Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continuously proliferating allospecific T cells. I. Specificity of cooperation with allogeneic B cells in the humoral antibody response to sheep erythrocytes

Allospecific mouse T cells, positively selected in one-way mixed lymphocyte culture were maintained for 3 yr in tissue culture by sequential restimulation. Such proliferating T cells were tested for their ability to induce a positive allogeneic effect: activating B cells in an in vitro primary humoral response to sheep erythrocytes. It was found that such T lymphocytes could function as helper cells. Helper activity was shown to be specific in that the B cells activated had to share major histocompatibility complex (H-2) antigens with the strain used for selection of the cell line. Intra H-2 mapping showed that antigens coded in the IAk subregion played an important role in the induction of the positive allogeneic effect. Supernatant factors could substitute for the allogeneic T cells in activation of the in vitro humoral response. However, such supernates exhibited no strain specificity. Therefore, the specificity seen in the positive allogeneic effect is presumably a consequence of the alloantigenic recognition receptors intrinsic to the T cells, and not to any biologically restricting properties of the allogeneic effect factor itself.
Blobtacular: surfacing particle system in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3"

We have developed a tool for efficient and flexible surfacing of particle systems using various optimized level set techniques and data structures. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a popular technique in production environments since it allows for relatively fast simulations of fluid effects like splashes, filaments, and thinsheets. These elements are computationally intensive to produce with grid based fluid solvers. The traditional approach to surfacing particle systems uses CSG blending of spherical metaballs sampled on a dense, regular 3D grid. This severely limits the quality of the resulting surfaces due to resolution and computational overheads in both time and memory. Consequently SPH surfaces often have a characteristic “blobby look” that clearly reveals the underlying particles. Furthermore, particle systems are typically sparse and occupy large (empty) spaces, making them very inefficient to sample on dense, regular 3D grids. This sketch outlines different techniques that we developed to overcome these shortcomings in actual productions.
Printer Identification Based on Distance Transform

Printed document examination plays an important role in public security. A printer identification system is presented for the purpose of identifying the printer which created a suspect printed document. It is composed of image acquisition, image preprocessing and character matching. An optical instrument is developed for document image observation and acquisition under high resolution. Normalized printed characters are obtained and recognized in preprocessing. Distance transform algorithm is applied to character image matching and distance between printed documents is calculated. Finally the minimum distance classifier is applied to printer identification. Experiments are carried out in a database including 45 laser printers and very promising results are achieved.
Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Insights from the Science of Self-Regulation

Introduction 272 Incidence Rates, Gender, and Two Forms of Intimate Partner Violence 273 Prominent Theoretical Perspectives on Intimate Partner Violence 274 The I3 Model of Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration 275 Instigating Triggers 276 Violence-Impelling Forces 277 Violence-Inhibiting Forces 278 Self-Regulation and Intimate Partner Violence 278 A Review of the Emerging Evidence linking Self-Regulation to Reduced IPV Tendencies 279 Study 1: low Dispositional Self-Control 279 Study 2: Impulses versus Behaviors 280 Study 3: The Importance of Cognitive Processing Time 280 Study 4: Ego Depletion 281 Study 5: Ego Bolstering 282 Concluding Comments 283 References 284 Endnotes 287
Impact of Technology Trends on the Performance of Current and Future Web-based Systems

Abstract: The hardware technology continues to improve at a considerable rate. Besides the Moore law increments of the CPU speed, in the last years the capacity of the main memory is increasing at an even more impressive rate. One of the consequences of a continuous increment of the main memory resources is the possibility of designing and implementing memory-embedded Web sites in the near future, where both the static resources and the database information is kept in the main memory of the server machines. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of memory and network technology trends on the performance of e-commerce sites that continue to be an important reference for Web-based services in terms of complexity of the hardware/software technology and in terms of performance, availability and scalability requirements. However, most of the achieved considerations can be easily extended to other Web-based services. We demonstrate through experiments on a real system how the system bottlenecks change depending on the amount of memory that is (or will be) available for storing the information of a Web site, taking or not into account the effects of a WAN. This analysis allows us to anticipate some indications about the interventions on the hardware/software components that could improve the capacity of present and future Web-based services.
Agency in Health Care: an Empirical Investigation In

