Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pitch of complex tones: rate-place and interspike interval representations in the auditory nerve.

Harmonic complex tones elicit a pitch sensation at their fundamental frequency (F0), even when their spectrum contains no energy at F0, a phenomenon known as "pitch of the missing fundamental. " The strength of this pitch percept depends upon the degree to which individual harmonics are spaced sufficiently apart to be "resolved" by the mechanical frequency analysis in the cochlea. We investigated the resolvability of harmonics of missing-fundamental complex tones in the auditory nerve (AN) of anesthetized cats at low and moderate stimulus levels and compared the effectiveness of two representations of pitch over a much wider range of F0s (110-3,520 Hz) than in previous studies. We found that individual harmonics are increasingly well resolved in rate responses of AN fibers as the characteristic frequency (CF) increases. We obtained rate-based estimates of pitch dependent upon harmonic resolvability by matching harmonic templates to profiles of average discharge rate against CF. These estimates were most accurate for F0s above 400-500 Hz, where harmonics were sufficiently resolved. We also derived pitch estimates from all-order interspike-interval distributions, pooled over our entire sample of fibers. Such interval-based pitch estimates, which are dependent on phase-locking to the harmonics, were accurate for F0s below 1,300 Hz, consistent with the upper limit of the pitch of the missing fundamental in humans. The two pitch representations are complementary with respect to the F0 range over which they are effective; however, neither is entirely satisfactory in accounting for human psychophysical data.
Comparison of First Void Urine and Urogenital Swab Specimens for Detection of Mycoplasma genitalium and Chlamydia trachomatis by Polymerase Chain Reaction in Patients Attending a Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare urogenital swab specimens and first void urine (FVU) specimens from male and female patients at a sexually transmitted disease clinic for the detection of Mycoplasma genitalium and Chlamydia trachomatis infections using in-house, inhibitor-controlled polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Study Design: Urethral swabs and FVU were collected from 1856 men and 753 women who also had a cervical swab collected. A positive diagnosis of infection was made if any 1 of the specimens tested positive and were confirmed in a second PCR assay targeting independent genes. Results: M. genitalium DNA and C. trachomatis DNA were detected in 126 (6.8%) and 246 (13.3%) of the male sample sets and in 51 (6.8%) and 73 (9.7%) of the female specimen sets, respectively. Using our in-house PCR and sample preparation methods, FVU was found to be the most sensitive diagnostic specimen for both pathogens, but for optimal sensitivity, it should be supplemented with a cervical specimen in women. In a small subset of female FVUs, storage at -20°C led to false-negative M. genitalium PCR results in 27% of specimens found positive when a sample preparation was performed before freezing. The age-specific prevalence of M. genitalium in men was almost constant between 18 and 45 years of age in contrast to C. trachomatis infections, which were more common in younger men. Conclusion: Urine appeared to be a better diagnostic specimen than the urethral swab for M. genitalium and C. trachomatis detection by PCR in this cohort of sexually transmitted disease clinic attendees but should be supplemented with a cervical specimen in women.
Studies on the Effects of Vermicompost on Growth Parameters and Chlorophyll Content of Bengal Gram (Cicer arietinum L.) var. RSG-896

The present field experiment was performed in the farmer’s field located in Bambala, TehsilSanganer, Jaipur to determine the effects of vermicompost on Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum L.) var. RSG-896. Seeds of Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum L.) var. RSG-896 were exposed to different treatment levels of vermicompost i.e. T1 which was control level (soil without vermicompost), T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6. Plants were harvested at three stages i.e. pre-flowering, peak-flowering and post-flowering stages. With the increase in vermicompost level the root length, shoot length, root dry weight , shoot dry weight and total dry weight were increased to 39.36, 38.55, 36.92, 67.94, 64.26% respectively. Chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b and total chlorophyll contents also increased with increasing level of vermicompost to 86.95, 77.61 and 89.95% respectively.
Practical statistical analyses of simulation output data: The state of the art

It has been our observation that in many simulation studies a large amount of time and money is spent on model development and programming, but little effort is made to analyze the simulation output data in an appropriate manner. As a matter of fact, a common mode of operation is to make a single simulation run of somewhat arbitrary length and then treat the resulting simulation estimates as being the “true” answers for the model. Since these estimates are random variables which may have large variances, these estimates may, in a particular simulation run, differ greatly from the corresponding true answers. The net effect is, of course, that there may be a significant probability of making erroneous inferences about the system under study. One reason for the historical lack of definitive output data analyses is that simulation output data are rarely, if ever, independent. Thus, classical statistical analyses based on independent identically distributed observations are not directly applicable. At the present time, there are still several output analysis problems for which there is no completely accepted solution, and the solutions that do exist are often complicated to apply. Another impediment to getting accurate estimates of a model's true parameters or characteristics is the computer cost associated with collecting the necessary amount of simulation output data. Indeed, there are situations where an appropriate statistical procedure is available, but the cost of collecting the amount of data dictated by the procedure is prohibitive. We expect this latter problem to become less important as the cost of computer time continues to drop. Our goal in this talk is to give a state-of-the-art treatment of statistical analyses for simulation output data, and to present the material with a practical focus which should be accessible by a reader having a basic understanding of statistics. The emphasis will be on statistical procedures which are relatively easy to understand and apply, have been shown to perform well in practice, and have applicability to real-world problems. Most of the material presented in this talk may be found in Law and Kelton (1981).
Outer bounds for the capacity region of a Gaussian two-way relay channel

