Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study

Dogs have been shown to excel in reading human social cues, including facial cues. In the present study we used eye-tracking technology to further study dogs’ face processing abilities. It was found that dogs discriminated between human facial regions in their spontaneous viewing pattern and looked most to the eye region independently of facial expression. Furthermore dogs played most attention to the first two images presented, afterwards their attention dramatically decreases; a finding that has methodological implications. Increasing evidence indicates that the oxytocin system is involved in dogs’ human-directed social competence, thus as a next step we investigated the effects of oxytocin on processing of human facial emotions. It was found that oxytocin decreases dogs’ looking to the human faces expressing angry emotional expression. More interestingly, however, after oxytocin pre-treatment dogs’ preferential gaze toward the eye region when processing happy human facial expressions disappears. These results provide the first evidence that oxytocin is involved in the regulation of human face processing in dogs. The present study is one of the few empirical investigations that explore eye gaze patterns in naïve and untrained pet dogs using a non-invasive eye-tracking technique and thus offers unique but largely untapped method for studying social cognition in dogs.
Identifying the interacting roles of stressors in driving the global loss of canopy‐forming to mat‐forming algae in marine ecosystems

Identifying the type and strength of interactions between local anthropogenic and other stressors can help to set achievable management targets for degraded marine ecosystems and support their resilience by identifying local actions. We undertook a meta‐analysis, using data from 118 studies to test the hypothesis that ongoing global declines in the dominant habitat along temperate rocky coastlines, forests of canopy‐forming algae and/or their replacement by mat‐forming algae are driven by the nonadditive interactions between local anthropogenic stressors that can be addressed through management actions (fishing, heavy metal pollution, nutrient enrichment and high sediment loads) and other stressors (presence of competitors or grazers, removal of canopy algae, limiting or excessive light, low or high salinity, increasing temperature, high wave exposure and high UV or CO2), not as easily amenable to management actions. In general, the cumulative effects of local anthropogenic and other stressors had negative effects on the growth and survival of canopy‐forming algae. Conversely, the growth or survival of mat‐forming algae was either unaffected or significantly enhanced by the same pairs of stressors. Contrary to our predictions, the majority of interactions between stressors were additive. There were however synergistic interactions between nutrient enrichment and heavy metals, the presence of competitors, low light and increasing temperature, leading to amplified negative effects on canopy‐forming algae. There were also synergistic interactions between nutrient enrichment and increasing CO2 and temperature leading to amplified positive effects on mat‐forming algae. Our review of the current literature shows that management of nutrient levels, rather than fishing, heavy metal pollution or high sediment loads, would provide the greatest opportunity for preventing the shift from canopy to mat‐forming algae, particularly in enclosed bays or estuaries because of the higher prevalence of synergistic interactions between nutrient enrichment with other local and global stressors, and as such it should be prioritized.
Using a Time-delay Actor-critic Neural Architecture with Dopamine-like Reinforcement Signal for Learning in Autonomous Robots

Neuroscientists have identiied a neural substrate of prediction and reward in experiments with primates. The so-called dopamine neurons have been shown to code an error in the temporal prediction of rewards. Similarly, artiicial systems can \learn to predict" by the so-called temporal-diierence (TD) methods. Based on the general resemblance between the eeective reinforcement term of TD models and the response of dopamine neurons, neuroscientists have developed a TD-learning time-delay actor-critic neural model and compared its performance with the behavior of monkeys in the laboratory. We have used such a neural network model to learn to predict variable-delay rewards in a robot spatial choice task similar to the one used by neuroscientists with primates. Such architecture implementing TD-learning appears as a promising mechanism for robotic systems that learn from simple human teaching signals in the real world.
Modeling and algorithm of attitude measurement of moving target by laser tracking systems

We demonstrate theoretically the feasibility of the full-attitude measurement of a moving target by laser tracking systems. Based on the combination of retroreflector target, laser tracking, and interferometry techniques, two kinds of laser tracking systems known as distance- angle-measurement (DAM) and distance-only-measurement (DOM) sys- tems are proposed for the attitude measurement of a moving target in real time. Mathematical models and algorithms of both systems are built to determine and calculate the dynamic attitude of the target under the world coordinate system and the target's initial coordinate system re- spectively. The coordinate transform between different coordinate sys- tems and the initial geometric parameters of the laser tracking stations can be self-calibrated. The coordinate transform self-calibration algo- rithm can be solved by the singular matrix decomposition method, while the self-calibration algorithm of the initial geometric parameters of the DOM system can be solved by the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The simulation results show that the self-calibration algorithm converges rap- idly and its accuracy is satisfactory under noise measurement. © 2003
Determination of Ascorbic Acid in Commercial Tablets Using Pencil Drawn Electrochemical Paper-based Analytical Devices

