Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finding Superior Skyline Points from Incomplete Data

The skyline query has proven to be an important tool in multi-criteria decision making and search space pruning. A skyline query returns the subset of points from a multidimensional dataset that are not dominated by any other point. Due to its wide applications, skyline query and its variants have been extensively studied in the past. However, skyline computation for incomplete domain, where points have missing values for some dimensions, has not received enough attention. The existing solutions for such incomplete datasets use weak pareto dominance relation which is non-transitive and cyclic. Hence, many of the desirable points are not included in the skyline. Consequently, the skyline no longer offers a reliable overview of the dataset. Moreover, the skyline set returned by these methods is unordered and has high cardinality. The end user does not have control over the result size. Therefore, we have adapted the top-k frequent skyline approach proposed for complete datasets to find interesting points from incomplete datasets. The proposed approach overcomes the above mentioned drawbacks and returns top-k points ordered by their fractional skyline frequency. Experimental results on both synthetic and real world datasets demonstrate the ability of our approach to find superior skyline points from incomplete datasets.
Symmetry-based object proposal for text detection

Scene text detection and recognition have become active research topics in computer vision. In this paper, we focus on the detection of text proposal from wild images. Text proposals attempt to generate a relatively small set of bounding box proposals that are most likely to contain text. Different from previous methods that merge similar region based on property of individual region, we assumed that text word bare strong symmetry property. We propose a new algorithm that exploit the symmetry property to directly generate word-level proposals. Proposals generation process using the region features, and rank process making use of the symmetry structures in text groups. Experiments on two standard datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has achieve the state-of-the-art performance, especially in the case of smaller proposal number.
Scalable information dissemination for pervasive systems: implementation and evaluation

Pervasive computing systems require large amounts of information to be available to devices in order to support context-aware applications. Information must be routed from the sensors that provide it to the applications that consume it in a timely fashion. However, the potential size and ad hoc nature of these environments makes the management of communications a non-trivial task. One proposed solution to this problem uses gossiping, a class of probabilistic routing protocol, to disseminate context information throughout the environment. Gossiping algorithms require far less in the way of guarantees about network structure, reliability, and latency than alternative approaches, but are unproven in real world scenarios. We describe the on-going development of a framework for evaluating the performance of these algorithms within the context of pervasive environments.
IPM / P-2005 / 004 Supersymmetric D 3-branes in Five-Form Flux

We consider multiple Euclidean D3-branes in a specific supergravity solution, which consists of a self-dual 5-form RR field in a flat background. We propose a deformation of N = 4 SYM action describing the dynamics of D3-branes in this background. We look at the supersymmetries of N = 4 SYM theory consistent with those preserved by the background. We derive the Chern-Simons action induced by the RR field, and show that the whole action can be supersymmetrized. This we do by deforming the supersymmetry transformations and using the BRST-like characteristic of the unbroken supercharges.
Efficient MRC Construction with SHARDS

Reuse-distance analysis is a powerful technique for characterizing temporal locality of workloads, often visualized with miss ratio curves (MRCs). Unfortunately, even the most efficient exact implementations are too heavyweight for practical online use in production systems. We introduce a new approximation algorithm that employs uniform randomized spatial sampling, implemented by tracking references to representative locations selected dynamically based on their hash values. A further refinement runs in constant space by lowering the sampling rate adaptively. Our approach, called SHARDS (Spatially Hashed Approximate Reuse Distance Sampling), drastically reduces the space and time requirements of reuse-distance analysis, making continuous, online MRC generation practical to embed into production firmware or system software. SHARDS also enables the analysis of long traces that, due to memory constraints, were resistant to such analysis in the past. We evaluate SHARDS using trace data collected from a commercial I/O caching analytics service. MRCs generated for more than a hundred traces demonstrate high accuracy with very low resource usage. MRCs constructed in a bounded 1 MB footprint, with effective sampling rates significantly lower than 1%, exhibit approximate miss ratio errors averaging less than 0.01. For large traces, this configuration reduces memory usage by a factor of up to 10,800 and run time by a factor of up to 204.
Cognition of Parenting: The effect of biological factors and cognitive processes and their interaction on adult responsiveness to baby signals

