Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lifetime exercise is associated with eugonadism in aging men: a preliminary investigation

Testosterone is an important biological hormone, which displays a gradual decline with advancing age. Exercise training has been proposed as a first-line therapy for biochemical hypogonadism (clinically low serum testosterone). As such, the present investigation compared the incidence of biochemical hypogonadism (total testosterone <11.3 nmol·L-1) in a cohort of otherwise healthy lifelong sedentary men (SED [N=24], 63±5 years), compared with a positive control group of lifelong exercisers (LEX [N=16], 60±5 years) using electrochemiluminescent immunoassay. Fisher’s exact test identified significantly more of the SED group were classified as biochemically hypogonadal than the LEX group (8/24 compared to 2/16 respectively; p<.05). These data provide preliminary evidence that exercise may protect against the development of low testosterone defined hypogonadism in aging men.
Multipurpose RF field Vector Controller for linear accelerators

The paper describes the design and the implementation of the flexible, multipurpose RF (Radio Frequency) field Vector Controller for the linear accelerators based on the superconducting technology. The implementation is done for the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) based LLRF (Low Level Radio Frequency) control systems. The full process of the requirement analysis and the library implementation is presented. It is followed by the description of the controller's applications and the results of the performance tests. The controller fulfills the requirements of the various accelerator facilities and hardware platforms and can be easily adapted for the planned experiments to decrease their cost by avoiding expensive research and development phase.
Comparison of Scene Change Detection Algorithms for Videos

A Video Scene Change Detection method is needed in order to manage the rising amount of video content efficiently in applications like digital library, object tracking, watermarking, video on demand (VOD), etc. Scene change detection is done by various methods like pixel-based, histogram, Otsu's, edge-based, statistics-based, compression-based, etc. In this paper, we present abrupt scene change detection for videos using pixel-based, edge-based and Otsu's method. The results are compared depending on the video size and time.
Low-Complexity Capacity Achieving Two-Stage Demodulation/Decoding for Random Matrix Channels

Iterative processing for linear matrix channels, aka turbo equalization, turbo demodulation, or turbo CDMA, has traditionally been studied as the concatenation of conventional error control codes with the linear (matrix) channel. However, in several situations, such as CDMA, multiple-input multiple- output channels, OFDM, and intersymbol-interference channels, the channel itself either contains inherent signal redundancy or such redundancy can readily be introduced at the transmitter, for example, the direct-spread signature sequences of CDMA form inherent repetition codes. For such systems, iterative demodulation of the linear channel exploiting this redundancy using simple iterative cancellation demodulators, followed by conventional feed-forward error control decoding provides a low-complexity, but extremely efficient decoding alternative. It is shown that this two-stage demodulator/decoder, which outperforms more complex turbo CDMA methods for equal power modes (users), can support an arbitrary number of modes if an unequal power distribution is adopted, and that the capacity of the Gaussian multiple access channel can be approached to at least within less than one bit everywhere.
Action recognition using interest points capturing differential motion information

Human action recognition has been a challenging task in computer vision because of intra-class variability. State-of-the-art methods have shown good performance for constrained videos but have failed to achieve good results for complex scenes. Reasons for their failing include treating spatial and temporal dimensions without distinction as well as not capturing temporal information in video representation. To address these problems we propose principled changes to an action recognition framework that is based on video interest points (IP) detection with capturing differential motion as the central theme. First, we propose to detect points with high curl of optical flow, which captures relative motion boundaries in a frame. We track these points to form dense trajectories. Second, we discard points on the trajectories that do not represent change in motion of the same object, yielding temporally localized IPs. Third, we propose a video representation based on spatio-temporal arrangement of IPs with respect to their neighboring IPs. The proposed approach yields a compact and information-dense representation without using any local descriptor around the detected IPs. It significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on UCF youtube dataset, which has complex action classes, as well as on KTH dataset, which has simple action classes.
Secure autonomous driving in dynamic environments: From object detection to safe driving