Agency (unobservable medical effort) is a recognized market failure in health care but essentially impossible to measure. We take an indirect approach to estimation, and infer the cost of unobservable effort from the behavior of utility maximizing individuals , specifically their willingness to incur measurable costs to avoid practitioners who shirk. We use a unique data set from rural Cameroun where patients choose between the government health system, church–operated (mission) health facilities and, importantly , traditional healers. Traditional healers provide health services on an outcome– contingent basis where patients pay only if they are cured. Both government and mission facilities, in contrast, are paid on a fee–for–service basis. Patients' choices of practitioners combined with quantitative information about patients' illnesses, permit a structural estimation of the value of unobservable medical effort. The results allow investigation into the nature of agency, its costs, and the manner in which contracts reduce and patient behavior mitigates its costs. In the absence of agency, we estimate utility from health care would increase by at least 160%. The sophistication of patients in choosing between existing contracts for different illness conditions increases utility by up to twenty percent. Corbacho have made substantial contributions.
Chinese news event 5W1H semantic elements extraction for event ontology population

To relieve "News Information Overload", in this paper, we propose a novel approach of 5W1H (who, what, whom, when, where, how) event semantic elements extraction for Chinese news event knowledge base construction. The approach comprises a key event identification step, an event semantic elements extraction step and an event ontology population step. We first use a machine learning method to identify the key events from Chinese news stories. Then we extract event 5W1H elements by employing the combination of SRL, NER technique and rule-based method. At last we populate the extracted facts of news events to NOEM, an event ontology designed specifically for modeling semantic elements and relations of events. Our experiments on real online news data sets show the reasonability and feasibility of our approach.
Object tracking by supported particles

Object tracking is still remains as a challenge to the computer vision community. Several methods have been proposed until now to track. One renowned method to track is particle filter, a probabilistic model that predicts object position based on recursive Bays formula. In this paper, we present a particle filter based object tracking method, where a set of contextual points is used to support particle filter. The primary contribution of this proposed idea is to the use of context information as the support for particles and also to use those context points as observer to observe angular velocity of the tracked object with respect to each context points. In this paper we call those points as supporter. The angular velocity with respect to support points are then used to handle occlusion.
Representation with receptive elds : gearing up for recognitionWeizmann

Receptive elds are probably the most prominent and ubiquitous computational mechanism employed by biological information processing systems. We report an attempt to understand the representational capabilities of the kind of receptive elds found in mam-malian vision motivated by the assumption that the successive stages of processing remap the retinal representation space in a manner that makes objectively similar stimuli (e.g., different views of the same 3D object) closer to each other, and dissimilar stimuli farther apart. We present theoretical analysis and computational experiments that compare the similarity between stimuli as they are represented at the successive levels of the processing hierarchy, from the retina to the nonlinear cortical units. Our results indicate that population-based codes do convey information that seems lost in the activities of the individual receptive elds, and that at the higher levels of the hierarchy objects may be represented in a form that is more useful for visual recognition. This nding may, therefore, explain the success of previous empirical approaches to object recognition that employed representation by localized receptive elds.
Polychaete-Like Undulatory Robotic Locomotion in Unstructured Substrates

A biological paradigm of versatile locomotion and effective motion control is provided by the polychaete annelid worms, whose motion adapts to a large variety of unstructured environmental conditions (sand, mud, sediment, water, etc.), and could thus be of interest to replicate by robotic analogs. Their locomotion is characterized by the combination of a unique form of tail-to-head body undulations (opposite to snakes and eels), with the rowing-like action of numerous lateral appendages distributed along their long segmented body. Focusing on the former aspect of polychaete locomotion, computational models of crawling and swimming by such tail-to-head body undulations have been developed in this paper. These are based on the Lagrangian dynamics of the system and on resistive models of its interaction with the environment, and are used for simulation studies demonstrating the generation of undulatory gaits. Several biomimetic robotic prototypes have been developed, whose undulatory actuation achieves propulsion on sand and other granular unstructured environments. Extensive experimental studies demonstrate the feasibility of robot propulsion by tail-to-head body undulations in such environments, as well as the agreement of its qualitative and quantitative characteristics to the predictions of the corresponding computational models.
Some basic bilateral sums and integrals.

By splitting the real line into intervals of unit length a doubly infinite integral of the form $\Int F(q^x)\,dx,\; 0<q<1$, can clearly be expressed as $\Integ \Sum F(q^{x+n})\,dx$, provided $F$ satisfies the appropriate conditions. This simple idea is used to prove Ramanujan's integral analogues of his \ph{1}{1} sum and give a new proof of Askey and Roy's extention of it. Integral analogues of the well-poised \ph{2}{2} sum as well as the very-well-poised \ph{6}{6} sum are also found in a straightforward manner. An extension to a very-well-poised and balanced \ph{8}{8} series is also given. A direct proof of a recent q-beta integral of Ismail and Masson is given.
A Document-Based Information Retrieval Model Vector Space

Based on the study of traditional retrieval models, an improved model of vector space information retrieval has been proposed in the paper. The model has fully considered the effect of file structure on the importance of words. It can avoid the disadvantages of low recall and precision in the vector space model if the improved model is selected to calculate the similarity.
Development of Short and Very Short Forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire

