Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autonomous airborne navigation in unknown terrain environments

We address the issue of autonomous navigation, that is, the ability for a navigation system to provide information about the states of a vehicle without the need for a priori infrastructure such as GPS, beacons, or a map. The algorithm is known as simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and it is a terrain aided navigation system (TANS) which has the capability for online map building, and simultaneously utilising the generated map to bound the errors in the navigation solution. Since the algorithm does not require any a priori terrain information or initial knowledge of the vehicle location, it presents a powerful navigation augmentation system or more importantly, it can be implemented as an independent navigation system. Results are first provided using computer simulation which analyses the effect of the spatial density of landmarks as well as the quality of observation and inertial navigation data, and then finally the real time implementation of the algorithm on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Quantum Interference Crossover-Based Clonal Selection Algorithm and Its Application to Traveling Salesman Problem

Clonal Selection Algorithm (CSA), based on the clonal selection theory proposed by Burnet, has gained much attention and wide applications during the last decade. However, the proliferation process in the case of immune cells is asexual. That is, there is no information exchange during different immune cells. As a result the traditional CSA is often not satisfactory and is easy to be trapped in local optima so as to be premature convergence. To solve such a problem, inspired by the quantum interference mechanics, an improved quantum crossover operator is introduced and embedded in the traditional CSA. Simulation results based on the traveling salesman problems (TSP) have demonstrated the effectiveness of the quantum crossover-based Clonal Selection Algorithm.
Singing Voice Enhancement in Monaural Music Signals Based on Two-stage Harmonic/Percussive Sound Separation on Multiple Resolution Spectrograms

We propose a novel singing voice enhancement technique for monaural music audio signals, which is a quite challenging problem. Many singing voice enhancement techniques have been proposed recently. However, our approach is based on a quite different idea from these existing methods. We focused on the fluctuation of a singing voice and considered to detect it by exploiting two differently resolved spectrograms, one has rich temporal resolution and poor frequency resolution, while the other has rich frequency resolution and poor temporal resolution. On such two spectrograms, the shapes of fluctuating components are quite different. Based on this idea, we propose a singing voice enhancement technique that we call two-stage harmonic/percussive sound separation (HPSS). In this paper, we describe the details of two-stage HPSS and evaluate the performance of the method. The experimental results show that SDR, a commonly-used criterion on the task, was improved by around 4 dB, which is a considerably higher level than existing methods. In addition, we also evaluated the performance of the method as a preprocessing for melody estimation in music. The experimental results show that our singing voice enhancement technique considerably improved the performance of a simple pitch estimation technique. These results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.
TOM40 Mediates Mitochondrial Dysfunction Induced by α-Synuclein Accumulation in Parkinson’s Disease

Alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) accumulation/aggregation and mitochondrial dysfunction play prominent roles in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease. We have previously shown that postmortem human dopaminergic neurons from PD brains accumulate high levels of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions. We now addressed the question, whether alterations in a component of the mitochondrial import machinery -TOM40- might contribute to the mitochondrial dysfunction and damage in PD. For this purpose, we studied levels of TOM40, mtDNA deletions, oxidative damage, energy production, and complexes of the respiratory chain in brain homogenates as well as in single neurons, using laser-capture-microdissection in transgenic mice overexpressing human wildtype α-Syn. Additionally, we used lentivirus-mediated stereotactic delivery of a component of this import machinery into mouse brain as a novel therapeutic strategy. We report here that TOM40 is significantly reduced in the brain of PD patients and in α-Syn transgenic mice. TOM40 deficits were associated with increased mtDNA deletions and oxidative DNA damage, and with decreased energy production and altered levels of complex I proteins in α-Syn transgenic mice. Lentiviral-mediated overexpression of Tom40 in α-Syn-transgenic mice brains ameliorated energy deficits as well as oxidative burden. Our results suggest that alterations in the mitochondrial protein transport machinery might contribute to mitochondrial impairment in α-Synucleinopathies.
HIGH-DOSE BUSULFAN AND MELPHALAN AS CONDITIONING REGIMEN FOR AUTOLOGOUS PERIPHERAL BLOOD PROGENITOR CELL TRANSPLANTATION IN HIGH-RISK EWING SARCOMA PATIENTS: A Long-Term Follow-Up Single-Center Study

