Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synapse-Centric Mapping of Cortical Models to the SpiNNaker Neuromorphic Architecture

While the adult human brain has approximately 8.8 × 1010 neurons, this number is dwarfed by its 1 × 1015 synapses. From the point of view of neuromorphic engineering and neural simulation in general this makes the simulation of these synapses a particularly complex problem. SpiNNaker is a digital, neuromorphic architecture designed for simulating large-scale spiking neural networks at speeds close to biological real-time. Current solutions for simulating spiking neural networks on SpiNNaker are heavily inspired by work on distributed high-performance computing. However, while SpiNNaker shares many characteristics with such distributed systems, its component nodes have much more limited resources and, as the system lacks global synchronization, the computation performed on each node must complete within a fixed time step. We first analyze the performance of the current SpiNNaker neural simulation software and identify several problems that occur when it is used to simulate networks of the type often used to model the cortex which contain large numbers of sparsely connected synapses. We then present a new, more flexible approach for mapping the simulation of such networks to SpiNNaker which solves many of these problems. Finally we analyze the performance of our new approach using both benchmarks, designed to represent cortical connectivity, and larger, functional cortical models. In a benchmark network where neurons receive input from 8000 STDP synapses, our new approach allows 4× more neurons to be simulated on each SpiNNaker core than has been previously possible. We also demonstrate that the largest plastic neural network previously simulated on neuromorphic hardware can be run in real time using our new approach: double the speed that was previously achieved. Additionally this network contains two types of plastic synapse which previously had to be trained separately but, using our new approach, can be trained simultaneously.
Estimation of Consistent Probabilistic Context-free Grammars

We consider several empirical estimators for probabilistic context-free grammars, and show that the estimated grammars have the so-called consistency property, under the most general conditions. Our estimators include the widely applied expectation maximization method, used to estimate probabilistic context-free grammars on the basis of unannotated corpora. This solves a problem left open in the literature, since for this method the consistency property has been shown only under restrictive assumptions on the rules of the source grammar.
Charities’ use of Twitter: exploring social support for women living with and beyond breast cancer

ABSTRACT Twitter is one social media platform that enables those experiencing breast cancer to access support from others. This study explores how cancer charities provide support to women living with and beyond breast cancer (LWBBC) through their Twitter feeds. Seven hundred and seventy-two tweets from seven purposively sampled cancer charities were used to explore Twitter posts made relating to social support. Two questions were posed: (1) what type of support is positioned by cancer charities on Twitter for women LWBBC and (2) what themes emerge from tweet content pertaining to support for women LWBBC? Using a peer-reviewed typology of ‘social support’ [Rui, J., Chen, Y. , & Damiano, A. (2013). Health organizations providing and seeking social support: A twitter-based content analysis. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, 16(9), 669–673. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012. 0350], a deductive content analysis was utilised to identify informational, instrumental or emotional social support tweets (n = 199). Over half (56%) of tweets offered informational support; 27% provided or sought instrumental support and 18% related to emotional support. Interestingly, 74.3% (n = 573) of tweets were not related to providing or seeking social support. An inductive qualitative thematic analysis of the 199 tweets identified the focus (i.e., themes) of support. Three themes were identified: (1) raising awareness, (2) focusing on the future and (3) sharing stories. Cancer charities predominantly use Twitter to signpost women to informational resources and to seek instrumental support to meet charitable objectives. As the number of women LWBBC continues to increase, this study provides valuable insight into how charities represent themselves on Twitter in relation to the social support needs of women LWBBC.
Detection of body posture with low-cost CMOS camera systems for applications in medical care

This paper describes an ongoing research program aimed to develop a network of low-cost, low-power consumption CMOS cameras whose main function is to determine, within a typical house or office room, the posture of a human body, i.e. standing, sitting, or laying down. Fast, low-complexity algorithms have been developed which can be implemented on the limited CPU and RAM resources that are available in the microprocessor chip that comes integrated with this type of cameras. When equipped with wireless communication capabilities, e.g. IEEE 802.15. 4, the cameras can perform data fusion and collaborative decision functions that can further increase the probability of correct detection and classification. It is envisioned that systems such as the one described in this paper will work in conjunction with a wireless body area network (WBAN) that measures vital signs. The final goal is to have an accurate and cost effective system capable of providing relevant and timely information to the medical personnel that is responsible for the care of the patients.
Disinhibited abuse of othered communities by second-screening audiences

