Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic decomposition and classification of octopus arm movements

The octopus arm is a muscular hydrostat and due to its deformable and highly flexible structure it is capable of a rich repertoire of motor behaviors. Its motor control system uses planning principles and control strategies unique to muscular hydrostats. We previously reconstructed a data set of octopus arm movements from records of natural movements using a sequence of 3D curves describing the virtual backbone of arm configurations. Here we describe a novel representation of octopus arm movements in which a movement is characterized by a pair of surfaces that represent the curvature and torsion values of points along the arm as a function of time. This representation allowed us to explore whether the movements are built up of elementary kinematic units by decomposing each surface into a weighted combination of 2D Gaussian functions. The resulting Gaussian functions can be considered as motion primitives at the kinematic level of octopus arm movements. These can be used to examine underlying principles of movement generation. Here we used combination of such kinematic primitives to decompose different octopus arm movements and characterize several movement prototypes according to their composition. The representation and methodology can be applied to the movement of any organ which can be modeled by means of a continuous 3D curve.
Flow Lambda Calculus for Declarative Physical Connection Semantics

One of the most fundamental language constructs of equation-based object-oriented languages is the possibility to state acausal connections, where both potential variables and flow variables exist. Several of the state-of-the art languages in this category are informally specified using natural language. This can make the languages hard to interpret, reason about, and disable the possibility to guarantee the absence of certain errors. In this work, we construct a formal operational small-step semantics based on the lambda-calculus. The calculus is then extended with more convenient modeling capabilities. Examples are given that demonstrate the expressiveness of the language, and some tests are made to verify the correctness of the semantics.
The Murine cot Proto‐oncogene: Genome Structure and Tissue‐specific Expression

We cloned and analyzed the murine cot proto‐oncogene and examined its tissue‐specific expression in fetal, newborn and adult mice. Genomic cot DNA consists of eight exons, spanning more than 25 kb, and all intron‐exon borders are well conserved as compared to the human homolog. Analysis of the full‐length cot cDNA revealed that it contained an open reading frame of 1,401 nucleotides, like human cot proto‐oncogene. The sequence identity between murine and human cot gene is 84.4% at the nucleotide level and 93.9% at the deduced amino acid level. On northern blot analysis of poly (A)+ RNA, the cot message was detected at 2.9 kb in size. Expression of the cot gene was observed in many tissues from fetal to adult mice, though the level of expression was low in all tissues examined.
U-Pb Zircon Geochronology Using LA-ICP-MS in the North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia: A New Tectonic Growth Model for the Archean Chert/Greenstone Succession

In situ, spot U-Pb ages of zircons from rhyolite, tuffaceous chert, spherule-bearing chert, and granite in the North Pole Dome obtained by laser ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) combined with cathode luminescence imaging (CLI) reveal zircon growth patterns that reflect their igneous origins. Felsic lava forming the structural top of the succession, previously dated as 3458 + 9.1/-4.2 Ma by TIMS, has been dated as 3660 ± 52 Ma. These 3.6 Ga zircons from felsic lava, initially considered to be xenocrysts, are interpreted as euhedral igneous crystals as their CL images show no overgrowth rims and/or evidence of melting. Progressive downward in the section, zircons from tuffaceous cherts yield ages of 3463 ± 34 Ma and 3454 ± 46 Ma. This Archean volcaniclastic sequence was intruded by the North Pole Monzogranite at 3391 ± 33 Ma. Our reconstructed stratigraphy shows that the chert-greenstone secession, previously thought to be a single intact stratigraphic unit, actually consists of five units; most are typified by a base of mafic-ultramafic lavas and a capping chert sequence. The zircon ages demonstrate that these five units decrease in age progressively downward; thus the North Pole Dome chert/greenstone succession was formed by layer-parallel thrusting and horizontal shortening, and grew downward by imbricate stacking.
Procedure "senza vibrato": a key component for morphing singing

