Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active Property Testing

One motivation for property testing of boolean functions is the idea that testing can provide a fast preprocessing step before learning. However, in most machine learning applications, it is not possible to request for labels of arbitrary examples constructed by an algorithm. Instead, the dominant query paradigm in applied machine learning, called active learning, is one where the algorithm may query for labels, but only on points in a given (polynomial-sized) unlabeled sample, drawn from some underlying distribution D. In this work, we bring this well-studied model to the domain of testing. We develop both general results for this active testing model as well as efficient testing algorithms for several important properties for learning, demonstrating that testing can still yield substantial benefits in this restricted setting. For example, we show that testing unions of d intervals can be done with O(1) label requests in our setting, whereas it is known to √ require Ω(d) labeled examples for learning (and Ω(√d) for passive testing [22] where the algorithm must pay for every example drawn from D). In fact, our results for testing unions of intervals also yield improvements on prior work in both the classic query model (where any point in the domain can be queried) and the passive testing model as well. For the problem of testing linear separators in Rn over the Gaussian distribution, we show that both active and passive testing can be done with O(√n) queries, substantially less than the Ω(n) needed for learning, with near-matching lower bounds. We also present a general combination result in this model for building testable properties out of others, which we then use to provide testers for a number of assumptions used in semi-supervised learning. In addition to the above results, we also develop a general notion of the testing dimension of a given property with respect to a given distribution, that we show characterizes (up to constant factors) the intrinsic number of label requests needed to test that property. We develop such notions for both the active and passive testing models. We then use these dimensions to prove a number of lower bounds, including for linear separators and the class of dictator functions.
Neutron Scattering for Moisture Detection in Foamed Asphalt

AbstractFoamed warm-mix asphalt (WMA) has been widely accepted and used in the United States and many other countries around the world. However, several key concerns about WMA technology still need to be answered, including the major issue of moisture-induced damage. Because of the reduced production temperatures and the foaming process with water, moisture may be entrapped in pavements after compaction. The trapped moisture decreases the adhesion between asphalt binder and aggregates and the cohesion among asphalt binder, resulting in stripping and other forms of pavement distress. The neutron scattering technique provides a unique tool for the determination of the microscopic structure of asphalt and for the detection of the presence of moisture and its spatial distributions in asphalt. In particular, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) in the wave vector transfer range from 0.003−0.5 A−1 is suitable to probe the spatial density fluctuations in the real space from 200−1 nm, which has a resolution se.
Functional Subsets of Murine and Human B Lymphocyte Cell Lines

Although human B-cell lines have been described since 1964 (Pulvertaft 1964, Epstein & Barr J964), having easily detectable immunoglobulin (Tanigaki et al. 1966), similar murine lines have become available only in the past 2 years. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate that murine and human B-cell lines can be categorized into groups with respect to responsiveness to B-lymphocyte mitogens and other agents, and to suggest relationships between these subsets and the stages of normal B-lymphocyte development.
The Effect of Combined Resisted Agility and Repeated Sprint Training Vs. Strength Training on Female Elite Soccer Players

Abstract Shalfawi, SAI, Haugen, T, Jakobsen, TA, Enoksen, E, and Tønnessen, E. The effect of combined resisted agility and repeated sprint training vs. strength training on female elite soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 27(11): 2966–2972, 2013—The aim of this study was to compare the effects of in-season combined resisted agility and repeated sprint training with strength training on soccer players' agility, linear single sprint speed, vertical jump, repeated sprint ability (RSA), and aerobic capacity. Twenty well-trained elite female soccer players of age ± SD 19.4 ± 4.4 years volunteered to participate in this study. The participants were randomly assigned to either the agility and repeated sprint training group or to the strength training group. All the participants were tested before and after a 10-week specific conditioning program. The pretest and posttest were conducted on 3 separate days with 1 day of low-intensity training in between. Test day 1 consisted of squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), and RSA. Test day 2 consisted of a 40-m maximal linear sprint and an agility test, whereas a Beep test was conducted on test day 3 to assess aerobic capacity. The agility and repeated sprint training implemented in this study did not have a significant effect on agility, although there was a tendency for moderate improvements from 8.23 ± 0.32 to 8.06 ± 0.21 seconds (d = 0.8). There was a significant (p < 0.01) and moderate-positive effect on Beep-test performance from level 9.6 ± 1.4 to level 10.8 ± 1.0, and only a trivial small effect on all other physical variables measured in this study. The strength training group had a positive, moderate, and significant (p < 0.01) effect on Beep-test performance from level 9.7 ± 1.3 to level 10.9 ± 1.2 (d = 1.0) and a significant (p < 0.05) but small effect (d = 0.5) on SJ performance (25.9 ± 2.7 to 27.5 ± 4.1 cm). Furthermore, the strength training implemented in this study had a trivial and negative effect on agility performance (d = −0.1). No between-group differences were observed. The outcome of this study indicates the importance of a well-planned program of conditioning that does not result in a decreased performance of the players, the great importance of strength and conditioning specialist in implementing the training program, and the importance of choosing the time of the year to implement such conditioning training programs. However, the fact that the present training program did not cause any decline in performance indicates that it is useful in maintaining the soccer players' physical performance during the competition period.
Intrinsic differences in brain and spinal cord mitochondria: Implication for therapeutic interventions

