Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Algorithm - Simulation Connected Components Labeling for Binary Images.

This research presents an algorithm for labeling connected components in binary images based on searching around black operations of an image. The proposed new algorithm walks around black to identify their boundaries. A one-dimensional array used to keep label equivalences, for uniting equivalent labels successively during the operations in different directions. The boundaries of the object are the most interesting parts to be identified. The algorithm applies two processes of labeling, one is row-wise from left to right and one is column-wise, from top to bottom at initial zero iteration. A sub image I(I,J) i+1 , is defined after each labeling allocation. It is generated by subtracting the iterative labeling obtained at I (I, J) i row-wise and labeling obtained at I(I,J) i column-wise. The new image for next iteration I(I,J) i+1 = I(I,J) i - (labeling obtained from image I(I,J) i row-wise ∩ labeling obtained from image I(I,J) i column-wise) . The proposed algorithm is very useful in different areas of image processing such as, medical imaging which focus on accuracy than other important measurements as well. One important application is the medical image that shows a tumor surrounded by other part of body such as bones, lungs and others. It has been shown that the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is comparative to those of the conventional algorithms. The data structure used is the stack and the stack operations are its main engine. The data pushed or popped to or from the stack, presents the directions to be taken in consideration for searching, in order to determine the boundary pixels, to detect the connected components iteratively. It is found that the execution time of the proposed algorithm is proportional to the number of pixels in connected components of an image. The proposed algorithm can also be used and generalized for higher dimensions. The proposed algorithm has desirable characteristics in term of accuracy with acceptable CPU computer time. Such method based on walking around black, to mark their boundaries.
Genotype and Allelic Frequencies of a Newly Identified Mutation Causing Blindness in Jordanian Awassi Sheep Flocks

A total of 423 blood samples were collected (during 2009 and 2010) from all the ram holdings at three major Jordanian governmental Awassi breeding stations (Al-Khanasry, Al-Mushairfa and Al-Fjaje) and two private flocks. All blood samples were screened for the presence of mutations at the CNGA3 gene (responsible for day blindness in Awassi sheep) using RFLP-PCR. The day blindness mutation was detected in all studied flocks. The overall allele and genotype frequencies of all studied flocks of the day blindness mutation were 0.088 and 17.49%, respectively. The genotype and allele frequencies were higher in station flocks than the farmer flocks (0.121, 24.15 and 0.012, 2.32, respectively). Al-Mushairfa and Al-Khanasry stations have the highest genotype and allele frequencies for the day blindness mutation that were 27.77, 30.00% and 0.14, 0.171, respectively. The investigated farmer flocks have low percentages (0.03, 5.88% at Al-Shoubak and 0.005 and 1.05%, at Al-Karak, respectively for genotype and allele frequencies) compared with the breeding stations. Ram culling strategy was applied throughout the genotyping period in order to gradually eradicate this newly identified day blindness mutation from Jordanian Breeding station, since they annually distribute a high percentage of improved rams to farmer’s flocks.
Attentional deficits in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Both clinicians and patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) describe difficulties in everyday life, related to attentional problems. Yet little investigation of these has been carried out using behavioural measures. The present study compares adults with GTS and control subjects on a range of clinical and experimental measures of attention; self-report measures of mood, anxiety, and obsessionality were also employed. Although the GTS group was significantly more depressed, anxious, and obsessional, performance on the attentional measures tended not to correlate significantly with these. Deficits in attention were found in the GTS group on several of the more complex tasks, including serial addition, block sequence span (forwards), the trail-making test, and a letter cancellation vigilance task. Possible explanations and implications for future work are considered. © 1992 Raven Press, Ltd., New York.
Digital decimation filter design and simulation for delta-sigma ADC with high performance

This paper study a kind of design method about the digital decimation filter design for delta-Sigma ADC with high performance and validated it by simulation using MATLAB tool. A 16-bit digital decimation filter design for stereo audio delta-sigma ADC has been developed. A two-stage decimation filter architecture which can reduce digital switching noise was also introduced in this design. A merged four-stage comb filter is used for the first stage, and a bit-serial finite-impulse-response (FIR) filter is used for the second stage. In addition, a high pass filter is used to compensate filter's DC offset. The design simulated using MATLAB according to this scheme can achieve higher performances.
An Augmented Reality System based on Light Fields