This study describes the use of electrochemical paper-based analytical devices (ePADs) drawn with graphite pencil for the determination of ascorbic acid (AA) in commercial tablets. ePADs were fabricated using vegetal paper and graphite pencil. First, the three-electrode electrochemical cell drawn using a graphical software and toner lines were laser printed on the vegetal paper surface to delimit the electrode areas. Then, the electrode regions were manually painted with graphite pencil. Afterwards, the pseudo-reference electrode was defined with the deposition of silver ink over the graphite surface. Cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry (SWV) experiments were performed to optimize the electroanalytical parameters as well as to quantitatively determine the AA concentration in two commercial tables. ePADs exhibited linear behavior for a concentration range between 0.5 and 3.0 mmol L^−1. The achieved limit of detection and sensitivity were 70 μmol L^−1 and 0.47 μA/mmol L^−1, respectively. The AA concentration levels found by SWV experiments in both Cenevit^TM and Energil C^TM were 2.80 ± 0.02 and 3.10 ± 0.01 mmol L^−1, respectively. The accuracy of the proposed devices was investigated through recovery experiments in three concentration levels and it presented values between 95 and 115%.
Reuse-based test access and integrated test scheduling for network-on-chip

In this paper, we propose a new method for test access and test scheduling in NoC-based system. It relies on a progressive reuse of the network resources for transporting test data to routers. We present possible solutions to the implementation of this scheme. We also show how the router testing can be scheduled concurrently with core testing to reduce test application time. Experimental results for the ITC'02 SoC benchmarks show that the proposed method can lead to substantial reduction on test application time compared to previous work based on the use of serial boundary scan. The method can also help to reduce hardware overhead
An Initial Step of GAS-Containing Autophagosome-Like Vacuoles Formation Requires Rab7

Group A streptococcus (GAS; Streptococcus pyogenes) is a common pathogen that invades non-phagocytic human cells via endocytosis. Once taken up by cells, it escapes from the endocytic pathway to the cytoplasm, but here it is contained within a membrane-bound structure termed GAS-containing autophagosome-like vacuoles (GcAVs). The autophagosome marker GFP-LC3 associates with GcAVs, and other components of the autophagosomal pathway are involved in GcAV formation. However, the mechanistic relationship between GcAV and canonical autophagy is largely unknown. Here, we morphologically analyzed GcAV formation in detail. Initially, a small, GFP-LC3-positive GcAV sequesters each streptococcal chain, and these then coalesce into a single, large GcAV. Expression of a dominant-negative form of Rab7 or RNAi-mediated knockdown of Rab7 prevented the initial formation of small GcAV structures. Our results demonstrate that mechanisms of GcAV formation includes not only the common machinery of autophagy, but also Rab7 as an additional component, which is dispensable in canonical autophagosome formation.
Metisse is not a 3D desktop!

Twenty years after the general adoption of overlapping windows and the desktop metaphor, modern window systems differ mainly in minor details such as window decorations or mouse and keyboard bindings. While a number of innovative window management techniques have been proposed, few of them have been evaluated and fewer have made their way into real systems. We believe that one reason for this is that most of the proposed techniques have been designed using a low fidelity approach and were never made properly available. In this paper, we present Metisse, a fully functional window system specifically created to facilitate the design, the implementation and the evaluation of innovative window management techniques. We describe the architecture of the system, some of its implementation details and present several examples that illustrate its potential.
Reducing Combinatorics in GUI Testing of Android Applications

The rising popularity of Android and the GUI-driven nature of its apps have motivated the need for applicable automated GUI testing techniques. Although exhaustive testing of all possible combinations is the ideal upper bound in combinatorial testing, it is often infeasible, due to the combinatorial explosion of test cases. This paper presents TrimDroid, a framework for GUI testing of Android apps that uses a novel strategy to generate tests in a combinatorial, yet scalable, fashion. It is backed with automated program analysis and formally rigorous test generation engines. TrimDroid relies on program analysis to extract formal specifications. These specifications express the app’s behavior (i.e., control flow between the various app screens) as well as the GUI elements and their dependencies. The dependencies among the GUI elements comprising the app are used to reduce the number of combinations with the help of a solver. Our experiments have corroborated TrimDroid’s ability to achieve a comparable coverage as that possible under exhaustive GUI testing using significantly fewer test cases.
The schistosoma-specific antibody response after treatment in non-immune travellers

