Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Macroscopic description for networks of spiking neurons

A major goal of neuroscience, statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics is to understand how brain function arises from the collective dynamics of networks of spiking neurons. This challenge has been chiefly addressed through large-scale numerical simulations. Alternatively, researchers have formulated mean-field theories to gain insight into macroscopic states of large neuronal networks in terms of the collective firing activity of the neurons, or the firing rate. However, these theories have not succeeded in establishing an exact correspondence between the firing rate of the network and the underlying microscopic state of the spiking neurons. This has largely constrained the range of applicability of such macroscopic descriptions, particularly when trying to describe neuronal synchronization. Here we provide the derivation of a set of exact macroscopic equations for a network of spiking neurons. Our results reveal that the spike generation mechanism of individual neurons introduces an effective coupling between two biophysically relevant macroscopic quantities, the firing rate and the mean membrane potential, which together govern the evolution of the neuronal network. The resulting equations exactly describe all possible macroscopic dynamical states of the network, including states of synchronous spiking activity. Finally we show that the firing rate description is related, via a conformal map, with a low-dimensional description in terms of the Kuramoto order parameter, called Ott-Antonsen theory. We anticipate our results will be an important tool in investigating how large networks of spiking neurons self-organize in time to process and encode information in the brain.
Dynamic nonprehensile shaping of a deformable object by using its gait-like behaviors

This paper discusses a dynamic nonprehensile manipulation of a deformable object, where the shape of a thin object is dynamically controlled by the plate's rapid motion. After explaining the manipulation principle, we introduce a simplified analytical model where an object is modeled by two mass points and the plate has two degrees of freedom: a translational motion and a rotational one. After categorizing jump patterns of the mass point with considering the plate's acceleration, we show that gait-like behaviors of the object are generated on the periodic plate's motion. Through simulation analysis, we show the deformation velocity transition of the object with respect to the amplitude of plate's acceleration. We reveal that the transition is characterized by particular amplitudes which govern the jump patterns of the mass point. We make clear that the optimum plate's motion leading to the maximal deformation velocity exists on one of such particular amplitudes.
Differences in the Faecal Microbiome in Schistosoma haematobium Infected Children vs. Uninfected Children

Background Several infectious diseases and therapeutic interventions cause gut microbe dysbiosis and associated pathology. We characterised the gut microbiome of children exposed to the helminth Schistosoma haematobium pre- and post-treatment with the drug praziquantel (PZQ), with the aim to compare the gut microbiome structure (abundance and diversity) in schistosome infected vs. uninfected children. Methods Stool DNA from 139 children aged six months to 13 years old; with S. haematobium infection prevalence of 27.34% was extracted at baseline. 12 weeks following antihelminthic treatment with praziqunatel, stool DNA was collected from 62 of the 139 children. The 16S rRNA genes were sequenced from the baseline and post-treatment samples and the sequence data, clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The OTU data were analysed using multivariate analyses and paired T- test. Results Pre-treatment, the most abundant phyla were Bacteroidetes, followed by Firmicutes and Proteobacteria respectively. The relative abundance of taxa among bacterial classes showed limited variation by age group or sex and the bacterial communities had similar overall compositions. Although there were no overall differences in the microbiome structure across the whole age range, the abundance of 21 OTUs varied significantly with age (FDR<0.05). Some OTUs including Veillonella, Streptococcus, Bacteroides and Helicobacter were more abundant in children ≤ 1 year old compared to older children. Furthermore, the gut microbiome differed in schistosome infected vs. uninfected children with 27 OTU occurring in infected but not uninfected children, for 5 of these all Prevotella, the difference was statistically significant (p <0.05) with FDR <0.05. PZQ treatment did not alter the microbiome structure in infected or uninfected children from that observed at baseline. Conclusions There are significant differences in the gut microbiome structure of infected vs. uninfected children and the differences were refractory to PZQ treatment.
Terrain Modelling for Planetary Exploration

The success of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers has demonstrated the important benefits that mobility adds to planetary exploration. Very soon, mission requirements will impose that planetary exploration rovers drive autonomously in unknown terrain. This will require an evolution of the methods and technologies currently used. This paper presents our approach to 3D terrain reconstruction from large sparse range data sets, and the data reduction achieved through decimation. The outdoor experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the reconstructed terrain model for different types of terrain. We also present a first attempt to classify the terrain based on the scans properties.
Research on the handwriting identification based on the energy resolution

