Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Collaborative Hashing

Hashing technique has become a promising approach for fast similarity search. Most of existing hashing research pursue the binary codes for the same type of entities by preserving their similarities. In practice, there are many scenarios involving nearest neighbor search on the data given in matrix form, where two different types of, yet naturally associated entities respectively correspond to its two dimensions or views. To fully explore the duality between the two views, we propose a collaborative hashing scheme for the data in matrix form to enable fast search in various applications such as image search using bag of words and recommendation using user-item ratings. By simultaneously preserving both the entity similarities in each view and the interrelationship between views, our collaborative hashing effectively learns the compact binary codes and the explicit hash functions for out-of-sample extension in an alternating optimization way. Extensive evaluations are conducted on three well-known datasets for search inside a single view and search across different views, demonstrating that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art baselines, with significant accuracy gains ranging from 7.67% to 45.87% relatively.
What you see is what will change: Evaluative conditioning effects depend on a focus on valence

This study investigated whether evaluative conditioning (EC) effects depend on an evaluative focus during the learning phase. An EC effect is a valence change of an originally neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus or CS) that is due to the former pairing with a positive or negative stimulus (unconditioned stimulus or US). In three experiments, the task focus during the conditioning phase was manipulated. Participants judged CS–US pairings either with respect to their valence or with respect to another stimulus dimension. EC effects on explicit and implicit measures were found when valence was task relevant but not when the non-valent stimulus dimension was task relevant. Two accounts for the valence focus effect are proposed: (1) An additional direct learning of the relation of CS and evaluative responses in the valence focus condition, or (2) a stronger activation of US valence in the valence focus condition compared to the non-valent focus condition.
Transcriptome‐wide comparison of selenium hyperaccumulator and nonaccumulator Stanleya species provides new insight into key processes mediating the hyperaccumulation syndrome

Summary To obtain better insight into the mechanisms of selenium hyperaccumulation in Stanleya pinnata, transcriptome‐wide differences in root and shoot gene expression levels were investigated in S. pinnata and related nonaccumulator Stanleya elata grown with or without 20 μm selenate. Genes predicted to be involved in sulphate/selenate transport and assimilation or in oxidative stress resistance (glutathione‐related genes and peroxidases) were among the most differentially expressed between species; many showed constitutively elevated expression in S. pinnata. A number of defence‐related genes predicted to mediate synthesis and signalling of defence hormones jasmonic acid (JA, reported to induce sulphur assimilatory and glutathione biosynthesis genes), salicylic acid (SA) and ethylene were also more expressed in S. pinnata than S. elata. Several upstream signalling genes that up‐regulate defence hormone synthesis showed higher expression in S. pinnata than S. elata and might trigger these selenium‐mediated defence responses. Thus, selenium hyperaccumulation and hypertolerance in S. pinnata may be mediated by constitutive, up‐regulated JA, SA and ethylene‐mediated defence systems, associated with elevated expression of genes involved in sulphate/selenate uptake and assimilation or in antioxidant activity. Genes pinpointed in this study may be targets of genetic engineering of plants that may be employed in biofortification or phytoremediation.
Uncoupling and Turnover in a Cl−/H+ Exchange Transporter

The CLC-family protein CLC-ec1, a bacterial homologue of known structure, stoichiometrically exchanges two Cl− for one H+ via an unknown membrane transport mechanism. This study examines mutations at a conserved tyrosine residue, Y445, that directly coordinates a Cl− ion located near the center of the membrane. Mutations at this position lead to “uncoupling,” such that the H+/Cl− transport ratio decreases roughly with the volume of the substituted side chain. The uncoupled proteins are still able to pump protons uphill when driven by a Cl− gradient, but the extent and rate of this H+ pumping is weaker in the more uncoupled variants. Uncoupling is accompanied by conductive Cl− transport that is not linked to counter-movement of H+, i.e., a “leak. ” The unitary Cl− transport rate, measured in reconstituted liposomes by both a conventional initial-velocity method and a novel Poisson dilution approach, is ∼4,000 s−1 for wild-type protein, and the uncoupled mutants transport Cl− at similar rates.
Autonomic markers associated with generalized social phobia symptoms: heart rate variability and salivary alpha-amylase