It is well known that regions of the CNS differentially respond to insults. After brain injury, cyclosporine A reduces damage but is ineffective following spinal cord injury. We address this disparity by assessing several parameters of mitochondrial physiology in the normal neocortex and spinal cord. In situ measurements of O 2– · production, lipid peroxidation, and mitochondrial DNA oxidation revealed significantly higher levels in spinal cord vs. neocortical neurons. Real‐time PCR demonstrated differences in mitochondrial transcripts coupled with decreases in complex I enzyme activity and respiration in spinal cord mitochondria. The threshold for calcium‐induced mitochondrial permeability transition was substantially reduced in spinal cord vs. neocortex and modulated by lipid peroxidation. These intrinsic differences may provide a pivotal target for strategies to ameliorate neuronal damage following injury, and this imbalance in oxidative stress may contribute to the susceptibility of spinal cord motor neurons in neuropathologies such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J. Comp. Neurol. 474:524–534, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A neural mechanism of speed-accuracy tradeoff in macaque area LIP

Decision making often involves a tradeoff between speed and accuracy. Previous studies indicate that neural activity in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) represents the gradual accumulation of evidence toward a threshold level, or evidence bound, which terminates the decision process. The level of this bound is hypothesized to mediate the speed-accuracy tradeoff. To test this, we recorded from LIP while monkeys performed a motion discrimination task in two speed-accuracy regimes. Surprisingly, the terminating threshold levels of neural activity were similar in both regimes. However, neurons recorded in the faster regime exhibited stronger evidence-independent activation from the beginning of decision formation, effectively reducing the evidence-dependent neural modulation needed for choice commitment. Our results suggest that control of speed vs accuracy may be exerted through changes in decision-related neural activity itself rather than through changes in the threshold applied to such neural activity to terminate a decision. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.02260. 001
Exploring the Legacies of Filmed Patient Narratives

We trace the legacies of filmed patient narratives that were edited and screened to encourage engagement with a participatory quality improvement project in an acute hospital setting in England. Using Gabriel’s theory of “narrative contract,” we examine the initial success of the films in establishing common grounds for participatory project and later, and more varied, interpretations of the films. Over time, the films were interpreted by staff as either useful sources of learning by critical reflection, dubious (invalid or unreliable) representations of patient experience, or as “closed” items available as auditable evidence of completed quality improvement work. We find these interpretations of the films to be shaped by the effect of social distance, the differential outcomes of project work, and changing organizational agendas. We consider the wider conditions of patient narrative as a form of quality improvement knowledge with immediate potency and fragile or fluid legitimacy over time.
Embedded unit selection text-to-speech synthesis for mobile devices

Nowadays, unit selection based text-to-speech technology is the mainstream approach for near natural speech synthesis systems. However, this is achieved at the expense of raised requirements in terms of computational resources. This work describes design and implementation approaches for the efficient integration of this technology in computational environments with limited resources, such as mobile devices, with no considerable speech quality degradation. In particular, the issues of database reduction, acoustic inventory compression and runtime computational load minimization are mainly addressed in this paper. Both objective and subjective assessments confirm the effectiveness of these approaches in terms of constructing a general purpose embedded unit selection TTS system and reducing the computational requirements while maintaining high speech quality.
Effects of Desflurane on Spinal Somatosensory-Evoked Potentials and Conductive Spinal Cord Evoked Potential