Feature extraction and identification is the key part of handwriting identification. In this paper, the testing handwriting and the training handwriting samples were preprocessed, and the characters were divide into the single ones, and then the single handwriting image was divided into M*N continuous meshes to extract the average gray level, which marked energy distribution. The eigenvector was structured, the comparability measurement function was constructed to match the character, the number of mesh is changed dynamically, and the optimal match result is searched. The experiments proved that the method improves the precision of handwriting recognition effectively
Efficient Discovery of Closed Hyperclique Patterns in Multidimensional Structured Databases

Structured data is becoming increasingly abundant in many application domains recently. Furthermore, more complex but valuable databases will be obtained by combining plural structured databases. In this paper, we focus on "Multidimensional Structured Databases'' as one of the typical examples of such complex databases, and propose a new data mining problem of finding closed hyperclique patterns, i.e., closed sets of correlated patterns, in them. To solve this problem efficiently, an algorithm named CHPMS is proposed which effectively utilizes the generality ordering and the properties of correlation and closedness. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through the experiments with real world datasets.
An evaluation of landmarks for re-finding information on the web

Re-finding information on the Web is a common yet often time consuming and challenging task. Even with the use of traditional bookmarks, which allow users to return to a previously visited page, it can be hard to re-find facts within that page. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for users to have long and unmanageable lists of bookmarks, making it difficult to identify the purpose of individual bookmarks. In this paper, we present an extension to traditional bookmarks called landmarks, a user-directed technique that aids users in returning to specific content within a previously visited web page. We investigate the efficiency of landmarks for re-finding information on web pages and present the findings of a study in which participants were first primed on two web pages and returned at a later date to re-find the information using both traditional bookmarks and landmarks.
A Study of Free Boundary Problems of Fluid Flow in Porous Media by Mixed Methods

In this article, the ow of uids in porous media is studied as a free or moving boundary problem by the mixed method. In particular, a new weak formulation for the problem of seepage of uids through a porous media is discussed and analyzed mathematically and numerically. The new formulation is in a mixed form and is suitable for the use of mixed nite element methods in the numerical approximation. It is proved that the weak formulation and its nite element discretization has a solution which can be approximated by a sequence of regularized problems. 1. Introduction In this paper, we are concerned with the free or moving boundary value problem in the study of the ow of uids through a heterogeneous porous media. Such problems are important in many branches of science and engineering. For example, in the areas of soil science, agricultural engineering , and groundwater hydrology, the movement of uids and their dissolved components in both saturated and unsaturated soils is an important environmental consideration. In petroleum engineering, improved recovery of oil and gas is based on simulation of multiphase and multicomponent uid transport in deep rocks. In both application areas, mass transfer across phase boundaries is an important consideration which can be discussed in the context of free or moving boundary problems. Another important application of the free or moving boundary problem is water seepage through a dam, or rain water creeping through an unsatu-rated zone. The underlying physics of the petroleum and seepage problems are very similar. For comparison, assume that there are two uids owing simultaneously in the porous medium. In unsaturated ow, these uids are water and air, while in the petroleum problem, the uids are assumed to be water and oil. Relevant material properties, including the capillary pressure and relative permeability are assumed to be known. Free boundary problems are also seen in other areas of petroleum industry such as basin simulation. The research of basin simulation is important
Voronoi State Management for P 2 P MMOGs

State management is a basic requirement for multi-user virtual environments (VEs) such as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). Current MMOGs rely on centralized server-clusters that possess inherent scalability bottlenecks and are expensive to adopt and deploy. In this concept paper, we propose Voronoi State Management (VSM) to maintain object states for peer-to-peer-based virtual worlds. By dynamically partitioning the virtual world with Voronoi diagrams and performing localized replication for game states, VSM supports existing consistency control to enable scalable, load balanced, and fault tolerant VE state management. As both client and server-side resources are utilized collaboratively, VSM also integrates both client-server and peer-to-peer VE designs in a unified approach.
Thai handwritten character recognition using heuristic rules hybrid with neural network

This research enhanced two major processes of the previous work of the off-line Thai handwritten character recognition using hybrid techniques of heuristic rules and neural network system. The proposed functions are mainly in 1) Feature extraction enhancement to improve the feature conflict resolution rule and the specialized neural network-based zigzag feature extraction. These functions are used to refine the conflict features and zigzag patterns; 2) Neural network-based recognition. Specifically, a neural network technique improves the capabilities of the recognition process to handle various styles of writing. The result showed that the additional feature conflict resolution rule could achieve the feature extraction rate of 87.85% (increased 2.13%), the feature extraction rate of the specialized neural network-based zigzag extraction could achieve 90.48% (increased 47.9%) and the recognition rate of the neural network-based recognition which combine both of the two proposed feature extraction functions could achieve 92.78% (increased 9.77%).
Revamp of eNodeB for 5G networks: Detracting spectrum scarcity

