Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“The Brain Is the Prisoner of Thought”: A Machine-Learning Assisted Quantitative Narrative Analysis of Literary Metaphors for Use in Neurocognitive Poetics

ABSTRACT Two main goals of the emerging field of neurocognitive poetics are (a) the use of more natural and ecologically valid stimuli, tasks and contexts and (b) providing methods and models allowing to quantify distinctive features of verbal materials used in such tasks and contexts and their effects on readers responses. A natural key element of poetic language, metaphor, still is understudied insofar as relatively little empirical research looked at literary or poetic metaphors. An exception is Katz et al.’s corpus of 204 literary metaphors by authors such as Shakespeare or Dylan Thomas, for which various rating data are available. We reanalyzed their corpus using a combination of quantitative narrative analysis, latent semantic analysis, and machine learning in order to identify relevant features of the metaphors that influenced the ratings. The combined application of computational tools sheds light on surface and affective-semantic features that co-determine the reception of poetic metaphors and successfully predicted the period of origin (i.e., early vs. late), authorship (e.g., Byron vs. Donne) and goodness ratings of the metaphors. The present results can be used for generating quantitative hypotheses or selecting and matching verbal stimuli in empirical studies of literature and neurocognitive poetics.
The effect of an external auditory stimulus on postural stability of participants with cochlear implants

Postural control was evaluated in cochlear implant participants with and without amplification under several auditory paradigms. Speed of sway was recorded in each condition by means of Computerized Dynamic Posturography. Results indicate that an external sound source significantly improves balance in patients with cochlear implants. copyright by Rachael Jeanette Mangiore 2013 Mangiore Acknowledgements This research project would not have been possible without the support of many people. I would like to thank my capstone advisor, Dr. Timothy Hullar, for all of his knowledge and guidance without which this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Dr. L. Maureen Valente for her tremendous support as second reader. I would like to extend a special thank you to Dr. Meredith Gronski for all of her valuable ideas and encouragement. Thank you to Dr. Belinda Sinks and Dr. Heather Monroe, clinical audiologists within Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine’s Dizziness and Balance Center for the ability to coordinate time and use of equipment. Thank you to Dr. Rosalie Uchanski for providing me with her endless amounts of knowledge throughout the course of this project. Thank you to Dr. Lisa Potts for her assistance in participant recruitment. I would like express sincere gratitude to my research colleagues in the Hullar Lab, specially Alex Malone and Nai-Yuan Chang for their tremendous assistance throughout the entirety of this project. Thank you to all of the participants who dedicated their time and effort into this study. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unending love and support throughout my entire graduate experience.
Picode: inline photos representing posture data in source code

Current programming environments use textual or symbolic representations. While these representations are appropriate for describing logical processes, they are not appropriate for representing raw values such as human and robot posture data, which are necessary for handling gesture input and controlling robots. To address this issue, we propose Picode, a text-based development environment integrated with visual representations: photos of human and robots. With Picode, the user first takes a photo to bind it to posture data. S/he then drag-and-drops the photo into the code editor, where it is displayed as an inline image. A preliminary in-house user study implied positive effects of taking photos on the programming experience.
3D-continuous-azimuth acquisition of head-related impulse responses using multi-channel adaptive filtering

A new method for fast acquisition of head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) for 3D-continuous-azimuth representation of the auditory sphere is presented. While the continuous HRIR representation in the azimuth direction is important for the rendering of moving sources in binaural sound systems, an HRIR discretization in the elevation is more tolerable. Basically, the paper suggests a multi-channel adaptive system identification technique which is eventually suitable for online calculation of HRIRs. In a first step, several discrete elevations of the sphere are equipped with sound sources and a subject of interest is rotated in the center of the sphere during simultaneous reproduction of multi-channel probe noise. On the basis of the simultaneous binaural recording of all sources, the rotating HRIRs are then extracted gradually by the adaptive system identification. This concept overcomes discrete-azimuth HRIR tables and their traditional need for interpolation. While the quality of HRIRs was formerly expressed in terms of the azimuth-spacing of the HRIR, we now feature quasi-infinite resolution.
Capture Effect in the IEEE 802.11 WLANs with Rayleigh Fading, Shadowing, and Path Loss