Secure driving in dynamic environments is an application requiring a number of premises. First of all it needs a perception system able to detect and register obstacles in the vicinity of the robot. Those obstacles are mapped and passed to a motion planner able to calculate a path considering the global objective as well as locally collision free trajectories. Finally, as the calculated path is only guaranteed to be collision free within certain boundaries, it needs a precise path following module commanding the vehicle to follow the calculated path precisely. In this paper we will show how we tackle those three primary requirements for safe driving in dynamic environments: On the perception side we use three main sensors to perceive environment information. For the mapping of arbitrary obstacles we use a setup of three different kinds of sensors. One IBEO Alasca XT Laser Scanner mounted at the front of the vehicle to provide short and long range object data, and two Sick LMS 291 looking down from the upper corners of the car securing cornering. Form those data a local traversability map is calculated that is passed to the motion planner. Another software module uses a sensor fusion approach to detect pedestrians: a laser scans analysis is computed to create weighted regions of interest in the scene ; within those regions a vision algorithm based on an advanced cascade of classifiers of fast image features is applied to precisely detect people in the perceived environment. The navigation side is using a combination of a global Field D-Star planner combined with a local path planner that forward-simulates trajectories and checks those for collisions. Finally the desired vehicle trajectory is executed by the path following algorithm using a sliding controller to keep the car on the secure track. The paper concludes with experimental results from autonomous driving in different scenarios.
Flickr distance

This paper presents Flickr distance, which is a novel measurement of the relationship between semantic concepts (objects, scenes) in visual domain. For each concept, a collection of images are obtained from Flickr, based on which the improved latent topic based visual language model is built to capture the visual characteristic of this concept. Then Flickr distance between different concepts is measured by the square root of Jensen-Shannon (JS) divergence between the corresponding visual language models. Comparing with WordNet, Flickr distance is able to handle far more concepts existing on the Web, and it can scale up with the increase of concept vocabularies. Comparing with Google distance, which is generated in textual domain, Flickr distance is more precise for visual domain concepts, as it captures the visual relationship between the concepts instead of their co-occurrence in text search results. Besides, unlike Google distance, Flickr distance satisfies triangular inequality, which makes it a more reasonable distance metric. Both subjective user study and objective evaluation show that Flickr distance is more coherent to human perception than Google distance. We also design several application scenarios, such as concept clustering and image annotation, to demonstrate the effectiveness of this proposed distance in image related applications.
High-redshift galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field- II. Colours and number counts

We discuss the deep galaxy counts from the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) imaging survey. At faint magnitudes, the slope of the differential number–magnitude relation is flatter than 0.2 in all four HDF bandpasses. In the ultraviolet, a fluctuation analysis shows that the flattening observed below U300 ≈ 26 mag is not caused by incompleteness and is more pronounced than in the other bands, consistent with the idea that a redshift limit has been reached in the galaxy distribution. A reddening trend of ≈ 0.5 mag is observed at faint fluxes in the colour–magnitude diagram, (U300 − V606)eff versus V606. We interpret these results as the effect of intergalactic attenuation on distant galaxies. At flux levels (in the AB system) of AB ≈ 27 mag and in agreement with the fluctuation analysis and the colour–magnitude relation, about 7 per cent of the sources in U300, 30 per cent in B450 and 35 per cent in V606 are Lyman-break ‘dropouts’, i.e. candidate star-forming galaxies at z > 2. By integrating the number counts to the limits of the HDF survey we find that the mean surface brightness of the extragalactic sky is dominated by galaxies that are relatively bright and are known to have 〈z〉 ∼ 0.6. To AB ≈ 29 mag, the integrated light from resolved galaxies in the l-band is 2.1+0.4−0.3 × 10−20 erg cm−2 s−1 Hz−1 s−1, and its spectrum is well described by a broken power law (lν ∝ λ2 from 2000 to 8000 A and lν ∝ λ from 8000 to 22 000 A). We discuss the predictions for the counts, colours and luminosity densities from standard low-q0 pure-luminosity-evolution models without dust obscuration, and find that they are unable to reproduce all the observed properties of faint field galaxies.
Computation with probes and goals: A parsing perspective

This paper examines issues in parsing architecture for a left-to-right implementation of the probe-goal Case agreement model, a theory in the Minimalist Program (MP). Computation from a parsing perspective imposes special constraints. For example, in left-to-right parsing, the assembly of phrase structure must proceed through elementary tree composition, rather than using using the generative operations MERGE and MOVE directly. On-line processing also poses challenges for the incremental computation of probe/goal relations. We describe an implemented parser that computes these relations and assembles phrase structure, whilst respecting the incremental and left-to-right nature of parsing. The model employs two novel mechanisms, a Move and a Probe box, to implement efficient parsing, without “lookback” or unnecessary search of the derivational history.
Trefoil Family Factor 2 Is Expressed in Murine Gastric and Immune Cells and Controls both Gastrointestinal Inflammation and Systemic Immune Responses

