Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probability kernel regression for WiFi localisation

Various methods have been developed for indoor localisation using WLAN signals. Algorithms that fingerprint the received signal strength indicators (RSSI) of WiFi for different locations can achieve tracking accuracies of the order of a few metres. RSSI fingerprinting suffers from two main limitations: first, as the signal environment changes, so does the fingerprint database, which requires regular updates; second, it has been reported that, in practice, certain devices record more complex (e.g bimodal) distributions of WiFi signals, precluding algorithms based on the mean RSSI. Mirowski et al. [2011. KL-divergence kernel regression for non-Gaussian fingerprint based localization. In: International conference on indoor positioning and indoor navigation, Guimaraes, Portugal] have recently introduced a simple methodology that takes into account the full distribution for computing similarities among fingerprints using the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence, and then performs localisation through kernel regression. Their algorithm provides a natural way of smoothing over time and motion trajectories and can be applied directly to histograms of WiFi connections to access points, ignoring RSSI distributions, hence removing the need for fingerprint recalibration. It has been shown to outperform nearest neighbours or Kalman and particle filtres, achieving up to 1 m accuracy in office environments. In this article, we focus on the relevance of Gaussian or non-Gaussian distributions for modelling RSSI distributions by considering additional probabilistic kernels for comparing Gaussian distributions and by evaluating them on three contrasting datasets. We discuss their limitations and formulate how the KL-divergence kernel regression algorithm bridges the gap with other WiFi localisation algorithms, notably Bayesian networks, support vector machines and K nearest neighbours. Finally, we revisit the assumptions on the fingerprint maps and overview practical WiFi localisation software implementation.
Impairments in hearing and vision impact on mortality in older people: the AGES-Reykjavik Study.

OBJECTIVE to examine the relationships between impairments in hearing and vision and mortality from all-causes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) among older people. DESIGN population-based cohort study. PARTICIPANTS the study population included 4,926 Icelandic individuals, aged ≥67 years, 43.4% male, who completed vision and hearing examinations between 2002 and 2006 in the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study (AGES-RS) and were followed prospectively for mortality through 2009. METHODS participants were classified as having 'moderate or greater' degree of impairment for vision only (VI), hearing only (HI), and both vision and hearing (dual sensory impairment, DSI). Cox proportional hazard regression, with age as the time scale, was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) associated with impairment and mortality due to all-causes and specifically CVD after a median follow-up of 5.3 years. RESULTS the prevalence of HI, VI and DSI were 25.4, 9.2 and 7.0%, respectively. After adjusting for age, significantly (P < 0.01) increased mortality from all causes, and CVD was observed for HI and DSI, especially among men. After further adjustment for established mortality risk factors, people with HI remained at higher risk for CVD mortality [HR: 1.70 (1.27-2.27)], whereas people with DSI remained at higher risk of all-cause mortality [HR: 1.43 (1.11-1.85)] and CVD mortality [HR: 1.78 (1.18-2.69)]. Mortality rates were significantly higher in men with HI and DSI and were elevated, although not significantly, among women with HI. CONCLUSIONS older men with HI or DSI had a greater risk of dying from any cause and particularly cardiovascular causes within a median 5-year follow-up. Women with hearing impairment had a non-significantly elevated risk. Vision impairment alone was not associated with increased mortality.
Gene Markers Representing Stem Cells and Cancer Cells for Quality Control

Populations of cells have unique characteristics and gene markers representative of each cell type, and these features are useful for identifying cell characteristics. For example, the gene expression profile of cells differs at each stage of development and differentiation. This review focuses on gene expression in stem and cancer cells to investigate the possibility of identifying cancer stem cells by such markers. Cancer stem cells show similarities to normal stem cells in terms of self-renewal and differentiation into multiple lineages. However, cancer stem cells have an indefinite potential for self-renewal that leads to malignant tumorigenesis. The origins of cancer stem cells are not completely clear but accumulation of gene mutations and cell niches are involved in their development. This article describes the gene expression patterns of stem and cancer cells with the aim of determining gene markers for diverse cell types and culture stages for quality control in cellular therapeutics.
Identification of Genetic and Chemical Modulators of Zebrafish Mechanosensory Hair Cell Death

