Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance analysis of an autocorrelation based frequency tracker for LFM and QFM signals

This paper provides a detailed analysis of a recently proposed algorithm for efficient frequency estimation and tracking. A correlation based Pulse-Pair (PP) method, which is an efficient technique for frequency estimation, is used for the frequency tracking. It is known that the PP method has a very low number of multiplications, but, has the disadvantage of requiring inverse tan operations in its implementation. Using an efficient recursive technique for implementing inverse tan operation the PP method is extended for frequency estimation and tracking of signals with time varying frequencies.
Electronic versus traditional storybooks: Relative influence on preschool children’s engagement and communication

The purpose of this study was to examine children’s reading engagement and communicative initiations when they were read storybooks in varying media and reading manners, with a focus on understanding the way electronic storybooks (e-storybooks) may affect young children’s shared reading experiences. The reading behaviors of 25 preschool-aged children were observed during three storybook reading conditions: adult led e-storybook, child led e-storybook, and adult led traditional storybook. Children’s level of reading engagement and type and quantity of communicative initiations were analyzed. Findings showed that when comparing media, children displayed higher levels of persistence during the adult led e-storybook compared to the adult led traditional storybook condition. However, children produced more communicative initiations during the adult led traditional storybook condition. When comparing the reading manner between adult and child led e-storybook conditions, more labelling references were observed during the adult led condition. Results suggested that both media and manner matter.
Neural Responses to Visual Food Cues According to Weight Status: A Systematic Review of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies

Emerging evidence from recent neuroimaging studies suggests that specific food-related behaviors contribute to the development of obesity. The aim of this review was to report the neural responses to visual food cues, as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in humans of differing weight status. Published studies to 2014 were retrieved and included if they used visual food cues, studied humans >18 years old, reported weight status, and included fMRI outcomes. Sixty studies were identified that investigated the neural responses of healthy weight participants (n = 26), healthy weight compared to obese participants (n = 17), and weight-loss interventions (n = 12). High-calorie food images were used in the majority of studies (n = 36), however, image selection justification was only provided in 19 studies. Obese individuals had increased activation of reward-related brain areas including the insula and orbitofrontal cortex in response to visual food cues compared to healthy weight individuals, and this was particularly evident in response to energy dense cues. Additionally, obese individuals were more responsive to food images when satiated. Meta-analysis of changes in neural activation post-weight loss revealed small areas of convergence across studies in brain areas related to emotion, memory, and learning, including the cingulate gyrus, lentiform nucleus, and precuneus. Differential activation patterns to visual food cues were observed between obese, healthy weight, and weight-loss populations. Future studies require standardization of nutrition variables and fMRI outcomes to enable more direct comparisons between studies.
Simultaneous segmentation of retinal surfaces and microcystic macular edema in SDOCT volumes

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive imaging modality that has begun to find widespread use in retinal imaging for the detection of a variety of ocular diseases. In addition to structural changes in the form of altered retinal layer thicknesses, pathological conditions may also cause the formation of edema within the retina. In multiple sclerosis, for instance, the nerve fiber and ganglion cell layers are known to thin. Additionally, the formation of pseudocysts called microcystic macular edema (MME) have also been observed in the eyes of about 5% of MS patients, and its presence has been shown to be correlated with disease severity. Previously, we proposed separate algorithms for the segmentation of retinal layers and MME, but since MME mainly occurs within specific regions of the retina, a simultaneous approach is advantageous. In this work, we propose an automated globally optimal graph-theoretic approach that simultaneously segments the retinal layers and the MME in volumetric OCT scans. SD-OCT scans from one eye of 12 MS patients with known MME and 8 healthy controls were acquired and the pseudocysts manually traced. The overall precision and recall of the pseudocyst detection was found to be 86.0% and 79.5%, respectively.
The role of the lateral line in active drag reduction by clupeoid fishes.

