Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mining Musical Traits of Social Functions in Native American Music

Native American music is perhaps one of the most documented repertoires of indigenous folk music, being the subject of empirical ethnomusicological analyses for signiﬁcant portions of the early 20th century. However, it has been largely neglected in more recent computational research, partly due to a lack of encoded data. In this paper we use the symbolic encoding of Frances Densmore’s collection of over 2000 songs, digitized between 1998 and 2014, to examine the relationship between internal musical features and social function. More speciﬁcally, this paper applies contrast data mining to discover global feature patterns that describe generalized social functions. Extracted patterns are discussed with reference to early ethnomusi-cological work and recent approaches to music, emotion, and ethology. A more general aim of this paper is to provide a methodology in which contrast data mining can be used to further examine the interactions between musical features and external factors such as social function, geography, language, and emotion.
Classification and Analysis of Regulatory Pathways Using Graph Property, Biochemical and Physicochemical Property, and Functional Property

Given a regulatory pathway system consisting of a set of proteins, can we predict which pathway class it belongs to? Such a problem is closely related to the biological function of the pathway in cells and hence is quite fundamental and essential in systems biology and proteomics. This is also an extremely difficult and challenging problem due to its complexity. To address this problem, a novel approach was developed that can be used to predict query pathways among the following six functional categories: (i) “Metabolism”, (ii) “Genetic Information Processing”, (iii) “Environmental Information Processing”, (iv) “Cellular Processes”, (v) “Organismal Systems”, and (vi) “Human Diseases”. The prediction method was established trough the following procedures: (i) according to the general form of pseudo amino acid composition (PseAAC), each of the pathways concerned is formulated as a 5570-D (dimensional) vector; (ii) each of components in the 5570-D vector was derived by a series of feature extractions from the pathway system according to its graphic property, biochemical and physicochemical property, as well as functional property; (iii) the minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR) method was adopted to operate the prediction. A cross-validation by the jackknife test on a benchmark dataset consisting of 146 regulatory pathways indicated that an overall success rate of 78.8% was achieved by our method in identifying query pathways among the above six classes, indicating the outcome is quite promising and encouraging. To the best of our knowledge, the current study represents the first effort in attempting to identity the type of a pathway system or its biological function. It is anticipated that our report may stimulate a series of follow-up investigations in this new and challenging area.
The Threonine Protease Activity of Testes-Specific Protease 50 (TSP50) Is Essential for Its Function in Cell Proliferation

Background Testes-specific protease 50 (TSP50), a newly discovered threonine enzyme, has similar amino acid sequences and enzymatic structures to those of many serine proteases. It may be an oncogene. TSP50 is up-regulated in breast cancer epithelial cells, and ectopic expression of TSP50 in TSP50-deficient Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells has been found to promote cell proliferation. However, the mechanisms by which TSP50 exerts its growth-promoting effects are not yet fully understood. Methodology/Principal Findings To delineate whether the threonine protease activity of TSP50 is essential to its function in cell proliferation, we constructed and characterized a mutant TSP50, called TSP50 T310A, which was identified as a protease-dead mutant of TSP50. By a series of proliferation analyses, colony formation assays and apoptosis analyses, we showed that T310A mutation significantly depresses TSP50-induced cell proliferation in vitro. Next, the CHO stable cell line expressing either wild-type or T310A mutant TSP50 was injected subcutaneously into nude mice. We found that the T310A mutation could abolish the tumorigenicity of TSP50 in vivo. A mechanism investigation revealed that the T310A mutation prevented interaction between TSP50 and the NF-κBIκBα complex, which is necessary for TSP50 to perform its function in cell proliferation. Conclusion Our data highlight the importance of threonine 310, the most critical protease catalytic site in TSP50, to TSP50-induced cell proliferation and tumor formation.
Evaluating the Conflict-Reducing Effect of UN Peacekeeping Operations

Several studies show a beneficial effect of peacekeeping operations (PKOs). However, by looking at individual effect pathways (intensity, duration, recurrence, diffusion) in isolation, they underestimate the peacekeeping impact of PKOs. We propose a novel method of evaluating the combined impact across all pathways based on a statistical model of the efficacy of UN PKOs in preventing the onset, escalation, continuation, and recurrence of internal armed conflict. We run a set of simulations based on the statistical estimates to assess the impact of alternative UN policies for the 2001–13 period. If the UN had invested US$200 billion in PKOs with strong mandates, major armed conflict would have been reduced by up to two-thirds relative to a scenario without PKOs and 150,000 lives would have been saved over the 13-year period compared to a no-PKO scenario. UN peacekeeping is clearly a cost-effective way of increasing global security.
A Novel Hybrid Multi-objective BB-BC based Channel Allocation Algorithm to Reduce FWM Crosstalk and its Comparative Study

