Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tests of assumptions about the joint receipt of gambles in rank- and sign-dependent utility theory.

A rank- and sign-dependent utility theory is based on an operation of joint receipt of 2 independent gambles and 3 assumptions regarding the operation (R. D. Luce, 1992). The authors tested these 3 assumptions—segregation, duplex decomposition, and the additivity of certainty equivalents over joint receipt—using both judged and choice certainty equivalents (CEs). Median choice CEs provided support for both segregation and duplex decomposition but little support for additivity in gains or in losses, whereas median judged CEs also failed to support segregation. The latter failure appears to result from some subjects misunderstanding the instructions. The most dominant normative (or rational) models for decision making under risk or uncertainty are those leading to some form of the subjective expected utility (SEU) representation. Von Neumann and Morgenstern (1947) gave the first fully developed theory for the case of expected utility in which the probabilities are prescribed, and Savage (1954) extended it to the case involving events for which the probabilities are not externally given. (For modern surveys
Constraint-based watermarking techniques for design IP protection

Digital system designs are the product of valuable effort and know-how. Their embodiments, from software and hardware description language program down to device-level netlist and mask data, represent carefully guarded intellectual property (IP). Hence, design methodologies based on IP reuse require new mechanisms to protect the rights of IP producers and owners. This paper establishes principles of watermarking-based IP protection, where a watermark is a mechanism for identification that is: (1) nearly invisible to human and machine inspection; (2) difficult to remove; and (3) permanently embedded as an integral part of the design. Watermarking addresses IP protection by tracing unauthorized reuse and making untraceable unauthorized reuse as difficult as recreating given pieces of IP from scratch. We survey related work in cryptography and design methodology, then develop desiderata, metrics, and concrete protocols for constraint-based watermarking at various stages of the very large scale integration (VLSI) design process. In particular, we propose a new preprocessing approach that embeds watermarks as constraints into the input of a black-box design tool and a new postprocessing approach that embeds watermarks as constraints into the output of a black-box design tool. To demonstrate that our protocols can be transparently integrated into existing design flows, we use a testbed of commercial tools for VLSI physical design and embed watermarks into real-world industrial designs. We show that the implementation overhead is low-both in terms of central processing unit time and such standard physical design metrics as wirelength, layout area, number of vias, and routing congestion. We empirically show that the placement and routing applications considered in our methods achieve strong proofs of authorship and are resistant to tampering and do not adversely influence timing.
Image Morphing Using Deformation Techniques

This paper presents a new image morphing method using a two-dimensional deformation technique which provides an intuitive model for a warp. The deformation technique derives aC1-continuous and one-to-one warp from a set of point pairs overlaid on two images. The resulting in-between image precisely reflects the correspondence of features specified by an animator. We also control the transition behaviour in a metamorphosis sequence by taking another deformable surface model, which is simpler and thus more efficient than the deformation technique for a warp. The proposed method separates transition control from feature interpolation and is easier to use than the previous techniques. The multigrid relaxation method is employed to solve a linear system in deriving a warp or transition rates. This method makes our image morphing technique fast enough for an interactive environment.
Combination of altered PBPs and expression of cloned extended-spectrum beta-lactamases confers cefotaxime resistance in Haemophilus influenzae.

BACKGROUND Resistance to beta-lactams in Haemophilus influenzae is mostly due to the presence of TEM beta-lactamases. beta-Lactamase-negative ampicillin resistance (BLNAR) also occurs as a result of PBP3 modifications. BLNAR strains are particularly common in Japan and France, and strains with combined mechanisms of altered PBP3 and beta-lactamase (BLPACR) are emerging. Although the prevalence of beta-lactamase-positive strains is high, TEM-derived extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-mediated cephalosporin resistance, which is common in Enterobacteriaceae, has not been reported in H. influenzae. In this study, the ability of ESBLs TEM-3, -4 and -5 to confer beta-lactam resistance in H. influenzae strains with or without modified PBP3 was tested. METHODS The genes encoding TEM-1, -3, -4 and -5 were cloned into plasmid pLS88 and were used to transform H. influenzae Rd and BLNAR H. influenzae Rd strains with PBP3 modifications. MICs were determined using CLSI macrobroth dilution. The ability of amoxicillin/clavulanate pre-diffusion disc tests to discriminate between ESBL-producing strains and other strains was also tested. RESULTS The presence of ESBLs in BLNAR strains conferred cefotaxime resistance, but H. influenzae Rd strains expressing ESBLs and BLNAR strains expressing TEM-1 remained cefotaxime susceptible. The amoxicillin/clavulanate pre-diffusion tests were able to discriminate the ESBL-producing strains from the other strains. CONCLUSIONS The presence of altered PBP3 increases the effect of ESBLs in recombinant H. influenzae strains to produce cefotaxime resistance. Amoxicillin/clavulanate pre-diffusion disc tests can discriminate ESBL-producing strains from other strains.
Dynamic Decision Support System Based on Bayesian Networks Application to fight against the Nosocomial Infections

