Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The added value of gating in evolved neurocontrollers

While the concept of gating has been explored in past studies of neural networks, and neural network controllers have been successfully designed through evolutionary computation methods, very little past work has focused on empirically determining the value of adding gating to evolved neural network architectures. In this study, we do precisely that, by examining a neural architecture and genetic representation that explicitly permits the use of gating connections in a neurocontroller, and comparing the evolved controller performance to similar evolved controllers where gating connections are not explicitly included. The performance of these different approaches is evaluated in evolving a neurocontroller for an autonomous agent navigating through a simulated predator-prey environment. We find that the neural architecture that explicitly allows gating clearly outperforms three other architectures without gating, suggesting that there is a clear benefit to having gating connections directed by a command module. Further analysis of the best evolved agent reveals that its controller executes by producing command signals that encode high-level goals, which then modify low-level behaviors to achieve those goals, supporting the hypothesis that allowing gated connections in neural networks substantially improves the neurocontrollers that can be evolved.
Consumers' Resistance to GM-foods: The Role of Information in an Uncertain Environment

Consumers’ Resistance to GM-Foods: The Role of Information in an Uncertain Environment By Wallace E. Huffman, M. Rousu, J.F. Shogren, and A. Tegene During the post-World War II era, the standard of living has risen steadily in the developed countries. One reason has been the steady introduction and adoption of new goods. Consumers, however, have not accepted all seemingly useful goods,, e.g., the Ford Edsel, electricity from nuclear power, irradiated meat and poultry. Also, during the 19 century in Europe, Luddites destroyed new machines for knitting and textile manufacturing, smashed threshing machines, and pasteurized milk also experienced major opposition. In the 21 Century, agricultural biotechnology has real potential for creating new, welfare-improving products. However, Greenpeace, Friends-of-the-Earth and other groups have been vocal in their opposition to GM-foods. This paper examines the market characteristics that push a consumer to resist GM foods, with emphasis on negative information and independent, third-party information. We show that negative GMinformation pushes some consumers out of the market for GM-labeled foods and that independent third-party information dampens the effectiveness of negative information and increase the probability that consumers will value GM-foods positively.
Decision making in a dynamically structured holographic memory model : Learning from delayed feedback

We present a first step towards developing a cognitive model of decision making using Dynamically Structured Holographic Memory (DSHM). DSHM is a class of memory models used to model human performance in game play, memory tasks, and language learning. The ability to detect and predict patterns is an integral part of memory models and an important part of decision making. However, decision making also requires the ability to evaluate states as more or less desirous in order to motivate the decisions. We apply a DSHM model to the decision-making task of Walsh and Anderson (2011). By initializing memory to a state of optimism and by making the model sensitive to dependencies between non-consecutive events, we find that the model is able to learn the task at a rate similar to humans.
Anisotropic Finite Element Modeling Based on a Harmonic Field for Patient-Specific Sclera

Purpose. This study examined the influence of anisotropic material for human sclera. Method. First, the individual geometry of patient-specific sclera was reproduced from a laser scan. Then, high quality finite element modeling of individual sclera was performed using a convenient automatic hexahedral mesh generator based on harmonic field and integrated with anisotropic material assignment function. Finally, comparison experiments were designed to investigate the effects of anisotropy on finite element modeling of sclera biomechanics. Results. The experimental results show that the presented approach can generate high quality anisotropic hexahedral mesh for patient-specific sclera. Conclusion. The anisotropy shows significant differences for stresses and strain distribution and careful consideration should be given to its use in biomechanical FE studies.
Globalization and language and education reform in Colombia: a critical outlook

En este articulo, el autor analiza la conexion entre procesos de globalizacion economica, politica y cultural, y politicas educativas y linguisticas recientemente introducidas en Colombia. Lo que se pretende es demostrar que estas politicas estan estrechamente ligadas a agendas transnacionales y modelos de reforma que no necesariamente representan un beneficio real para la mayoria de la poblacion, sino solo para unos pocos. Ademas, se insiste aqui en la necesidad de construir politicas para el mejoramiento de la ensenanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras y locales en el pais, que prioricen las necesidades de desarrollo economico en cada comunidad, respeten su conocimiento y cultura, y busquen consolidar un plan de mejoramiento sistemico y estructural basado en las condiciones disimiles que existen entre el sector educativo publico y el privado en Colombia.
OpenNetMon: Network monitoring in OpenFlow Software-Defined Networks

