Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiative Muon Capture on Hydrogen and the Induced Pseudoscalar Coupling.

Next to the hydrogen atom, the µ − p system is the most fundamental lepton-hadron system; therefore it can be used to test and extend our basic knowledge of the weak semi-leptonic interaction between leptons and quarks. Radiative muon capture (RMC) is much more sensitive than ordinary muon capture (OMC) to the induced pseudoscalar coupling constant of the weak semi-leptonic current because of the much larger range of momentum transfers which can occur in RMC. A status report on TRIUMF E452, Radiative Muon Capture on Hydrogen, which is anticipating a 10% measurement of this coupling constant, is presented.
Distantly supervised Web relation extraction for knowledge base population

Extracting information from Web pages for populating large, cross-domain knowledge bases requires methods which are suitable across domains, do not require manual effort to adapt to new domains, are able to deal with noise, and integrate information extracted from different Web pages. Recent approaches have used existing knowledge bases to learn to extract information with promising results, one of those approaches being distant supervision. Distant supervision is an unsupervised method which uses background information from the Linking Open Data cloud to automatically label sentences with relations to create training data for relation classifiers. In this paper we propose the use of distant supervision for relation extraction from the Web. Although the method is promising, existing approaches are still not suitable for Web extraction as they suffer from three main issues: data sparsity, noise and lexical ambiguity. Our approach reduces the impact of data sparsity by making entity recognition tools more robust across domains and extracting relations across sentence boundaries using unsupervised co- reference resolution methods. We reduce the noise caused by lexical ambiguity by employing statistical methods to strategically select training data. To combine information extracted from multiple sources for populating knowledge bases we present and evaluate several information integration strategies and show that those benefit immensely from additional relation mentions extracted using co-reference resolution, increasing precision by 8%. We further show that strategically selecting training data can increase precision by a further 3%.
Low power design of an acoustic echo canceller Gmdf/spl alpha/ algorithm on dedicated VLSI architectures

The acoustic echo cancellation with adaptive filters is a computationally intensive problem that needs real time cost effective solutions for embedded systems. Low power optimized signal processing architectures are likely to provide such solutions in the future. In this paper, we present different real-time optimized architectures of the popular Gmdf/spl alpha/ algorithm, obtained by an HLS CAD tool providing trade-off-between area and power dissipation.
Prediction of Asthma Exacerbations in Children by Innovative Exhaled Inflammatory Markers: Results of a Longitudinal Study

Background In asthma management guidelines the primary goal of treatment is asthma control. To date, asthma control, guided by symptoms and lung function, is not optimal in many children and adults. Direct monitoring of airway inflammation in exhaled breath may improve asthma control and reduce the number of exacerbations. Aim 1) To study the use of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and inflammatory markers in exhaled breath condensate (EBC), in the prediction of asthma exacerbations in a pediatric population. 2) To study the predictive power of these exhaled inflammatory markers combined with clinical parameters. Methods 96 asthmatic children were included in this one-year prospective observational study, with clinical visits every 2 months. Between visits, daily symptom scores and lung function were recorded using a home monitor. During clinical visits, asthma control and FeNO were assessed. Furthermore, lung function measurements were performed and EBC was collected. Statistical analysis was performed using a test dataset and validation dataset for 1) conditionally specified models, receiver operating characteristic-curves (ROC-curves); 2) k-nearest neighbors algorithm. Results Three conditionally specified predictive models were constructed. Model 1 included inflammatory markers in EBC alone, model 2 included FeNO plus clinical characteristics and the ACQ score, and model 3 included all the predictors used in model 1 and 2. The area under the ROC-curves was estimated as 47%, 54% and 59% for models 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The k-nearest neighbors predictive algorithm, using the information of all the variables in model 3, produced correct predictions for 52% of the exacerbations in the validation dataset. Conclusion The predictive power of FeNO and inflammatory markers in EBC for prediction of an asthma exacerbation was low, even when combined with clinical characteristics and symptoms. Qualitative improvement of the chemical analysis of EBC may lead to a better non-invasive prediction of asthma exacerbations.
A Spatial Clustering Algorithm Based on Spatial Topological Relations for GML Data

GML is an application of XML in geographic information system, used to store spatial data. In this paper, algorithm SCTR-GML is proposed for spatial clustering in GML data. Compared with other spatial clustering algorithms, SCTR-GML clusters spatial objects based on the spatial topological relations, while the reported algorithms like DBSCAN just cluster the spatial objects that are near to each other into one cluster. The algorithm SCTR-GML firstly creates indexes for the spatial objects described by GML, computes all the topological relations including contain, intersect, adjacent, and also proposes a novel method to measure the similarity between spatial objects which needs the interaction of users. The objects in one cluster may not be near to each other, but they have similarity in the spatial topological relations. Encouraging simulation results are observed and reported. The experiment shows that SCTR-GML is effective and efficient.
A Systematic Literature Review of Variability Management in Service-Oriented Products and Product Lines

