Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recurrent Neural Network Language Model Training Using Natural Gradient

Recurrent neural network language models (RNNLMs) have become an increasing popular choice for state-of-the-art speech recognition systems. RNNLMs are normally trained by minimizing the cross entropy (CE) using the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm. However, the SGD method doesn’t consider the correlation between parameters and therefore can lead to unstable and slow convergence in training. Second-order optimization methods provide a possible solution to this issue. However these methods are either computationally heavy or do not have competitive performance. In this paper, a novel optimization method – stochastic natural gradient based on minimum variance assumption (SNGM) is proposed for training RNNLMs. It allows the natural gradient method to operate at a comparable training efficiency to the SGD method. By modifying the gradient according to the local curvature of the KL-divergence between current and updated probabilistic distributions, the proposed SNGM approach is shown to outperform both the SGD and limited memory BFGS methods across three tasks: Penn Treebank, Switchboard conversational speech recognition and AMI meeting room transcription in terms of both perplexity and word error rate.
Opportunistic Situational Awareness Dissemination at the Tactical Edge

Recent advances in commercial and military technology have contributed to an emerging trend to equip soldiers at the edge of tactical communication networks with wireless computing devices capable of sharing situational awareness (SA) data over mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This paper presents an efficient algorithm called "Opportunistic SA Passing" (OSAP) to share short periodic bursts of SA data. OSAP adopts the philosophy that it is not necessary to guarantee delivery of SA about all nodes in the MANET at all times. Rather, OSAP relaxes this requirement, allowing us to explore the network efficiencies gained by distributing SA about "most" of the nodes (typically greater than 90%). We conducted simulations of OSAP in MANETs ranging in size from a light infantry section (or squad) to a platoon. Compared to three other SA distribution schemes - pure flooding, central collection and broadcast, and an efficient broadcast based on Multi-Point Relay - OSAP requires dramatically fewer frames transmitted and forwarded in the MANET to achieve better than 90% coverage of connected nodes.
Empowering mobile crowdsensing through social and ad hoc networking

Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) enables collective data harvesting actions by coordinating citizens willing to contribute data collected via their sensor-rich smartphones that represent sources of valuable sensing information in urban environments nowadays. One of the biggest challenges in a real long-running MCS system lies in the capacity not only to attract new volunteers, but also, and most importantly, to leverage existing social ties between volunteers to keep them involved to build long-lasting MCS communities. In addition, the advent of high-performing devices and ad hoc communication technologies can help to further amplify the effect of sensing actions in proximity of the volunteer devices. This article originally describes how to exploit these socio-technical networking aspects to increase the performance of MCS campaigns in the ParticipAct living laboratory, an ongoing MCS real-world experiment that involved about 170 students of the University of Bologna for more than two years. The article also reports some significant experimental results to quantify the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.
Parcellation‐dependent small‐world brain functional networks: A resting‐state fMRI study

Recent studies have demonstrated small‐world properties in both functional and structural brain networks that are constructed based on different parcellation approaches. However, one fundamental but vital issue of the impact of different brain parcellation schemes on the network topological architecture remains unclear. Here, we used resting‐state functional MRI (fMRI) to investigate the influences of different brain parcellation atlases on the topological organization of brain functional networks. Whole‐brain fMRI data were divided into ninety and seventy regions of interest according to two predefined anatomical atlases, respectively. Brain functional networks were constructed by thresholding the correlation matrices among the parcellated regions and further analyzed using graph theoretical approaches. Both atlas‐based brain functional networks were found to show robust small‐world properties and truncated power‐law connectivity degree distributions, which are consistent with previous brain functional and structural networks studies. However, more importantly, we found that there were significant differences in multiple topological parameters (e.g., small‐worldness and degree distribution) between the two groups of brain functional networks derived from the two atlases. This study provides quantitative evidence on how the topological organization of brain networks is affected by the different parcellation strategies applied. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Statistical Structure of the Hippocampal Code for Space as a Function of Time, Context, and Value

Hippocampal activity represents many behaviorally important variables, including context, an animal’s location within a given environmental context, time, and reward. Here we used longitudinal calcium imaging in mice, multiple large virtual environments, and differing reward contingencies to derive a unified probabilistic model of hippocampal CA1 representations centered on a single feature – the field propensity. Each cell’s propensity governs how many place fields it has per unit space, predicts its reward-related activity, and is preserved across distinct environments and over months. The propensity is broadly distributed—with many low, and some very high, propensity cells —and thus strongly shapes hippocampal representations. The result is a range of spatial codes, from sparse to dense. Propensity varied ~10-fold between adjacent cells in a salt-and-pepper fashion, indicating substantial functional differences within a presumed cell type. The stability of each cell’s propensity across conditions suggests this fundamental property has anatomical, transcriptional, and/or developmental origins.
Media- and TCP-friendly congestion control for scalable video streams