Abstract The study of autonomic nervous system changes associated with generalized social phobia (GSP) disorder has increased in recent years, showing contradictory results. The present study aimed to evaluate how young people with GSP reacted before, during, and after exposure to the Trier Stress Social Test (TSST), focusing on their autonomic changes (heart rate variability (HRV) and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA)) compared to a control group (non-GSP). Some psychological variables were also considered. Sex was specifically studied as a possible modulator of autonomic fluctuations and psychological state. Eighty young people were randomly distributed into two counterbalanced situations: stress condition (N = 18 and 21 for GSP and non-GSP, respectively) and control condition (N = 21 and 20 for GSP and non-GSP, respectively), where cardiovascular variables were continuously recorded. Psychological questionnaires about mood and perceived stress were filled out, and five saliva samples were collected to analyze sAA. GSP participants showed higher values on low- and high-frequency ratios (HR domains), compared to non-GSP people, during exposure to the TSST, but no differences were observed after the stressor. Furthermore, the two groups did not differ in sAA. Importantly, positive affect in GSP participants was modulated by sex. The present study suggests that the balance between high- and low-frequency domains of HRV is a key cardiovascular marker reflecting the stress response of GSP people, as well the importance of sex in positive affect when facing a stressful situation.
Block-diagonal solutions to Lyapunov inequalities and generalisations of diagonal dominance

Diagonally dominant matrices have many applications in systems and control theory. Linear dynamical systems with scaled diagonally dominant drift matrices, which include stable positive systems, allow for scalable stability analysis. For example, it is known that Lyapunov inequalities for this class of systems admit diagonal solutions. In this paper, we present an extension of scaled diagonally dominance to block partitioned matrices. We show that our definition describes matrices admitting block-diagonal solutions to Lyapunov inequalities and that these solutions can be computed using linear algebraic tools. We also show how in some cases the Lyapunov inequalities can be decoupled into a set of lower dimensional linear matrix inequalities, thus leading to improved scalability. We conclude by illustrating some advantages and limitations of our results with numerical examples.
Effect of solvent treatment on morphology, crystallinity and tensile properties of cellulose acetate nanofiber mats

Abstract Aligned nanofiber mats were prepared from cellulose acetate using an electrospinning technique. The nanofiber mats were then immersed in an ethanol/acetone mixture. The solvent treatment led to denser, more compact fibrous structure and slight decrease in fiber alignment. It increased fiber diameter and polymer crystallinity within fibers. These effects resulted in increase in the tensile strength of fibrous mats. Solvent treatment may offer a simple, efficient approach to improve the mechanical strength of nanofibrous mats.
Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein (StAR) Overexpression Reduces Inflammation and Insulin Resistance in Obese Mice

Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), a mitochondrial cholesterol delivery protein, plays a beneficial role in hyperlipidemia, NAFLD, and endothelial inflammation. Elevated circulating fatty acids and low grade inflammation are known as key risk factors of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In the present study, C57BL/6J mice were fed with HFD and infected with recombinant adenovirus expressing StAR by tail‐vein injection. Intraperitoneal glucose/insulin tolerance test was performed to assess the insulin sensitivity. Morphological analysis and intramuscular lipid determination were used to illustrate the adipose hypertrophy and ectopic fat accumulation in skeletal muscle. The levels of inflammatory factor and nitric oxide were determined by ELISA and classic Griess reagent methods, respectively. The fatty acids composition was analysis using gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS). The expression of genes associated with inflammation and insulin resistance were determined by Western blotting and qPCR to elucidate the underlying mechanism. We demonstrated that StAR overexpression ameliorated insulin resistance and systemic inflammatory response with the reduction of adipose hypertrophy and intramuscular lipid in HFD‐fed mice. In addition, StAR overexpression increased serum unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) and PPARγ expression in muscle and adipose tissue of obese mice. In conclusion, StAR may activate PPARγ by increasing UFAs, which leads to a protective role in systemic inflammation and insulin resistance in obese mice. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 3932–3942, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Molecular Analysis of Genetic Markers for Non‐Hodgkin Lymphomas

Molecular analysis complements the clinical and histopathologic tools used to diagnose and subclassify hematologic malignancies. The presence of clonal antigen‐receptor gene rearrangements can help to confirm the diagnosis of a B or T cell lymphoma and can serve as a fingerprint of that neoplasm to be used in identifying concurrent disease at disparate sites or recurrence at future time points. Certain lymphoid malignancies harbor a characteristic chromosomal translocation, a finding that may have significant implications for an individual's prognosis or response to therapy. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is typically used to detect antigen‐receptor gene rearrangements as well as specific translocations that can be supplemented by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and karyotype analysis. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Type-preserving CPS translation of Σ and Π types is not not possible

