Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The new approach of programmable pseudo fractional-N clock generator for GHz operation with 50% duty cycle

Because SOC (system-on-a-chip) needs multiple clocks and mostly with 50% duty cycle in same chip, in this paper, we propose a new approach of programmable pseudo fractional-N clock generator to reach a simple solution. We use multiphase outputs of voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in a phase-locked loop (PLL), to generate the needed frequencies with 50% duty cycle. Moreover, a control logic is also built in the structure to make multiple frequency outputs programmable. The circuits are processed in a standard 0.13/spl mu/m CMOS technology, and work with a supply voltage of 1.2V.
Effect of Low Dose of Fumonisins on Pig Health: Immune Status, Intestinal Microbiota and Sensitivity to Salmonella

The objective of this study was to measure the effects of chronic exposure to fumonisins via the ingestion of feed containing naturally contaminated corn in growing pigs infected or not with Salmonella spp. This exposure to a moderate dietary concentration of fumonisins (11.8 ppm) was sufficient to induce a biological effect in pigs (Sa/So ratio), but no mortality or pathology was observed over 63 days of exposure. No mortality or related clinical signs, even in cases of inoculation with Salmonella (5 × 104 CFU), were observed either. Fumonisins, at these concentrations, did not affect the ability of lymphocytes to proliferate in the presence of mitogens, but after seven days post-inoculation they led to inhibition of the ability of specific Salmonella lymphocytes to proliferate following exposure to a specific Salmonella antigen. However, the ingestion of fumonisins had no impact on Salmonella translocation or seroconversion in inoculated pigs. The inoculation of Salmonella did not affect faecal microbiota profiles, but exposure to moderate concentrations of fumonisins transiently affected the digestive microbiota balance. In cases of co-infection with fumonisins and Salmonella, the microbiota profiles were rapidly and clearly modified as early as 48 h post-Salmonella inoculation. Therefore under these experimental conditions, exposure to an average concentration of fumonisins in naturally contaminated feed had no effect on pig health but did affect the digestive microbiota balance, with Salmonella exposure amplifying this phenomenon.
The Acute Effects of Low-Dose TNF-α on Glucose Metabolism and β-Cell Function in Humans

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by increased insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion. Type 2 diabetes is also associated with low-grade inflammation and increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α. TNF-α has been shown to impair peripheral insulin signaling in vitro and in vivo. However, it is unclear whether TNF-α may also affect endogenous glucose production (EGP) during fasting and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) in vivo. We hypothesized that low-dose TNF-α would increase EGP and attenuate GSIS. Recombinant human TNF-α or placebo was infused in healthy, nondiabetic young men (n = 10) during a 4-hour basal period followed by an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT). TNF-α lowered insulin levels by 12% during the basal period (P < 0.05). In response to the IVGTT, insulin levels increased markedly in both trials, but there was no difference between trials. Compared to placebo, TNF-α did not affect EGP during the basal period. Our results indicate that TNF-α acutely lowers basal plasma insulin levels but does not impair GSIS. The mechanisms behind this are unknown but we suggest that it may be due to TNF-α increasing clearance of insulin from plasma without impairing beta-cell function or hepatic insulin sensitivity.
The mega‐matrix tree of life: using genome‐scale horizontal gene transfer and sequence evolution data as information about the vertical history of life

Because horizontal gene transfer can confound the recovery of the largely prokaryotic tree of life (ToL), most genome‐based techniques seek to eliminate horizontal signal from ToL analyses, commonly by sieving out incongruent genes and data. This approach greatly limits the number of gene families analysed to a subset thought to be representative of vertical evolutionary history. However, formalized tests have not been performed to determine whether combining the massive amounts of information available in fully sequenced genomes can recover a reasonable ToL. Consequently, we used empirically defined gene homology definitions from a previous study that delineate xenologous gene families (gene families derived from a common transfer event) to generate a massively concatenated, combined‐data ToL matrix derived from 323 404 translated open reading frames arranged into 12 381 gene homologue groups coded as amino acid data and 63 336, 64 105, 65 153, 66 922 and 67 109 gene homologue groups coded as gene presence/absence data for 166 fully sequenced genomes. This whole‐genome gene presence/absence and amino acid sequence ToL data matrix is composed of 4867 184 characters (a combined data‐type mega‐matrix). Phylogenetic analysis of this mega‐matrix yielded a fully resolved ToL that classifies all three commonly accepted domains of life as monophyletic and groups most taxa in traditionally recognized locations with high support. Most importantly, these results corroborate the existence of a common evolutionary history for these taxa present in both data types that is evident only when these data are analysed in combination. © The Willi Hennig Society 2010.
Robust Statistical Approach for Extraction of Moving Human Silhouettes from Videos