The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the outcome and identify risk factors associated to progression-free survival (PFS) in 47 children with high-risk Ewing sarcoma who underwent autologous peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation in the authors’ institution between 1995 and 2009. The conditioning regimen used in all patients consisted of high dose of busulfan and melphalan. Median age was 13 years (range: 4–21 years). Forty-three percent of patients had metastases at diagnosis. The probability of transplant-related mortality (TRM) was 6% ± 3%. Recurrence/progressive disease was observed in 17 patients. The probability of recurrence/progression was 39% ± 7%. With a median follow-up of 92 months (range: 6–168 months), the PFS was 56% ± 4% for the whole group. In multivariate analysis, localized disease at diagnosis and obtaining complete remission (CR) by 3 months after transplantation were variables associated to better outcomes. The probability of PFS was 78% ± 8% and 27% ± 10% for patients with localized and metastatic disease at diagnosis, respectively (P = .0001). This retrospective study shows a high long-term survival using high dose of busulfan and melphalan as conditioning regimen in children with high-risk Ewing tumors. Patients with localized disease at diagnosis and those with good response to treatment before or after transplant would benefit most.
A Novel Representation of Neural Networks

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have become very popular for prediction in many areas. Their strength is in representation with a high number of parameters that are commonly learned via gradient descent or similar optimization methods. However, the representation is non-standardized, and the gradient calculation methods are often performed using component-based approaches that break parameters down into scalar units, instead of considering the parameters as whole entities. In this work, these problems are addressed. Standard notation is used to represent DNNs in a compact framework. Gradients of DNN loss functions are calculated directly over the inner product space on which the parameters are defined. This framework is general and is applied to two common network types: the Multilayer Perceptron and the Deep Autoencoder.
Brainstem encoding of speech and musical stimuli in congenital amusia: evidence from Cantonese speakers

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical processing that also impacts subtle aspects of speech processing. It remains debated at what stage(s) of auditory processing deficits in amusia arise. In this study, we investigated whether amusia originates from impaired subcortical encoding of speech (in quiet and noise) and musical sounds in the brainstem. Fourteen Cantonese-speaking amusics and 14 matched controls passively listened to six Cantonese lexical tones in quiet, two Cantonese tones in noise (signal-to-noise ratios at 0 and 20 dB), and two cello tones in quiet while their frequency-following responses (FFRs) to these tones were recorded. All participants also completed a behavioral lexical tone identification task. The results indicated normal brainstem encoding of pitch in speech (in quiet and noise) and musical stimuli in amusics relative to controls, as measured by FFR pitch strength, pitch error, and stimulus-to-response correlation. There was also no group difference in neural conduction time or FFR amplitudes. Both groups demonstrated better FFRs to speech (in quiet and noise) than to musical stimuli. However, a significant group difference was observed for tone identification, with amusics showing significantly lower accuracy than controls. Analysis of the tone confusion matrices suggested that amusics were more likely than controls to confuse between tones that shared similar acoustic features. Interestingly, this deficit in lexical tone identification was not coupled with brainstem abnormality for either speech or musical stimuli. Together, our results suggest that the amusic brainstem is not functioning abnormally, although higher-order linguistic pitch processing is impaired in amusia. This finding has significant implications for theories of central auditory processing, requiring further investigations into how different stages of auditory processing interact in the human brain.
Matched-Filter-based Spectrum Sensing for Secure Cognitive Radio Network Communications

increasing demand for wireless communication introduces efficient spectrum utilization challenge. To address this challenge, Cognitive Radio (CR) has emerged as the key technology, which enables opportunistic access to the spectrum. However, security is a very important issue but not well addressed in CR networks. In this paper, we focus on security problems arising from Primary User Emulation (PUE) attacks in CR networks where the selfish or malicious node emulates primary user's signals to prevent other secondary users from accessing that frequency band. Our system is based on the deployment of multiple stages of "helper" nodes, helper nodes in the first stage are stationary, close to primary user and responsible for detecting and authenticating primary user's signal based on matched filter spectrum-sensing technique. However, helper nodes in the next stages are placed within the primary user's coverage area and serve as bridges for forwarding the spectrum status information to enable secondary users to verify the cryptographic signature carried by the helper nodes' signals. Moreover, the effect of PUE attack on the performance of matched-filter-based spectrum-sensing technique is illustrated.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-responsive Transcription Factor ATF6α Directs Recruitment of the Mediator of RNA Polymerase II Transcription and Multiple Histone Acetyltransferase Complexes*♦

