Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategies of zooplanktivory shape the dynamics and diversity of littoral plankton communities: a mesocosm approach

Planktivorous fish can exert strong top-down control on zooplankton communities. By incorporating different feeding strategies, from selective particulate feeding to cruising filter feeding, fish species target distinct prey. In this study, we investigated the effects of two species with different feeding strategies, the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus (L.)) and roach (Rutilus rutilus (L.)), on a low-diversity brackish water zooplankton community using a 16-day mesocosm experiment. The experiment was conducted on a small-bodied spring zooplankton community in high-nutrient conditions, as well as a large-bodied summer community in low-nutrient conditions. Effects were highly dependent on the initial zooplankton community structure and hence seasonal variation. In a small-bodied community with high predation pressure and no dispersal or migration, the selective particulate-feeding stickleback depleted the zooplankton community and decreased its diversity more radically than the cruising filter-feeding roach. Cladocerans rather than copepods were efficiently removed by predation, and their removal caused altered patterns in rotifer abundance. In a large-bodied summer community with initial high taxonomic and functional diversity, predation pressure was lower and resource availability was high for omnivorous crustaceans preying on other zooplankton. In this community, predation maintained diversity, regardless of predator species. During both experimental periods, predation influenced the competitive relationship between the dominant calanoid copepods, and altered species composition and size structure of the zooplankton community. Changes also occurred to an extent at the level of nontarget prey, such as microzooplankton and rotifers, emphasizing the importance of subtle predation effects. We discuss our results in the context of the adaptive foraging mechanism and relate them to the natural littoral community.
Probabilistic graphical detector fusion for localization of faces and facial parts

When face and facial part detectors encounter partial or complete occlusion, their output becomes increasingly noisy, making it difficult for such algorithms to tackle complex scenes: parts are only detected intermittently, false alarms become more prevalent, parts are mis-identified, and some parts are consistently missed altogether. In this paper we propose a remedy to this problem: probabilistic fusion of face and facial detectors. The method jointly improves the localization and tracking performance of face and facial parts detectors by modelling the spatial and temporal inter-dependences of these detectors in a probabilistic graphical model. Spatial modelling can be used to rectify mis-identification, filter out false detections and infer the presence of missed detections during partial occlusion. Temporal modelling improves face and facial tracking in scenarios involving completely missed detections or complete occlusion. Experimental results quantify substantial benefits in terms of improved precision, recall and F-measure both for the detection of facial parts and of the face.
Event-related perturbation in spectral power and in potentials during periodic fast and slow motor imagination for brain-controlled robots interface

The study explored event-related perturbation in spectral power and in potentials during periodic fast and slow motor imagination of left and right index finger and right toe based on EEG. EEG signals were collected from 4 healthy volunteers during imagination of six tasks that involved three limbs (left and right index fingers and right toes ) and two speeds (fast and slow) and each task repeated 40 times in random order. In a single trial, periodic fast or slow motor imagination was executed. EOG and EMG signals are eliminated by independent component analysis (ICA). Time/frequency analysis is applied to characterize mean event-related changes in the power spectrum during single trials across subjects. Grand average event-related potentials (ERPs) is filtered 2Hz cut-off frequency by IIR filter to extract slow potentials and compared between fast and slow. The distinctive frequency bands and time ranges for significant changes in power related to motor imagination at different speeds and different limbs are found in the paper. Periodic slow motor imagination may invoke more positive slow potentials than fast motor imagination and fast movement imagination reaches at maximum positive peak more quickly than slow movement imagination. Executing periodic fast and slow motor imagination of left and right index fingers and right toes during a single trial is a new mental control strategy paradigm for human-machine interface. The result of experiment research may be very important. The study may provide some alternative feature patterns for Brain-controlled robots (BCR) based on fast and slow motor imagination.
Effect of anisotropy, angle, and critical tensile stress and confining pressures on evaluation of shale brittleness index — Part 1: Methodology and laboratory study

Brittleness is an important evaluation parameter in shale fracturing. Current methods of brittleness evaluation can be classified into two categories: elastic parameter-based and mineral content-based methods. However, both categories neglect the effect of anisotropy on the brittleness index (BI) computation of shale resources. We have redefined a new BI by integrating failure criteria stress and anisotropy parameters estimated (BIac) from seismic waves. According to the new definition, the BI at one analysis point varies with the incident angle of the seismic wave and confining pressures. We applied the BIac method to laboratory-measured shale samples acquired from the Monterey Formation, Santa Maria Basin. We found that the delta parameter [Formula: see text] is more responsive to the BIac than the gamma [Formula: see text] and epsilon [Formula: see text] anisotropic parameters, and it indicates a good linear fit relationship with the BIac at different angles. The slope of the linear is variable with the angles, thus delta can be used to predict the BIac in the Monterey Formation, Santa Maria Basin.
Increased seminal plasma lead levels adversely affect the fertility potential of sperm in IVF.

