Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing continuous uncertain data by a probabilisticXML database management system

Database systems are widely used in today’s world. Almost every information system contains one or more databases. From a traditional perspective, databases are used to store precise values about objects in the ’real world’. However, many information is uncertain or imprecise. Consider, for example, sensor applications. Sensors produce uncertain and imprecise data since readings of sensors are inherently imprecise and uncertain. Current database management systems are not able to store, manipulate or query continuous uncertain data unless through user-defined attributes. However, this approach delegates the responsibility of managing the uncertainty associated with the data to the end-user. In many situations, the uncertainty associated with the data is distributed continuously, the data can be represented in terms of a continuous probability distribution. In this thesis, we present an extension to an existing probabilistic data model, resulting in a data model which is capable of storing continuous uncertain data in XML documents.We give a sound semantical foundation to this data model. The probabilistic XML data model is based on the probabilistic tree. In the probabilistic tree, elements and subtrees can be associated with probabilities. Our extension to the probabilistic XML data model extends the probabilistic XML data model in such a way that probability density functions can be associated with elements. Instead of enumerating explicitly the data values with their associated probabilities, a probability density function represents a continuous probability distribution in terms of integrals, it can represent the probability that an element attains a value on a specific interval. In order to query this data, we present a query language containing query operations that are based on probability theory.We show how querying of continuous uncertain data works using a sound semantical foundation. Next, we introduce some new query operators supporting the aggregation of continuous probability distributions using the same semantical foundation. An aggregation operator accepts a number of histograms representing continuous probability distributions, aggregates them and returns one histogram representing a continuous probability distribution. A proof of concept demonstrates the outcomes of our study towards the management of continuous uncertain data. This proof of concept allows the end-user to query XML documents containing continuous uncertain data.
Use‐dependent changes in synaptic efficacy in rat prefrontal neurons in vitro.

1. An in vitro slice preparation of rat prefrontal cortex was used to analyse the responses of layer V pyramidal cells to electrical stimulation of layer II. We also studied the long‐lasting modifications of synaptic efficacy following high‐frequency stimulation of the same region. 2. Stable intracellular recordings were obtained from forty‐three regular spiking pyramidal cells. The input resistance was 56 +/‐ 18 M omega (mean +/‐ S.D.) at a resting membrane potential of ‐71 +/‐ 4 mV. 3. At rest, a single stimulus of increasing strength evoked a monophasic, purely depolarizing postsynaptic potential (PSP) of increasing amplitude. In neurons recorded with potassium acetate‐filled micropipettes, membrane depolarization disclosed an excitatory‐inhibitory (EPSP‐IPSP) sequence (onset latency of the EPSP, 3.6 +/‐ 0.6 ms). 4. Superfusion with the non‐N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, 6‐cyano‐7‐nitroquinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (CNQX) reduced the EPSP and suppressed the IPSP. The small EPSP which remained was blocked by the NMDA receptor antagonist, D,L‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovalerate (APV). 5. In five cells, administration of 0.5 mumol l‐1 bicuculline revealed a postsynaptic NMDA component in the evoked response as evidenced by its anomalous voltage dependence in the presence of Mg2+ and its sensitivity to APV. In these cells the latency of the APV‐sensitive EPSP was the same as that of the APV‐insensitive EPSP. 6. In six cells superfused with a high‐Mg2+, low‐Ca2+ artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) a small monosynaptic EPSP remained which had the same latency as the PSP recorded in control ACSF. 7. Patterned high‐frequency stimulation (50‐100 Hz) was applied to the afferents of twenty‐eight neurons (twenty‐three of them were recorded in the presence of bicuculline). During the train the membrane potential depolarized some 20 mV and each stimulus evoked a small PSP. The tetanic stimulation was followed by a short‐term enhancement of the PSP amplitude and a slight increase in membrane input resistance. 8. Out of the twenty‐eight cells, twenty‐four showed long‐lasting (over 30 min) modifications of the PSP. Long‐term depression (LTD) of the evoked PSP was observed in fourteen cells and long‐term potentiation (LTP) in ten cells. There was no significant change in the steady‐state membrane properties and in the latency of the response. 9. In 64% of the cells that showed LTD and 70% of those that showed LTP of synaptic efficacy, the latency of the enhanced or depressed component of the PSP was the same as the control. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Conditional Expression of K-ras in an Epithelial Compartment that Includes the Stem Cells Is Sufficient to Promote Squamous Cell Carcinogenesis