Background: Transcription factor ATF6α is a master regulator of genes induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress. Results: ATF6α can recruit Mediator and histone acetyltransferase complexes to promoter DNA via interactions with overlapping sites in the activation domain of ATF6α. Conclusion: ATF6α sequences essential for gene activation recruit Mediator and histone acetyltransferases. Significance: Learning how coregulators communicate with DNA binding transcription factors is important for understanding gene regulation. The basic leucine zipper transcription factor ATF6α functions as a master regulator of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response genes. Previous studies have established that, in response to ER stress, ATF6α translocates to the nucleus and activates transcription of ER stress response genes upon binding sequence specifically to ER stress response enhancer elements in their promoters. In this study, we investigate the biochemical mechanism by which ATF6α activates transcription. By exploiting a combination of biochemical and multidimensional protein identification technology-based mass spectrometry approaches, we have obtained evidence that ATF6α functions at least in part by recruiting to the ER stress response enhancer elements of ER stress response genes a collection of RNA polymerase II coregulatory complexes, including the Mediator and multiple histone acetyltransferase complexes, among which are the Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) and Ada-Two-A-containing (ATAC) complexes. Our findings shed new light on the mechanism of action of ATF6α, and they outline a straightforward strategy for applying multidimensional protein identification technology mass spectrometry to determine which RNA polymerase II transcription factors and coregulators are recruited to promoters and other regulatory elements to control transcription.
Unsupervised thresholds for shape matching

Shape recognition systems usually order a fixed number of best matches to each query, but do not address or answer the two following questions: Is a query shape in a given database? How can we be sure that a match is correct? This communication deals with these two key points. A database being given, with each shape S and each distance /spl delta/, we associate its number of false alarms NFA(S, /spl delta/), namely the expectation of the number of shapes at distance /spl delta/ in the database. Assume that NFA(S, /spl delta/) is very small with respect to 1, and that a shape S' is found at distance /spl delta/ from S in the database. This match could not occur just by chance and is therefore a meaningful detection. Its explanation is usually the common origin of both shapes. Experimental evidence will show that NFA(S, /spl delta/) can be predicted accurately.
A new source separation approach based on time-frequency analysis for instantaneous mixtures

Frédéric ABRARD Laboratoire d’Acoustique, de Métrologie et d’Instrumentation Université Paul Sabatier 118 route de Narbonne 31062 Toulouse cedex FRANCE abrard@cict.fr Yannick DEVILLE Laboratoire d’Acoustique, de Métrologie et d’Instrumentation Université Paul Sabatier 118 route de Narbonne 31062 Toulouse cedex FRANCE ydeville@cict.fr Paul WHITE Signal Processing and Control Group, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research University of Southampton Highfield SO17 1BJ ENGLAND prw@isvr.soton. ac.uk
Trichobilharzia regenti n. sp. (Schistosomatidae, Bilharziellinae), a new nasal schistosome from Europe.

Members of the genus Trichobilharzia are parasitic in visceral or nasal body parts of their avian hosts. The examination of water snails in South Bohemia revealed a schistosome infection in Radix peregra snails. The experimental infection of ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos, Cairina moschata) confirmed that a new Trichobilharzia species--T. regenti n. sp. --was found. The adults, eggs and larvae (miracidia and cercariae) of the species were morphologically characterized. The adult occupy the nasal blood vessels where they lay the eggs; the miracidia hatch from the eggs directly in the tissue and leave the host during drinking/feeding of the infected birds.
Adaptive impedance control for natural human-robot collaboration

In this paper, adaptive impedance control is developed for natural human-robot collaboration. In order to make the robot collaborate with its human partner efficiently, neural networks are employed to estimate the unknown desired trajectory of the human partner and zero force tracking is achieved under impedance control. The control performance of the collaboration system are discussed through the rigorous analysis. The validity of the proposed method is verified through simulation studies.
Uteroplacental Blood Flow, Cardiac Function, and Pregnancy Outcome in Women With Congenital Heart Disease

Background— Pregnant women with congenital heart disease (CHD) are susceptible to cardiovascular, obstetric, and offspring complications. In women with CHD, cardiac dysfunction may compromise uteroplacental flow and contribute to the increased incidence of obstetric and offspring events. Methods and Results— We performed a prospective multicenter cohort study of pregnant women with CHD and healthy pregnant women. We compared clinical, laboratory, echocardiographic, and uteroplacental Doppler flow (UDF) parameters at 20 and 32 weeks gestation, and pregnancy outcome. We related cardiovascular parameters to UDF parameters and pregnancy outcome in women with CHD. We included 209 women with CHD and 70 healthy women. Cardiovascular parameters (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, left and right ventricular function) differed between both groups. UDF parameters were impaired in CHD women (umbilical artery pulsatility and resistance index at 32 weeks in CHD versus healthy women, P=0.0085 and P=0.017). The following cardiovascular parameters prepregnancy and at 20 weeks gestation were associated with UDF (umbilical artery resistance index) at 32 weeks at multivariable analysis: (1) right ventricular function (tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion) (P=0.002), (2) high N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (P=0.085), (3) systemic (P=0.001), and (4) pulmonary (P=0.045) atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Women with CHD had more obstetric (58.9% versus 32.9%, P<0.0001) and offspring events (35.4% versus 18.6%, P=0.008) than healthy women. Impaired UDF was associated with adverse obstetric and offspring outcome. Conclusions— UDF parameters are abnormal in pregnant women with CHD. Cardiovascular function is associated with an abnormal pattern of UDF. Compromised UDF may be a key factor in the high incidence of offspring and obstetric complications in this population.
Application of Long Sequence Reads To Improve Genomes for Clostridium thermocellum AD2, Clostridium thermocellum LQRI, and Pelosinus fermentans R7

