Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectral–Spatial Adaptive Sparse Representation for Hyperspectral Image Denoising

In this paper, a novel spectral-spatial adaptive sparse representation (SSASR) method is proposed for hyperspectral image (HSI) denoising. The proposed SSASR method aims at improving noise-free estimation for noisy HSI by making full use of highly correlated spectral information and highly similar spatial information via sparse representation, which consists of the following three steps. First, according to spectral correlation across bands, the HSI is partitioned into several nonoverlapping band subsets. Each band subset contains multiple continuous bands with highly similar spectral characteristics. Then, within each band subset, shape-adaptive local regions consisting of spatially similar pixels are searched in spatial domain. This way, spectral-spatial similar pixels can be grouped. Finally, the highly correlated and similar spectral-spatial information in each group is effectively used via the joint sparse coding, in order to generate better noise-free estimation. The proposed SSASR method is evaluated by different objective metrics in both real and simulated experiments. The numerical and visual comparison results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.
Quality programmable vector processors for approximate computing

Approximate computing leverages the intrinsic resilience of applications to inexactness in their computations, to achieve a desirable trade-off between efficiency (performance or energy) and acceptable quality of results. To broaden the applicability of approximate computing, we propose quality programmable processors, in which the notion of quality is explicitly codified in the HW/SW interface, i.e., the instruction set. The ISA of a quality programmable processor contains instructions associated with quality fields to specify the accuracy level that must be met during their execution. We show that this ability to control the accuracy of instruction execution greatly enhances the scope of approximate computing, allowing it to be applied to larger parts of programs. The micro-architecture of a quality programmable processor contains hardware mechanisms that translate the instruction-level quality specifications into energy savings. Additionally, it may expose the actual error incurred during the execution of each instruction (which may be less than the specified limit) back to software. As a first embodiment of quality programmable processors, we present the design of Quora, an energy efficient, quality programmable vector processor. Quora utilizes a 3-tiered hierarchy of processing elements that provide distinctly different energy vs. quality trade-offs, and uses hardware mechanisms based on precision scaling with error monitoring and compensation to facilitate quality programmable execution. We evaluate an implementation of Quora with 289 processing elements in 45nm technology. The results demonstrate that leveraging quality-programmability leads to 1.05×–1.7× savings in energy for virtually no loss (< 0.5%) in application output quality, and 1.18×–2.1× energy savings for modest impact (<2.5%) on output quality. Our work suggests that quality programmable processors are a significant step towards bringing approximate computing to the mainstream.
Child-robot interaction during collaborative game play: effects of age and gender on emotion and experience

In this paper we investigate how boys and girls of 8 and 12 years old experience interacting with a social robot (iCat) during collaborative game play. The iCat robot and a child collaborated together to play a simple card guessing game. Post-game questionnaires revealed that 8 year old children rated their subjective gaming experience significantly more positively than the 12 year olds. All interactions were recorded, and fragments were shown to judges in a perception experiment, which showed that 8 year olds were more expressive than 12 year olds, and that 12 year old losers were more expressive than 12 year old winners. The implications of these findings for designing child-robot interaction are discussed.
An Event-Driven Approach for Runtime Verification of Inter-organizational Choreographies

In to days economy, collaborative computing grows in importance. Inter-organizational service-based processes are increasingly adopted by different companies when they cannot achieve goals on their own. As a result, conformance problems arise and it must be ensured that the integrity of processes execution remains guaranteed. In this paper, we propose new components, to be deployed along the boundaries of each participating organization, offering external flow control, and notification in case of violation detection, while providing process execution traceability. To achieve our goals, we propose an event-based approach in which inter-organizational exchanges are perceived as events. We define event patterns for filtering the desirable incoming and outgoing messages.
A new path tracing algorithm with dynamic circuit extraction for sequential circuit fault diagnosis

The authors propose a new diagnosis technique based on path tracing, which diagnoses fault locations in a sequential circuit by extracting combinational circuit blocks dynamically and tracing error propagation paths from failed primary outputs to fault origins. The dynamic circuit extraction reduces analysis area, which is suitable for a large circuit. By applying this technique to several ISCAS'89 benchmark circuits, the authors demonstrated that this technique could localize faults into 20 candidates within four hours.
PDTB XML: the XMLization of the Penn Discourse TreeBank 2.0

