Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glial and neuronal markers in cerebrospinal fluid predict progression in multiple sclerosis

Objective: To investigate glial and neuronal biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS), and to evaluate their ability to predict conversion from CIS to clinically definite MS (CDMS) and also disability progression in MS. Methods: CSF levels of neurofilament light protein (NFL), t-tau, p-tau, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), S-100B, human chitinase 3-like 1 protein (YKL-40), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), α-sAPP and β-sAPP; and Aβ38, Aβ40 and Aβ42, were analyzed in 109 CIS patients and 192 RRMS patients. The mean follow-up time of these 301 patients was 11.7 ± 6.4 years. Results: High levels of NFL were associated with early conversion from CIS to CDMS (hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.69 (1.75 – 4.15); p < 0.0001). High levels of YKL-40 and GFAP were associated with earlier progression in the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), score 3: YKL-40 (HR (95% CI): 2.78 (1.48 – 5.23); p = 0.001) and GFAP (HR (95% CI): 1.83 (1.01 – 3.35); p = 0.04). High levels of YKL-40 were associated with earlier progression to EDSS 6 (HR (95% CI): 4.57 (1.01 – 20.83); p = 0.05). Conclusions: CSF levels of NFL in CIS patients are an independent prognostic marker for conversion to CDMS. Whereas, CSF levels of YKL-40 and GFAP are independent prognostic markers for disability progression in MS.
Efficient Evaluation of Object-Centric Exploration Queries for Visualization

The most effective way to explore data is through visualizing the results of exploration queries. For example, an exploration query could be an aggregate of some measures over time intervals, and a pattern or abnormality can be discovered through a time series plot of the query results. In this paper, we examine a special kind of exploration query, namely object-centric exploration query. Common examples include claims made about athletes in sports databases, such as "it is newsworthy that LeBron James has scored 35 or more points in nine consecutive games. " We focus on one common type of visualization, i.e., 2d scatter plot with heatmap. Namely, we consider exploration queries whose results can be plotted on a two-dimensional space, possibly with colors indicating object densities in regions. While we model results as pairs of numbers, the types of the queries are limited only by the users' imagination. In the LeBron James example above, the two dimensions are minimum points scored per game and number of consecutive games, respectively. It is easy to find other equally interesting dimensions, such as minimum rebounds per game or number of playoff games. We formalize this problem and propose an efficient, interactive-speed algorithm that takes a user-provided exploration query (which can be a blackbox function) and produces an approximate visualization that preserves the two most important visual properties: the outliers and the overall distribution of all result points.
3D Object Reconstruction from Image Sequences with a One Line Search Method

This paper addresses the problem of estimating the 3D model of an object from a sequence of images where the object is visible from different point of views. In particular, the paper considers the case of turntable image sequences, i.e. images captured under circular motion. A new method is hence proposed for this problem, which consists of determining the image point correspondences of each 3D point through a one line search where a photo-consistency index is maximized. Results with both synthetic and real data validate and illustrate the proposed method.
TRADE AND EMPLOYMENT : EVIDENCE IN MANUFACTURING OF SELECTED EU COUNTRIES

This working paper reviews general changes in EU labour markets, with reference to the four major EU countries, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. It sheds light on the possible links between foreign trade and employment in manufacturing industries, using data for a panel of 40 industries over the period 1970-1995. The estimates do not provide evidence of significant effects of import penetration and export intensity on employment. The exception is for the UK, whereby import penetration is negative and statistically significant. Generally, the responsiveness of employment varies negatively with the degree of import penetration, but not the level of technology. Evelyn Devadason Department of Applied Economics Faculty of Economics & Administration University of Malaya 50603 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Tel: 603-79673726 Fax: 603-79567252 Email: g2evelyn@umcsd.um. edu.my The research has been conducted in the context of a research attachment to the Kiel Institute of World Economics, Germany. Financial support via the University of Malaya European Studies Programme (UMESP) Faculty Fellowship for 3-months (1 August – 31 October 20001) of the Asia-Europe Institute is gratefully acknowledged. I would like to thank Claudia M. Buch for her valuable comments on the technical aspects of the paper. I have also benefited from discussions with Jurgen Stehn and Bernhard Heitger. The responsibility for the contents of the paper rests with the author, not the Institute or any names mentioned herein.
Design automation and analysis of three-dimensional integrated circuits