Inner ear sensory hair cell death is observed in the majority of hearing and balance disorders, affecting the health of more than 600 million people worldwide. While normal aging is the single greatest contributor, exposure to environmental toxins and therapeutic drugs such as aminoglycoside antibiotics and antineoplastic agents are significant contributors. Genetic variation contributes markedly to differences in normal disease progression during aging and in susceptibility to ototoxic agents. Using the lateral line system of larval zebrafish, we developed an in vivo drug toxicity interaction screen to uncover genetic modulators of antibiotic-induced hair cell death and to identify compounds that confer protection. We have identified 5 mutations that modulate aminoglycoside susceptibility. Further characterization and identification of one protective mutant, sentinel (snl), revealed a novel conserved vertebrate gene. A similar screen identified a new class of drug-like small molecules, benzothiophene carboxamides, that prevent aminoglycoside-induced hair cell death in zebrafish and in mammals. Testing for interaction with the sentinel mutation suggests that the gene and compounds may operate in different pathways. The combination of chemical screening with traditional genetic approaches is a new strategy for identifying drugs and drug targets to attenuate hearing and balance disorders.
Parenchymal mean transit time analysis of 99mTc-DTPA captopril renography.

UNLABELLED Proposed renal hemodynamic mechanisms of captopril suggest that quantitation of renographic retention parameters should help identify patients suspected of having renovascular disease. The parenchymal mean transit time (MTT) is theoretically superior to other measures of retention, but data supporting its superiority are few. METHODS Two groups of subjects were studied with diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) baseline and captopril renography, one (n = 43) with demographically defined essential hypertension (group I) and the other (n = 60) with a high prevalence of renovascular disease (group II). Abnormal parenchymal MTT values were derived from the statistical confidence limits of group I data and then applied to group II subjects for comparison with angiographic results. RESULTS Depending on the sensitivity of the threshold chosen, specificity varied, but the overall accuracy of baseline parenchymal MTT for renovascular hypertension detection ranged from 54% to 58%. Change in parenchymal MTT (post-captopril - pre-captopril) accuracy was 55%-61% and was not significantly different. Neither method improved on previously reported quantitative or qualitative criteria. Group II subjects had significantly worse renal function than did group I subjects, and 23% had nondiagnostic renograms. CONCLUSION Parenchymal MTT analysis of DTPA captopril renography is not more accurate and offers no advantages compared with qualitative renography or with more commonly used renographic measures in our subjects. This may relate to the high prevalence of renal dysfunction in our population. In subjects with renal dysfunction, the low sensitivity and the trend toward low specificity of parenchymal MTT do not support its routine use for the evaluation of renovascular disease among patients suspected of having renovascular hypertension.
Suboptimal Graph Isomorphism using bipartite Matching

Graphs provide us with a flexible and powerful way to represent objects in various areas of computer science. One of the main drawbacks is, however, that many standard algorithms on graphs have a high computational complexity. The present paper considers the problem of graph isomorphism, i.e. checking two graphs for identity. A novel approach for the efficient computation of graph isomorphism is presented. The proposed algorithm is based on bipartite graph matching by means of an assignment algorithm. The algorithmic framework is suboptimal in the sense of possibly rejecting pairs of graphs without making a decision. As an advantage, however, it offers polynomial runtime. In experiments on diverse graph data sets we demonstrate substantial speedups of our proposed method over several standard procedures for graph isomorphism. Furthermore, although the computational framework for isomorphism is suboptimal, we show that the proposed algorithm rejects only very few pairs of graphs and otherwise returns correct results.
Sputtering of highly adhesive Mo back contact layers for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

In this work the sputter process for back contact Mo layers was adjusted to increase the adhesive strength of the Mo layers to the glass substrate, while keeping a high deposition rate and high conductivity. Mo layers were fabricated using DC magnetron sputtering in an in-line sputtering system. The adhesive strength was tested with ultrasonic agitation. The combination of good adhesion and high deposition rate was obtained by using a double layer, where the thickness of the first adhesion layer was varied between 25 and 100 nm and sputtered at 15 mTorr, whereas the second bulk layer was varied between 300 and 600 nm and sputtered at 6 mTorr. Solar cells were prepared for all different thicknesses of the adhesive layer and showed similar performance.
ffects of transcranial direct current stimulation ( tDCS ) on behaviour and lectrophysiology of language production

Excitatory anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (A-tDCS) over the left dorsal prefrontal cortex (DPFC) has been shown to improve language production. The present study examined neurophysiological underpinnings of this effect. In a single-blinded within-subject design, we traced effects of A-tDCS compared to sham stimulation over the left DPFC using electrophysiological and behavioural correlates during overt picture naming. Online effects were examined during A-tDCS by employing the semantic interference (SI-)Effect – a marker that denotes the functional integrity of the language system. The behavioural SI-Effect was found to be reduced, whereas the electrophysiological SI-Effect was enhanced over left compared to right temporal scalp-electrode sites. This modulation is suggested to reflect a superior tuning of neural responses within language-related generators. After -(offline) effects of A-tDCS were
A novel approach to excellent UV protecting cotton fabric with functionalized MWNT containing water vapor permeable PU coating