We consider a three-node half-duplex Gaussian relay network where two nodes (say a, b) want to communicate with each other and the third node acts as a relay for this two-way communication. Outer bounds and achievable rate regions for the possible rate pairs (Ra, Rb) for two-way communication are investigated. The modes (transmit or receive) of the half-duplex nodes together specify the state of the network. A relaying protocol uses a specific sequence of states and a coding scheme for each state. In this paper, we first obtain an outer bound for the rate region of all achievable (Ra, Rb) based on the half-duplex cut-set bound. This outer bound can be numerically computed by solving a linear program. It is proved that at any point on the boundary of the outer bound only four of the six states of the network are used. We then compare it with achievable rate regions of various known protocols. We consider two kinds of protocols: (1) protocols in which all messages transmitted in a state are decoded with the received signal in the same state, and (2) protocols where information received in one state can also be stored and used as side information to decode messages in future states. Various conclusions are drawn on the importance of using all states, use of side information, and the choice of processing at the relay. Then, two analytical outer bounds (as opposed to an optimization problem formulation) are derived. Using an analytical outer bound, we obtain the symmetric capacity within 0.5 bits for some channel conditions where the direct link between nodes a and b is weak.
Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Crack Closure

The fatigue life of metallic materials is strongly influenced by crack closure effects. Finite element (FE) methods allow the study of crack closure with great detail and can provide valuable information about phenomena occurring in the bulk of the material. In this work the distribution of stresses through the thickness of a cracked specimen has been studied using 3D FE simulations. It was found that the transition between the interior of the specimen (plane strain) and the surface (plane stress) differs from that predicted by 2D plane stress models. In addition, an attempt is presented to experimentally validate the results at the surface level. For this purpose full-field image correlation technique was utilized. This allowed direct comparison between the displacement field predicted by the numerical simulations and the experimental results measured by digital image correlation.
Dynamic world models from ray-tracing

Context-aware computing systems demand an accurate and up-to-date world model which computationally represents the environment they oversee. Systems to date tend to have small-scale implementations with hand-programmed world models. In real environments, manual creation and maintenance of such models is infeasible. This work presents a method of using signals propagating in a multilateration positioning system to assist in creating and maintaining models of a dynamic world. It builds on a previous method for discovering objects in static environments. The methods are implemented and evaluated using a real positioning system. They are shown to build three-dimensional occupancy grids of indoor volumes, and have the capability of modifying those grids as time proceeds and the environment is reconfigured.
Hyred: Hybrid Job Recommendation System

Nowadays people search job opportunities or candidates mainly online, where several websites for this purpose already do exist (LinkedIn, Guru and oDesk, amongst others). This task is especially difficult because of the large number of items to look for and manual compatibility verification. What we propose in this paper is a Hybrid Job Recommendation System that considers the user model (content-based filtering) and social interactions (collaborative filtering) to improve the quality of its recommendations. Our solution is also able to generate adequate teams for a given job opportunity, based not only on the needed competences but also on the social compatibility between their members.
Osmotic pressure-adaptive responses in the eye tissues of rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax)