This paper proposes the revamp of architecture of an eNodeB (eNB) for 5G cellular communication networks capable of opening up the crunched spectrum resources. We have developed a novel priority driven Resource Block (RB) handoff algorithm for Full-Duplex Multi-User MIMO communication, where the eNB creates beams for establishing communication links. The use of Full-Duplex operation enables simultaneous in-band uplink and downlink operation without sacrificing temporal resource in each link. Space-division multiple access (SDMA) technique has been used to dynamically create a beam towards the intended mobile users as well as track them through beam steering. The possibility of co-channel interference (CCI) due to mobility of users is eliminated by the introduction of RB handoff mechanism. This allows sharing of a RB or RBs by multiple users. In the proposed architecture, along with coexistence of multiple mobile UEs in same RBs diversity gain is introduced both in uplink and downlink. The work includes related simulations showing the conceptual validity of the proposed architecture to revamp. The proposed eNB model leads to improved QoS and a significant decrease in cellular spectrum requirement worth millions of dollars.
Spectrum sensing over η-μ fading channel

This paper presents the performance analysis of energy detection over generalized fading channels, modeled by the η-μ distribution. Receiver operation characteristics are obtained under several different fading scenarios, including low, typical, and severe fading conditions, with combining both multipath clusters and non-homogeneous environments. In addition, the improvement in detection capability is evaluated when cooperative spectrum schemes are employed under η-μ fading channel. Comparisons are performed against Rayleigh model and a great flexibility is found in spectrum sensing techniques when their formulations consider the use of the η-μ fading model.
Performance of Text-Independent Speaker Identification considering In-Car Acoustics

Hands free operation of communication devices (mobile phones, navigation systems etc.) in cars is becoming obliged to greater extents. A major task for such systems is that of speech recognition, for instance handling a navigation system via voice commands only. Algorithms for speaker identification may be used to provide speaker dependent speech recognition systems with the necessary a-priori information. Furthermore, the retrieved information of who is speaking (and operating the car) may be exploited to enable other systems (radio etc.) adapting to the preferences of the driver. The performance of text-independent speaker identification under the acoustic circumstances occuring in a car is evaluated by the recognition rate of the system comparing different possibilities of multi-channel signal processing. Introduction Text-independent speaker identification using Gaussian Mixture Models was introduced by Reynolds et al. [1, 2]. In this work we want to evaluate the performance of speaker identification under the acoustic degradations occuring in a car environment: Reverberation and aditive noise. For different test-cases we try to improve the recognition rate of the system by applying multi-channel speech processing [3]. The results will give an indication to which extent speaker identification is possible under the given circumstances. Speaker Identification Feature Extraction To extract representative features from one speech sequence, the discrete-time signal s(k) is segmented into frames of R samples with frame index τ = 1.T . The overlapping of the frames is R/2 samples. Only frames of speech activity were taken into account by decision from a voice activity detection [4]. For each frame the MelFrequency Coefficients (MFCC) are extracted in HTKformat [5] giving a feature-vector fτ = (fτ,1.fτ,D) T with D dimensions. For the need of channel-compensation [1] the overall bias of the feature-vectors b = 1 T ∑T τ=1 fτ is removed from all vectors yielding the compensated features f̂τ = fτ−b. In order to consider temporal information the Delta-coefficients ∆f̂τ = f̂τ − f̂τ−1 are included in the feature vectors by
ROCK1 but not ROCK2 contributes to RhoA signaling and NMIIA-mediated contractility at the epithelial zonula adherens

ROCK1 is the prominent isoform responsible for molecular organization of epithelial zonula adherens (ZA) and its contractile properties. ROCK1 selectively localizes NMIIA to ZA and supports cortical tension and GTP-Rho at the ZA. NMIIA, in a feedback loop, promotes cortical localization of ROCK1.
CD28 and T cell antigen receptor signal transduction coordinately regulate interleukin 2 gene expression in response to superantigen stimulation

Activation of an immune response requires intercellular contact between T lymphocytes and antigen-presenting cells (APC). Interaction of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) with antigen in the context of major histocompatibility molecules mediates signal transduction, but T cell activation appears to require the induction of a second costimulatory signal transduction pathway. Recent studies suggest that interaction of CD28 with B7 on APC might deliver such a costimulatory signal. To investigate the role of CD28 signal transduction during APC-dependent T cell activation, we have used Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) presented by a B7-positive APC. We used anti-B7 monoclonal antibodies and a mutant interleukin 2 (IL-2) promoter construct, unresponsive to CD28-generated signals, in transient transfection assays to examine the contribution of the CD28-B7 interaction to IL-2 gene activation. These studies indicate that the CD28-regulated signal transduction pathway is activated during SE stimulation of T cells and plays an important role in SE induction of IL-2 gene expression through its influence upon the CD28-responsive element contained within the IL-2 gene promoter. This effect is particularly profound in the activation of the IL-2 gene in peripheral blood T cells.
Video-Driven Creation of Virtual Avatars by Component-based Transferring of Facial Expressions