Second-screening and live-tweeting alongside broadcast television generates new concerns with respect to online abuse. We present an investigation into the nature of Twitter-facilitated second-screening posts relating to Thelma's Gypsy Girls, one of a series of controversial documentary programmes portraying the Irish Traveller community that have recently been aired by the UK public-service television broadcaster Channel 4. Sentiment analysis highlighted the general negativity of these posts whilst a detailed thematic inquiry revealed the often abusive and aggressive messages aimed directly at the community and individuals portrayed in the broadcast material. We discuss why users might be susceptible to exhibiting these behaviours, and the implications for the broadcast industry, and social TV designers and developers.
Interval fuzzy modeling applied to Wiener models with uncertainties

This correspondence addresses the problem of interval fuzzy model identification and its use in the case of the robust Wiener model. The method combines a fuzzy identification methodology with some ideas from linear programming theory. On a finite set of measured data, an optimality criterion which minimizes the maximum estimation error between the data and the proposed fuzzy model output is used. The min-max optimization problem can then be seen as a linear programming problem that is solved to estimate the parameters of the fuzzy model in each fuzzy domain. This results in lower and upper fuzzy models that define the confidence interval of the observed data. The model is called the interval fuzzy model and is used to approximate the static nonlinearity in the case of the Wiener model with uncertainties. The resulting model has the potential to be used in the areas of robust control and fault detection.
Information Communication Technologies Role in Extended and Dynamics Clustering

Clusters and the broader patterns of economic specialization across geographies have become an important concern for European policy makers. The new approaches to cluster analysis develop new conceptual dimensions that encapsulate the key aspects of this new phase and better enable all cluster stakeholders address the challenges confronted by regional economies. This requires a change of perspective where clusters are no longer seen as regionally bound constellations nurtured by regional economic systems but rather as ‘hubs’ within a global system of flows of information, knowledge and economic activity. This is what the concept of extended and dynamic clustering is designed to capture.
Program partitioning: a framework for combining static and dynamic analysis

For higher quality software, static analysis and dynamic analysis should be used in a complementary manner. In this work, we explore the concept of partitioning a program such that the partitions can be analyzed separately. With such partitioning, potentially different analysis techniques can be applied to different program partitions, with each analysis having to deal with reduced code which can increase its effectiveness. Our experiments show that partitioning can indeed increase the effectiveness of static analysis. Our initial experience in using testing data for partitioning and applying static analysis only on the complementary partition, indicates that it results in detection of more errors which might have gone unnoticed otherwise.
A new method of abnormal event detection based on sparse reconstruction

We proposed a framework of abnormal event detection via sparse reconstruction cost over the normal basis. Given a collection of normal training samples, we extracted the Multi-scale Histogram of Optical Flow feature and generate a overcomplete dictionary. Then a novel online dictionary selection method with group sparsity constraint is designed, which solve the dictionary learning problem in less memory and time consume. To detect whether the frame is abnormal or not, we use sparse reconstruction cost (SRC) over the testing sample to indicate the probability to be abnormal. By considering the basis in the dictionary appears frequently in the training dataset and the cost to use it in the reconstruction should be lower. The proposed weighted SRC is more robust compared to other outlier detection criteria. Experiments on UMN dataset and comparison to the state-of-the-art methods show that our framework outperform the others.
Inverse Source Problem in Nonhomogeneous Background Media

The scalar wave inverse source problem (ISP) of determining an unknown radiating source from knowledge of the field it generates outside its region of localization is investigated for the case in which the source is embedded in a nonhomogeneous medium with known index of refraction profile $n(\mathbf{r})$. It is shown that the solution to the ISP having minimum energy (the so-called minimum energy source) can be obtained via a simple method of constrained optimization. This method is applied to the special case when the nonhomogeneous background is spherically symmetric ($n(\mathbf{r})=n(r)$), and it yields the minimum energy source in terms of a series of spherical harmonics and radial wave functions that are solutions to a Sturm–Liouville problem. The special case of a source embedded in a spherical region of constant index is treated in detail, and results from computer simulations are presented for this case.
An automatic skinning method for real-time deformation

Skinning is widely used in character animation as a fast approach of deformation. Traditional skinning methods need a lot of manual work to build skeleton and paint weights, which can only be done by professional Animators. Recently, most researches are focusing on automatic skinning methods, so that the animators can complete model deformation much more easily. In this paper, we propose a robust automatic skinning method to realize real-time deformation. We first precisely embedding a skeleton by designing a penalty function, then the weights are computed by minimizing the Laplacian energy subject to bound constraints. The result shows that this method has a great performance for arbitrary models, especially for those who have the similar shapes with human beings.
An analysis of high power IGBT switching under cascade active voltage control