In this paper, we use a discrete Markov chain model to analyze the throughput of CSMA/CA protocol in a wireless local area network (WLAN) considering the capture phenomenon, which means the packet with the strongest power may capture the receiver even in the presence of other overlapping packets. The model of capture effect over the theoretical throughput of CSMA/CA protocol in the presence of Rayleigh fading, shadowing, and path loss are obtained and compared with the model without capture effect
Memory Decoupled Architectures and related issues Guest Editor’s Introduction

It is my great pleasure to serve as guest editor for this special issue of TCCA Newsletter, which is hosting eight papers from the MEDEA (MEmory DEcoupled Architectures) Workshop, jointly held with PACT-2000 conference. The rationale behind this workshop was to revive the original idea of Memory Access Decoupling, presented in the famous paper of Jim Smith, “Decoupled Access/Execute Architectures” [1]. In that paper a novel architecture was proposed, as emerging among high performance architectures appearing in the industrial scenario (CDC Cyber 180/990, CSPI array processor) and the academy (Illinois SMA). At that time, Jim Smith came back to the University of Wisconsin to fuel his ideas. The main concept in Memory Access Decoupling was to use two instruction streams and queues to separate memory accesses and pure computations [2].
Regulation of leukocyte recruitment by polypeptides derived from high molecular weight kininogen

Proteolytic cleavage of single‐chain, high molecular weight kininogen (HK) by kallikrein releases the short‐lived vasodilator bradykinin and leaves behind a two‐chain, high molecular weight kininogen (HKa) reported to bind to the β2‐integrin Mac‐1 (CR3, CD11b/CD18, αMβ2) on neutrophils and exert antiad‐hesive properties by binding to the urokinase receptor (uPAR) and vitronectin. We define the molecular mechanisms for the antiadhesive effects of HK related to disruption of β2‐integrin‐mediated cellular interactions in vitro and in vivo. In a purified system, HK and HKa inhibited the binding of soluble fibrinogen and ICAM‐1 to immobilized Mac‐1, but not the binding of ICAM‐1 to immobilized LFA‐1 (CD11a/CD18, αLβ2). This inhibitory effect could be attributed to HK domain 5 and to a lesser degree to HK domain 3, consistent with the requirement of both domains for binding to Mac‐1. Accordingly, HK, HKa, and domain 5 inhibited the adhesion of Mac‐1 but not LFA‐1‐transfected K562 human erythroleukemic cells to ICAM‐1. Moreover, adhesion of human monocytic cells to fibrinogen and to human endothelial cells was blocked by HK, HKa, and domain 5. By using peptides derived from HK domain 5, the sequences including amino acids H475‐G497 (and to a lesser extent, G440‐H455) were identified as responsible for the antiadhesive effect, which was independent of uPAR. Finally, administration of domain 5 into mice, followed by induction of thioglycol‐late‐provoked peritonitis, decreased the recruitment of neutrophils by ~70% in this model of acute inflammation. Taken together, HKa (and particularly domain 5) specifically interacts with Mac‐1 but not with LFA‐1, thereby blocking Mac‐1‐dependent leukocyte adhesion to fibrinogen and endothelial cells in vitro and in vivo and serving as a novel endogenous regulator of leuko‐cyte recruitment into the inflamed tissue. —Chavakis, T. , Kanse, S. M. , Pixley, R. A. , May, A. E. , Isordia‐Salas, I. , Colman, R. W. , Preissner, K. T. Regulation of leukocyte recruitment by polypeptides derived from high molecular weight kininogen. FASEB J. 15, 2365–2376 (2001)
A New Labeling Scheme without Re-labeling Using Circular Concepts for Dynamic XML Data