This research paper presented a novel approach of developing excellent protection from ultraviolet (UV) radiation of cotton fabrics by means of water vapor permeable (WVP) coatings containing multiwall carbon nanotube (MWNT), a stable and strongly UV absorbing species. The WVP of MWNT containing UV protective coatings of the present development are formed from solution polymer of hydrophilic polyurethane (HPU). MWNTs were dispersed in HPU solution by functionalization of MWNT. The nanotube containing HPU coating shows excellent protection against UV radiation, with only 1 wt % of MWNT (calculated based on solid content of the polymer), a UV Protection Factor (UPF) of 174 and with 2.5 wt % of MWNT a UPF of 421 was obtained, which stated excellent protection (UPF 50) according to the Australian/New Zealand standards. Scanning electron micrographs of coated fabrics surface showed a film like polymer coating, confirming the fabric surface was successfully coated by polyurethane. The coated fabrics would maintain very good water vapor permeability, hence confirmed the wearing comfort. Room temperature (20-23°C) range soft segment crystal melting of HPU enhances the permeability of coated fabrics
A native plant growth promoting bacterium, Bacillus sp. B55, rescues growth performance of an ethylene-insensitive plant genotype in nature

Many plants have intimate relationships with soil microbes, which improve the plant’s growth and fitness through a variety of mechanisms. Bacillus sp. isolates are natural root-associated bacteria, isolated from Nicotiana attenuata plant roots growing in native soils. A particular isolate B55, was found to have dramatic plant growth promotion (PGP) effects on wild type (WT) and transgenic plants impaired in ethylene (ET) perception (35S-etr1), the genotype from which this bacterium was first isolated. B55 not only improves N. attenuata growth under in vitro, glasshouse, and field conditions, but it also “rescues” many of the deleterious phenotypes associated with ET insensitivity. Most notably, B55 dramatically increases the growth and survival of 35S-etr1 plants under field conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a PGP effect in a native plant–microbe association under natural conditions. Our study demonstrates that this facultative mutualistic plant–microbe interaction should be viewed as part of the plant’s extended phenotype. Possible modalities of recruitment and mechanisms of PGP are discussed.
Use of named entity recognition and co-reference resolution tools for segmenting english texts

In this paper we examine the benefit of performing named entity recognition (NER) and co-reference resolution to an English corpus used for text segmentation. The aim here is to examine whether the combination of text segmentation and information extraction can be beneficial for the identification of the various topics that appear in a document. NER was performed in the English corpus in two ways i.e., a) by using already available NER and co-reference resolution tools, b) by manually annotating text to cover four types of named entities and substituting every reference of the same instance with the same named entity identifier. The benefit of performing manual annotation instead of using a combination of already existing tools was performed by using two well known text segmentation algorithms. The comparison leads to the conclusion that, the benefit highly depends on the segment's topic and length, the number of named entity instances appearing in it, as well as the model in which each NER and co-reference resolution tool was trained to.
Oscillations and irregular persistent firing patterns in a homogeneous network of excitatory stochastic neurons with gap junctions in the mean-field limit

We study systematically a recently developed mathematical model for networks of excitatory stochastic point spiking neurons in the mean-field limit. The neurons are leaky and connected by uniform connectivity strengths of both passive electrical (gap junctions) and chemical synapses, and they emit a spike with a firing rate probability that depends on their actual membrane potential. This allows for a treatable description by collapsing all of the sources of noise in the single firing rate function. The probability density function of membrane potentials across the population was shown to solve a non-trivial integro-differential equation that reminds of the advection equation common to fluid dynamics. We give pseudo-analytical expressions for the non-trivial invariant distributions that solve it (the trivial distribution with no persistent activity and a Dirac delta mass at zero is always solution) and numerical solutions of the full time-dependent equation. These results extend previous results that either considered neurons with leakage and no gap junctions or viceversa. The non-trivial distributions are of compact support whenever leakage or gap junction intensity are non-zero, otherwise heavy-tailed distributions arise. As previous studies show the non-trivial distributions can be continuous or discontinuous, depending on the competition of the spiking rate at the highest membrane potential with positive probability and the combined pull of leakage and gap junctions. When the latter dominates the discontinuity is infinite, but these solutions seem to be always unstable. Oscillations of the global activity of the network in the so called synchronous states were found previously for non-leaky neurons. We show here how they remain when weak leakage is included. When it is too strong the activity dies out and the system ends up at the trivial invariant distribution. These results show how a purely excitatory network of stochastic leaky neurons can sustain global oscillations, and how this simple model offers great potential for large-scale modeling of neural networks. Keywords— Neural networks, mean-field limit, stochastic neurons, gap junctions, oscillations, partial differential equations, advection equation ∗gviarodriguez@gmail.com 1 ar X iv :1 70 7. 06 03 8v 1 [ qbi o. N C ] 1 9 Ju l 2 01 7
Cisplatin Inhibition of Anthrax Lethal Toxin