Variability Management (VM) is one of the key activities of software product line engineering which helps mass customization by enhancing reuse of common parts of the software introducing proactive and planned reuse. In Service-Oriented Product Lines (SOPLs) which are built based on services as their main building blocks, variability management is reported by many research works; however, there has been no systematic effort to study how the reported VM approaches are applied to the SOPLs. The objective of this research is to review the state-of-the-art in VM in SOPLs to provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the issues involved in managing variability in SOPLs. We carried out a systematic literature review of the approaches in VM in SOPLs reported until the end of 2012. A set of 13 research questions were defined, for which, 44 primary papers were selected and studied. We found that particular aspects regarding variability management in SOPLs are not covered by the existing SPL approaches, or they are only mentioned in the literature just by giving brief overviews. The reported approaches rarely cover the three aspects involved in VM in SOPLs completely and it can generally be concluded that further investigations are needed in this context to properly deal with VM in SOPLs, with regard to the issues that emerge from the nature of service-orientation.
Superlinear speedup in Windows Azure cloud

Azure cloud offers Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to its customers. It uses Hyper-V hypervisor to manage instances of virtual machines. Several papers report superlinear speedup for execution of dense matrix-matrix multiplication algorithm comparing the parallel and sequential executions. The existence of a superlinear speedup is also confirmed in some cases of virtualized and cloud environments. In this paper we realized a series of experiments to find out if the superlinear speedup is also possible on the Azure cloud for executing the dense matrix-matrix multiplication algorithm using the same hardware infrastructure. In addition to the hypothesis about existence of a superlinear speedup we will theoretically explain the experimental results and determine the regions and particular matrix sizes where it may occur.
Random colorings of a cayley tree

This volume is a collection of survey papers in combinatorics that have grown out of lectures given in the workshop on Probabilistic Combinatorics at the Paul Erdos Summer Research Center in Mathematics in Budapest. The papers, reflecting the many facets of modern-day combinatorics, will be appreciated by specialists and general mathematicians alike: assuming relatively little background, each paper gives a quick introduction to an active area, enabling the reader to learn about the fundamental results and appreciate some of the latest developments. An important feature of the articles, very much in the spirit of Erdos, is the abundance of open problems.
Satellite Network Range Scheduling

Constellation networking is the prominent technology for the next generation satellite systems. The communication schedule is a key problem for constellation maintenance. However, the traditional SRS (Satellite Range Scheduling) model do not use inter-satellite links. In this paper, a communication scheduling model is proposed, in which the ISLs (Inter Satellite Links) is built. And the NP complicity of SNRS is proved. Meanwhile, a two stage greedy algorithm is designed to calculate the SNRS. And heuristic strategies in the proposed algorithm are compared by simulation. The experiment results show that EDF strategy combined with minimum distance route can bring into an acceptable schedule.
Coding, diversity and minimum distance

Low rate codes are sometimes used on channels that exhibit severe fading or interference. Such a low rate code may be obtained by designing a code with that rate and maximum minimum distance, or by using a higher rate code and diversity. The latter approach is usually suboptimal from a minimum distance point of view, but may have implementation advantages. The authors consider this trade-off between coding and diversity, in terms of minimum distance, for both block and convolutional codes. It is concluded that for many applications of convolutional codes, there is little performance loss in achieving the low rate code with diversity and coding. The same does not seem to hold true for block codes. This situation is quantified further in the paper.
In Vitro Activation and Inhibition of Recombinant EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Expressed in Escherichia coli

The present work concerns the heterologous expression of the intracellular domain harbouring the tyrosine kinase activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Protein expression was improved thanks to the deletion of a 13-amino acid peptide of the juxtamembrane region (JM). The recombinant proteins were produced as a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion in Escherichia coli, and the solubilisation was performed by sarkosyl addition during extraction. The produced proteins spontaneously dimerize allowing the activation of the tyrosine kinase domain in the presence of [γ-32P]ATP. The activity assay has revealed the autophosphorylation of EGFR proteins which was decreased in the presence of genistein. Our system could facilitate the screening of EGFR inhibitors without the need of adding an exogenous substrate.
FTV (free viewpoint television) creating ray-based image engineering

