Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examples of use cases with Smart Instruments

This paper presents some of the possibilities for interaction between performers, audiences, and their smart devices, offered by the novel family of musical instruments, the Smart Instruments. For this purpose, some implemented use cases are described, which involved a preliminary prototype of MIND Music Labs' Sensus Smart Guitar, the first exemplar of Smart Instrument. Sensus consists of a guitar augmented with sensors, actuators, onboard processing, and wireless communication. Some of the novel interactions enabled by Sensus technology are presented, which are based on connectivity of the instrument to smart devices, virtual reality headsets, and the cloud.
The Origin of Large Molecules in Primordial Autocatalytic Reaction Networks

Large molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids are crucial for life, yet their primordial origin remains a major puzzle. The production of large molecules, as we know it today, requires good catalysts, and the only good catalysts we know that can accomplish this task consist of large molecules. Thus the origin of large molecules is a chicken and egg problem in chemistry. Here we present a mechanism, based on autocatalytic sets (ACSs), that is a possible solution to this problem. We discuss a mathematical model describing the population dynamics of molecules in a stylized but prebiotically plausible chemistry. Large molecules can be produced in this chemistry by the coalescing of smaller ones, with the smallest molecules, the ‘food set’, being buffered. Some of the reactions can be catalyzed by molecules within the chemistry with varying catalytic strengths. Normally the concentrations of large molecules in such a scenario are very small, diminishing exponentially with their size. ACSs, if present in the catalytic network, can focus the resources of the system into a sparse set of molecules. ACSs can produce a bistability in the population dynamics and, in particular, steady states wherein the ACS molecules dominate the population. However to reach these steady states from initial conditions that contain only the food set typically requires very large catalytic strengths, growing exponentially with the size of the catalyst molecule. We present a solution to this problem by studying ‘nested ACSs’, a structure in which a small ACS is connected to a larger one and reinforces it. We show that when the network contains a cascade of nested ACSs with the catalytic strengths of molecules increasing gradually with their size (e.g., as a power law), a sparse subset of molecules including some very large molecules can come to dominate the system.
Towards unified and native enrichment in event processing systems

Events are encapsulated pieces of information that flow from one event agent to another. In order to process an event, additional information that is external to the event is often needed. This is achieved using a process called event enrichment. Current approaches to event enrichment are external to event processing engines and are handled by specialized agents. Within large-scale environments with high heterogeneity among events, the enrichment process may become difficult to maintain. This paper examines event enrichment in terms of information completeness and presents a unified model for event enrichment that takes place natively within the event processing engine. The paper describes the requirements of event enrichment and highlights its challenges such as finding enrichment sources, retrieval of information items, finding complementary information and its fusion with events. It then details an instantiation of the model using Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies. Enrichment is realised by dynamically guiding a spreading activation algorithm in a Linked Data graph. Multiple spreading activation strategies have been evaluated on a set of Wikipedia events and experimentation shows the viability of the approach.
Methylation and imprinting: from host defense to gene regulation?

Mammals inherit two complete sets ofchromosomes from their parents and thus two copies of every autosomal gene. Normally both copies are expressed, but, in a minority of cases, a mechanism known as genomic imprinting causes the expression of a gene to vary according to its maternal or paternal origin (1). The raison d'etre of imprinting is unclear. Nevertheless, working on the principle that once you know how, the why be-
Robust Online Multi-Channel Speech Recognition

In this paper we present a system for robust online far-field multi-channel speech recognition with minimal assumptions on microphone configuration and target location. We employ an online-enabled Generalized Eigenvalue (GEV) beamformer and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to robustly calculate the signal statistics necessary for the beamforming operation in the front-end. After multiple channels have been condensed to one, a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BLSTM) acoustic model is applied on a running window of input speech. This enables online decoding in combination with the beamforming front-end. To assess the performance of the system we test it on the real evaluation set of the CHiME 3 data where we achieve a Word Error Rate (WER) of 10.4 %.
Endogenous Ethanol ‘Auto-Brewery Syndrome’ as a Drunk-Driving Defence Challenge