is a good source of inspirations for us. The algorithms developed from the nature are most powerful algorithms for optimizing many complex engineering design problems having multiple objectives (multi-objective). This paper presents an hybrid algorithm based on Multi-objective Big bang-Big Crunch (MOBB-BC) nature-inspired optimization algorithm with Genetic crossover and Differential evolution (DE) mutation operators for solving the minimum length ruler called Optimal Golomb ruler (OGR) as channel-allocation problem to reduce four-wave mixing crosstalk (FWM) effects in optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems. The comparative study of simulation results obtained by proposed hybrid Multi-objective BB-BC (HMOBB-BC) algorithm demonstrates better and efficient generation of OGRs in a reasonable computational time compared to simple BB-BC algorithm and one of the existing nature-inspired algorithms i.e. Genetic algorithm (GA). Also, the proposed hybrid algorithm outperforms the two existing conventional algorithms i.e. Extended quadratic congruence (EQC) and Search algorithm (SA), in terms of ruler length and total channel bandwidth.
Delay-Dependent State Estimation for Time Delay Systems

In this article, an observer with delay-dependent stability conditions has been presented for time delay systems with unknown inputs, where the time delay terms exist in the state and output of the system. The designing of this observer, whose performance index is the H2 norm, has been formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem. By using the finite characterization of a Lyapunov functional equation, sufficient conditions have been proposed to guarantee the existence of a desirable H2 filter. This finite characterization can be calculated by means of a matrix exponential function. Several numerical examples have also been simulated to show the effectiveness and simplicity of the proposed observer. Key-Words: time delay system, Lyapunov functional, state delay system, H2 filter, observer, Kalman filter
Visualizing Patterns in the Poincaré Plot of a Magnetic Field

In the development of magnetic fusion reactors which will be the source for future low cost power physicists must be able to analyze the magnetic fields that confine the burning plasma. The corresponding magnetic fieldlines have a periodic or quasi-periodic behavior. In this paper we describe a simple and efficient geometric technique that allows for effective visualization and topological analysis of these fieldlines through their signature in the Poincar é map.
Solving, rating and generating Sudoku puzzles with GA

This paper studies the problems involved in solving, rating and generating Sudoku puzzles with genetic algorithms (GA). Sudoku is a number puzzle that has recently become a worldwide phenomenon. Sudoku can be regarded as a constraint satisfaction problem. When solved with genetic algorithms it can be handled as a multi-objective optimization problem. The three objectives of this study was: 1. to test if genetic algorithm optimization is an efficient method for solving Sudoku puzzles, 2. can GA be used to generate new puzzles efficiently, and 3. can GA be used as a rating machine that evaluates the difficulty of a given Sudoku puzzle. The last of these objectives is approached by testing if puzzles that are considered difficult for a human solver are also difficult for the genetic algorithm. The results presented in this paper seem to support the conclusion that these objectives are reasonably well met with genetic algorithm optimization.
Extended Asymmetric Velocity Moderation: A reactive strategy for human-safe robot control

Human safety plays a crucial role for the symbiosis between humans and robots. Moreover, it is also important to maintain the robot's efficiency while keeping the human unharmed. With this purpose, we previously developed Asymmetric Velocity Moderation (AVM) as a reactive strategy for human safety. Nevertheless, this original AVM only considers the end-effector's movement. This may lead to overrestrictions of the robot speed when the human is very close and to underestimate human safety by assuming the end-effector is the main source of danger. Therefore, this paper extends AVM by using restrictions based on the velocities of all points on the robot and their corresponding minimum distances to the whole human body. By eliminating overrestrictions without undermining human safety and by considering the whole robot, a more efficient humansafe robot behavior can be obtained. The method proposed in this paper consists of calculating independent restrictions for every point on the robot and choosing the firmest restriction to limit the robot velocity. Simulation experiments using a virtual environment with a human model and a human-sized humanoid robot were performed for the validation of the proposed method, and its efficiency was evaluated using the task completion time of the robot.
The motion of a deforming capsule through a corner

A three-dimensional deformable capsule convected through a square duct with a corner is studied via numerical simulations. We develop an accelerated boundary integral implementation adapted to general geometries and boundary conditions. A global spectral method is adopted to resolve the dynamics of the capsule membrane developing elastic tension according to the neo-Hookean constitutive law and bending moments in an inertialess flow. The simulations show that the trajectory of the capsule closely follows the underlying streamlines independently of the capillary number. The membrane deformability, on the other hand, significantly influences the relative area variations, the advection velocity and the principal tensions observed during the capsule motion. The evolution of the capsule velocity displays a loss of the time-reversal symmetry of Stokes flow due to the elasticity of the membrane. The velocity decreases while the capsule is approaching the corner, as the background flow does, reaches a minimum at the corner and displays an overshoot past the corner due to the streamwise elongation induced by the flow acceleration in the downstream branch. This velocity overshoot increases with confinement while the maxima of the major principal tension increase linearly with the inverse of the duct width. Finally, the deformation and tension of the capsule are shown to decrease in a curved corner.
Therapists' paralanguage in peak and poor psychotherapy hours.