We present OpenNetMon, an approach and open-source software implementation to monitor per-flow metrics, especially throughput, delay and packet loss, in OpenFlow networks. Currently, ISPs over-provision capacity in order to meet QoS demands from customers. Software-Defined Networking and OpenFlow allow for better network control and flexibility in the pursuit of operating networks as efficiently as possible. Where OpenFlow provides interfaces to implement fine-grained Traffic Engineering (TE), OpenNetMon provides the monitoring necessary to determine whether end-to-end QoS parameters are actually met and delivers the input for TE approaches to compute appropriate paths. OpenNetMon polls edge switches, i.e. switches with flow end-points attached, at an adaptive rate that increases when flow rates differ between samples and decreases when flows stabilize to minimize the number of queries. The adaptive rate reduces network and switch CPU overhead while optimizing measurement accuracy. We show that not only local links serving variable bit-rate video streams, but also aggregated WAN links benefit from an adaptive polling rate to obtain accurate measurements. Furthermore, we verify throughput, delay and packet loss measurements for bursty scenarios in our experiment testbed.
Microdissection of Shoot Meristem Functional Domains

The shoot apical meristem (SAM) maintains a pool of indeterminate cells within the SAM proper, while lateral organs are initiated from the SAM periphery. Laser microdissection–microarray technology was used to compare transcriptional profiles within these SAM domains to identify novel maize genes that function during leaf development. Nine hundred and sixty-two differentially expressed maize genes were detected; control genes known to be upregulated in the initiating leaf (P0/P1) or in the SAM proper verified the precision of the microdissections. Genes involved in cell division/growth, cell wall biosynthesis, chromatin remodeling, RNA binding, and translation are especially upregulated in initiating leaves, whereas genes functioning during protein fate and DNA repair are more abundant in the SAM proper. In situ hybridization analyses confirmed the expression patterns of six previously uncharacterized maize genes upregulated in the P0/P1. P0/P1-upregulated genes that were also shown to be downregulated in leaf-arrested shoots treated with an auxin transport inhibitor are especially implicated to function during early events in maize leaf initiation. Reverse genetic analyses of asceapen1 (asc1), a maize D4-cyclin gene upregulated in the P0/P1, revealed novel leaf phenotypes, less genetic redundancy, and expanded D4-CYCLIN function during maize shoot development as compared to Arabidopsis. These analyses generated a unique SAM domain-specific database that provides new insight into SAM function and a useful platform for reverse genetic analyses of shoot development in maize.
Contextualized Relevance Evaluation of Geographic Information for Mobile Users in Location-Based Social Networks

Abstract: The relevance of geographic information to mobile users must be evaluated by taking into account the usage context. This paper assumes that emerging Location-based Social Networks (LBSNs) contain contextual information rich enough to be used in order to contextualize such an evaluation process. This assumption is demonstrated through an exploratory analysis of a Foursquare check-in dataset, which reveals the impacts of two contextual factors—temporal and spatial—on mobility patterns. This paper then proposes an approach that may be used to contextualize the evaluation of geographic information’s relevance. The proposed algorithm links a priori relevance to the contextualized relevance using the hidden impacts of contextual factors. Improved performance from the experiments carried out confirms the validity of the proposed approach, as well as the benefits of utilizing contextual information within the relevance evaluation process. Keywords: contextualization; geographic relevance; location-based social networks; mobility pattern
Mitochondria, endothelial cell function, and vascular diseases

Mitochondria are perhaps the most sophisticated and dynamic responsive sensing systems in eukaryotic cells. The role of mitochondria goes beyond their capacity to create molecular fuel and includes the generation of reactive oxygen species, the regulation of calcium, and the activation of cell death. In endothelial cells, mitochondria have a profound impact on cellular function under both healthy and diseased conditions. In this review, we summarize the basic functions of mitochondria in endothelial cells and discuss the roles of mitochondria in endothelial dysfunction and vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetic vascular dysfunction, pulmonary artery hypertension, and hypertension. Finally, the potential therapeutic strategies to improve mitochondrial function in endothelial cells and vascular diseases are also discussed, with a focus on mitochondrial-targeted antioxidants and calorie restriction.
Multi-Dimensional Evaluation of Information Retrieval Results

Evaluation of information retrieval (IR) results is an important and difficult activity. Available evaluation methods are commonly based on the classical recall and precision measures. While these methods provide an evaluation of average system performance, they are not able to identify influence of other factors such as retrieval task and system user. Detailed information is hidden behind the average and no indication can be obtained from the evaluation for further improvement. Therefore, there is a need of new methods for detailed evaluation. In this paper, we propose a multi-dimensional approach to the evaluation of IR results so that effects of both an IR system and the environment where the system performs on retrieval results can be examined. It aids in the identification of problems of the system and the environment with respect to retrieval effectiveness, and assists in making improvement for IR.
Variable selection for multiply‐imputed data with application to dioxin exposure study