XML has become the new standard for storing and exchanging data in the internet. As demand for efficiency in handling XML document grows, labeling scheme has become an important topic in data storage. Recent works on labeling schemes emphasize the dynamic XML environments where frequent updates to XML documents are expected. In these researches, an insertion of a new node into the XML document triggers re-labeling of pre-existing nodes. In this paper, we introduce a new labeling scheme Circle Labeling Scheme. In this paper, XML documents are represented in a circular form, and we propose three concepts for noble labeling scheme. The notion of Radius is applied to support inclusion of new nodes at arbitrary positions in the tree. This eliminates the need for re-labeling existing nodes and prevents the label length from growing, and mitigates conflict with existing labels. Efficient storage of labels is supported by the use of concepts Rotation Number and Root Circle/Extension Circle. The proposed scheme is tested against three other labeling schemes to show its efficiency.
Where Defaults Don't Help: the Case of the German Plural System

The German plural system has become a focal point for conflicting theories of language, both linguistic and cognitive. We present simulation results with three simple classifiers - an ordinary nearest neighbour algorithm, Nosofsky's `Generalized Context Model' (GCM) and a standard, three-layer backprop network - predicting the plural class from a phonological representation of the singular in German. Though these are absolutely `minimal' models, in terms of architecture and input information, they nevertheless do remarkably well. The nearest neighbour predicts the correct plural class with an accuracy of 72% for a set of 24,640 nouns from the CELEX database. With a subset of 8,598 (non-compound) nouns, the nearest neighbour, the GCM and the network score 71.0%, 75.0% and 83.5%, respectively, on novel items. Furthermore, they outperform a hybrid, `pattern-associator + default rule', model, as proposed by Marcus et al. (1995), on this data set.
A Robust Real-Time Face Tracking Using Head Pose Estimation for a Markerless AR System

In this paper we present an extension to the Kinect- Fusion algorithm that allows a robust real-time face tracking. This is achieved altering the original algorithm such that when the tracking algorithm fails, it uses a head pose estimation to give an initial guess to the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. We show that this approach can handle more face pose changes and variations than the original KinectFusion's tracking.
Joint torque sensing for the upper-body of the iCub humanoid robot

This paper describes the design and integration of three joint torque sensors on the arm of the iCub platform [1], [2]. The objective is to enhance the robot arm with joint torque control capability. This activity is part of a general upgrade of the humanoid robot to provide the its 53 degrees of freedom low-level joint torque control capabilities. In particular, the shoulder joint is challenging because of its complex and compact mechanical structure. We first modeled the behaviour of the sensors with analytical equations and the sensor geometry were subsequently optimized using finite element structural simulations. The sensors were then constructed, and integrated in the arm assembly. Finally we present preliminary experiments to validate the design.
Motivation and the reciprocal nature of professional learning between New Zealand teachers working with untrained Indian teachers

In this article eight volunteer participants in a programme for untrained teachers in India are interviewed concerning their motivation to participate in the work, and also the challenges faced and the rewards gained. Findings show similar factors are at play in the motivation for the participants, but new knowledge concerning motivation to return to the same work is revealed. With regard to challenges faced, the language barrier, finances and arranging time off work were evident, and, in addition, family considerations were mentioned, an area not identified in previous work. The rewards of the volunteer work linked mainly to relationships, but the notions of intercultural awareness and of ako were also revealed. Participants went to India to share their teaching experience, but came home with new awareness of their own teaching practice in New Zealand.
TACR1 genotypes predict fMRI response to alcohol cues and level of alcohol dependence.

