from service analysis history. This opens up the prospect of supporting capability comparisons across services, and run-time request backtracking and ad- justment, as consumers discover new features of a service's operations through corresponding features of similar services. This paper provides a rst exposition of the service interface synthesis framework, describing patterns having novel requirements for unilateral service adaptation, and algorithms for interface introspection and business object alignment. A prototype implementation and analysis of web services drawn from com- mercial logistic systems are used to validate the algorithms and identify open challenges and future research directions.
Personalized web based English learning system using artificial neural networks

Traditional educational systems are usually presented in a course based and static way, without taking into account the learner's interests and learning progress. Language learning by that means could be accompanied by boredom and lack of real experiences, which is a great barrier to improving language skills. This paper presents an English learning system that is based on web browsing. Users browse English websites of their own interests and the system grabs the proper words for the user to learn. A personalized forgetting curve is stored in the system and adapted to the user using a back-propagation artificial neural network. The system selects the learning contents according to the personalized forgetting curve. The learning data is sent to the server through Web Service, to get assistance from a tutor or share the vocabulary list with other users.
Iron uptake system mediates nitrate-facilitated cadmium accumulation in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants

Nitrogen (N) management is a promising agronomic strategy to minimize cadmium (Cd) contamination in crops. However, it is unclear how N affects Cd uptake by plants. Wild-type and iron uptake-inefficient tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) mutant (T3238fer) plants were grown in pH-buffered hydroponic culture to investigate the direct effect of N-form on Cd uptake. Wild-type plants fed NO3− accumulated more Cd than plants fed NH4+. Iron uptake and LeIRT1 expression in roots were also greater in plants fed NO3−. However, in mutant T3238fer which loses FER function, LeIRT1 expression in roots was almost completely terminated, and the difference between NO3− and NH4+ treatments vanished. As a result, the N-form had no effect on Cd uptake in this mutant. Furthermore, suppression of LeIRT1 expression by NO synthesis inhibition with either tungstate or L-NAME, also substantially inhibited Cd uptake in roots, and the difference between N-form treatments was diminished. Considering all of these findings, it was concluded that the up-regulation of the Fe uptake system was responsible for NO3− -facilitated Cd accumulation in plants.
Unsupervised learning of an extensive and usable taxonomy for DBpedia

In the digital era, Wikipedia represents a comprehensive cross-domain source of knowledge with millions of contributors. The DBpedia project transforms Wikipedia content into RDF and currently plays a crucial role in the Web of Data as a central multilingual interlinking hub. However, its main classification system depends on human curation, which causes it to lack coverage, resulting in a large amount of untyped resources. We present an unsupervised approach that automatically learns a taxonomy from the Wikipedia category system and extensively assigns types to DBpedia entities, through the combination of several interdisciplinary techniques. It provides a robust backbone for DBpedia knowledge and has the benefit of being easy to understand for end users. Crowdsourced online evaluations demonstrate that our strategy outperforms state-of-the-art approaches both in terms of coverage and intuitiveness.
Action recognition based on principal geodesic analysis

In this paper, we consider the action recognition problem based on geometrical structure. Our method uses a low dimensional structure on the Grassmannian manifold to represent video sequences, by utilizing the linear structure of the tangent space. This approach can be divided into a training (off-line computing) stage and testing (on-line computing) stage, and makes the recognition algorithm scalable to large data sets. We test the proposed method on several benchmark data sets. The result shows that the new approach takes less computation compared to previous work based on the same geometrical assumption, and has similar or even higher recognition accuracy.
Role of the cerebellum in reaching movements in humans. II. A neural model of the intermediate cerebellum

The cerebellum is essential for the control of multijoint movements; when the cerebellum is lesioned, the performance error is more than the summed errors produced by single joints. In the companion paper ( Schweighofer et al. 1998 ), a functional anatomical model for visually guided arm movement was proposed. The model comprised a basic feedforward/feedback controller with realistic transmission delays and was connected to a two‐link, six‐muscle, planar arm. In the present study, we examined the role of the cerebellum in reaching movements by embedding a novel, detailed cerebellar neural network in this functional control model. We could derive realistic cerebellar inputs and the role of the cerebellum in learning to control the arm was assessed.
The study of infectious intestinal disease in England: risk factors for cases of infectious intestinal disease with Campylobacter jejuni infection

