Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Etude des anneaux de Chariklo par occultation stellaire

Les occultations stellaires sont une methode puissante pour etudier les petits corps du Systeme Solaire, trop faibles ou lointains pour etre etudies par d’autres techniques. Cette methode consiste a observer le corps passant devant une etoile d’arriere plan. Le flux lumineux stellaire est alors intercepte quelques instants, ce qui permet de caracteriser la forme de l’objet et d’etudier son environnement (anneau, atmosphere ou satellite). Deux anneaux denses et etroits ont ete decouverts en Juin 2013 pour la premiere fois autour du plus gros des Centaures Chariklo (corps central : 250 km de diametre ; anneaux : 800 km). Cette these presente les 16 occultations par Chariklo et ses anneaux observees depuis 2013. Ces donnees representent les seules observations aujourd’hui existantes de ce systeme planetaire. Une premiere etude de leur structure et de leur geometrie est detaillee dans ces travaux. Mes travaux ont egalement porte sur une occultation par la planete naine Haumea observee en Janvier 2017. Celle-ci nous a revele la presence d’un anneau dense de rayon ~2281 km autour de ce corps tri-axial. Haumea est donc le deuxieme corps en dehors des planetes geantes a posseder un anneau. Cette occultation permet notamment de deduire la forme, la taille (1161x852x513 km) et la densite d’Haumea. Cette seconde decouverte tend a montrer que les anneaux autour des petits corps ne sont pas si rares. La publication du catalogue Gaia DR1 en 2016 a permis d’ameliorer considerablement la precision de nos predictions donc nos observations. Les prochaines annees seront consacrees a scanner plus en details les anneaux de Chariklo et d’Haumea, mais aussi a chercher des anneaux autour d’autres petits corps afin de comprendre les mecanismes de formation et d’evolution de ces systemes.
Accuracy and repeatability of cementless total hip replacement surgery in patients with deformed anatomies

The present study is aimed to assess the repeatability of orthopaedic surgeons in planning total hip replacement surgery, and the Planned-vs.-Achieved accuracy obtainable with a conventional unassisted surgical procedure. A CT-based surgical planning system called Hip-Op was used for pre-operative planning the pose of the cementless components. The study group included only patients affected by severe deformities of the hip joint. In the repeatability study three surgeons were asked to repetitively plan the same three cases in a blind way. There was agreement among surgeons and also consistency for each surgeon in planning the implant position, while the most expert surgeon was more repeatable in planning the implant orientation. For all patients of the study group, the Planned-vs.-Achieved accuracy was computed as the difference between the spatial position of both prosthetic components derived from the post-operative CT scans and that achieved by the surgeon in the pre-operative planning. The average differences for the stem were lower than 5 mm for the position, and lower than 5 degrees for the orientation. For the socket the average differences increased to 8 mm and 10 degrees. The study shows the need for a more informative planning environment and for intra-operative supports, especially when deformed anatomies are involved.
Identification of eye saccadic signatures in electrooculography data using time-series motifs

This paper proposes a method for detecting eye saccadic signatures from Electrooculograms (EOG). Saccadic movements bear a particular pattern in the raw EOG time-series data. In this work, we interpret this signature of saccades as time-series motifs. The major issue in finding a saccade using standard motif identification methods is that saccadic signatures may be shrunk or stretched in the EOG time-series based on the saccadic duration. This shrinkage or stretching issue has been overcome in this work by using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). This approach has been tested on our created EOG database and compared with existing methods of saccade detection in EOG. The proposed method shows higher accuracy as compared to existing ones. However, the execution time poses to be a limitation of the proposed method, which may be overcome by using high-speed processors and parallel computing platforms.
Genomic Analysis of Bacteriophage ΦJL001: Insights into Its Interaction with a Sponge-Associated Alpha-Proteobacterium