BACKGROUND The tachykinin receptor 1 (TACR1) gene is a promising candidate gene in the search for the genetic basis of alcohol dependence (AD); TACR1 antagonists improve symptomology not only in preclinical models of AD but also in a clinical sample of detoxified alcoholics (George et al., Science 319:1536, 2008). The purpose of the current study was to determine whether TACR1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with (i) blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation in response to gustatory alcohol cues in a sample of heavy drinkers and (ii) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) AD symptom count in a large, publicly available data set-the Study of Addictions: Genetics and Environment Genome Wide Association study (SAGE GWAS) (Bierut et al., 2010). METHODS First, we examined relationships between TACR1 genotypes and neural responses during a craving task in 326 individuals with alcohol use disorders. Next, correlational analyses between 69 TACR1 SNPs and DSM-IV-TR AD symptoms were performed on the SAGE data set. RESULTS rs3771863, rs3755459, and rs1106855 predicted BOLD activation in response to alcohol cues in those same reward and reinforcement brain areas, especially in the medial prefrontal cortex, striatum, and insula. rs3771863 also predicted AD symptom count in the SAGE data set and BOLD activation in the mesocorticolimbic pathway response to alcohol cues. CONCLUSIONS Each of the 5 SNPs in the TACR1 gene that was significantly related to AD severity in the SAGE data set and/or the BOLD response to the craving task is near the 3' or 5' areas of the gene and may therefore be near mutations with potential functional significance. In particular, the potential functional significance of rs1106855 should be explored because of its location within a stop codon.
A novel method for filtering of Gaussian colored noise in images with wavelet transform

Based on the statistical properties of the colored noise in wavelet domain and the whitening property of wavelet transform, we present a novel method to filter colored noise efficiently. The proposed method treats every detail subband in wavelet domain as a regular image with white noise, and filters the noise using the threshold value algorithm by iteratively performing wavelet decomposition. The image polluted by colored noise is then denoised by doing inverse transform. The method is independent of the correlation parameter of the colored noise. Our simulation results indicate that the proposed method is able to achieve close or better performance in filtering the colored noise with significantly reduced computation cost than existing approaches, and it is also applicable to reduce white noise.
Vicept: link visual features to concepts for large-scale image understanding

On noticing the paradox of visual polysemia and concept poly-morphism, this paper proposes a new perspective called "Vicept" to associate elementary visual features and cognitive concepts. Firstly, a carefully prepared large image dataset and associate concepts are established. Secondly, we extract local interest points as the ele-mentary visual features, cluster them into visual words, and use Fuzzy Concept Membership Updating (FCMU) to build the link between codebook and concept membership distributions. This bottommost feature is called "Vicept word". Then, the global level Vicept features are established to correlate concepts with (partial) images. Finally, we validate our Vicept approach and show its effectiveness in concept detection task. Our approach is independent of case-specific training data and thus can be extended to web-scale scenarios.
THE BIG FIVE FACTOR PERSONALITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING: MEDIATING ROLE OF SELF-ESTEEM

his study aimed to examine the mediating role of self-esteem in the relations between big five factor personality traits and psychological well-being. The sample consisted of 327 undergraduate students (148 males ,179 females) of Shahid Chamran University located in Ahvaz. The participants were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling. The participants completed the Big Five Factor Personality Scale (FFPS; Goldberg, 1999), the Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Rosenberg, 1965) and the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff, 1989). The results indicated that the traits of extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness (P<0.01) and conscientiousness (P<0.001) had direct and positive effects on the psychological well-being, and the trait of neuroticism (P<0.001) had direct and negative effect on the psychological well-being. The big five factor personality indirectly related to more psychological well-being through self-esteem. The findings suggest that self-esteem play a mediatory role between big five factor personality and psychological well-being. These findingss emphasize the importance of big five personality traits in promoting self-esteem which in turn increases students’‎psychological well-being.
An Enhanced TCP Scheme for Distinguishing Non-congestion Losses from Packet Reordering over Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a communication networks, which aims to provide ubiquitous high bandwidth access for a large number of users. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most popular connection oriented transport layer protocol used in the current internet. However, when TCP operates in WMNs, the throughput of TCP degrades drastically due to its inability to distinguish non-congestion events such as non-congestion losses and packet reordering from network congestion. In addition, when non-congestion loss and packet reordering are co-existed the number of unnecessary retransmission increases and will have adverse effects on TCP and its congestion control mechanism which deteriorate the poor performance of TCP. Several loss differentiation algorithms have been proposed for distinguishing the non-congestion events from network congestion. However, the existing schemes have no mechanism to differentiate non-congestion losses from packet reordering. In this paper, we designed a new TCP scheme called TCP NJ-Plus, which is capable of distinguishing non-congestion losses from packet reordering by gathering information from the current status of the network at the time of receiving three duplicate acknowledgments and react accordingly. The simulation results using Qualnet 4.5 confirm that, TCP NJ-Plus achieves more than 20% throughput improvement over existing TCP schemes when the network co-existed with congestion, non-congestion loss and packet reordering.
Lyapunov-based control for switched power converters