Ras genes are the most frequently mutated oncogenes in human cancer. However, the contribution of ras to tumor initiation still is unclear because ras expression in primary cells can cause cell cycle arrest and even cell death by apoptosis. Furthermore, when expressed in the epidermis of mice, mutant ras promotes the formation of benign papillomas, only few of which will progress into carcinomas. However, in these cases, ras-transgene expression often is restricted to suprabasal or follicular epithelial cells that may lack self-renewal capacity. Thus, it still is conceivable that expression of active ras in other epithelial compartments may exert a distinct ability to promote malignant progression. To address this possibility, transgenic mice carrying the tetracycline-inducible system (tet-on receptor) targeted to the basal layer of stratified epithelium, which includes the epithelial stem cells, were engineered and crossed with mice expressing the K-rasG12D oncogene under the control of tet-regulated responsive elements. On doxycycline administration, proliferative lesions ranging from hyperplasias, papillomas, and dysplasias to metastatic carcinomas developed in squamous epithelia of the skin, oral mucosa, salivary glands, tongue, esophagus, forestomach, and uterine cervix within just 10 to 20 days. The most noticeable lesions were invasive squamous carcinomas of the skin and oral mucosa. These findings suggest that the expression of oncogenes in an epithelial compartment that includes the stem cells may be sufficient to promote squamous carcinogenesis. They also provide a molecularly defined conditional animal model system in which the mechanisms responsible for cancer initiation, maintenance, and metastatic spread can be readily investigated.
Meta-analysis for outcomes of acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the outcomes of acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery by the meta-analysis. Electronic databases PubMed and Embase were searched for relative studies from December 2008 to June 2015. For eligible studies, the R software was conducted to meta-analyze outcomes of AKI patients (AKI group) and none-AKI patients after cardiac surgery (NO AKI group). The chi-square-based Q test and I 2 statistic were used for heterogeneity analysis. P < 0.1 or I 2 > 50% revealed significant heterogeneity among studies, and then a random effects model was used; otherwise a fixed effect model was performed. Egger's test was performed for publication bias assessment. Subgroup analysis was performed by stratifying AKI definitions and study type. Totally 17 studies with 9656 subjects (2331 in the AKI group and 7325 in the NO AKI group) were enrolled. Significantly higher renal replacement therapy (RRT) (OR=23.67, 95%CI: 12.58–44.55), mortality (OR = 6.27, 95%CI: 3.58–11.00), serum creatinine (SMD = 1.42, 95%CI: 1.01–1.83), and hospital length of stay (LOS) (SMD = 0.45, 95%CI: 0.02–0.88) were shown in the AKI group compared with patients in the NO AKI group. Subgroup analysis showed that results of only 3 subgroups were reversed indicating that the definition of AKI did not affect its outcomes. Publication bias was only found among studies involving mortality and serum creatinine, but the 2 outcomes were not reversed after correction. This meta-analysis confirmed the worse outcomes of AKI in patients after cardiac surgery, including higher RRT rates, mortality, and longer hospital LOS than those of NO AKI patients.
AUTOMATIC SEGMENTATION OF BUILDING FACADES USING TERRESTRIAL LASER DATA