The current study presents a conversion and unification of the Penn Discourse TreeBank 2.0 (PDTB) and the Penn TreeBank (PTB) under XML format. The main goal of the PDTB XML is to create a tool for efficient and broad querying of the syntax and discourse information simultaneously. The key stages of the project are developing proper cross-references between different data types and their representation in the modified TIGER-XML format, and then writing the required declarative languages (XML Schema). PTB XML is compatible with TIGER-XML format. The PDTB XML is developed as a unified format for the convenience of XQuery users; it integrates discourse relations and XML structures into one unified hierarchy and builds the cross references between the syntactic trees and the discourse relations. The syntactic and discourse elements are assigned with unique IDs in order to build cross-references between them. The converted corpus allows for a simultaneous search for syntactically specified discourse information based on the XQuery standard, which is illustrated with a simple example in the article.
A Concise Glossary of Feminist Theory

Acknowledging the variety of contemporary feminist theories, this glossary includes entries on black, post-colonial, Italian and French feminisms, and draws on a range of fields including semiotics, psychoanalysis, structuralism, poststructuralism and deconstruction. The substantial entries on the key words of feminist discourse do not attempt to be definitive, but instead demonstrate the provisional and open-ended nature of the working concepts. The glossary contains cross-referenced entries on the most commonly-encountered terms.
Myrinet: A Gigabit-per-Second Local Area Network

The Myrinet local area network employs the same technology used for packet communication and switching within massively parallel processors. In realizing this distributed MPP network, we developed specialized communication channels, cut-through switches, host interfaces, and software. To our knowledge, Myrinet demonstrates the highest performance per unit cost of any current LAN. >
The Core of the Matter: Analyzing Malicious Traffic in Cellular Carriers

Much of the attention surrounding mobile malware has focused on the in-depth analysis of malicious applications. While bringing the community valuable information about the methods used and data targeted by malware writers, such work has not yet been able to quantify the prevalence with which mobile devices are actually infected. In this paper, we present the first such attempt through a study of the hosting infrastructure used by mobile applications. Using DNS traffic collected over the course of three months from a major US cellular provider as well as a major US noncellular Internet service provider, we identify the DNS domains looked up by mobile applications, and analyze information related to the Internet hosts pointed to by these domains. We make several important observations. The mobile malware found by the research community thus far appears in a minuscule number of devices in the network: 3,492 out of over 380 million (less than 0.0009%) observed during the course of our analysis. This result lends credence to the argument that, while not perfect, mobile application markets are currently providing adequate security for the majority of mobile device users. Second, we find that users of iOS devices are virtually identically as likely to communicate with known low reputation domains as the owners of other mobile platforms, calling into question the conventional wisdom of one platform demonstrably providing greater security than another. Finally, we observe two malware campaigns from the upper levels of the DNS hierarchy and analyze the lifetimes and network properties of these threats. We also note that one of these campaigns ceases to operate long before the malware associated with it is discovered suggesting that network-based countermeasures may be useful in the identification and mitigation of future threats.
Histidine Decarboxylase, DOPA Decarboxylase, and Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 Expression in Neuroendocrine Tumors: Immunohistochemical Study and Gene Expression Analysis

Histidine decarboxylase (HDC) and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (v-MAT2) are involved in the biosynthesis and storage of histamine. DOPA decarboxylase (DDC) is involved in the biosynthesis of a variety of amines and shares a high degree of homology with HDC. HDC and v-MAT2 immunoreactivities (IR) have recently been detected in well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (WDNETs) and poorly differentiated neuroen-docrine carcinomas (PDNECs) of various sites and have been proposed as general endocrine markers. We evaluated HDC and v-MAT2 IR in a series of 117 WDNETs and PDNECs from different sites. Western blotting analysis was performed to verify the specificity of anti-DDC and anti-HDC antibodies. Real-time RT-PCR was performed using specific probes for HDC and DDC on 42 cases, examined also for DDC IR. HDC and v-MAT2 IR were observed in the majority of WDNETs and PDNECs of all sites and HDC-IR cases were always also DDC-IR. In contrast, high levels of HDC mRNA were detected only in the gastroenteropancreatic WDNETs, which did not show increased DDC mRNA levels. On the other hand, bronchial carcinoids and lung PDNECs showed high DDC mRNA levels, but nearly undetectable HDC mRNA levels. Western blotting analysis showed a cross-reaction between anti-HDC and anti-DDC antibodies. HDC should not be considered as a general endocrine marker and HDC IR in bronchial carcinoids and PDNECs of the lung can probably be attributed to a cross-reaction with DDC.
Complete Genome Sequence of Avian Paramyxovirus (APMV) Serotype 5 Completes the Analysis of Nine APMV Serotypes and Reveals the Longest APMV Genome