ABSTRACT Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin (LT) produces symptoms of anthrax in mice and induces rapid lysis of macrophages derived from certain inbred strains. LT is comprised of a receptor binding component, protective antigen (PA), which delivers the enzymatic component, lethal factor (LF), into cells. We found that mouse macrophages were protected from toxin by the antitumor drug cis-diammineplatinum (II) dichloride (cisplatin). Cisplatin was shown to inhibit LT-mediated cleavage of cellular mitogen-activated protein kinases (MEKs) without inhibiting LF's in vitro proteolytic activity. Cisplatin-treated PA lost 100% of its ability to function in toxicity assays when paired with untreated LF, despite maintaining the ability to bind to cells. Cisplatin-treated PA was unable to form heptameric oligomers required for LF binding and translocation. The drug was shown to modify PA in a reversible noncovalent manner. Not surprisingly, cisplatin also blocked the actions of anthrax edema toxin and of LF-Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A fusion peptide (FP59), both of which require PA for translocation. Treatment of BALB/cJ mice or Fischer F344 rats with cisplatin at biologically relevant concentrations completely protected the animals from a coadministered lethal dose of LT. However, treatment with cisplatin 2 hours before or after animals received a lethal bolus of toxin did not protect them.
Low-end uniform hardness vs. randomness tradeoffs for AM

In 1998, Impagliazzo and Wigderson [18] proved a hardnessvs. randomness tradeoff for BPP in the uniform setting,which was subsequently extended to give optimal tradeoffs for thefull range of possible hardness assumptions by Trevisan and Vadhan [29] (in a slightly weaker setting). In 2003, Gutfreund,Shaltiel and Ta-Shma [11] proved a uniform hardness vs. randomness tradeoff for AM, but that result only worked on the "high-end" of possible hardness assumptions. In this work, we give uniform hardness vs. randomness tradeoffsfor AM that are near-optimal for the full range of possiblehardness assumptions. Following [11], we do this by constructing a hitting-set-generator (HSG) for AM with "resilient reconstruction. " Our construction is a recursive variant of the Miltersen-Vinodchandran HSG [24], the only known HSG construction with this required property. The main new idea is to have the reconstruction procedure operate implicitly and locally on superpolynomially large objects, using tools from PCPs(low-degree testing, self-correction) together with a novel use ofextractors that are built from Reed-Muller codes [28, 26] for a sort of locally-computable error-reduction. As a consequence we obtain gap theorems for AM (and AM ∩ coAM) that state, roughly, that either AM (or AM ∩ coAM)protocols running in time t(n) can simulate all of EXP("Arthur-Merlin games are powerful"), or else all of AM (or AM ∩ coAM) can be simulated in nondeterministic time s(n) ("Arthur-Merlin games can be derandomized"), for a near-optimal relationship between t(n) and s(n). As in GST, the case of AM ∩ coAM yields a particularly clean theorem that is ofspecial interest due to the wide array of cryptographic and other problems that lie in this class.
An Alternative Approach to LED Driver Design Based on High-Voltage Driving

This paper discusses an alternative approach to designing LED drivers based on high-voltage operation. Compared with the conventional approach of driving LEDs with low voltage and high current, the alternative approach aims to deliver the same power to LED load with high voltage and low current so that small and nonelectrolytic capacitor can be used. High-voltage operation also facilitates the use of simple PFC preregulators such as boost or SEPIC converters as single-stage LED drivers. This paper begins with the derivation of the relationship between the nominal output voltage and output capacitor's size of a PFC preregulator for achieving a given output voltage ripple's size, followed by a review of the recently emerged high-voltage LED packages suitable for the proposed application. This paper also discusses the flicker and colorimetric performances of LED light sources under the influence of large current ripple when nonelectrolytic capacitor is used. The method of third-harmonic current injection to the input current of LED drivers is also incorporated as an option for further reducing the output capacitor's size while meeting a specified flicker limit. Finally, a design example of high-voltage LED driver based on a boost PFC preregulator with third-harmonic current injection is presented and verified experimentally.
PIC — A language for typesetting graphics

PIC is a language for specifying pictures so that they can be typeset as an integral part of a document preparation system. The basic objects in PIC are boxes, lines, arrows, circles, ellipses, arcs and splines, which may be placed at positions specified absolutely or in terms of previous objects, and labeled with arbitrary text. The example below illustrates the general capabilities of the language.