Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-linear Analysis of Intracranial Electroencephalogram Recordings with Approximate Entropy and Lempel-Ziv Complexity for Epileptic Seizure Detection

Epileptic seizures are generated by an abnormal synchronization of neurons unforeseeable for the patients. In this study we analyzed invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings in patients suffering from medically intractable focal epilepsy with two non-linear methods, Approximate Entropy (ApEri) and Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity. ApEn and LZ complexity quantify the regularity and complexity of a time series, respectively, and are well suited to the analysis of non- stationary biomedical signals of short length. Our results show an increase in ApEn and LZ complexity values during seizures at the focal electrodes. These changes could also be seen at some extra focal electrodes. After the seizure ends, the values of both non-linear metrics return to values lower than those before the seizure. Moreover, we quantified the changes in LZ complexity, showing the complexity increase during the seizure and its notable decrease after its end. Our results suggest that these techniques are useful to detect changes due to epileptic seizures in the EEG.
Java for On-line Distributed Monitoring of Heterogeneous Systems and Services

The control and management of Web-based service quality require the extension of the Internet infrastructure with monitoring functions to ascertain dynamically the state of networked resources. We describe the design and implementation of the Monitoring Application Programming Interface (MAPI), a Java-based tool for the on-line monitoring of Internet heterogeneous resources, which provides monitoring indicators at different levels of abstraction. At the application level, it instruments the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to notify several different types of events triggered during the execution of Java applications, e.g. object allocation and method calls. At the kernel level, MAPI inspects system-specific information generally hidden by the JVM, e.g. CPU usage and incoming network packets, by integrating with Simple Network Management Protocol agents and platform-dependent monitoring modules. MAPI is the core part of a portable tool for distributed monitoring, control and management in the Internet environment. The tool is implemented in terms of mobile agents that move close to the monitored resources to enforce distributed management policies autonomously, with a significant reduction in both reaction time and traffic overhead.
Constructing Economic Summary Indexes via Principal Curves

Index number construction is an important and traditional subject in both the statistical and the economical sciences. A novel technique based on localized principal components to compose a single summary index from a collection of indexes is proposed, which is implemented by fitting a (local) principal curve to the multivariate index data. We exploit the ability of principal curves to extract robust low-dimensional ‘features’ (corresponding to the summary index) from high-dimensional data structures, yielding further useful analytic tools to study the behaviour and composition of the summary index over time.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CREATIVE THINKING AND MOTIVATION TO LEARN CREATIVE THINKING AMONG PRE-SCHOOLERS IN JORDAN

The investigation of the level of creative thinking and motivation to learn creative thinking, and the relationship between both of them, in Jordan is still insufficient due to lack of interest and research among researchers and scholars. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between creative thinking and motivation to learn creative thinking among pre-school children in Jordan. A total of 102 students from one kindergarten was examined. Parental consent was obtained before the study was conducted. The result from the analysis posited that there is a medium level of motivation to learn creative thinking (64.7%). The means of TCAM scores and its dimensions were: TCAM overall score (M= 68.24, SD= 14.615), Fluency (M= 17.53, SD= 4.776), Originality (M= 25.7, SD= 8.264), and Imagination (M= 25.01, SD= 3.793). In addition, there is a positive statistically significant correlation (0.573) among the total of creative thinking scores and the total of motivation to learn creative thinking. Spearman correlation was used to evaluate the overall relationship between creative thinking and motivation to learn creative thinking. A strong positive correlation was found between creative thinking and motivation to learn creative thinking scores of pre-school children. The present study has also discussed the findings, the limitations and the recommendations. Article visualizations:
Cross-Layer Perceptual ARQ for Video Communications over 802.11e Wireless Networks

This work presents an application-level perceptual ARQ algorithm for video streaming over 802.11e wireless networks. A simple and effective formula is proposed to combine the perceptual and temporal importance of each packet into a single priority value, which is then used to drive the packet-selection process at each retransmission opportunity. Compared to the standard 802.11 MAC-layer ARQ scheme, the proposed technique delivers higher perceptual quality because it can retransmit only the most perceptually important packets reducing retransmission bandwidth waste. Video streaming of H.264 test sequences has been simulated with ns in a realistic 802.11e home scenario, in which the various kinds of traffic flows have been assigned to different 802.11e access categories according to the Wi-Fi alliance WMM specification. Extensive simulations show that the proposed method consistently outperforms the standard link-layer 802.11 retransmission scheme, delivering PSNR gains up to 12 dB while achieving low transmission delay and limited impact on concurrent traffic. Moreover, comparisons with a MAC-level ARQ scheme which adapts the retry limit to the type of frame contained in packets and with an application-level deadline-based priority retransmission scheme show that the PSNR gain offered by the proposed algorithm is significant, up to 5 dB. Additional results obtained in a scenario in which the transmission relies on an intermediate node (i.e., the access point) further confirms the consistency of the perceptual ARQ performance. Finally, results obtained by varying network conditions such as congestion and channel noise levels show the consistency of the improvements achieved by the proposed algorithm.
Are Bone and Muscle Changes from POWER PE, an 8-month In-school Jumping Intervention, Maintained at Three Years?

