Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Etude IRMf de la plasticité cérébrale des réseaux moteurs et cognitifs dans la Sclérose Latérale Amyotrophique

Ce travail a porte sur les remaniements corticaux precoces des circuits moteurs et extramoteurs dans la SLA grâce a l’etude des activations IRMf issues de tâches motrices et cognitives. La premiere partie de nos travaux nous a permis de montrer grâce des tâches simples d’activation motrice en IRMf (1) qu’alors que les patients SLA presentaient un deficit moteur discret, une augmentation des activations corticales est apparue dans les aires sensorimotrices bilaterales du cerveau. (2) Ces modifications precoces de l’activite neuronale etaient correlees a la lateralisation du deficit moteur du membre ou la predominance manuelle et surtout, (3) au taux de progression de la maladie a un an et a la survie, suggerant que ce remaniement de l’activite qui correspond probablement a de la plasticite cerebrale a des implications fonctionnelles. Enfin, (4) ce phenomene apparaissait actif puisqu’il s’est poursuivi pendant au moins onze mois. Dans la deuxieme partie, nous avons montre lors d’une tâche de fluence verbale silencieuse que (1) les SLA presentaient une suractivation initiale des aires devolues au processus semantique avec un renforcement de la connectivite fonctionnelle entre les reseaux (CFR). (2) Au bout de onze mois et alors que l’atteinte des fluences etait stable, ce phenomene de compensation s’epuisait avec une diminution conjointe de l’activation des reseaux et de la CFR. La tâche de 2-Back, realisee alors que les patients ne presentaient pas d’atteinte de la memoire de travail lors des tests psychometriques, nous a permis de montrer en outre que certains circuits non-moteurs se reorganisaient tres precocement chez les patients, alors meme qu’ils etaient asymptomatiques
Social Factors in Convergence of F 1 and F 2 in Spontaneous Speech

We present results on phonetic convergence of normalized F1 and F2 values in German spontaneous speech (46 dialogs, 20.8 hrs of speech). We are interested in the influence of social factors, specifically of mutual likeability and competence ratings, on convergence. To this end we fitted linear mixed models with speakers’ F1 and F2 values, using partners’ averaged values as well as the mutual social ratings as predictors. Our results show significant general convergence effects as well as significant effects of the interaction between partners’ F1 and F2 values and the social ratings on speakers’ productions of F1 and F2. This indicates that vowel formants are subject to phonetic convergence in spontaneous speech, and that social factors have an effect on the degree of convergence.
Oscillator design concept using a self-consistent Carleman linearization

In wireless communication systems oscillators are basic components in the transmitter and receiver unit. However, the design process of an oscillator is very challenging. At first, an appropriate topology has to be selected and then the circuit has to be dimensioned. For this purpose, a high dimensional design space has to be considered in order to meet given specifications. Usually this design step is supported by a simulation tool like Cadence Spectre in which a vast of parametric simulations are performed. With the aid of these simulations, the designer tries to determine a proper dimensioning of the circuit. This iterative procedure is time consuming depending on the knowledge of the designer. Therefore, a systematic design process is desirable. In this contribution, a design concept is introduced based on a self-consistent Carleman linearization technique allowing to approximate the steady state behavior of the oscillator, thus examine the specification in dependency of the design parameters. This procedure is applied for the widely used LC-tank oscillator as an example.
Spatial performance of four climate field reconstruction methods targeting the Common Era

The spatial skill of four climate field reconstruction (CFR) methods is investigated using pseudoproxy experiments (PPEs) based on two millennial‐length general circulation model simulations. Results indicate that presently available global and hemispheric CFRs for the Common Era likely suffer from spatial uncertainties not previously characterized. No individual method produced CFRs with universally superior spatial error statistics, making it difficult to advocate for one method over another. Northern Hemisphere means are shown to be insufficient for evaluating spatial skill, indicating that the spatial performance of future CFRs should be rigorously tested for dependence on proxy type and location, target data and employed methodologies. Observed model‐dependent methodological performance also indicates that CFR methods must be tested across multiple models and conclusions from PPEs should be carefully evaluated against the spatial statistics of real‐world climatic fields.
Natural language interfaces to conceptual models

Accessing structured data in the form of ontologies currently requires the use of formal query languages (e.g., SeRQL or SPARQL) which pose significant difficulties for non-expert users. One way to lower the learning overhead and make ontology queries more straightforward is through a Natural Lan- guage Interface (NLI). While there are existing NLIs to structured data with reasonable performance, they tend to require expensive customisation to each new domain. Additionally, they often require specific adherence to a pre-defined syntax which, in turn, means that users still have to undergo training. In this thesis, we study the usability of NLIs from two perspectives: that of the developer who is customising the NLI system, and that of the end-user who uses it for querying. We investigate whether usability methods such as feedback and clarification dialogs can increase the usability for end users and reduce the customisation effort for the developers. To that end, we have developed two systems, QuestIO and FREyA, whose design, evaluation and comparison with similar systems form the core of the contribution of this thesis.
Is Self-Confidence a Bias Factor in Higher-Order Catastrophe Models? An Exploratory Analysis—A Critique