Human pose estimation is one of the key problems in computer visionthat has been studied in the recent years. The significance of human pose estimation is in the higher level tasks of understanding human actions applications such as recognition of anomalous actions present in videos and many other related applications. The human poses can be estimated by extracting silhouettes of humans as silhouettes are robust to variations and it gives the shape information of the human body. Some common challenges include illumination changes, variation in environments, and variation in human appearances. Thus there is a need for a robust method for human pose estimation. This paper presents a study and analysis of approaches existing for silhouette extraction and proposes a robust technique for extracting human silhouettes in video sequences. Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) A statistical approach is combined with HSV (Hue, Saturation and Value) color space model for a robust background model that is used for background subtraction to produce foreground blobs, called human silhouettes. Morphological operations are then performed on foreground blobs from background subtraction. The silhouettes obtained from this work can be used in further tasks associated with human action interpretation and activity processes like human action classification, human pose estimation and action recognition or action interpretation.
Are There Language Specific Bug Patterns? Results Obtained from a Case Study Using Mozilla

A lot of information can be obtained from configuration management systems and post-release bug databases like Bugzilla. In this paper we focus on the question whether there are language specific bug patterns in large programs. For this purpose we implemented a system for extracting the necessary information from the Mozilla project files. A comparison of the extracted information with respect to the programming language showed that there are bug patterns specific to programming languages. In particular we found that Java files of the Mozilla project are less error prone than C and C++ files. Moreover, we found out that the bug lifetime when using Java was almost double the lifetime of bugs in C or C++ file.
A Comparison of Monodomain and Bidomain Reaction-Diffusion Models for Action Potential Propagation in the Human Heart

A bidomain reaction-diffusion model of the human heart was developed, and potentials resulting from normal depolarization and repolarization were compared with results from a compatible monodomain model. Comparisons were made for an empty isolated heart and for a heart with fluid-filled ventricles. Both sinus rhythm and ectopic activation were simulated. The bidomain model took 2 days on 32 processors to simulate a complete cardiac cycle. Differences between monodomain and bidomain results were extremely small, even for the extracellular potentials, which in case of the monodomain model were computed with a high-resolution forward model. Propagation of activation was 2% faster in the bidomain model than in the monodomain model. Electrograms computed with monodomain and bidomain models were visually indistinguishable. We conclude that, in the absence of applied currents, propagating action potentials on the scale of a human heart can be studied with a monodomain model
Episodic interannual climate oscillations and their influence on seasonal rainfall in the Everglades National Park

The restoration of the Everglades in Florida is an exemplary ecosystem project. A basic challenge of the restoration project is to operate the hydrologic control structures in a manner that allows the right quantity and quality of water to be delivered at the right times to the right locations. An understanding of long‐term variations in seasonal rainfall as well as prospects for the upcoming season are of interest for operational planning. This paper aims to characterize the interannual variability in seasonal rainfall in the Everglades and to identify regions of Pacific and Atlantic oceans whose sea surface temperatures (SSTs) may be the carriers of the low‐frequency information associated with Everglades rainfall. It is now known that interannual and interdecadal quasi‐oscillatory phenomena modulate continental rainfall in many places. The amplitudes of these “oscillations” vary with time, and they conform to activity in specific frequency bands. The dominant low‐frequency modes also vary by season. Identifying the climate modes that influence specific low‐frequency aspects of rainfall is a challenge that is addressed here using wavelet analysis to diagnose the time‐varying low‐frequency structure and independent component analysis to identify the spatial modes of variation of the low‐frequency signals. The combined approach is termed wavelet‐independent component analysis (WICA). In addition to identifying dominant timescales of quasi‐oscillatory phenomena that modulate interannual rainfall in the Everglades National Park, we investigate how the amplitude (power) associated with these interannual modes varies at decadal or longer timescales. The analyses presented motivate the need for the development of methods for the analysis and simulation of nonstationary hydroclimatic phenomena. The connection between the resulting low‐frequency rainfall modes and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) is then established using correlation analysis using concurrent and preceding season SSTs. The results provide the motivation for the development of a new generation of simulation and forecasting models for rainfall that could directly use such low‐frequency information.
Layer-based methods in Stereo and Motion Estimation ( WPE-II report )

This report surveys four papers that use the layered approach to solve common computer vision problems of depth estimation from a stereo pair and motion estimation from an image sequence. The layered approach works under the basic assumption that the 3-D world consists of layers or regions placed at different depths. Hence solving a vision problem involves grouping of pixels into regions or layers that share some property like depth or motion model parameters and finding the arrangement of these layers that best explains the image data. The papers follow two main methodologies. The first focuses on creation of a good representation of the 3-D world using visual cues present in the images and optimizing a matching function dependent on this representation. The other method uses just pixels and lower level cues and focuses on matching as an optimization of an energy function or a probability distribution on pixel/edge labelling. The report presents the algorithms and provides an analysis of the different approaches in terms of layer extraction, visual cues being used and the optimization techniques. We also provide some ideas regarding cross fertilization of the methods.
Photometry of VS 0329+1250: A New Short‐Period SU Ursae Majoris Star