We have been developing ray-based 3D information systems that consist of ray acquisition, ray processing, and ray display. FTV (free viewpoint TV) based on the ray-space method is a typical example. FTV will bring an epoch-making change in the history of television because it enables us to view a distant 3D world freely by changing our viewpoints as if we were there. We constructed a real-time FTV including the complete chain from capturing to display. A new algorithm was developed to generate free viewpoint images. We need a new user interface for FTV to make full use of 3D information of FTV. Two types of user interface were made using 2D and automultiscopic displays with a head tracking system. We are creating "ray-based image engineering" through these works.
CUDA implementation of an optimal online Gaussian-Signal-in-Gaussian-Noise detector

We address the computationally demanding task of real time optimal detection of a Gaussian Signal in Gaussian Noise. The mathematical principles of such a detector were formulated in 1965, but a full real-time implementation of these principles was not possible for decades mainly due to technological barriers. We present a CUDA based implementation of such an optimal detector and study its decision making speed (or throughput) as function of target signal duration and signal filter length. We also compare the throughput results to those of a CPU based design. We report on detection rates ranging from 3.5 KHz for a target duration of 10756 samples up to 15.6 KHz for target duration of 92 samples. The CUDA based detector running on 384 parallel cores had a superior throughput comparing to a pure CPU implementation when target duration was longer than 600 samples.
Higher-Order Spike Triggered Analysis of Neural Oscillators

For the purpose of elucidating the neural coding process based on the neural excitability mechanism, researchers have recently investigated the relationship between neural dynamics and the spike triggered stimulus ensemble (STE). Ermentrout et al. analytically derived the relational equation between the phase response curve (PRC) and the spike triggered average (STA). The STA is the first cumulant of the STE. However, in order to understand the neural function as the encoder more explicitly, it is necessary to elucidate the relationship between the PRC and higher-order cumulants of the STE. In this paper, we give a general formulation to relate the PRC and the nth moment of the STE. By using this formulation, we derive a relational equation between the PRC and the spike triggered covariance (STC), which is the covariance of the STE. We show the effectiveness of the relational equation through numerical simulations and use the equation to identify the feature space of the rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons from their PRCs. Our result suggests that the hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons oscillating in the theta frequency range are commonly sensitive to inputs composed of theta and gamma frequency components.
Rapid Spatial Reorientation and Head Direction Cells

It is surprising how quickly we can find our bearings when suddenly confronted with a familiar environment, for instance when the lights are turned on in a dark room. Subjectively, this appears to occur almost instantaneously, yet the neural processes permitting this rapid reorientation are unknown. A likely candidate is the head direction (HD) cell system. These limbic neurons found in several brain regions, including the thalamus and the hippocampus, discharge selectively when the head of an animal is oriented in a particular (“preferred”) direction. This neuronal activity is independent of position and ongoing behavior and is thus likely to constitute a physiological basis for the sense of direction. Remarkably, although the HD cell system has properties resembling those of a compass, it is independent of geomagnetic fields. Rather, the preferred directions of the HD cells are strongly anchored to visual cues in the environment. Here, we bring evidence for the first time that a fundamental component of the capacity to rapidly reorient in a familiar environment may be brought about by updating of HD cell responses as rapidly as 80 msec after changes in the visual scene. Continuous attractor networks have been used successfully to model HD cell ensemble dynamics. The present results suggest that after large rotations of the surrounding landmarks, activity in such networks may be propagated in abrupt jumps rather than in a gradually progressive manner.
A model of syntactic disambiguation based on lexicalized grammars

This paper presents a new approach to syntactic disambiguation based on lexicalized grammars. While existing disambiguation models decompose the probability of parsing results into that of primitive dependencies of two words, our model selects the most probable parsing result from a set of candidates allowed by a lexicalized grammar. Since parsing results given by the lexicalized grammar cannot be decomposed into independent sub-events, we apply a maximum entropy model for feature forests, which allows probabilistic modeling without the independence assumption. Our approach provides a general method of producing a consistent probabilistic model of parsing results given by lexicalized grammars.
Fountain Codes

Consider a setting where a large file is disseminated to a wide audience who may want to access it at various times and have transmission links of different quality. Current networks use unicast-based protocols such as the transport control protocol (TCP), which requires a transmitter to continually send the same packet until acknowledged by the receiver. It can easily be seen that this architecture does not scale well when many users access a server concurrently and is extremely inefficient when the information transmitted is always the same. In effect, TCP and other unicast protocols place strong importance on the ordering of packets to simplify coding at the expense of increased traffic. An alternative approach is studied in this chapter, where packets are not ordered and the recovery of some subset of packets will allow for successful decoding. This class of codes, called fountain codes, was pioneered by a startup called Digital Fountain and has greatly influenced the design of codes for binary erasure channels (BECs), a well-established model for the Internet. This chapter aims to study some of the key contributions to fountain codes. In Section 1, we discuss the idealized model for this class of codes. In Section 3, we see how the rebirth of LDPC codes give rise to the first modern fountain-like codes, called Tornado codes. This was further refined to LT codes in Section 4, the first rateless fountain code. Next, we present the most sophisticated fountain codes to date, called Raptor codes, in Section 5. In Section 6, some extensions of fountain codes to other communication frameworks are considered. Finally, in Appendix A, we discuss some practical issues in designing fountain codes with illustrations from implementations that were designed for this chapter.
GPS Localization Accuracy Improvement by Fusing Terrestrial TOA Measurements