In the last decade, neurobiological studies have focused efforts on investigating the biological substrates (i.e., cerebral structures, neurotransmitters, and hormones) underlying parental attuned behavior to salient infant stimuli (i.e., infant cries), that plays an important role in child affective, social, and cognitive development (Venuti, 2007; Bornstein, 2002). Both human and animal studies have primarily focused on the neurobiology of mothers and have shown that subcortical and cortical cerebral structures such as the prefrontal cortex, thalamocingulate network, hypothalamus, amygdala, and substantia nigra are important in maternal motivation and attuned behaviors (Barrett & Fleming, 2010; Swain, Lorberbaum, Kose, & Strathearn,2007). However, there is a lack of literature concerning gender differences and only a few studies have investigated the sensitivity of response to infant stimuli in non-parent adults (Caria, de Falco, Venuti, Lee, Esposito, Rigo, Birbaumer & Bornstein, 2012; Glocker, Langleben, Ruparel, Loughead, Gur & Sachser, 2009; Parsons, Young, Kumari, Stein & Kringelbach, 2011; Montoya, Landi, Kober, Worhunsky, Rutherford, Mencl, Mayes & Potenza, 2012). In this research project we focused our investigations on mechanisms in human adults (parents and non-parents) involved in parental care, and in specific: (a) on neural mechanisms underlie BOLD response to infant vocalizations, crying in particular; (b) on brain changes (grey matter volume) occurring during the early postpartum period in new fathers. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in the first study (second chapter) we looked at gender differences in resting-state brain activation associated with the cry condition at the default mode network (DMN) level in a sample of healthy adults (parents and nonparents). The design was balanced by parental status and gender. The DMN is preferentially activated when individuals are not involved in externally oriented tasks, namely during the mind wandering and it is deactivated during external goal-oriented activities. In the second longitudinal study (third chapter) we investigated in new fathers the GM volumes change amongst 2-4 weeks and 3-4 months postpartum in brain areas responsible for parental behaviors over time during the early postpartum period. Anatomical changes and their relationships with parenting behaviors have never been examined in human fathers despite the importance of paternal care for child development. In the third study (fourth chapter) we investigated, using fMRI and behavioral (Response Time RT) techniques, how the pattern of cerebral activation when listening to infant cry modulates concomitant behavioral tasks, which could require or not require the attention toward the cry stimuli, and thus affecting parental responsiveness.
Detection of Archaeological Residues in Vegetated Areas Using Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar

Buried archaeological structures, such as earthworks and buildings, often leave traces at the surface by altering the properties of overlying material, such as soil and vegetation. These traces may be better visible from a remote perspective than on the surface. Active and passive airborne and spaceborne sensors acquiring imagery from the ultraviolet to infrared have been shown to reveal these archaeological residues following the application of various processing techniques. While the active microwave region of the spectrum, in the form of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been used for archaeological prospection, particularly in desert regions, it has yet to be fully exploited to detect buried structures indirectly though proxy indicators in overlying materials in vegetated areas. Studies so far have tended to focus on the intensity of the SAR signal, without making full use of the phase. This paper demonstrates that SAR backscatter intensity, coherence and interferometry can be used to identify archaeological residues over a number of areas in the vicinity of Rome, Italy. SAR imagery from the COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) have been obtained for the analysis: 77 scenes in Stripmap and 27 in Spotlight mode. Processing included multitemporal speckle filtering, coherence generation and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) creation from Small Baseline Subsets (SBAS). Comparison of these datasets with archaeological, geological, soil, vegetation and meteorological data reveal that several products derived from SAR data can expose various types of archaeological residues under different environmental conditions.
Enrichment Clusters for Gifted Learning.

These real-life problems share four criteria. First, a real problem requires a personal frame of reference for the individual or group pursuing the problem. In other words, the problem must involve an emotional or internal commitment in addition to a cognitive or scholarly interest. For example, stating that global warming or urban crime are "real problems" does not make them real for an individual or group unless they decide to do something to address the problem.
Shiraz: A Proposed List Wise Approach to Answer Validation

Answer Validation is an important step in Automatic Question Answering systems and nowadays by spreading Community Question Answering systems it is known as an important task by itself. Previous works just considered it as a binary classification problem in which they try to find the best answer among all the candidate answers for a question. Accordingly, they do not consider the possible unique information which may have been included other answers. This can be considered by having a multiclass label classification problem, it is not only able to find the best answer but also can find ”potentially good”, ”bad”, and etc. answers too. By doing so, it is fully expected to extract and rate all the necessary informationfrom existing candidates to help questionerto find the best and generalanswer for his question. This work tries to consider some features which are gained from importance of comments of the questioner. Finally, by using a good classifier, we try to overcome this problem. The designed system participated in subtask A of the Semeval-2015 Task 3. The primary submission ranked at the 5th and 7th places in four class label and three class label evaluation, accordingly.
Conserved Subgroups and Developmental Regulation in the Monocot rop Gene Family1[w]