This paper presents a media- and TCP-friendly rate-based congestion control algorithm (MTFRCC) for scalable video streaming in the Internet. The algorithm integrates two new techniques: i) a utility-based model using the rate-distortion function as the application utility measure for optimizing the overall video quality; and ii) a two-timescale approach of rate averages (long-term and short-term) to satisfy both media and TCP-friendliness. We evaluate our algorithm through simulation and compare the results against the TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC) algorithm. For assessment, we consider five criteria: TCP fairness, responsiveness, aggressiveness, overall video quality, and smoothness of the resulting bit rate. Our simulation results manifest that MTFRCC performs better than TFRC for various congestion levels, including an improvement of the overall video quality.
Satellites, the All-Seeing Eyes in the Sky: Counting Elephant Seals from Space

Regular censuses are fundamental for the management of animal populations but, are logistically challenging for species living in remote regions. The advent of readily accessible, high resolution satellite images of earth mean that it is possible to resolve relatively small (0.6 m) objects, sufficient to discern large animals. To illustrate how these advances can be used to count animals in remote regions, individual elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) were counted using satellite imagery. We used an image taken on 10/10/2011 to count elephant seals (n = 1790±306 (95%CL)) on the isthmus of Macquarie Island, an estimate which overlapped with concurrent ground counts (n = 1991). The number of individuals per harem estimated using the two approaches were highly correlated, with a slope close to one and the estimated intercept also encompassing zero. This proof of concept opens the way for satellites to be used as a standard censusing technique for inaccessible and cryptically coloured species. Quantifying the population trends of higher order predators provides an especially informative and tractable indicator of ecosystem health.
SAW resonator oscillator based injection locked OOK transmitter for MedRadio spectrum

This work presents a low power injection locked on-off keying (OOK) transmitter (TX) for the Medical Device Radio (MedRadio) communication band (401-406 MHz), which is suitable for health care applications. The TX is based upon a surface acoustic wave resonator (SAWR) oscillator, which directly generates a stable RF signal at 403.6 MHz and completely removes the power hungry frequency multiplying circuits from the transmitter. Designed and fabricated in 180 nm mixed mode CMOS technology, the measurement results of the SAWR oscillator show that it consumes 400 μA current from 1 V supply and exhibits a phase noise of about -101 dBc/Hz for center frequency of 403.6 MHz at an offset of 300 kHz. The post layout simulation results show that the output radiated power from the proposed TX is -17 dBm while consuming total power of 940 μW.
Unmodified Device Driver Reuse and Improved System Dependability via Virtual Machines

We propose a method to reuse unmodified device drivers and to improve system dependability using virtual machines. We run the unmodified device driver, with its original operating system, in a virtual machine. This approach enables extensive reuse of existing and unmodified drivers, independent of the OS or device vendor, significantly reducing the barrier to building new OS endeavors. By allowing distinct device drivers to reside in separate virtual machines, this technique isolates faults caused by defective or malicious drivers, thus improving a system's dependability. We show that our technique requires minimal support infrastructure and provides strong fault isolation. Our prototype's network performance is within 3-8% of a native Linux system. Each additional virtual machine increases the CPU utilization by about 0.12%. We have successfully reused a wide variety of unmodified Linux network, disk, and PCI device drivers.
BCC-Splines: Generalization of B-Splines for the Body-Centered Cubic Lattice

Recently, the B-spline family of reconstruction filters has been generalized for the hexagonal lattice, which is optimal for sampling 2D circularly band-limited signals. In this paper, we extend this generalization to the body-centered cubic (BCC) lattice, which is optimal for sampling spherically band-limited 3D signals. We call the obtained new reconstruction filters BCC-splines. Although the explicit analytical formulas are not defined yet, we evaluate the discrete approximation of these filters in the frequency domain in order to analyze their performance in a volume-rendering application. Our experimental results show that the BCC-splines can be superior over the box splines previously proposed for the BCC lattice.
A comparative study using an autostereoscopic display with augmented and virtual reality

Advances in display devices are facilitating the integration of stereoscopic visualisation in our daily lives. However, autostereoscopic visualisation has not been extensively exploited. In this paper, we present a system that combines augmented reality (AR) and autostereoscopic visualisation. We also present the first study that compares different aspects using an autostereoscopic display with AR and virtual reality (VR), in which 39 children from 8 to 10 years old participated. In our study, no statistically significant differences were found between AR and VR. However, the scores were very high in nearly all of the questions, and the children also scored the AR version higher in all cases. Moreover, the children explicitly preferred the AR version (81%). For the AR version, a strong and significant correlation was found between the use of the autostereoscopic screen in games and seeing the virtual object on the marker. For the VR version, two strong and significant correlations were found. The first correlation was between the ease of play and the use of the rotatory controller. The second correlation was between depth perception and the game global score. Therefore, the combinations of AR and VR with autostereoscopic visualisation are possibilities for developing edutainment systems for children.
Analytical performance of cooperative censored energy detection based “two witnesses rule” for cognitive radio networks