Study Design. Spinal somatosensory-evoked potential (interspinous-space-recorded evoked potentials after peripheral nerve or dermatomal stimulation) and conductive spinal cord evoked potential (interspinous-space-recorded evoked potentials after spinal cord stimulation) were analyzed in rats under different concentrations of the anesthetic desflurane. Objectives. To investigate and compare the effects of a new volatile anesthetic, desflurane, on the common intraoperative neuromonitoring models. Summary of Background Data. Intraoperative evoked potentials are sensitive to most anesthetics. Interpretation of the data becomes complicated because of a suppression effect caused by the anesthesia. Desflurane has become a valuable anesthetic in neurosurgery because of its pharmacokinetic advantages. Methods. Fifteen rats were placed under general anesthesia, and vital signs were closely monitored. Needle recording electrodes were placed stereotactically into the thoracolumbar interspinous ligament; dermatomal somatosensory-evoked potential by L5 dermatome, mixed-nerve somatosensory-evoked potential by sciatic nerve stimulation, and spinal cord evoked potential of the same recording electrodes elicited by C2–C3 interspinous stimulation were obtained. The effects of desflurane were examined at end-tidal concentrations of 6% (1.05 minimal alveolar concentration), 9% (1.57 minimal alveolar concentration), and 12% (2.10 minimal alveolar concentration). Results. Amplitude decreased and latency was delayed in all three kinds of potentials, and the more so with higher concentrations. Comparing 9% with 6% desflurane, the amplitude in dermatomal somatosensory-evoked potential, mixed-nerve somatosensory-evoked potential, and spinal cord evoked potential decreased to 84.3%, 88.9%, and 70.8%, respectively, values with no statistically significant difference. However, at 12%, again compared with 6%, the amplitude decreased further to 64.4%, 70.3%, 41.8%, respectively; mixed-nerve somatosensory-evoked potential and dermatomal somatosensory-evoked potential were significantly more preserved than spinal cord evoked potential (P = 0.04). Conclusions. The concentration of desflurane alters the amplitude of somatosensory-evoked potential and spinal cord evoked potential, and, to a lesser degree, delays the latency; spinal cord evoked potential is more liable to be suppressed than somatosensory-evoked potential. The dose-dependent suppression effect on amplitude should be considered when interpreting changes during surgery. Furthermore, the potential benefit of somatosensory-evoked potential elicited by direct major nerve stimulation should be considered because of its large amplitude and higher resistance, even with a greater concentration of volatile anesthetics.
Web services: a process algebra approach

It is now well-admitted that formal methods are helpful for many issues raised in the Web service area. In this paper we present a framework for the design and the verification of WSs using process algebras and their tools. We define a two-way mapping between abstract specifications written using these calculi and executable Web services written in BPEL4WS; the translation includes also compensation, event, and fault handlers. The following choices are available: design and verification in BPEL4WS, using process algebra tools, or design and verification in process algebra and automatically obtaining the corresponding BPEL4WS code. The approaches can be combined. Process algebras are not useful only for temporal logic verification: we remark the use of simulation/bisimulation for verification, for the hierarchical refinement design method, for the service redundancy analysis in a community, and for replacing a service with another one in a composition.
A screening tool for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies: Identifying the most stable protein and its best formulation based on thioflavin T binding

The lack of a fast selection method to identify the most stable protein is one of the major challenges for developing successful therapeutic protein formulations more rapidly. The swift and accurate detection of small amounts of aggregates is another problem since aggregates may trigger an immunological response and the aggregation decreases the biological activity of the antibody. Here we present an alternative method for initial screening of the aggregation propensity of proteins, using monoclonal antibodies (mAb) as an example and thioflavin T (ThT) binding. The major advantage of ThT binding is the short duration of testing compared with size‐exclusion chromatography (SEC) measurements that can take 6 months or more even under accelerated conditions. The tendency to aggregate of each therapeutic human mAb probed with the ThT assay, together with SEC, is employed to formulate the ranking of mAb aggregation. ThT binding can determine the propensity of proteins to aggregate in a few days, illustrating that ThT binding would be a valuable screening tool.
Prevalence of Pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica Strains in Pigs in the United States

ABSTRACT Yersinia enterocolitica is considered an important food-borne pathogen impacting the pork production and processing industry in the United States. Since this bacterium is a commensal of swine, the primary goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica in pigs in the United Sates using feces as the sample source. A total of 2,793 fecal samples were tested for its presence in swine. Fecal samples were collected from late finisher pigs from 77 production sites in the 15 eastern and midwestern pork-producing states over a period of 27 weeks (6 September 2000 to 20 March 2001). The prevalence of ail-positive Y. enterocolitica was determined in samples using both a fluorogenic 5′ nuclease PCR assay and a culture method. The mean prevalence was 13.10% (366 of 2,793 fecal samples tested) when both PCR- and culture-positive results were combined. Forty-one of 77 premises (53.25%) contained at least one fecal sample positive for the ail sequence. The PCR assay indicated a contamination rate of 12.35% (345/2,793) compared to 4.08% (114/2,793) by the culture method. Of the 345 PCR-positive samples, 252 were culture negative, while of the 114 culture-positive samples, 21 were PCR negative. Among 77 premises, the PCR assay revealed a significantly (P < 0.05) higher percentage (46.75%, n = 36 sites) of samples positive for the pathogen (ail sequence) than the culture method (22.08%, n = 17 sites). Thus, higher sensitivity, with respect to number of samples and sites identified as positive for the PCR method compared with the culture method for detecting pathogenic Y. enterocolitica, was demonstrated in this study. The results support the hypothesis that swine are a reservoir for Y. enterocolitica strains potentially pathogenic for humans.
Deep web search: an overview and roadmap