The development of augmented reality systems that combine virtual elements with the real world is currently increasing. This paper presents an augmented reality system that renders the virtual elements from models based on the light fields. The use of these models allow us to obtain higher level of photorealism than representations that render polygons. Using light fields also allows us to keep constant the rendering time. The presented system has been implemented using the Open Source library ARToolKit and a spherical model of the light field based on the direction-and-point parameterization (DPP) with some associated depth information. The system has been validated using different light fields, and it has been compared its performance with a classic version of the ARToolKit library based on VRML files. The presented augmented reality system can be applied to the visual inspection of synthetic objects of great complexity or based on real images.
Statistical simulations for flash memory reliability analysis and prediction

In this paper, through the use of a recently proposed statistical model of stress-induced leakage current, we will investigate the reliability of actual flash memory technologies and predict future trends. We investigate either program disturbs (namely gate and drain disturbs) and data retention of state-of-the-art flash memory cells and use this model to correlate the induced threshold voltage shift to the typical outputs coming from oxide characterization, that are density, cross section, and energy level of defects. Physical mechanisms inducing the largest threshold voltage (V/sub T/) degradation will be identified and explained. Furthermore, we predict the effects of tunnel oxide scaling on flash memory data retention, giving a rule of thumb to scale the tunnel oxide while maintaining the same retention requirements.
Characterization of Neospora caninum iscom antigens using monoclonal antibodies

Neospora caninum is a cyst‐forming coccidian parasite which in cattle can cause abortion and birth of feeble calves. For the serological diagnosis of neosporosis, antibodies directed to the parasite can be demonstrated by ELISA, utilizing N. caninum proteins incorporated into iscoms (immunostimulating complexes) as antigen. Electrophoretic and immunoblotting studies had earlier revealed that N. caninum iscoms contained a restricted number of proteins compared with soluble parasite extracts, but the cellular origin of the incorporated proteins has not yet been determined. In the present study, monoclonal antibodies were raised against N. caninum iscoms. Six of these, named Ncmab‐4, 7, 10, 13, 17 and 24, were used to characterize the N. caninum iscom antigen. The nature of the reactive epitopes and their localization within N. caninum tachyzoites were determined by means of immunological methods, including immunoblot, IFAT and immunogold electron microscopy. The apparent molecular weights of the dominant iscom antigens were found to be 18, 30, 32, 41 and 61 kDa. While the 61 kDa antigen was located intracellularly, the others were found on the parasite surface as well as within distinct intracellular compartments.
Evolving an expert checkers playing program without using human expertise

An evolutionary algorithm has taught itself how to play the game of checkers without using features that would normally require human expertise. Using only the raw positions of pieces on the board and the piece differential, the evolutionary program optimized artificial neural networks to evaluate alternative positions in the game. Over the course of several hundred generations, the program taught itself to play at a level that is competitive with human experts (one level below human masters). This was verified by playing the best evolved neural network against 165 human players on an Internet gaming zone. The neural network's performance earned a rating that was better than 99.61% of all registered players at the Website. Control experiments between the best evolved neural network and a program that relies on material advantage indicate the superiority of the neural network both at equal levels of look ahead and CPU time. The results suggest that the principles of Darwinian evolution may he usefully applied to solving problems that have not yet been solved by human expertise.
Impulsivitet som mångfasetterat konstrukt : En psykometrisk studie av UPPS-skalan och sambandet mellan impulsivitet och upplevelser av kontroll

Impulsivitet och upplevd kontroll ar bada viktiga konstrukt inompsykologi. Sambandet mellan dem har varit oklart delvis pgaotydlighet och oenighet gallande impulsivitetsbegreppet. Pa senare tidhar .
On the Utility of Curricula in Unsupervised Learning of Probabilistic Grammars

We examine the utility of a curriculum (a means of presenting training samples in a meaningful order) in unsupervised learning of probabilistic grammars. We introduce the incremental construction hypothesis that explains the benefits of a curriculum in learning grammars and offers some useful insights into the design of curricula as well as learning algorithms. We present results of experiments with (a) carefully crafted synthetic data that provide support for our hypothesis and (b) natural language corpus that demonstrate the utility of curricula in unsupervised learning of probabilistic grammars.
Identification of Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Sequence and Expression Profiles in Tree Shrew (Tupaia belangeri)

The tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri) diverged from the primate order (Primates) and are classified as Scandentia, a separate taxonomic group of mammals. The tree shrew has been suggested to use an animal model to study human disease but the genomic sequences of tree shrew is largely unidentified. Here we identified the full-length cDNA sequence of a housekeeping gene, Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH), in tree shrew. We further constructed a phylogenetic family tree base on GAPDH molecules of various organisms and compared GAPDH sequences with human and other small experimental animals. These study revealed that tree shrew was closer to human than mouse, rat, rabbit and guinea pig. The Quantitative Reverse Transcription PCR and western blot analysis further demonstrated that GAPDH expressed in various tissues in tree shrew as a general conservative housekeeping proteins as in human. Our findings provide the novel genetic knowledge of the tree shrew and strong evidences that tree shrew can be an experimental model system to study human disorders.
Tuning of Algorithms for Independent Task Placement in the Context of Demand-Driven Parallel Ray Tracing

This paper investigates assignment strategies (load balancing algorithms) for process farms which solve the problem of online placement of a constant number of independent tasks with given, but unknown, time complexities onto a homogeneous network of processors with a given latency. Results for the chunking and factoring assignment strategies are summarised for a probabilistic model which models tasks' time complexities as realisations of a random variable with known mean and variance. Then a deterministic model is presented which requires the knowledge of the minimal and maximal tasks' complexities. While the goal in the probabilistic model is the minimisation of the expected makespan, the goal in the deterministic model is the minimisation of the worstcase makespan. We give a novel analysis of chunking and factoring for the deterministic model. In the context of demand-driven parallel ray tracing, tasks' time complexities are unfortunately unknown until the actual computation finishes. Therefore we propose automatic self-tuning procedures which estimate the missing information in run-time. We experimentally demonstrate for an "everyday ray tracing setting" that chunking does not perform much worse than factoring on up to 128 processors, if the parameters of these strategies are properly tuned. This may seem surprising. However, the experimentally measured efficiencies agree with our theoretical predictions.
Comparison of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Two Response Prompting Procedures Delivered by Sibling Tutors.

We used a parallel treatments design to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of a 4 s constant time delay and a simultaneous prompting procedure on teaching receptively identifying animals to children with mild and moderate mental retardation. The study had two purposes: (1) to determine if sibling tutors use these two instructional procedures reliably for instructing their younger siblings with mental retardation, and (2) to asses any differences between these two instructional procedures in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Three children with mental retardation and their siblings who were trained as tutors participated. The two procedures were delivered alternately by tutor siblings. Results show that both procedures were effective in teaching receptively identifying animals to the children with mental retardation. Efficiency data showed that the differences between two procedures were minimal. Maintenance data collected 1, 4, and 5 weeks after training indicated no difference between the two procedures. When generalization data for the two instructional procedures across all sibling tutees were compared, stimuli taught with the constant time delay procedure resulted in higher levels of generalization for all sibling tutees. In conclusion, (a) both procedures were implemented reliably by all typical sibling tutors, (b) both procedures were effective on teaching receptively identifying animals, (c) simultaneous prompting was more efficient than constant time delay in terms of the number of training errors and training time through criterion, (d) no differences were evident based on maintenance data, and (e) constant time delay resulted in more generalization. Future research is needed to support these findings.
Method of medians for lifetime data with Weibull models.

The Weibull family of distributions is frequently used in failure time models. The maximum likelihood estimator is very sensitive to occurrence of upper and lower outliers, especially when the hazard function is increasing. We consider the method of medians estimator for the two-parameter Weibull model. As an M-estimator, it has a bounded influence function and is highly robust against outliers. It is easy to compute as it requires solving only one equation instead of a pair of equations as for most other M-estimators. Furthermore, no assumptions or adjustments are needed for the estimator when there are some possibly censored observations at either end of the sample. About 16 per cent of the largest observations and 34 per cent of the smallest observations may be censored without affecting the calculations. We also present a simple criterion to choose between the maximum likelihood estimator and the method of medians estimator to improve on the finite-sample efficiency of the Weibull model. Robust inference on the shape parameter is also considered. The usefulness with contaminated or censored samples is illustrated by examples on three lifetime data sets. A simulation study was carried out to assess the performance of the proposed estimator and the confidence intervals of a variety of contaminated Weibull models.
A SOUND DESIGN FOR THE PURPOSES OF MOVEMENT OPTIMISATION IN ELITE SPORT (USING THE EXAMPLE OF ROWING)

