Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Sense of the Body in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury

Increasing evidence suggests that the basic foundations of the self lie in the brain systems that represent the body. Specific sensorimotor stimulation has been shown to alter the bodily self. However, little is known about how disconnection of the brain from the body affects the phenomenological sense of the body and the self. Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients who exhibit massively reduced somatomotor processes below the lesion in the absence of brain damage are suitable for testing the influence of body signals on two important components of the self–the sense of disembodiment and body ownership. We recruited 30 SCI patients and 16 healthy participants, and evaluated the following parameters: (i) depersonalization symptoms, using the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (CDS), and (ii) measures of body ownership, as quantified by the rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm. We found higher CDS scores in SCI patients, which show increased detachment from their body and internal bodily sensations and decreasing global body ownership with higher lesion level. The RHI paradigm reveals no alterations in the illusory ownership of the hand between SCI patients and controls. Yet, there was no typical proprioceptive drift in SCI patients with intact tactile sensation on the hand, which might be related to cortical reorganization in these patients. These results suggest that disconnection of somatomotor inputs to the brain due to spinal cord lesions resulted in a disturbed sense of an embodied self. Furthermore, plasticity-related cortical changes might influence the dynamics of the bodily self.
' s personal copy Spare parts classification and demand forecasting for stock control : Investigating the gap between research and practice

This paper investigates the gap between research and practice in spare parts management, with specific reference to durable goods addressed to private or professional customers. The paper provides a critical literature review of theoretical contributions about spare parts classification and demand forecasting for stock control. The discussion of ten case studies, then, allows to analyze the reasons for this gap, by addressing the limitations of models developed in literature, the role of contextual factors and the maturity in companies’ spare parts management practices. Four main directions for research are proposed in order to bridge the gap, namely: to develop integrated approaches to spare parts management; to define contingency-based managerial guidelines, to favor the knowledge accumulation process in companies, and to supplement theoretical models with practical relevance. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PROTON: An automatic place-and-route tool for optical Networks-on-Chip

Optical Networks-on-Chip (ONoCs) are considered a promising way of improving power and bandwidth limitations in next generation multi- and many-core integrated systems. Today, most related research acknowledges the key role of the physical layer in assessing ONoC topologies (e.g., insertion loss), but overlooks the placement and routing stage in the design process, hence applying physical design considerations to topology logic schemes. Such a mismatch is fundamentally due to the lack of mature CAD tools for placement and routing of optical NoCs. The objective of this work is to bridge this gap: We propose PROTON, a fast tool for automatic placement and routing of ONoC topologies, which can support designers in quantifying the degradation of design quality metrics when moving from topology logic schemes to their physical implementation. This gap is especially relevant for Wavelength-Routed ONoCs (WRONoCs), where logic schemes typically make unrealistic assumptions about the placement of initiators and targets. For this reason, we put PROTON to work with the most promising WRONoC topologies and explore their physical design space given the placement and routing constraints of a 3D stacked system. We also compare automatically generated layouts with handcrafted ones reported in the literature for the same topologies and target system, and prove an insertion loss improvement by up to 150x. With PROTON the exploration of the physical design space of ONoC topologies is possible as well as their scalability analysis considering the layout.
Path planning and tracking for AUV in large-scale environment

In this paper new method of path planning for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in large-scale underwater environment is presented. The main idea behind this method is to make full use of the local real-time environment information, partition global working environment dynamically and optimize each local area using Fast Marching algorithm (FM), finally generate a global quasi-optimal path from start to the destination. Simulation shows this method is of good performance in convergency and reliability, can fulfill demand of the experiment. Furthermore, path tracking algorithm based on kinematics model and hydrodynamics model of AUV in the case of depth-fixed is designed. The effectivity of proposed methods is validated my simulation experiments.
Parsing Screenplays for Extracting Social Networks from Movies

In this paper, we present a formalization of the task of parsing movie screenplays. While researchers have previously motivated the need for parsing movie screenplays, to the best of our knowledge, there is no work that has presented an evaluation for the task. Moreover, all the approaches in the literature thus far have been regular expression based. In this paper, we present an NLP and ML based approach to the task, and show that this approach outperforms the regular expression based approach by a large and statistically significant margin. One of the main challenges we faced early on was the absence of training and test data. We propose a methodology for using well structured screenplays to create training data for anticipated anomalies in the structure
Peak and gravity constraints in Gaussian primordial density fields: An application of the Hoffman-Ribak method