Our aim was to determine if the musculoskeletal benefits of a twice-weekly, school-based, jumping regime in healthy adolescent boys and girls were maintained three years later. Subjects of the original POWER PE trial (n = 99) were contacted and asked to undergo retesting three years after cessation of the intervention. All original measures were completed including: sitting height, standing height, weight, calcaneal broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), whole body, hip and spine bone mineral content (BMC), lean tissue mass, and fat mass. Physical activity was recorded with the bone-specific physical activity questionnaire (BPAQ) and calcium intake was estimated with a calcium-focussed food questionnaire. Maturity was determined by Tanner staging and estimation of the age of peak height velocity (PHV). Twenty-nine adolescents aged 17.3±0.4 years agreed to participate. Three years after the intervention, there were no differences in subject characteristics between control and intervention groups (p>0.05). Three-year change in weight, lean mass, and fat mass were similar between groups (p>0.05). There were no significant group differences in three-year change in BUA or BMC at any site (p>0.05), although the between-group difference in femoral neck BMC at follow-up exceeded the least significant change. While significant group differences were not observed three years after cessation of the intervention, changes in bone parameters occurred in parallel for intervention and control groups such that the original benefits of the intervention observed within the treatment group were sustained.
Visualization of SNARE-Mediated Hemifusion between Giant Unilamellar Vesicles Arrested by Myricetin

Neurotransmitters are released within a millisecond after Ca2+ arrives at an active zone. However, the vesicle fusion pathway underlying this synchronous release is yet to be understood. At the center of controversy is whether hemifusion, in which outer leaflets are merged while inner leaflets are still separated, is an on-pathway or off-pathway product of Ca2+-triggered exocytosis. Using the single vesicle fusion assay, we recently demonstrated that hemifusion is an on-pathway intermediate that immediately proceeds to full fusion upon Ca2+ triggering. It has been shown that the flavonoid myricetin arrests soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF) attachment protein receptor (SNARE)-mediated vesicle fusion at hemifusion, but that the hemifused vesicles spontaneously convert to full fusion when the myricetin clamp is removed by the enzyme laccase. In the present study, we visualized SNARE-mediated hemifusion between two SNARE-reconstituted giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) arrested by myricetin. The large size of the GUVs enabled us to directly image the hemifusion between them. When two merging GUVs were labeled with different fluorescent dyes, GUV pairs showed asymmetric fluorescence intensities depending on the position on the GUV pair consistent with what is expected for hemifusion. The flow of lipids from one vesicle to the other was revealed with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), indicating that the two membranes had hemifused. These results support the hypothesis that hemifusion may be the molecular status that primes Ca2+-triggered millisecond exocytosis. This study represents the first imaging of SNARE-driven hemifusion between GUVs.
Ring Switching in BGV-Style Homomorphic Encryption (Preliminary Version)

BGV-style homomorphic encryption schemes over polynomial rings, rely for their security on rings of very large dimension. This large dimension is needed because of the large modulus-to-noise ratio in the key-switching matrices that are used for the top few levels of the evaluated circuit. However, larger noise (and hence smaller modulus-to-noise ratio) is used in lower levels of the circuit, so from a security standpoint it is permissible to switch to lower-dimension rings, thus speeding up the homomorphic operations for the lower levels of the circuit. However, implementing such ring-switching is nontrivial, since these schemes rely on the ring algebraic structure for their homomorphic properties. A basic ring-switching operation was used by Brakerski, Gentry and Vaikuntanathan, over polynomial rings of the form Z[X]/(X 2 n + 1), in the context of bootstrapping. In this work we generalize and extend this technique to work over any cyclotomic ring and show how it can be used not only for bootstrapping but also during the computation itself (in conjunction with the “packed ciphertext” techniques of Gentry, Halevi and Smart.)
Activation of Myocardial Phosphoinositide-3-Kinase p110α Ameliorates Cardiac Dysfunction and Improves Survival in Polymicrobial Sepsis

Phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt dependent signaling has been shown to improve outcome in sepsis/septic shock. There is also ample evidence that PI3K/Akt dependent signaling plays a crucial role in maintaining normal cardiac function. We hypothesized that PI3K/Akt signaling may ameliorate septic shock by attenuating sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. Cardiac function and survival were evaluated in transgenic mice with cardiac myocyte specific expression of constitutively active PI3K isoform, p110α (caPI3K Tg). caPI3K Tg and wild type (WT) mice were subjected to cecal ligation/puncture (CLP) induced sepsis. Wild type CLP mice showed dramatic cardiac dysfunction at 6 hrs. Septic cardiomyopathy was significantly attenuated in caPI3K CLP mice. The time to 100% mortality was 46 hrs in WT CLP mice. In contrast, 80% of the caPI3K mice survived at 46 hrs after CLP (p<0.01) and 50% survived >30 days (p<0.01). Cardiac caPI3K expression prevented expression of an inflammatory phenotype in CLP sepsis. Organ neutrophil infiltration and lung apoptosis were also effectively inhibited by cardiac PI3k p110α expression. Cardiac high mobility group box–1 (HMGB-1) translocation was also inhibited by caPI3K p110α expression. We conclude that cardiac specific activation of PI3k/Akt dependent signaling can significantly modify the morbidity and mortality associated with sepsis. Our data also indicate that myocardial function/dysfunction plays a prominent role in the pathogenesis of sepsis and that maintenance of cardiac function during sepsis is essential. Finally, these data suggest that modulation of the PI3K/p110α signaling pathway may be beneficial in the prevention and/or management of septic cardiomyopathy and septic shock.
Modelling software engineering research with RSML

Background. In order to understand research on a particular computing topic, practitioners and researchers often need to obtain an overview of its research methods. Current research methods coding schemes either capture insufficient details to support a full critical assessment, or are specialised to a particular research type. Aim. This paper defines and demonstrates RSML, a Research Schema Modelling Language that captures a high level of detail and is applicable to most types of computing research. Method. RSML was designed using concepts from the research methods literature, then refined inductively. An RSML editor was created to assist coders and help reduce coding errors. To demonstrate the feasibility of modelling research with RSML, and to exemplify the summary information that can be derived from a database of RSML encodings, a trial review of 24 articles from one journal was conducted. Results. The review illustrates quantitatively the journal's focus on artifact construction and empiricism. It also reveals that observations are rarely used to inform artifact construction, and purely empirical studies are scarce. Conclusion. RSML can be used to model sophisticated, multifaceted research spanning a wide range of software engineering topics, yielding insights that are not easily captured by current coding schemes.
High capacity diacritics-based method for information hiding in Arabic text

New promising technique for information hiding in vocalized Arabic text is proposed in this paper. This technique makes use of diacritics (vowel signs), which are optional to put, by showing or omitting them to hide bits. The technique is found to be very useful due to the considerable provided capacity, and because every possible diacritic in the cover text is used to hide bits. In this method, even excluded or omitted diacritics will be hiding bits. Tests and comparisons show that the proposed technique is superior in matter of capacity to any related published work.
Chapter 1 Multiperspective panoramic depth imaging

In this chapter we present a stereo panoramic depth imaging system, which builds depth panoramas from multiperspective panoramas while using only one standard camera. The basic system is mosaic-based, which means that we use a single standard rotating camera and assemble the captured images in a multiperspective panoramic image. Due to a setoff of the camera’s optical center from the rotational center of the system, we are able to capture the motion parallax effect, which enables the stereo reconstruction. The system has been comprehensively analysed. The analyses include the study of influence of different system parameters on the reconstruction accuracy, constraining the search space on the epipolar line, meaning of error in estimation of corresponding point, definition of the maximal reliable depth value, contribution of the vertical reconstruction and influence of using different cameras. They are substantiated with a number of experiments, including experiments addressing the baseline, the repeatability of results in different rooms, by using different cameras, influence of lens distortion presence on the reconstruction accuracy and evaluation of different models for estimation of system parameters. The analyses and the experiments revealed a number of interesting properties of the system. According to the basic system accuracy we definitely can use the system for autonomous robot localization and navigation tasks.
Serum lipid effects of a high-monounsaturated fat diet based on macadamia nuts.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have identified potential beneficial effects of eating nuts, most of which have substantial amounts of monounsaturated fats. Macadamia nuts are 75% fat by weight, 80% of which is monounsaturated. OBJECTIVE To examine variations in serum lipid levels in response to a high-monounsaturated fat diet based on macadamia nuts. METHODS A randomized crossover trial of three 30-day diets was conducted in 30 volunteers aged 18 to 53 years from a free-living population. Each was fed a "typical American" diet high in saturated fat (37% energy from fat); an American Heart Association Step 1 diet (30% energy from fat); and a macadamia nut-based monounsaturated fat diet (37% energy from fat) in random order. Serum total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were measured. RESULTS Mean total cholesterol level after the typical American diet was 5.20 mmol/L (201 mg/dL). After the Step 1 diet and the macadamia nut diet, total cholesterol level was 4.99 mmol/L (193 mg/dL) and 4.95 mmol/L (191 mg/dL), respectively. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was 3.37 mmol/L (130 mg/dL) (typical diet), 3.21 mmol/L (124 mg/dL) (Step 1 diet), and 3.22 mmol/L (125 mg/dL) (macadamia nut diet). High-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was 1.43 mmol/L (55 mg/dL) (typical), 1.34 mmol/L (52 mg/dL) (Step 1), and 1.37 mmol/L (53 mg/dL) (macadamia nut). Lipid values after the Step 1 and macadamia nut diets were significantly different from those after the typical diet (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS The macadamia nut-based diet high in monounsaturated fat and the moderately low-fat diet both had potentially beneficial effects on cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels when compared with a typical American diet.
Performance Evaluation of Apache Spark According to the Number of Nodes using Principal Component Analysis