Background Avian paramyxoviruses (APMV) consist of nine known serotypes. The genomes of representatives of all APMV serotypes except APMV type 5 have recently been fully sequenced. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the APMV-5 prototype strain budgerigar/Kunitachi/74. Methodology/Principal Findings APMV-5 Kunitachi virus is unusual in that it lacks a virion hemagglutinin and does not grow in the allantoic cavity of embryonated chicken eggs. However, the virus grew in the amniotic cavity of embryonated chicken eggs and in twelve different established cell lines and two primary cell cultures. The genome is 17,262 nucleotides (nt) long, which is the longest among members of genus Avulavirus, and encodes six non-overlapping genes in the order of 3′N-P/V/W-M-F-HN-L-5′ with intergenic regions of 4–57 nt. The genome length follows the ‘rule of six’ and contains a 55-nt leader sequence at the 3′end and a 552 nt trailer sequence at the 5′ end. The phosphoprotein (P) gene contains a conserved RNA editing site and is predicted to encode P, V, and W proteins. The cleavage site of the F protein (G-K-R-K-K-R↓F) conforms to the cleavage site motif of the ubiquitous cellular protease furin. Consistent with this, exogenous protease was not required for virus replication in vitro. However, the intracerebral pathogenicity index of APMV-5 strain Kunitachi in one-day-old chicks was found to be zero, indicating that the virus is avirulent for chickens despite the presence of a polybasic F cleavage site. Conclusions/Significance Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences of the APVM-5 genome and proteins versus those of the other APMV serotypes showed that APMV-5 is more closely related to APMV-6 than to the other APMVs. Furthermore, these comparisons provided evidence of extensive genome-wide divergence that supports the classification of the APMVs into nine separate serotypes. The structure of the F cleavage site does not appear to be a reliable indicator of virulence among APMV serotypes 2–9. The availability of sequence information for all known APMV serotypes will facilitate studies in epidemiology and vaccinology.
TEtools facilitates big data expression analysis of transposable elements and reveals an antagonism between their activity and that of piRNA genes

Abstract Over recent decades, substantial efforts have been made to understand the interactions between host genomes and transposable elements (TEs). The impact of TEs on the regulation of host genes is well known, with TEs acting as platforms of regulatory sequences. Nevertheless, due to their repetitive nature it is considerably hard to integrate TE analysis into genome-wide studies. Here, we developed a specific tool for the analysis of TE expression: TEtools. This tool takes into account the TE sequence diversity of the genome, it can be applied to unannotated or unassembled genomes and is freely available under the GPL3 (https://github.com/l-modolo/TEtools). TEtools performs the mapping of RNA-seq data obtained from classical mRNAs or small RNAs onto a list of TE sequences and performs differential expression analyses with statistical relevance. Using this tool, we analyzed TE expression from five Drosophila wild-type strains. Our data show for the first time that the activity of TEs is strictly linked to the activity of the genes implicated in the piwi-interacting RNA biogenesis and therefore fits an arms race scenario between TE sequences and host control genes.
Understanding the crucial differences between classification and discovery of association rules: a position paper

The goal of this position paper is to contribute to a clear understanding of the profound differences between the association-rule discovery and the classification tasks. We argue that the classification task can be considered an ill-defined, nondeterministic task, which is unavoidable given the fact that it involves prediction; while the standard association task can be considered a well-defined, deterministic, relatively simple task, which does not involve prediction in the same sense as the classification task does.
A high-performance Cantonese keyword search system

We present a system for keyword search on Cantonese conversational telephony audio, collected for the IARPA Babel program, that achieves good performance by combining postings lists produced by diverse speech recognition systems from three different research groups. We describe the keyword search task, the data on which the work was done, four different speech recognition systems, and our approach to system combination for keyword search. We show that the combination of four systems outperforms the best single system by 7%, achieving an actual term-weighted value of 0.517.
Functional, Genetic, and Epigenetic Aspects of Base and Nucleotide Excision Repair in Colorectal Carcinomas

Purpose: DNA repair capacity (DRC) is a determinant not only of cancer development but also of individual response to therapy. Previously, altered base and nucleotide excision repair (BER and NER) have been described in lymphocytes of patients with sporadic colorectal cancer. We, for the first time, evaluate both excision repair capacities in human colon biopsies to study their participation in colorectal tumorigenesis. Experimental design: Seventy pairs of tumor and adjacent healthy tissues were analyzed for BER- and NER-specific DRC by a comet repair assay. Tissue pairs were further compared for expression levels of a panel of 25 BER and NER genes complemented by their promoter methylation status. Results: We observed a moderate increase of NER-DRC (P = 0.019), but not of BER-DRC in tumors. There was a strong correlation between both tissues for all investigated parameters (P < 0.001). However, 4 NER (CSB, CCNH, XPA, XPD) and 4 BER (NEIL1, APEX1, OGG1, PARP1) genes showed a 1.08- to 1.28-fold change difference in expression in tumors (P < 0.05). Individual gene expression levels did not correlate with overall DRC, and we did not detect any aberrant methylation of the investigated genes. Conclusions: Our complex analysis showed that tumor cells are not deficient in BER and NER, but rather follow patterns characteristic for each individual and are comparable with adjacent tissue. Alteration of excision repair pathways is not a pronounced event in colorectal carcinogenesis. This study shows the feasibility of DRC evaluation in human solid tissues, representing a complex marker of multigene DNA repair processes. Clin Cancer Res; 18(21); 5878–87. ©2012 AACR.
Multidimensional Product Design

