Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Approximate distance oracles for geometric graphs

Given a geometric <i>t</i>-spanner graph <i>G</i> in E<sup><i>d</i></sup> with <i>n</i> points and <i>m</i> edges, with edge lengths that lie within a polynomial (in <i>n</i>) factor of each other. Then, after <i>O</i>(<i>m</i>+<i>n</i> log <i>n</i>) preprocessing, we present an approximation scheme to answer (1+ε)-approximate shortest path queries in <i>O</i>(1) time. The data structure uses <i>O</i>(<i>n</i> log <i>n</i>) space.
Scalable Distributed Video-on-Demand: Theoretical Bounds and Practical Algorithms

We analyze a distributed system where n nodes called boxes store a large set of videos and collaborate to serve simultaneously n videos or less. We explore under which conditions such a system can be scalable while serving any sequence of demands. We model this problem through a combination of two algorithms: a video allocation algorithm and a connection scheduling algorithm. The latter plays against an adversary that incrementally proposes video requests.
Compressed Sensing-Based MRI Reconstruction Using Complex Double-Density Dual-Tree DWT

Undersampling k-space data is an efficient way to speed up the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) process. As a newly developed mathematical framework of signal sampling and recovery, compressed sensing (CS) allows signal acquisition using fewer samples than what is specified by Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem whenever the signal is sparse. As a result, CS has great potential in reducing data acquisition time in MRI. In traditional compressed sensing MRI methods, an image is reconstructed by enforcing its sparse representation with respect to a basis, usually wavelet transform or total variation. In this paper, we propose an improved compressed sensing-based reconstruction method using the complex double-density dual-tree discrete wavelet transform. Our experiments demonstrate that this method can reduce aliasing artifacts and achieve higher peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) index.
Exploring Parents’ Legal Understanding and Justice Attitudes in Dependency Cases

Author(s): Cleveland, Kyndra C | Advisor(s): Quas, Jodi A | Abstract: A great deal of attention has been devoted to documenting the experiences of children involved in the dependency division of the juvenile justice system (i.e., the child protection system). Such insight is critical to inform policies that profoundly affect children and families. However, the experiences of another population involved in the dependency system are equally important—namely those of the children’s parents. Their understanding and perceptions have enormous potential to affect not only their behaviors, but the decisions rendered during the case and its eventual outcome. The current study systematically examined parents’ understanding and attitudes toward the dependency system and predictors of understanding and attitudes. The study also examined how understanding related to attitudes. The study drew from distributive (fairness of legal decisions) and procedural (fairness of legal procedures) justice frameworks to identify factors that may be particularly important for parents’ satisfaction with judicial decisions and overall perceptions of the court. One hundred and five parents (79% mothers) involved in ongoing dependency cases completed an interview at the courthouse following their hearing. Questions about understanding asked parents to define commonly used dependency terms, to answer questions about a hypothetical dependency case, and to answer specific questions about their case. Questions about attitudes asked parents to rate their feelings about dependency professionals, the dependency court, and components of distributive and procedural justice. Findings revealed a lack of comprehensive understanding of the system, both generally and with regard to specific details of parents’ cases, particularly for African American parents. On average, parents felt somewhat satisfied about the system. Parents with greater understanding had more positive attitudes about procedural justice, but more negative attitudes about judicial decisions and the court, the latter potentially due, in part, to a lack of empowerment in meeting the demands of dependency cases. Distributive and procedural justice played a role in moderating the relations between understanding and attitudes such that parents with greater understanding felt particularly dissatisfied with the judge’s decisions and the court when distributive and procedural justice were low, respectively. Implications for parents’ dependency understanding and perceptions about distributive and procedural justice are discussed.
A type system for expressive security policies

Certified code is a general mechanism for enforcing security properties. In this paradigm, untrusted mobile code carries annotations that allow a host to verify its trustworthiness. Before running the agent, the host checks the annotations and proves that they imply the host's security policy. Despite the flexibility of this scheme, so far, compilers that generate certified code have focused on simple type safety properties rather than more general security properties. Security automata can specify an expressive collection of security policies including access control and resource bounds. In this paper, we describe how to instrument well-typed programs with security checks and typing annotations. The resulting programs obey the policies specified by security automata and can be mechanically checked for safety. This work provides a foundation for the process of automatically generating certified code for expressive security policies.
Approximation Methods for Inverse Problems Governed by Nonlinear Parabolic Systems