Purpose The rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), is a teleost fish, which avoids freezing by becoming virtually isosmotic with seawater. The effects that such massive changes in osmolarity have on both its visual system and its highly evolved and specialized circulation are not known. New knowledge about the osmotic adaptation of the rainbow smelt eye is highly relevant to the adaptation and survival of this species and to its ability to feed as a visual predator in the face of environmental pressures. Moreover, the molecular physiologic response of the smelt to osmotic stress might provide valuable insights into understanding and managing mammalian pathological hyperosmolarity conditions, such as diabetes. We undertook the present study to provide an initial assessment of gene expression in ocular vasculature during osmotic adaptation in rainbow smelt. Methods Immunohistochemistry with species cross reactive antibodies was used to assess blood vessel protein expression in paraffin sections. Western blotting was used to further verify antibody specificity for orthologs of mammalian blood vessel proteins in rainbow smelt. Thermal hysteresis and the analysis of glycerol concentrations in vitreous fluid were used to assess the physiologic adaptive properties of cold stressed eyes. Results Glycerol levels and osmotic pressure were significantly increased in the vitreal fluid of smelt maintained at <0.5 °C versus those maintained at 8–10 °C. Compared to the 8–10 °C adapted specimens, the rete mirabile blood vessels and connecting regions of the endothelial linings of the choroidal vessels of the <0.5 °C adapted specimens showed a higher expression level of Tubedown (Tbdn) protein, a marker of the endothelial transcellular permeability pathway. Expression of the zonula occludens protein ZO-1, a marker of the endothelial paracellular permeability pathway showed a reciprocal expression pattern and was downregulated in rete mirabile blood vessels and connecting regions in the endothelial linings of choroidal vessels in <0.5 °C adapted specimens. Smelt orthologs of the mammalian Tbdn and zoluna occludens protein 1 (ZO-1) proteins were also detected by western blotting using anti-mammalian antibodies raised against the same epitopes as those used for immunohistochemistry. Conclusions This work provides the first evidence that molecules known to play a role in ocular vascular homeostasis are expressed and may be differentially regulated during anti-freezing cold adaptation in smelt eyes. We propose a hypothesis that in a state of cold-induced hyperosmolarity, changes in ZO-1 expression are associated with the passage of small solutes from the plasma space to ocular fluid, while changes in Tbdn expression regulate the passage of proteins between the ocular fluid and plasma space. This work also provides fundamental insight into the mechanisms underlying the adaptation of the blood-retinal barrier to metabolically relevant compounds such as glycerol.
Jacobian and Dynamic Analysis of 3-RSR Parallel Manipulator

The external moments and forces, the inertial and gravitational loading of the moving platform of 3 -- RSR parallel manipulator can be mapped back to the actuated joint by using the Jacobian matrix in this paper. First dynamics model on the application of the Newton-Euler equation of motion can be derived, on the basis of the assumption without obviously reducing the accuracy of model. Second dynamics model also can be made by using the Lagrange formulations on the basis of the same assumption made for the model based on Newton-Euler approach. A numerical example of two methods is presented later in this paper. The numerical results using the Lagrange model are agreement with the numerical results using the Newton-Euler model. The desired form of the motor torques is obtained, so the advantage of the first dynamics model is that it is less computation than the Lagrange model.
Analysis and optimization of distributed real-time embedded systems

An increasing number of real-time applications are today implemented using distributed heterogeneous architectures composed of interconnected networks of processors. The systems are heterogeneous not only in terms of hardware and software components, but also in terms of communication protocols and scheduling policies. In this context, the task of designing such systems is becoming increasingly difficult. The success of new adequate design methods depends on the availability of efficient analysis as well as optimization techniques. In this article, we present both analysis and optimization approaches for such heterogeneous distributed real-time embedded systems. More specifically, we discuss the schedulability analysis of hard real-time systems, highlighting particular aspects related to the heterogeneous and distributed nature of the applications. We also introduce several design optimization problems characteristic of this class of systems: mapping of functionality, the optimization of access to communication channel, and the assignment of scheduling policies to processes. Optimization heuristics aiming at producing a schedulable system with a given amount of resources are presented.
Arterial compliance in a group of normotensive and untreated hypertensive Cameroonian subjects in Yaounde

Introduction Arterial compliance is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events. It decreases with age and this decrease is accelerated by hypertension. The objectives were to determine the arterial compliance in a group of normotensive and untreated hypertensive stage 1, 2 and 3 Cameroonian subjects. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2012 to February 2013 in Yaoundé. Our sample size was 88 participants. The PulsePen® device was used to determine cfPWV (carotid-femoral Pulse Wave Velocity) and central Augmentation Index % (AIx). Other measurements obtained were: blood pressure (BP), body mass index (BMI), fasting glycaemia, lipid profile and serum creatinine. Results Our sample's mean age was 35.48 years and ranged from 20 to 60 years. The means of: cfPWV, SBP, DBP, Pulse Pressure (PP) and Heart Rate (HR) showed a statistically significant increase (p-value < 0.05) across the groups from normotensive to severely hypertensive patients. cfPWV was significantly correlated (p-value< 0.05) to: Age, Central SBP, Central DBP, Central PP, HR, BMI and central Augmentation index (AIx). Furthermore, cfPWV was significantly dependent on LVH (p-value <0.05). Conclusion This study suggests that arterial compliance decreases with increase severity of hypertension, indicating a higher risk of developing cardiovascular events in severely hypertensive patients.
Alterations in the Cytoplasmic Domain of CLCN2 Result in Altered Gating Kinetics