Egg detection is the gold standard in diagnosing and controlling treatment in schistosomiasis, but sensitivity is poor in lightly infected individuals, whereas Schistosoma-specific antibodies are more sensitive. The purpose of the study was to evaluate use of Gut Associated Antigen (GAA) and Membrane Bound Antigen (MBA) assays in assessment of treatment efficacy and number of treated non-immune individuals with signs of treatment failure. In a retrospective study, residents in Denmark diagnosed with positive Schistosoma antibodies in the period 1987 – 2004 were offered follow-up including analyses for GAA, MBA, IgE and eosinophil count. Among 98 patients with positive antibody at time of diagnosis, 73 were examined for eggs and 27% had detectable eggs. 15% still had detectable living eggs after 1 course of treatment. At follow-up it was demonstrated that antibodies continued to increase for up to 6 months after treatment and average duration of positive GAA antibody was approximately 10 y. The study confirms that the GAA- and MBA-IFAT are not suitable in monitoring results of therapy. Treatment failure in 15% of non-immune patients indicates that studies are needed to define the correct dose of praziquantel in those individuals or to evaluate if resistance to praziquantel is a growing problem.
Digital classrooms, public profiles

Framed by the larger questions of digital representation and course management systems, I examine how instructors perceive customized student profile on course management systems. For this exploratory study, I have surveyed 41 instructors and interviewed 9 instructors of English 150 and 250 in the English Department to examine how these instructors use both CMS and student profiles inside and outside of the classroom at Iowa State University. This study has found that instructors use their course management systems in various online ways: as online syllabi, as workshops for their students, as homework hubs, and as an extension of the classroom. Five main themes from this study include course management systems as a space, course management systems as a resource, boundaries between the physical and online classrooms, online identities through user profiles, and course management systems versus social media.
EXPERIMENTAL NANOMECHANICS OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL NANOMATERIALS BY IN SITU MICROSCOPY

This paper provides a comprehensive review on the methodological development and technical applications of in situ microscopy, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), developed in the last decade for investigating the structure-mechanical-property relationship of a single one-dimensional nanomaterial, such as nanotube, nanowire and nanobelt. The paper covers both the fundamental methods and detailed applications, including AFM-based static elastic and plastic measurements of a carbon nanotube, external field-induced resonance dynamic measurement of elastic modulus of a nanotube/nanowire, nano-indentation, and in situ plastic deformation process of a nanowire. Details are presented on the elastic property measurements and direct imaging of plastic to superplastic behavior of semiconductor nanowires at atomic resolution, providing quantitative information on the mechanical behavior of nanomaterials. The studies on the Si and SiC nanowires clearly demonstrated their distinct, "unexpected" and superior plastic mechanical properties. Finally, a perspective is given on the future of nanomechanics.
A splitting method for fully nonlinear degenerate parabolic PDEs

Motivated by applications in Asian option pricing, optimal commodity trading etc., we propose a splitting scheme for a fully nonlinear degenerate parabolic PDEs. The splitting scheme generalizes the probabilistic scheme of Fahim, Touzi and Warin to the degenerate case. We also provide a simulation-regression method to make the splitting scheme implementable. General convergence as well as rate of convergence are obtained under reasonable conditions. Finally, we give some numerical tests in an Asian option pricing problem and an optimal hydropower management problem.
Mesh simplification and adaptive LOD for finite element mesh generation

In this paper, we propose a new triangular finite element mesh generation method based on simplification of high-density mesh and adaptive level-of detail (LOD) methods for efficient CAE. Mesh simplification evaluating mesh properties is applied to control the mesh properties required for FE mesh, such as the number of triangular elements, element shape quality and size while keeping the specified approximation tolerance. Adaptive LOD methods based on vertex hierarchy according to curvature and region of interest, and global LOD method preserving density distributions are also proposed in order to construct a more appropriate FE mesh. These methods enable efficient generation of FE meshes with appropriate properties for analysis from a high-density mesh. Finally, the effectiveness of our approach is shown through evaluations of the FE meshes for practical use.
Compression of a Set of Files with Natural Language Content

An algorithm for very efficient compression of a set of natural language text files is presented. Not only a very good compression ratio is reached, the used compression method allows fast pattern matching in compressed text, which is an attractive property especially for search engines. Much information is stored in the form of a large collection of text files. The web search engines can store the web pages in the raw text form to build so-called snippets or to perform so-called positional ranking functions on them. Furthermore, there exist many other similar contexts such as the storage of emails, application logs or the databases of text files (literary works or technical reports). In this paper, we address the problem of the compression of a large collection of text files distributed in cluster of computers, where the single files need to be randomly accessed in very short time. The compression algorithm is based on a word-based approach and the idea of combination of two statistical models: global model (common for all the files of the set) and local model. The latter is built as a set of changes that transform the global model to the proper model of the single compressed file.
Summary of the 15 th Discovery Challenge Recommending Given Names

1 University of Kassel, Knowledge Discovery and Data Engineering Group, Wilhelmshöher Allee 73, 34121 Kassel, Germany {mitzlaff, doerfel, mueller}@cs.uni-kassel.de 2 University of Würzburg, Data Mining and Information Retrieval Group, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany hotho@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de 3 L3S Research Center, Appelstraße 4, 30167 Hannover, Germany {hotho, juergen.mueller, jaeschke}@l3s.de
Use of the Fluid Challenge in Critically Ill Adult Patients: A Systematic Review

