Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Light Cone Effect on the Shapiro Time Delay

We investigate the light cone effect on the Shapiro time delay. The extra time delay caused by Jupiter on 2002 September 8 can be measured by advanced very long baseline interferometry. Our expression for the delay is in complete agreement with that of S. Kopeikin, who argued that the excess time delay was due to the propagation of gravity. The present Letter, however, shows that the excess comes from nothing but the propagation of light, namely, the light cone effect. To make a robust confirmation of general relativity by the coming Jupiter event, it is important to take account of the light cone effect on the Shapiro time delay.
Twitter as a Source of Global Mobility Patterns for Social Good

Data on human spatial distribution and movement is essential for understanding and analyzing social systems. However existing sources for this data are lacking in various ways; difficult to access, biased, have poor geographical or temporal resolution, or are significantly delayed. In this paper, we describe how geolocation data from Twitter can be used to estimate global mobility patterns and address these shortcomings. These findings will inform how this novel data source can be harnessed to address humanitarian and development efforts.
Novel telomerase-increasing compound in mouse brain delays the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Telomerase is expressed in the neonatal brain, in distinct regions of adult brain, and was shown to protect developing neurons from apoptosis. Telomerase reactivation by gene manipulation reverses neurodegeneration in aged telomerase‐deficient mice. Hence, we and others hypothesized that increasing telomerase expression by pharmaceutical compounds may protect brain cells from death caused by damaging agents. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that the novel compound AGS‐499 increases telomerase activity and expression in the mouse brain and spinal cord (SC). It exerts neuroprotective effects in NMDA‐injected CD‐1 mice, delays the onset and progression of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease in SOD1 transgenic mice, and, after the onset of ALS, it increases the survival of motor neurons in the SC by 60%. The survival of telomerase‐expressing cells (i.e. motor neurons), but not telomerase‐deficient cells, exposed to oxidative stress was increased by AGS‐499 treatment, suggesting that the AGS‐499 effects are telomerase‐mediated. Therefore, a controlled and transient increase in telomerase expression and activity in the brain by AGS‐499 may exert neuroprotective effects.
Web-imageability of the Behavioral Features of Basic-level Concepts

The recent research direction toward multimodal semantic representation would be further advanced, if we could have a machinery to collect adequate images from the Web, given a target concept. With this motivation, this paper particularly investigates into the Web imageabilities of the behavioral features (e.g. beaver builds dams) of a basic-level concept (beaver). The term Web-imageability denotes how adequately the images acquired from the Web deliver the intended meaning of a complex concept. The primary contributions made in this paper are twofold: (1) beaver building dams-type queries can better yield relevant Web images, suggesting that the present participle form (-ing form) of a verb (building), as a query component, is more effective than the base form; (2) the behaviors taken by animate beings are likely to be more depicted on the Web, particularly if the behaviors are, in a sense, inherent to animate beings (e.g.,motion, consumption), while the creation-type behaviors of inanimate beings are not. The paper further analyzes linguistic annotations that were independently given to some of the images, and discusses an aspect of the semantic gap between image and language.
Rule-Based Requirements Specification and Validation 1

Requirements specification has only recently been acknowledged as one of the most important phases in the overall software li fe cycle. Since the statement of a complete and consistent set of requirements involves user participation, our approach investigates how user oriented formalisms and techniques could be employed for the specification and capturing of requirements. We propose the use of rules as a natural means for expressing the application domain knowledge, and introduce a number of techniques such as semantic prototyping and animation for the validation of the requirements.
An Overview of Medical Image Registration Methods

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of existing medical image registration methods. These methods will be classified according to a model based on nine salient criteria, the main dichotomy of which is extrinsic versus intrinsic methods. The statistics of the classification show definite trends in the evolving registration techniques, which will be discussed. At this moment, the bulk of interesting intrinsic methods is either based on segmented points or surfaces, or on techniques endeavoring to use the full information content of the images involved.
On the limitations of logic testing for detecting Hardware Trojans Horses

The insertion of malicious alterations to a circuit, referred to as Hardware Trojan Horses (HTH), is a threat considered more and more seriously in the last years. Several methods have been proposed in literature to detect the presence of such alterations. Among them, logic testing approaches consist in trying to activate potential HTHs and detect erroneous outputs by exploiting manufacturing digital test techniques. Besides the complexity of this approach due to the intrinsic stealthiness of the potential HTH, we will show that a particular HTH targeting the test infrastructure itself may jeopardize the possibility of detecting any other alterations.
RFIDs and secret handshakes: defending against ghost-and-leech attacks and unauthorized reads with context-aware communications