ABSTRACT Trefoil family factor 2 (TFF2), also known as spasmolytic peptide, is a low-molecular-weight protein that is upregulated in gastric tissues infected with Helicobacter or having other inflammatory conditions, but a precise function is yet to be elucidated. The role of TFF2 in the development of gastritis, colitis, and inflammatory cytokine responses was examined both in vivo and in vitro using wild-type and TFF2 knockout mice. TFF2 knockout and wild-type mice were infected with Helicobacter felis (H. felis) to induce gastritis. Colitis was induced in TFF2 knockout and wild-type mice by administering dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in drinking water. Histopathology, clinical disease (colitis), and antibody levels (H. felis) were examined. TFF2 expression in tissues was determined by reverse transcriptase PCR, and the inflammatory and proliferative responses of TFF2-expressing macrophages and spleen cells were examined by cytokine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, thymidine incorporation, and gene array studies. TFF2 knockout mice have increased susceptibility to H. felis-induced gastritis, with enhanced gastric inflammation. They were also more susceptible to DSS-induced colitis, with prolonged colonic hemorrhage and persistent weight loss. Remarkably, TFF2 expression was not limited to the gastrointestinal tract, as suggested in previous studies, but was also present in macrophages and lymphocytes. The inflammatory and proliferative responses of these immune cell types were dysregulated in TFF2 knockout mice. TFF2−/− cells were hyperresponsive to interleukin 1 beta stimulation but showed normal responses to lipopolysaccharide, suggesting a specific role for TFF2 in interleukin 1 receptor but not Toll-like receptor 4 signaling via their Toll-interleukin 1 resistance domains. TFF2−/− lymphocytes also produced higher levels of interleukin 2 than wild-type cells. Thus, TFF2 was expressed in the gastrointestinal cells and in immune cells and was a negative regulator of gastrointestinal inflammation and immune cell cytokine responses. Our studies suggest that TFF2 not only controls gastrointestinal repair but also regulates mononuclear cell inflammatory responses.
Codes of ethics and the information technology employee : the impact of code institutionalisation, awareness, understanding and enforcement : research article

The ethical behaviour of personnel remains a key management problem in need of attention. Codes of ethics have become important mechanisms for influencing ethical behaviour, yet their efficacy has not been proven. The institutionalisation and enforcement of codes within an organisation are thought to be necessary for ensuring a code's success in influencing employee behaviour. This study examined the problem in the context of the information technology (IT) employee. Specifically, the study examined the effect of code institutionalisation on ethical behaviour through its effects on code awareness and understanding. Using data collected from 186 IT employees in South Africa, results revealed that code understanding by IT employees was a significant determinant of their intention to behave ethically. Code understanding was significantly influenced by degree of code institutionalisation and code awareness. Code enforcement was also found to have a significant influence on an employee's intention to behave ethically. The results have important implications for organisations using, or intending to use, codes of ethics to influence the behaviour of personnel.
DisCrit: disability studies and critical race theory in education

DisCrit is an exciting and ground-breaking volume addressing the root of some of the most entrenched educational inequities within Western culture from an intersectional and cross-disciplinary lens, while creating spaces for solidarity and new alliances in education policies and practices. By refusing primacy of either race, or dis/ability, or gender, or any other aspect of identity, the editors and the contributing authors acknowledge how these “systems of oppression” (221) are co-constructed, and the role of schooling in reproducing hierarchies based on race, class and gender. Starting off with a captivating introduction “A Truncated Genealogy of DisCrit”, explaining the motivation for the book, and laying out the values behind the use of language – dis/ability is used with the purpose of “disrupting notions of the fixity of the concept of disability, seeking rather to analyse the entire context in which a person functions” (1) – the book describes the background behind the theoretical framework (Touchstone Text, first published in 2013 [Annamma, Connor, and Ferri 2013]), and it examines perceptions of race, class and ability (Part I); perspectives on achievement/opportunity gaps (Part II); the over-representation of minority students in special education (Part III); the school-to-prison pipeline (Part IV); school reform and its impact on learners based on race, class and dis/ability (Part V); and the capacity of law to include and exclude (Part VI). The conclusion “Critical Conversations Across Race and Ability” highlights how DisCrit is not a singular answer to entrenched educational inequities, and addresses tensions and possibilities for future research. Annamma, Connor and Ferri’s 2013 article, which has paved the way for the DisCrit book (Annamma, Connor, and Ferri 2016), has been invaluable in developing my doctoral research project on the disablement of refugee children in the Italian context. This book continues to inspire my post-doctoral career, exploring inclusive policies and practices for “multiply marginalised students” (2) in the US and Europe. I believe it is a must-read for pre-service and long-term educators within the urban school system in the US, North America and across the Atlantic.
The largest eigenvalues of sample covariance matrices for a spiked population: Diagonal case