This paper proposes an efficient and economic video-driven technique that enables the instant creation of a large diversity of virtual avatars and the automatic syntheses of vivid facial animations. The proposed technique addresses the expression transferring problem which transfers a given facial expression of a source human character to the corresponding one of a synthesized avatar. In tackling the expression transferring problem, we propose a component-based approach which is more appealing than the existing approaches which treat the whole face as a single unit for expression transferring. Our approach acquires a much higher diversity in synthesizing virtual avatars and facial expressions by composing the synthesized target face from the facial components of different avatars. The proposed method achieves a good way to transfer the synthesizing parameters acquired from the source human face to those of the target avatar face which complies well with the person-specific characteristics of the target avatar. Additionally, the removal of color inconsistencies among the facial components from different avatars is also well handled. Some experimental results are demonstrated to show that the proposed method can achieve interesting and colorful transfers of facial expressions and synthesize a large diversity of virtual avatars instantly.
The Classification Framework for Model Transformation

Wide usage of model transformation in the Information Systems has resulted in a number of transformation approaches recently. In order to provide an insight into the existing transformation approaches, to draw out the practicability and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches a multidimensional classification is required. In this paper, a classification framework is proposed which provides a multidimensional, faceted and measure based viewpoint to give a clear and better insight into the existing model transformation approaches.
A way to identify archaellins in Halobacterium salinarum archaella by FLAG-tagging

In the current study, haloarchaea Halobacterium salinarum cells were transformed individually with each of the modified archaellin genes (flaA1, flaA2 and flaB2) containing an oligonucleotide insert encoding the FLAG peptide (DYKDDDDK). The insertion site was selected to expose the FLAG peptide on the archaella filament surface. Three types of transformed cells synthesizing archaella, containing A1, A2, or B2 archaellin modified with FLAG peptide were obtained. Electron microscopy of archaella has demonstrated that in each case the FLAG peptide is available for the specific antibody binding. It was shown for the first time that the B2 archaellin, like archaellins A1 and A2, is found along the whole filament length.
An Energy-Efficient Physical Layer Adaptive Modulation Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks pose numerous design challenges. They require long term, robust sensing for many applications. One important challenge is to design sensor networks that have long system lifetimes. Since the radio has the greatest impact on the energy consumption of the WSNs node, we present a physical layer adaptive channel coding and modulation scheme to lower the number of retransmission of package, then decrease the number of retransmission data because of error. So the energy consumption of the WSNs node can be saved and lifetime of the network is been extended. Experiment results show that the total amount of bits that are sent can be reduced by employing this scheme.
Entity-based collaboration tools for intelligence analysis

Software tools that make it easier for analysts to collaborate as a natural part of their work will lead to better analysis that is informed by more perspectives. We are interested to know if software tools can be designed that support collaboration even as they allow analysts to find documents and organize information (including evidence, schemas, and hypotheses). We have modified the Entity Workspace system, described previously, to test such designs. We have evaluated the resulting design in both a laboratory study and a study where it is situated with an analysis team. In both cases, effects on collaboration appear to be positive. Key aspects of the design include an evidence notebook optimized for organizing entities (rather than text characters), information structures that can be collapsed and expanded, visualization of evidence that emphasizes events and documents (rather than emphasizing the entity graph), and a notification system that finds entities of mutual interest to multiple analysts.
Generation of Platform-Specific Model Transformation Plugins for EJB 3 . 0

The current paper presents a technique for generating standalone model transformation plugins for the EJB 3.0 platform from platform-independent specifications of transformations given by a combination of graph transformation and abstract state machine rules (as used within the Viatra2 framework). As a result, the design of transformations can be separated from the execution of transformations. This also enables to run platform-independent Viatra2 transformations on very large models stored in underlying relational databases or to integrate such transformations into existing business applications.
A 6-DOF exoskeleton for head and neck motion assist with parallel manipulator and sEMG based control

This paper develops a novel parallel manipulator based exoskeleton for head and neck motion assist. Electromyography signal is used to extract feature and estimated neck force during motion. Then the estimated force is combined with the inverse dynamic controller to construct an interaction controller, which is used to reduce resultant contact force and moment between manipulator and human head. Simulation results show the proposed control scheme can help relieve the head burden and generate extra head motion assist.