Using data from 468 parents and taking into account internal consistency, breadth of item content, within-scale factor analysis, and patterns of missing data, we developed short (94 items, 15 scales) and very short (36 items, 3 broad scales) forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Hershey, 1994; Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001), a well-established parent-report measure of temperament for children aged 3 to 8 years. We subsequently evaluated the forms with data from 1,189 participants. In mid/high-income and White samples, the CBQ short and very short forms demonstrated both satisfactory internal consistency and criterion validity, and exhibited longitudinal stability and cross-informant agreement comparable to that of the standard CBQ. Internal consistency was somewhat lower among African American and low-income samples for some scales. Very short form scales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency for all samples, and confirmatory factor analyses indicated marginal fit of the very short form items to a three-factor model.
A Portable Real-Time Digital Noise Radar System for Through-the-Wall Imaging

We present the design and implementation of a portable, digital, real-time random noise radar system operating in the ultrahigh frequency range for through-the-wall detection and imaging. Noise radar technology is combined with modern digital signal processing approaches to architect a system to covertly perform range imaging of obscured stationary and moving targets as well as to detect the presence of humans via micro-Doppler detection combined with empirical mode decomposition. We model the propagation and sampling nonidealities in the system and propose techniques to overcome the effect of these nonidealities. Experimental results demonstrate the system's capability to image target scenes and characterize human activity from different stand-off distances.
Medical Image Categorization Based on Wavelet Transform and Self-Organizing Map

Nowadays, images are fundamental data source in modern medicine. The images stored in a database according with categories are an important step for data mining and content-based image retrieval (CBIR). These can support doctors and students in diagnostic decisions and provide research and didactic material. This work addresses the use of discrete wavelet transform and self-organizing map (SOM) to medical image categorization. Furthermore, extensive experiments to define map size, finetune using linear vector quantization and a contrastive study with another success approach of categorization are realized.
Diversity and Mechanisms of Alkali Tolerance in Lactobacilli

ABSTRACT We determined the maximum pH that allows growth (pHmax) for 34 strains of lactobacilli. High alkali tolerance was exhibited by strains of Lactobacillus casei, L. paracasei subsp. tolerans, L. paracasei subsp. paracasei, L. curvatus, L. pentosus, and L. plantarum that originated from plant material, with pHmax values between 8.5 and 8.9. Among these, L. casei NRIC 1917 and L. paracasei subsp. tolerans NRIC 1940 showed the highest pHmax, at 8.9. Digestive tract isolates of L. gasseri, L. johnsonii, L. reuteri, L. salivarius subsp. salicinius, and L. salivarius subsp. salivarius exhibited moderate alkali tolerance, with pHmax values between 8.1 and 8.5. Dairy isolates of L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis, and L. helveticus exhibited no alkali tolerance, with pHmax values between 6.7 and 7.1. Measurement of the internal pH of representative strains revealed the formation of transmembrane proton gradients (ΔpH) in a reversed direction (i.e., acidic interior) at alkaline external-pH ranges, regardless of their degrees of alkali tolerance. Thus, the reversed ΔpH did not determine alkali tolerance diversity. However, the ΔpH contributed to alkali tolerance, as the pHmax values of several strains decreased with the addition of nigericin, which dissipates ΔpH. Although neutral external-pH values resulted in the highest glycolysis activity in the presence of nigericin regardless of alkali tolerance, substantial glucose utilization was still detected in the alkali-tolerant strains, even in a pH range of between 8.0 and 8.5, at which the remaining strains lost most activity. Therefore, the alkali tolerance of glycolysis reactions contributes greatly to the determination of alkali tolerance diversity.
Combination of Safety and Security Analysis - Finding Security Problems That Threaten The Safety of a System

In most cases in a safety analysis the influences of security problems are omitted or even forgotten. Because more and more systems are accessible from outside the system via maintenance interfaces, this missing security analysis is becoming a problem. This is why we propose an approach on how to extend the safety analysis by security aspects. Such a more comprehensive analysis should lead to systems that react in less catastrophic ways to attacks.
Dynamic difficulty adjustment in games by using an interactive self-organizing architecture

If difficulty level of a game does not match player's skills, the game could be frustrating or disappointing. In this paper we propose a self-organizing system (SOS) to adjust difficulty level of games. For this purpose, we use Artificial Neural Network and Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms to evolve Non-Player Characters (NPCs), and focus on player's hidden responses to determine fitness of the system. Results show that the proposed interactive SOS can adapt itself with different level of skills.
Saturate : A Collaborative Memoing Tool