We develop an algorithm for setting up tailor-made initial conditions for cosmological N-body simulations intended to focus on particular aspects of the structure formation process. The procedure for generating initial Gaussian random density and velocity fields has the ability to specify the presence and characteristics of one or more peaks and dips at arbitrary locations, in combination with the capability to sculpt the matter distribution such that the gravity and tidal fields at the site of the peaks, as well as at arbitrary field locations, have a required strength and orientation. This constrained field approach allows a systematic exploration, at a minimal computational effort and a maximum resolution of the influence of physical quantities relevant to specific issues in the structure formation process. Such specialized studies could for example address the issue of the evolution of the progenitors of galaxies and clusters, or the role of tidal fields in shaping large-scale structure. The described formalism is a specific application of the direct and accurate prescription of Hoffman & Ribak for generating constrained Gaussian random fields. The procedure for imposing peak, gravity and tidal field constraints is an Illustration of the general class of constraints that are convolutions with the linear density held. We provide a comprehensive mathematical presentation of the formalism to set up fields with such general convolution-type constraints, in which each of the M constraints has a different character, and concerns a different scale, arbitrary (i.e. non-grid) positions, or different filers. For each peak a total of 21 physical characteristics can be specified, including its scale, position, density Hessian, velocity, and velocity gradient. The velocity (or, equivalently, gravity) and tidal field constraints art: based on a generalization of the formalism developed by Bardeen et al. Also, we provide an analytical expression for the likelihood of the imposed peak constraints in Gaussian random fields. It is shown that the tidal field has a strong tendency to align itself along the principal axes of the mass tenser. The presentation of the procedure includes a derailed assessment of the computational cost of the procedure, valid for any general convolution-type constraints, as well as a graphical illustration of the formalism. This includes an illustration of constraint-field correlation functions and how they add up to the mean fields, and illustrations of the variance characteristics of field realizations. In particular, we concentrate on the consequences for the structure of the mass distribution implied by imposing gravity and tidal field constraints.
Salicylate Reduces Susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to Multiple Antituberculosis Drugs

ABSTRACT Salicylate induces multiple antibiotic resistance in various bacterial species. Here we investigated the effect of salicylate on the susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to a range of antituberculosis (anti-TB) drugs. In the presence of salicylate, the killing effects of isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RMP), ethambutol (EMB), streptomycin (STR), and p-aminosalicylate (PAS) were reduced, as shown with a tetrazolium redox dye viability assay and a bacterial survival assay. Salicylate-induced resistance was more pronounced for PAS, STR, and EMB but was not apparent for INH and RMP when salicylate and the anti-TB agents were incorporated into 7H11 plates. The significance of these findings for TB treatment needs to be further evaluated in vivo.
Performance Evaluation of Parallel File System Based on Lustre and Grey Theory

High Performance Computing (HPC) system need to be coupled with efficient parallel file systems, such as Lustre file system, that can deliver commensurate IO throughput to scientific applications. It is important to gain insights into the deliverable parallel file system IO efficiency. In order to gain a good understanding on what and how to impact the performance of parallel file systems. This paper presents a study on performance evaluation of parallel file systems using Lustre file system. We conduct an in-depth survey on the basic performance factors of Lustre. Based on this survey, a series of test cases are designed to validate the performance of Lustre and we adopt relational analysis model and grey prediction model to analyze and predict the performance changes. In our relational analysis, we find that the performance of Lustre has a more closed correlation when performance factors change. Our prediction results indicate that our prediction model can obtain better prediction precision and could be further applied to performance evaluation of other parallel file systems.
Evaluation of basic visual features for person re-identification

Appearance-based person re-identification namely matching the same pedestrian across disjoint camera views, is an increasingly research spot. Researchers have proposed many complicated appearance descriptions. The role of basic visual features is seldom investigated, e.g. color, texture features, which are the basis of descriptions. By analyzing the characteristics of data environments, we can get the recommended basic features, while an improper feature selection may lead to suboptimal or even worse re-identification results. In this paper, an objective and comprehensive evaluation of the basic visual features is investigated and compared in the context of person re-identification. The performance of 13 representative color and texture features with two standard distance metrics are compared under two typical different environments. Basic feature recommendation for different environments was achieved by this evaluation. Furthermore, we verify the hierarchical structure of person re-identification network. Two state-of-the-art appearance descriptions are revised and improved by selecting more proper basic features. Extensive experiments show that basic feature evaluation is conducive to better feature selection.
Se p 19 99 Loop Quantum Gravity on Non-Compact Spaces