Monitoring sportive movements is essential for training processes to detect variations as well as progression, stagnations or even regressions. Visualization plays the dominant role in the technique analysis, even though the eyes’ ability to perceive information of time-related events are limited and less efficient in comparison to the ears. Sound represents the information more differentiated and can support motion sequences. Acoustic displays offer a promising alternative to visual displays. Therefore an appropriate sound is needed that represents the specific movement patterns of a cyclic motion. In this paper we present our current considerations towards basic requirements for a sound design that fulfils the specific purposes of movement optimisation and its acceptance in elite sport.
Negative energy balance and hepatic gene expression patterns in high-yielding dairy cows during the early postpartum period: a global approach

In high-yielding dairy cows the liver undergoes extensive physiological and biochemical changes during the early postpartum period in an effort to re-establish metabolic homeostasis and to counteract the adverse effects of negative energy balance (NEB). These adaptations are likely to be mediated by significant alterations in hepatic gene expression. To gain new insights into these events an energy balance model was created using differential feeding and milking regimes to produce two groups of cows with either a mild (MNEB) or severe NEB (SNEB) status. Cows were slaughtered and liver tissues collected on days 6–7 of the first follicular wave postpartum. Using an Affymetrix 23k oligonucleotide bovine array to determine global gene expression in hepatic tissue of these cows, we found a total of 416 genes (189 up- and 227 downregulated) to be altered by SNEB. Network analysis using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed that SNEB was associated with widespread changes in gene expression classified into 36 gene networks including those associated with lipid metabolism, connective tissue development and function, cell signaling, cell cycle, and metabolic diseases, the three most significant of which are discussed in detail. SNEB cows displayed reduced expression of transcription activators and signal transducers that regulate the expression of genes and gene networks associated with cell signaling and tissue repair. These alterations are linked with increased expression of abnormal cell cycle and cellular proliferation associated pathways. This study provides new information and insights on the effect of SNEB on gene expression in high-yielding Holstein Friesian dairy cows in the early postpartum period.
Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper

Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers. In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders, and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities, and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults). We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures [e.g., writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV)]. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity. In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants—even the experienced writers—were influenced by the lower friction of the tablet surface. Our results for the group-comparison show advancing levels in handwriting automaticity from preschoolers to second graders to adults, which confirms that our method depicts handwriting performance in groups with varying degrees of handwriting automaticity. We conclude that the smoother tablet surface requires additional control of handwriting movements and therefore might present an additional challenge for learners of handwriting.
A Formal Methodology to Design and Deploy Dependable Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are being increasingly adopted in critical applications, where verifying the correct operation of sensor nodes is a major concern. Undesired events may undermine the mission of the WSNs. Hence, their effects need to be properly assessed before deployment, to obtain a good level of expected performance; and during the operation, in order to avoid dangerous unexpected results. In this paper, we propose a methodology that aims at assessing and improving the dependability level of WSNs by means of an event-based formal verification technique. The methodology includes a process to guide designers towards the realization of a dependable WSN and a tool (“ADVISES”) to simplify its adoption. The tool is applicable to homogeneous WSNs with static routing topologies. It allows the automatic generation of formal specifications used to check correctness properties and evaluate dependability metrics at design time and at runtime for WSNs where an acceptable percentage of faults can be defined. During the runtime, we can check the behavior of the WSN accordingly to the results obtained at design time and we can detect sudden and unexpected failures, in order to trigger recovery procedures. The effectiveness of the methodology is shown in the context of two case studies, as proof-of-concept, aiming to illustrate how the tool is helpful to drive design choices and to check the correctness properties of the WSN at runtime. Although the method scales up to very large WSNs, the applicability of the methodology may be compromised by the state space explosion of the reasoning model, which must be faced by partitioning large topologies into sub-topologies.