BACKGROUND Lead remains in high levels in the environment and is known to reduce fertility in animal models, but a direct link between lead exposures and human infertility has not yet been established. METHODS In a prospective, double-blind study of the metal ion levels and sperm function, semen was obtained from partners of 140 consecutive women undergoing their first IVF cycle. Lead in seminal plasma was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Motile sperm populations were assessed for surface receptors for mannose binding, and the ability to undergo premature ('spontaneous'), and free mannose-induced acrosome reactions. Fertile donor (n = 9) sperm were exposed to exogenous lead during capacitating incubations and then assessed for mannose receptor expression and acrosome loss. RESULTS Lead levels were negatively correlated with IVF rates. Lead levels were negatively correlated to two of the three sperm function biomarkers (mannose receptors, mannose-induced acrosome reactions). Lead levels positively correlated with the spontaneous acrosome reaction. These findings were mimicked by in-vitro exposure of fertile donor sperm to lead. CONCLUSIONS Multiple sperm parameters are affected as lead levels rise. Increased lead levels may contribute to the production of unexplained male infertility.
Searching and using external types in an extensible software development environment

Schema and ontology languages have proved to be useful for conceptualizing knowledge in a variety of applications. In many software projects, XML Schema Definition data types and ontological concept descriptions coexist with programming language class hierarchies. However, only programming language type definitions are fully integrated into today's software development environments. Support for external type systems is spotty. For programmers, it is particularly tedious to search type definitions in XML schema files and OWL ontologies, to browse external type hierarchies, to investigate external type members, and to analyze and comprehend the use of external type definitions in program code. In this work, it will be argued that improved search capabilities are required to ease the use of schema and ontology languages in software projects. Difficulties of searching type definitions in software project workspaces will be indicated. An extensible compiler framework will be outlined that facilitates the use of schema and ontology languages in C# programs. An Eclipse-based integrated development environment will be described that makes XML data types and OWL concept descriptions first-class citizens of the source code editor. Finally, identical search and (just in time) program analysis features for programming language and external type definitions will be suggested.
Protecting users' privacy in healthcare cloud computing with APB-TTP

We report on use of Active Privacy Bundles using a Trusted Third Party (APB-TTP) for protecting privacy of users' healthcare data (incl. patients' Electronic Health Records). APB-TTP protects data that are being disseminated among different authorized parties within a healthcare cloud. We are nearing completion of the pilot APB-TTP for healthcare applications, and commencing work on its extension, named Active Privacy Bundles with Multi Agents (APB-MA).
An SOA approach for automating software product line adoption

Nowadays, the software industry is faced with challenges regarding complexity, time to market, quality standards and evolution. To face those challenges, two strategies that are gaining interest both in academy and industry are Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Software Product Lines (SPL). While SOA aims at building applications from an orchestration of services, SPL consists in building a set of core-assets and a derivation strategy based on such assets. Adopting such approaches involves important challenges with regard to existing software artifacts that must be transformed in order to respect an architecture that focus on modularity and reuse. This paper presents an industrial experience of such transformation. We propose a non-intrusive reverse engineering process for the development of modular services obtained automatically from existing software artifacts, and a variability-driven derivation process to assembly products out of such services. To validate our approach, we have implemented the reverse engineering and derivation processes using real software JEE artifacts from a component framework of reusable functionalities in several different enterprise applications. The results show important benefits in terms of the development time and flexibility.
Some properties of Homogenous Trellis-Constrained Codes

We consider Homogenous Trellis-Constrained Codes (HTCC), a generalization of Turbo-codes where all bits are constrained. No efficient decoding algorithm is known for these codes, so our results are primarily of theoretical interest. We propose a technique to derive an upper bound for the maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding of BSC errors. Our technique is based on the weight distributions of the constituent codes and it can also be used when a specific number of errors e is known. We observe that with an ML-decoder some HTCC codes exhibit an error correcting performance close to that of random codes. For those codes we also observe a significant performance gap between ML-decoding and practical decoding based on belief-propagation.
A scalable peer-to-peer control plane architecture for Software Defined Networks