Multiple imputation (MI) is a commonly used technique for handling missing data in large‐scale medical and public health studies. However, variable selection on multiply‐imputed data remains an important and longstanding statistical problem. If a variable selection method is applied to each imputed dataset separately, it may select different variables for different imputed datasets, which makes it difficult to interpret the final model or draw scientific conclusions. In this paper, we propose a novel multiple imputation‐least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (MI‐LASSO) variable selection method as an extension of the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method to multiply‐imputed data. The MI‐LASSO method treats the estimated regression coefficients of the same variable across all imputed datasets as a group and applies the group LASSO penalty to yield a consistent variable selection across multiple‐imputed datasets. We use a simulation study to demonstrate the advantage of the MI‐LASSO method compared with the alternatives. We also apply the MI‐LASSO method to the University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study to identify important circumstances and exposure factors that are associated with human serum dioxin concentration in Midland, Michigan. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BUCEADOR, a multi-language search engine for digital libraries

This paper presents a web-based multimedia search engine built within the Buceador (www.buceador.org) research project. A proof-of-concept tool has been implemented which is able to retrieve information from a digital library made of multimedia documents in the 4 official languages in Spain (Spanish, Basque, Catalan and Galician). The retrieved documents are presented in the user language after translation and dubbing (the four previous languages + English). The paper presents the tool functionality, the architecture, the digital library and provide some information about the technology involved in the fields of automatic speech recognition, statistical machine translation, text-to-speech synthesis and information retrieval. Each technology has been adapted to the purposes of the presented tool as well as to interact with the rest of the technologies involved.
[Planning disorders in men with schizophrenia and in men with localized frontal lobe lesions].

AIM Planning disorders have been observed in people with frontal lobe lesions for many decades. There's also growing body of evidence of frontal dysfunction in people with schizophrenia. The aim of this study is to compare the planning abilities in men with schizophrenia, men with localized frontal lobe lesions and healthy men. METHOD A sample of 90 men participated in the study. They were divided into three groups: men with schizophrenia (n = 30), men with localized frontal lobe lesions (n = 30) and healthy men (n = 30) as a control group. Planning abilities were assessed with a clinical trial based on Tower of London task. RESULTS Significant differences in ToL measures were found between controls and men with schizophrenia (Trials solved: p < 0.01; Trials solved perfectly: p < 0.05; Execution time: p < 0.001) and between controls and men with frontal lobe lesions (Trials solved: p < 0.001; Thinking time: p < 0.05; Execution time: p < 0.001). No significant differences were found between schizophrenia and frontal lobe lesion groups. CONCLUSIONS Similar deficits in planning and solving problems, which require planning, may be observed in men with schizophrenia and men with frontal lobe lesions. In both groups time spent on thinking is less effective than in healthy men. Not only quantitative, but also qualitative assessment should be carried when examining patients' performance on Tower of London task.
Generation of functional human T cell hybrids

Human T cell hybrids were generated by fusing lectin-activated normal and leukemic human T cells with an aminopterin-sensitive human T cell line. This mutant cell line, designated CEM-T15, was derived from the human T cell line CEM after chemical mutagenesis with ethane methylsulfonate and subsequent culture in medium containing 6- thioguanine. After polyethylene glycol-induced fusion, the cells were cultured in hypoxanthine-aminopterin-thymidine selective medium. More than 5 wk after fusion, evidence for successful hybridization was obtained by three independent criteria: (a) The majority of the cultures contained cells expressing the OKT3 surface antigen: this antigen is expressed on normal T cells but not on CEM-T15 cells. (b) Most of the cultures contained polyploid cells. (c) Some of the cultures provided helper activity in the generation of antibody-forming cells. This functional activity is absent from the CEM-T15 parental cell line. Evidence for functional stability of the hybrids greater than 20 wk after fusion was provided by several clones that not only continue growing exponentially but also maintain expression of OKT3 surface antigen and high levels of helper function. These T cell hybrids constructed using antigen-specific human T cells should be of considerable importance in further studies of the immunobiology of human T cells.
A navigation framework for multiple mobile robots and its application at the Expo.02 exhibition