We present a general procedure for constructing new Hilbert spaces for loop quantum gravity on non-compact spatial manifolds. Given any fixed background state representing a non-compact spatial geometry, we use the Gel’fand-Naimark-Segal construction to obtain a representation of the algebra of observables. The resulting Hilbert space can be interpreted as describing fluctuation of compact support around this background state. We also give an example of a state which approximates classical flat space and can be used as a background state for our construction.
Relative Synonymy and Conceptual Vectors

Synonymy is a pivot relation in NLP but remains problematic. Putting forward, we introduce the notion of relative synonymy, to circumvent some diÆculties among which possible polysemy and contextual interpretation. In the framework of conceptual vectors, it is then possible to formalize test functions for synonymy and to experiment their use in thematic analysis that will help text classi cation.
Run-time performance management of the Siena publish/subscribe middleware

Recently, growing attention is focused on run-time management of Quality of Service (QoS) of complex software systems. In this context, self-adaptation of applications, based on runtime monitoring and dynamic reconfiguration, is considered a useful technique to manage/negotiate QoS. Several defined approaches to dynamic performance management propose the use of on-line model-based evaluation of the managed application in order to choose the new application configuration for improving the QoS. In a previous work we defined a methodology to manage performance of soft-ware system at run-time based on model-based performance evaluation. To avoid unnecessary details the performance model represents the managed application at the Software Architecture level. In this work we apply and implement this approach to dynamic manage the performance of the SIENA publish/subscribe event notification service.
Implementation of text dependent speaker verification on MATLAB

Speech signal carries the information about the linguistic message. Speaker-specific information is also contained in speech signal. No two peoples voice are exactly alike because voice has fingerprint qualities. It is generated by acoustically exciting the cavities of the mouth and nose, and can be used to recognize (identify/verify) a person. The work leading in this paper has been focused on establishing a text-dependent closed-set speaker verification. In this, correlation method is used to verify the speaker.
Relationship between Pre-Procedural Serum Lipid Profile and Post-Procedural Myocardial Injury in Patients Undergoing Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background: Along with technological progress in coronary intervention, periprocedural complications and adverse outcomes have markedly improved, yet perioperative myocardial injury is a frequent complication during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and is strongly associated with post-procedural cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Epidemiological researchers have defined lipid and lipoproteins abnormality as a risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Although several studies focus on identification the correlation between the changes of lipid profile levels and ischemic markers, there is a little information about the role of lipid profile disturbance as a predictor of periprocedural myocardial injuries. Objectives: This study aimed to observe the relationship between lipid profile levels and the post-procedural myocardial injury in patients undergoing elective PCI. Patients and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 138 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of coronary artery disease who underwent PCI. Of a total 138, 35 patients had cardiac biomarker elevation, more than 3 × ULN, post-procedurally. The control group (n = 103), without cardiac enzyme rising after PCI were randomly chosen three times the number of patients with increased cardiac enzymes more than three times the ULN. Samples for serum lipid parameters [total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride (TG), and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL)] were collected after 12-14 fasting hours immediately pre-procedurally. The samples for CPK-MB were collected at 8, 16, and 24 hours post procedurally. Results: Although the mean level of TC, LDL-C and TG was higher in patients with CPK-MB more than 3×ULN post procedurally, differences were insignificant. Among different lipid parameters, only the mean level of VLDL showed a considerable association with myocardial injury. Although, this subject had a near significant (P = 0.05) enhancement in group I, the changes were in normal ranges. Lipid abnormality (except for the VLDL values) was insignificantly more frequent in group I. Conclusions: Although the mean level of non-HDL-C was in normal ranges, it showed a higher value in patients with a diagnosis of myocardial injury post procedurally. However, according to multivariate analysis, left ventricular ejection fraction and diabetes remained as predictors of post-procedural CPK-MB elevation.
Influence of matrix metalloproteinase MMP-9 on dendritic spine morphology

An increasing body of data has shown that matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), an extracellularly acting, Zn2+-dependent endopeptidase, is important not only for pathologies of the central nervous system but also for neuronal plasticity. Here, we use three independent experimental models to show that enzymatic activity of MMP-9 causes elongation and thinning of dendritic spines in the hippocampal neurons. These models are: a recently developed transgenic rat overexpressing autoactivating MMP-9, dissociated neuronal cultures, and organotypic neuronal cultures treated with recombinant autoactivating MMP-9. This dendritic effect is mediated by integrin β1 signalling. MMP-9 treatment also produces a change in the decay time of miniature synaptic currents; however, it does not change the abundance and localization of synaptic markers in dendritic protrusions. Our results, considered together with several recent studies, strongly imply that MMP-9 is functionally involved in synaptic remodelling.
Video Concept Detection Using Support Vector Machines - TRECVID 2007 Evaluations