This dissertation concerns the design of circuits and systems for an emerging technology known as three-dimensional integration. By stacking individual components, dice, or whole wafers using a high-density electromechanical interconnect, three-dimensional integration can achieve scalability and performance exceeding that of conventional fabrication technologies. There are two main contributions of this thesis. The first is a computer-aided design flow for the digital components of a three-dimensional integrated circuit (3-D IC). This flow primarily consists of two software tools: PR3D, a placement and routing tool for custom 3-D ICs based on standard cells, and 3-D Magic, a tool for designing, editing, and testing physical layout characteristics of 3-D ICs. The second contribution of this thesis is a performance analysis of the digital components of 3-D ICs. We use the above tools to determine the extent to which 3-D integration can improve timing, energy, and thermal performance. In doing so, we verify the estimates of stochastic computational models for 3-D IC interconnects and find that the models predict the optimal 3-D wire length to within 20% accuracy. We expand upon this analysis by examining how 3-D technology factors affect the optimal wire length that can be obtained. Our ultimate analysis extends this work by directly considering timing and energy in 3-D ICs. In all cases we find that significant performance improvements are possible. In contrast, thermal performance is expected to worsen with the use of 3-D integration. We examine precisely how thermal behavior scales in 3-D integration and determine quantitatively how the temperature may be controlled during the circuit placement process. We also show how advanced packaging technologies may be leveraged to maintain acceptable die temperatures in 3-D ICs. Finally, we explore two issues for the future of 3-D integration. We determine how technology scaling impacts the effect of 3-D integration on circuit performance. We also consider how to improve the performance of digital components in a mixed-signal 3-D integrated circuit. We conclude with a look towards future 3-D IC design tools. Thesis Supervisor: Rafael Reif Title: Associate Department Head and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Thesis Supervisor: Anantha P. Chandrakasan Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Logspace computations in graph products

We consider three important and well-studied algorithmic problems in group theory: the word, geodesic, and conjugacy problem. We show transfer results from individual groups to graph products. We concentrate on logspace complexity because the challenge is actually in small complexity classes, only. The most difficult transfer result is for the conjugacy problem. We have a general result for graph products, but even in the special case of a graph group the result is new. Graph groups are closely linked to the theory of Mazurkiewicz traces which form an algebraic model for concurrent processes. Our proofs are combinatorial and based on well-known concepts in trace theory. We also use rewriting techniques over traces. For the group-theoretical part we apply Bass-Serre theory. But as we need explicit formulae and as we design concrete algorithms all our group-theoretical calculations are completely explicit and accessible to non-specialists.
Bioinformatics Applications Note Structure Prediction Meta Server

The Structure Prediction Meta Server offers a convenient way for biologists to utilize various high quality structure prediction servers available worldwide. The meta server translates the results obtained from remote services into uniform format, which are consequently used to request a jury prediction from a remote consensus server Pcons. Availability: The structure prediction meta server is freely available at http://BioInfo.PL/meta/, some remote servers have however restrictions for non-academic users, which are respected by the meta server. Contact: leszek@bioinfo.pl Supplementary information: Results of several sessions of the CAFASP and LiveBench programs for assessment of performance of fold-recognition servers carried out via the meta server are available at http://BioInfo.PL/services. html. The Structure Prediction Meta Server is aimed to provide fast and convenient assignment of three-dimensional structure for the query protein based only on the provided amino acid sequence. The meta server is a framework for communication between several providers of structure prediction services and offers a convenient interface for the user. The user is asked to provide the amino acid sequence of the query protein, the name of the query protein or a reference name for the prediction job, and the e-mail address. The e-mail address is used only for notification about errors during the execution of the job. The query sequence and the reference name are placed in a process queue coupled to an SQL database engine. The meta server accepts only sequences, which have not been submitted before. The possibility to update the predictions for sequences, which were submitted previously will be introduced to the meta server in the future. The SQL database offers the possibility to find any previous jobs * To whom correspondence should be addressed. processed by the meta server using 'regular expressions' addressing fields like e-mail, job name and the host name, from which the job was initiated. The database currently holds about 3000 predictions. In the future a purging process will delete very old jobs. The meta server is only a set of programs aimed to process and manage biological data, while the predictive power of the service comes from remote prediction providers that collaborate with the central meta server. The meta server utilizes various, carefully evaluated services available from the community of the developers of structure prediction methods. The remote servers provide secondary (local) structure predictions as well as tertiary structure predictions and solvent accessibility. The local structure predictions are obtained from PsiPred (McGuffin …
Comparison of dictionary-based approaches to automatic repeating melody extraction

