Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A note on constrained EM algorithms for mixtures of elliptical distributions

The existence of a global maximizer of the likelihood on constrained parameter spaces has been proved here, extending a previous result due to Hathaway (1986) to the multivariate setting and to the general case of mixtures of elliptical distributions. Then, focusing on a particular data set which motivates our methodology, a new definition of weak homoscedasticity is introduced. Successively, a test for detecting weak homoscedasticity in two sample data has been presented and a special version of constrained EM algorithm has been introduced, in order to face with weak homoscedasticity in the mixture. Numerical results show that this algorithm performs a better mixture decomposition; at the same time, it shows how suitable constraints can considerably improve convergence capabilities and robustness in the estimation of the mixture model.
Image Registration Using Rotation Normalized Feature Points

In this paper a registration method based on Harris corners is proposed. It is composed of three main steps: extraction of feature point using a Harris corner detector, obtaining the correspondence between the features points of the reference and input image based on rotation normalized gray level information around the corners, and estimating the transformation parameters mapping the input image to the reference one by applying RANSAC. Experimental results illustrate the proposed algorithm is robust to translation, rotation, and slight scaling.
Visual Inspection for Determining Days When Accelerometer Is Worn: Is This Valid?

PURPOSE Logs have been traditionally used for ascertaining accelerometer wear days in mail study designs, but not all participants complete logs. Visual inspection of accelerometer output may supplement missing logs; however, no data on the validity of this method are available. METHODS We compared visual inspection with participant logs in 197 women (mean age, 71.0 yr). Women were mailed an accelerometer to be worn during waking hours for 7 d, marking each wear day on a log before returning the accelerometer by mail. For every participant, we created a series of graphs of accelerometer counts by time of day (one chart for each day with accelerometer output, including mail days). Two raters, masked to log wear status, independently inspected these graphs and scored each day as "worn" or "not worn. " RESULTS The median (interquartile range) number of valid wear days using either visual inspection or log was 7 (7-7). For rater 1, the sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection was 99.7% (95% confidence interval, 99.2%-99.9%) and 97.2% (95.2%-98.6%), respectively; for rater 2, the sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection was 99.7% (99.2%-99.9%) and 97.0% (94.9%-98.4%), respectively. Interrater agreement was 99.5%. CONCLUSIONS Visual inspection of accelerometer data is a valid alternative to missing participant wear logs when determining wear days in mail study designs.
Learning multi-layer ICA features for video-based fire detection

Previous work on fire detection has focused on hand-designed features or carefully designed detectors. However, there are no universal hand-designed features or detectors that work well for various classification tasks or even for various fire detection scenarios. In this paper we propose a new method of video-based fire detection by learning multi-layer ICA spatiotemporal features. This method can automatically learn effective features from 3D spatiotemporal blocks with combination of ICA learning algorithm, stacking and pooling. A linear SVM is used in classification stage. The experimental results show that, despite its simplicity, our method achieves classification results superior to some popular spatiotemporal features for fire detection. We also compare different block sampling strategies and different ways of feature construction for our method.
TR-2006-09-03 A Case for Self-Optimizing File Systems

Efficient file systems hold one of the keys to highperformance I/O systems. Today’s file systems perform a static layout of file data, aiming to preserve the directory structure of the file system and optimizing for sequential access to entire files. In this paper, we re-examine the existing state-of-the-art in file system design and find it severely lacking in an important aspect, application awareness. We argue that for optimal performance, file systems must self-optimize by adapting data layout to accommodate the dynamism in application access patterns. We present the design and implementation of an automated data layout reconfigurator which is at the heart of such a self-optimizing file system. Preliminary studies using file system traces indicate significant I/O performance gains when compared to a state-of-the-art ext3 file system.
The robust middleware approach for transparent and systematic fault tolerance in parallel and distributed systems

We propose the robust middleware approach to transparent fault tolerance in parallel and distributed systems. The proposed approach inserts a robust middleware between algorithms/programs and system architecture/hardware. With the robust middleware, hardware faults are transparent to algorithms/programs so that ordinary algorithms/programs developed for fault-free networks can run on faulty parallel/distributed systems without modifications. Moreover, the robust middleware automatically adds fault tolerance capability to ordinary algorithms/programs so that no hardware redundancy or reconfiguration capability is required and no assumption is made about the availability of a complete subnetwork (at a lower dimension or smaller size). We also propose nomadic agent multithreaded programming as a novel fault-aware programming paradigm that is independent of network topologies and fault patterns. Nomadic agent multithreaded programming is adaptive to fault/traffic/workload patterns, and can take advantages of various components of the robust middleware, including the fault tolerance features and multiple embeddings, without relying on specialized robust algorithms
Migration of lactic acid, lactide and oligomers from polylactide food-contact materials