Mutations in the human ClC-2 Cl- channel have been described to influence its function dramatically. To test for naturally occurring gene variants in a human population and their functionality, all 24 CLCN2 exons from a Central African population were sequenced. Six single amino acid exchanges in the intracellular N-terminus (P48R, R68H), in the pore domain (G199A), or in the intracellular C-terminus (R646Q, R725W, R747H) were identified at low frequency. Heterologous expression of these polymorphisms in Xenopus laevis oocytes demonstrated their functional significance as determined by two-electrode voltage-clamp. The polymorphisms R68H, R725W, and R747H exhibited faster voltage-stimulated gating as compared to the wild type channel, resulting in higher steady state currents of R725W. Probably due to decreased surface expression P48R, R68H, and R646Q mutants generated lower currents than the wild type channels. The inward currents of the mutated channels R725W, R747H, and G199A failed to increase during hypotonic swelling, a defect paralleled by impaired swelling-accelerated voltage-gating in one mutant (G199A). In conclusion, the Africans’ gene pool comprises CLCN2 gene variants in the N-terminus, the C-terminus or the pore domain that affect surface expression and voltage- or cell-swelling-stimulated channel gating.
Identification of Critical Residues in Gα13 for Stimulation of p115RhoGEF Activity and the Structure of the Gα13-p115RhoGEF Regulator of G Protein Signaling Homology (RH) Domain Complex*

RH-RhoGEFs are a family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors that contain a regulator of G protein signaling homology (RH) domain. The heterotrimeric G protein Gα13 stimulates the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity of RH-RhoGEFs, leading to activation of RhoA. The mechanism by which Gα13 stimulates the GEF activity of RH-RhoGEFs, such as p115RhoGEF, has not yet been fully elucidated. Here, specific residues in Gα13 that mediate activation of p115RhoGEF are identified. Mutation of these residues significantly impairs binding of Gα13 to p115RhoGEF as well as stimulation of GEF activity. These data suggest that the exchange activity of p115RhoGEF is stimulated allosterically by Gα13 and not through its interaction with a secondary binding site. A crystal structure of Gα13 bound to the RH domain of p115RhoGEF is also presented, which differs from a previously crystallized complex with a Gα13-Gαi1 chimera. Taken together, these data provide new insight into the mechanism by which p115RhoGEF is activated by Gα13.
Application of Epstein–Barr Virus for Optimization of Immortalized B-lymphocyte Production as a Positive Control in Genetic Studies

Background: Infection of B-cells with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) leads to more and subsequent immortalization. This is considered as the method of choice for generating lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Producing LCLs, although very useful but is very time consuming and troublesome, drives the requirement for quicker and more reliable methods for EBV-driven B-cell transformation.Materials and Methods: After successfully production of LCLs, different parameters including temperature, serum concentration, type of culture medium, and CO2concentration were evaluated on EBV-transformed B-cells. In this study, we were able to produce LCLs and optimize condition. Results: The best condition for generating LCLs was 37°C, 5% CO2, 20% fasting blood sugar, and RPMI 1640. The study results were to establish a reliable method for producing LCLs that can be used to produce immortalized B-cells from almost any sources. Conclusion: This can help with tumorgenecity studies, as well as producing control material for rare genetic disorders and so on. The aim of this study was to determine optimized condition for reliable and reproducible LCLs from different sources.
Tactile Experience-based Robotic Grasping

We propose an experience-based approach to the problem of blind grasping, stable robotic grasping using tactile sensing and hand kinematic feedback. We first collect a set of stable grasps to build a tactile experience database which contains tactile contacts for each stable grasp. Using the tactile experience database, we propose an algorithm to synthesize local hand adjustment that controls the hand pose and improves the grasp based on tactile sensor readings. Simulation experiments show that local adjustment of the hand improves the grasping performance.
Distributed activity recognition in camera networks via low-rank matrix recovery

Multi-view action recognition addresses many challenges like view-invariance and occlusion. But the huge amount of data makes it hard for use in real life applications. In this paper, we propose a distributed activity classification framework based on consensus matrix completion, where several smart cameras are observing the scene, each process their observations and come to an agreement about the activity class, through communication. We validate our approach using IXMAS dataset.
Parametric shape analysis via 3-valued logic

Shape analysis concerns the problem of determining "shape invariants" for programs that perform destructive updating on dynamically allocated storage. This article presents a parametric framework for shape analysis that can be instantiated in different ways to create different shape-analysis algorithms that provide varying degrees of efficiency and precision. A key innovation of the work is that the stores that can possibly arise during execution are represented (conservatively) using 3-valued logical structures. The framework is instantiated in different ways by varying the predicates used in the 3-valued logic. The class of programs to which a given instantiation of the framework can be applied is not limited a priori (i.e., as in some work on shape analysis, to programs that manipulate only lists, trees, DAGS, etc.); each instantiation of the framework can be applied to any program, but may produce imprecise results (albeit conservative ones) due to the set of predicates employed.