9 therapists each submitted from 1 client a peak hour and from another client an especially poor hour. Therapist paralinguistic behaviors were transcribed for these hours and for other hours of the cases. A factor analysis of these behaviors yielded 6 factors, the 1st 3 of which significantly differentiated the peak from the poor hours. Factors I and III were associated with poor hours, and Factor II was associated with peak hours. Paralinguistic description appears capable of yielding a differentiated and meaningful picture of therapy process. Results emphasize the effectiveness of this communication channel.
A novel predictor for moving objects

Existing trajectory prediction algorithms mainly employ kinematical models to approximate real world routes and always ignore spatial and temporal distance. In order to overcome the drawbacks of existing trajectory prediction approaches, this paper proposes a novel trajectory prediction algorithm. It works as: (1) mining the interesting regions from trajectory data sets; (2) extracting the trajectory patterns from trajectory data; and (3) predicting the location of moving objects by using the common movement patterns. By comparing this proposed approach to E3TP, the experiments show our approach is an efficient and effective algorithm for trajectory prediction.
Building an Intelligent Filtering System Using Idea Indexing

The widely used vector model maintains its popularity because of its simplicity, fast speed, and the appeal of using spatial proximity for semantic proximity. However, this model faces a disadvantage that is associated with the vagueness from keywords overlapping. Efforts have been made to improve the vector model. The research on improving document representation has been focused on four areas, namely, statistical co-occurrence of related items, forming term phrases, grouping of related words, and representing the content of documents. In this thesis, we propose the idea-indexing model to improve document representation for the filtering task in IR. The idea-indexing model matches document terms with the ideas they express and indexes the document with these ideas. This indexing scheme represents the document with its semantics instead of sets of independent terms. We show in this thesis that indexing with ideas leads to better performance.
Dispersal of Rhagoletis cerasi in Commercial Cherry Orchards: Efficacy of Soil Covering Nets for Cherry Fruit Fly Control

Demand for organic cherries offers producers a premium price to improve their commercial viability. Organic standards require that producers find alternatives to pesticides. Soil treatments to control the European cherry fruit fly Rhagoletis cerasi (L.) (Diptera: Tephrididae) appear to be an attractive option. However, soil treatments can only be effective if the migration of flies is low, because mature flies may migrate from near-by trees for oviposition. To examine the general potential of soil treatments and to understand the dispersal and flight behaviour of R. cerasi within orchards, experiments using netting to cover the soil were conducted in two orchards with different pest pressure during two years. The netting reduced flight activity by 77% and fruit infestation by 91%. The data showed that the flies have a dispersal of less than 5 m within orchards, which is very low. The low thresholds for tolerance for infested fruit in the fresh market creates a strong economic incentive for control, therefore, soil covering is a promising strategy for controlling R. cerasi in commercial orchards.
An Economic Perspective on the Flexibility of IT-Systems AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE FLEXIBILITY OF IT-SYSTEMS

Traditional capital budgeting models cannot appropriately capture the value of IT-systems. Real Option Pricing Theory provides a useful economic perspective on the valuation of IT-systems, although no comprehensive review of the state of the art of real option pricing models for IT-investments has been published to date. This paper provides an overview of the applicability of real option theory to IT-infrastructures investments. The suitability and the impact of real option pricing theory are analyzed and evaluated.
Effective Translation Models for Heterogeneous Schemas of Visual Descriptions

As results of active studies and analyses of image/video data, there have been a number of visual descriptions that have their own schemas. To increase the effectiveness of visual descriptions with heterogeneous schemas, it is required to design careful translation models that serves as a bridge between visual descriptions. In this paper, we suggest two types of translation models, and describe their properties. As a case study we implement a translator between two visual descriptions to show how the translation is performed.
Acceleration of hippocampal atrophy in a non-demented elderly population: the SNAC-K study