More and more software development information is publicly available online. Examples include issue tracking data, discussion groups and project documentation. This information is a valuable source of qualitative data for software engineering researchers. We believe that this data would be used more frequently and more effectively by researchers if appropriate tool support was available. We have found that much qualitative research in the software engineering community is conducted by small teams, and so we believe that support for collaboration will be an important component of those tools. We have created a web based tool named Saturate to explore these ideas. This paper briefly describes that tool.
Mean Polyp per Patient Is an Accurate and Readily Obtainable Surrogate for Adenoma Detection Rate: Results from an Opportunistic Screening Colonoscopy Program

BACKGROUND The incidence of colorectal cancer is rising in several developing countries. In the absence of integrated endoscopy and pathology databases, adenoma detection rate (ADR), as a validated quality indicator of screening colonoscopy, is generally difficult to obtain in practice. We aimed to measure the correlation of polyp-related indicators with ADR in order to identify the most accurate surrogate(s) of ADR in routine practice. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the endoscopic and histopathological findings of patients who underwent colonoscopy at a tertiary gastrointestinal clinic. The overall ADR and advanced-ADR were calculated using patient-level data. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) was applied to measure the strength of the correlation between the quality metrics obtained by endoscopists. RESULTS A total of 713 asymptomatic adults aged 50 and older who underwent their first-time screening colonoscopy were included in this study. The ADR and advanced-ADR were 33.00% (95% CI: 29.52-36.54) and 13.18% (95% CI: 10.79-15.90), respectively. We observed good correlations between polyp detection rate (PDR) and ADR (r=0.93), and mean number of polyp per patient (MPP) and ADR (r=0.88) throughout the colon. There was a positive, yet insignificant correlation between advanced ADRs and non-advanced ADRs (r=0.42, p=0.35). CONCLUSION MPP is strongly correlated with ADR, and can be considered as a reliable and readily obtainable proxy for ADR in opportunistic screening colonoscopy programs.
Non-Coherent Detection for SFH/BFSK Interfered by An Uncoordinated FH System

We propose a novel two-stage non-coherent SFH/BFSK detection scheme when the environment is interfered by an uncoordinated FH system. The first stage detects user number and power level of uncoordinated FH signals. Based on knowledge of detected side information from the first stage, the second stage performs SFH/BFSK maximum likelihood detection. When user number and power level of uncoordinated FH signals are unknown, the proposed two-stage detection scheme outperforms existing multilevel FSK conventional detectors and two-user multiuser detectors. In this scenario, simulation results demonstrate a critical role of the first-stage detector in the overall scheme when it provides the above side information. On the other hand, when knowledge of uncoordinated user number and power level is available to the desired user's receiver, simulation results also show superiority of the proposed second- stage detector over equal-gain receivers and self-normalized receivers.
A global optimization framework for speaker diarization

In this paper, we propose a new clustering model for speaker diarization. A major problem with using greedy agglomerative hierarchical clustering for speaker diariza-tion is that they do not guarantee an optimal solution. We propose a new clustering model, by redefining clustering as a problem of Integer Linear Programming (ILP). Thus an ILP solver can be used which searches the solution of speaker clustering over the whole problem. The experiments were conducted on the corpus of French broadcast news ESTER-2. With this new clustering, the DER decreases by 2.43 points.
Gossiping using the energy map in wireless sensor networks

A gossip protocol randomly decides the set of nodes that will forward a packet it received. Gossiping was proposed to be used in dynamic topology networks such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This work proposes Gossiping using the Energy Map (GEM), a new gossiping-based protocol to perform energy-aware broadcasting in WSNs. The key idea is to change the random selection of neighbors in a way that the selection process uses the energy map. In our protocol, the routing flow is directed to the nodes with the greatest energy reserves, balancing the network energy and preserving nodes localized inside low energy regions to perform sensing tasks.
Full polarization study of SiO masers at 86 GHz

Aims. We study the polarization of the SiO maser emission in a representative sample of evolved stars in order to derive an estimate of the strength of the magnetic field, and thus determine the influence of this magnetic field on evolved stars. Methods. We made simultaneous spectroscopic measurements of the 4 Stokes parameters, from which we derived the circular and linear polarization levels. The observations were made with the IF polarimeter installed at the IRAM 30 m telescope. Results. A discussion of the existing SiO maser models is developed in the light of our observations. Under the Zeeman splitting hypothesis, we derive an estimate of the strength of the magnetic field. The averaged magnetic field varies between 0 and 20 Gauss, with a mean value of 3.5 Gauss, and follows a 1/r law throughout the circumstellar envelope. As a consequence, the magnetic field may play the role of a shaping, or perhaps collimating, agent of the circumstellar envelopes in evolved objects.