This is a case-control study aimed at identifying risk factors for intestinal infection with Campylobacter jejuni. Cases were defined as subjects with diarrhoea occurring in community cohorts or presenting to General Practitioners (GPs) with Campylobacter jejuni in stools. Controls were selected from GP lists or cohorts, matched by age, sex, and GP practice. Travel abroad and consumption of chicken in a restaurant were statistically significantly associated with being a case. There was no statistically significant risk associated with consumption of chicken other than in restaurants nor with reported domestic kitchen hygiene practices. Consumption of some foods was associated with a lower risk of being a case. Most cases remained unexplained. We suggest that infection with low numbers of micro-organisms, and individual susceptibility may play a greater role in the causation of campylobacter infection than previously thought. It is possible that in mild, sporadic cases infection may result from cross contamination from kitchen hygiene practices usually regarded as acceptable. Chicken may be a less important vehicle of infection for sporadic cases than for outbreaks, although its role as a source of infection in both settings requires further clarification in particular in relation to the effect of domestic hygiene practices. The potential effect of diet in reducing the risk of campylobacteriosis requires exploration.
On the Diagnosis of Cyber-Physical Production Systems

Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs) are in the focus of research, industry and politics: By applying new IT and new computer science solutions, production systems will become more adaptable, more resource ef- ficient and more user friendly. The analysis and diagnosis of such systems is a major part of this trend: Plants should detect automatically wear, faults and suboptimal configurations. This paper reflects the current state-of- the-art in diagnosis against the requirements of CPPSs, identifies three main gaps and gives application scenarios to outline first ideas for potential solutions to close these gaps.
Multimeric Scaffolds Displaying the HIV-1 Envelope MPER Induce MPER-Specific Antibodies and Cross-Neutralizing Antibodies when Co-Immunized with gp160 DNA

Developing a vaccine that overcomes the diversity of HIV-1 is likely to require a strategy that directs antibody (Ab) responses toward conserved regions of the viral Envelope (Env). However, the generation of neutralizing Abs (NAbs) targeting these regions through vaccination has proven to be difficult. One conserved region of particular interest is the membrane proximal external region (MPER) of Env located within the gp41 ectodomain. In order to direct the immune response to this region, the MPER and gp41 ectodomain were expressed separately as N-terminal fusions to the E2 protein of Geobacillus stearothermophilus. The E2 protein acts as a scaffold by self-assembling into 60-mer particles, displaying up to 60 copies of the fused target on the surface. Rabbits were immunized with E2 particles displaying MPER and/or the gp41 ectodomain in conjunction with DNA encoding full-length gp160. Only vaccines including E2 particles displaying MPER elicited MPER-specific Ab responses. NAbs were elicited after two immunizations that largely targeted the V3 loop. To overcome V3 immunodominance in the DNA component, E2 particles displaying MPER were used in conjunction with gp160 DNA lacking hypervariable regions V2, V3, or combined V1V2V3. All rabbits had HIV binding Ab responses and NAbs following the second vaccination. Using HIV-2/HIV-1 MPER chimeric viruses as targets, NAbs were detected in 12/16 rabbits after three immunizations. Low levels of NAbs specific for Tier 1 and 2 viruses were observed in all groups. This study provides evidence that co-immunizing E2 particles displaying MPER and gp160 DNA can focus Ab responses toward conserved regions of Env.
Uniform Hardness Amplification in NP via Monotone Codes

We consider the problem of amplifying uniform average-case hardness of languages in NP, where hardness is with respect to BPP algorithms. We introduce the notion of monotone errorcorrecting codes, and show that hardness amplification for NP is essentially equivalent to constructing efficientlylocally encodable and locally list-decodable monotone codes. The previous hardness amplification results for NP [Tre03, Tre05] focused on giving a direct construction of some locally encodable/decodable monotone codes, running into the problem of large amounts of nonuniformity used by the decoding algorithm. In contrast, we propose the indirect approach to constructing locally encodable/decodable monotone codes, combining the uniform Direct Product Lemma of [IJK06] and arbitrary, not necessarily locally encodable, monotone codes. The latter codes have fewer restrictions, and so may be easier to construct. We study what parameters are achievable by monotone codes in general, giving negative and positive results. We present two constructions of monotone codes. Our first code is a uniquely decodable code based on the Majority function, and has an efficient decoding algorithm. Our second code is combinatorially list-decodable, but we do not have an efficient decoding algorithm. In conjunction with an appropriate Direct Product Lemma, our first code yields uniform hardness amplification for NP from inverse polynomial to constant average-case hardness. Our second code, even with a brute-force decoding algorithm, yields further hardness amplification to 1/2 −log (1) n. Together, these give an alternative proof of Trevisan’s result [Tre03, Tre05]. Getting any non-brute-force decoding algorithm for our second code would imply improved parameters for the problem of hardness amplification in NP.
Twitter Trends Manipulation: A First Look Inside the Security of Twitter Trending