A procedure to remove vibrato from singing voice was proposed to enable auditory morphing between musical performances played under different conditions. Analyses of singing samples in the RWC music database using a speech analysis, modification and synthesis system STRAIGHT provided necessary information to implement “senza vibrato,” the procedure that removes vibrato. A preliminary subjective evaluation for artificially adding and removing vibrato indicated that the proposed procedure effectively control perceived vibrato while preserving naturalness of the original singing.
DB75, a Novel Trypanocidal Agent, Disrupts Mitochondrial Function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT The aromatic diamidines represent a class of compounds with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity; however, their development is hindered by a lack of understanding of their mechanism of antimicrobial action. DB75 [2,5-bis(4-amidinophenyl)furan] is a trypanocidal aromatic diamidine that was originally developed as a structural analogue of the antitrypanosomal agent pentamidine. DB289, a novel orally active prodrug of DB75, is undergoing phase IIb clinical trials for early-stage human African trypanosomiasis, Pneumocystis jiroveci carinii pneumonia, and malaria. The purpose of this study was to investigate mechanisms of action of DB75 using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. The results of this investigation suggest that DB75 inhibits mitochondrial function. Yeast cells relying upon mitochondrial metabolism for energy production are especially sensitive to DB75. DB75 localizes (by fluorescence) within the mitochondria of living yeast cells and collapses the mitochondrial membrane potential in isolated yeast mitochondria. Furthermore, addition of DB75 to yeast cells or isolated rat liver mitochondria results in immediate uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and subsequent inhibition of respiration. We conclude that the mitochondrion is a cellular target of DB75 in yeast cells and anticipate that the results of this study will aid in the target-based design of new antimicrobial aromatic diamidines.
Please Scroll down for Article Social Neuroscience Reorienting of Spatial Attention in Gaze Cuing Is Reflected in N2pc Reorienting of Spatial Attention in Gaze Cuing Is Reflected in N2pc

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Research has shown that gaze cuing of attention is reflected in the modulation of P1 and N1 components of ERPs time-locked to target onset. Studies focusing on cue-locked analyses have produced mixed results. The present study examined ERP reflections of gaze cuing in further detail by recording electric brain activity from the scalp of participants engaged in a spatial cuing paradigm with noninformative gaze cues embedded in fearful, disgusted , or neutral faces. Unlike previous work, we focused on N2pc, a recent ERP index of attention shifting over space. Behavioral data showed that gaze-driven orienting was not influenced by facial expression. Importantly, electrophysiological data showed a significant amplitude modulation of the N2pc time-locked to target onset as a function of cue–target spatial congruence. This pattern, however, was independent of facial expression. The results are interpreted as evidence that N2pc can be used as a marker of reorienting of attention in spatially incongruent trials due to gaze cuing. The overall findings support the idea that the effects of facial expression on gaze cuing are weak and likely context-dependent.
Clonal Analysis of Human Tumors with M27,6, a Highly Informative Polymorphic X Chromosomal Probe

Introduction The clonality of human tumors can be studied by X inactivation/methylation analysis in female patients heterozygous for X-linked DNA polymorphisms. We present a detailed study on clonal tumor analysis with M27f, a highly informative probe detecting a polymorphic X chromosomal locus, DXS255. The polymorphism detected at this locus is due to variable numbers of tandem repeats. The rate of constitutional heterozygosity detected by M27f was 88%. Normal tissue from gastrointestinal mucosa and thyroid showed random, hence polyclonal, patterns. Nonrandom clonal X inactivation was detected in all 22 malignant neoplasms that had been shown to be clonal by other DNA markers, such as antigen receptor gene rearrangements or clonal loss of heterozygosity at 17p and other loci. 16/48 normal blood leukocyte samples (33%) showed considerably skewed X inactivation patterns. Comparison of blood leukocytes and normal tissue indicated that in a given individual, X inactivation patterns may be tissue specific. M27ft was used to study the clonal composition of 13 benign thyroid nodules from 12 multinodular goiters with rapid
Analysing error of t functions forellipsesPaul

We describe several established error of t (EOF) functions for use in the least square tting of ellipses, and introduce a further four new EOFs. Four measures are given for assessing the suitability of such EOFs, quantifying their linearity, curvature bias, asymmetry, and overall goodness. These measures enable a better understanding to be gained of the individual merits of the EOF functions.
Some algorithms for skew polynomials over finite fields

In this paper, we study the arithmetics of skew polynomial rings over finite fields, mostly from an algorithmic point of view. We give various algorithms for fast multiplication, division and extended Euclidean division. We give a precise description of quotients of skew polynomial rings by a left principal ideal, using results relating skew polynomial rings to Azumaya algebras. We use this description to give a new factorization algorithm for skew polynomials, and to give other algorithms related to factorizations of skew polynomials, like counting the number of factorizations as a product of irreducibles.
A verified information-flow architecture

SAFE is a clean-slate design for a highly secure computer system, with pervasive mechanisms for tracking and limiting information flows. At the lowest level, the SAFE hardware supports fine-grained programmable tags, with efficient and flexible propagation and combination of tags as instructions are executed. The operating system virtualizes these generic facilities to present an information-flow abstract machine that allows user programs to label sensitive data with rich confidentiality policies. We present a formal, machine-checked model of the key hardware and software mechanisms used to control information flow in SAFE and an end-to-end proof of noninterference for this model.
Clustering Scientific Publications Based on Citation Relations: A Systematic Comparison of Different Methods