Control plane scalability is one of the major concerns in Software Defined Networking (SDN) deployment. Although the centralization of the control plane by decoupling it from the data plane facilitates ease of network management, however, it introduces new challenges. One of these challenges is to maintain performance, consistency, and scalability while minimizing the corresponding overheads. In this paper, we propose an architecture that allows the control plane to evolve at a hyper-scale level as well as address important performance and reliability issues. A hierarchical control plane architecture with peer-to-peer communication among logically distributed controllers is designed with the goal of achieving optimum performance and consistency gains while mitigating overheads. A root controller is deployed at the top layer of the hierarchy to maintain global network view. The proposed model is helpful in improving network robustness against failures and supporting a desired level of reliability. To evaluate our model, we developed a realistic emulation platform using ONOS, FlowVisor, Mininet, and Open vSwitch. The proposed architecture is compared with earlier solutions and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.
Dedicated but exhausted? The role of ethical leadership for employee wellbeing in UK student unions

Building on previous leadership and well-being research, the aims of the present study were to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership and employee well-being (work engagement and emotional exhaustion) within student unions. We also considered the role of trust as a potential mediator in this relationship. Survey data was collected from 137 full-time employees working at student unions in the UK. Path model analysis revealed that trust in one’s manager partially mediated the effects of ethical leadership and work engagement and emotional exhaustion. While trust increased work engagement and reduced emotional exhaustion, ethical leadership also had a significant indirect effect on both outcomes. An interaction between employee dedication and ratings for manager’s ethical leadership suggested that more dedicated employees are less emotionally exhausted if their managers scored highly on ethical leadership. However, when the employees felt less dedicated to the job, managers’ ethical leadership behaviours did not reduce employees’ emotional exhaustion. The study examined the effect of ethical leadership in student unions, adding to the very sparse research on the experience of full-time employees working for student unions.
Sketch-based volumetric seeded region growing

Interactive volume segmentation is an essential and important step in medical image processing. Conventional interactive methods typically demand significant amounts of time and do not lend to a natural interaction scheme with the 3D volume. In this paper we present a sketch-based interface for seeded region growing volume segmentation. In our approach, the user freely sketches regions of interest (ROI) directly over the 3D volume. Parts of the volume outside the ROIs are then automatically cut out in real-time. The user repeats this process as many times as necessary until he/she decides to specify the seed point 3D location directly at the ROI. To prevent unexpected segmentations, the region growing is restricted to the specified ROI. Our sketch-based system utilizes GPU programming to achieve real-time processing for both rendering and volumetric cutting independent from the size and shape of the sketched strokes.
HIGH STAR FORMATION RATES IN TURBULENT ATOMIC-DOMINATED GAS IN THE INTERACTING GALAXIES IC 2163 AND NGC 2207

CO observations of the interacting galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 are combined with HI, Hα, and 24 μm observations to study the star formation rate (SFR) surface density as a function of the gas surface density. More than half of the high-SFR regions are HI dominated. When compared to other galaxies, these HI-dominated regions have excess SFRs relative to their molecular gas surface densities but normal SFRs relative to their total gas surface densities. The HI-dominated regions are mostly located in the outer part of NGC 2207 where the HI velocity dispersion is high, 40–50 km s−1. We suggest that the star-forming clouds in these regions have envelopes at lower densities than normal, making them predominantly atomic, and cores at higher densities than normal because of the high turbulent Mach numbers. This is consistent with theoretical predictions of a flattening in the density probability distribution function for compressive, high Mach number turbulence.
Reduction drawing: Language constructs and polyhedral compilation for reductions on GPUs

Reductions are common in scientific and data-crunching codes, and a typical source of bottlenecks on massively parallel architectures such as GPUs. Reductions are memory-bound, and achieving peak performance involves sophisticated optimizations. There exist libraries such as CUB and Thrust providing highly tuned implementations of reductions on GPUs. However, library APIs are not flexible enough to express user-defined reductions on arbitrary data types and array indexing schemes. Languages such as OpenACC provide declarative syntax to express reductions. Such approaches support a limited range of reduction operators and do not facilitate the application of complex program transformations in presence of reductions. We present language constructs that let a programmer express arbitrary reductions on user-defined data types matching the performance of tuned library implementations. We also extend a polyhedral compilation flow to process these user-defined reductions, enabling optimizations such as the fusion of multiple reductions, combining reductions with other loop transformations, and optimizing data transfers and storage in the presence of reductions. We implemented these language constructs and compilation methods in the PPCG framework and conducted experiments on multiple GPU targets. For single reductions the generated code performs on par with highly tuned libraries, and for multiple reductions it significantly outperforms both libraries and OpenACC on all platforms.
The cloak of impunity in Cambodia II: justice

