Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Opposite initialization to novel cues in dopamine signaling in ventral and posterior striatum in mice

Dopamine neurons are thought to encode novelty in addition to reward prediction error (the discrepancy between actual and predicted values). In this study, we compared dopamine activity across the striatum using fiber fluorometry in mice. During classical conditioning, we observed opposite dynamics in dopamine axon signals in the ventral striatum (‘VS dopamine’) and the posterior tail of the striatum (‘TS dopamine’). TS dopamine showed strong excitation to novel cues, whereas VS dopamine showed no responses to novel cues until they had been paired with a reward. TS dopamine cue responses decreased over time, depending on what the cue predicted. Additionally, TS dopamine showed excitation to several types of stimuli including rewarding, aversive, and neutral stimuli whereas VS dopamine showed excitation only to reward or reward-predicting cues. Together, these results demonstrate that dopamine novelty signals are localized in TS along with general salience signals, while VS dopamine reliably encodes reward prediction error. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.21886. 001
Gamma-ray sources as relics of recent supernovae in the nearby gould belt

The nearby, 30 to 40 Myr old, starburst region of the Gould Belt has formed numerous massive stars. Within its ∼300 pc radius, it produces core-collapse supernovae at an enhanced rate which is shown to be 75 to 95 Myr−1 kpc−2, i.e. 3 to 5 times higher than the local Galactic rate, over the past and future few million years. A population of persistent, but unidentified, γray sources has been recently singled out at medium latitudes above 100 MeV. Their distribution across the sky is shown to be quite significantly and better correlated with the tilted Gould Belt than with other Galactic structures. As many as 40 ± 5 sources are statistically associated with the Belt at |b| > 5◦. It is therefore proposed that these sources are part of the Belt and are relics of the Belt supernovae in the form of million-year old pulsars. Their presence stresses how active the local medium is, heated, enriched and shaped by multiple recent explosions.
On Fixed Priority Preemptive Scheduling for Imprecise Computation

We present new results in fixed priority scheduling for imprecise computation in real-time systems. Imprecise computation has not been popularized enough for reasons which are rooted from the task model, scheduling methods (EDF-based) and general system support. Audsley et al. have devised schedulability tests for guaranteeing mandatory computation while incorporating unbounded optional components. In particular, the task model is defined to be of the form “Prologue-Optional-Epilogue”, which is a generalisation of the traditional “MandatoryOptional” task model of Liu el al. However, problems are discovered in the proposed schedulability tests which can make calculation of task’s worst-case response time inaccurate. Besides presenting the problem and proposing the required fixes, we prove the tests can be simplified under deadline monotonic priority ordering. We also propose a novel scheduling scheme, based on Dual Priority Scheduling, to maximize the scheduling of unbounded optional components, along with the required schedulability tests. The application of the new scheme shows substantial improvement. With its basis on fixed priority scheduling, it is expected the scheme can be easily incorporated into existing real-time operating systems and provoke wider use of imprecise computing.
Multiscale tissue engineering for liver reconstruction

The liver is a target of in vitro tissue engineering despite its capability to regenerate in vivo. The construction of liver tissues in vitro remains challenging. In this review, conventional 3D cultures of hepatocytes are first discussed. Recent advances in the 3D culturing of liver cells are then summarized in the context of in vitro liver tissue reconstruction at the micro- and macroscales. The application of microfluidics technology to liver tissue engineering has been introduced as a bottom-up approach performed at the microscale, whereas whole-organ bioengineering technology was introduced as a top-down approach performed at the macroscale. Mesoscale approaches are also discussed in considering the integration of micro- and macroscale approaches. Multiple parallel multiscale liver tissue engineering studies are ongoing; however, no tissue-engineered liver that is appropriate for clinical use has yet been realized. The integration of multiscale tissue engineering studies is essential for further understanding of liver reconstruction strategies.
Willingness to pay for extension services in Uganda among farmers involved in crop and animal husbandry

Although the Ugandan government is determined to aid farmers increase agricultural productivity as an intervention on increasing food security and reducing poverty through extension services, resources constraints are dampening its efforts. Private extension services providers are being invited to take up information dissemination roles with queries on the availability and demand of the services among farmers to attract private sector and factors influencing the demand for extension services. Data collected by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) on national service delivery throughout the country in 2008 among 5363 and 3318 farmers involved in crops’ and animals’ husbandry was used to predict willingness to pay, amount farmers were willing to pay for extension services and factors that were to influence willingness to pay. It was established that about 35% and 40% of the farmers were willing to pay on average Ugandan shillings 3,400 (US$ 1.8) and 3,700 (US$ 2) per trip for extension services in crop and animal husbandry respectively. Key farmer’s attributes that influenced willingness to pay included sex, age, education level, regions of residence and preferred means to receive the services. The demand for extension and preferred price are low for private sectors engagement and the government should first educate the public on the importance of the services.
Improving VG-RAM WNN Multi-label Text Categorization via Label Correlation