Dependently typed languages such as Coq are used to specify and prove functional correctness of source programs, but what we ultimately need are guarantees about correctness of compiled code. By preserving dependent types through each compiler pass, we could preserve source-level specifications and correctness proofs into the generated target-language programs. Unfortunately, type-preserving compilation of dependent types is hard. In 2002, Barthe and Uustalu showed that type-preserving CPS is not possible for languages such as Coq. Specifically, they showed that for strong dependent pairs (Σ types), the standard typed call-by-name CPS is not type preserving. They further proved that for dependent case analysis on sums, a class of typed CPS translations—including the standard translation—is not possible. In 2016, Morrisett noticed a similar problem with the standard call-by-value CPS translation for dependent functions (Π types). In essence, the problem is that the standard typed CPS translation by double-negation, in which computations are assigned types of the form (A → ⊥) → ⊥, disrupts the term/type equivalence that is used during type checking in a dependently typed language. In this paper, we prove that type-preserving CPS translation for dependently typed languages is not not possible. We develop both call-by-name and call-by-value CPS translations from the Calculus of Constructions with both Π and Σ types (CC) to a dependently typed target language, and prove type preservation and compiler correctness of each translation. Our target language is CC extended with an additional equivalence rule and an additional typing rule, which we prove consistent by giving a model in the extensional Calculus of Constructions. Our key observation is that we can use a CPS translation that employs answer-type polymorphism, where CPS-translated computations have type ∀ α. (A → α) → α. This type justifies, by a free theorem, the new equality rule in our target language and allows us to recover the term/type equivalences that CPS translation disrupts. Finally, we conjecture that our translation extends to dependent case analysis on sums, despite the impossibility result, and provide a proof sketch.
Palestinian Arabic regional accent recognition

We attempt to automatically recognize the speaker's accent among regional Arabic Palestinian accents from four different regions of Palestine, i.e. Jerusalem (JE), Hebron (HE), Nablus (NA) and Ramallah (RA). To achieve this goal, we applied the state of the art techniques used in speaker and language identification, namely, Gaussian Mixture Model - Universal Background Model (GMM-UBM), Gaussian Mixture Model - Support Vector Machines (GMM-SVM) and I-vector framework. All of these systems were trained and tested on speech of 200 speakers. GMM-SVM and I-vector systems outperformed the baseline GMM-UBM system. The best result (accuracy of 81.5%) was obtained by an I-vector system with 64 Gaussian components, compared to an accuracy of 73.4% achieved by human listeners on the same testing utterances.
Minimizing Traffic Migration During Network Update in IaaS Datacenters

The cloud datacenter network is consistently undergoing changing, due to a variety of topology and traffic updates, such as the VM migrations. Given an update event, prior methods focus on finding a sequence of lossless transitions from an initial network state to an end network state. They, however, suffer frequent and global search of the feasible end network states. This incurs non-trivial computation overhead and decision-making delay, especially in large-scale networks. Moreover, in each round of transition, prior methods usually cause the cascaded migrations of existing flows; hence, significantly disrupt production services in IaaS data centers. To tackle such severe issues, we present a simple update mechanism to minimize the amount of flow migrations during the congestion-free network update. The basic idea is to replace performing the sequence of global transitions of network states with local reschedule of involved flows, caused by an update event. We first model all involved flows due to an update event as a set of new flows, and then propose a heuristic method Lupdate. It motivates to locally schedule each new flow into the shortest path, at the cost of causing the extra migration of at most one existing flow if needed. To minimize the amount of migrated traffic, the migrated flow should be as small as possible. To further improve the success rate, we propose an enhanced method Lupdate-S. It shares the similar design of Lupdate, but permits to migrate multiple necessary flows on the shortest path allocated to each new flow. We conduct large-scale trace-driven evaluations under widely used Fat-Tree and ER data centers. The experimental results indicate that our methods can realize congestion-free network with as less amount of traffic migration as possible even when the link utilization of a majority of links is very high. The amount of traffic migration caused by our Ludpate method is 1.2 times and 1.12 times of the optimal result in the Fat-Tree and ER random networks, respectively.
Experimental investigations of curling phenomenon in selective laser sintering process