The concentration of ethanol in blood, breath or urine constitutes important evidence for prosecuting drunk drivers. For various reasons, the reliability of the results of forensic alcohol analysis are often challenged by the defence. One such argument for acquittal concerns the notion that alcohol could be produced naturally in the body, hence the term ‘auto-brewery’ syndrome. Although yeasts such as Candida albicans readily produce ethanol in-vitro, whether this happens to any measurable extent in healthy ambulatory subjects is an open question. Over the years, many determinations of endogenous ethanol have been made, and in a few rare instances (Japanese subjects with very serious yeast infections) an abnormally high ethanol concentration (<80 mg/dl) has been reported. In these atypical individuals, endogenous ethanol appeared to have been produced after they had eaten carbohydrate-rich foods. A particular genetic polymorphism resulting in reduced activity of enzymes involved in hepatic metabolism of ethanol and a negligible first-pass metabolism might explain ethnic differences in rates of endogenous ethanol production and clearance. Other reports of finding abnormally high concentrations of ethanol in body fluids from ostensibly healthy subjects suffer from deficiencies in study design and lack suitable control experiments or used non-specific analytical methods. With reliable gas chromatographic methods of analysis, the concentrations of endogenous ethanol in peripheral venous blood of healthy individuals, as well as those suffering from various metabolic disorders (diabetes, hepatitis, cirrhosis) ranged from 0–0.08 mg/dl. These concentrations are far too low to have any forensic or medical significance. The notion that a motorist's state of intoxication was caused by endogenously produced ethanol lacks merit.
Optimised decimation stages with lattice wave digital filters for a flexible digital receiver architecture

In a digital receiver with broadband signal sampling, digital decimation filters are required. The signal is sampled and digitised in such an architecture by a properly designed quantiser and the decimation stages after the quantiser should be programmable to provide flexibility. In this contribution, a new architecture for the implementation of high-order, programmable decimation filters is described. Using this filter concept, the flexibility with respect to multimode capability and the degree of integration can be drastically increased. It will be shown that the use of cascaded low-order wave digital lattice filters for the lower decimation filter stages results in a number of advantages compared to standard methods. By properly selecting the number of lattice filter cells and optimising the filter coefficients, a very efficient realisation is possible in VLSI-technology. Due to the simple filter structures and since no general multiplier is needed, significant hardware reduction can be obtained compared to existing solutions.
Glucoregulatory Consequences and Cardiorespiratory Parameters in Rats Exposed to Chronic–Intermittent Hypoxia: Effects of the Duration of Exposure and Losartan

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with glucose intolerance. Both chronic sleep disruption and recurrent blood oxygen desaturations (chronic–intermittent hypoxia, CIH) may cause, or exacerbate, metabolic derangements. Methods: To assess the impact of CIH alone, without accompanying upper airway obstructions, on the counter-regulatory response to glucose load and cardiorespiratory parameters, we exposed adult male Sprague-Dawley rats to CIH or sham room air exchanges for 10 h/day for 7, 21, or 35 days and then, 1 day after conclusion of CIH exposure, conducted intravenous glucose-tolerance tests (ivgtt) under urethane anesthesia. Additional rats underwent 35 days of CIH followed by 35 days of regular housing, or had 35 day-long CIH exposure combined with daily administration of the type 1 angiotensin II receptor antagonist, losartan (15 mg/kg, p.o.), and then were also subjected to ivgtt. Results: Compared with the corresponding control groups, CIH rats had progressively reduced glucose-stimulated insulin release and impaired glucose clearance, only mildly elevated heart rate and/or arterial blood pressure and slightly reduced respiratory rate. The differences in insulin release between the CIH and sham-treated rats disappeared in the rats normally housed for 35 days after 35 days of CIH/sham exposure. The losartan-treated rats had improved insulin sensitivity, with no evidence of suppressed insulin release in the CIH group. Conclusion: In adult rats, the glucose-stimulated insulin release is gradually suppressed with the duration of exposure to CIH, but the effect is reversible. Elimination of the detrimental effect of CIH on insulin release by losartan suggests that CIH disrupts glucoregulation through angiotensin/catecholaminergic pathways. Accordingly, treatment with continuous positive airway pressure may ameliorate pre-diabetic conditions in OSA patients, in part, by reducing sympathoexcitatory effects of recurrent nocturnal hypoxia.
Generating low-cost plans from proofs

We look at generating plans that answer queries over restricted interfaces, making use of information about source integrity constraints, access restrictions, and access costs. Our method can exploit the integrity constraints to find low-cost access plans even when there is no direct access to relations appearing in the query. The key idea of our method is to move from a search for a plan to a search for a proof that a query is answerable, and then \emph{generate a plan from a proof}. Discovery of one proof allows us to find a single plan that answers the query; exploration of several alternative proofs allows us to find low-cost plans. We start by overviewing a correspondence between proofs and restricted-interface plans in the context of arbitrary first-order constraints, based on interpolation. The correspondence clarifies the connection between preservation and interpolation theorems and reformulation problems, while generalizing it in several dimensions. We then provide direct plan-generation algorithms for schemas based on tuple-generating dependencies. Finally, we show how the direct plan-generation approach can be adapted to take into account the cost of plans.
Symmetry Detection in General Game Playing