Rop small GTPases are plant-specific signaling proteins with roles in pollen and vegetative cell growth, abscisic acid signal transduction, stress responses, and pathogen resistance. We have characterized the rop family in the monocots maize (Zea mays) and rice (Oryza sativa). The maize genome contains at least nine expressed rops, and the fully sequenced rice genome has seven. Based on phylogenetic analyses of all available Rops, the family can be subdivided into four groups that predate the divergence of monocots and dicots; at least three have been maintained in both lineages. However, the Rop family has evolved differently in the two lineages, with each exhibiting apparent expansion in different groups. These analyses, together with genetic mapping and identification of conserved non-coding sequences, predict orthology for specific rice and maize rops. We also identified consensus protein sequence elements specific to each Rop group. A survey of ROP-mRNA expression in maize, based on multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and a massively parallel signature sequencing database, showed significant spatial and temporal overlap of the nine transcripts, with high levels of all nine in tissues in which cells are actively dividing and expanding. However, only a subset of rops was highly expressed in mature leaves and pollen. Intriguingly, the grouping of maize rops based on hierarchical clustering of expression profiles was remarkably similar to that obtained by phylogenetic analysis. We hypothesize that the Rop groups represent classes with distinct functions, which are specified by the unique protein sequence elements in each group and by their distinct expression patterns.
Randomized, double-blind study of intravenous human albumin in hypoalbuminemic patients receiving total parenteral nutrition.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether replacement of human albumin will improve a patient's prognosis. DESIGN A randomized, double-blind, controlled study in which 25 g of human albumin vs. placebo was administered intravenously daily. SETTING A university-affiliated hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-six patients with hypoalbuminemia (serum albumin of <2.5 g/dL), receiving total parenteral nutrition. None of the patients had known cancer, cirrhosis, or nephrotic syndrome. INTERVENTIONS Each patient received at least 6 days of therapy (6 to 24 days of albumin; 7 to 32 days of placebo). Four subjects were excluded from the study since they received therapy for <6 days. One patient was excluded from the study after nephrotic syndrome was identified. Albumin metabolic rates for those patients receiving albumin were estimated using the formula: Metabolism of albumin = 25 g/day + (albumin 1 - albumin 2)(Vd)/days, where albumin 1 and 2 are the serum albumin concentrations (g/L) at the beginning and end of the serum sampling intervals, respectively; Vd is the volume of distribution (L); and days relates to the number of days of the sampling interval. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Sixteen patients received albumin; 15 patients received placebo. One patient receiving placebo and two patients receiving albumin died within 30 days. One patient who received placebo and three patients who received albumin developed sepsis or bacteremia; four patients who received placebo and seven patients who received albumin developed pneumonia during the study (NS). The serum albumin increased in all patients receiving intravenous albumin, but one patient received intravenous albumin for only 6 days. The mean serum albumin concentration increased by 1.42 g/dL in the albumin patients, and increased by 0.29 in the placebo patients (p < .0001 by unpaired t-test). Mean initial albumin metabolism was 17.4 g/day (0.3 g/kg/day). At the end of therapy, albumin metabolism was 20.5 g/day (0.36 g/kg/day) (paired t-test, p = .4, NS). CONCLUSIONS a) The administration of intravenous albumin to hypoalbuminemic patients receiving total parenteral nutrition does not improve morbidity or mortality. b) Albumin metabolic rates, initially related to the catabolic state, are high; later, these rates are high related to filling of the albumin space and gluconeogenesis. c) On the basis of the high albumin catabolic rates at the end of the infusion, doses of albumin of <25 g/day might be sufficient to replace albumin stores.
Structural Basis for Selective Small Molecule Kinase Inhibition of Activated c-Met

The receptor tyrosine kinase c-Met is implicated in oncogenesis and is the target for several small molecule and biologic agents in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer. Binding of the hepatocyte growth factor to the cell surface receptor of c-Met induces activation via autophosphorylation of the kinase domain. Here we describe the structural basis of c-Met activation upon autophosphorylation and the selective small molecule inhibiton of autophosphorylated c-Met. MK-2461 is a potent c-Met inhibitor that is selective for the phosphorylated state of the enzyme. Compound 1 is an MK-2461 analog with a 20-fold enthalpy-driven preference for the autophosphorylated over unphosphorylated c-Met kinase domain. The crystal structure of the unbound kinase domain phosphorylated at Tyr-1234 and Tyr-1235 shows that activation loop phosphorylation leads to the ejection and disorder of the activation loop and rearrangement of helix αC and the G loop to generate a viable active site. Helix αC adopts a orientation different from that seen in activation loop mutants. The crystal structure of the complex formed by the autophosphorylated c-Met kinase domain and compound 1 reveals a significant induced fit conformational change of the G loop and ordering of the activation loop, explaining the selectivity of compound 1 for the autophosphorylated state. The results highlight the role of structural plasticity within the kinase domain in imparting the specificity of ligand binding and provide the framework for structure-guided design of activated c-Met inhibitors.
Spatially-multiplexed MIMO markers