We tackle the problem of defending against ghost-and-leech (a.k.a. proxying, relay, or man-in-the-middle) attacks against RFID tags and other contactless cards. The approach we take -- which we dub secret handshakes -- is to incorporate gesture recognition techniques directly on the RFID tags or contactless cards. These cards will only engage in wireless communications when they internally detect these secret handshakes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach by implementing our secret handshake recognition system on a passive WISP RFID tag with a built-in accelerometer. Our secret handshakes approach is backward compatible with existing deployments of RFID tag and contactless card readers. Our approach was also designed to minimize the changes to the existing usage model of certain classes of RFID and contactless cards, like access cards kept in billfold and purse wallets, allowing the execution of secret handshakes without removing the card from one's wallet. Our techniques could extend to improving the security and privacy properties of other uses of RFID tags, like contactless payment cards.
Generic Knowledge Structures for Probabilistic-Network Engineering

The process of engineering probabilistic networks can be supported by a library of generic knowledge structures. Such a knowledge structure is instantiated with domainspecific knowledge and is used to derive, in a number of steps, a segment of the graphical structure of a network. To provide for customisation to the application at hand, the structures are based on an in-depth knowledge analysis and capture, in an appropriate representation, the intricate details of the knowledge involved. We present, as an example, the generic knowledge structure that captures the relations between a test result and the underlying true value. As a guideline for its application we provide the derivation of a network segment in the field of oncology.
Metacarpal index in short stature before and during growth hormone treatment

AIMS To assess the usefulness of the metacarpal index (MCI) as a radiographic measure of the proportions of the metacarpals in the differential diagnosis of short stature. To investigate the significance of the MCI in following the longitudinal growth and proportions of individual long bones during growth hormone stimulated catch up growth in children with short stature with and without growth hormone deficiency. SUBJECTS 124 children, including 65 children with short stature caused by growth hormone deficiency, 13 with familial short stature, 29 with idiopathic short stature, and 17 with Ullrich-Turner syndrome. METHODS Retrospective analysis of the MCI in five posterior–anterior radiographs of the left hand of all patients, which were performed sequentially for routine bone age determinations (Greulich and Pyle) before and during the first three years of growth hormone treatment. RESULTS The MCI was similar in all patient groups, resembled that of healthy children, and correlated significantly with chronological age, bone age, and height before and during growth hormone treatment. Despite a remarkable growth hormone stimulated catch up growth, the MCI did not change significantly during growth hormone treatment. CONCLUSIONS The role of the MCI is insignificant in the diagnosis of short stature, but the MCI can serve as an auxological measure of osseous proportions during longitudinal growth. Growth hormone treatment accelerates longitudinal growth without affecting the proportions of the long bones, indicating that growth hormone stimulated bone growth closely resembles spontaneous bone growth.
Confidence Measure Using Composite Features for Eye Detection in a Face Recognition System

We propose a new confidence measure to evaluate the eye detection results and combine two different eye detectors. The confidence for the results of eye detection is measured by the distances from the test sample and the positive samples, where the distance is calculated in the composite feature space. By using the proposed confidence measure, we construct a hybrid detector by combining two different detectors, which are complementary to each other. The experimental results show that the proposed detector provides more accurate eye detection results and consequently results in better face recognition rates compared to when using an individual eye detector.
Applying Lag Sequential Calculation and Social Network Analysis to Detect Learners' Behavioral Patterns and Generate Automatic Learning Feedback-Scenarios for Educational MMORPG Games

In the era of Web 2.0, educational digital games are trending to design learning scenarios which promote social interaction and knowledge constructions. Moreover, educational MMORPG games are possibly to achieve higher social knowledge construction by making instant analysis of behavioral patterns of learners as game players and corresponding game scenarios are generated instantly according to instructional strategies to enhance social interaction. A framework of automatic behavioral detection/analysis mechanism for multi-player interactive educational game combing Lag Sequential calculation and Social Network Analysis is proposed in this study. Teachers and researchers are able to set various feedback rules and scenarios according to the analyzed behavior patterns for facilitating the interaction and learning of learners.
2015 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Twitter Opinion Mining for Adverse Drug Reactions