Products like radio shows and insurance contracts are designed by firms to sort for the most valuable users. An empirically relevant model of this process requires users to be heterogeneous along multiple dimensions of their preferences and their values, but existing models do not allow for multidimensional heterogene-ity or require restrictive assumptions to be tractable. We show that a simple price theoretic analysis is possible when user heterogeneity is of high dimension relative to the firm's design instruments. We obtain necessary conditions for profit and welfare maximization in terms of moments of the distribution of user heterogeneity, where the power of an instrument to sort for valuable users is proportional to the covariance, within the set of marginal users, between the value of users and their marginal utility for the instrument. Our model allows for non-transferable utility, consumption externalities, cream-skimming distortions, adverse/advantageous selection , non-linear pricing, third-degree discrimination and imperfect competition. We discuss applications to broadcast media, the credit card industry and imperfect competition in insurance provision. and seminar participants at the Universities of Chicago and Iowa for helpful comments as well as Jonathan Baker, Jean Tirole and Preston McAfee for excellent formal discussions of the paper. We acknowledge the financial support of the NET Institute (www.netinst.org) and the research program on intellectual property at the Institut d'Economie Industrielle (IDEI). Veiga is grateful to the Becker Friedman Institute for hosting him during a visit to the University of Chicago that allowed us to develop this research.
Reasoning Method on Knowledge about Functions and Operators

In artificial intelligence, there are many methods for knowledge representation. One of the effective models is the Computational Object Knowledge Base model (COKB model), which can be used to represent the total knowledge and to design the knowledge base component of practical intelligent systems. Besides, reasoning methods also play an important role in knowledge base systems. In fact, a popular form of knowledge domain is knowledge about function and operations. These knowledge domains have many practical applications, especially in educational applications, such as Solid Geometry, Analytic Geometry. However, the current methods cannot reason on knowledge about Function and Operators. In this paper, we will present a reasoning method to solve problems on COKB model. These problems are related to knowledge about Functions and Operators. Also, this method has been applied to design some intelligent systems in education. Using this reasoning method, systems can solve problems in some educational knowledge domains automatically with their solutions are step-by-step.
Long-lived complexes between peptide and class II major histocompatibility complex are formed at low pH with no requirement for pH neutralization

The binding of peptide antigens to class II histocompatibility glycoproteins can be markedly enhanced at pH values approximating those found in acidic endosomal compartments in antigen-presenting cells (APC). It has been proposed by others that low pH may increase the conformational flexibility of class II, facilitating both the association and dissociation of peptides. Neutralization of pH, as class II is expressed on the plasma membrane of APC, could then serve to trap peptide in a stable complex. If this were the only mechanism accounting for enhanced peptide binding at low pH, one would predict that there should be a concordance between the pH conditions required for enhanced binding and those associated with increased peptide dissociation. Furthermore, long-lived complexes of class II and peptide should not be observed at low pH without neutralization. In the present communization, I provide the data that support the generality of my previous conclusion that both affinity and maximal binding are regulated by pH in experiments using purified class II and biotin- labeled peptides. The pH profile for binding and dissociation using three different class II glycoproteins was analyzed, and the results demonstrated that enhanced binding is not coupled to enhanced dissociation. Peptide complexes were observed to be quite stable at pH 4.5 and above. This result was further substantiated in experiments where biotin-peptide/class II complexes were extensively dialyzed at low pH followed by analysis on Western blots probed with avidin. Finally, a low pH assay system was devised to analyze the formation of stable peptide/class II complexes without pH neutralization. Our results indicate that stable complexes can be formed at low pH without the requirement for a shift to neutral pH.
FRFC: Fast Table Building Algorithm for Recursive Flow Classification

Policy lookup is a very essential function in packet forwarding and network security. As it is becoming a main cause of bottleneck in many network systems, this letter introduces a new policy lookup algorithm called FRFC (Fast table building for Recursive Flow Classification). Although it is based on RFC which shows the best policy lookup speed but the worst policy table update speed, it achieves high performance in table update as well as policy lookup. FRFC divides the whole rule set into smaller sub-rule sets and by doing so, it speeds up the table building time by 50 times compared to RFC when the considered rule set size is 10,000. With the rule set size increasing, the performance gap becomes larger.