ABSTRACT This article discusses the underpinnings of impunity and justice in Cambodia as the former Khmer Rouge leaders face trial in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The extent to which the ECCC achieves its goal can only be assessed by understanding the concept of impunity from a Cambodian cultural perspective. In this ethnographic study, the cultural construction of justice is thus examined. The ECCC defendants and those who commit violence today seem to use a similar cultural framework to explain their crimes and expiate them from accountability. Any discussion of accountability, which is the Janus-face of impunity – whether at the ECCC trials or in the public arena today – will show how perpetrators conform to certain embedded Cambodian beliefs while failing to conform to others. The findings add to our understanding of the cultural footprint of evil and impunity and have implications for attempts to respond to the call for a ‘bespoke’ form of transitional justice and for a culturally responsive approach to health and human rights.
Performance Analysis of Data Aggregation Techniques for Wireless LAN

Data aggregation is a mechanism in which multiple packets are transmitted to a receiver, followed by a single acknowledgment. As opposed to typical explicit-acknowledgment schemes, aggregation schemes benefit from amor tizing the control overhead over multiple packets. The achievable benefit from data aggregation is often of interest, especially in the face of several factors that can impact its per formance (e.g., link rates, er ror -recovery schemes, inter-frame spacing options, etc.). In this paper , we present an analytical approach for estimating the performance of aggregation schemes as a function of several factors, including packet er ror rate and the number of frames aggregated into each transmission. We then demonstrate the use of these techniques in evaluating the per formance of a data aggregation scheme specified in 802.11e. We also study other aggregation ideas, like frame aggregation at the MAC and Physica layer , proposed recently for next-generation wireless mesh networks. Keywords-WLAN,802.11,Aggregation,high throughput, block ACK.
Assessing Financial Contagion in the Interbank Market: Maximum Entropy Versus Observed Interbank Lending Patterns

Interbank markets allow banks to cope with specific liquidity shocks. At the same time, they may be a channel allowing a bank default to spread to other banks. This paper analyzes how contagion propagates within the Italian interbank market using a unique data set including actual bilateral exposures. Since information on bilateral exposures was not available in most previous studies, they assumed that banks spread their lending as evenly as possible among all the other banks by maximizing the entropy of interbank linkages. Based on the data available on actual bilateral exposures for all Italian banks, the results obtained by assuming the maximum entropy are compared with those reflecting the observed structure of interbank claims. The comparison indicates that, in line with the thesis prevailing in the literature, the maximum entropy method tends to underestimate the extent of contagion. However, this does not hold in general. Under certain circumstances, depending on the structure of the interbank linkages, the recovery rates of interbank exposures and banksi? ½ capitalization, the maximum entropy approach overestimates the scope for contagion.
On Probabilistic Completeness of Probabilistic Cell Decomposition

Probabilistic Cell Decomposition (PCD) is a probabilistic path planning method combining the concepts of approximate cell decomposition with probabilistic sampling. It has been shown that the use of lazy evaluation techniques and supervised sampling in important areas result in a high performance path planning method. Even if it was postulated before that PCD is probabilistically complete, we present a detailed proof of probabilistic completeness here for the first time.
Motion-JPEG 2000 Stream Scaling for Multi-Resolution Video Transmission

In this paper, we present a real-time video system for the transmission of Motion-JPEG2000 codestreams with multiple resolutions. To achieve this multi-resolut ion video in real-time, a software tool, named ‘stream scaler ’, was newly developed. It directly looks at each packet’s location in a codestream before deciding whether it is accep ted as a new packet for a scaled codestream. The SOP marker is used for identifying the packet. The stream scaler can control the resolution levels and quality layers of MotionJPEG2000 codestreams to be adapted to end-user devi ce requirements and to different bandwidth capacities. The computational complexity of the stream scaler was measured to be very low and suits real-time process ing. We have demonstrated a Motion-JPEG2000 video system wi th the stream scaler, which delivers videos with three diff rent resolutions: HD, SD and CIF, in real-time.
Shape and texture combined face recognition for detection of forged ID documents

This paper proposes a face recognition system that can be used to effectively match a face image scanned from an identity (ID) document against the face image stored in the bio-metric chip of such a document. The purpose of this specific face recognition algorithm is to aid the automatic detection of forged ID documents where the photography printed on the document's surface has been altered or replaced. The proposed algorithm uses a novel combination of texture and shape features together with subspace representation techniques. In addition, the robustness of the proposed algorithm when dealing with more general face recognition tasks has been proven with the Good, the Bad & the Ugly (GBU) dataset, one of the most challenging datasets containing frontal faces. The proposed algorithm has been complemented with a novel method that adopts two operating points to enhance the reliability of the algorithm's final verification decision.