We present spatially-multiplexed fiducial markers with the framework of code division multiple access (CDMA), which is a technique in the field of communications. Since CDMA based multiplexing is robust to signal noise and interference, multiplexed markers can be demultiplexed under several image noises and transformation. With this framework, we explore the paradigm of multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) for fiducial markers so that the data capacity of markers can be improved and different users can receive different data from a multiplexed marker.
Characterizing the Murine Leukemia Virus Envelope Glycoprotein Membrane-Spanning Domain for Its Roles in Interface Alignment and Fusogenicity

ABSTRACT The membrane-proximal region of murine leukemia virus envelope (Env) is a critical modulator of its functionality. We have previously shown that the insertion of one amino acid (+1 leucine) within the membrane-spanning domain (MSD) abolished protein functionality in infectivity assays. However, functionality could be restored to this +1 leucine mutant by either inserting two additional amino acids (+3 leucine) or by deleting the cytoplasmic tail domain (CTD) in the +1 leucine background. We inferred that the ectodomain and CTD have protein interfaces that have to be in alignment for Env to be functional. Here, we made single residue deletions to the Env mutant with the +1 leucine insertion to restore the interface alignment (gain of functionality) and therefore define the boundaries of the two interfaces. We identified the glycine-proline pairs near the N terminus (positions 147 and 148) and the C terminus (positions 159 and 160) of the MSD as being the boundaries of the two interfaces. Deletions between these pairs restored function, but deletions outside of them did not. In addition, the vast majority of the single residue deletions regained function if the CTD was deleted. The exceptions were four hydroxyl-containing amino acid residues (T139, T140, S143, and T144) that reside in the ectodomain interface and the proline at position 148, which were all indispensable for functionality. We hypothesize that the hydroxyl-containing residues at positions T139 and S143 could be a driving force for stabilizing the ectodomain interface through formation of a hydrogen-bonding network. IMPORTANCE The membrane-proximal external region (MPER) and membrane-spanning domains (MSDs) of viral glycoproteins have been shown to be critical for regulating glycoprotein fusogenicity. However, the roles of these two domains are poorly understood. We report here that point deletions and insertions within the MPER or MSD result in functionally inactive proteins. However, when the C-terminal tail domain (CTD) is deleted, the majority of the proteins remain functional. The only residues that were found to be critical for function regardless of the CTD were four hydroxyl-containing amino acids located at the C terminus of the MPER (T139 and T140) and at the N terminus of the MSD (S143 and T144) and a proline near the beginning of the MSD (P148). We demonstrate that hydrogen-bonding at positions T139 and S143 is critical for protein function. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of the MPER in regulating fusogenic activity of viral glycoproteins.
One-Cycle Correction of Timing Errors in Pipelines With Standard Clocked Elements

One of the most aggressive uses of dynamic voltage scaling is timing speculation, which in turn requires fast correction of timing errors. The fastest existing error correction technique imposes a one-cycle time penalty only, but it is restricted to two-phase transparent latch-based pipelines. We perform one-cycle error correction by gating only the main latch in each stage of the pipeline that precedes a failed stage. This new method is applicable to widely used clocking elements, such as flip-flops and pulsed latches. Because it prevents inputs arriving at a stage, which is stalled, it can also be used in pipelines with multiple fan-in, fan-out, and looping. Simulations show an energy saving of 8%-12% with a target throughput of 0.9 instructions per cycle, and 15%-18% when the target is 0.8.
Extended multipoint relays to determine connected dominating sets in MANETs

MPR (multipoint relays) (A. Qayyum et al., Jan. 2002) provides a localized and optimized way of broadcasting messages in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). Using 2-hop neighborhood information, each node determines a small set of forward neighbors to relay messages. Selected forward nodes form a connected dominating set (CDS) to ensure full coverage. Adjih, Jacquet, and Viennot (2002) later proposed a novel localized algorithm to construct a small CDS based on the original MPR without any broadcast information. Such an approach is called source-independent or broadcast-independent. In this paper, we provide several extensions of the source-independent MPR to generate a smaller CDS using 3-hop neighborhood information to cover each node's 2-hop neighbor set. In addition, we extend the notion of coverage in the original MPR. We show that the extended MPR has a constant local approximation ratio compared with a logarithmic local ratio in the original MPR. The effectiveness of our approach is confirmed through a simulation study.
Improving web search relevance and freshness with content previews

Traditional web search engines find it challenging to achieve good search quality for recency-sensitive queries, as they are prone to delays in discovering, indexing and ranking new web pages. In this paper we introduce PreGen, an adaptive preview generation system, which is run as part of a web search engine to improve search result quality for recency-sensitive queries. PreGen uses a machine learning algorithm to classify and select live web feeds, and generates "previews" of new web pages based on the link descriptions available in these feeds. The search engine can then index and present relevant page previews as part of its search results before the pages are fetched from the web, thereby reducing end-to-end delays. Our experiments show that PreGen improves the search relevance of a state-of-the-art search engine for recency-sensitive queries by 3% and reduces the average latencies of affected documents by 50%.