The current paper criticizes the concept, research methodology, data analyses, and validity of the conclusions made in Hardy, Woodman, and Carrington? s (2004) article published in this journal. In their repeated-measures analysis of data from the performances of 7 golfers, they did not examine changes in performance scores on successive holes. Instead, Hardy et al. used several ANOVA models to examine how performance varied with respect to somatic and cognitive anxiety level and self-confidence interaction. By doing so, their findings produced effects which we argue to be conceptually and empirically limited. We also address problems associated with dichotomization of continuous variables, measurement errors when splitting data, eradication of random significant effects, cell sizes in segmental quadrant analysis, and correlation between somatic and cognitive anxiety. We believe these difficulties prevent any reliable conclusions and/or generalizations from being made.
Sketching with Style: Visual Search with Sketches and Aesthetic Context

We propose a novel measure of visual similarity for image retrieval that incorporates both structural and aesthetic (style) constraints. Our algorithm accepts a query as sketched shape, and a set of one or more contextual images specifying the desired visual aesthetic. A triplet network is used to learn a feature embedding capable of measuring style similarity independent of structure, delivering significant gains over previous networks for style discrimination. We incorporate this model within a hierarchical triplet network to unify and learn a joint space from two discriminatively trained streams for style and structure. We demonstrate that this space enables, for the first time, styleconstrained sketch search over a diverse domain of digital artwork comprising graphics, paintings and drawings. We also briefly explore alternative query modalities.
Mortality risk increases with natal dispersal distance in American martens

The assumption that mortality risk increases with dispersal distance has rarely been tested. We compared patterns of natal dispersal in the American marten (Martes americana) between a large regenerating forest landscape and an uncut landscape that was dominated by more mature forest to test whether mortality risk increased with dispersal distance, and whether variation in mortality risk influenced dispersal distance. Mortality risk increased with dispersal distance in both landscape treatments, but the distance-dependent increase in mortality in the regenerating landscape was twice that in the uncut landscape. Differences in body condition, supported by other data on foraging efficiency, suggested that juveniles from the regenerating landscape were less able to cope with the energetic demands of dispersal compared with juveniles from older forests. Juveniles travelled shorter distances in the regenerating versus uncut landscape. These results implied that dispersal was costly in terms of juvenile survival and that mean dispersal distance was shaped, in part, by mortality risk.
Efficient approximate entity extraction with edit distance constraints

Named entity recognition aims at extracting named entities from unstructured text. A recent trend of named entity recognition is finding approximate matches in the text with respect to a large dictionary of known entities, as the domain knowledge encoded in the dictionary helps to improve the extraction performance. In this paper, we study the problem of approximate dictionary matching with edit distance constraints. Compared to existing studies using token-based similarity constraints, our problem definition enables us to capture typographical or orthographical errors, both of which are common in entity extraction tasks yet may be missed by token-based similarity constraints. Our problem is technically challenging as existing approaches based on q-gram filtering have poor performance due to the existence of many short entities in the dictionary. Our proposed solution is based on an improved neighborhood generation method employing novel partitioning and prefix pruning techniques. We also propose an efficient document processing algorithm that minimizes unnecessary comparisons and enumerations and hence achieves good scalability. We have conducted extensive experiments on several publicly available named entity recognition datasets. The proposed algorithm outperforms alternative approaches by up to an order of magnitude.
Investigation of dynamic SPECT measurements of the arterial input function in human subjects using simulation, phantom and human studies