— Although rigorous clinical studies are required before a drug is placed on the market, it is impossible to predict all side effects for the approved medication. The United States Food and Drug Administration actively monitors approved drugs to identify adverse events. The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) contains a database of adverse drug events reported by the healthcare providers and consumers. The ubiquitous online social networks, such as Twitter, can provide complementary information about adverse drug events. Short Twitter postings, or tweets, are often used to express an opinion about drugs, as well as solicit and receive feedback from consumers of a drug. Thus, adverse drug events can be discovered by extracting from tweets users' opinions about drugs. Here, we developed a computational pipeline for collecting, processing, and analyzing tweets to find signals about adverse drug reactions, defined as drug side effects caused by a drug at a normal dose during normal use. Manual examination of processed tweets identified several known side effects of four drugs.
HLSF: A High-Level; C++-Based Framework for Stencil Computations on Accelerators

The development of programs for modern systems with GPUs and other accelerators is a complex and error-prone task. The popular GPU programming approaches like CUDA and OpenCL require a deep knowledge of the underlying architecture to achieve good performance. We present HLSF -- a high-level framework that greatly simplifies the development of stencil-based applications on systems with accelerators. The main novel features of HLSF are as follows: 1) it provides a high-level interface for stencils that hides from the programmer the low-level management of the parallelism and memory on accelerators; 2) it allows the developer to write programs in the pure C++ style, using all convenient features of the most recent C++14 standard. Our experimental evaluation shows that the framework significantly reduces the programming effort for stencil-based applications, while delivering performance competitive to CUDA and OpenCL.
A formal treatment of generalized preferential attachment and its empirical validation

Generalized preferential attachment is defined as the tendency of a vertex to acquire new links in the future with respect to a particular vertex property. Understanding which properties influence the link acquisition tendency (LAT) gives us a predictive power to estimate the future growth of network and insight about the actual dynamics governing the complex networks. In this study, we explore the effect of age and degree on LAT by analyzing data collected from a new complex-network growth dataset. We found that LAT and degree of a vertex are linearly correlated in accordance with previous studies. Interestingly, the relation between LAT and age of a vertex is found to be in conflict with the known models of network growth. We identified three different periods in the network's lifetime where the relation between age and LAT is strongly positive, almost stationary and negative correspondingly.
Identification of a novel surface protein on activated CD4+ T cells that induces contact-dependent B cell differentiation (help)

CD4+ T lymphocytes provide contact-dependent stimuli to B cells that are critical for the generation of specific antibody responses in a process termed T helper function. The surface structures on activated CD4+ T cells that mediate this function are not fully known. We previously reported the isolation of a functionally unique subclone of the Jurkat leukemic T cell line (D1.1) that constitutively expressed contact-dependent helper effector function. To identify T cell surface molecules that mediate contact-dependent T helper function, a monoclonal antibody (mAb), designated 5c8, was generated that inhibits D1.1-mediated B cell activation and immunoprecipitates a novel 30-kD protein structure from surface-iodinated D1.1 cells. Normal CD4+ T cells express 5c8 antigen (Ag) transiently 5-6 h after activation by phorbol myristate acetate and phytohemagglutinin with maximal expression 5-6 h after activation and absence of expression by 24 h. In contrast, neither resting nor activated CD8+ T cells express 5c8 Ag. In functional studies, mAb 5c8 inhibits the ability of fixed, activated CD4+ T cells to induce B cell surface CD23 expression. In addition, mAb 5c8 inhibits the ability of CD4+ T cells to direct terminal B cell differentiation driven by pokeweed mitogen. Taken together, these data suggest that 5c8 Ag is a novel, activation-induced surface T cell protein that is involved in mediating a contact-dependent element of the helper effector function of CD4+ T lymphocytes.
Learning Ecg Grammars

In this paper a learning system is presented which integrates an ECG waveform classiier (called PECG) with an interactive learner (called IMPUT). The PECG system is based on an attribute grammar speciication of ECGs that has been transformed to Prolog. The IMPUT system combines the interactive debugging technique IDT with the unfolding algorithm introduced in SPECTRE. Using the IMPUT system we can eeectively assist in preparing the correct description of the basic structures of ECG waveforms. The application of the system for learning ECG waveforms is demonstrated with the help of an example. 4
A blended global snow product using visible, passive microwave and scatterometer satellite data