We present a rigorous theoretical framework for approximation of nonlinear parabolic systems with delays in the context of inverse least squares problems. Convergence of approximate optimal parameters and that of forward solutions in the context of semidiscrete Galerkin schemes are given. Sample numerical results demonstrating the convergence are given for a model of dioxin uptake and elimination in a distributed liver model that is a special case of the general theoretical framework.
Computer simulation of magnetic resonance angiography imaging. Parallel implementation in heterogeneous computing environment

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is currently widely used in medical image diagnosis. However, MR scanners are extensively used in climes and thus are rarely accessible for experimentation. In consequence, the number of images available for image processing methods evaluation is too low and there appears a need for a method to generate synthetic images. In their previous works, the authors studied various methods for blood vessels segmentation and tracking. Effectiveness of the designed algorithms requires objective verification which implies repetition of experiments for large number of images and comparing the results with some ground truth models. Therefore, this study aims at designing a computer system which implements numerical routines for generation of synthetic MRA images. In particular, in this paper we study the performance of various configurations of assembled computer grid and analyze their potential in angiographic image synthesis.
Effectiveness of Relapse Prevention Cognitive-Behavioral Model in Opioid-Dependent Patients Participating in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment in Iran

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of a relapse prevention cognitive-behavioral model, based on Marlatt treatment approach, in Opioid-dependent patients participating in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) in Iran. Methods: The study consisted of 92 individuals treated with methadone in Iranian National Center of Addiction Studies (INCAS). Participants were randomized into two groups: educational intervention group (N=46) and control group (N=46). The intervention was comprised of 10 weekly 90 minute sessions, done during a period of 2.5 months based on the most high risk situations determined using Inventory Drug Taking Situation instrument. Relapse was defined as not showing up for MMT, drug use for at least 5 continuous days, and a positive urinary morphine test. Results: While, only 36.4% of the intervention group relapsed into drug use, 63.6% of the control group relapsed. The result of the logistic regressions showed that the odd ratio of the variable of intervention program for the entire follow up period was 0.43 (P<0.01). Further, the odd ratio of this variable in one month, three months, and 195 days after the therapy were 0.48 (P<.03), 0.31 (P<.02), and 0.13 (P<.02) respectively that revealed that on average, the probability of relapse among individuals in the intervention group was lower than patients in control group Conclusion: Relapse prevention model based on Marlatt treatment approach has an effective role in decreasing relapse rate. This model can be introduced as a complementary therapy in patients treated with methadone maintenance.
Digital Library Framework for Arabic Manuscripts

Handwritten Arabic manuscripts have been highly underutilized owing to the fact that, to our knowledge, there is no system or interface in existence, utilizing which user can browse or search the desired information. Given vast content of these manuscripts, it is important to develop indexing systems that support content-based retrieval from historical manuscripts. In this paper, we propose a "Digital library framework for Arabic Manuscripts". A prototype system has been implemented which supports preprocessing of document images. To enhance their quality, feature extraction of the user identified words for similarity matching purposes is carried out. Utilizing relevance feedback from the user, the system indexes the manuscript pages for later efficient retrieval. The prototype system has been tested and encouraging results were achieved.
Executive functions in children with SLI: A dynamic perspective

We conducted a meta-analysis of the data from studies comparing visuospatial working memory (WM) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children. The effect sizes of 21 studies (including 32 visuospatial storage tasks and 9 visuospatial central executive (CE) tasks) were identified via computerized database searches and the reference sections of the identified studies. Meta-analyses and moderator analyses were conducted to examine the magnitude of the differences in visuospatial storage and CE, and their relation to the inclusion criteria used for SLI and the age of the children. The results showed significant effect sizes for visuospatial storage (d = 0.49) and visuospatial CE (d = 0.63), indicating deficits in both components of visuospatial WM in children with SLI. The moderator analyses showed that greater impairment in visuospatial storage was associated with more pervasive language impairment, whereas age was not significant associated with visuospatial WM. The finding of deficits in visuospatial WM suggests domain-general impairments in children with SLI. It raises questions about the language-specificity of a diagnosis of SLI. Careful attention should thus be paid to both verbal and visuospatial WM in clinical practice, and especially in those children with pervasive language impairments. Visuospatial working memory: A meta-analysis 21
Instant certificate revocation and publication using WebDAV

There are several problems associated with the current ways that certificates are published and revoked. This paper discusses these problems, and then proposes a solution based on the use of WebDAV, an enhancement to the HTTP protocol. The proposed solution provides instant certificate revocation, minimizes the processing costs of the certificate issuer and relying party, and eases the administrative burden of publishing certificates and certificate revocation lists (CRLs). We describe how WebDAV can be used for X.509 certificate revocation, and describe how we have implemented it in the PERMIS authorization infrastructure.
Not Just Right Experiences: Association with Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms and Sensory Over-Responsivity