ABSTRACT Bacteriophage ΦJL001 infects a novel marine bacterium in the α subclass of the Proteobacteria isolated from the marine sponge Ircinia strobilina. ΦJL001 is a siphovirus and forms turbid plaques on its host. The genome sequence of ΦJL001 was determined in order to better understand the interaction between the marine phage and its sponge-associated host bacterium. The complete genome sequence of ΦJL001 comprised 63,469 bp with an overall G+C content of 62%. The genome has 91 predicted open reading frames (ORFs), and 17 ORFs have been assigned putative functions. ΦJL001 appears to be a temperate phage, and the integrase gene was identified in the genome. DNA hybridization analysis showed that the ΦJL001 genome does not integrate into the host chromosome under the conditions tested. DNA hybridization experiments therefore suggested that ΦJL001 has some pseudolysogenic characteristics. The genome of ΦJL001 contains many putative genes involved in phage DNA replication (e.g., helicase, DNA polymerase, and thymidylate synthase genes) and also contains a putative integrase gene associated with the lysogenic cycle. Phylogeny based on DNA polymerase gene sequences indicates that ΦJL001 is related to a group of siphoviruses that infect mycobacteria. Designation of ΦJL001 as a siphovirus is consistent with the morphology of the phage visualized by transmission electron microscopy. The unique marine phage-host system described here provides a model system for studying the role of phages in sponge microbial communities.
Acceleration of proteolysis during ripening of Cheddar-type cheese using of a streptokinase-producing strain of Lactococcus

Bovine milk contains a number of indigenous proteolytic enzymes, of which plasmin is the most important (Grufferty & Fox, 1988; Bastian & Brown, 1996; Kelly & McSweeney, 2003). Plasmin (EC 3.4.21.7) is a serine proteinase with pH and temperature optima of 7·5 and 37 °C, respectively. In milk, most of the plasmin is present as its inactive precursor, plasminogen, which is converted to active plasmin by plasminogen activators (PA) present in milk, e.g., urokinase-type (u-PA) and tissue-type PA (t-PA) (Bastian & Brown, 1996). Since plasmin, plasminogen and PA are associated with casein micelles, they are incorporated into cheese curd, while plasmin inhibitors and inhibitors of PA are lost with the whey. Plasmin incorporated in cheese curd acts on its substrate, the caseins, contributing significantly to primary proteolysis during ripening (Upadhyay et al. 2004b).
Analyzing Click-through Data of the UT Search Engine with the aim of Improving Search Engine Rankings

This paper will describe the process of analyzing the ranking of search engines in a federated search engine called Searsia using click-through data. The aim of this analysis is to determine if improvement in search engine rankings in Searsia is possible and how this improvement can be applied. The current ranking is based on sample indexes in combination with response times. This ranking might not return a desired ordering, because this ranking does not involve user or expert feedback. The improved ranking should order search engines with the most relevant search engine first, based on implicit (user) feedback. Click through data was recorded and analyzed with the aim of improving the ordering of search engines in order of relevance to the search query. Data for this research was gathered from the search engine of the University of Twente which is currently used by students, researchers, teachers and other people affiliated with, or interested in the University of Twente. This data showed that the Google search engine almost always showed up high in the rankings and was clicked in more than 80% of the cases. In more than 80% of the time a result at the first position is clicked, making improvements in the search engine limited.
Stereopsis in Drug Naïve Parkinson's Disease Patients