We develop a method for detecting symmetries in arbitrary games and exploiting these symmetries when using tree search to play the game. Games in the General Game Playing domain are given as a set of logic based rules defining legal moves, their effects and goals of the players. The presented method transforms the rules of a game into a vertex-labeled graph such that automorphisms of the graph correspond with symmetries of the game. The algorithm detects many kinds of symmetries that often occur in games, e.g., rotation and reflection symmetries of boards, interchangeable objects, and symmetric roles. A transposition table is used to efficiently exploit the symmetries in many games.
Mycofabrication , mechanistic aspect and Multifunctionality of Metal Nanoparticles-Where are we ? And where should we go ?

Fungi consists of varied group of heterotrophs, which due to their unique properties show applications in different fields. Nanotechnology covers diverse fields of science and technology, and the fabrication of nanoparticles using the biological route is the need of the day. The introduction of biological agents for the synthesis of nanoparticles has encouraged the researchers to search for the efficiency of different systems to synthesize metallic nanoparticles. Among the different systems harnessed for their potential of synthesizing nanoparticles, the fungal system has emerged as an efficient system synthesizing metal nanoparticles both intraand extracellularly. The fungus mediated nanoparticles present monodispersity, dimensions and stability. Also, the system is eco-friendly and economically viable for the synthesis of nanoparticles.
Computational Modeling of Stationary Plasma Thrusters

A 2-D axisymmetric hybrid PIC-MCC model of the acceleration channel and near-field of dielectric wall-type Hall thrusters is tested on an SPT-100 type and a UM/AFRL P5 magnetic field configuration. The location of both the virtual cathode line (VCL) and virtual anode line (VAL) are varied on the SPT-100 type magnetic field configuration to study the model dependence on these parameters. A P5 simulation with and without doubly charged xenon is provided. For the particular SPT-100 type magnetic field configuration studied, there is a negligible dependence of performance parameters and plasma properties on the location of the VCL; however, the dependence on the location of the VAL is far more pronounced. Moving the VAL downstream results in decreased plasma density both in the acceleration channel and upstream of the VAL, diminished thruster performance parameters, and a lowering of the electron energy in the near-field region. Inclusion of Xe ++ led to little change in the performance characteristics of the thruster.
Daily exposure to silver nanoparticles during prepubertal development decreases adult sperm and reproductive parameters

Abstract As silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have antimicrobial properties and potentiate the activity of some antibiotics, they are broadly used in both medical and nonmedical applications. In this study, prepubertal male Wistar rats were orally treated with 15 or 30 µg/kg/day AgNPs from postnatal day 23 (PND23) to PND58 and sacrificed at PND102. The acrosome integrity, plasma membrane integrity, mitochondrial activity and morphological alterations of the sperm were analyzed. Sexual partner preference, sexual behavior and the serum concentrations of FSH, LH, testosterone and estradiol were also recorded. The results were evaluated following the appropriate statistical analyses, and differences among the groups were considered significant when p < 0.05. AgNPs reduced the acrosome and plasma membrane integrities, reduced the mitochondrial activity and increased the abnormalities of the sperm in both treatment groups. AgNP exposure also delayed the onset of puberty, although no changes in body growth were observed in either treatment group. The animals did not show changes in sexual behavior or serum hormone concentrations. This study shows for the first time that prepubertal exposure to AgNPs causes alterations in adult sperm parameters. Importantly, the sperm appeared to be more sensitive to the toxic effects of AgNPs and demonstrated adverse effects following exposure to lower doses. Consequently, the effects of AgNPs on sperm should be considered in order to establish safety limits for the use of these particles.
Equal Graph Partitioning on Estimated Infection Network as an Effective Epidemic Mitigation Measure

Controlling severe outbreaks remains the most important problem in infectious disease area. With time, this problem will only become more severe as population density in urban centers grows. Social interactions play a very important role in determining how infectious diseases spread, and organization of people along social lines gives rise to non-spatial networks in which the infections spread. Infection networks are different for diseases with different transmission modes, but are likely to be identical or highly similar for diseases that spread the same way. Hence, infection networks estimated from common infections can be useful to contain epidemics of a more severe disease with the same transmission mode. Here we present a proof-of-concept study demonstrating the effectiveness of epidemic mitigation based on such estimated infection networks. We first generate artificial social networks of different sizes and average degrees, but with roughly the same clustering characteristic. We then start SIR epidemics on these networks, censor the simulated incidences, and use them to reconstruct the infection network. We then efficiently fragment the estimated network by removing the smallest number of nodes identified by a graph partitioning algorithm. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this targeted strategy, by comparing it against traditional untargeted strategies, in slowing down and reducing the size of advancing epidemics.
Association of β1‐Adrenergic, M2‐Muscarinic Receptor Autoantibody with Occurrence and Development of Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia and is independently associated with increased risk of stroke and death. Although the exact mechanisms of AF are not completely elucidated, a large number of evidences demonstrate that autoimmunity may play an important role in the initiation, the progression, and the maintenance of AF. In this study, we aimed to compare anti‐β1‐adrenergic receptor autoantibody (anti‐β1‐R) and anti‐M2‐muscarinic receptor autoantibody (anti‐M2‐R) levels between nonvalvular AF patients and healthy control subjects.
Low-complexity near-optimal spectrum balancing for digital subscriber lines