Computer simulations, a phantom study and a human study were performed to determine whether a slowly rotating single-photon computed emission tomography (SPECT) system could provide accurate arterial input functions for quantification of myocardial perfusion imaging using kinetic models. The errors induced by data inconsistency associated with imaging with slow camera rotation during tracer injection were evaluated with an approach called SPECT/P (dynamic SPECT from positron emission tomography (PET)) and SPECT/D (dynamic SPECT from database of SPECT phantom projections). SPECT/P simulated SPECT-like dynamic projections using reprojections of reconstructed dynamic 94Tc-methoxyisobutylisonitrile (94Tc-MIBI) PET images acquired in three human subjects (1 min infusion). This approach was used to evaluate the accuracy of estimating myocardial wash-in rate parameters K1 for rotation speeds providing 180° of projection data every 27 or 54 s. Blood input and myocardium tissue time-activity curves (TACs) were estimated using spatiotemporal splines. These were fit to a one-compartment perfusion model to obtain wash-in rate parameters K1. For the second method (SPECT/D), an anthropomorphic cardiac torso phantom was used to create real SPECT dynamic projection data of a tracer distribution derived from 94Tc-MIBI PET scans in the blood pool, myocardium, liver and background. This method introduced attenuation, collimation and scatter into the modeling of dynamic SPECT projections. Both approaches were used to evaluate the accuracy of estimating myocardial wash-in parameters for rotation speeds providing 180° of projection data every 27 and 54 s. Dynamic cardiac SPECT was also performed in a human subject at rest using a hybrid SPECT/CT scanner. Dynamic measurements of 99mTc-tetrofosmin in the myocardium were obtained using an infusion time of 2 min. Blood input, myocardium tissue and liver TACs were estimated using the same spatiotemporal splines. The spatiotemporal maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization (4D ML-EM) reconstructions gave more accurate reconstructions than did standard frame-by-frame static 3D ML-EM reconstructions. The SPECT/P results showed that 4D ML-EM reconstruction gave higher and more accurate estimates of K1 than did 3D ML-EM, yielding anywhere from a 44% underestimation to 24% overestimation for the three patients. The SPECT/D results showed that 4D ML-EM reconstruction gave an overestimation of 28% and 3D ML-EM gave an underestimation of 1% for K1. For the patient study the 4D ML-EM reconstruction provided continuous images as a function of time of the concentration in both ventricular cavities and myocardium during the 2 min infusion. It is demonstrated that a 2 min infusion with a two-headed SPECT system rotating 180° every 54 s can produce measurements of blood pool and myocardial TACs, though the SPECT simulation studies showed that one must sample at least every 30 s to capture a 1 min infusion input function.
Psychopathological Predictors Characterizing Sexual Compulsivity in a Nonclinical Sample of Women

Sexual compulsivity in women has been understudied. Furthermore, studies on this topic usually consider clinical samples of individuals assigned to the label of sexual addicts and presenting strong psychiatric comorbidities. Consequently, there is missing evidence on the relation between psychological factors and sexual compulsivity in the absence of significant psychiatric disturbance. Such disturbance may mask the psychological dimensions underpinning sexual compulsivity. Against this background, this study used a nonpathological frame to explore this relation because it may add relevant information on the topic of female sexual compulsivity. Two-hundred thirty-five female college students were eligible for the study. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on the following topics: trait affect, impulsiveness, psychological symptoms, alexithymia, sexual response in states of anxiety versus depressive mood, and coping skills. Findings revealed that motor/planning impulsiveness and psychoticism significantly predicted sexual compulsivity in women. Data have suggested that when sexual compulsivity is measured as a continuous construct in a community sample of women, only some factors seem common to those found in severe forms of hypersexuality.
The Reconstruction of Doubled Genomes

The genome can be modeled as a set of strings (chromosomes) of distinguished elements called genes. Genome duplication is an important source of new gene functions and novel physiological pathways. Originally (ancestrally), a duplicated genome contains two identical copies of each chromosome, but through the genomic rearrangement mutational processes of reciprocal translocation (prefix and/or suffix exchanges between chromosomes) and substring reversals, this simple doubled structure is disrupted. At the time of observation, each of the chromosomes resulting from the accumulation of rearrangements can be decomposed into a succession of conserved segments, such that each segment appears exactly twice in the genome. We present exact algorithms for reconstructing the ancestral doubled genome in linear time, minimizing the number of rearrangement mutations required to derive the observed order of genes along the present-day chromosomes. Somewhat different techniques are required for a translocations-only model, a translocations/reversals model, both of these in the multichromosomal context (eukaryotic nuclear genomes), and a reversals-only model for single chromosome prokaryotic and organellar genomes. We apply these methods to the yeast genome, which is thought to have doubled, and to the liverwort mitochondrial genome, whose duplicate genes are unlikely to have arisen by genome doubling.
Two-Variable Logic on Words with Data

In a data word each position carries a label from a finite alphabet and a data value from some infinite domain. These models have been already considered in the realm of semistructured data, timed automata and extended temporal logics. It is shown that satisfiability for the two-variable first-order logic FO2(~,<,+1) is decidable over finite and over infinite data words, where ~ is a binary predicate testing the data value equality and +1,< are the usual successor and order predicates. The complexity of the problem is at least as hard as Petri net reachability. Several extensions of the logic are considered, some remain decidable while some are undecidable
Automated Verification for Secure Messaging Protocols and Their Implementations: A Symbolic and Computational Approach