Background: Motor deficits associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) have been well described, yet little attention has been paid to non-motor symptoms, especially cortical visual dysfunction. We investigated stereopsis, as well as the relationship between stereopsis and other cognitive function, in a sample of PD patients. Methods: We used Titmus stereotest plates for assessing stereopsis. Fifty-nine subjects (29 PD patients and 30 normal controls) were included in this study. The included patients underwent a neurological examination, clinical rating scale and neuropsychological tests. Results: Drug naïve PD patients showed decreased stereopsis on the Titmus fly stereopsis test (Pearson χ2=23.80, p<0.001) compared to PD patients with normal stereopsis. The Hoehn-Yahr stages and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor scores were significantly higher in patients with PD with abnormal stereopsis than in patients with PD with normal stereopsis (p=0.026; p=0.046). The frequency of abnormal visual perception/constructive function was greater in patients with PD with abnormal stereopsis compared to patients with PD with normal stereopsis (Pearson χ2=5.11, p=0.024). Conclusion: These findings suggest that stereopsis deficits and visual perception/constructive dysfunction are common in de novo PD patients.
Detection and reconstruction of human scale features from high resolution interferometric SAR data

In contrast to optical imagery, modern high resolution IFSAR sensors deliver intensity images and corresponding interferometric height and coherence data from a single flight path at pixel sizes of 30 cm to 10 cm. Due to the all-weather, day-night applicability of SAR sensors, multiple views over short time can be easily obtained. However, many image users find it difficult to "read" radar images. They differ from the natural human visual impression and the familiar analogy communicated by optical imagery. The goal of our work is to convert radar data into models of the terrain and render those models in analogy to the optical sensing approach that the human visual system represents. Therefore intelligent combinations of multiple views and measurements from all IFSAR data sources available are necessary to help to overcome problems inherent in the SAR data as e.g., blur, speckle, layover and shadow. Using basic image analysis methods we present in this paper our first fully automated approach to separate buildings from other objects in an IFSAR dataset. The building shapes are reconstructed using a simple building model and the results are compared to measurements made from optical imagery.
Optimization of Rotations in FFTs

A unified hardware architecture that can be reconfigured to calculate 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7-point DFTs is presented. The architecture is based on the Winograd Fourier transform algorithm and the complexity is equal to a 7-point DFT in terms of adders/subtractors and multipliers plus only seven multiplexers introduced to enable reconfigurability. The processing element finds potential use in memory-based FFTs, where non-power-of-two sizes are required such as in DMB-T.
Learning grasps with topographic features

We present a system for grasping unknown objects, even from piles or cluttered scenes, given a point cloud. Our method is based on the topography of a given scene and abstracts grasp-relevant structures to enable machine learning techniques for grasping tasks. We describe how Height Accumulated Features (HAF) and their extension, Symmetry Height Accumulated Features, extract grasp relevant local shapes. We investigate grasp quality using an F-score metric. We demonstrate the gain and the expressive power of HAF by comparing its trained classifier with one that resulted from training on simple height grids. An efficient way to calculate HAF is presented. We describe how the trained grasp classifier is used to explore the whole grasp space and introduce a heuristic to find the most robust grasp. We show how to use our approach to adapt the gripper opening width before grasping. In robotic experiments we demonstrate different aspects of our system on three robot platforms: a Schunk seven-degree-of-freedom arm, a PR2 and a Kuka LWR arm. We perform tasks to grasp single objects, autonomously unload a box and clear the table. Thereby we show that our approach is easily adaptable and robust with respect to different manipulators. As part of the experiments we compare our algorithm with a state-of-the-art method and show significant improvements. Concrete examples are used to illustrate the benefit of our approach compared with established grasp approaches. Finally, we show advantages of the symbiosis between our approach and object recognition.
Efficient subwindow search with submodular score functions

Subwindow search aims to find the optimal subimage which maximizes the score function of an object to be detected. After the development of the branch and bound (B&B) method called Efficient Subwindow Search (ESS), several algorithms (IESS [2], AESS [2], ARCS [3]) have been proposed to improve the performance of ESS. For n×n images, IESS's time complexity is bounded by O(n3) which is better than ESS, but only applicable to linear score functions. Other work shows that Monge properties can hold in subwindow search and can be used to speed up the search to O(n3), but only applies to certain types of score functions. In this paper we explore the connection between submodular functions and the Monge property, and prove that sub-modular score functions can be used to achieve O(n3) time complexity for object detection. The time complexity can be further improved to be sub-cubic by applying B&B methods on row interval only, when the score function has a multivariate submodular bound function. Conditions for sub-modularity of common non-linear score functions and multivariate submodularity of their bound functions are also provided, and experiments are provided to compare the proposed approach against ESS and ARCS for object detection with some nonlinear score functions.
New Design Principles for Visual Acuity Letter Charts*