Automatic melody extraction techniques can be used to index and retrieve songs in music databases. Here, we consider a piece of music consisting of numerical music scores (e.g. the MIDI file format) as the input. Segmentation is done based on the tempo information, and a music score is decomposed into bars. Each bar is indexed, and a bar index table is built accordingly. Two approaches were proposed to find repeating patterns by the authors recently. In the first approach, an adaptive dictionary-based algorithm known as the Lempel Ziv 78 (LZ-78) was modified and applied to melody extraction, which is called the modified LZ78 algorithm or MLZ78. In the second approach, a sliding window is applied to generate the pattern dictionary. It is called the Exhaustive Search with Progressive LEngth algorithm or ESPLE. Dictionaries generated from both approaches need to be pruned to remove non-repeating patterns. Each iteration of either MLZ78 or ESPLE is followed by pruning of updated dictionaries generated from the previous cycle until the dictionaries converge. Experiments are performed on MIDI files to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms. In this research, we compare results obtained from these two systems in terms of complexity, performance accuracy and efficiency. Their relative merits and shortcomings are discussed in detail.
How to optimize proof-search in modal logics: new methods of proving redundancy criteria for sequent calculi

We present a bottom-up decision procedure for propositional modal logic K based on the inverse method. The procedure is based on the “inverted” version of a sequent calculus. To restrict the search space, we prove a number of redundancy criteria for derivations in the sequent calculus. We introduce a new technique of proving redundancy criteria, based on the analysis of tableau-based derivations in K. Moreover, another new technique is based on so-called traces. A new search with a strong notion of subsumption. This technique is based on so-called traces. A new formalization of the inverse method in the form of a path calculus considerably simplifies all proofs as compared to the previously published presentations of the inverse method. Experimental results demonstrate that our method is competitive with many state-of-the-art implementations of K.
Local Blur Mapping: Exploiting High-Level Semantics by Deep Neural Networks

The human visual system excels at detecting local blur of visual images, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. Traditional views of blur such as reduction in energy at high frequencies and loss of phase coherence at localized features have fundamental limitations. For example, they cannot well discriminate flat regions from blurred ones. Here we propose that high-level semantic information is critical in successfully identifying local blur. Therefore, we resort to deep neural networks that are proficient at learning high-level features and propose the first end-to-end local blur mapping algorithm based on a fully convolutional network. By analyzing various architectures with different depths and design philosophies, we empirically show that high-level features of deeper layers play a more important role than low-level features of shallower layers in resolving challenging ambiguities for this task. We test the proposed method on a standard blur detection benchmark and demonstrate that it significantly advances the state-of-the-art (ODS F-score of 0.853). Furthermore, we explore the use of the generated blur maps in three applications, including blur region segmentation, blur degree estimation, and blur magnification.
Transmission of Holocaust Trauma - An Integrative View

Abstract Much has been written about how children of Holocaust survivors tend to absorb the psychological burdens of their parents. But questions remain regarding such parental transmission of Holocaust trauma. What was in fact passed on from parent to child? How does the transmission occur? Do parents invariably transmit and are children equally susceptible? The purpose of this article is to discuss these issues and present a model in which the process of trauma transmission can be understood more consistently. After a brief description of that which was transmitted, four prevalent theories of trauma transmission are described, including the psychodynamic, sociocultural, family system, and biological points of view. Thereafter, some of the mitigating and aggravating factors are presented that are assumed to decrease or increase the risk of children to absorb the trauma of their parents and to develop specific second-generation psychopathology as a result. In conclusion, an integrative view is suggested that attempts to define the possible influence of biological predisposition, individual developmental history, family system and social situation on transgenerational influence of Holocaust trauma.
(Not Too) Personalized Learning to Rank for Contextual Suggestion

Abstract : In this work, we emphasize how to merge and re-rank contextual suggestions from the open Web based on a user's personal interests. We retrieve relevant results from the open Web by identifying context-independent queries, combining them with location information, and issuing the combined queries to multiple Web search engines. Our learning to rank model utilizes three types of profiles (a general profile, a city profile, and a personal profile) to re-rank and merge the results retrieved from the Web. We find that the learning model generates better results when the user profiles' weights are biased heavily towards major personal interests. The detections of major, minor and negative personal interests are done by statistical analysis across users, examples, and context-independent query types. For user interests detected by query types, we call the interests macro-level interests, while for user interest detected by examples, we call them micro-level interests. In our experiments, we find that micro-level interests effectively avoid favoring too much towards rare query types such as spa and game, and thus yields more balanced rankings. Finally, for the top ranked suggestions for each user and context, we generate result descriptions by learning to rank favorable Yelp comments and using a natural language generation algorithm to generate positive comments.
SAL 2 ?