The lateral-line canals, confined in clupeoid fishes to the two sides of the head, are centred on the two lateral recesses, where thin membranes separate the sea water in the lateral-line system from another fluid (perilymph) in that subcerebral canal which passes through the head between the two lateral recesses. Any pressure difference between the recesses can accelerate fluid in the subcerebral canal, but it is only the effective acceleration of that fluid (i.e. relative to the lateral acceleration of the head) which can tend to generate motions--sensed by neuromasts--in lateral-line canals near the lateral recesses. Furthermore, it is the same effective lateral acceleration (relative to that of the head) that is experienced by water in the thin boundary layer on the surface of the head, where it tends to generate 'crossflows' that may act to increase hydrodynamic resistance (i.e. drag) to the fish's normal swimming movements. These regular swimming movements produce oscillatory sideslip of the fish's head which, by itself, would give such substantial values to the effective acceleration that lateral-line sensors near the lateral recesses would be saturated during normal swimming movements. Any such permanent state of saturation seems rather unlikely. An alternative hypothesis is that the fish actively produces an oscillatory turning of the head, controlled by the sensory output of those same neuromasts in such a way that this output is kept to a minimum. Then that effective pressure difference, which is responsible for the effective lateral acceleration both of perilymph in the subcerebral canal and of sea water in the boundary layer on the head, would be minimised--with advantageous drag-reduction consequences. In order to test this hypothesis, a detailed hydrodynamic analysis was carried out. It suggested that, in order to minimise the effective pressure difference, the yaw angle (in radians) of the fish's head would need to be kept in phase with the sideslip velocity, their magnitudes being in a ratio of about 0.87 U-1 (where U is the swimming speed). Experiments on a swimming clupeoid fish confirmed these conclusions, both about phases and about magnitudes. By contrast, a purely passive response of the head to oscillatory sideforce on the caudal fin would be expected to give the yaw angle a substantial lag behind sideslip, along with a ratio of magnitudes much smaller than 0.87 U-1. Thus, the experiments seems to support the hypothesis regarding active control of drag reduction.
Cutting Edge: High-Mobility Group Box 1 Preconditioning Protects against Liver Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury1

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a NF released extracellularly as a late mediator of lethality in sepsis and as an early mediator of inflammation following injury. Here we demonstrate that in contrast to the proinflammatory role of HMGB1, preconditioning with HMGB1 results in protection following hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Pretreatment of mice with HMGB1 significantly decreased liver damage after I/R. The protection observed in mice pretreated with HMGB1 was associated with a higher expression of IL-1R-associated kinase-M, a negative regulator of TLR4 signaling, compared with controls. We thus explored the possibility that HMGB1 preconditioning was mediated through TLR4 activation. HMGB1 preconditioning failed to provide protection in TLR4 mutant (C3H/HeJ) mice, but successfully reduced damage in TLR4 wild-type (C3H/HeOuj) mice. Our studies demonstrate that in contrast to the role of HMGB1 as an early mediator of inflammation and organ damage in hepatic I/R, HMGB1 preconditioning can be protective.
ST-MAC: Spatial-Temporal MAC Scheduling for Underwater Sensor Networks

Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) have attracted a lot of attention recently. Since data in UWSNs are transmitted by acoustic signals, the characteristics of a UWSN are different from those of a terrestrial sensor network. In other words, the high propagation delay of acoustic signals in UWSNs causes spatial-temporal uncertainty, and makes transmission scheduling in UWSNs a challenging problem. Hence, in this paper, we propose a spatial-temporal MAC scheduling protocol, called ST-MAC, which is designed to overcome spatial-temporal uncertainty based on TDMA-based MAC scheduling for energy saving and throughput improvement. We construct the spatial-temporal conflict graph (ST-CG) to describe the conflict delays among transmission links explicitly, and model ST-MAC as a new vertex coloring problem of ST-CG. We then propose a novel heuristic, called the traffic-based one-step trial approach (TOTA), to solve the coloring problem. In order to obtain the optimal solution of the scheduling problem, we also derive a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. Finally, we present a comprehensive performance study via simulations. The results show that ST-MAC can perform better than existing MAC schemes (such as S-MAC, ECDiG, and T-Lohi) in terms of the network throughput and energy cost.
Identity, Narrative and Practitioner Research: A Lacanian perspective

This paper sets out to show how some theoretical concepts derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis might be put to work in the business of reflective practitioner research in education. It seeks to offer a more sophisticated, reflexively produced account of researcher identity built out of the narrative generated within a research enquiry. It illustrates, with reference to examples of writing from a specific research project, carried out within the context of a higher degree, how one teacher-researcher has used the concepts in forging a more productive understanding of her own evolving identity as a researcher through a process predicated on developing her own professional functioning. Shifting perspectives are provided on what the researcher wants from the enquiry as the researcher herself unfolds and analyses the successive phases of her narrative.
Language and Auditory-verbal Short-term Memory Impairments: Evidence for Common Underlying Processes