This paper presents a navigation framework which enables multiple mobile robots to attain individual goals, coordinate their actions and work safely and reliably in a highly dynamic environment. We give an overview of the framework architecture, its layering and the subsystems reactive obstacle avoidance, local path planning, global path planning, multi-robot planning and localization. The latter receives particular attention as the localization problem is a key issue for navigation in unmodified and difficult environments. The framework permits a lightweight implementation on a fully autonomous robot. This is the result of a design effort striving for compact representations and computational efficiency. The experimental testbed was the "Robotics" pavilion at the Swiss National Exhibition Expo.02 where ten fully autonomous robots were interacting with more than half a million visitors during a five-month period on 3316 km.
A novel parallelized motion estimation algorithm for GPU based video encoding

Cloud-based video encoding has become more and more popular in Internet, especially for mobile clients, considering their limited resources. Recently, GPUs (Graphics Processor Units) make the cloud-based video encoding more economic and efficient. However, the motion estimation in inter prediction, which usually occupies about 70% encoding time in H.264/AVC, is still a big headache because of its complexity. In this paper, a novel motion estimation algorithm is proposed, which is customized for GPU-based cloud encoding, considering motion tendency. A mean subsampling template is presented for a pre-search approach to get motion tendency, which can reduce computation cost obviously with less quality loss. To improve the efficiency of the CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) thread organization for motion estimation, a section-division method is presented. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce nearly 22% computation time with less video quality loss, compared with the state-of-the-art work.
Word Class and Context Affect Alpha-Band Oscillatory Dynamics in an Older Population

Differences in the oscillatory EEG dynamics of reading open class (OC) and closed class (CC) words have previously been found (Bastiaansen et al., 2005) and are thought to reflect differences in lexical-semantic content between these word classes. In particular, the theta-band (4–7 Hz) seems to play a prominent role in lexical-semantic retrieval. We tested whether this theta effect is robust in an older population of subjects. Additionally, we examined how the context of a word can modulate the oscillatory dynamics underlying retrieval for the two different classes of words. Older participants (mean age 55) read words presented in either syntactically correct sentences or in a scrambled order (“scrambled sentence”) while their EEG was recorded. We performed time–frequency analysis to examine how power varied based on the context or class of the word. We observed larger power decreases in the alpha (8–12 Hz) band between 200–700 ms for the OC compared to CC words, but this was true only for the scrambled sentence context. We did not observe differences in theta power between these conditions. Context exerted an effect on the alpha and low beta (13–18 Hz) bands between 0 and 700 ms. These results suggest that the previously observed word class effects on theta power changes in a younger participant sample do not seem to be a robust effect in this older population. Though this is an indirect comparison between studies, it may suggest the existence of aging effects on word retrieval dynamics for different populations. Additionally, the interaction between word class and context suggests that word retrieval mechanisms interact with sentence-level comprehension mechanisms in the alpha-band.
Localization with enhanced location accuracy using RSSI in WSN

Recent advances in wireless communication, low power sensors and microcontrollers enable the deployment of large-scale wireless sensor networks. A fundamental problem in wireless sensor networks is localization i.e. determination of geographical locations of sensor nodes. This paper addresses the problem of location discovery of the nodes in wireless sensor network. We propose a localization technique by means of which a sensor node can determine its location with enhanced accuracy by listening wireless transmissions from three or more beacons. The proposed method is based on RSSI technique that does not require any additional complexity in construction of the sensor nodes. Performance of the proposed localization scheme is compared with one of the existing schemes. Qualitative analysis is done considering communication, storage and computational overhead as performance metrics, whereas quantitative analysis is done considering localization error as a performance metric. The results confirm our scheme's supremacy over the competing scheme.
C-RAM: Breaking Mobile Device Memory Barriers Using the Cloud

Mobile applications are constrained by the available memory of mobile devices. We present C-RAM, a system that uses cloud-based memory to extend the memory of mobile devices. It <italic>splits application state</italic> and its associated computation between a mobile device and a cloud node to allow applications to consume more memory, while minimizing the performance impact. C-RAM thus enables developers to realize new applications or port legacy desktop applications with a large memory footprint to mobile platforms without explicitly designing them to account for memory limitations. To handle network failures with partitioned application state, C-RAM uses a new snapshot-based fault tolerance mechanism in which changes to remote memory objects are periodically backed up to the device. After failure, or when network usage exceeds a given limit, the device rolls back execution to continue from the last snapshot. C-RAM supports local execution with an application state that exceeds the available device memory through a user-level virtual memory: objects are loaded on-demand from snapshots in flash memory. Our C-RAM prototype supports Objective-C applications on the unmodified iOS platform. With C-RAM, applications can consume 10<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="pamboris-ieq1-2513040.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> more memory than the device capacity, with a negligible impact on application performance. In some cases, C-RAM even achieves a significant speed-up in execution time (up to 9.7<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math> <alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="pamboris-ieq2-2513040.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>).