This paper investigates the multiuser spectrum optimization problem for digital subscriber lines. We propose an iterative and low-complexity spectrum optimization technique that improves upon the recently proposed optimal spectrum balancing (OSB) algorithm. In the optimal spectrum balancing algorithm, the Lagrange multipliers are used to decouple the constrained optimization problem into a series of per-tone unconstrained optimisation problems. However, each per-tone problem still has a computational complexity that is exponential in the number of users. This paper proposes an iterative algorithm for the per-tone optimization problem to further reduce the computational complexity of spectrum balancing. The essential idea resembles that of iterative water-filling. In each step of the algorithm, each individual user iteratively optimizes the joint objective function with a fixed set of Lagrange multipliers. The new algorithm has a computational complexity that is polynomial in the number of users. Simulation results show that the new algorithm has a near-optimal performance.
Hierarchy and feedback in the evolution of the Escherichia coli transcription network

The Escherichia coli transcription network has an essentially feedforward structure, with abundant feedback at the level of self-regulations. Here, we investigate how these properties emerged during evolution. An assessment of the role of gene duplication based on protein domain architecture shows that (i) transcriptional autoregulators have mostly arisen through duplication, whereas (ii) the expected feedback loops stemming from their initial cross-regulation are strongly selected against. This requires a divergent coevolution of the transcription factor DNA-binding sites and their respective DNA cis-regulatory regions. Moreover, we find that the network tends to grow by expansion of the existing hierarchical layers of computation, rather than by addition of new layers. We also argue that rewiring of regulatory links due to mutation/selection of novel transcription factor/DNA binding interactions appears not to significantly affect the network global hierarchy, and that horizontally transferred genes are mainly added at the bottom, as new target nodes. These findings highlight the important evolutionary roles of both duplication and selective deletion of cross-talks between autoregulators in the emergence of the hierarchical transcription network of E. coli.
Enhanced plasmon coupling in crossed dielectric/metal nanowire composite geometries and applications to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was performed on Ga2O3∕Ag and ZnO∕Ag nanowires, which were arranged in either a crossover or noncrossing geometry. Results indicate a high SERS sensitivity (near 0.2pg) for nanowires arranged in a crossing geometry. It is suggested that this is due to the dielectric core/metal shell structure, as well as to the nanowire crossings, which are regions of very high electric fields. Finite element simulations of the electric field near two crossed wires confirm an enhanced plasmon resonance in the vicinity of the crossing, which extends spatially in the crossings and around the nanowires.
Crossing the apnoeic threshold: causes and consequences

This brief review addresses the characteristics, lability and the mechanisms underlying the hypocapnic‐induced apnoeic threshold which is unmasked during NREM sleep. The role of carotid chemoreceptors as fast, sensitive detectors of dynamic changes in CO2 is emphasized and placed in historical context of the long‐held debate over central vs. peripheral contributions to CO2 sensing and to apnoea. Finally, evidence is presented which points to a significant role for unstable, central respiratory motor output as a significant contributor to upper airway narrowing and obstruction during sleep.
Psycho-physiological implications of computer based social and non-social interactive tasks for children with autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by core deficits in imagination and communication, which impairs the individual's ability for effective interaction and socialization. Since these children learn effectively through imagery, educational set ups often use them for imparting education to this target group. However, conventional education settings use one-on-one interactions for long durations making accessibility to these specialized settings difficult. This is due to the high cost and restricted availability of specialized resources. With technological advancement, investigators have been exploring alternate approaches like, human robot interaction and human computer interaction (HCI). In this present work, we have used HCI to design various tasks that have relevance to social and non-social components of communication. While our participants interacted with HCI tasks, we acquired their real-time physiological signal. Results of an experimental study with a small group of ASD and their age-matched typically developing counterparts were promising with variations in their performance and psycho-physiology.