There is an increasing interest of the scientific community in the generation of 3D facade models from terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data. The segmentation of building facades is one of the essential tasks to be carried out in a 3D modelling process. Since in reality, majority of facade components are planar, the detection and segmentation of geometric elements like planes respond to the previous task. The RANSAC paradigm is a robust estimator and probably the most widely used in the field of computer vision to compute model parameters from a dataset containing outliers. Indeed, RANSAC algorithm is usually successful for fitting geometric primitives to experimental data like for example, 3D point clouds resulting from image matching or from airborne laser scanning. The innovative idea of this study is the application of RANSAC algorithm to TLS data, characterized by a meaningful proportion of outliers. Therefore, this paper presents an approach allowing automatic segmentation and extraction of planar parts of facades scanned by TLS. Firstly, potential planes describing planar surfaces are detected and extracted using RANSAC algorithm. Then, a quality assessment based on manually extracted planes is carried out. The obtained results are evaluated and prove that the proposed method delivers qualitatively as well as quantitatively satisfactory planar facade segments.
The Vehicle Routing Problem with Multiple Trips

Non-asset based third-party logistics providers manage fleets of leased vehicles for their customers. Due to high leasing costs, minimizing the number of vehicles employed in daily operations is of primary concern to such firms. Consequently, routings that involve fewer vehicles and potentially longer travel times are favored over routings that involve additional vehicles. Constructing routes that meet such criteria gives rise to the vehicle routing problem with multiple trips (VRPM). Unlike the classical vehicle routing problem, the VRPM permits vehicles to make multiple trips to and from a central depot within a given time duration. We present a heuristic solution methodology for the VRPM. In contrast to previous research on the VRPM, our approach explicitly combines vehicle routes within the route duration limit. We present preliminary results of our algorithm on benchmark data sets and outline plans to improve upon these solutions.
A basic study on two-axial piezoelectric actuator for tactile display using illusions

In this study, we intend to enhance a tactile display composed of two-axial micro actuators, using tactile illusions such as comb illusion and velvet hand illusion (VHI). The comb illusion causes a feeling of unevenness to the finger surfaces touching a comb's teeth tips by scratching the sides of the teeth. In VHI, a person rubs his/her hands together on either side of wires strung through a frame, producing the sensation of rubbing a very smooth and soft surface like velvet. According to our investigation, tactile illusions can be controlled by tangential stimuli, which are generated by two-axial micro actuator array. This paper mainly describes the actuator, which is composed of two bimorph piezoelectric elements and two small links connected by three joints. A control system for the two-axial micro actuator is designed based on a multi-layered artificial neural network to compensate for the hysteresis of piezoelectric elements. The neural network is outfitted with a feedback loop including an integral element to reduce the number of neurons. If the result of the left piezoelectric element is compared to that of the right element, the displacement amplitudes and the inclinations coincide on the right and left piezoelectric elements. Although precise hysteresis characteristics such as loop width are considerably different, the present neural system can follow the difference.
THE ROLE OF TRUST AS A MEDIATION BETWEEN THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED USEFULNESS AND PERCEIVED EASE OF USE TO INTEREST TO BUY E-BOOK

The purpose of this study is to know and explain whether the benefits and ease of using e-books affect the interest in buying e-books. This research is intended to explain and analyze whether the trust mediated the effect of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the intention to buy e-books. This study examines the interest of buying ebooks. By adopting the TAM model, this study proposed trust as a mediator of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence on intention to buy an e-book. The hypotheses were tested statistically using the SEM-PLS model. The results of this study indicate that perceived usefulness has no significant effect on the intention to buy an e-book, Perceived ease of use has a significant effect to the intention to buy e-books, and trusts have been significantly mediated the effect of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the intention to buy an e-book.
Queueing analysis for preemptive transmission in underlay CRNs