We report an investigation of the short-term memory STM impairments of 15 aphasic subjects whose language profiles varied with respect to the relative involvement of lexical-semantic and phonological processes. On the hypothesis that STM is dependent on capacities intrinsic to language processing, repetition span should vary in conjunction with lexical-semantic and phonological impairment: Specifically, when lexical-semantic processing is impaired, phonological abilities provide primary support to span performance; when phonological processing is impaired, there should be increased reliance on lexical-semantic information. Support for this hypothesis was provided by correlating measures of semantic and phonological abilities with effects of imageability and frequency on repetition performance, and with serial position effects in retrieval of phonemes within a word and words within a string. The data are discussed within the framework of an interactive activation model of language processing.
Between Speaking and Listening: The Vocalisation of Understandings1

In the teaching of listening in language pedagogy, there has been a tendency either to treat this skill as discrete from speaking, particularly as extended texts to be responded to after hearing them, or to focus on speaking rather than listening in the teaching of conversational skills. This paper argues that there are some important aspects of listening as an interactive skill that have been largely neglected. Amongst these are what have been characterised in the literature as backchannels (Yngve 1970), minimal response (e.g. Coates 1986) or receipt tokens (e.g. Heritage 1984a), and include items such as Yeah, Oh, Right, and Great. Such vocalisations produced by those in primarily listening roles at any particular moment in spoken interaction provide information to a primary speaker about how their contributions have been understood, and can have a crucial influence on the trajectory of talk. This paper argues that such items might profitably be taught as part of the development of conversational skills, and provides a characterisation of three of them, Yeah, Mm hm and Mm, to illustrate some of their characteristics in terms of placement in sequences of talk, prosodic shape, pause environment and speakership incipiency. Some comments on pedagogical implications are made.
Two-way MMSE strategies for AF distributed relay networks under power constraint

This paper proposes amplify-and-forward (AF) relay strategies for two-way wireless distributed relay networks consisting of two sources with a single antenna per source and multiple N relays with a single antenna per relay. The objective of this paper is to determine optimal relay amplifying matrices (or vectors) under global and local power constraints at the relays based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion with/without the perfect cancelation of self-interference. With the derived optimal relay amplifying vectors, performances of the proposed two-way AF distributed relay system are investigated by presenting average bit error rate (BER), average MMSE behavior, and the sum of the achievable rate.
Homotopy type theory and Voevodsky's univalent foundations

Recent discoveries have been made connecting abstract homotopy theory and the field of type theory from logic and theoretical computer science. This has given rise to a new field, which has been christened "homotopy type theory". In this direction, Vladimir Voevodsky observed that it is possible to model type theory using simplicial sets and that this model satisfies an additional property, called the Univalence Axiom, which has a number of striking consequences. He has subsequently advocated a program, which he calls univalent foundations, of developing mathematics in the setting of type theory with the Univalence Axiom and possibly other additional axioms motivated by the simplicial set model. Because type theory possesses good computational properties, this program can be carried out in a computer proof assistant. In this paper we give an introduction to homotopy type theory in Voevodsky's setting, paying attention to both theoretical and practical issues. In particular, the paper serves as an introduction to both the general ideas of homotopy type theory as well as to some of the concrete details of Voevodsky's work using the well-known proof assistant Coq. The paper is written for a general audience of mathematicians with basic knowledge of algebraic topology; the paper does not assume any preliminary knowledge of type theory, logic, or computer science.
Language models for hierarchical summarization

Hierarchies have long been used for organization, summarization, and access to information. In this dissertation we define summarization in terms of a probabilistic language model and use this definition to explore a new technique for automatically generating topic hierarchies. We use the language model to characterize the documents that will be summarized and then apply a graph-theoretic algorithm to determine the best topic words for the hierarchical summary. This work is very different from previous attempts to generate topic hierarchies because it relies on statistical analysis and language modeling to identify descriptive words for a document and organize the words in a hierarchical structure. We compare our new technique to previous methods proposed for constructing topic hierarchies, including subsumption and lexical hierarchies. We also compare the words chosen to be part of the hierarchy to the top ranked words using TF.IDF in terms of how well each summarizes the document set. Our results show that the language modeling approach performs as well as or better than these other techniques in non user-based evaluations. We also show that the hierarchies provide better access to the documents described in the summary than does a ranked list using one of the non-user based evaluations we have developed. In a user study that compares the ability of users to find relevant instances using both the hierarchy and a ranked list to using the ranked list alone, we find that users like the information provided by the hierarchy and after some practice can use it as effectively as they can a ranked list.
A modelling approach to multi-domain traceability