Cooperative spectrum sensing is a promising detection strategy that enhances the reliability of the decision made about the spectrum availability in cognitive radio networks. In order to exploit the diversity gained from the cooperation of the secondary users, fusion rules should be defined to derive a final decision. In this paper, analytical performance of a novel fusion rule is proposed. The proposed rule aims at reducing the risk of generating harmful interference to the primary system as well as enhancing the credibility of the secondary base station when declaring a sub-channel available. Analytical expressions of the probabilities of detection, false alarm, mis-detection and occupancy are derived and verified by simulations.
Serotonergic Transcription of Human FEV Reveals Direct GATA Factor Interactions and Fate of Pet-1-Deficient Serotonin Neuron Precursors

Altered expression of the human FEV (fifth Ewing variant) ETS transcription factor gene impacts the level of CNS serotonin (5-HT) neuron gene expression and maternal nurturing. However, the regulatory mechanisms that determine FEV expression are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the cis-regulatory control of FEV to begin to identify the upstream transcription factors that restrict FEV expression to 5-HT neurons. We find that sequences extending only 275 bp upstream of the FEV 5′ untranslated region are sufficient to direct FEV transgene expression to embryonic 5-HT neurons, although sequences farther upstream are required for maintenance in adult 5-HT neurons. Two highly conserved consensus GATA factor binding sites within the 275 bp region interact with GATA factors in vitro. Chromatin immunoprecipitations with embryonic hindbrain demonstrated Gata-2 interactions with the orthologous mouse Pet-1 ETS cis-regulatory region. Mutagenesis of GATA sites revealed that one or the other site is required for serotonergic FEV transgene expression. Unexpectedly, FEV–LacZ transgenes enabled determination of 5-HT neuron precursor fate in the adult Pet-1−/− dorsal and median raphe nuclei and thus provided additional insight into FEV/Pet-1 function. Comparable numbers of FEV–LacZ-positive cells were detected in Pet-1+/− and Pet-1−/− adult dorsal raphe nuclei, indicating that the majority of mutant serotonergic precursors are not fated to apoptosis. However, B7 dorsal raphe cells were aberrantly distributed, suggesting a role for FEV/Pet-1 in their midline organization. Our findings identify a direct transcriptional interaction between Gata-2 and FEV and a unique marker for new insight into FEV/Pet-1 function in 5-HT neuron development.
Impact of heart failure on hip fracture outcomes: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND Hip fracture and heart failure are becoming more prevalent conditions in hospitalized patients. Despite differences in postoperative outcomes from other intermediate risk procedures, guidelines classify hip fracture repair as an intermediate risk operation. OBJECTIVE This population-based study sought to examine the prevalence and incidence of heart failure in hip fracture patients. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS We conducted a population-based historical cohort study of 1116 Olmsted County, MN residents undergoing 1212 hip surgeries from 1988 through 2002. Data were obtained through medical record review. Heart failure was defined by Framingham criteria. RESULTS The prevalence of preoperative heart failure in our study population was 27% (327 of 1212 cases). Those with preoperative heart failure demonstrated longer lengths of stay, were more often discharged to a skilled facility, and had higher inpatient mortality rates. Rates of postoperative heart failure were 6.7% at seven days and 21.3% at one year. Postoperative heart failure was more common among those with preoperative heart failure (HR 3.0), and those with preoperative heart failure demonstrated higher postoperative mortality rates. Men had a higher risk of postoperative mortality compared to women. Overall survival was lowest among those with both preoperative and postoperative heart failure. CONCLUSIONS Heart failure represents a common and serious perioperative condition in hip fracture patients. Hip fracture patients with and without heart failure carry higher postoperative risk than guidelines may suggest. Future work must focus on the perioperative management of hip fracture patients with and without heart failure to mitigate postoperative morbidity.
Profile Hidden Markov Model for Detection and Prediction of Hepatitis C Virus Mutation

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a widely spread disease all over the world. HCV has very high mutation rate that makes it resistant to antibodies. Modeling HCV to identify the virus mutation process is essential to its detection and predicting its evolution. This paper presents a model of HCV based on profile hidden Markov model (PHMM) architecture. An iterative model learning procedure is proposed and applied to both full-length sequence of virus and its very high variation (mutation) zone called NS5A. A pilot study on HCV dataset of type 4 is conducted which is of special concern in Egypt.
The effects of consumer self-regulation and risk immediacy on mobile information disclosure