Many popular web applications incorporate end-to-end secure messaging protocols, which seek to ensure that messages sent between users are kept confidential and authenticated, even if the web application's servers are broken into or otherwise compelled into releasing all their data. Protocols that promise such strong security guarantees should be held up to rigorous analysis, since protocol flaws and implementations bugs can easily lead to real-world attacks. We propose a novel methodology that allows protocol designers, implementers, and security analysts to collaboratively verify a protocol using automated tools. The protocol is implemented in ProScript, a new domain-specific language that is designed for writing cryptographic protocol code that can both be executed within JavaScript programs and automatically translated to a readable model in the applied pi calculus. This model can then be analyzed symbolically using ProVerif to find attacks in a variety of threat models. The model can also be used as the basis of a computational proof using CryptoVerif, which reduces the security of the protocol to standard cryptographic assumptions. If ProVerif finds an attack, or if the CryptoVerif proof reveals a weakness, the protocol designer modifies the ProScript protocol code and regenerates the model to enable a new analysis. We demonstrate our methodology by implementing and analyzing a variant of the popular Signal Protocol with only minor differences. We use ProVerif and CryptoVerif to find new and previously-known weaknesses in the protocol and suggest practical countermeasures. Our ProScript protocol code is incorporated within the current release of Cryptocat, a desktop secure messenger application written in JavaScript. Our results indicate that, with disciplined programming and some verification expertise, the systematic analysis of complex cryptographic web applications is now becoming practical.
Unsupervised Detection of Downward-Entailing Operators By Maximizing Classification Certainty

We propose an unsupervised, iterative method for detecting downward-entailing operators (DEOs), which are important for deducing entailment relations between sentences. Like the distillation algorithm of Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil et al. (2009), the initialization of our method depends on the correlation between DEOs and negative polarity items (NPIs). However, our method trusts the initialization more and aggressively separates likely DEOs from spurious distractors and other words, unlike distillation, which we show to be equivalent to one iteration of EM prior re-estimation. Our method is also am enable to a bootstrapping method that co-learns DEOs and NPIs, and achieves the best results in identifying DEOs in two corpora.
Degrees of freedom of asymmetrical multi-way relay networks

In this paper, we introduce an asymmetrical multi-way relay channel where a base station conveys independent symbols to K different users while receiving independent symbols from the users. In this network, user i Shas M<inf>i</inf> antennas (i ∈ [1, …, K]), the base station has Σ<inf>i=1</inf><sup>K</sup> M<inf>i</inf> antennas and the relay is equipped with N<inf>R</inf> antennas. To study the capacity of this network, the degree of freedom (DOF) is characterized to be 2 Σ<inf>i=1</inf><sup>K</sup> M<inf>i</inf> if N<inf>R</inf> ≥ Σ<inf>i=1</inf><sup>K</sup> M<inf>i</inf>. The DOF implies that the number of symbols any transmitter can deliver and receive is equivalent to its number of antennas. The DOF is achievable with a proposed joint multiple access and broadcast precoding design using the signal space alignment concept.
A bandwidth sharing theory for a large number of HTTP-like connections

There has been tremendous progress in understanding how bandwidth is shared by TCP-like connections. By associating each TCP-like connection with a utility function, the bandwidth sharing problem of TCP-like connections can be modelled as a distributed optimization problem for utility functions. However, little is known on how bandwidth is shared by HTTP-like connections through their utility functions at the TCP level. One of the main objectives of this paper is to provide a theory for bandwidth sharing of a large number of HTTP-like connections. Based on certain technical assumptions, we show that there is a utility function at the HTTP level for an HTTP-like connection and such a utility function can be derived from the utility function at the TCP level. The bandwidth is then shared by HTTP-like connections through utility functions at the HTTP level. Moreover, there is a probabilistic interpretation for how the utility function at the HTTP level is related to the utility function at the TCP level. This is done by relating utility functions to large deviation rate functions.
Using very large corpora to detect raising and control verbs

The distinction between raising and subject-control verbs, although crucial for the construction of semantics, is not easy to make given access to only the local syntactic configuration of the sentence. In most contexts raising verbs and control verbs display identical superficial syntactic structure. Linguists apply grammaticality tests to distinguish these verb classes. Our idea is to learn to predict the raising-control distinction by simulating such grammaticality judgments by means of pattern searches. Experiments with regression tree models show that using pattern counts from large unannotated corpora can be used to assess how likely a verb form is to appear in raising vs. control constructions. For this task it is beneficial to use the much larger but also noisier Web corpus rather than the smaller and cleaner Gigaword corpus. A similar methodology can be useful for detecting other lexical semantic distinctions: it could be used whenever a test employed to make linguistically interesting distinctions can be reduced to a pattern search in an unannotated corpus.