In multi-label text databases one or more labels, or categories, can be assigned to a single document. In many such databases there can be correlation on the assignment of subsets of the set of categories. This can be exploited to improve machine learning techniques devoted to multi-label text categorization. In this paper, we examine a virtual generalizing random access memory weightless neural network (VG-RAM WNN for short) architecture that takes advantage of the correlation between categories to improve text-categorization performance. We compare the performance of this architecture, that we named data correlated VG-RAM WNN (VG-RAM WNN-COR), with that of standard VG-RAM WNN using four multi-label categorization performance metrics: one-error, ranking loss, average precision and hamming loss. Our experimental results show that VG-RAM WNN-COR has an overall better performance than VG-RAM WNN for the set of metrics considered.
The IMAGACT Cross-linguistic Ontology of Action. A new infrastructure for natural language disambiguation

Action verbs, which are highly frequent in speech, cause disambiguation problems that are relevant to Language Technologies. This is a consequence of the peculiar way each natural language categorizes Action i.e. it is a consequence of semantic factors. Action verbs are frequently general, since they extend productively to actions belonging to different ontological types. Moreover, each language categorizes action in its own way and therefore the cross-linguistic reference to everyday activities is puzzling. This paper briefly sketches the IMAGACT project, which aims at setting up a cross-linguistic Ontology of Action for grounding disambiguation tasks in this crucial area of the lexicon. The project derives information on the actual variation of action verbs in English and Italian from spontaneous speech corpora, where references to action are high in frequency. Crucially it makes use of the universal language of images to identify action types, avoiding the underdeterminacy of semantic definitions. Action concept entries are implemented as prototypic scenes; this will make it easier to extend the Ontology to other languages.
Baseline characteristics of an incident haemodialysis population in Spain: results from ANSWER—a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study

Background. The ANSWER study aims to identify risk factors leading to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in a Spanish incident haemodialysis population. This paper summarizes the baseline characteristics of this population. Methods. A prospective, observational, one-cohort study, including all consecutive incident haemodialysis patients from 147 Spanish nephrology services, was conducted. Patients were enrolled between October 2003 and September 2004. Sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory and health care characteristics were collected. Results. Baseline characteristics are described for 2341 incident haemodialysis patients [mean (SD) age 65.2 (14.5) years, 63% males]. The main cause of renal failure was diabetic nephropathy (26%). The majority of patients (57%) had a Karnofsky score of 80–100 and 27% were followed up by a nephrologist for ≤6 months. In total, 86% of the patients had hypertension, 43% had dyslipidaemia and 44% had a history of cardiovascular disease. Initial vascular access was obtained via a temporary catheter in 30% of patients, via a permanent catheter in 16% and via an arteriovenous fistula in 54%. Albumin levels were <3.5 g/dl in 43% of patients. Immediately prior to the onset of haemodialysis, the mean (SD) glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was 7.6 (2.8) ml/min/1.73 m2, and only 6.7% of the patients were within the K/DOQI guidelines for all four bone mineral markers. In addition, a high proportion of patients had anaemia markers outside the EBPG guidelines (haemoglobin <11 g/dl, 59%, ferritin <100 or >500 ng/ml, 41% and saturated transferrin <20 or >40%, 50%) despite previous treatment with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in 41% of cases. Conclusions. There is excessive use of temporary catheters and a high prevalence of uraemia-related cardiovascular risk factors among incident haemodialysis patients in Spain. The poor control of hypertension, anaemia, malnutrition and mineral metabolism and late referral to a nephrologist indicate the need for improving the therapeutic management of patients before the onset of haemodialysis.
Cardiometabolic Risk Calculation in the Assessment of Cardiometabolic Risk Profiles

Numerous factors, together labelled as cardiometabolic risk (CMR), increase chances for developing cardiometabolic diseases. CMR estimation has a crucial role in the early prevention and enables the prompt treatment to prevent disease progression and complications. For this purpose several calculators and scoring systems were created, all based on similar, but not the same, input variables. CMR calculators are usually based on various statistical procedures and are result of previously conducted studies. Artificial neural network (ANN) is a method of artificial intelligence that has been recently applied for assessment of CMR in an easy, non-invasive and cheap way.
Human activity recognition for video surveillance using sequences of postures