&NA; This paper introduces new principles for the design and use of letter charts for the measurement of visual acuity. It is advocated that the test task should be essentially the same at each size level on the chart. Such standardization of the test task requires the use of letters of equal legibility, the same number of letters on each row, and uniform between‐letter and between‐row spacing. It is also advocated that, combined with the test task standardization, there should be a logarithmic progression of letter size. Charts incorporating these design features have been made. These charts facilitate the use of nonstandard testing distances which might be used when there is low visual acuity, when examination room layout prevents testing at the standard distance, or when it is necessary to validate visual acuity scores or detect malingering. Adjusting the visual acuity score according to the chosen testing distance is simplified by the use of logarithmic scaling.
Human motion retrieval with symbolic aggregate approXimation

Motion capture data exhibits its complexity both spatially and temporally, which makes it a hard work to measure the similarities between human motions. We propose a motion data indexing and retrieval method based on self-organizing map and symbolic aggregate approximation. And the hierarchical clustering method is implemented, which can discover the relationships between different motion types by a binary tree structure. Then the motion motifs of each cluster are extracted for the retrieval of example-based query. The experiment results show the performance of our approach.
Design of planar antenna with a band-notched characteristic for UWB application

A planar monopole antenna for ultra-wide band (UWB) application has been presented in this paper. In order to gain an excellent band-rejection characteristic, a hexagonal-shaped patch and a Π - shaped slot has been designed. The performance of the proposed antenna is investigated by using the software High-frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), and the results achieve good impedance matching over an operating bandwidth of 2.62 - 11.80 GHz, which meets the requirement of UWB application well. Furthermore, the notched frequency band of 4.98 - 6.03 GHz is achieved to avoid the possible interference from the wireless local area network (WLAN) and HIPERLAN/2 (High Performance Radio LAN/2). Additionally, the antenna depicts a good performance of radiation patterns.
Codification Pedagogy for Introductory Courses

Codification is a legal term defining the process of ordering rules corresponding to a plan. This term is applicable to Software Development to describe the ordering of program requirements into coding tasks. Codification is a meta-skill taught in advanced Software Engineering courses for large collaborative projects, though novices lack the experience to transfer this skill to small-scale assignments. As a result, novices form their own approach, potentially contributing to poor learning behaviors, poor self-efficacy, and course attrition. My research investigates an approach for introductory courses, enabling novices to plan before they implement a solution. The approach uses Socratic questions and Parsons Problems to relate the student's current knowledge base to the assignment. The hypothesis is that the pedagogy will reduce misconceptions about the assignment and enable students to create an ordered plan without extraneous cognitive load. The research explores this approach without adding objectives to the curriculum, or increasing the teacher's workload. Further investigation will be made to apply the pedagogy to other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
[First occurrence of Alcaeorrhynchus grandis (Dallas) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) preying on defoliating caterpillars of oil palm in the State of Pará, Brazil].

The oil palm Elaeis guineensis is usually attacked by pests, particularly, defoliating caterpillars. Between 2004 and 2006 a stinkbug predator (Asopinae) was registered preying on caterpillars of Brassolis sophorae L. , Opsiphanes invirae Hübner (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and Sibine spp. (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae), reducing their populations in commercial oil palm plantations in the State of Pará, Brazil. Specimens of the natural enemy were collected, mounted, and identified as Alcaeorrhynchus grandis (Dallas) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), corresponding to the first report of the occurrence of this stinkbug attacking defoliating caterpillars of oil palm in Brazil.
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical Sensitization of Pancreatic Cancer to Chemoradiation by the Chk 1 Inhibitor MK 8776