ABSTRACT Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder describe “not just right experiences” as a constant uncomfortable feeling of imperfection toward sensory stimuli. This study examined the relation between “not just right experiences,” obsessive-compulsive disorder and sensory over-responsivity symptoms. Sixty college students participated in the in vivo “not just right experiences” assessment. This included four tasks for which participants rated pre-task discomfort, post-task discomfort, and urge to counteract auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli. “Not just right experiences” scores significantly correlated with obsessive-compulsive disorder scores. Tactile, auditory, and visual sensory over-responsivity scores were correlated with specific “not just right experiences” scores. Sensory over-responsivity is rarely addressed in obsessive-compulsive disorder while it contributes to symptomatology and participation.
Signal space alignment and degrees of freedom for the two-cluster multi-way relay channel

This paper investigates the degrees of freedom (DoF) of the multi-way relay channel. Specifically, the focus is on the case when there are two clusters and each cluster has two users that wish to exchange messages within the cluster with the help of the relay. It is assumed that the relay has N antennas and each of the users has M antennas. A DoF outerbound is derived and it is shown that for several scenarios of interests the DoF outerbound can be achieved. Specifically, when N ≤ M, a network coding based two-way relaying approach with time division multiplex access (TDMA) is sufficient to achieve the DoF outerbound. When M <; N ≤ 4/3M, the signal space alignment with multiple access and broadcast transmission between the clusters can achieve the DoF outerbound. It is also show that when N ≥ 4M, the DoF outerbound can be achieved by just using multiple access and broadcast transmission between the users.
Algebraic Attack Against Trivium

Trivium is a synchronous stream cipher designed to provide a flexible trade-off between speed and gate count in hardware, and reasonably efficient software implementation. It was designed in 2005 by C. De Canniere and B. Preneel for the European project eSTREAM. It has successfully moved into phase two of the selection process and is currently in the focus group under the hardware category. As of yet there has been no attack on Trivium faster than exhaustive search. Bivium-A and Bivium-B are truncated versions of Trivium that are built on the same design principles. These simplified versions are used for investigating Trivium-like ciphers with a reduced complexity. There have been successful attempts in the cryptanalysis of Bivium ciphers. The goal of this paper is to compare a basic Grobner basis attack against these ciphers with other known methods. To do so, we present some experimental results.
Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources from the Jodrell Bank–VLA Astrometric Survey - I. Sources in the region $35\hbox{$^\circ$} \leq \delta \leq 75\hbox{$^\circ$}$

Observations with MERLIN 1 at 408 MHz have been used to establish the low-frequency part of the spectra of more than a hundred compact radio sources taken from the part of the Jodrell Bank{VLA Astrometric Survey limited by 35 75. These sources were selected from JVAS and other catalogues to have con- vex spectra between 1.4 and 8.4 GHz, characteristic of Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) sources. We have con- rmed convex shapes of the spectra of 76 objects (one half of our initial candidates) thereby yielding the largest genuine sample of GPS sources compiled so far. Seven of 17 identied quasars in the sample have large (z > 2) redshifts.
Improving video quality in congested networks through deferred discard

Video already constitutes more than half of Internet traffic, and is expected to expand to 86% of Internet traffic by 2016. The dominance of video traffic justifies router features that optimise performance when video loads are high, in particular features that can deal with the congestion that video can create. In this paper, we exploit a characteristic of video, namely that video streams consist of recurring patterns of packets of varying importance, to create a new Deferred Discard (DD) queue management scheme. DD keeps important video packets when queue management would otherwise have discarded them, and substitutes their discard with the discard of later less important packets. We simulated different queue management schemes with a set of three test videos and measured their performance in terms of the average picture signal to noise ratio (PSNR). DiffServ improved the video PSNR by 2.1dB compared to best effort, while DD further improved the video PSNR (of DiffServ) by 3.9dB, i.e. DD improves video quality over DS more than DS improves video quality over BE.
A multimedia platform for audio-visual speech processing

In the framework of the European ESPRIT Project MIAMI ("Multimodal Integration for Advanced Multimedia Interfaces"), a platform has been developed at the ICP to study the various combinations of audio-visual speech processing, including real-time lip motion analysis, real-time synthesis of models of the lips and of the face, audiovisual speech recognition of isolated words, and text-to-audio-visual speech synthesis in French. All these facilities are implemented on a network of three SGI computers. Not only this platform is a usefull research tool to study the production and the perception of visible speech as well as audio-visual integration by humans and by the machines, but it is also a nice testbed to study man-machine multimodal interaction and very low bit rate audio-visual speech communication between humans.
An Efficient Strategy to Induce and Maintain In Vitro Human T Cells Specific for Autologous Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