Traceability is an important concern in projects that span different engineering domains. Traceability can also be mandated, exploited and man- aged across the engineering lifecycle, and may involve defining connections between heterogeneous models. As a result, traceability can be considered to be multi-domain. This thesis introduces the concept and challenges of multi-domain trace- ability and explains how it can be used to support typical traceability scenarios. It proposes a model-based approach to develop a traceability solution which effectively operates across multiple engineering domains. The approach introduced a collection of tasks and structures which address the identified challenges for a traceability solution in multi-domain projects. The proposed approach demonstrates that modelling principles and MDE techniques can help to address current challenges and consequently improve the effectiveness of a multi-domain traceability solution. A prototype of the required tooling to support the approach is implemented with EMF and atop Epsilon; it consists of an implementation of the proposed structures (models) and model management operations to sup- port traceability. Moreover, the approach is illustrated in the context of two safety-critical projects where multi-domain traceability is required to underpin certification arguments.
Towards a typology of gender‐related school effects: some new perspectives on a familiar problem

The superior performance of girls, especially in terms of GCSE examinations, continues to attract attention. Much of the debate to date, however, has focused on absolute differences in attainment rather than differences in pupil progress. Furthermore, the role of the school in contributing to the differential progress of the two sexes has been little explored in previous research on school effectiveness which has been largely gender‐blind. The research reported here tracks the progress of over 450,000 pupils in almost 2,700 English mixed secondary schools from Key Stage 3 to GCSE.First, a typology for understanding gender‐related school effects, which relates schools' overall ‘effectiveness’ to the relative progress of the two sexes in individual schools, is developed. Then the extent to which schools are distributed across the different cells of the typology is considered. The analysis confirms expectations that there are a very considerable number of schools where girls have been making greater progress than boys between KS3 and GCSE and also that there are hardly any where boys' progress has been superior to that of girls. An unexpected finding, however, was the discovery that in almost half the schools in the country the progress of the two sexes was broadly equal. Furthermore, in a substantial minority of schools raising the overall levels of performance of both sexes may well be a more pressing priority than reducing the gender gap. The implications of the framework for the development of strategies designed to reduce the ‘gender gap’ are then considered. Figure 1b: GCSE point score v. KS3 average levels for two schools with different levels of effectiveness Figure 1a: GCSE point score v. KS3 average level—national lines for boys and girls
Expectancy-Value models of health behaviour: the role of salience and anticipated affect

Abstract Expectancy-value models of health behaviour are based upon the assumption that this behaviour is determined by a subjective cost-benefit analysis. Generally, these models emphasize cognitive appraisal processes focusing on the likelihood and evaluation of the consequences of health-related behavioural practices. A first potential shortcoming of applications of these models concerns their neglect of the cognitive limitations of the human decision maker. This is reflected in the tendency to incorporate many possible costs and benefits when assessing individual attitudes. We propose that the concept “dimensional salience” could help to assess the individual's he of reference within which behavioural alternatives are judged, and help to provide a more realistic description of the individual decision making process that takes account of the limitations of our information processing capacity. A second shortcoming of expectancy-value approaches concerns the limited attention paid to the anticipation of .
Ionization of hydrogen and hydrogenic ions by antiprotons.

Motivated by earlier theoretical studies which utilized simplified models and by a very recent experiment regarding antiproton-impact of hydrogen, the authors present a description of ionization of hydrogen and hydrogenic ions based on very large scale numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation in three spatial dimensions and on analysis of the topology of the electronic eigenenergy surfaces in the plane of complex internuclear distance. It is illustrated how ionization of atomic hydrogen and hydrogenic ions by antiprotons is quite different from that for impact by positively charged particles at low energies. Most significantly, for hydrogen targets, the quasi-molecular electronic eigenenergies approach close to and ultimately merge with the continuum at small distances, leading to a plateau of the low energy ionization cross section.
Practical distributed classification using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers algorithm

We describe a specific implementation of the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm for distributed optimization. This implementation runs logistic regression with L2 regularization over large datasets and does not require a user-tuned learning rate metaparameter or any tools beyond MapReduce. Throughout we emphasize the practical lessons learned while implementing an iterative MapReduce algorithm and the advantages of remaining within the Hadoop ecosystem.