The fluid challenge (FC) aims at identifying patients in whom fluid administration improves hemodynamics. Although the FC has been extensively studied, the implementation and definition of improvement are not standardized. This systematic review of studies published between January 1, 1994 and December 31, 2014 characterizes these key components of the FC for critically ill adult patients, as described in the medical literature in the last 20 years. A literature search was performed using MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane. For each study, data were collected on study design, study size, study setting, patient population, and how the FC was administered. Eligibility criteria for FC were (1) the infusion of a definite quantity of fluid, (2) of a specific type, (3) in a fixed time period (expressed as either span or infusion rate), (4) with a defined hemodynamic variable as the target, and (5) for a predetermined threshold. One hundred fifty-seven full-text manuscripts were extracted from 870 potentially relevant studies. The inclusion criteria were met by 71 studies including 3617 patients. Sixty-six studies were from a single center and 45 were prospective observational in format. The most common amount infused was 500 cc, used by 55 (77.5%) studies. The most commonly infused fluids were colloids (62.0%). In 43 (60.5%) studies, the FC was administered between 20 and 30 minutes. A positive response to fluid administration was defined as an increase ≥15% of cardiac index or cardiac output in 44 (62.6%) studies. Static or dynamic physiologic indices were utilized in a minority of studies (16.9%) and safety limits for interrupting the FC are adopted in 4 (5.6%) studies only. This systematic review indicates that the FC most commonly consists in infusing 500 mL of crystalloids or colloids in 20–30 minutes, and considered an increase in cardiac index ≥15% as a positive response. However, definite standards for FC administration and evaluation remain undefined.
Incidence of Phrenic Nerve Block and Hypercapnia in Patients Undergoing Carotid Endarterectomy under Cervical Plexus Block

Deep cervical plexus blockade blocks the second, third and fourth cervical nerve roots. The phrenic nerve arises from C3,C4,C5 and should therefore be commonly blocked with cervical plexus blockade. The aim of this study was to report the incidence of phrenic nerve block and to assess the effect of this on arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) in premedicated and sedated patients. Forty patients were studied, blood gases being taken on the day before surgery, immediately before performing the block and then every 20 minutes until the operation was completed. Fluoroscopy was used to determine ipsilateral hemidiaphragmatic dysfunction due to phrenic nerve block. The patients were then divided into two groups of analysis. Group A patients had evidence of phrenic nerve block, Group B patients had no evidence of phrenic nerve block. Fluoroscopy showed that 22 patients (55%) had evidence of phrenic nerve block (Group A), 18 patients showed no change (Group B). PaCO2 levels increased in both groups following premedication, from 41 ±5 mmHg (mean± SD) to 46±5 mmHg in Group A, and 41 ±4 mmHg to 45 ±4 mmHg in Group B; twenty minutes after cervical plexus block the PaCO2 rose to 49±6 mmHg in Group A, and 48±6 mmHg in Group B. These changes were not statistically significantly different when the two groups were compared.
Towards an aspect weaving BPEL engine

This position paper proposes the use of dynamic aspects and the visitor design pattern to obtain a highly configurable and extensible BPEL engine. Using these two techniques, the core of this infrastructural software can be customised to meet new requirements and add features such as debugging, execution monitoring, or changing to another Web Service selection policy. Additionally, it can easily be extended to cope with customer-specific BPEL extensions. We propose the use of dynamic aspects not only on the engine itself but also on the workflow in order to tackle the problems of Web Service hot deployment and hot fixes to long running processes. In this way, composing aWeb Service "on-the-fly" means weaving its choreography interface into the workflow.
The lithium content of the globular cluster NGC 6397

We make use of high resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra of 12 turn-o stars in the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397 to measure its lithium content. We conclude that they all have the same lithium abundance A(Li)= 2:34 with a standard deviation of 0.056 dex. We use this result, together with Monte Carlo simulations, to estimate that the maximum allowed intrinsic scatter is of the order of 0.035 dex. This is a new stringent constraint to be fulfilled by stellar models which predict Li depletion. We argue that although a mild depletion of 0.1-0.2 dex, as predicted by recent models, cannot be ruled out, there is no compelling reason for it. This fact, together with the good agreement with the Li abundance observed in field stars, supports the primordial origin of lithium in metal-poor stars. Taking the above value as the primordial lithium abundance implies a cosmic baryonic density which is eitherbh 2 = 0:016 0:004 orbh 2 = 0:005 +0:0026 0:0006 , from the predictions of standard big bang nucleosynthesis. The high baryonic density solution is in agreement with recent results on the primordial abundance of deuterium and 3 He and on the estimates derived from the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background.