We present time‐resolved CCD photometry of the recently discovered (V≃15 at maximum light) eruptive variable star in Taurus, which we dub VS 0329+1250. A total of ∼20 hr of data obtained over six nights reveal superhumps in the light curves, confirming the star as a member of the SU UMa class of dwarf novae. The superhumps recur with a mean period of 0.053394(7) days (76.89 minutes), which represents the shortest known superhump period in a classical SU UMa star. A quadratic fit to the timings of superhump maxima reveals that the superhump period was increasing at a rate given by P˙sh≃(2.1 ± 0.8) × 10-5 over the course of our observations. An empirical relation between orbital period and the absolute visual magnitude of dwarf novae at maximum light suggests that VS 0329+1250 lies at a distance of ∼ 1.2 ± 0.2 kpc.
A Proposal for the Improvement of Project's Cost Predictability Using Earned Value Management and Historical Data of Cost - An Empirical Study

Although the Earned Value Management (EVM) technique has been used by several companies in various industrial sectors (software development, construction, aerospace, aeronautics, among others) for over 35 years to predict time and cost outcomes, many studies have found vulnerabilities, including: (i) cost performance data do not always have normal distribution, which makes reliable projections difficult; (ii) instability of cost performance indexes during the execution of projects, (iii) there is a worsening tendency in cost performance indexes when project approaches termination. This paper proposes an extension of the EVM technique through the integration of historical cost performance data of processes as a means to improve the project's cost predictability. The proposed technique was evaluated through an empirical study, which evaluated the implementation of the proposed technique in 22 software development projects. The proposed technique has been applied in real projects with the aim of evaluating the accuracy and variation compared to the traditional technique. Hypotheses tests with 95% significance level were performed, and the proposed technique was more accurate and more precise than the traditional technique for calculating the Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Estimates at Completion (EAC).
Turbo frequency domain equalization for single-carrier broadband wireless systems

In this paper, a new class of equalization and channel estimation techniques, using the turbo frequency domain equalization (TFDE), is presented as a promising low-complexity detection method for single-carrier broadband wireless transmissions. Serial modulation (SM), being a direct counterpart of the well-known OFDM modulation, is receiving considerable attention recently, owing to the fact that it delivers comparable performance as OFDM while avoiding the problem of high peak-to-average power ratio. When frequency domain equalization (FDE) is applied, the complexity requirement is low and it becomes feasible to employ iterative processing which relies on decision feedback. This paper considers the turbo principle applied jointly to FDE, channel decoding and channel estimation. The result of this work is a set of effective iterative algorithms which may bring about 2-3 dB improvement over the linear FDE method. Furthermore, it is shown that they can provide performance comparable to the time-domain turbo equalization methods but with lower complexity. We then reach the conclusion that SM-based transmission with TFDE is a suitable technology for next generation wireless systems
Se p 20 07 THE SUPERMEMBRANE WITH CENTRAL CHARGES : ( 2 + 1 )-D NCSYM , CONFINEMENT AND PHASE TRANSITION

The spectrum of the bosonic sector of the D = 11 supermembrane with central charges is shown to be discrete and with finite multiplicities, hence containing a mass gap. The result extends to the exact theory our previous proof of the similar property for the SU (N) regularised model and strongly suggest discreteness of the spectrum for the complete Hamiltonian of the supermembrane with central charges. This theory is a quantum equivalent to a symplectic non-commutative super-Yang-Mills in 2 + 1 dimensions, where the space-like sector is a Riemann surface of positive genus. In this context, it is argued how the theory in 4D exhibits confinement in the N = 1 supermembrane with central charges phase and how the theory enters in the quark-gluon plasma phase through the spontaneous breaking of the centre. This phase is interpreted in terms of the compactified supermembrane without central charges.
Acquisition and functional consequences of social knowledge in macaques