The improvement of medical care quality is a significant interest for the future years. The fight against nosocomial infections (NI) in the intensive care units (ICU) is a good example. We will focus on a set of observations which reflect the dynamic aspect of the decision, result of the application of a Medical Decision Support System (MDSS). This system has to make dynamic decision on temporal data. We use dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) to model this dynamic process. It is a temporal reasoning within a real-time environment; we are interested in the Dynamic Decision Support Systems in healthcare domain (MDDSS).
Exploring Phylogeographic Congruence in a Continental Island System

A prediction in phylogeographic studies is that patterns of lineage diversity and timing will be similar within the same landscape under the assumption that these lineages have responded to past environmental changes in comparable ways. Eight invertebrate taxa from four different orders were included in this study of mainland New Zealand and Chatham Islands lineages to explore outcomes of island colonization. These comprised two orthopteran genera, one an endemic forest-dwelling genus of cave weta (Rhaphidophoridae, Talitropsis) and the other a grasshopper (Acrididae, Phaulacridum) that inhabits open grassland; four genera of Coleoptera including carabid beetles (Mecodema), stag beetles (Geodorcus), weevils (Hadramphus) and clickbeetles (Amychus); the widespread earwig genus Anisolabis (Dermaptera) that is common on beaches in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, and an endemic and widespread cockroach genus Celatoblatta (Blattodea). Mitochondrial DNA data were used to reconstruct phylogeographic hypotheses to compare among these taxa. Strikingly, despite a maximum age of the Chathams of ∼4 million years there is no concordance among these taxa, in the extent of genetic divergence and partitioning between Chatham and Mainland populations. Some Chatham lineages are represented by insular endemics and others by haplotypes shared with mainland populations. These diverse patterns suggest that combinations of intrinsic (taxon ecology) and extrinsic (extinction and dispersal) factors can result in apparently very different biogeographic outcomes.
The ecology of Bulinus truncatus and Biomphalaria alexandrina and its implications for the control of bilharziasis in the Egypt-49 project area.

The respective vectors of the two forms of bilharziasis in Egypt do not have the same ecological distribution. Bulinus truncatus is most abundant in large canals, and decreases in density as the water approaches and flows into drains. Biomphalaria alexandrina is most abundant in drains, and decreases in density upstream from these habitats. Both species are most abundant in the presence of aquatic vegetation, but they differ in their respective associations with the water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes. Biomph. alexandrina reaches maximum abundance in the presence of this plant, but Bul. truncatus is as uncommon in the absence of plants as in the presence of E. crassipes.Calculation of life-table parameters from field data shows that, under optimum field conditions, both species can double their populations in 14-16 days. The reproductive rates of both species are greatest in March and the death rates in midsummer. The observed peak densities in May and June give a false impression of optima because of undercollection of young snails, which are most abundant in March and April.Control operations should take advantage of the findings on population parameters. A single area-wide treatment with molluscicide in April is recommended. During the remainder of the year, search for isolated foci of snail breeding and individual treatment of these will effect large savings of chemical and will be effective in controlling the transmission of the parasites.
Dynamics of the Alignment of Mammalian Cells on a Nano-Structured Polymer Surface

In vitro cultured mammalian cells are able to sense micro- and nanotopographical features of their substratum, resulting in contact guidance of the cells along topographical features, altered motility, proliferation and differentiation. We here used embossed polyester films with nanogrooves to study the dynamics of cell spreading and alignment of chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and cells of a rat myogenic cell line. Our results suggest that the response of the cells studied is driven by initial cytoplasmic protrusions, which emerge along the nanogrooves and pull the cells along the direction of the nanogrooves.
Fusing Simultaneous EEG and fMRI Using Functional and Anatomical Information

Simultaneously measuring electro physical and hemodynamic signals has become more accessible in the last years and the need for modeling techniques that can fuse the modalities is growing. In this work we augment a specific fusion method, the multimodal Source Power Co-modulation (mSPoC), to not only use functional but also anatomical information. The goal is to extract correlated source components from electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Anatomical information enters our proposed extension to mSPoC via the forward model, which relates the activity on cortex level to the EEG sensors. The augmented mSPoC is shown to outperform the original version in realistic simulations where the signal to noise ratio is low or where training epochs are scarce.
In-situ composites of a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer and polycarbonate :: processing, morphology and properties/