The Human activities recognition has become a research area of great interest as it has many potential applications; including automated surveillance, sign language interpretation and human-computer interfaces. In recent years, an extensive research has been conducted in this field. This paper presents a part of a novel a Human posture recognition system for video surveillance using one static camera. The training and testing stages were implemented using four different classifiers which are K Means, Fuzzy C Means, Multilayer Perceptron Self-Organizing Maps and Feedforward Neural networks. The accuracy recognition of used classifiers is calculated. The results indicate that Self-Organizing Maps shows the highest recognition rate. Moreover, results show that supervised learning classifiers tend to perform better than unsupervised classifiers for the case of human posture recognition. Furthermore, for each individual classifier, the recognition rate has been found to be proportional to the number of training postures. Performance comparisons between the proposed system and existing similar systems were also shown.
Comparisons of the Portable Digital Spectrometer Systems

Previous experimental evaluations [1,2] of ten commercial gamma-ray spectroscopy systems demonstrated significant benefits of digital signal processing for improvements in the performance of high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy systems. Spectacular improvements in the energy resolution and throughput of germanium detectors were demonstrated for the DSPEC, DSPEC Plus, and 2060DSP. Recently, two new portable DSP spectrometer systems were developed. Results of the performance of these two systems are presented and compared to those of the DSPEC Plus and the analog NIM systems. ________________________________________
Efficient processing of window queries in the pyramid data structure

Window operations serve as the basis of a number of queries that can be posed in a spatial database. Examples of these window-based queries include the exist query (i.e., determining whether or not a spatial feature exists inside a window) and the report query, (i.e., reporting the identity of all the features that exist inside a window). Algorithms are described for answering window queries in &Ogr;(n log logT) time for a window of size n x n in a feature space (e.g., an image) of size T x T (e.g., pixel elements). The significance of this result is that even though the window contains n2 pixel elements, the worst-case time complexity of the algorithms is almost linearly proportional (and not quadratic) to the window diameter, and does not depend on other factors. The above complexity bounds are achieved via the introduction of the incomplete pyramid data structure (a variant of the pyramid data structure) as the underlying representation to store spatial features and to answer queries on them.
LFSR seed computation and reduction using SMT-based fault-chaining

We propose a new method to derive a small number of LFSR seeds for Logic BIST to cover all detectable faults as a first-order satisfiability problem involving extended theories. We use an SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theories) formulation to efficiently combine the tasks of test-generation and seed-computation. We make use of this formulation in an iterative seed-reduction flow which enables the “chaining” of hard-to-test faults using very few seeds. Experimental results demonstrate that up to 79% reduction in the number of seeds can be achieved.
Estimating Sarb´s Policy Reaction Rule

This paper uses a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model to estimate the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) policy reaction rule. We find that the SARB has a stable rule very much in line with those estimated for Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Relative to other emerging economies the policy reaction function of the SARB appears to be much more stable with a consistent anti inflation bias, a somewhat larger weight on output and a very low weight on the exchange rate. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2007 Economic Society of South Africa.
Negotiation guiding framework: A recommendation for negotiation's designer model

Automated negotiation has become the core of many intelligent applications. Common research in automated negotiation is focused on investigations on negotiation protocol and strategy. However, the applications of automated negotiation systems depend on other components as preferences. This paper discusses the utility of these negotiation components among others and proposes a negotiation guiding framework using web services technology and describes the process of the whole system. This proposition was tested on our negotiation framework.
DNA-binding proteins from marine bacteria expand the known sequence diversity of TALE-like repeats

Transcription Activator-Like Effectors (TALEs) of Xanthomonas bacteria are programmable DNA binding proteins with unprecedented target specificity. Comparative studies into TALE repeat structure and function are hindered by the limited sequence variation among TALE repeats. More sequence-diverse TALE-like proteins are known from Ralstonia solanacearum (RipTALs) and Burkholderia rhizoxinica (Bats), but RipTAL and Bat repeats are conserved with those of TALEs around the DNA-binding residue. We study two novel marine-organism TALE-like proteins (MOrTL1 and MOrTL2), the first to date of non-terrestrial origin. We have assessed their DNA-binding properties and modelled repeat structures. We found that repeats from these proteins mediate sequence specific DNA binding conforming to the TALE code, despite low sequence similarity to TALE repeats, and with novel residues around the BSR. However, MOrTL1 repeats show greater sequence discriminating power than MOrTL2 repeats. Sequence alignments show that there are only three residues conserved between repeats of all TALE-like proteins including the two new additions. This conserved motif could prove useful as an identifier for future TALE-likes. Additionally, comparing MOrTL repeats with those of other TALE-likes suggests a common evolutionary origin for the TALEs, RipTALs and Bats.
A Combined Fusion and Data Mining Framework for the Detection of Botnets