Background The efficient expansion in vitro of cytolytic CD8+ T cells (CTLs) specific for autologous tumors is crucial both for basic and translational aspects of tumor immunology. We investigated strategies to generate CTLs specific for autologous Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC), the most frequent tumor in mankind, using circulating lymphocytes. Principal Findings Classic Mixed Lymphocyte Tumor Cultures with NSCLC cells consistently failed to induce tumor-specific CTLs. Cross-presentation in vitro of irradiated NSCLC cells by autologous dendritic cells, by contrast, induced specific CTL lines from which we obtained a high number of tumor-specific T cell clones (TCCs). The TCCs displayed a limited TCR diversity, suggesting an origin from few tumor-specific T cell precursors, while their TCR molecular fingerprints were detected in the patient's tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, implying a role in the spontaneous anti-tumor response. Grafting NSCLC-specific TCR into primary allogeneic T cells by lentiviral vectors expressing human V-mouse C chimeric TCRα/β chains overcame the growth limits of these TCCs. The resulting, rapidly expanding CD4+ and CD8+ T cell lines stably expressed the grafted chimeric TCR and specifically recognized the original NSCLC. Conclusions This study defines a strategy to efficiently induce and propagate in vitro T cells specific for NSCLC starting from autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes.
Evolution pattern for Service Evolution in Clouds

The proposed research will focus on developing a novel approach to solve Software Service Evolution problems in Computing Clouds. The approach will support dynamic evolution of the software service in clouds via a set of discovered evolution patterns. An initial survey informed us that such an approach does not exist yet and is in urgent need. Pattern will be categorised into five groups in order to solve different kinds of evolution problems, such as SaaS dependency dealing, SaaS structure transformation, SaaS evolvability enhancement, SaaS system dynamic enhancement and SaaS function enhancement. It contains dynamic process and static details. Evolution mechanism will be used for driven the evolution pattern into execution; both mechanism and pattern are corresponded with each other. After the pattern design is finished, the whole approach will have these contributions: 1) the synergistic pattern-driven framework for cloud service evolution; 2) a repository of evolution patters for cloud services (mainly for SaaS); 3) the formal specification of the evolution patterns; 4) the mechanism to apply the patterns to cloud service evolution at run time: driving the evolution, monitoring the process, and verifying the correctness; 5) the resultant prototype tool. Both dynamic and static description of the evolution pattern has been given in the paper.
Mining Consumer Opinions from the Web

The Web has provided an excellent platform for business to consumer (B2C) electronic commerce. B2C electronic commerce offers convenience, choice, lower cost and customization to consumers. The electronic shopping platform allows consumers to make intelligent comparison and purchasing decision on consumer products. In addition to comparing product specifications as described on electronic catalogue for better purchasing decision, consumers also hunger for consumer reviews to identify the best products that fit their preferences. For example, a professional photographer would like to identify a camera with lens of high quality and zooming power but a general user may like to find a camera that is cheap, light, and with a large LCD screen. When consumers take consumer reviews as reference, they are interested in both opinion orientation and product features that they are describing. Most of the prior works on consumer opinions mining focus on identifying opinion orientation. Some recent works have started to classify product features but heavily rely on linguistic and natural language processing techniques. However, the writing in consumer reviews is usually less formal and many of them do not conform to the grammatical rules. Therefore, the linguistic and language processing approach is not satisfactory. In this work, we propose a sentiment analysis system to classify product features of consumer reviews by mining class association rules. The experimental result shows that the performance is promising. The content mining approach outperforms the natural language processing approach.
Least square approximation technique for energy conservation in wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we present a method for regenerate and predict the values of sensors in a wireless sensor network without direct communication between sensor node and sink node based on least square approximation. The main disadvantage of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is their limited power source. The main power consumer in a sensor node is its radio transceiver. One of the most effective methods to reduce the data transmission rate is data prediction. Data prediction technique given in this paper can reduce amount of data transmitted, which results in energy saving and the overall network lifetime increases. Through simulation we have studied that how sink node not only predict the future values but also generate the initial values based on the parameter which will send to the sink node. We conducted our simulations on the actual data collected from 54 sensors deployed in the Intel Berkeley Research lab.