The fundamental properties, such as passivity or incremental passivity, of the network elements making up a switched power converter are examined. The nominal open-loop operation of a broad class of such converters is shown to be stable in the large via a Lyapunov argument. The obtained Lyapunov function is then shown to be useful for designing globally stabilizing controls that include adaptive schemes for handling uncertain nominal parameters. Numerical simulations illustrate the application of this control approach in DC-DC converters. <<ETX>>
BanditRepair: Speculative Exploration of Runtime Patches

We propose, BanditRepair, a system that systematically explores and assesses a set of possible runtime patches. The system is grounded on so-called bandit algorithms, that are online machine learning algorithms, designed for constantly balancing exploitation and exploration. BanditRepair's runtime patches are based on modifying the execution state for repairing null dereferences. BanditRepair constantly trades the ratio of automatically handled failures for searching for new runtime patches and vice versa. We evaluate the system with 16 null dereference field bugs, where BanditRepair identifies a total of 8460 different runtime patches, which are composed of 1 up to 8 decisions (execution modifications) taken in a row. We are the first to finely characterize the search space and the outcomes of runtime repair based on execution modification.
The Sensory Consequences of Speaking: Parametric Neural Cancellation during Speech in Auditory Cortex

When we speak, we provide ourselves with auditory speech input. Efficient monitoring of speech is often hypothesized to depend on matching the predicted sensory consequences from internal motor commands (forward model) with actual sensory feedback. In this paper we tested the forward model hypothesis using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. We administered an overt picture naming task in which we parametrically reduced the quality of verbal feedback by noise masking. Presentation of the same auditory input in the absence of overt speech served as listening control condition. Our results suggest that a match between predicted and actual sensory feedback results in inhibition of cancellation of auditory activity because speaking with normal unmasked feedback reduced activity in the auditory cortex compared to listening control conditions. Moreover, during self-generated speech, activation in auditory cortex increased as the feedback quality of the self-generated speech decreased. We conclude that during speaking early auditory cortex is involved in matching external signals with an internally generated model or prediction of sensory consequences, the locus of which may reside in auditory or higher order brain areas. Matching at early auditory cortex may provide a very sensitive monitoring mechanism that highlights speech production errors at very early levels of processing and may efficiently determine the self-agency of speech input.
Comparison of Trust in the Use of Internet and Mobile Services

Companies face a challenge in building trust and commitment to the service provider through a diversified media environment. In the Internet, established brands usually gain customer's trust and have a competitive advantage against unknown service providers. However, in the mobile context the nature of trust to the service provider may differ significantly from the Internet environment. We compare trust in the use of Internet and Mobile services. It contributes to both information systems and marketing literature. This study explores what are the differences and (or) similarities in trust to the service provider between Internet and mobile services. Differences were found in trust to the service provider as well as tolerance for service failures and non-functionality of the technology. Similarities were found in the social influence to service use and word-of-mouth behaviour. Implications for strategies for building trust and commitment to the service provider in a multi-channel environment are suggested.