In cognitive radio applications, there are multiple different types of message queues. Existing queueing based works in underlay cognitive radio networks mainly focused on homogeneous packets. Therefore, we propose a new underlay scheme to deal with packets' heterogeneity by assuming high‐priority packets have preemptive transmission opportunities over low‐priority ones, and the former ones have impatient waiting time. We model the secondary user packets' behavior as a M/M/1+GI queueing system from the perspective of the whole system, which is represented by a two‐dimensional state transition graph. The reneging probability of high‐priority packets and the average waiting time in two‐class priority queues are analyzed. Then we extend the single‐channel model to multiple channels. Under this scenario, the closed form of low‐priority packets' expected system delay is derived. Simulation results demonstrate that the average waiting time of high‐priority packets decreases with the growing interference power threshold and the average waiting time of the low‐priority packet is proportional to the arrival rate of high‐priority packet and so on. This work may lay the foundation to design efficient Medium Access Control protocols and optimize long‐term system performance by carefully choosing system parameters. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Design considerations of a modular testbed for mobile IP networks

In this paper we present a research testbed being developed at K.U. Leuven, Belgium, aiming at providing a flexible and convenient testing infrastructure for researchers working on mobility issues over IP networks. The testbed is built on general-purpose PCs, which makes it suitable for most laboratories. Its user-level modularity makes it easy for both developers and users to configure and extend even for unusual mobility scenarios and new mobility techniques. Movement is realized in a way that makes mobility experiment easy to be carried out and automated
CEDE : Collaborative Egocentric Design Environment for CAVE

The geographical separation of the users and insufficient input from pairs may cause undesired costs in interior/exterior design process. If immersive communication and interaction exist between the pairs, those undesired costs will be minimal. Lack of communication and understanding causes much of the design works to be lost as it is improperly passed on and/or incompletely understood. The combined immersive collaboration can solve these existing problems so that the undesired costs can be eliminated. We present a framework for 3D design of interior/exterior spaces using a CAVEbased immersive virtual environment in that better and intuitive communication among the designers and users would lead to better integration of overall design such that designer would cede some of his/her work to the user. We have developed several user interface and intuitive spatial egocentric/exocentric perception and perceptual constancy techniques to build a fully interactive environment for novice users to help design process of interior or exterior spaces. Efficiencies of these spatial intelligence techniques’ are investigated with several experimental cases.
Induction of Immune Mediators in Glioma and Prostate Cancer Cells by Non-Lethal Photodynamic Therapy

Background Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses the combination of photosensitizing drugs and harmless light to cause selective damage to tumor cells. PDT is therefore an option for focal therapy of localized disease or for otherwise unresectable tumors. In addition, there is increasing evidence that PDT can induce systemic anti-tumor immunity, supporting control of tumor cells, which were not eliminated by the primary treatment. However, the effect of non-lethal PDT on the behavior and malignant potential of tumor cells surviving PDT is molecularly not well defined. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we have evaluated changes in the transcriptome of human glioblastoma (U87, U373) and human (PC-3, DU145) and murine prostate cancer cells (TRAMP-C1, TRAMP-C2) after non-lethal PDT in vitro and in vivo using oligonucleotide microarray analyses. We found that the overall response was similar between the different cell lines and photosensitizers both in vitro and in vivo. The most prominently upregulated genes encoded proteins that belong to pathways activated by cellular stress or are involved in cell cycle arrest. This response was similar to the rescue response of tumor cells following high-dose PDT. In contrast, tumor cells dealing with non-lethal PDT were found to significantly upregulate a number of immune genes, which included the chemokine genes CXCL2, CXCL3 and IL8/CXCL8 as well as the genes for IL6 and its receptor IL6R, which can stimulate proinflammatory reactions, while IL6 and IL6R can also enhance tumor growth. Conclusions Our results indicate that PDT can support anti-tumor immune responses and is, therefore, a rational therapy even if tumor cells cannot be completely eliminated by primary phototoxic mechanisms alone. However, non-lethal PDT can also stimulate tumor growth-promoting autocrine loops, as seen by the upregulation of IL6 and its receptor. Thus the efficacy of PDT to treat tumors may be improved by controlling unwanted and potentially deleterious growth-stimulatory pathways.
Study of scheduling algorithm based on T-LET planes for multiprocessor real-time systems