SAL 2 augments the speciﬁcation language and explicit-state model checker of SAL 1 with high-performance symbolic and bounded model checkers, and with novel inﬁnite bounded and witness model checkers. The bounded model checker can use several diﬀerent SAT solvers, while the inﬁnite bounded model checker similarly can use several different ground decision procedures. SAL 2 provides a scriptable API for its basic model checking and analysis functions that can be used to extend the system. All four new model checkers are implemented using this interface. Itshigh-level speciﬁcation language and wide range of model checkers make SAL convenient for those seeking a ready-to-use solution, while its scriptability and ﬂexible choice of backend analyzers should make it attractive to those seeking an experimental platform.
From Fibrils to Toughness: Multi-Scale Mechanics of Fibrillating Interfaces in Stretchable Electronics

Metal-elastomer interfacial systems, often encountered in stretchable electronics, demonstrate remarkably high interface fracture toughness values. Evidently, a large gap exists between the rather small adhesion energy levels at the microscopic scale (‘intrinsic adhesion’) and the large measured macroscopic work-of-separation. This energy gap is closed here by unravelling the underlying dissipative mechanisms through a systematic numerical/experimental multi-scale approach. This self-containing contribution collects and reviews previously published results and addresses the remaining open questions by providing new and independent results obtained from an alternative experimental set-up. In particular, the experimental studies on Cu-PDMS (Poly(dimethylsiloxane)) samples conclusively reveal the essential role of fibrillation mechanisms at the micro-meter scale during the metal-elastomer delamination process. The micro-scale numerical analyses on single and multiple fibrils show that the dynamic release of the stored elastic energy by multiple fibril fracture, including the interaction with the adjacent deforming bulk PDMS and its highly nonlinear behaviour, provide a mechanistic understanding of the high work-of-separation. An experimentally validated quantitative relation between the macroscopic work-of-separation and peel front height is established from the simulation results. Finally, it is shown that a micro-mechanically motivated shape of the traction-separation law in cohesive zone models is essential to describe the delamination process in fibrillating metal-elastomer systems in a physically meaningful way.
Investigation of Pcbm Concentration on Photovoltaic Characteristics of Polymer Solar Cells with Blends of P3Ht and Pcbm

Polymer photovoltaic cells (PVCs) consisting of a blend of p-type poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and n-type [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) were fabricated and investigated the role of the PCBM concentration. The photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency gradually increased with increase in PCBM concentration up to 50% and decreased with further increase in PCBM concentration. Both the root mean square and average roughnesses measured by atomic force microscopy decrease as the PCBM concentration increases from 0 to approximately 70%. The surface morphology of P3HT/PCBM blended and improved donor-acceptor proximity, leading to electron conductivity, contribute to the increase in power conversion efficiency
Face Recognition Methods & Applications

Face recognition presents a challenging problem in the field of image analysis and computer vision. The security of information is becoming very significant and difficult. Security cameras are presently common in airports, Offices, University, ATM, Bank and in any locations with a security system. Face recognition is a biometric system used to identify or verify a person from a digital image. Face Recognition system is used in security. Face recognition system should be able to automatically detect a face in an image. This involves extracts its features and then recognize it, regardless of lighting, expression, illumination, ageing, transformations (translate, rotate and scale image) and pose, which is a difficult task. This paper contains three sections. The first section describes the common methods like holistic matching method, feature extraction method and hybrid methods. The second section describes applications with examples and finally third section describes the future research directions of face recognition.
Implementing scoped method tracing with ContextJS

Customized method tracers can be a valuable tool for debugging and program comprehension. They allow to declaratively specify what parts of the call graph should be captured and are an alternative to tedious manual debugging techniques. Method tracers are easy to implement in dynamic languages but avoiding multiple method instrumentation and recursion in the client code can become complex. In this paper we show how Context-oriented Programming (COP) can be leveraged to address such issues. Our approach is based on ContextJS, a COP implementation for JavaScript, which provides scoping mechanisms and an infrastructure for method instrumentation. These abstractions allow to separate target and tracer logic so that self-referentiality is avoided.