A new gate drive solution, cascade active voltage control (cascade AVC), employs classic feedback control methods with an inner loop controlling the IGBT gate voltage and an outer loop controlling the collector voltage simultaneously. They make the switching performance less dependent on the IGBT itself. Feedback control of IGBTs in the active region does not necessarily slow the switching, but introduces stability issues. A detailed stability analysis provides a sensible perspective to judge the system stability and justify the controller design, through considering major operating points and determining corresponding IGBT parameters. Experiments on high power IGBTs including a 4500 V device show that cascade AVC offers improved performance and is easier to design than the original AVC.
Effects of Learning Styles on Writing Skills of First Year LMD Students of English as a Foreign Langugae in Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Setif 2 University

La presente etude a pour but d'examiner l'efficacite des differents styles d'apprentissage dans le developpement des competences redactionnelles. Dans une tentative d'exploration des besoins des etudiants a ce niveau, nous avons constate que l’un des principaux problemes qu’ils rencontrent est qu’ils ont recu un enseignement sans que les styles d’apprentissage n’y soient pris en consideration. Un echantillon de premiere annee a ete choisi aleatoirement puis divise en deux groupes dont l’un est de controle et l’autre est experimental. Le group experimental a ete suivi et encadre de maniere a ce que les etudiants prennent pleine conscience de l’importance des styles d’apprentissages. Ces etudiants ont ete divises en petits groupes heterogenes selon le style prefere, et les activites ont ete definies en fonction du style d’apprentissage. Les resultats obtenus apres le test ecrit, considere comme test anterieur et posterieur, ont montre que la performance du groupe experimental etait bien meilleure de celle du groupe de controle. Mots cles: Competences redactionnelles- styles d'apprentissage. - test anterieur- test posterieur groupe de controle- groupe experimental
On the Measurement of the Predictive Success of Learning Theories in Repeated Games

The growing literature on learning in games has produced various results on the predictive success of learning theories. These results, however, were based on various methods of comparison. The present paper uses experimental data on a set of four games in order to check on the robustness of rankings among learning rules across measures. We characterise measures along three dimensions: (i) the scoring rule, (ii) the method of comparison, and (iii) the definition of observations and apply all thus defined measures to 12 learning rules. The results show that rankings are indeed sensitive to the measure used. Furthermore, we point at deficiencies of certain measures that have been applied in the past and suggest the use of simulated data when learning rules are supposed to predict realisations of random variables.
Predictors for (Problematic) Use of Internet Sexually Explicit Material: Role of Trait Sexual Motivation and Implicit Approach Tendencies Towards Sexually Explicit Material

ABSTRACT Problematic use of Internet sexually explicit material (SEM) is thought to be a possible precursor of a clinically relevant disorder labeled as hypersexuality, sexual compulsion, sexual impulse control disorder, or sexual addiction. Knowledge about possible risk factors for developing a problematic Internet SEM use is scarce. The present study investigated whether trait sexual motivation and implicit approach tendencies towards sexual material are predictors of problematic SEM use and of the daily time spent watching SEM. Trait sexual motivation describes the general individual motivation to be sexually active in a long-lasting, trait-like perspective and can be measured by the Trait Sexual Motivation Questionnaire. In a behavioral experiment, we used the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) for measuring implicit approach tendencies towards sexual material. Symptoms of problematic Internet SEM use were assessed by the short Internet Addiction Test, modified for cybersex. Trait sexual motivation explained more variance of problematic Internet SEM use than implicit approach tendencies measured by the AAT. This was true for men as well as for women. Implicit approach tendencies towards SEM were correlated with trait sexual motivation, which could point to a common biological basis.
An algorithm facilitating fast BCD division on low end processors using Ancient Indian Vedic Mathematics Sutras

The last decade or two has witnessed a rapid evolution of the technological world with the introduction of fast processors loaded with higher amount of cache memories. Accordingly, the system architecture demanded better development to suit the rising demand for the technological advancements. Miniaturizations of components and VLSI integration have given rise to bulk advanced memory chips being grafted on even smaller amount of space thus giving access to higher amount of physical memory within exhaust limits of average applications. But the low end processors having limited memory still crave for fast applications, which are slowly going out of bounds for these devices due to the space and time complexity. The four elementary operations - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division form the basis for any type of application. Out of the four, the latter one, namely division, is a highly expensive and time consuming operation. This paper proposes a fast division algorithm based on Ancient Indian Vedic Mathematics Sutras for low end processors having limited memory. The novelty of the algorithm is that it requires a very small amount of memory for execution but performs the division mechanism much faster than the conventional division algorithms in literature, and is equally suitable for high end processors also. The algorithm has been tested on conventional mid range desktop processors and has furnished results with numbers having number of bits greater than 50 (15 digit numbers), the upper ceiling of computable numbers for conventional algorithms. It has been observed that the Vedic Division Algorithm can divide numbers having up to 38 digits (127 bits) in the present form, if modified it can divide even bigger numbers.
A novel design of RF-MEMS phase shifter based on bridge-like coplanar waveguide