IN-SITU COMPOSITES OF A THERMOTROPIC LIQUID CRYSTALLINE POLYMER AND POLYCARBONATE: PROCESSING, MORPHOLOGY AND PROPERTIES FEBRUARY, 1989 OLIMPIA FEDERICO, LAUREA, CH.E. , UNIVERSITY OF NAPLES M.S., CH.E. , UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Prof. Richard J. Farris The possibility of producing "in-situ" two phase composites by melt blending a wholly aromatic liquid crystalline copolyester (VECTRAR A950) with polycarbonate has been investigated. The goal was to develop an understanding of the effect of thermal and deformational histories on structure and properties. Extruding the blends at die temperatures up to 40 °C above the disordering peak temperature (280 °C) of the liquid crystal (LCP) pellets resulted in the formation of a fibrillar LCP reinforcement along the extrudate axis (two fold increase in tensile modulus and strength compared to the neat PC matrix at 25% LCP concentration) . When the die temperature was increased to 340 °C, the LCP fibrils
Significance of facial features in performance of automatic facial expression recognition

Automatic facial expression recognition is a fascinating and challenging problem, and impacts important applications in many areas such as human-computer interaction (HCI) and robotics. In this paper an automatic facial expression recognition method is proposed, we are applying face detection methods to an image from the dataset to get face image and its important parts like eyes, nose and mouth automatically. Local binary patterns are used as feature extractor and for classification a strong machine learning classification tool support vector machine is used. Our experiments illustrate that the LBP provide a compact and discriminative facial representation and by adopting Support Vector Machines we obtained the best recognition performance of 95.83% on Cohn-Kanade database, which is better than contemporary methods. We experimentally illustrate that eyes and mouth play a significant role in facial expression recognition.
Partitioning Space for Range Queries

It is shown that, given a set S of n points in R3, one can always find three planes that form an eight-partition of S, that is, a partition where at most n/8 points of S lie in each of the eight open regions. This theorem is used to define a data structure, called an octant tree, for representing any point set in R3. An octant tree for n points occupies O(n) space and can be constructed in polynomial time. With this data structure and its refinements, efficient solutions to various range query problems in 2 and 3 dimensions can be obtained, including (1) half-space queries: find all points of S that lie to one side of any given plane; (2) polyhedron queries: find all points that lie inside (outside) any given polyhedron; and (3) circular queries in R2: for a planar set S, find all points that lie inside (outside) any given circle. The retrieval time for all these queries is T(n)=O(na + m) where a= 0.8988 (or 0.8471 in case (3)) and m is the size of the output. This performance is the best currently known for linear-space data structures which can be deterministically constructed in polynomial time.
Assertion Support for Manipulating Constrained Data-Centric XML

XML is used for different purposes. We are interested in data-centric applications of XML where it is used to handle structured data in loosely coupled, distributed systems. In many such scenarios, it is important that the XML data complies to structural and integrity constraints, in particular to value-based constraints. The constraints should remain invariant under operations manipulating the data. In this paper, we present a technique to maintain the invariants. For a core procedural manipulation language, we show how to automatically derive the weakest precondition of procedures for the constraints. We present a formalization of a data-centric XML abstraction and an assertion language that enables weakest precondition generation. Our framework allows to automatically simplify and reduce the generated preconditions such that checking becomes independent of the size of the constraint definitions. This is achieved by isolating the aspects that are manipulated by the considered procedure from the aspects that remain unchanged. As the overall invariant can be assumed for the input data, only the isolated aspects have to be checked in prestates of procedures.
Treatment compliance in adults with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND--The study comprised three interrelated aims: (1) to ascertain (a) patient compliance with physiotherapy, exercise, enzyme and vitamin regimens, (b) how compliance was perceived by patients, and (c) the reasons for poor compliance (2) to identify demographic and clinical variables associated with compliance; and (3) to determine how accurately patient compliance can be predicted by carers. METHODS--Demographic and medical history data were obtained from medical records and a patient questionnaire. The data obtained included age, sex, employment status, inpatient or outpatient status, frequency of contact with the clinic, age at diagnosis, and the number of years practising physiotherapy. Measures of clinical status, including FEV1 and FVC percentage predicted, Shwachman score, and 24 hour sputum weight were recorded before completion of the questionnaire. The questionnaire, administered by a psychologist, assessed the reported degree of patient compliance, their perception of compliance, and their reasons for poor compliance. RESULTS--Sixty patients participated in the study and 51/60 and 41/55 patients were considered compliant with enzyme and exercise therapies, respectively. Compliance was lower with physiotherapy (32/60) and vitamin treatment (21/45). Patients reporting immediate benefits following exercise and physiotherapy were more compliant than those reporting no improvement. The perception by patients that compliance was sufficient ("about right") was physiotherapy 67%, exercise 37%, enzymes 78%, and vitamins 9%. Compliance was not influenced by demographic details nor by severity of disease, although patients producing large amounts of sputum and receiving help with physiotherapy were more compliant with physiotherapy. The physiotherapist and physician judged correctly the degree of compliance with physiotherapy in 83% and 75% of cases, respectively, and with exercise in 68% and 67% of cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS--The reported degree of compliance and reasons for poor compliance were treatment specific. Demographic and disease severity variables were not associated with compliance. Those involved in the care of patients with cystic fibrosis were able to predict patient compliance.
Image Compression using CDF5/3 Wavelet Transform Coupled with Bit Plane Algorithm