Polylactide (PLA) is used for manufacturing lunch boxes and for packaging fresh food in Japan. PLA can be hydrolysed relatively easily to produce lactic acid, lactide and oligomers. Different types of PLA sheet were subjected to migration tests under various conditions and the lactic acid, lactide and oligomers contents of the migration solutions were determined using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Furthermore, the change in molecular weight was determined by a migration test. PLA was stable at 40°C for 180 days; the total of lactic acid, lactide and oligomers migration levels were 0.28–15.00 µg cm−2. PLA decomposed clearly at 60°C for only 10 days, the total migration levels were increased to 0.73–2840 µg cm−2. PLA sheets with a high D-lactic acid content decomposed particularly rapidly. The amounts of alkali decomposition products, based on the conversion of lactide and oligomers to lactic acid by alkali hydrolysis, corresponded with the total migration levels.
CYBERBULLYING SEBAGAI DAMPAK NEGATIF PENGGUNAAN TEKNOLOGI INFORMASI

Information Technology can bring postive and negative impacts to our lives. One of the negative impact that emerge with the this technology development is Cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is any cyber-communication or publication posted or sent by a minor online, by Information Technology devices that is intended to frighten, embarrass, harass, hurt, set up, cause harm to, extort, or otherwise target another minor. In other countries there are many cases of Cyberbullying that ended with very serious event such as the suicide of the victims. This study was conducted to gain insight into how this phenomenon occur in Indonesia. We used questionnaires as a mean to get the informations about Cyberbullying among Indonesian teenagers. We distributed these questionnaires to secondary and high school students in Magelang, Yogyakarta and Semarang. The result shows that Cyberbullying has already happened with a big enough number (28%) but the impact was not very serious. From the answers we can conclude that many teens haven’t understand what Cyberbullying is and what its potential dangerous impacts may follow. We also explored the roles, responsibilities, and things that can be done by teens, parents, schools, law enforcements, and communities in order to prevent and stop Cyberbullying.
Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling

The racial stereotyping of criminals has been an enduring and unfortunate feature of American culture. However, following the civil rights movement, the linkage between Blacks and crime was galvanized. The stereotyping of Blacks as criminals is so pervasive throughout society that “criminal predator” is used as a euphemism for “young Black male. ” This common stereotype has erroneously served as a subtle rationale for the unofficial policy and practice of racial profiling by criminal justice practitioners. This article details the theoretical elements contributing to the development of Black criminal typification to understand how this has been used to justify racial profiling.
Measuring consumer switching costs in the television industry

In this article, I develop and estimate a model of dynamic consumer behavior with switching costs in the market for paid-television services. I estimate the parameters of the structural model using data on cable and satellite systems across local US television markets over the period 1992–2006. The results suggest switching costs range from $159 to $242 for cable and from $212 to $276 for satellite providers in 1997 dollars. Using a simple dynamic model of cable providers, I demonstrate that switching costs of these magnitudes can significantly affect the firms' optimal strategies.
Impact of 4G wireless link configurations on VoIP network performance

The performance of applications in wireless networks is partly dependent upon the link configuration. Link characteristics varies with frame retransmission persistency, link frame retransmission delay, adaptive modulation strategies, coding, and more. The link configuration and channel conditions can lead to packet loss, delay and delay variations, which impact different applications in different ways. A bulk transfer application may tolerate delays to a large extent, while packet loss is undesirable. On the other hand, real-time interactive applications are sensitive to delay and delay variations, but may tolerate packet loss to a certain extent. This paper contributes a study of the effect of link frame retransmission persistency and delay on packet loss and latency for real-time interactive applications. The results indicate that a reliable retransmission mechanism with fast link retransmissions in the range of 2-8 ms is sufficient to provide an upper delay bound of 50 ms over the wireless link, which is well within the delay budget of voice over IP applications.
Exercise standards for testing and training: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

The 2001 version of the exercise standards statement1 has served effectively to reflect the basic fundamentals of ECG–monitored exercise testing and training of both healthy subjects and patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other disease states. These exercise standards are intended for use by physicians, nurses, exercise physiologists and specialists, technologists, and other healthcare professionals involved in exercise testing and training of these populations. Because of an abundance of new research in recent years, a revision of these exercise standards is appropriate. The revision deals with basic fundamentals of testing and training, with no attempt to duplicate or replace current clinical practice guidelines issued by the American Heart Association (AHA), the American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF), and other professional societies. It is acknowledged that the published evidence for some recommendations made herein is limited, but the depth of knowledge and experience of the writing group is believed to provide justification for certain …
Joint Effect of User Activity Sensing and Biased Cell Association in Energy Efficient HetNets