In this paper, a novel RF-MEMS phase shifter based on a rectangle bridge-like coplanar waveguide (BCPW) structure is proposed. The signal line of the coplanar waveguide (CPW) has symmetrical saw-shaped structures under the MEMS bridges above which covers the BCPW bridge. The CST software is used for the modeling, simulation and optimization the model of phase shifter from 30 to 40 GHz. Simulation and optimization results show that the proposed design with a 35 GHz central resonant frequency has a return loss less than -10 dB within about 2 GHz bandwidth range and for each RF MEMS switch-type bridge, as high as 75 degrees phase shift is realized. Compared with MEMS phase shifters without a BCPW bridge, S11 performance can be improved by up to 10 dB, and interference among the adjacent components can be decreased.
Survey of Microarray Data Processing for Cancer Sub- Classification

The detection of correct sub-type of a particular cancer helps in appropriate treatment and faster recovery of the patient . In this paper the survey of different methods used in the process atomization of cancer sub-classification are presented. Conventional methods of cancer sub-classification depend largely on physician's knowledge and experience. Automation of cancer sub-type classification makes the classifier system independent of experienced physician.
Behavioral and Brain Functions

Background: Auditory neuropathy is a disorder characterized by no or severely impaired auditory brainstem responses in presence of normal otoacoustic emissions and/or cochlear microphonics. Speech perception abilities in these individuals are disproportionate to their hearing sensitivity and reported to be dependent on cortical evoked potentials and temporal processing abilities. The disproportionate loss of auditory percept in presence of normal cochlear function is suggestive of impairment of auditory neural synchrony. Methods: We studied the auditory evoked potentials and psychophysical abilities in 14 adults with auditory neuropathy to characterize their perceptual capabilities. Psychophysical tests included measurement of open set speech identification scores, just noticeable difference for transition duration of syllable /da/ and temporal modulation transfer function. Auditory evoked potentials measures were, recording of P1/N1, P2/N2 complex and mismatch negativity (MMN). Results: Results revealed a significant correlation between temporal processing deficits and speech perception abilities. In majority of individuals with auditory neuropathy P1/N1, P2/N2 complex and mismatch negativity could be elicited with normal amplitude and latency. None of the measured evoked potential parameters correlated with the speech perception scores. Many of the subjects with auditory neuropathy showed normal MMN even though they could not discriminate the stimulus contrast behaviorally. Conclusion: Conclusions drawn from the study are 1. Individuals with auditory neuropathy have severely affected temporal processing. 2. The presence of MMN may not be directly linked to presence of behavioral discrimination and to speech perception capabilities at least in adults with auditory neuropathy. Background Auditory neuropathy (AN) is recently described hearing disorder characterized by abnormal auditory nerve functioning in presence of normal cochlear receptor hair cell activity [1]. The clinical findings that define auditory neuropathy are Published: 01 December 2005 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2005, 1:21 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-1-21 Received: 06 June 2005 Accepted: 01 December 2005 This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions. com/content/1/1/21 © 2005 Kumar and Jayaram; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Smoke into Sound: A pilot randomised controlled trial of a music cravings management program for chronic smokers attempting to quit

Chronic smokers display greater cravings and higher dependence on nicotine than smokers who successfully quit, which indicates a need for novel interventions that address cravings. Smoke into Sound is an online interactive program that uses personalised music-listening to assist participants to manage emotional states and cravings that act as cues for their smoking. This study describes a pilot randomised trial of Smoke into Sound (MUSIC) in comparison to current best practice cognitive behaviour therapy programs delivered online and by telephone (CBTE) or by telephone only (CBTT). Participants were 55 chronic smokers aged 18 to 66 years (45% females) who completed an online questionnaire before being randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: MUSIC, CBTE or CBTT. The 38 participants remaining 6 weeks later completed a post-program online questionnaire to assess smoking status; craving strength; self-efficacy for cessation; and confidence in regulating emotions without smoking. Almost half (45%) of the sample had stopped smoking at the post-program assessment, with similar proportions of participants in each condition no longer smoking. Participants in the MUSIC and CBTE conditions had greater reductions in craving strength and improvements in emotion regulation than those in the CBTT. The findings indicate that chronic smokers responded equally well to the music emotion regulation strategies as to the CBT strategies for smoking cessation. Smoke into Sound is the first program to our knowledge that applies music psychology theory to an intervention for addictive behaviour.