In this paper, a T-LET planes measure is applied to manage the task scheduling for multiprocessors. First, a novel scheduling algorithm on T-LET planes is proposed, and it is based on the strategy that the biggest M tasks, within the current remaining execution time, are first selected. Secondly, the algorithm has proved as an optimal multiprocessor scheduling algorithm for assigning tasks and currently feasible on T-LEF plane. Finally, this paper compares this algorithm with a global EDF algorithm by a specific example and experimental simulations. The simulation results show that the algorithm in this paper has the same complexity of time. Moreover, its effectiveness is higher and the scheduling success rate is higher.
Shortest path amidst disc obstacles is computable

An open question in Exact Geometric Computation is whether there re transcendental computations that can be made "geometrically exact". Perhaps the simplest such problem in computational geometry is that of computing the shortest obstacle-avoiding path between two points p, q in the plane, where the obstacles re collection of n discs.This problem can be solved in O (n 2 log n)time in the Real RAM model, but nothing was known about its computability in the standard (Turing) model of computation. We first show the Turing-computability of this problem,provided the radii of the discs are rationally related. We make the usual assumption that the numerical input data are real algebraic numbers. By appealing to effective bounds from transcendental number theory, we further show single-exponential time upper bound when the input numbers are rational.Our result ppears to be the first example of non-algebraic combinatorial problem which is shown computable. It is also rare example of transcendental number theory yielding positive computational results.
Colored stochastic shadow maps

This paper extends the stochastic transparency algorithm that models partial coverage to also model wavelength-varying transmission. It then applies this to the problem of casting shadows between any combination of opaque, colored transmissive, and partially covered (i.e., α-matted) surfaces in a manner compatible with existing hardware shadow mapping techniques. Colored Stochastic Shadow Maps have a similar resolution and performance profile to traditional shadow maps, however they require a wider filter in colored areas to reduce hue variation.
Detection of static salient objects based on visual attention and edge features

Object detection algorithm based on the traditional saliency map often has problems of unable to locate and extract static salient objects precisely, besides, the position located does not coincide with the actual size of the object. In order to solve these problems, an improved algorithm of static salient objects detection is proposed in this paper, which combines visual attention mechanism with the edge information. First, coarse detection is realized according to an improved saliency map, then fine detection is implemented through edge detection by wavelet transform. Finally, mathematical logic operations are performed on the above two saliency maps, thus making the location and extraction of the static salient objects more accurately than traditional methods. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.
Competition in the Brain. The Contribution of EEG and fNIRS Modulation and Personality Effects in Social Ranking

In the present study, the social ranking perception in competition was explored. Brain response (alpha band oscillations, EEG; hemodynamic activity, O2Hb), as well as self-perception of social ranking, cognitive performance, and personality trait (Behavioral Activation System, BAS) were considered during a competitive joint-action. Subjects were required to develop a strategy to obtain a better outcome than a competitor (C) (in term of error rate, and response time, RT). A pre-feedback (without a specific feedback on the performance) and a post-feedback condition (which reinforced the improved performance) were provided. It was found that higher-BAS participants responded in greater measure to perceived higher cognitive performance (post-feedback condition), with increased left prefrontal activity, higher ranking perception, and a better real performance (reduced RTs). These results were explained in term of increased sense of self-efficacy and social position, probably based on higher-BAS sensitivity to reinforcing conditions. In addition, the hemispheric effect in favor of the left side characterized the competitive behavior, showing an imbalance for high-BAS in comparison to low-BAS in the case of a rewarding (post-feedback) context. Therefore, the present results confirmed the significance of BAS in modulating brain responsiveness, self-perceived social position, and real performance during an interpersonal competitive action which is considered highly relevant for social status.