Purpose: The combination of radiationwith chemotherapy is themost effective therapy for unresectable pancreatic cancer. To improve upon this regimen, we combined the selective Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) inhibitor MK8776 with gemcitabine-based chemoradiation in preclinical pancreatic cancer models. Experimental Design: We tested the ability of MK8776 to sensitize to gemcitabine-radiation in homologous recombination repair (HRR)–proficient and –deficient pancreatic cancer cells and assessed Rad51 focus formation. In vivo, we investigated the efficacy, tumor cell selectivity, and pharmacodynamic biomarkers of sensitization by MK8776. Results: We found that MK8776 significantly sensitized HRR-proficient (AsPC-1, MiaPaCa-2, BxPC-3) but not -deficient (Capan-1) pancreatic cancer cells to gemcitabine-radiation and inhibited Rad51 focus formation in HRR-proficient cells. In vivo, MiaPaCa-2 xenografts were significantly sensitized to gemcitabine-radiation by MK8776 without significant weight loss or observable toxicity in the small intestine, the dose-limiting organ for chemoradiation therapy in pancreatic cancer. We also assessed pChk1 (S345), a pharmacodynamic biomarker of DNA damage in response to Chk1 inhibition in both tumor and small intestine and found that MK8776 combined with gemcitabine or gemcitabine-radiation produced a significantly greater increase in pChk1 (S345) in tumor relative to small intestine, suggesting greater DNA damage in tumor than in normal tissue. Furthermore, we demonstrated the utility of an ex vivo platform for assessment of pharmacodynamic biomarkers of Chk1 inhibition in pancreatic cancer. Conclusions: Together, our results suggest that MK8776 selectively sensitizes HRR-proficient pancreatic cancer cells and xenografts to gemcitabine-radiation and support the clinical investigation of MK8776 in combination with gemcitabine-radiation in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 19(16);
An Efficient Global Resource Constrained Technique for Exploiting Instruction Level Parallelism

Author(s): Nicolau, Alexandru; Novack, Steven | Abstract: A new Global Resource-constrained Percolation (GRiP) scheduling technique is presented for exploiting instruction level parallelism. Other techniques that have been proposed either have been prohibitively expensive in terms of computation or have limited parallelism. The GRiP technique has been implemented and simulation results are presented.
Religious Fundamentalism, Humor, and Treatment Outcomes in Individuals in Court-Mandated Substance Abuse Outpatient Treatment

The relationship between religious fundamentalism, humor, and psychological well-being was examined with a sample of individuals (n = 109) being treated for drug abuse in a court-mandated AA outpatient program. Three separate factors of religious fundamentalism were found through exploratory factor analysis of the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale, and these were named Righteous-Evil Worldview, True Religion, and Scriptural Literalism. Psychological well-being of individuals in court-mandated outpatient substance abuse treatment was found to be correlated with high levels of humor but not religious fundamentalism. Psychological well-being and humor were found to be related to satisfaction with services; no relationship was found between religious fundamentalism and satisfaction with services. One factor of religious fundamentalism, Scriptural Literalism, was found to be associated with high levels of depression and paranoia/hostility. Implications of these relationships for treatment and understanding of religious fundamentalism and psychological well-being are discussed.
Single and repetitive paired‐pulse suppression: A parametric analysis and assessment of usefulness in epilepsy research

Purpose: The paired‐pulse technique has been widely used as a convenient but indirect measure of “inhibition” in hippocampal circuits of normal and epileptic animals. Most investigators have used a single paired‐pulse protocol, whereas others have utilized repetitive paired pulses. This study investigated which parameters influence results from paired‐pulse tests, focusing on the repetitive paired‐pulse technique; it aims to assess how this technique may be used in an unbiased and quantitative manner across animal preparations for comparisons of control and experimental epileptic animals.