This paper describes a combined fusion and miningframework applied to the detection of stealthy botnets.The framework leverages a fusion engine thattracks hosts through the use of feature-based profilesgenerated from multiple network sensor types. Theseprofiles are classified and correlated based on a setof known host profiles, e.g., web servers, mail servers,and bot behavioral characteristics. A mining enginediscovers emergent threat profiles and delivers themto the fusion engine for processing. We describe thedistributed nature of botnets and how they are createdand managed. We then describe a combined fusion andmining model that builds on recent work in the cybersecurity domain. The framework we present employsan adaptive fusion system driven by a mining systemfocused on the discovery of new threats. We concludewith a discussion of experimental results, deploymentissues, and a summary of our arguments.
A Leg Exoskeleton Utilizing a Magnetorheological Actuator

Exoskeleton systems that can enhance people's performance or assist disabled people have been investigated in recent years. However, most exoskeletons utilize DC motors with batteries as the driving source. While the motors require a lot of power, the working time of the exoskeletons is a limiting factor for the implementation of mobile exoskeletons. This paper proposes a new leg exoskeleton that uses a magnetorheological (MR) actuator to provide controllable assistive torque. The designed MR device can function as a brake or clutch according to the working states of the user. When adjustable passive torque is preferred, the MR device will work as a brake, thus only very low power is consumed; when active torque is required, the MR device will work as a clutch, which transfers the torque generated by the motor to the user's leg. The working states of the knee joint are determined by measuring the knee joint angle and the floor reaction force. Utilizing the MR actuator, the exoskeleton will be more energy efficient.
An Integrated Software Environment to Design Polymorphic Fault Tolerant Processors on Radiation Hardened FPGAs

1. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted to understand the current status of on-board autonomous mission planning based iterative repair algorithms, application-specific processor techniques, and use of FPGAs as on-board computers in the space environment. 2. An application-specific hardware architecture (pipelined processor) has been designed and developed for accelerating Iterative Repair algorithms. Initial performance tests indicate a speed up of 800 times or more when the custom architecture is compared with a widely used embedded PowerPC processor as well as a commodity desktop microprocessor. 3. A custom hardware compiler, termed the SATH (Simulated Annealing To Hardware) tool, has been developed to translate Iterative Repair C code into a custom pipelined hardware processor. This tool consists of several stages: a. An intermediate representation generator, which translates GCC intermediate code into an optimized, custom intermediate representation b. Constant extractors, which parse the source code for important parameters c. Design Space Explorers, which derive efficient architectures of pipelined stages based upon source code complexity and FPGA resource constraints d. An architecture-to-VHDL translator, which reduces the final architecture specification to a set of synthesizable VHDL files. Recommended for revision and re-submission within 21 days. It has been revised and resubmitted on Oct 9 th. b. " Deriving FPGA based custom soft-core microprocessors for Mission Planning Algorithms " , A. Dasu, J.D. Phillips. Proceedings of the 21 st annual AIAA Small Satellite conference. Aug. 2007. c. " An ASIP architecture framework to facilitate automated design space exploration and synthesis for Iterative Repair solvers " , A. Dasu, J.D. The PhD student will defend his dissertation in the Spring semester of 2008. 6. Special session at the ERSA conference (engineering of reconfigurable systems and algorithms): I have been invited by the chair of ERSA conference (Dr. Toomas Plaks) to host a special session. I am focusing on a theme related to FPGAs for space based applications, algorithms and tools. Through this process I am trying to actively engage NASA groups from JPL, LaRC etc. to showcase their work at this conference. 7. Planning for Year 3: We have started preliminary work on fault tolerance and mitigation circuit design techniques and evaluation against a commodity TMR tool from Xilinx. Abstract Autonomous dynamic event scheduling, using Iterative Repair techniques such as those employed by remote agent software, is clearly becoming an essential component of space missions, as it enables spacecraft to adaptively schedule tasks in a dynamic, …
Dynamic knobs for responsive power-aware computing

We present PowerDial, a system for dynamically adapting application behavior to execute successfully in the face of load and power fluctuations. PowerDial transforms static configuration parameters into dynamic knobs that the PowerDial control system can manipulate to dynamically trade off the accuracy of the computation in return for reductions in the computational resources that the application requires to produce its results. These reductions translate directly into performance improvements and power savings. Our experimental results show that PowerDial can enable our benchmark applications to execute responsively in the face of power caps that would otherwise significantly impair responsiveness. They also show that PowerDial can significantly reduce the number of machines required to service intermittent load spikes, enabling reductions in power and capital costs.