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the curling behaviour of selective laser sintered polyamide/glass bead composites with changes in material compositions, part bed temperature, powder base thickness, laser power and layer cooling time. Design/methodology/approach The Taguchi parameter design method (design of experiments, DOE) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique were applied in the investigation to determine the optimal process parameter settings. Findings The results of statistical analysis and ANOVA provided evidence for the effectiveness of filler content and its surface treatment on reducing the amount of curling. Research limitations/implications Warping and curling phenomena is one of several aspects of this work that can be pursued further. The present investigation could be expanded to explore other fillers and interface adhesion using other modifiers. Experiments could be conducted with other complicated geometries, various sizes, different positions and locations to widen the knowledge base of geometric accuracy of selective laser sintering process. Practical implications This experimental work is beneficial for materials development and accuracy characterisation in rapid manufacturing techniques. The experimental techniques adopted are readily transferable to virtually any material system used in rapid manufacturing. Originality/value Although many materials have been developed, there is still a need for research into new materials. This work demonstrates that it is possible to improve the geometric accuracy of selective laser sintered components from glass bead- filled polyamide 12 and achieve near-zero curling by adding rigid multiphase-coated particle to the material system.
Improving Intra Prediction in High-Efficiency Video Coding

Intra prediction is an important tool in intra-frame video coding to reduce the spatial redundancy. In current coding standard H.265/high-efficiency video coding (HEVC), a copying-based method based on the boundary (or interpolated boundary) reference pixels is used to predict each pixel in the coding block to remove the spatial redundancy. We find that the conventional copying-based method can be further improved in two cases: 1) the boundary has an inhomogeneous region and 2) the predicted pixel is far away from the boundary that the correlation between the predicted pixel and the reference pixels is relatively weak. This paper performs a theoretical analysis of the optimal weights based on a first-order Gaussian Markov model and the effects when the pixel values deviate from the model and the predicted pixel is far away from the reference pixels. It also proposes a novel intra prediction scheme based on the analysis that smoothing the copying-based prediction can derive a better prediction block. Both the theoretical analysis and the experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed intra prediction method. An average gain of 2.3% on all intra coding can be achieved with the HEVC reference software.
Testing Square-Freeness of Strings Compressed by Balanced Straight Line Program

In this paper we study the problem of deciding whether a given compressed string contains a square. A string x is called a square if x = zz and z = uk implies k = 1 and u = z. A string w is said to be square-free if no substrings of w are squares. Many efficient algorithms to test if a given string is square-free, have been developed so far. However, very little is known for testing square-freeness of a given compressed string. In this paper, we give an O(max(n2,n log2 N))-time O(n2)-space solution to test square-freeness of a given compressed string, where n and N are the size of a given compressed string and the corresponding decompressed string, respectively. Our input strings are compressed by balanced straight line program (BSLP). We remark that BSLP has exponential compression, that is, N = O(2n). Hence no decompress-then-test approaches can be better than our method in the worst case.
Momo: Monocular motion estimation on manifolds

Knowledge about the location of a vehicle is indispensable for autonomous driving. In order to apply global localisation methods, a pose prior must be known which can be obtained from visual odometry. The quality and robustness of that prior determine the success of localisation. Momo is a monocular frame-to-frame motion estimation methodology providing a high quality visual odometry for that purpose. By taking into account the motion model of the vehicle, reliability and accuracy of the pose prior are significantly improved. We show that especially in low-structure environments Momo outperforms the state of the art. Moreover, the method is designed so that multiple cameras with or without overlap can be integrated. The evaluation on the KITTI-dataset and on a proper multi-camera dataset shows that even with only 100–300 feature matches the prior is estimated with high accuracy and in real-time.
Adaptive anisotropic denoising: a bootstrapped procedure

Signal denoising proves to be important in many domains such as pattern recognition and image analysis. This paper investigates several refinements of adaptive local filters that rely on local mode finding. These spatial filters are anisotropic and offer the advantage of attenuating noise without smoothing salient signal features such as discontinuities or other sharp transitions. In particular, a bootstrapped procedure is developed and leads to an improvement of the denoising quality without increasing the computational complexity. Experiments with an artificial benchmark allow the quantification of the performance gain.
Deploying and Extending On-Premise Cloud Storage Based on ownCloud

The conception and implementation of an on-premise cloud storage is a significant, but also necessary step in the development of modern data centers. Providing seamless access to data from multiple devices and from any network-connected location world-wide is a mandatory requirement for the data management and also expected by users, as most of them already use commercial offerings such as drop box, box, sky drive and many others. These demands raise activities of almost every educational driven unification like "Deutsches Forschungsnetz" (DFN) or "Zentren für Kommunikation und Information sverarbeitung" (ZKI). This paper describes our concept and implementation for on-premise cloud storage, designed to service up to 40.000 students and faculty members of TU Berlin. The solution is based on the open-source project own Cloud, which is extended with functionalities for sharing files among research groups, based on integration with the TUB identity management system. The paper also presents an experimental evaluation in a real-life scenario and summarizes pitfalls occurred during the rollout of such a large system.