ABSTRACT We and others have shown the utility of long sequence reads to improve genome assembly quality. In this study, we generated PacBio DNA sequence data to improve the assemblies of draft genomes for Clostridium thermocellum AD2, Clostridium thermocellum LQRI, and Pelosinus fermentans R7.
Product Information for Sustainable Consumption considering the EUP Directive

Transferring product environmental information to consumer to promote eco-product in the market and to promote sustainable consumption is considered as an important challenge especially according to the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) and the eco-design directive for Energy Using Products (EUP). In this paper the three core areas of consumer analysis on eco-products are identified. In order to increase consumers’ attention and cognition on eco-products, the conceptual methods named Eco Means End Chain (MEC) and Environmental Communication Checklist are proposed. The Eco-MEC helps to show differential and obvious benefits to consumers with environmental aspects of a product. It supports especially ecodesigners and marketers to transfer the environmental information to consumers so that it contributes to launch eco-products successfully on the market. On the other hand, the Environmental Communication Checklist helps producers and marketers to check and to prognose the environmental information whether it is payable and profitable transmission or not. Finally, the methods are applied to the environmental information of several products and are turned out to be helpful for eco-product designers and marketers.
Compiler correctness for parallel languages

We present a paradigm for proving the correctness of compilers for languages with parallelism The sou~ce language is given a denotational semantics as a compositional translation to a higher-order process calculus. The target language is also given a denotational semantics as a compositional translation to the same process calculus. We show the compiler is correct in that it preserves denotation up to bisimulation. The target language is also given an operational semantics, and this operational semantics is shown correct in the sense that it is branching-bisimilar to the denotational semantics of the target language. Together, these results show that for any program, the operational semantics of the target code is branching-bisimilar to the semantics of the source code.
Improved pairwise alignments of proteins in the Twilight Zone using local structure predictions

MOTIVATION In recent years, advances have been made in the ability of computational methods to discriminate between homologous and non-homologous proteins in the 'twilight zone' of sequence similarity, where the percent sequence identity is a poor indicator of homology. To make these predictions more valuable to the protein modeler, they must be accompanied by accurate alignments. Pairwise sequence alignments are inferences of orthologous relationships between sequence positions. Evolutionary distance is traditionally modeled using global amino acid substitution matrices. But real differences in the likelihood of substitutions may exist for different structural contexts within proteins, since structural context contributes to the selective pressure. RESULTS HMMSUM (HMMSTR-based substitution matrices) is a new model for structural context-based amino acid substitution probabilities consisting of a set of 281 matrices, each for a different sequence-structure context. HMMSUM does not require the structure of the protein to be known. Instead, predictions of local structure are made using HMMSTR, a hidden Markov model for local structure. Alignments using the HMMSUM matrices compare favorably to alignments carried out using the BLOSUM matrices or structure-based substitution matrices SDM and HSDM when validated against remote homolog alignments from BAliBASE. HMMSUM has been implemented using local Dynamic Programming and with the Bayesian Adaptive alignment method.
Miminum Entropy Set Cover Problem for Lossy Data Compression

Classical minimum entropy set cover problem relies on the finding the most likely assignment between the set of observations and the given set of their types. The solution is described by such partition of data space which minimizes the entropy of the distribution of types. The problem finds a natural application in the machine learning, clustering and data classification. In this paper we show that it is closely related to lossy data compression. In particular, we prove that the minimum entropy set cover is a special case of specific generalized entropy coding. We establish the relation between the solution of these two problems. Moreover, we propose a simple greedy algorithm which approximates the entropy of our lossy data compression within an additive term of log2 e. The proof is based on the recent result obtained for minimum entropy set cover and our partition reduction theorem for lossy data compression.
White Paper: The Universal Recommender A Recommender System for Semantic Networks

We describe the Universal Recommender, a recommender system for semantic datasets that generalizes domain-specic recommenders such as content-based, collaborative, social, bibliographic, lexicographic, hybrid and other recommenders. In contrast to existing recommender systems, the Universal Recommender applies to any dataset that allows a semantic representation. We describe the scalable three-stage architecture of the Universal Recommender and its application to Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). To achieve good recommendation accuracy, several novel machine learning and optimization problems are identied. We nally give a brief argument supporting the need for machine learning recommenders.