This paper explores the use of terrestrial time of arrival (TOA) measurements to improve the initial Global Positioning System (GPS) location fix accuracy. First, we present a geometric approach when a GPS location fix and one TOA measurement are available. Then, a more general hybrid GPS/TOA method via the Weighted Least Square Estimator (WLSE) is proposed. To simplify the calculation, a closed-form solution based on the two-step Least Square approach is also designed. The Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) is derived as a performance benchmark. Simulation results exhibit excellent performance of the proposed methods which attain the CRLB in different scenarios. The proposed methods work even if only one TOA measurement (in addition to a GPS location fix) is available and the corresponding accuracy improvement (compared with the initial GPS location fix) can be as much as 30%.
Evaluation of Localization Services Preliminary Report

As wireless sensor networks (WSNs) scale up, an application’s self configurability becomes a critical factor for its successful deployment. In that regard, it is very important to have a resilient yet fairly accurate localization middleware service as many WSN applications rely on the service for self-configuration. Such a localization service aims to determine location information in a given coordinate system for each node in a network being initialized. Several of the methods use anchor nodes with known locations and construct relative information about other node positions. Anchor nodes may be hand-placed, have GPS capabilities, or otherwise know their own position in an agreed-upon global coordinate space. This report presents four sets of localization services with different requirements and different performance characteristics. They are:
Requirements for a Comprehensive and Automated Web Reputation Monitoring System: First Iteration

Web reputation plays a critical role for companies and organizations, impacting their competitive positions and ultimately their success and survival on the market. User-generated content published on a variety of so-called Web 2.0 Websites are dramatically changing power relationships in business. Customers use more and more other customers' judgments, comments, and reviews in their decision-making processes. Companies needed to change their online communication strategies accordingly. However, a systematic approach to Web reputation monitoring, and in turn to the analysis of supporting systems is still lacking. Existing tools only partially support the complex process of Web reputation monitoring, usually applying natural language technology at different stages of maturity. This paper thoroughly investigates the high-level requirements for a general-purpose Web reputation monitoring system. Requirements are classified according to three main steps covering the tasks necessary to a comprehensive Web reputation monitoring strategy. To identify and illustrate the requirements, the paper refers to cases and examples in the tourism sector, whose complexity helps to realize a wide-ranging analysis, thus mitigating the risk of oversimplification.
User guide for ELSA self-completion data: personal beliefs and wellbeing

For further information about other aspects of ELSA (such as the sample, the data collection methods used or the content of the main or nurse questionnaire), please see the relevant User Guides that are available from the Data Archive. This User Guide will cover only the questionnaire used to collect information on the Ryff scale. If you wish to link the data deposited here with other ELSA data at the Data Archive then you will need to use the unique analytical identifier (IDAUNIQ) to do so.
OrLiOn: Optimized Route Planning for the Localization of Indoor Nodes from Outdoor environment

The main focus of this work is on the exploration of static trajectories. A new Optimized Route Planning for the Localization of Indoor Nodes from Outdoor eNvironment (OrLiOn) is introduced. Three building-aware trajectories, specifically Extended-Hilbert, Triangle and Z-trajectory are derived with the help of the introduced algorithm. Further, these trajectories are simulated and analyzed in terms of the localization error and difficulty. The obtained results indicate the superiority of the Extended-Hilbert and Triangle trajectories in terms of localization accuracy, when compared to the Z-trajectory, Circle and Octagon trajectories.
Variability management supporting the model-driven design of user interfaces

User Interfaces (UI) design is a complex and multi-faceted problem. It depends on devices, users and their environments and involves various stakeholders with different backgrounds. Moreover, user requirements are difficult to evaluate precisely upfront and require iterative design cycles based on trial and error. All this variability is complex and should be managed efficiently to ensure moderate design costs. One solution is to implement in the UI design process Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and Software Product Lines (SPL). However, current SPL approaches do not consider problems related to specific UI design models, notably the many concerns underlying them. We propose an SPL approach that supports the separation of concerns through multi-step partial configuration of UI features. The approach is implemented in our existing MDE UI generation framework.