Emerging information privacy risks and behaviors regarding mobile devices and applications have created a clear need for new research. In this context, technical innovations and practical problems are driving the research. Consider the following hypothetical scenario: you are stuck in heavy traffic in a city you are unfamiliar with. You desperately need to exit the freeway and find your way to a conference where you will be speaking. You own a data-enabled smartphone. So, you begin searching on your smartphone for an app to help guide you through the city. Research has demonstrated that the average consumer in this context might both 1) claim outwardly that they are very concerned about the privacy risks of using unknown mobile apps, but also 2) immediately download the first app they find and begin disclosing location data through it in order to satisfy their need for directions (Acquisti et al. 2004).
Intracerebral Injections and Ultrastructural Analysis of High‐Pressure Frozen Brain Tissue

Intracerebral injections are an invasive method to bypass the blood brain barrier and are widely used to study molecular and cellular mechanisms of the central nervous system. The administered substances are injected directly at the site of interest, executing their effect locally. By combining injections in the rat brain with state‐of‐the‐art electron microscopy, subtle changes in ultrastructure of the nervous tissue can be detected prior to overt damage or disease. The protocol presented here involves stereotactic injection into the corpus callosum of Lewis rats and the cryopreparation of freshly dissected tissue for electron microscopy. The localization of the injection site in tissue sections during the sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy is explained and possible artifacts of the method are indicated. With the help of this powerful combination of injections and electron microscopy, subtle effects of the applied substances on the biology of neural cells can be identified and monitored over time. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
High Performance Analytics in Complex Event Processing

Complex Event Processing (CEP) is the technical choice for high performance analytics in time-critical decision-making applications. Although current CEP systems support sequence pattern detection on continuous event streams, they do not support the computation of aggregated values over the matched sequences of a query pattern. Instead, aggregation is typically applied as a post processing step after CEP pattern detection, leading to an extremely inefficient solution for sequence aggregation. Meanwhile, the state-ofart aggregation techniques over traditional stream data are not directly applicable in the context of the sequence-semantics of CEP. In this paper, we propose an approach, called A-Seq, that successfully pushes the aggregation computation into the sequence pattern detection process. A-Seq succeeds to compute aggregation online by dynamically recording compact partial sequence aggregation without ever constructing the to-be-aggregated matched sequences. Techniques are devised to tackle all the key CEP-specific challenges for aggregation, including sliding window semantics, event purging, as well as sequence negation. For scalability, we further introduce the Chop-Connect methodology, that enables sequence aggregation sharing among queries with arbitrary substring relationships. Lastly, our cost-driven optimizer selects a shared execution plan for effectively processing a workload of CEP aggregation queries. Our experimental study using real data sets demonstrates over four orders of magnitude efficiency improvement for a wide range of tested scenarios of our proposed A-Seq approach compared to the state-of-art solutions, thus achieving high-performance CEP aggregation analytics.
Studying early embryogenesis in the flatworm Maritigrella crozieri indicates a unique modification of the spiral cleavage program in polyclad flatworms

Background Spiral cleavage is a conserved early developmental mode found in several phyla of Lophotrochozoans with highly diverse adult body plans. While the cleavage pattern has clearly been broadly conserved, it has also undergone many modifications in various taxa. The precise mechanisms of how different adaptations have altered the ancestral spiral cleavage pattern is an important ongoing evolutionary question and adequately answering this question requires obtaining a broad developmental knowledge of different spirally cleaving taxa. In flatworms (Platyhelminthes), the spiral cleavage program has been lost or severely modified in most taxa. Polyclad flatworms, however, have retained the pattern up to the 32-cell stage. Here we study early embryogenesis of the cotylean polyclad flatworm Maritigrella crozieri to investigate how closely this species follows the canonical spiral cleavage pattern and to discover any potential deviations from it. Results Using live imaging recordings and 3D reconstructions of embryos, we give a detailed picture of the events that occur during spiral cleavage in M. crozieri. We suggest, contrary to previous observations, that the 4-cell stage is a product of unequal cleavages. We show that that the formation of third and fourth micromere quartets are accompanied by strong blebbing events; blebbing also accompanies the formation of micromere 4d. We find an important deviation from the canonical pattern of cleavages with clear evidence that micromere 4d follows an atypical cleavage pattern, so far exclusively found in polyclad flatworms. Conclusions Our findings highlight that early development in M. crozieri deviates in several important aspects from the canonical spiral cleavage pattern. We suggest that some of our observations extend to polyclad flatworms in general as they have been described in both suborders of the Polycladida, the Cotylea and Acotylea.