The near future of image processing techniques state the compatibility issues of applied algorithms with storage techniques and data transmission across noisy environment. Image compression is a vital element that is employed due to its characteristics of image size reduction without considerable data loss. This paper employs an SAR image compression technique based on CDF 5/3 in unison with bit plane algorithm. The CDF 5/3 encodes the real images converted by fast Fourier transform (FFT). The performance analysis is observed by changing in BPP (Bit per pixel) for a given image and based on varying BPP peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and (Mean square Error) MSE. General Terms Image processing, SAR image, wavelet transform, Directional lifting wavelet transform.
Isoimmunization against CD36 (glycoprotein IV): description of four cases of neonatal isoimmune thrombocytopenia and brief review of the literature

BACKGROUND : Platelet CD36 (glycoprotein [GP] IV) deficiency occurs in 3 to 5 percent of persons of Asian or African ancestry. A subset of these individuals is at risk for immunization against CD36, but the magnitude of this problem and its significance in transfusion medicine have not yet been clarified.
Speaking rate dependent acoustic modeling for spontaneous lecture speech recognition

The paper addresses large vocabulary spontaneous speech recognition focusing on acoustic modeling that considers the speaking rate. Using the real lecture speech corpus collected under the priority research project in Japan, we have made baseline acoustic model, and evaluated on the automatic transcription of oral presentations by experienced speakers and obtained word accuracy of 58.2%. Compared with read speech, we have observed significant difference in the speaking rate. To handle fast and poorly articulated phone segments, several extensions of the modeling are explored. Specifically, we introduce stateskipping modeling, speech rate-dependent model, and syllable sub-word modeling. As a result, we reduced the word error rate by absolute 0.8%-2.0%. We also address a language modeling especially on effective use of various large text corpora.
Agglomeration , Tax , and Local Public Good

In this paper, we explore the interaction between taxation and local public good (LPG) and how it impacts the spatial pattern in the framework of new economic geography (NEG). In the benchmark case of a pure LPG, the system displays a similar location pattern to the existing NEG taxation model, although the tax reduces the market size of manufactured goods. However, when we consider the inherent congestion of an LPG, we find a new agglomeration force due to the demand of the LPG and a new dispersion force due to its congestion. As a result of their interaction, the congestability is essential for determining the spatial location pattern.
Ignition of steel alloys by impact of low-velocity iron/inert particles in gaseous oxygen

The ignition of carbon steel and 304 and 316 stainless steels caused by the impact of low-velocity particles in gaseous oxygen was investigated. A subsonic particle impact chamber was used to accelerate the particles thatwere injected into flowing oxygen upstream of a specimen of the target material. A standard particle mixture was used that consisted of 2 g of pure iron and 3 g of inert materials. The three alloys appeared to ignite only at velocities high enough to ignite the standard particle mixture. When the particle mixture did not ignite, the three alloys did not ignite either. The oxygen velocity required to ignite the particle mixture was greater than 45 m/s and appeared to be independent of pressure between 4 and 30 MPa. A comparison of these test results and previous test results with the oxygen velocity limits recommended by the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) for oxygen piping indicated that the CGA recommendations are extremely conservative at high pressures and excessively liberal at low pressures.
Danesh: Helping Bridge The Gap Between Procedural Generators And Their Output

Procedural content generation is more popular than ever among game developers, but understanding, adjusting and perfecting a procedural generator is difficult for newcomers and experts alike. In this paper we present Danesh, an intelligent tool we are building to help developers of all skill levels explore, improve and understand procedural generators. We discuss the structure of the tool, report on the techniques used, and lay out the future of the project.
Thermally tunable multiwavelength output waveguide laser source of Zirconia-Titania-ORMOSIL thin films

Organic laser dye doped Zirconia-Titania-ORMOSIL waveguide thin films with refractive index from 1.55 to 1.59 were prepared by the sol-gel method. The thickness can be varied from 0.97 μm to 10 μm by changing coating speed. Distributed feedback waveguide lasing with multi-wavelength were observed with a periodic gain modulation induced by a frequency-doubled Nd:Yttritium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser. Wavelength tuning typically from 597 nm to 602 nm was demonstrated in Rhodamine 6G doped multiple mode waveguiding ZrO2-TiO2-ORMOSIL thin films DFB configuration by varying the temperature from 20°C to 120°C. The thermal coefficients of DFB waveguide laser wavelength and the refractive index of the film were deduced. This compact DFB laser device can be applied to measure the thermal coefficients of refractive index of the active films, and used as a remote temperature sensor.