Twitter trends, a timely updated set of top terms in Twitter, have the ability to affect the public agenda of the community and have attracted much attention. Unfortunately, in the wrong hands, Twitter trends can also be abused to mislead people. In this paper, we attempt to investigate whether Twitter trends are secure from the manipulation of malicious users. We collect more than 69 million tweets from 5 million accounts. Using the collected tweets, we first conduct a data analysis and discover evidence of Twitter trend manipulation. Then, we study at the topic level and infer the key factors that can determine whether a topic starts trending due to its popularity, coverage, transmission, potential coverage, or reputation. What we find is that except for transmission, all of factors above are closely related to trending. Finally, we further investigate the trending manipulation from the perspective of compromised and fake accounts and discuss countermeasures.
Reply to ``Comment on `Performance of different synchronization measures in real data: A case study on electroencephalographic signals' ''

We agree with the Comment by Duckrow and Albano [Phys. Rev. E 67, 063901 (2003)] that mutual information, estimated with an optimized algorithm, can be a useful tool for studying synchronization in real data. However, we point out that the improvement they found is mainly due to an interesting but nonstandard embedding technique used, and not so much due to the algorithm used for the estimation of mutual information itself. We also address the issue of stationarity of electroencephalographic (EEG) data.
Avoiding the Finite Difference Sensitivity Analysis Deathtrap by Using the Complex-step Derivative Approximation Technique

In this paper, the complex-step derivative approximation technique will be used for calculating local sensitivity functions. This technique is compared to the finite difference approximation, probably the most used local sensitivity analysis technique. For this comparison, 4 biotechnological models with varying model complexity were used. A well known problem of the finite difference approximation is the choice of a suitable perturbation factor in order to avoid non-linear model effects or numerical errors due to the subtraction of almost equal numbers. The main advantage of the complex-step derivative approximation technique is that it is not susceptible to errors introduced by small perturbation factors, ruling out the entire search for optimal perturbation factors. However, the main disadvantage is an important execution time increase for large models.
Data Mining Algorithms for Classification

Data Mining is a technique used in various domains to give meaning to the available data. In classification tree modeling the data is classified to make predictions about new data. Using old data to predict new data has the danger of being too fitted on the old data. But that problem can be solved by pruning methods which degeneralizes the modeled tree. This paper describes the use of classification trees and shows two methods of pruning them. An experiment has been set up using different kinds of classification tree algorithms with different pruning methods to test the performance of the algorithms and pruning methods. This paper also analyzes data set properties to find relations between them and the classification algorithms and pruning methods.
Homotopy theory of labelled symmetric precubical sets

This paper is the third paper of a series devoted to higher- dimensional transition systems. The preceding paper proved the exis- tence of a left determined model structure on the category of cubical transition systems. In this sequel, it is proved that there exists a model category of labelled symmetric precubical sets which is Quillen equiv- alent to the Bouseld localization of this left determined model cate- gory by the cubication functor. The realization functor from labelled symmetric precubical sets to cubical transition systems which was in- troduced in the rst paper of this series is used to establish this Quillen equivalence. However, it is not a left Quillen functor. It is only a left ad- joint. It is proved that the two model categories are related to each other by a zig-zag of Quillen equivalences of length two. The middle model category is still the model category of cubical transition systems, but with an additional family of generating cobrations. The weak equiva- lences are closely related to bisimulation. Similar results are obtained by restricting the constructions to the labelled symmetric precubical sets satisfying the HDA paradigm.
Computation of the Canonical Decomposition by Means of a Simultaneous Generalized Schur Decomposition

The canonical decomposition of higher-order tensors is a key tool in multilinear algebra. First we review the state of the art. Then we show that, under certain conditions, the problem can be rephrased as the simultaneous diagonalization, by equivalence or congruence, of a set of matrices. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the uniqueness of these simultaneous matrix decompositions are derived. In a next step, the problem can be translated into a simultaneous generalized Schur decomposition, with orthogonal unknowns [A. -J. van der Veen and A. Paulraj, IEEE Trans. Signal Process. , 44 (1996), pp. 1136--1155]. A first-order perturbation analysis of the simultaneous generalized Schur decomposition is carried out. We discuss some computational techniques (including a new Jacobi algorithm) and illustrate their behavior by means of a number of numerical experiments.