To manoeuvre in complex societies, it is beneficial to acquire knowledge about the social relationships existing among group mates, so as to better predict their behaviour. Although such knowledge has been firmly established in a variety of animal taxa, how animals acquire such knowledge, as well as its functional significance, remains poorly understood. In order to understand how primates acquire and use their social knowledge, we studied kin-biased redirected aggression in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) relying on a large database of over 15 000 aggressive episodes. Confirming previous research, macaques redirected aggression preferentially to the kin of their aggressor. An analysis that controlled for the rate of affiliation between aggressors and targets of redirection showed that macaques identified the relatives of group mates on the basis of the frequency of their ongoing associations. By contrast, having observed group mates interact with their mother as infants did not increase the monkeys' success in correctly identifying kin relationships among third parties. Inter-individual variation in the successful identification of the kin of aggressors and in redirecting aggression accordingly translated into differences in the amount of aggression received, highlighting a selective advantage for those individuals that were better able to acquire and use social knowledge.
MUNICIPAL CREDITWORTHINESS MODELLING BY NEURAL NETWORKS

The paper presents the design of municipal creditworthiness parameters. Further, the design of model for municipal creditworthiness classification is presented. The realized data pre-processing makes the suitable economic interpretation of results possible. Municipalities are assigned to clusters by unsupervised methods. The combination of Kohonen’s self-organizing feature maps and K-means algorithm is a suitable method for municipal creditworthiness modelling. The number of classes in this model is determined by indexes evaluating the quality of clustering. The model is composed of Kohonen’s self-organizing feature maps and fuzzy logic neural networks, where the output of Kohonen’s self-organizing feature maps represents the input of fuzzy logic neural networks. The suitability of the designed model is compared with other fuzzy logic based classifiers. The highest classification accuracy is achieved by the fuzzy logic neural network. The fuzzy logic neural network’s model is the best in terms of generalization ability due to this fact. By the designed model high classification accuracy, low average classification error and suitable interpretation of results are achieved.
Improving Pronoun Resolution by Incorporating Coreferential Information of Candidates

Coreferential information of a candidate, such as the properties of its antecedents, is important for pronoun resolution because it reflects the salience of the candidate in the local discourse. Such information, however, is usually ignored in previous learning-based systems. In this paper we present a trainable model which incorporates coreferential information of candidates into pronoun resolution. Preliminary experiments show that our model will boost the resolution performance given the right antecedents of the candidates. We further discuss how to apply our model in real resolution where the antecedents of the candidate are found by a separate noun phrase resolution module. The experimental results show that our model still achieves better performance than the baseline.
Cognitive artefacts and collaborative design

Cognitive artefacts (CAs) are acknowledged as important for individual cognition (D.A. Norman, 1991), but their function in group work has been largely neglected. Because information is represented symbolically in the CA, there are several possible problem representations. How a representation encodes this information may influence its cognitive processing-this is as important at the group level analysis as it is at the individual. Facilitating design involves both supporting the creativity of designers and stakeholder decision making. Some computerised artefacts enable single users to achieve these (e.g. CAD for creativity and expert systems for decisions) whilst others support group work (e.g. Email and GDSS technologies), but there are few artefacts that deliberately aid design activities both interpersonally and interactively. The representation available in the CA can be an effective means of passing this information between stakeholders. Designers are faced with distributed, ill structured problems; we therefore need to look at the role of technology in supporting them. (2 pages)
Monitoring activity of patients with bipolar disorder using smart phones

Mobile computing is changing the landscape of clinical monitoring and self-monitoring. One of the major impacts will be in healthcare, where increase in number of sensing modalities is providing more and more information on the state of overall wellbeing, behaviour and health. There are numerous applications of mobile computing that range from wellbeing applications, such as physical fitness, stress or burnout up to applications that target mental disorders including bipolar disorder. Use of information provided by mobile computing devices can track the state of the subjects and also allow for experience sampling in order to gather subjective information. This paper reports on the results obtained from a medical trial with monitoring of bipolar disorder patients and how the episodes of the diseases correlate to the analysis of the data sampled from mobile phone acting as a monitoring device.
Microvariability in the optical polarization of 3C 279

Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Astronomia, Geof´isica e Cieˆncias Atmosfe´ricas, Universidade de Sa˜o Paulo, BrasilReceived / AcceptedAbstract. We present results of a microvariability polarization study in the violently variable quasar 3C279. We have resolvedthe polarization curves in the V band for this object down to timescales of minutes. We found two main components in theevolution of the degree of linear polarization, one consisting of a ﬂicker with timescales of several tens of minutes and othercomponent with far more signiﬁcant variations on timescale s of a few days. The linear polarization descended from ∼ 17 %down to ∼ 8 % in three nights. The polarization angle underwent a sudden change of more that 10 degrees in a few hours,perhaps indicating the injection of a new shock in the jet. The amplitude of the intranight ﬂickering in the degree of pola rizationis at the level of ∼ 1%. These are probably the best sampled polarization data ever obtained for this object. We also performedIR observations and we provide a follow-up of the evolution of this source at such energies after the main polarization outburst.Key words. Galaxies: active: individual: 3C279 – polarization– galax ies: photometry