A joint US Air Force/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) blended global snow product that uses Earth Observation System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT or QSCAT) data has been developed. Existing snow products derived from these sensors have been blended into a single, global, daily, user-friendly product by using a newly developed Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA)/NASA Snow Algorithm (ANSA). This initial blended snow product uses minimal modelling to expeditiously yield improved snow products, which include, or will include, snow-cover extent, fractional snow cover, snow water equivalent (SWE), onset of snowmelt and identification of actively melting snow cover. The blended snow products are currently 25-km resolution. These products are validated with data from the lower Great Lakes region of the USA, from Colorado obtained during the Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX), and from Finland. The AMSR-E product is especially useful in detecting snow through clouds; however, passive microwave data miss snow in those regions where the snow cover is thin, along the margins of the continental snowline, and on the lee side of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. In these regions, the MODIS product can map shallow snow cover under cloud-free conditions. The confidence for mapping snow-cover extent is greater with the MODIS product than with the microwave product when cloud-free MODIS observations are available. Therefore, the MODIS product is used as the default for detecting snow cover. The passive microwave product is used as the default only in those areas where MODIS data are not applicable due to the presence of clouds and darkness. The AMSR-E snow product is used in association with the difference between ascending and descending satellite passes or diurnal-amplitude variations (DAV) to detect the onset of melt, and a QSCAT product will be used to map areas of snow that are actively melting.
Document Classification with Varied Viewpoints Using Matrix Decomposition

The result of document classification is not unique and there can be many other results from the different perspectives. In other words, the classification results can vary according to user's viewpoints of classification. If a document classification system ignores the user's viewpoints, the result of classification will be different from the result desired by the user and the difference between the user's desired result and the system's result can cause some inhibitions and oversights in information retrieval. So, we extract the user's viewpoints from the classification examples performed preliminarily by the user and use them to the following classification in order to reflect the user's desire. In this paper, we propose four methods to extract viewpoints and three methods to classify documents using matrix decomposition such as Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF). We show the results of comparative experiments with the original NMF, Semi-Supervised NMF (SSNMF) and our proposed methods.
Second Exam : Natural Language Parsing with Neural Networks

With the advent of “deep learning”, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in the use of artificial neural networks for machine learning. This paper presents an overview of recent research in the statistical parsing of natural language sentences using such neural networks as a learning model. Though it is a fairly new addition to the toolset in this area, important results have been recorded in both syntax and dependency parsing. These include the use of all types of neural network architectures: basic feedforward classifiers, recurrent networks, and recursive neural networks.
The propeptide of preprosomatostatin mediates intracellular transport and secretion of alpha-globin from mammalian cells

We have investigated the role of the somatostatin propeptide in mediating intracellular transport and sorting to the regulated secretory pathway. Using a retroviral expression vector, two fusion proteins were expressed in rat pituitary (GH3) cells: a control protein consisting of the beta-lactamase signal peptide fused to chimpanzee alpha-globin (142 amino acids); and a chimera of the somatostatin signal peptide and proregion (82 amino acids) fused to alpha-globin. Control globin was translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum as determined by accurate cleavage of its signal peptide; however, alpha- globin was not secreted but was rapidly and quantitatively degraded intracellularly with a t 1/2 of 4-5 min. Globin degradation was insensitive to chloroquine, a drug which inhibits lysosomal proteases, but was inhibited at 16 degrees C suggesting proteolysis occurred during transport to the cis-Golgi apparatus. In contrast to the control globin, approximately 30% of the somatostatin propeptide-globin fusion protein was transported to the distal elements of the Golgi apparatus where it was endoproteolytically processed. Processing of the chimera occurred in an acidic intracellular compartment since cleavage was inhibited by 25 microM chloroquine. 60% of the transported chimera was cleaved at the Arg-Lys processing site in native prosomatostatin yielding "mature" alpha-globin. Most significantly, approximately 50% of processed alpha-globin was sorted to the regulated pathway and secreted in response to 8-Br-cAMP. We conclude that the somatostatin propeptide mediated transport of alpha-globin from the endoplasmic reticulum to the trans-Golgi network by protecting molecules from degradation and in addition, facilitated packaging of alpha-globin into vesicles whose secretion was stimulated by cAMP.
Living in the posthuman network society: mobility and surveillance in “Blackhat”

Although not a box office success and with serious flows regarding narrative structure and performance, “Blackhat” (2015) is undoubtedly a film that shows its belonging to a specific context and historical moment: it reflects upon some of the worries, changes and consequences of the combination of new technologies and socio-political events. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the visual and aesthetic mechanisms the film uses to present firstly contemporary changes in communication and secondly present-day worries related to security and the risk society, which have triggered the expansion of surveillance systems. Finally, it will also address the ways through which this new network society affects and is the tool for the construction of new identities while it also changes our perception of reality.