We consider large complex random sample covariance matrices obtained from “spiked populations,” that is, when the true covariance matrix is diagonal with all but finitely many eigenvalues equal to 1. We investigate the limiting behavior of the largest eigenvalues when the population and the sample sizes both become large. Under some conditions on moments of the sample distribution, we prove that the asymptotic fluctuations of the largest eigenvalues are the same as for a complex Gaussian sample with the same true covariance. The real setting is also considered.
Privacy issues in scientific workflow provenance

A scientific workflow often deals with proprietary modules as well as private or confidential data, such as health or medical information. Hence providing exact answers to provenance queries over all executions of the workflow may reveal private information. In this paper we first study the potential privacy issues in a scientific workflow -- module privacy, data privacy, and provenance privacy, and frame several natural questions: (i) can we formally analyze module, data or provenance privacy giving provable privacy guarantees for an unlimited/bounded number of provenance queries? (ii) how can we answer provenance queries, providing as much information as possible to the user while still guaranteeing the required privacy? Then we look at module privacy in detail and propose a formal model from our recent work in [11]. Finally we point to several directions for future work.
HMM and HSS Based Social Behavior of Intelligent Vehicles for Freeway Entrance Ramp

In this paper, a novel approach of intelligent vehicle to interact and cooperate with other human driving vehicles is proposed at the freeway entrance ramp scenario. The system consists of a Safety Alert Module and Vehicle Control Module. The Safety Alert System module includes intention estimation and conflict judgment. A two dimension Hidden Markov Model (2DHMM) is used to estimate social vehicle’s driving intention in the intention estimation module. Then the conflict judgment module predicts the potential conflicts between the intelligent vehicle and social vehicle. Moreover, the hybrid state system (HSS) is introduced to control the intelligent vehicle while considering its decision making, states and dynamics. Co-simulation using PreScan and Simulink is conducted. The experiment results show that the intelligent vehicle performs well with a commendable social behavior in the freeway entrance ramp.
A Dynamic Mobility Management Scheme for VoIP Services

In order to provide seamless VoIP service in the mobile wireless environment, we need to minimize the disruption time to process a handoff of an ongoing VoIP call. There are several schemes focusing on this issue. However, they require a lot of signalling message exchanges, resulting in exposures of confidential information of the mobile nodes in network. We propose a dynamic shadow registration scheme eliminating these disadvantages. Our simulation results show our scheme can significantly reduce the message overhead with maintaining almost the same handoff delay with other schemes
Iterative learning control for robotic contouring

A dynamic adaptive iterative learning control method applied to contouring control is developed to reduce the contour tracking error for a planar robotic system with parametric uncertainty. The proposed control scheme takes advantages of the self-tuning law and adaptive iterative learning control, which consists of a feedback controller and an adaptive learning term. The self-tuning method is applied to feedback control in the iteration domain, and a hybrid adaptive updating law is used to estimate the control parameter in the adaptive learning term in both the time domain and the iteration domain. The dynamic control algorithm not only compensates unknown bounded parametric uncertainties and disturbances in the time and iterative domains but also eliminates actuator chattering. The closed-loop control system can reduce the contouring error by improving the coordination between axes. Properties of the learning control algorithm are studied analytically. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Automatically Checking the Correctness of Feature Model Refactorings

Software Product Line evolution can be performed by refactorings, which involve not only program refactorings improving code structure, but also feature model (FM) refactorings in order to improve configurability. However, the current catalog of FM refactorings is not complete, and is difficult to propose new sound refactorings. Moreover, there is no guideline how to apply such catalog in a refactoring process. We propose an efficient encoding of FMs in Alloy, which is a formal specification language. Based on this encoding, we show how the Alloy Analyzer tool can be used to automatically check in a few seconds whether FM refactorings are correct.