In heterogeneous networks, the active/sleep strategy for base stations (BSs) provides an effective way to match capacity to demand and also improve energy efficiency. At the same time, environmental awareness and self-organizing features are expected to play important roles in improving the network performance. In this letter, we propose an active/sleep scheme based on user activity sensing of small cell BSs considering biased cell association. The effect on coverage probability, user throughput, and energy consumption of the proposed scheme in $K$ -tier HetNets is analyzed using stochastic geometry theory. The performance analysis can be effectively used to design an energy-efficient active/sleep scheme for multi-tier HetNets.
Population Structure in the Endangered Cyprinid Fish Pararasbora moltrechti in Taiwan, Based on Mitochondrial and Microsatellite DNAs

The genetic structure of four populations of Pararasbora moltrechti, an endemic species of the Cyprinidae in Taiwan, was investigated based on the genetic variation of mtDNA Cyt b gene and five microsatellite loci. High haplotype diversity (h = 0.92) but low nucleotide diversity (0.004) in mtDNA was detected in this endangered species. In total, 33 haplotypes and four clusters were identified in its mtDNA. Nevertheless, low correspondence was found between geographical division and mtDNA clusters. In contrast, Bayesian cluster analysis of the microsatellite data identified four genetic groups and revealed highly structured populations. Significantly negative Tajima's D statistics and mismatch distribution analyses suggest that P. moltrechti populations may have experienced a demographic expansion. In light of the results of a nested clade analysis of mtDNA haplotypes, we conclude that recent population fluctuations and restricted gene flow played major roles in shaping the spatial genetic structure of P. moltrechti populations.
Robust clustering of languages across Wikipedia growth

Wikipedia is the largest existing knowledge repository that is growing on a genuine crowdsourcing support. While the English Wikipedia is the most extensive and the most researched one with over 5 million articles, comparatively little is known about the behaviour and growth of the remaining 283 smaller Wikipedias, the smallest of which, Afar, has only one article. Here, we use a subset of these data, consisting of 14 962 different articles, each of which exists in 26 different languages, from Arabic to Ukrainian. We study the growth of Wikipedias in these languages over a time span of 15 years. We show that, while an average article follows a random path from one language to another, there exist six well-defined clusters of Wikipedias that share common growth patterns. The make-up of these clusters is remarkably robust against the method used for their determination, as we verify via four different clustering methods. Interestingly, the identified Wikipedia clusters have little correlation with language families and groups. Rather, the growth of Wikipedia across different languages is governed by different factors, ranging from similarities in culture to information literacy.
Reconstruction of missing features based on a low-rank assumption for robust speaker identification

Reconstruction of missing features promotes robustness in speaker recognition applications under noisy conditions. In this paper, we aim at enhancing the reliability of speech features for noise robust speaker identification under short training and testing sessions restrictions. Towards this direction, we apply a low-rank matrix recovery approach to reconstruct the unreliable spectrographic data due to noise corruption. This is performed by leveraging prior knowledge that the speech log-magnitude spectrotemporal representation is low-rank. Experiments on real speech data show that the proposed method improves the speaker identification accuracy especially for low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios when compared with a sparse imputation approach.
Carbonic Anhydrase and Its Influence on Carbon Isotope Discrimination during C4 Photosynthesis. Insights from Antisense RNA in Flaveria bidentis1

In C4 plants, carbonic anhydrase (CA) facilitates both the chemical and isotopic equilibration of atmospheric CO2 and bicarbonate (HCO3−) in the mesophyll cytoplasm. The CA-catalyzed reaction is essential for C4 photosynthesis, and the model of carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) in C4 plants predicts that changes in CA activity will influence Δ13C. However, experimentally, the influence of CA on Δ13C has not been demonstrated in C4 plants. Here, we compared measurements of Δ13C during C4 photosynthesis in Flaveria bidentis wild-type plants with F. bidentis plants with reduced levels of CA due to the expression of antisense constructs targeted to a putative mesophyll cytosolic CA. Plants with reduced CA activity had greater Δ13C, which was also evident in the leaf dry matter carbon isotope composition (δ13C). Contrary to the isotope measurements, photosynthetic rates were not affected until CA activity was less than 20% of wild type. Measurements of Δ13C, δ13C of leaf dry matter, and rates of net CO2 assimilation were all dramatically altered when CA activity was less than 5% of wild type. CA activity in wild-type F. bidentis is sufficient to maintain net CO2 assimilation; however, reducing leaf CA activity has a relatively large influence on Δ13C, often without changes in net CO2 assimilation. Our data indicate that the extent of CA activity in C4 leaves needs to be taken into account when using Δ13C and/or δ13C to model the response of C4 photosynthesis to changing environmental conditions.
Adults with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour: the costs and outcomes of in- and out-of-area placements.