ABSTRACT Background: Brain atrophy in Alzheimer's disease (AD) includes not only AD-specific brain atrophy but also the atrophy induced by normal aging. Atrophy of the hippocampus has been one diagnostic marker of AD, but it was also found to emerge in healthy adults, along with increasing age. It was reported that the important age when age-related shrinkage of the hippocampus starts was around the mid-40s. The aim is to study the aging atrophy speed and acceleration of brain atrophy in a cross-sectional database, to identify the age at which acceleration of hippocampal atrophy starts in non-demented elderly persons. Methods: 544 subjects (aged 60–97 years; 318 female and 226 male) were recruited into the MRI study by using a subsample of an epidemiological sample of 3363 healthy non-demented elderly people (over 60 years of age). Hippocampus and ventricle sizes were measured. Results: The normalized volumes (by intracranial volume, ICV) of the hippocampus in males were smaller than those in females. The right hippocampus was larger than the left. The expansion of the lateral ventricles (2.80% per year in males, 2.95% in females) and third ventricle (1.58% and 2.28%, respectively) was more marked than the hippocampal shrinkage (0.68% and 0.79%, respectively). The suggested age at which acceleration of hippocampal atrophy starts is 72 years. Conclusions: Males present smaller hippocampus volumes (normalized by ICV) than females; however, females are more vulnerable to hippocampal atrophy in a non-demented elderly population. An acceleration of hippocampal atrophy may emerge and start around 72 years of age in a non-demented elderly population.
Finite Difference Methods for Option Pricing under Lévy Processes: Wiener-Hopf Factorization Approach

In the paper, we consider the problem of pricing options in wide classes of Lévy processes. We propose a general approach to the numerical methods based on a finite difference approximation for the generalized Black-Scholes equation. The goal of the paper is to incorporate the Wiener-Hopf factorization into finite difference methods for pricing options in Lévy models with jumps. The method is applicable for pricing barrier and American options. The pricing problem is reduced to the sequence of linear algebraic systems with a dense Toeplitz matrix; then the Wiener-Hopf factorization method is applied. We give an important probabilistic interpretation based on the infinitely divisible distributions theory to the Laurent operators in the correspondent factorization identity. Notice that our algorithm has the same complexity as the ones which use the explicit-implicit scheme, with a tridiagonal matrix. However, our method is more accurate. We support the advantage of the new method in terms of accuracy and convergence by using numerical experiments.
Modeling the Maturation of Grip Selection Planning and Action Representation: Insights from Typical and Atypical Motor Development

We investigated the purported association between developmental changes in grip selection planning and improvements in an individual’s capacity to represent action at an internal level [i.e., motor imagery (MI)]. Participants were groups of healthy children aged 6–7 years and 8–12 years respectively, while a group of adolescents (13–17 years) and adults (18–34 years) allowed for consideration of childhood development in the broader context of motor maturation. A group of children aged 8–12 years with probable DCD (pDCD) was included as a reference group for atypical motor development. Participants’ proficiency to generate and/or engage internal action representations was inferred from performance on the hand rotation task, a well-validated measure of MI. A grip selection task designed to elicit the end-state comfort (ESC) effect provided a window into the integrity of grip selection planning. Consistent with earlier accounts, the efficiency of grip selection planning followed a non-linear developmental progression in neurotypical individuals. As expected, analysis confirmed that these developmental improvements were predicted by an increased capacity to generate and/or engage internal action representations. The profile of this association remained stable throughout the (typical) developmental spectrum. These findings are consistent with computational accounts of action planning that argue that internal action representations are associated with the expression and development of grip selection planning across typical development. However, no such association was found for our sample of children with pDCD, suggesting that individuals with atypical motor skill may adopt an alternative, sub-optimal strategy to plan their grip selection compared to their same-age control peers.
THE TRANSIT LIGHT CURVE PROJECT. X. A CHRISTMAS TRANSIT OF HD 17156b

Photometry is presented of the 2007 December 25 transit of HD 17156b, which has the longest orbital period and highest orbital eccentricity of all the known transiting exoplanets. New measurements of the stellar radial velocity are also presented. All the data are combined and integrated with stellar-evolutionary modeling to derive refined system parameters. The planet's mass and radius are found to be 3.212+0.069−0.082 MJup and 1.023+0.070−0.055 RJup. The corresponding stellar properties are 1.263+0.035−0.047 M☉ and 1.446+0.099−0.067 R☉. The planet is smaller by 1σ than a theoretical solar-composition gas giant with the same mass and equilibrium temperature, a possible indication of heavy-element enrichment. The midtransit time is measured to within 1 minute and shows no deviation from a linear ephemeris (and therefore no evidence for orbital perturbations from other planets). We provide ephemerides for future transits and superior conjunctions. There is an 18% chance that the orbital plane is oriented close enough to edge-on for secondary eclipses to occur at superior conjunction. Observations of secondary eclipses would reveal the thermal emission spectrum of a planet that experiences unusually large tidal heating and insolation variations.