With the development of big data collection and storage technology, an analysis for its utilization has recently been expanded in public sector and various industries. Especialy in manufacturing and financial sectors, there has been a very high demand for real-time analysis of big data. Existing studies on the big data analysis mainly dealt with its batch scheme as a premise. In recent years, studies related to real-time analytics using SPARK, STORM and IMDG have been underway. In this regard, this paper seeks to evaluate the processing performance of the principal component analysis using an open sourse SPARK which is in-memeory based distributed processing method. It is necessary for real-time analysis and fast operation of large amount of data. This paper shows how fast spark is by comprison with open source R and also investigate the distributed processing capability of Spark according to the Node configuration.
Finding All Simple Disjoint Decompositions in Frequent Itemset Data

(Abstract) In this paper, we propose a method of finding simple disjoint decompositions in frequent itemset data. The techniques for decomposing Boolean functions have been studied for long time in the area of logic circuit design, and recently , there is a very efficient algorithm to find all possible simple disjoint decompositions for a given Boolean functions based on BDDs (Binary Decision Diagrams). We consider the data model called " sets of combinations " instead of Boolean functions , and present a similar efficient algorithm for finding all possible simple disjoint decompositions for a given set of combinations. Our method will be useful for extracting interesting hidden structures from the frequent itemset data on a transaction database. We show some experimental results for conventional benchmark data.
A 3-D Immersive Synthesizer for Environmental Sounds

Nowadays, interactive 3-D environments tend to include both synthesis and spatialization processes to increase the realism of virtual scenes. In typical systems, audio generation is created in two stages: first, a monophonic sound is synthesized (generation of the intrinsic timbre properties) and then it is spatialized (positioned in its environment). In this paper, we present the design of a 3-D immersive synthesizer dedicated to environmental sounds, and intended to be used in the framework of interactive virtual reality applications. The system is based on a physical categorization of environmental sounds (vibrating solids, liquids, aerodynamics). The synthesis engine has a novel architecture combining an additive synthesis model and 3-D audio modules at the prime level of sound generation. An original approach exploiting the synthesis capabilities for simulating the spatial extension of sound sources is also presented. The subjective results, evaluated with a formal listening test, are discussed. Finally, new control strategies based on a global manipulation of timbre and spatial attributes of sound sources are introduced.
Using Performance Feedback to Increase Treatment Integrity in Behavioral Interventions: Meta-Analysis

This study examined the effects of performance feedback on the treatment integrity of various behavioral interventions occurring inside a classroom setting. Nine studies were analyzed across seven moderator variables (school, classroom, intervention, latency of feedback, type of feedback, consultee position and consultee experience). This meta-analysis was driven by three research questions: a) What is the magnitude of performance feedback on the treatment integrity of behavioral interventions? b) Is performance feedback an effective intervention for more intensive behavioral concerns? c) What factors make performance feedback more beneficial? Major findings in this study included small to large effect sizes, with larger effects seen in special education classrooms and interventions for behavior-specific praise. These findings suggest that performance feedback can be used across school and classroom types as well as to address intensive behavioral concerns.
Bayesian Optimisation for Machine Translation

This paper presents novel Bayesian optimisation algorithms for minimum error rate training of statistical machine translation systems. We explore two classes of algorithms for efficiently exploring the translation space, with the first based on N-best lists and the second based on a hypergraph representation that compactly represents an exponential number of translation options. Our algorithms exhibit faster convergence and are capable of obtaining lower error rates than the existing translation model specific approaches, all within a generic Bayesian optimisation framework. Further more, we also introduce a random embedding algorithm to scale our approach to sparse high dimensional feature sets.