We review the state-of-the-art in deep web search and propose a novel classification scheme to better compare deep web search systems. The current binary classification (surfacing versus virtual integration) hides a number of implicit decisions that must be made by a developer. We make these decisions explicit by distinguishing 7 system aspects that describe a system in terms of its functionality (what it can, and what it cannot do) and in terms of its solution to a specific problem. We then motivate the need for a search system which has a single-field free-text query interface that supports real-time structured search over multiple sources. To this end, we discuss two possible federated architectures and state the scientific challenges. Finally, we present the findings of our ongoing project and briefly outline related work to free-text interfaces over structured data.
The Research of Motion Detection and Shadow Elimination in Video Surveillance

This paper studies the moving objects detect and shadow eliminate in video surveillance. Completed the background generated on the video image by study the mixed Gaussian background model, by transforming the image to hsv color space for processing, which achieve the elimination of shadows. The experimental results show the approach this paper use is effectively on the background generated and shadow remove.
Mitigating soft error failures for multimedia applications by selective data protection

With advances in process technology, soft errors(SE)are becoming an increasingly critical design concern. Due to their large area and high density, caches are worst hit by soft errors. Although Error Correction Code based mechanisms protect the data in caches, they have high performance and power overheads. Since multimedia applications are increasingly being used in mission-critical embedded systems where both reliability and energy are a major concern, there is a de? nite need to improve reliability in embedded systems, without too much energy overhead. We observe that while a soft error in multimedia data may only result in a minor loss in QoS, a soft error in avariable that controls the execution ? ow of the program may be fatal. Consequently, we propose to partition the data space into failure critical and failure non-critical data, and provide a high-degree of soft error protection only to the failure critical data in Horizontally Partitioned Caches. Experimental results demonstrate that our selective data protection can achieve the failure rate close to that of a soft error protected cache system, while retaining the performance and energy consumption similar to those of a traditional cache system, with some degradation in QoS. For example, for conventional con? guration as in IntelXScale, our approach achieves the same failure rate, while improving performance by 28% and reducing energy consumption by 29%in comparison with a soft error protected cache.
Comparison of Sequencing Utility Programs

High throughput sequencing (HTS) has resulted in extreme growth rates of sequencing data. At our lab, we generate terabytes of data every day. It is usually seen as required for data output to be "cleaned" and processed in various ways prior to use for common tasks such as variant calling, expression quantification and assembly. Two common tasks associated with HTS are adapter trimming and paired-end joining. I have developed two tools at Expression Analysis, Inc. to address these common tasks. The names of these programs are fastq-mcf and fastq-join. I compared the performance of these tools to similar open-source utilities, both in terms of resource efficiency, and effectiveness.
Reconstructing approximate phylogenetic trees from quartet samples

The reconstruction of evolutionary trees (also known as phylogenies) is central to many problems in Biology. Accurate phylogenetic reconstruction methods are currently limited to a maximum of few dozens of species. Therefore, in order to construct a tree over larger sets of species, a method capable of inferring accurately trees over small, overlapping sets, and subsequently merging these sets into a tree over the complete set, is required. A quartet tree is the smallest informative piece of information and quartet based methods are based on combining quartet trees into a big tree. However, even this case is NP-hard, and even when the set of quartet trees is compatible (agree on a certain tree). The general problem of approximating quartets, or maximum quartet consistency (MQC), even for compatible inputs, is open for nearly twenty years. Despite its importance, the only rigorous results for approximating quartets are the naive 1/3 approximation that applies to the general case and a PTAS when the input is the complete set of all (n4) possible quartets. Even when it is possible to determine the correct quartet induced by every four taxa, the time needed to generate the complete set of all quartets may be impractical. A faster approach is to sample at random just m ≪ (n4) quartets, and provide this sample as an input. In this work we present the first approximation algorithm whose guaranteed approximation is strictly better than 1/3 when the input is any random sample of m compatible quartets. The approximation ratio we obtain is 0.425 for general m, and 0.468 when m = w(n2). An important ingredient in our algorithm involves solving a weighted Max-Cut in a certain graph induced by the set of input quartets. We also show an extension of the PTAS algorithm to handle dense, rather than complete, inputs.
A NEW HMM TRAINING APPROACH FOR SPEECH RECOGNITION

This paper proposed a maximum model distance (MMD) approach for HMM-based speech recognition. MMD uses the whole training set to estimate the parameters of each HMM while the traditional maximum likelihood (ML) uses only those data labeled for the model. Theoretical and practical issues concerning this approach in speech recognition are investigated. Both speakerdependent and multi-speaker experiments on confusable Chinese An-set showed that significant error reduction can be achieved through the proposed approach. In addition, the relationship between MMD and corrective training [5] was discussed and it is proved that the corrective training is a special case of MMD approach.