Clustering methods are applied regularly in the bibliometric literature to identify research areas or scientific fields. These methods are for instance used to group publications into clusters based on their relations in a citation network. In the network science literature, many clustering methods, often referred to as graph partitioning or community detection techniques, have been developed. Focusing on the problem of clustering the publications in a citation network, we present a systematic comparison of the performance of a large number of these clustering methods. Using a number of different citation networks, some of them relatively small and others very large, we extensively study the statistical properties of the results provided by different methods. In addition, we also carry out an expert-based assessment of the results produced by different methods. The expert-based assessment focuses on publications in the field of scientometrics. Our findings seem to indicate that there is a trade-off between different properties that may be considered desirable for a good clustering of publications. Overall, map equation methods appear to perform best in our analysis, suggesting that these methods deserve more attention from the bibliometric community.
The Moss Attention Rating Scale for traumatic brain injury: initial psychometric assessment.

OBJECTIVE To examine the psychometric properties of the Moss Attention Rating Scale (MARS), a new observational rating scale for attention-related behaviors in traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Eight acute inpatient rehabilitation facilities that are part of the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems program. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred twenty-eight patients with TBI requiring acute inpatient rehabilitation treatment. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Rasch analysis on the 53-item MARS (45 attention items, 8 control items) as rated separately by the treating occupational therapist and physical therapist. RESULTS The MARS appeared to measure a single dimension and demonstrated good person separation (5.69) and reliability (.97). In post hoc assessment, misfitting attention items may not have required attention and control items that fit the dimension may have required at least rudimentary attention. Occupational therapists rated patients as slightly less attentive than did physical therapists. Overall, the scale was well targeted to an acute inpatient rehabilitation population. CONCLUSION Our results provide preliminary support for the viability of developing an observational attention rating scale for use in inpatient TBI rehabilitation. Further research will need to explore the existence of subdimensions and provide further validation with reference to other neuropsychologic measures of attention and knowledge of lesion severity and localization.
Pruned query evaluation using pre-computed impacts

Exhaustive evaluation of ranked queries can be expensive, particularly when only a small subset of the overall ranking is required, or when queries contain common terms. This concern gives rise to techniques for dynamic query pruning, that is, methods for eliminating redundant parts of the usual exhaustive evaluation, yet still generating a demonstrably "good enough" set of answers to the query. In this work we propose new pruning methods that make use of impact-sorted indexes. Compared to exhaustive evaluation, the new methods reduce the amount of computation performed, reduce the amount of memory required for accumulators, reduce the amount of data transferred from disk, and at the same time allow performance guarantees in terms of precision and mean average precision. These strong claims are backed by experiments using the TREC Terabyte collection and queries.
Performance Evaluation of MPTCP in Indoor Heterogeneous Networks

This paper studies the effect of out-of-order packets on the MPTCP performance when using different access technologies, modelled to represent path diversity in terms of delay and reliability. The study identifies trade-offs between different CC algorithms in terms of aggregate throughput gain when different packet reordering recovery solutions being implemented. Our analysis shows that TCP-DOOR performs best with both coupling and uncoupling controllers, while DSACK outperforms others under fully coupled. However F-RTO provides better application throughput particular with uncoupled controller and has lower memory requirements compared to others. Adding to that, our observations show that MPTCP suffers from reordering problem and needs a suitable recovery method to achieve optimal aggregate throughput.
From rural to urban: landscape changes in north-west Italy over two centuries

ABSTRACT Landscape changes during the last two centuries were analysed, comparing two rural areas of about 5000 ha at the interface between the Alps and the Po plain (north-west Italy). Two centuries ago the areas were both set within a rural context. In the last few decades one of the two (15 km from Torino) has become mainly residential. The comparison has been made using ancient cadastral maps focused on land use which date back to the eighteenth century (Napoleonic cadastre) and recent land-use maps based on aerial photographs. The comparison highlights that changes of socio-economic frames determine different rural landscape dynamics in spite of geomorphologic similarities.
Collaborative attack on Internet users' anonymity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model and study the effectiveness of an attack on the anonymity of Internet users by a group of collaborating eavesdroppers.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an analysis of the Internet topology. The study is based on two methods for choosing nodes that contribute the most to the detection of as many communicating Internet users as possible.Findings – The paper illustrates that it is possible to compromise the anonymity of many Internet users when eavesdropping on a relatively small number of nodes, even when the most central ones are protected from eavesdropping.Research limitations/implications – It is assumed that the Internet users under attack are not using any anonymity enhancing technologies, but nodes can be protected from eavesdropping. It proposes a measure of the success of an attack on Internet users' anonymity, for a given deployment of collaborating eavesdroppers in the Internet.Practical implications – The paper shows that several,.
Curvilinear component analysis: a self-organizing neural network for nonlinear mapping of data sets