This report describes video concept detection using Support Vector Machine (SVM) over TRECVID 2007 corpus. We perform the experiments on low-level features extraction, data preparation and classification procedure. Through analyzing the characteristics of the TRECVID 2007 data set, we mainly focus on data preparation for training concept detectors, as well as the preparation of auxiliary training data by using TRECVID 2005 data.
Live P2P streaming in CommunityLab: Experience and insights

Wireless Community Networks (WCNs) are flourishing as a means of providing Internet access, but most of all as an alternative, bottom-up approach to reduce the digital divide and empower the users with control on their network. Video streaming and conferencing are among the most resource hungry and critical networked applications, and their support on WCNs is fundamental, but difficult as Wireless Community Network (WCN) environments are normally less resource-rich than the traditional Internet. This work presents an initial analysis of an experimental activity with PeerStreamer, a P2P video streaming platform, on the Community-Lab, the WCN testbed of the EU FIRE project CONFINE. The results we present shed light on several different aspects, some good, some other less, of video streaming on WCNs. The experiments highlight the feasibility of P2P video streaming, but they also show that the streaming platform must be tailored ad-hoc for the WCN itself to be able to fully adapt and exploit its features and overcome its limitations. On the other hand, the experiments also show that Community-Lab is not yet fully representative of a WCN, and specifically of those that participate in CONFINE.
Fractals in G-Metric Spaces

The theory of iterated function systems (IFS) on complete metric spaces appears in almost all fractal based algorithms used for the purpose of compression of the images and their representation as well. Through a simple mathematical model, IFS technique provides an important tool for description and manipulation of the complex fractal attractors. In this paper we study the iterated function systems in G-metric spaces and obtain a collage theorem for the same.
A Budget-balanced and Price-adaptive Credit Protocol for MANETs

A virtual credit exchange protocol for Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) is proposed to enforce the cooperation of packet forwarding. In this protocol, each node decides a price (i.e. the number of credits) charged for forwarding a unit amount of traffic (i.e. one data packet). One node’s pricing decision only depends on the prices of nodes that are going to forward packets for it. Each node updates its price adaptively and distributively. Under certain condition of the demand relationship between all nodes, this protocol converges to a unique price solution and provides sustainable and stable credit levels for all nodes. Experiments are performed to show that rational users have incentive to follow this protocol: 1) Setting higher prices do not help a node obtain more service. 2) Dropping other nodes’ packets reduces a node’s own throughput.
Constructions of fractional repetition codes from combinatorial designs

We consider the design of regenerating codes for distributed storage systems at the minimum bandwidth regeneration (MBR) point. Our codes consist of an outer MDS code followed by an inner fractional repetition (FR) code (introduced in prior work). In these systems a failed node can be repaired by simply downloading packets from surviving nodes. We present constructions that use the Kronecker product to construct new fractional repetition codes from existing codes. We demonstrate that an infinite family of codes can be generated by considering the Kronecker product of two Steiner systems that have the same storage capacity. The resultant code inherits its normalized repair bandwidth from the storage capacity of the original Steiner systems and has the maximum level of failure resilience possible. We also present some properties of the Kronecker product of resolvable designs and the corresponding file sizes.
Design of a Hybrid Posicast Control for a DC-DC Boost Converter operated in Continuous Conduction mode

This paper presents the design of a Hybrid Posicast Controller (HPC) for a DC-DC Boost Converter (BC) operated in Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM). A HPC is a feed-forward compensator, which eliminates the peak overshoot in the step response of lightly damped systems. However, the conventional control technique is very sensitive to variations in natural frequency of oscillation in the system. In order to reduce this undesirable sensitivity of system, HPC is proposed, which is operated within the feedback loop of the system. The design of the Posicast function is independent of computational delay. The proposed controller produces a lower noise in the control signal, when compared to a conventional Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. The simulation of DC-DC BC with its both control methods are implemented in MatLab/Simulink. The controller parameters are optimized by tuning design procedure method. The performances evaluation of DC-DC BC with both control methods is tested at controller parameters variations, steady state region, line and load variations. The simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of a proposed controller.