BACKGROUND People with severe challenging behaviour are vulnerable to exclusion from local services and removal to out-of-area placements if locally available supported accommodation is insufficient to meet their needs. There are concerns about the high costs and potentially poorer outcomes of out-of-area placements but relatively little is known about how costs and outcomes compare with provision for a similar population placed locally. METHODS Costs, quality of care and a wide range of quality of life outcomes for 38 people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour living in-area and 38 similar people living out-of-area were compared. The two groups were matched as far as possible on risk factors for out-of-area placement. The out-of-area group represented two-thirds of the total number of people who originated from the territory served by the largest specialist health service in Wales and were placed in residential settings at least 10 miles beyond its boundaries. RESULTS There was a mixed pattern of quality of care and quality of outcome advantages between the two types of setting, although in-area placements had a greater number of advantages than out-of-area placements. Unexpectedly, out-of-area placements had lower total costs, accommodation costs and daytime activity costs. CONCLUSIONS No overall conclusion could be reached about cost-effectiveness. A number of potential reasons for the differences in cost were identified. Although additional resources may be needed to provide in-area services for those currently placed out-of-area, government policy to provide comprehensively for those who want to live locally, irrespective of their needs, appears to be attainable.
Recent Developments in Imaging of Multiple Sclerosis

BackgoundMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revolutionized the diagnosis and management of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Metrics derived from conventional MRI are now routinely used to detect therapeutic effects and extend clinical observations. Conventional MRI measures have insufficient sensitivity and specificity to reveal the true degree of pathologic changes occurring in MS. T2-weighted and T1-weighted imaging cannot distinguish between inflammation, edema, demyelination, Wallerian degeneration, and axonal loss. Nonconventional MRI techniques are now emerging and proving to be more related with the most disabling features of MS. Review SummaryThe large variety of MRI metrics presently available are summarized, including measurement of T1-weighted hypointense lesions, central nervous system atrophy, magnetization transfer imaging, myelin water fraction, diffusion tensor imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and susceptibility-weighted imaging. The most up-to-date MRI techniques and their relationship with central nervous system pathology are described, and a comprehensive overview of the use of MRI in patients with MS is offered. ConclusionsAdvanced MRI techniques provide a better understanding of the pathologic processes that most likely are related to disease activity and clinical progression. Such metrics are able to reveal a range of tissue changes that include demyelination, axonal loss, iron deposition, and neurodegeneration and they provide the evidence that important occult pathology is occurring in the normal appearing white and gray matter. Despite these promising results none of these techniques have been adopted in the MRI consensus guidelines for imaging of the brain and spinal cord in patients with MS due to lack of standardization.
Investigation of Schwann cells at neoplastic cell sites before the onset of cancer invasion.

BACKGROUND In neural invasion (NI), cancer cells are classically assumed to actively invade nerves and to cause local recurrence and pain. However, the opposite possibility, that nerves may reach cancer cells even in their preinvasive stage and thereby promote cancer spread, has not yet been genuinely considered. The present study analyzes the reaction of Schwann cells of peripheral nerves to carcinogenesis in pancreatic cancer and colon cancer. METHODS Two novel 3D migration and Schwann cell outgrowth assays were developed to monitor the timing and the specificity of Schwann cell migration and cancer invasion toward peripheral neurons through digital-time-lapse microscopy and after blockade of nerve growth factor (NGF) signalling via siRNA or a small-molecule inhibitor of the p75(NTR) receptor. The frequency and emergence of the Schwann cell markers Sox10, S100, ALDH1L1, and glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein (GFAP) around cancer precursor lesions were studied in human and conditional murine pancreatic and colon cancer specimens using multiple immunolabeling. RESULTS Schwann cells migrated toward pancreatic and colon cancer cells, but not toward benign cells, before the onset of cancer migration toward peripheral neurons. This chemoattraction was inhibited after blockade of p75(NTR)-signaling on Schwann and pancreatic cancer cells. Schwann cells were specifically detected around murine and human pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanINs) (mean percent of murine PanINs surrounded by Schwann cells = 78.9%, 95% CI = 70.9 to 86.8%, and mean percent of human PanINs surrounded by Schwann cells = 52.5%, 95% CI = 14.7 to 90.4%; human: n = 44, murine: n = 14) and intestinal adenomas (mean percent of murine adenomas surrounded by Schwann cells = 64.2%, 95% CI = 28.6 to 99.8%, and mean percent of human adenomas surrounded by Schwann cells = 17.2%, 95% CI = -126.9 to 161.4; human: n = 36, murine: n = 12). The Schwann cell presence in this premalignant stage was associated with the frequency of NI in the malignant phase. CONCLUSIONS Schwann cells have particular and specific affinity to cancer cells. Emergence of Schwann cells in the premalignant phase of pancreatic and colon cancer implies that, in contrast with the traditional assumption, nerves-and not cancer cells-migrate first during NI.