We present a new strategy called "curvilinear component analysis" (CCA) for dimensionality reduction and representation of multidimensional data sets. The principle of CCA is a self-organized neural network performing two tasks: vector quantization (VQ) of the submanifold in the data set (input space); and nonlinear projection (P) of these quantizing vectors toward an output space, providing a revealing unfolding of the submanifold. After learning, the network has the ability to continuously map any new point from one space into another: forward mapping of new points in the input space, or backward mapping of an arbitrary position in the output space.
Fast Unified Floorplan Topology Generation and Sizing on Heterogeneous FPGAs

Recent FPGA architectures are heterogeneous owing to the presence of millions of gates in Configurable Logic Blocks (CLBs), Block RAMs, and Multiplier blocks (MULs) which can host fairly large designs. While their physical design calls for floorplanning in contrast to normal FPGAs, the traditional algorithms for ASICs do not suffice. In this paper, we propose a three phase algorithm (HeteroFloorplan) for unified floorplan topology generation and sizing on heterogeneous FPGAs. The method consists of a recursive balanced bipartitioning followed by generation of slicing topologies, and a final allocation of CLBs, RAMs and MULs to modules by a greedy heuristic (GARR) and a mincost max-flow formulation. Experimental results on benchmark circuits show that our floorplan generation method can produce feasible solutions within a few seconds. We observed an improvement in total half-perimeter wirelength between 18% to 52%, compared to the very few previous approaches. We also compare our greedy allocation with a network flow based method to establish the effectiveness of our locally greedy heuristic.
A Robust Algorithm for Passive Reduced-Order Macromodeling of MTLs With FD-PUL Parameters Using Integrated Congruence Transform

This paper presents a robust method for guaranteed passive macromodeling of high-speed interconnects characterized by multiconductor transmission lines with frequency-dependent per-unit-length (FD-PUL) parameters, using integrated-congruence-transformation-based model-order-reduction techniques. For this purpose, a new formulation is developed to directly incorporate state-space equations corresponding to the positive-real (PR) rational functions representing the frequency dependence of PUL parameters, in Telegrapher's equations. The proposed formulation overcomes the need for explicit lumped-circuit realization with all positive elements for PR rational functions of FD-PUL parameters. Proof of passivity and numerical examples are presented to validate the theory.
Thermal design optimization of a high-efficiency resonant converter based on multi-MOSFET cells using the Pareto analysis

Induction heating technology provides high performance and efficient systems that are being quickly adopted in industrial and domestic applications. In order to improve such systems, this paper proposes a Multi-MOSFET implementation focusing the efficiency and power density optimization of the resonant converters used to generate the required magnetic field. A thermal and electrical model is provided, and a Pareto analysis is proposed to optimize the design. The proposed design has been implemented and tested through electrical and thermal measurements. As a conclusion, an optimized converter is obtained with improved efficiency which no requires heatsink and/or fan, outperforming current state-of-the-art domestic induction heating converters.
Natural variation reveals relationships between pre-stress carbohydrate nutritional status and subsequent responses to xenobiotic and oxidative stress in Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND Soluble sugars are involved in responses to stress, and act as signalling molecules that activate specific or hormone cross-talk transduction pathways. Thus, exogenous sucrose treatment efficiently induces tolerance to the herbicide atrazine in Arabidopsis thaliana plantlets, at least partially through large-scale modifications of expression of stress-related genes. METHODS Availability of sugars in planta for stress responses is likely to depend on complex dynamics of soluble sugar accumulation, sucrose-starch partition and organ allocation. The question of potential relationships between endogenous sugar levels and stress responses to atrazine treatment was investigated through analysis of natural genetic accessions of A. thaliana. Parallel quantitative and statistical analysis of biochemical parameters and of stress-sensitive physiological traits was carried out on a set of 11 accessions. KEY RESULTS Important natural variation was found between accessions of A. thaliana in pre-stress shoot endogenous sugar levels and responses of plantlets to subsequent atrazine stress. Moreover, consistent trends and statistically significant correlations were detected between specific endogenous sugar parameters, such as the pre-stress end of day sucrose level in shoots, and physiological markers of atrazine tolerance. CONCLUSIONS These significant relationships between endogenous carbohydrate metabolism and stress response therefore point to an important integration of carbon nutritional status and induction of stress tolerance in plants. The specific correlation between pre-stress sucrose level and greater atrazine tolerance may reflect adaptive mechanisms that link sucrose accumulation, photosynthesis-related stress and sucrose induction of stress defences.